Dell EMC Ready Bundle for SAP Landscapes with Dell EMC ... · Agility―A modern SAP landscape management experience that delivers ... The integrated Dell Remote Access Controller

Dell EMC Ready Bundle for SAP Landscapes with Dell EMC VMAX All Flash Arrays

Deploying Dell EMC Infrastructure for SAP Landscapes

May 2018

H16717.2

Deployment Guide

Abstract

This deployment guide describes how to deploy an infrastructure solution for SAP

landscapes. The solution incorporates Dell EMC PowerEdge servers, VMAX 250F

All Flash storage arrays, and Data Domain storage protection with Connectrix Fibre

Channel SAN switches.

Dell EMC Solutions

Copyright

2 Dell EMC Ready Bundle for SAP Landscapes with Dell EMC VMAX All Flash Arrays Deploying Dell EMC Infrastructure for SAP Landscapes Deployment Guide

The information in this publication is provided as is. Dell Inc. makes no representations or warranties of any kind with respect to the information in this publication, and specifically disclaims implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.

Use, copying, and distribution of any software described in this publication requires an applicable software license.

Copyright © 2018 Dell Inc. or its subsidiaries. All Rights Reserved. Dell, EMC, Dell EMC and other trademarks are trademarks of Dell Inc. or its subsidiaries. Intel, the Intel logo, the Intel Inside logo, and Xeon are trademarks of Intel Corporation in the U.S. and/or other countries. Other trademarks may be the property of their respective owners. Published in the USA 05/18 Deployment Guide H16717.2.

Dell Inc. believes the information in this document is accurate as of its publication date. The information is subject to change without notice.

Contents

3 Dell EMC Ready Bundle for SAP Landscapes with Dell EMC VMAX All Flash Arrays Deploying Dell EMC Infrastructure for SAP Landscapes

Deployment Guide

Contents

Introduction ................................................................................................................................... 4

Before you start ............................................................................................................................. 6

Solution overview .......................................................................................................................... 7

Solution implementation ............................................................................................................... 8

Solution verification methodology ............................................................................................. 38

References ................................................................................................................................... 65

Introduction


Introduction

Modern companies are looking for technologies that transform their IT departments into

agile business units capable of delivering continuous application availability through

updates and upgrades. Well-managed change can enable greater efficiencies along with

more reliable and secure delivery of services.

Performance is central to delivering an excellent user application experience. Maintaining

performance while scaling an application ecosystem is critical to ensuring that response

times meet service-level agreements (SLAs) for financial and supply chain management,

among other functions. Application administration teams must have the confidence to

deploy copies of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems while providing a highly

responsive experience for end users, developers, and other teams. The automation of

routine tasks such as provisioning ERP systems means a faster time-to-value, an

increase in operational efficiencies, and delivery of a more reliable product.

Application resiliency is the ability of all layers in the application stack to react to

unplanned problems and still provide the best possible service. The modern application

system must include a broad range of resiliency capabilities, high availability (HA), and

protection solutions that provide optimal application uptime.

Traditionally, IT teams have selected the components of an application infrastructure

separately. Because the approach does not always deliver the expected results, many IT

teams now look for integrated solutions that have been pretested and precertified and can

be accurately sized to meet their business requirements. Dell EMCTM Ready Solutions

such as the Ready Bundle for SAP Landscapes deliver integrated compute, networking,

and storage in one system.

This Dell EMC Ready Bundle for SAP Landscapes solution incorporates Dell EMC

PowerEdgeTM R940 and R740/R740xd servers, Dell EMC ConnectrixTM Fibre Channel

(FC) switches, Dell EMC VMAXTM 250F All Flash arrays, and Dell EMC Data DomainTM

storage protection systems. The solution encompasses a variety of design configurations

and deployment options. Customers use sizing tools for SAP systems on Dell EMC

infrastructure to determine the requirements of the deployment and work with Dell EMC

representatives to configure and deploy the solution.

PowerEdge servers that are paired with the VMAX All Flash array storage system power

the Ready Bundle for SAP Landscapes. Customers implementing the solution can expect

the following benefits:

Agility―A modern SAP landscape management experience that delivers

automated provisioning capabilities for SAP applications provides faster time to

value.

Engineering―Compute, networking, and storage are integrated with the required

prerequisites, and dependencies have been tested to deliver a seamless solution

experience.

Optimization―Design and deployment guides highlight proven performance,

automation, and resiliency best practices for SAP Landscapes.

Executive

summary

Solution

overview

Key benefits

Introduction


Deployment Guide

This deployment guide describes how to deploy an IT infrastructure consisting of Dell

EMC components for your SAP landscape. It provides detailed configuration steps for an

SAP landscape using PowerEdge servers and Connectrix switches with VMAX storage.

The guide also describes how to configure and deploy Dell EMC Data Domain and Data

Domain BoostTM software for back up and restore of SAP systems as well as how to

configure SRDF/Metro storage replication for high availability (HA) and disaster recovery

(DR). This guide does not address the installation of SAP and VMware software

components.

The scenario described in this guide is an example of a possible design outcome.

Deviations from the configuration described may be necessary to meet unique customer

requirements.

This deployment guide is for database administrators, system administrators, storage

administrators, and architects who deploy and maintain database infrastructures. Readers

should have some knowledge of Dell EMC PowerEdge servers, storage, and networking

products as well as SAP NetWeaver and VMware virtualization technologies.

Dell EMC Professional Services can assist you with deploying the Ready Bundle for SAP

Landscapes solution. Contact your Dell EMC representative for more information.

The following table defines Data Domain terminology that is used in this guide:

Term Definition

Global compression factor Global compression, a form of data deduplication, compares incoming data to data that is already stored on disk and stores only the unique data segments.

Local compression factor Local compression reduces the size of a piece of incoming data by using compression algorithms.

For more information, see Understanding Data Domain Compression.

Dell EMC and the authors of this document welcome your feedback on the solution and

the solution documentation. Contact [email protected] with your

comments.

Authors: Donagh Keeshan, Fergal Murphy, Pete Shi, Jarvis Zhu, Tony Fong, Aighne

Kearney

Document

purpose

Audience

Terminology

We value your

feedback

https://community.emc.com/docs/DOC-32028

mailto:[email protected]?subject=Feedback:%20Dell%20EMC%20Ready%20Bundles%20for%20SAP%20Landscapes%20Deployment%20Guide%20(H16717.2)

Before you start


Before you start

This guide assumes that:

Your on-site Dell EMC infrastructure is cabled and powered up.

You have determined a detailed design for your implementation of the Ready

Bundle following a sizing and scoping exercise with Dell EMC representatives.

You have completed the relevant SAP Quick Sizer projects and shared the outputs

with Dell EMC representatives.

Note: For more information about sizing tools for SAP systems, see the documentation under

‘SAP Quick Sizer’ on the SAP Service Marketplace website (SAP Marketplace access is

required).

This deployment guide is a companion to the Dell EMC Ready Bundles for SAP

Landscapes with VMAX All FLash Arrays Design Guide. The design guide provides

information about how to design and size the infrastructure components of the Ready

Bundle for SAP Landscapes solution.

Predeployment

tasks

Essential

reading

http://service.sap.com/sizing

http://www.emc.com/collateral/technical-documentation/h16623-ready-bundle-sap-dg.pdf


Solution overview


Deployment Guide

Solution overview

Figure 1 provides an overview of the architecture of the Dell EMC Ready Bundle for SAP

Landscapes solution.

Ready Bundle for SAP Landscapes solution architecture

The Ready Bundle for SAP Landscapes is optimized as a single system incorporating the

following components:

Servers―PowerEdge R940 and PowerEdge R740/R740xd

Storage―VMAX All Flash 250F arrays

Networking―Connectrix (Brocade) 32 Gb/s-capable FC switches

Data Protection Services―Data Domain storage protection

VMware Hypervisor―ESXi 6.5

Architecture

overview

Solution implementation



This guide describes how to install and configure the compute, network, storage, and

availability components of the Dell EMC Ready Bundle for SAP Landscapes:

PowerEdge R940 and R740/R740xd servers

Connectrix FC storage attached network (SAN)

VMAX storage arrays

Data Domain protection

The integrated Dell Remote Access Controller (iDRAC) settings utility is a mangement

platform for Dell EMC servers. The iDRAC utility enables you to configure your R940 and

R740/R740xd servers.

Set up the iDRAC IP address using the iDRAC settings utility

To set up your iDRAC IP address:

1. Power on the PowerEdge Server.

2. Press F2 during Power-on Self-test (POST).

3. In the System Setup Main Menu page, select iDRAC Settings > Network.

4. In the Network page, specify the following:

Network Settings

Common Settings

IPv4 Settings or IPv6 Settings

IPMI Settings

VLAN Settings

5. Select Back > Finish, and then click Yes.

After the system reboots, access the iDRAC login screen through any web browser

using the configured iDRAC IP, as shown in Figure 1.

iDRAC login screen

6. Type your user credentials to log in. The default login is root/calvin.

Overview

Configuring the

PowerEdge

servers



Deployment Guide

Configure memory in the BIOS

Use the BIOS Settings screen to view the system memory settings and enable or disable

memory functions such as system memory testing and node interleaving. To complete the

required memory configuration:

1. Select Configuration > BIOS Settings > Memory Settings.

2. Specify the Memory Operating Mode. The available options are:

Optimizer Mode

Mirror Mode

Single-Rank Spare Mode

Multi-Rank Spare Mode

Fault Resilient Mode

The default setting is Optimizer Mode.

Create virtual disks using the web interface

To create a virtual disk:

1. In the iDRAC Web interface, select Configuration > Storage Configuration.

2. In the Controller list box, select the controller for which you want to create a

virtual disk.

3. In the Virtual Disk Configuration area:

a. Click Create Virtual Disk.

b. Type a name for the virtual disk.

c. In the Layout list box, select the RAID level you want for the Virtual Disk.

Only the RAID levels that are supported by the controller appear in the list.

These RAID levels are based on the total number of physical disks available.

d. Specify the following:

Media Type

Stripe Size

Read Policy

Write Policy

Disk Cache Policy

Only the values that the controller supports appear in the list boxes for these

properties.

e. In the Capacity field, enter the size of the virtual disk.



The maximum size is displayed and then updated as disks are selected.

The Span Count field is displayed based on your selection in step 3. For example,

if you selected RAID 10 and the controller supports uneven RAID 10, the span

count value is not displayed. The controller sets the appropriate value

automatically, as shown in Figure 3.

Create Virtual Disk screen

4. In the Select Physical Disks area, specify the number of physical disks you

require.

5. Click Add to Pending Operations.

6. Select Maintenance > Job Queue to apply the change.

The settings are applied based on the Apply Operation Mode you selected.

For more information, see the iDRAC Online Help that is accessible from the iDRAC

dashboard.

Note: In our test environment, we choose to boot from internal storage. The option to boot ESXi

servers from SAN is also available. For more information, see the VMware document Booting

ESXi from Fibre Channel SAN.

Enable hyperthreading

Hyperthreading technology enables SAP applications to make best use of compute

resources and deliver better performance by allowing a single CPU to behave like two

logical processors.

To enable hyperthreading:

1. In the iDRAC web interface, select Configuration > BIOS Settings > Processor

Settings > Logical Processor, and then click Enabled.

2. Configure the power plan as follows:

a. In the BIOS:

i Select Configuration > BIOS Settings > System Profile Setting >

System Profile, and then select Performance Per Watt (DAPC) in the

list box.

https://docs.vmware.com/en/VMware-vSphere/6.5/com.vmware.vsphere.storage.doc/GUID-9004389B-E2C0-4BE5-811C-E4886E3B7450.html

https://docs.vmware.com/en/VMware-vSphere/6.5/com.vmware.vsphere.storage.doc/GUID-9004389B-E2C0-4BE5-811C-E4886E3B7450.html



Deployment Guide

ii Select Configuration > BIOS Settings > Processor Settings > Dell

Controlled Turbo, and then click Enabled.

b. In the OS:

Select Control Panel > Power Plans Scheme, and then click High

Performance Plan.

Install an operating system on a PowerEdge server

Certain PowerEdge server models require the use of the Dell EMC-customized ESXi

image for the easiest and most reliable deployment of a fully managed server. For

more information, see VMware vSphere ESXi 6.x on Dell EMC Power Edge Systems: Image

Customization Information.

To download the Dell EMC-customized ESXi ISO image:

1. Go to Dell EMC Support and click the Drivers icon.

2. On the Drivers & Downloads page, select your product from the list and then

select the version of ESXi you have installed as your operating system (OS).

3. Locate the Dell EMC customized ISO images under Enterprise Solutions, and

then download the latest image.

4. From the iDRAC web interface, open the Virtual Console.

5. Click Virtual Media and select Connect Virtual Media.

6. When the function is enabled, click Virtual Media, and then select the pass-

through device you want. We chose Map CD/DVD to use an ISO image file, as

shown in Figure 4.

Selecting the pass-through device

7. Browse to and locate the image file you want to pass through, as shown in Figure

5.

http://www.dell.com/support/manuals/uk/en/ukbsdt1/vmware-esxi-6.x/esx6.xiimgcustom/introduction?guid=guid-3c867498-b577-4929-b7ee-fb4528e80fb2&lang=en-us

http://www.dell.com/support/manuals/uk/en/ukbsdt1/vmware-esxi-6.x/esx6.xiimgcustom/introduction?guid=guid-3c867498-b577-4929-b7ee-fb4528e80fb2&lang=en-us

http://www.dell.com/support/



Selecting the installation media

8. Click Open, and then click Map Device to complete the source selection.

The selected device is now visible in the OS and can be used as a boot source (if it

is supported), as shown in Figure 6.

Next Boot options

9. To boot from the selected device, click Next Boot and select Virtual CD/DVD/ISO.

After a restart, the server starts from this source automatically

10. Follow the OS installation wizard to complete the installation.



Deployment Guide

This section shows how to create and configure zoning and monitoring for the Connectrix

FC SAN storage network for an SAP environment.

Zones enable you to partition your fabric into logical groups of devices that can access

one another. These are "regular" or "standard" zones―that is, single initiator to single

target. For more information, see the Brocade Fabric OS Administrator’s Guide.

Note: All switches in the fabric must be running the same default zone policy and configuration.

Switches with different zone configurations are not merged. If the two switches cannot join, the

inter-switch link (ISL) between the switches segments.

Create a zone

To create a zone:

1. Log in to the Connectrix Manager graphical user interface (CMCNE).

2. Select Configure > Zoning > Fabric.

The screen shown in Figure 7 appears.

Connectrix Manager zoning screen

3. Select New Zone for standard zone.

All potential zone members are in the left area and can be expanded.

4. Move members from left to right into the newly created zone.

5. Move the newly created zones, which have a green label in front of the zone

name, from the middle area to the Configuration Area on the right.

Configuring

Connectrix Fibre

Channel SAN

http://www.brocade.com/en/backend-content/pdf-page.html?/content/dam/secure-external/product-guides/brocade-fabric-os/8-1-0/fos-81x-adminguide.pdf



The zone configuration expands to enable you to view added members and confirm

added zones.

Note: Zone names with green labels are active members in the configuration. Zone names

without green labels are inactive members.

6. Click Activate.

A screen displaying your zoning changes appears, as shown in Figure 8.

Activate Zone Configuration

7. Click OK to confirm your changes. The active zone configuration now includes the

new zone members.

Fabric Vision features: MAPS and FPI

The Connectrix B Series products offer features for validating, monitoring, alerting, and

remediating the storage network infrastructure. These features are collectively referred to

as Fabric Vision. For more information, see the Brocade Fabric OS Administration Guide.

This section describes how to configure the following Fabric Vision features for this SAP

deployment:

Monitoring and Alerting Policy Suite (MAPS)

Fabric Performance Impact (FPI)

http://www.brocade.com/en/backend-content/pdf-page.html?/content/dam/secure-external/product-guides/brocade-fabric-os/8-1-0/fos-81x-adminguide.pdf



Deployment Guide

Note: All Connectrix directors and departmental fixed port switches with enterprise bundles

include the Fabric Vision license.

MAPS is an optional (licensed) feature that monitors various Connectrix Fabric OS

metrics, statistics, and switch component states. MAPS also provides proactive error

mitigation when threshold conditions are exceeded.

Default policies include defined groups for server ports, storage ports, and switch-to-

switch (ISL) ports. Additional default groups are created for other monitored elements,

including fans, power supplies, and WAN ports. You can apply default policies to each

group using one of four predefined policies:

Base

Aggressive

Moderate

Conservative

Configure a MAPS policy

The Moderate policy is the recommended starting point for new SAN deployments for

SAP landscapes. To enable the Moderate policy:

1. In CMCNE, select Switch > Moderate policy, and then click Activate.

The MAPS Configuration screen appears, as shown in Figure 9.

MAPS Configuration screen

The following options are available in the MAPS Configuration screen:

View―Quickly view MAPS elements, including rules, thresholds, and actions.

Actions―Enable or disable desired MAPS actions.

Compare―Compare MAPS policy thresholds to better suit your environment

if you choose to modify a policy or enable a different default policy. For more



information, see the Brocade Monitoring and Alerting Policy Suite

Configuration Guide.

View MAPS Violations―View all threshold alert violations.

2. Click the Dashboard tab at the top of the screen to perform MAPS monitoring, as

shown in Figure 10.

MAPS monitoring screen

Figure 11 shows the MAPS violation widgets that you can view in the MAPS dashboard.

Dashboard showing MAPS violations

Configure FPI monitoring

FPI offers advanced device latency detection and mitigation capabilities that are easy to deploy and use. The detection offers a clear indication that the fabric might be experiencing a performance impact because of a slow-draining device or another device that is not behaving as expected.

http://www.brocade.com/en/backend-content/pdf-page.html?/content/dam/secure-external/product-guides/brocade-fabric-os/8-1-0/fos-81x-maps.pdf

http://www.brocade.com/en/backend-content/pdf-page.html?/content/dam/secure-external/product-guides/brocade-fabric-os/8-1-0/fos-81x-maps.pdf



Deployment Guide

FPI monitoring is enabled by default in FOS 8.x and actions are available with either the Fabric Watch/Advanced Performance Monitor (FW/APM) or Fabric Vision license.

Note: FPI monitoring requires a Fabric Vision license and is supported on 8-Gbps and 16-Gbps

platforms with Fabric OS 7.3 and Fabric OS 7.4. Starting with Fabric OS 8.0, FPI monitoring does

not require a license on 16-Gbps and 32-Gbps platforms.

To enable FPI action options in your system:

1. In Connection Manager, open the MAPS Policy Actions screen.

The MAPS Policy Actions screen appears, as shown in Figure 12.

MAPS Policy Actions screen

2. Select the FPI Actions (SAN only) box and then:

Disable legacy bottleneck monitoring if it is currently enabled.

Enable FPI.

Configure and confirm FPI actions.



This section shows how to create and configure the storage on a VMAX 250F All Flash

array for an SAP environment. In our laboratory, we used the Dell EMC UnisphereTM for

VMAX dashboard to configure the storage devices, storage groups, port groups, and host

groups as well as the masking view for the SAP landscape.

Figure 13 shows the interface in which you can perform these tasks.

Unisphere Storage Dashboard

Create a storage group

To create a storage group:

1. In the Unisphere Storage Group dashboard., click Provision Storage to Host

and create an empty storage group, as shown in Figure 14.

Provision Storage screen

Configuring the

VMAX storage



Deployment Guide

2. Click the down arrow on Add to Job List at the bottom of the screen and select

Run Now.

Your storage group is created.

3. To create the required volumes, select Storage > Volumes > Create Volumes,

as shown in Figure 15.

Create Volume screen

4. Click the down arrow on Add to Job List and select Run Now.

5. Click the Total tile to view the existing storage groups, and then select the

storage group to view more details.

6. Click Volumes in the RELATED OBJECTS area to view the list of volumes.

Figure 16 shows a sample list.

List of volumes



Create a host

To create a host:

1. In the Unisphere dashboard, select Host > Create Host.

2. Enter a name for the host and select the initiators for that host from the list, as shown in Figure 17.

Create Host screen




Deployment Guide

Create a host group

To create a host group:

1. In the Unisphere dashboard, select Host > Create Host Group.

The Create Host Group screen appears, as shown in Figure 18.

Create Host Group screen

2. Enter a name for the host group, select the hosts that belong to the SAP

Landscape cluster, and click Add.


Your host group is created, as shown in Figure 19.

Host Group Dashboard



Create a port group

To create a port group:

1. In the Unisphere dashboard, select Hosts > Port Groups > Create Port Group.

The Create Port Group screen appears, as shown in Figure 20.

Create Port Group screen

2. Enter a name for the port group and hold down the Ctrl key to mark the ports your

initiators are logged into. Click OK.

Awarning message might appear.

3. Click OK to create the port group.

Create a masking view

A VMAX masking view combines the storage group, port group, and host group, and

enables access from the SAP Landscape servers to the storage volumes.

To create a masking view:

1. Select Hosts > Masking View > Create Masking View.

2. Enter a masking view name and select the host group, port group, and storage

group you created.



Deployment Guide

The Create Masking View screen appears, as shown in Figure 21.

Create Masking View screen

3. Click OK.

The Masking View is created. The SAP landscape servers now have access to the

created storage volumes.



To provide HA for your system, you can configure SRDF/Metro using either Solutions

Enabler or Unisphere for VMAX. Dell EMC recommends Unisphere for ease of use.

Note: An SRDF group is required on each VMAX3 array.

Create an SRDF group

To create an SRDF group:

1. In Unisphere, select Data Protection > Replication Groups and Pools > SRDF Groups, and then click Create Group.

The Create SRDF Group screen appears, as shown in Figure 22.

Create SRDF Group screen

2. Enter the information required to create an SRDF group on each array.

3. Leave the SRDF/Metro Witness Group option unselected, and then click OK.

An SRDF group is created.

Add a virtual witness

Beginning with HYPERMAX OS 5977 Q3 2016 SR, you can use a virtual witness, or

vWitness, instead of a physical witness. The vWitness is a virtual appliance that runs a

special daemon called the Witness Lock Service. This daemon communicates with the

Witness Manager daemon, which runs on each SRDF/Metro array within the

eManagement guests.

To enable a vWitness on your system:

1. In Unisphere, select Data Protection > Replication Groups and Pools > SRDF Virtual Witness, and then click Add.

Configuring

SRDF/Metro



Deployment Guide

The Add Virtual Witness screen appears, as shown in Figure 23.

Add Virtual Witness screen

2. Enter the required information, and then click Run Now.

The vWitness is created.

Note: For more information, see the SRDF/Metro vWitness Configuration Guide.

Enable SRDF/Metro on a storage group

The Protection Dashboard in Unisphere provides an easy-to-use wizard to enable

SRDF/Metro on a storage group. Before starting the wizard, remember that the R2 device

must not be presented to the hosts until the devices are fully synchronized, even though

this is an active-active device configuration. For more information, see the Dell EMC

Ready Bundles for SAP Landscapes with VMAX All FLash Arrays Design Guide

1. In the Protection Dashboard, select Total to view all the storage groups that are

available for protection, as shown in Figure 24.

Unisphere Protection Dashboard

2. Select the storage group that you bookmarked for protection and click Protect at

the bottom of the screen.

3. Select High Availability Using SRDF/Metro as the protection type, and then

click Next.

4. By default, Auto is selected for the SRDF Group. Because we created the group

in a previous step, the SRDF Group changed to Manual in this example and the

required SRDF group was selected. Click Next.

5. You can modify the Remote Storage Group Name as required. In our laboratory,

we changed the name to SAPReadyBundle_Tgt_SG.

6. Review the proposed changes, and then run the task.

https://www.emc.com/collateral/TechnicalDocument/docu78903.pdf





7. When the task is running, select Data Protection > SRDF > SRDF/Metro and

review the storage group state, as shown in Figure 25. In this example, it is

SyncInProg.

Storage group states: SyncInProg

8. Select the storage group and click View details to view additional synchronization

details.

Note that the remote target volume ID state is SyncInProg and the Remote

Volume state is Write Disabled, as shown in Figure 26.

Storage Group Details view

After the synchronization is complete, the storage group state changes to

ActiveActive, indicating that the synchronization is complete. Dell EMC

recommends waiting until the device pair reaches the ActiveActive state before

creating a masking view for the R2 devices.

9. Select the storage group and click View details.



Deployment Guide

The state of each device pair is ActiveActive and the remote volume state is

Ready, as shown in Figure 27 and Figure 28.

Storage Group details

Storage Group details (continued)

Create a masking view

After the active state is reached, you can present the R2 devices to the hosts using the

masking view wizard.

1. In Unisphere, select Hosts > Masking view > Create Masking View.



The Create Masking View screen appears, as shown in Figure 29.

Create Masking View screen

2. Select the required initiator group, port group, and storage group, give the

masking view a name, and then click OK.After the masking view is created, the

R2 devices are visible to the hosts, and the hosts can read and write to those

devices.

The Ready Bundle for SAP Landscapes solution uses the Dell EMC Data Domain storage

system to protect your business-critical SAP data. Data Domain deduplication storage

systems enable fast, reliable disk backup, archiving, and disaster recovery (DR) with high-

speed, inline deduplication. By consolidating backup and archive data on a Data Domain

system, you can reduce storage requirements by 10 to 55 times. For configuration,

management, and monitoring operations, Data Domain systems run the Data Domain

System Manager (DD System Manager) GUI and the Data Domain Operating System

(DD OS) CLI.

Used with Data Domain storage systems, Dell EMC DD BoostTM software provides

advanced integration with backup and enterprise applications. DD Boost enables faster

and more efficient backup and recovery as follows:

DD Boost distributes parts of the deduplication process to the database server or

application clients, enabling client-side deduplication.

Distributed segment processing (DSP) enables deduplication of the backup data on

the database or application host to reduce the amount of data that is transferred

over the network.

Configuring Data

Domain data

protection



Deployment Guide

Enabling DD Boost on a Data Domain system

You can enable DD Boost software at the DD OS CLI or in the DD System Manager.

To enable DD Boost at the DD OS CLI, run the ddboost enable command.

To enable DD Boost in the DD System Manager, follow these steps:

a. Select Data Management > File System > Enable to enable the file system.

Note: DD Boost is an optional product. A separate license is required to operate DD

Boost software on the Data Domain system.

b. Select Administration > Licenses > Update Licenses to upload the DD

Boost license.

The Update Licenses screen appears, as shown in Figure 30.

Uploading ELMS licenses

c. Browse to the DD boost license and select it. Click Apply.

d. Select Protocols > DD Boost.


Enabling DD Boost



Setting up the Data Domain storage units

Each Data Domain system that is to be used with the database application agent requires

one or more storage units, and each storage unit name must be unique on a single Data

Domain system.

To set up the storage units:

1. In DD System Manager, select Protocols > DD Boost > Storage Units.


Setting up storage units on your Data Domain system

2. Click the green plus (+) icon.

The Create Storage Unit screen appears, as shown in Figure 33.

Creating a storage unit

3. Enter the name of the storage unit, select one of the authorized users, and click

Create.



Deployment Guide

Optionally, create a new local user by selecting Protocols > DD Boost > Settings.

The storage unit is created, as shown in Figure 34.

Data Domain storage units list

4. Select Users with DD Boost Access.

Enabling distributed segment processing

You can choose to enable or disable DSP when you send backup data to a Data Domain

system using DD Boost software.

DSP distributes the deduplication process between the DD Boost library and the Data

Domain system. Parts of the deduplication process run on the database or application

host so that the DD Boost library sends only unique data over the network. The mode of

operation is set on the Data Domain system.

DSP is enabled by default on systems initially installed with DD OS release 5.2 or higher.

On system upgrades from DD OS release 5.0.x/5.1.x up to DD OS release 5.2, DSP

remains in its previous state.

To configure DSP on your Data Domain system:

1. In DD System Manager, select Protocols > DD Boost > More Tasks > Set

Options.


Configuring distributed processing

2. Select Distributed Segment Processing and click OK.



Note: Enabling or disabling DSP does not require a restart of the Data Domain file system.

Enabling advanced load balancing and link failover

With the advanced load-balancing and link failover feature, you can combine multiple

Ethernet links into a group and register only one interface with the database application

agent on the Data Domain system.

Setting up an interface group creates a private network within the Data Domain system,

consisting of the IP addresses that are designated as belonging to a group. Clients are

assigned to a single group, and the group interface uses load balancing to improve data

transfer performance and increased reliability.

If an interface group is configured when the Data Domain system receives data from the

DD Boost client, the data transfer is load-balanced and distributed as separate jobs on the

private network. This load balancing increases throughput, especially for customers who

use multiple 1 GbE connections.

To enable load balancing on your Data Domain system:

1. In DD System Manager, select Protocols > DD Boost > Settings > Allowed

Clients and click the green plus (+) icon.

The Modify Allowed Client screen appears, as shown in Figure 36.

Modify Allowed Client screen

2. Enter the FQDN of the database or application host to back up, and then click

OK.

3. Select Protocols > DD Boost > Settings > IP Network > Interface Groups and

click the green plus (+) icon.



Deployment Guide

The Modify Interface Group screen appears, as shown in Figure 37.

Creating an interface group

4. Enter a name for the interface group, select the interfaces to add to the group,

and click OK.

5. Select Protocols > DD Boost > Settings > IP Network > Configured Clients

and click the green plus (+) icon.

The Add Client screen appears, as shown in Figure 38.

Adding a client

6. Enter the name of the client, select the interface group you previously created,

and click OK.

Installing DD Boost for Enterprise Applications

Use the DD Boost for Enterprise Applications (DDBEA) software to integrate the Data

Domain system with your SAP landscape.

1. Download the DDBEA database application agent software from the Customer

Support website and extract the installation package from the file on the database

or application host.

2. Install the software on Linux by running the rpm command, as shown in Figure

39.

https://support.emc.com/




Installing the database application agent

3. In a supported cluster environment, install the software on each node that

performs backup and recovery operations.

Setting up the SAP with Oracle configuration file

For an SAP with Oracle environment, the software installation provides the

sap_oracle_ddbda.utl template for the configuration file. Customize this template to

set up a configuration file to use for backups and restores with the DDBEA database

application agent. The configuration file templates are installed on UNIX and Linux in the

/opt/dpsapps/dbappagent/config/ directory:

The following common parameters, found under the [PRIMARY_SYSTEM] settings on your

Data Domain system, are mandatory for all operations with the database application

agent:

DDBOOST_USER―Specifies the username of the DD Boost user that is configured on the primary Data Domain system

DEVICE_HOST―Specifies the hostname of the primary Data Domain system where the backup is stored

DEVICE_PATH―Specifies the name of the storage unit or a top-level directory

within the storage unit on the primary Data Domain system

To customize the configuration file, follow these steps:

1. Go to /opt/dpsapps/dbappagent/config/, copy the sap_oracle_ddbda.utl

configuration file, and rename it init<DBSID>.utl.

2. Modify the parameter settings in the configuration file, as shown in Figure 40.

SAP with Oracle configuration file



Deployment Guide

Configuring the DD Boost operations with Oracle RMAN

The database application agent is integrated with the SAP BR*Tools backing interface

and the BR*Tools Oracle Recovery Manager (RMAN) interface to enable DD Boost

backups, restores, and transaction log archiving in an SAP with Oracle environment.

Enable the SAP BR*Tools operations to use the RMAN program for the DD Boost

backups and restores. To do this, provide the required settings in the BR*Tools

configuration file init<DBSID>.sap, which is located in /oracle/<SID>/sapprof, as

follows:

1. Set the backup medium to use the RMAN program, as shown in Figure 41.

Setting the backup medium

2. Set the following values in the rman_parms parameter:

Set SBT_LIBRARY to the complete pathname of the database application

agent library that is used with RMAN.

Set CONFIG_FILE to the complete pathname of the configuration file

init<DBSID>.utl.

Figure 42 shows the values we provided.

Setting the rman parameters

3. Set the following parameters to configure the RMAN operations according to your

requirements:

rman_channels: Set the number of concurrent data streams. As a best

practice, set the channel numbers equal to the number of CPUs in the system.

rman_filesperset: Set a number to improve the deduplication ratio, as

shown in Figure 43.

Setting the channel numbers

util_par_file: Set the parameter to the complete pathname of the SAP for

Oracle configuration file, as shown in Figure 44.

Setting the util_par_file location

Enabling the Oracle optimized deduplication feature

The Oracle optimized deduplication feature can provide improved deduplication, resulting

in greater storage protection, efficiency, and value. Optimized deduplication is supported

at the MTree level in Data Domain OS 5.5.1 and higher.

To enable optimized deduplication on your Data Domain system:

1. Log in to the system through SSH.



2. Run the following command to enable the optimized compression algorithm:

mtree option set app-optimized-compression < algo_name >

mtree < mtree_path >

For example:

mtree option set app-optimized-compression oracle1 mtree

/data/col1/RB_SAP_BM1

3. Run the mtree option show command to display the MTree values, as shown

in Figure 45.

Setting MTree values

Configuring the lockbox

A lockbox is an encrypted file that the database application agent uses to protect

confidential information from unauthorized access. The lockbox stores your Data Domain

system information, including user credentials for your DD Boost software.

Before you can enable backups and restores on a Data Domain system, you must ensure

that the configuration file is created and contains the mandatory parameter settings. For

example, the parameters shown in Figure 46 are set in the [PRIMARY_SYSTEM] section of

the configuration file.

Parameter settings in the initBM1.utl

1. Run the following command to register the Data Domain system to the host:

ddbmadmin -P -z <configuration_file>

2. Create a lockbox, as shown in Figure 47.



Deployment Guide

Creating a lockbox with Data Domain

3. After the configuration is complete, start the backup and restore operation to the

Data Domain system.

Note: You can also use a backing backup for the database backup. For more information,

see Dell EMC Data Domain Boost for Enterprise Applications and ProtectPoint Database

Application Agent, which is available for download from Dell EMC Online Support.

https://support.emc.com/docu85245_Data-Domain-Boost-for-Enterprise-Applications-and-ProtectPoint-Database-Application-Agent-4.0-Installation-and-Administration-Guide.pdf?language=en_US

https://support.emc.com/docu85245_Data-Domain-Boost-for-Enterprise-Applications-and-ProtectPoint-Database-Application-Agent-4.0-Installation-and-Administration-Guide.pdf?language=en_US


Solution verification methodology



We validated the configuration best practices described in this guide by using SAP ERP

6.0 EHP7 on the NetWeaver 740 technology platform with the Oracle Database 12c

release. We installed the distributed SAP system on SUSE SLES hosts in a virtual

environment. In our use case, the ERP system with a BM1 database represents a

production system running with a database of approximately 2.7 TB. The ERP system’s

Oracle database was fully backed up five times to the Data Domain appliance. After each

backup, we added unique data to the database, using SAP benchmark tools to simulate

data growth. The DD Boost software we installed integrates with SAP-supported

databases to perform host-based deduplication to Data Domain, sending only unique

blocks of data over the network. DD Boost saves bandwidth and lowers network use, a

significant benefit when backups occur in parallel in the data center.

The goal of these tests is to show how the Dell EMC Ready Solution for SAP Landscapes

with Data Domain can quickly back up a production database system and offer

consolidation savings to businesses. Backup metrics and screen shots show how we

achieved our goals.

SAP Power Benchmark tools

SAP Power Benchmark (PBM), which is based on the standard Sales and Distribution

(SD) benchmark, is a collection of Perl scripts and SAP configuration transports. PBM

allows simulation of a large number of SAP user logins and performs a wide range of

order-to-cash transactions. For more information, see the SAP Power Benchmarks

documentation. We ran the PBM to create workloads and to generate data growth

between backups.

Overview

https://www.sap.com/about/benchmark/appbm/power.html



Deployment Guide

Data Domain deduplication storage systems reduce the amount of data to process by only

backing up data that has not previously been processed. The first full backup of a

database requires sending all the data to the Data Domain system because that data is

considered unique. With subsequent full backups, DD Boost software performs

deduplication on the database server, sending only unique blocks for the network and

skipping data that has already been backed up. Another DD Boost benefit is that full

backups consume only a fraction of space on the Data Domain appliance and network

use is minimized.

In our laboratory backup test, the initial SAP database size was 2.781 TB, as shown in

Figure 48. The size consisted of approximately 2.318 TB of data and 464 GB of free

space.

Initial SAP database size

Backup steps

At a high level, the backup procedure consisted of the following steps:

1. Perform a full initial backup of the SAP database to the Data Domain system

using the DDBEA software, and collect performance and data reduction statistics.

2. Using the PBM, generate small and large application data deltas (changed data)

as follows:

Second backup with a large data change (6.1 percent)

Third backup with a large data change (4.5 percent)

Fourth backup with a small data change (0.12 percent)

Final backup with a small data change (0.05 percent)

3. Run the full backup again and collect performance and data reduction statistics.

Detailed backup steps

For our backup procedure, we performed the following steps:

1. Locate the SAP database SLES host to back up and log in as the ora <SID> user.

2. Back up the SAP database from the OS level by running the following BRtools

command: brbackup -t online -d rman_util -m all -u /

Figure 49 shows the results we obtained.

Backup testing



First backup results

The first backup provided the following results:

Consumption of 835 GiB of physical storage within the Data Domain system

A global compression factor of 1.0x, indicating that all the data written was

unique

A local compression factor of 2.8x

Storage savings of approximately 64 percent compared to the initial backup

Note: A high deduplication ratio (global compression factor) is rare in the initial backup of a

dataset because the data reduction in initial backups comes predominantly from local

compression. With subsequent data transfers to the Data Domain system, deduplication (or

global compression) is the dominant compression factor.

3. After the initial backup, expand the database base and generate approximately

142 GB of new data, creating a change (delta) of approximately six percent.



Deployment Guide

The new database size is 2.941 TB, as shown in Figure 50, with 2.460 TB of data and 480

GB of free space.

Data generation after the initial backup

4. Create the second backup of the SAP system by running the following BRtools


Figure 51 shows the results we obtained after the five percent change.

Second backup results

The second backup provided the following results:

Consumption of only 269 GiB of physical storage

A global compression factor of 4.0x, indicating the presence of data previously

backed up to the Data Domain system


Storage savings of approximately 89 percent on the second backup and a total

storage savings of approximately 76 percent over the two backups

5. Expand the database and generate 110 GB of new data, creating a change of

approximately 4.5 percent.

The new database size is approximately 3.137 TB with 2.572 TB of data and 565

GB of free space, as Figure 52 shows.



Data generation after the second backup

6. Create the third backup of the SAP system by running the following BRtools

command:

brbackup -t online -d rman_util -m all -u /


Third backup results

The third backup provided the following results:


A global compression factor of 4.3x, again indicating the presence of data

previously backed up to the Data Domain system


Storage savings of approximately 89 percent on the third backup and a total

storage savings of approximately 80 percent for all three backups

7. Generate 3GB of new data, creating a small change (delta) of approximately 0.12

percent.

The new database size was approximately 3.137 TB, with 2.575 TB of data and

approximately 562 GB of free space, as shown in Figure 54.



Deployment Guide

Data generation after the third backup

8. Create a fourth backup of the SAP system by running the following BRtools



Fourth backup results

The fourth backup provided the following results:


A global compression factor of 30.9x, indicating a large amount of deduplication


Savings of approximately 98 percent for the fourth backup and a total savings

of approximately 85 percent over all four backups.

9. Next, generate 1.4 GB of new data, creating a very small delta of approximately

0.05 percent.

The new database size, as shown in Figure 56, is approximately 3.137 TB, with

2.576 TB of data and 560 GB of free space.



Data generation after the fourth backup

10. Create a final backup of the SAP system by running the following BRtools

command:

brbackup -t online -d rman_util -m all -u /


Final backup test results

The final backup test provided the following results:

Consumption of only 40.6 GiB of physical storage

A global compression factor of 44x, indicating a large amount of deduplication


Storage savings of approximately 98 percent for the final backup and a total

storage savings of approximately 87 percent for all five backups

Note: We conducted all our testing in a laboratory environment with a generated test dataset,

using the SAP SD and PBM. Your results might be different depending on the infrastructure

configuration and dataset used.



Deployment Guide

Our test results show that the integration of the Ready Bundle for SAP Landscapes

solution with Data Domain storage protection systems can effectively and quickly protect

SAP databases while offering space savings that enable the business to protect more

data. We obtained test results under the following categories:

Backup times

CPU usage

Network usage

Pre- and post-compression

Deduplication and compression savings

Backup times

Figure 58 shows the duration times of the five backup procedures. The initial backup of

our SAP Netweaver 2.7 TB database took only 44 minutes to complete. The subsequent

backups included a data change in a range from 5.75 percent to 0.03 percent.

Full backups require RMAN to read the entire database for every backup. Because we

performed a full backup operation each time, the backup duration time remained more or

less constant. A full backup operation is the best way to represent the effects of

deduplication and compression. With incremental backup operations, second and

subsequent backups complete faster than the initial backup.

Test results: Backup time and database size test

CPU usage

Moving some of the deduplication work from the Data Domain system to the database

server did not negatively impact the server workload. Because sending data is resource-

intensive for the database server, sending less data significantly reduces the load and it

takes fewer CPU cycles to perform the deduplication process than to push full backups.

As Figure 59 shows, the initial full backup of our SAP database used, on average, 26

percent of the database server’s CPU. The first full back is the most resource-intensive

because the entire database is transferred and protected on the Data Domain system.

4441 39 40 41

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

0

0.5

1

1.5

2

2.5

3

3.5

Initial Backup Second Backup Third Backup Fourth Backup Final Backup

Backup Time and Database Size

Data Size (TB) Freespace (TB) Backup Duration (mins)

Findings



The database server’s CPU usage fell in all subsequent backups, to a range between 17

percent and 13 percent. This change occurs because the database server processes only

the unique data in each additional backup, freeing up CPU cycles for other operations.

The test results appear to show the following relationship between the amount of unique

data and CPU utilization for DD Boost: the greater the amount of unique data, the higher

the CPU utilization.

Database server: CPU usage and database size

Network usage

DD Boost software sends only unique data from the database server or client to the Data

Domain system, enabling more efficient use of the network. Up to 99 percent less data is

moved across the network, even in full backups.

As Figure 60 shows, the initial full backup network usage was, on average, 380 Mbps.

Because all of the data had to be sent to the Data Domain system, the entire database

was considered as unique data and must be protected on Data Domain. The second full

backup network usage drops significantly, by almost 300 Mbps, because most of the

database was protected already and only the unique data must be transferred. Network

usage drops more with the fourth and final backups because the unique data sets were

smaller.

26

17 16

13 13

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

0

0.5

1

1.5

2

2.5

3

3.5


CPU Usage and Database Size

Data Size (TB) Freespace (TB) Avg Database Server CPU Usage (%)



Deployment Guide

Network usage and database size

High network utilization is a significant concern because most applications and databases

are backed up during the same off-business hours. Minimizing network utilization makes it

possible to efficiently protect more databases that share the same network. The larger the

data center and the greater number of applications, the more important it is to have lower

network utilization usage during backup periods.

Pre- and post-compression

The Data Domain system performs inline deduplication and local compression as the

backup data enters the system and stores only unique elements on disk, leading to lower

storage consumption and costs and a smaller footprint in your data center.

The initial size of our data backup on Data Domain was 2,335 GiB. After the data transfer

to the Data Domain system and application of deduplication and compression algorithms,

physical storage consumption fell to 835 GiB. The second backup increased the database

by five percent. After the data transfer to the Data Domain system, physical storage

consumption fell to 269 GiB. The amount was significantly lower than the initial backup

because deduplication became the dominant factor for the fourth and final backups, as

Figure 61 shows.



Data Domain pre- and post-compression values

Deduplication and compression savings

Data Domain compresses data at two levels: global and local. Global compression, or

deduplication, is used to identify redundant data segments and store only the unique data

segments by comparing received data to data already stored on disk, while local

compression compresses the unique data segments. Certain compression algorithms give

a total compression effect of global compression combined with local compression.

Global compression factor

Figure 62 shows a global compression factor of 1.0x, indicating that all the data written

from the first full backup was unique. The second and third backups had large unique

deltas, ranging from 140 GB to 110 GB, giving global compression factors of 4x and 4.3x

respectively. The fourth backup of 3 GB and the final backup of 1 GB included

significantly less unique data. Therefore, the global compression factor for these backups

was much higher.

Local compression factor

The local compression factor is 2.8x, indicating that the 2,335 GiB database size was

compressed to 835 GiB, an overall reduction of 64 percent. As Figure 62 shows, there is a

relationship between the amount of unique data and the local compression factor: the

greater the amount of unique data, the greater the compression opportunity and the

higher the compression factor. In our tests, the first backup consisted of entirely unique

data and had the largest compression factor, while the fourth backup had the least

amount of unique data and the lowest compression factor.

Total compression factor

Figure 62 also shows the total amount of compression the Data Domain system

performed with the data it received. The first backup consisted of unique data and had the

lowest total compression factor―2.8x. The second and third backups were similar in the

amount of unique data they included and their total compression factors were 9.2x and

9.6x respectively. The fourth and final backups had the smallest amount of unique data

and therefore the highest total compression factors.

2335

835

2482

269

2589

269

2591

52

2593

41

0

500

1000

1500

2000

2500

3000

Pre Compression (GiB) Post Compression (GiB)

Data Domain Pre and Post Compression




Deployment Guide

There is a relationship between the compression factor and space usage on a Data

Domain appliance: the higher the total compression factor for a backup, the greater the

space savings for that backup.

Test results: Deduplication and compression savings

Data reduction percentage

The data reduction percentage represents the total compression savings to show the

consolidation we achieved: the higher the reduction percentage, the greater the space

savings on the Data Domain appliance. In our test, the first backup had unique data and

yielded the lowest reduction percentage, namely 64 percent. This percentage was

substantial because of the amount of unique data that was transferred. The second and

third backups were similar in the amount of unique data transferred and their reduction

percentages were 89 percent respectively. The fourth and final backups had the smallest

amount of unique data and the highest reduction percentages.

After application of the deduplication and compression algorithms, we achieved a total

savings of 87 percent after five full backups totaling 12.6 Tib, with a physical storage

consumption of approximately 1.5 Tib on the Data Domain system.

1 2.8 2.8

64

4 2.39.2

89

4.3 2.29.6

89

30.9

1.6

50

98

44.2

1.4

63.9

98

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

Global Compression Factor Local Compression Factor Total Comp Factor Reduction (%)

Data Reductions




Recovery of an SAP system to its most recent state is required when the database

becomes unusable because of a hardware failure or other issue. This section shows how

to recover the SAP system using BRtools.

1. Shut down the SAP system and database.

2. Run BRtools and select Restore and recovery > Database point-in-time

recovery.

3. Choose the file that was backed up in the previous backup procedure, as shown

Figure 63.

Backup files for recovery

4. Enter c to continue the recovery, and then wait until the restore operation

finishes, as shown in Figure 64.

Database restore success message

Recovery

procedure



Deployment Guide

3. To reset the password for database user SAPSR3, run the following command:

brconnect –u system/PASSWROD –f chpass –o SAPSR3 –p

‘PASSWORD’

4. Start the database and SAP application and check the SAP status by issuing the

“sick” transaction code, as shown in Figure 65.

SAP status check

Note: SAP Initial Consistency Check (SICK) is a transaction code used to

determine inconsistencies in the SAP system



Many failures can be introduced in clustered systems, although failures are rare in

correctly designed systems. This section addresses the more common failure scenarios

that can occur.

The following table shows the hardware resources used in this solution and the data

center in which they are deployed.

Data center ESXi Host Storage SAP virtual machines

A D940-9px2xk2

D940-9pxwwk2

D940-9pxxwk2

D940-9py0xk2

HK197801276 BM1aas1 to BM1aas8

BM1ci

BM1db

B D940-9pxywk2

D940-9pxzwk2

D940-9py1xk2

D940-9py2xk2

HK197800448 DM1ci, DM1db

QM1ci, QM1db

SBXci, SBXdb

Single host failure at Data Center A

This scenario describes the complete failure of an ESXi host at Data Center A.

Single host failure at Data Center A

SRDF/Metro

failure scenarios



Deployment Guide

Figure 67 shows that in our Ready Bundle for SAP Landscapes solution laboratory

environment, the ESXi host d940-9px2xk2 is online and the BM1aas2, BM1aas5 and

BM1ci VMs are powered on.

ESXi host d940-9px2xk2 online

In this scenario, the ESXi host fails. The cluster’s vSphere HA master node detects the

failure because it is no longer receiving network heartbeats from the ESXi host. The

master mode starts monitoring for data store heartbeats. Because the host has failed

completely, it cannot generate data store heartbeats and these too are detected as

missing by the vSphere HA master node. Pinging the management addresses of the

failed ESXi host is the third availability check. If all of these checks are unsuccessful, the

master node declares the missing host as dead, as shown in Figure 68.

ESXi host d940-9px2xk2 - Dead

The master node now attempts to restart all the protected VMs that had been running on

the ESXi host before the master node lost contact with the host. As Figure 69 shows, the

BM1ci VM has migrated and is now running on ESXi host d940-9pxwwk2.

ESXi host d940-9pxwwk2

In addition, the BM1aas2 VM and the BM1aas5 VM have migrated and are also running

on ESXi host d940-9pxwwk2, as shown in Figure 70.



ESXi host d940-9pxwwk2

All these VMs were restarted within Data Center A. Because the vSphere VM-to-host

affinity rules defined on a cluster level are “should rules”, the vSphere HA VM-to-host

affinity rules are respected. If the hosts in Data Center A were without resources or

unavailable for restarts for any other reason, vSphere HA would disregard the rules and

restart the VMs within Data Center B, regardless of VM-to-host affinity rules.

From a storage perspective, the loss of an ESXi host had no impact. Volumes in both the

source and target array remained Ready at all times, accepting I/Os. The SRDF session

remained in an ActiveActive state, as shown in Figure 71.

Source array at Data Center A

Single host isolation at Data Center B

This scenario describes the response to the isolation of a single host in Data Center B

from the rest of the network.



Deployment Guide

Single host isolation at Data Center B

Figure 73 shows ESXi host d940-9pxywk2 at Data Center B with two VMs running: sbxci

and sbxdb.

ESXi Host d940-9pxywk2 at Data Center B

A network failure occurs on this ESXi host. The vSphere HA master node detects the

isolation because it is no longer receiving network heartbeats from the host. The master

node starts monitoring for datastore heartbeats. Because the host is isolated, it generates

datastore heartbeats for the secondary vSphere HA detection mechanism. Detection of

valid host heartbeats enables the vSphere HA master node to determine that the host is

running but is isolated from the network.

As Figure 74 shows, the VMs have entered a disconnected state. The vCenter server has

lost communication with the ESXi host where the VM is running and the host is marked as

not responding. This usually happens because a host has failed or encountered network

issues.



ESXi Host d940-9pxywk2 - Isolated

VMware recommends aligning the isolation response to business requirements and

physical constraints. Leaving the system powered on is the recommended isolation

response setting for the majority of environments.

Isolated hosts are rare in a correctly designed environment because of the built-in

redundancy of most modern designs. As Figure 75 shows, the sbci and sbcdb VMs

remained powered on even though the ESXi host was isolated from the network.

Source array at Data Center B

From a storage perspective, there is no impact when an ESXi host is isolated from the

network. Volumes in both the source and target array remained Ready at all times

accepting I/Os, and the SRDF session remained in an ActiveActive state.

Full compute failure at Data Center A

This scenario describes a full compute failure in Data Center A.



Deployment Guide

Full compute failure at Data Center A

A complete compute failure has occurred at Data Center A. The cluster’s vSphere HA

master node, which is located at Data Center B, detects the failure because it is no longer

receiving network heartbeats and data store heartbeats from the ESXi hosts at Data

Center A. Because all hosts at Data Center A have failed and all VMs residing on them

have been impacted, vSphere HA initiates the restart of all of these VMs.

Note: If the vSphere HA master node was located at Data Center A, within approximately 20

seconds of failure, a new vSphere HA master would be selected from the remaining ESXi hosts at

Data Center B.

In the SAP Ready Bundle laboratory environment, all VMs from the SAP Landscape

(BM1, QM1, DM1, SBX) are now running on one site, Data Center B.

Figure 77 shows that VMs bm1aas3 and bm1ci, which previously resided in Data Center

A, have migrated to ESXi host d940-9pxywk2 in Data Center B.

ESXi Host d940-9pxywk2

Figure 78 shows that VMs bm1aas2, bm1aas4, bm1aa5, and bm1aas8 have migrated

from Data Center A to ESXi host d940-9pxzwk2 in Data Center B.



ESXi Host d940-9pxzwk2

Figure 79 shows that VM bm1aas7 has migrated from Data Center A to ESXi host d940-

9py1xk2 in Data Center B.

ESXi Host d940-9py1xk2

Figure 80 shows that VM bm1aas1 and bm1aas6 have migrated from Data Center A to

ESXi host d940-9py1xk2 in Data Center B.

ESXi Host d940-9py2xk2

From a storage perspective, a complete compute failure at one site had no impact.

Volumes in both the source and target array remained Ready at all times, accepting I/Os.

The SRDF session remained in an ActiveActive state, as shown in Figure 81.



Deployment Guide

Source array at Data Center A

Communications failure at Data Center A

This scenario describes a connectivity failure between the ESXi hosts and the storage

array.

Communication failure at Data Center A

In this scenario, a complete communication failure between the ESXi hosts and the

storage array has occurred at Data Center A. As a result, all the VMs residing on ESXi

host d940-9px2xk2 within Data Center A are marked as inaccessible, as shown in Figure

83. This inaccessibility occurs because the ESXi host can no longer access the VM



configuration (.vmx) file because of either a communications problem between the host

and the storage or a problem with the storage array.

ESXi host D940-9px2xk2 - inaccessible

All VMs from Data Center A are powered off and restarted on Data Center B because the

ESXi hosts within Data Center A believe they have encountered an All Paths Down (APD)

event and do not know how long the loss of device access will last. Therefore, the VMs

are powered off and restarted within Data Center B in accordance with the VM restart

policies. As Figure 84 shows, the benchmark driver VM has restarted on d940-9py2xk2

within Data Center B. For more information about APD events, see the Dell EMC Ready

Bundles for SAP Landscapes with VMAX All FLash Arrays Design Guide

ESXi host D940-9py2xk2

As Figure 85 shows, bm1aas1 has restarted on d940-9py1xk2 within Data Center B.

ESXi host d940-9py1xk2

Additionally, bm1db restarted on d940-9pxywk2 within Data Center B in accordance with

the affinity rule we specified.





Deployment Guide

ESXi host d940-9pxywk2

From a storage perspective, a complete communication failure between the ESXi host

and storage array had no impact. Volumes in both the source and target array remained

Ready at all times, accepting I/Os. The SRDF session remained in an ActiveActive state.

Communications failure on the replication link

This scenario describes a connectivity failure of the SRDF/Metro replication link between

storage arrays at Data Center A and Data Center B.

Communication failure on replication link

Before the failure of the replication link, the state of all SRDF/Metro device pairs in the

SRDF group was ActiveActive and the devices of both VMAX arrays at Data Center A and

Data Center B were accessible to their respective ESXi hosts.

When the link failure occurred between the two sides, the device pairs changed from the

ActiveActive SRDF pair state into a Partitioned SRDF pair state, indicating a loss of

communication through the SRDF link to the storage array located in Data Center B.



When a loss of connectivity occurs between arrays, SRDF/Metro through the vWitness

elects one side of the SRDF device pair to remain accessible to the hosts, while making

the other side of the SRDF device pair inaccessible. For more information, see the Dell

EMC Ready Bundles for SAP Landscapes with VMAX All Flash Arrays Design Guide.

As Figure 88 shows, the vWitness elected the source side as the winner because bias is

assigned to the R1 site during initial synchronization, making the target side inaccessible

to the ESXi hosts. This action prevents any data inconsistencies resulting from the two

arrays being unable to communicate.

Source side remains accessible

Figure 89 shows that after the R1 side is elected the winner, the R2 side devices go to a

Write Disabled state and no longer accept I/Os from the ESXi host in Data Center B.

Target side write disabled





Deployment Guide

As a result, the VMs running within Data Center B are migrated to Data Center A. As

Figure 90 shows, all VMs in Datacenter B (dm1ci, qm1db, and sbxci) have migrated over

to ESXi host d940-9pxxwk2 within Data Center A.

ESXi Host D940-9px2xk2

Figure 91 shows that VMx dm1db qm1ci and sbxdb have migrated from Data Center B to

ESXi host d940-9py0xk2 within Data Center A.

ESXi Host D940-9pxwwk2

After the replication link between the two arrays is resumed, the SRDF pair moves to a

‘Suspended’ state, as shown in Figure 92. This means that if the R1 is ready while the

links are suspended, any I/O accumulates as invalid tracks owed to the R2.

SRDF Metro Storage Group - Suspended

To resume ActiveActive SRDF, perform an Establish operation to copy the modified R1

tracks to the R2 side, as follows:



Go to Data Protection > SRDF > SRDF Metro, select the affected storage group

and click Establish, as shown in Figure 93.

SRDF Metro Establish operation

Note: If the R2 side had been elected the winner, it would have been necessary to perform a

restore operation at this stage so that any modified tracks on the R2 side were copied to the R1

side.

When the Establish operation is underway, the state moves to SyncInProg, as shown in

Figure 94. The synchronizing time depends on how many links are connected between

the arrays and how much data is to be replicated.

SRDF Metro Storage Group - SyncInProg

After the Establish operation is complete, the ActiveActive SRDF/Metro resumes and both

arrays are now ready again to accept I/Os.

References


Deployment Guide

References

The following documentation on Dell EMC.com and Online Support provides additional,

relevant information. Access to documents on Online Support depends on your login

credentials. If you do not have access to a document, contact your Dell EMC

representative.

Dell EMC Ready Bundles for SAP Landscapes with VMAX All FLash Arrays Design

Guide

Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery with EMC VMAX3 for SAP HANA TDI

Deployments

Business Continuity Best Practices for SAP HANA TDI with EMC Symmetrix VMAX

VMAX All Flash Storage Family Overview

Data Domain deduplication storage systems specification sheet

Data Domain Boost for Enterprise Applications and ProtectPoint Database

Application Agent Installation and Administration Guide

Data Domain Operating System Version 6.1 Administration Guide

The following documentation provides additional, relevant information about VMware:

Architecture Guidelines and Best Practices for Deployments of SAP HANA on

VMware vSphere

SAP and VMware Virtualization

SAP Solutions on VMware Best Practices Guide

Dell EMC

documentation

VMware

documentation

http://www.emc.com/





http://www.emc.com/collateral/technical-documentation/h14466-continuity-vmax3-hana-sg.pdf

http://www.emc.com/collateral/technical-documentation/h14466-continuity-vmax3-hana-sg.pdf

http://www.emc.com/collateral/white-paper/h13149-business-continuity-best-practices-sap-hana.pdf

https://www.emc.com/collateral/white-papers/h14920-intro-to-vmax-af-storage.pdf

https://www.emc.com/collateral/specification-sheet/h11340-datadomain-ss.pdf

https://support.emc.com/docu85245_Data_Domain_Boost_for_Enterprise_Applications_and_ProtectPoint_Database_Application_Agent_4.0_Installation_and_Administration_Guide.pdf?language=en_US

https://support.emc.com/docu85245_Data_Domain_Boost_for_Enterprise_Applications_and_ProtectPoint_Database_Application_Agent_4.0_Installation_and_Administration_Guide.pdf?language=en_US

https://support.emc.com/docu85190_Data-Domain-Operating-System-6.1-Administration-Guide.pdf?language=en_US

http://www.vmware.com/content/dam/digitalmarketing/vmware/en/pdf/whitepaper/sap_hana_on_vmware_vsphere_best_practices_guide-white-paper.pdf

http://www.vmware.com/content/dam/digitalmarketing/vmware/en/pdf/whitepaper/sap_hana_on_vmware_vsphere_best_practices_guide-white-paper.pdf

http://www.vmware.com/solutions/business-critical-apps/sap-virtualization.html

https://www.vmware.com/files/pdf/solutions/sap/sap-solutions-on-vmware-best-practices-guide.pdf

Documents

Dell EMC Ready Bundle for SAP Landscapes with Dell EMC ... · Agility―A modern SAP landscape management experience that delivers ... The integrated Dell Remote Access Controller