Upload
ibm-india-smarter-computing
View
304
Download
5
Embed Size (px)
DESCRIPTION
Learn about the IBM PureFlex Solution for SAP Business Suite (POWER / AIX). This paper provides reference architectures of how heterogeneous SAP landscapes can be consolidated using IBM PureFlex System. While running the core business applications on POWER nodes with AIX as operating system, complementary SAP components are added on x86 nodes. IBM PureFlex System enables a very tight integration of infrastructure components including servers, networking and storage. Seamless monitoring and management functions of the infrastructure are provided by the FSM. For more information on Pure Systems, visit http://ibm.co/J7Zb1v. Visit the official Scribd Channel of IBM India Smarter Computing at http://bit.ly/VwO86R to get access to more documents.
Citation preview
copy Copyright IBM Corporation 2013
IBM PureFlex Solution for SAP Business Suite (POWER AIX)
Reference architecture for IBM POWER and IBM AIX based
core SAP systems on IBM PureFlex System Version 15
featuring
- IBM Systems Solution for SAP Business Suite and SAP HANA
and
- IBM Entry Cloud Scenarios for SAP solutions
Matthias Koechl Markus Fehling
Mirco Malessa
Wolfgang Reichert
IBM Systems and Technology Group ISV Enablement
August 2013
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
2
Table of contents
Table of contents 2
Abstract 3
Introduction 3
IBM PureFlex System overview 3
Platform concept 3
Node scalability and performance 6
System connectivity 7
Reliability availability and serviceability (RAS) features 8
SAP reference landscape on IBM PureFlex System 9
Introduction to SAP landscape topology 9
Supported SAP solution stacks 10
Landscape planning 11
System layout concepts 11
Introducing the IBM Systems Solution for SAP Business Suite and SAP HANA 12
Storage attachment 13
Integration with existing SAP landscapes 17
Integration of SAP Appliance-based components 19
FlexSystem Native Node Support for SAP Business Warehouse Accelerator 23
SAP on AIX reference landscapes for IBM PureFlex System 25
High availability and disaster recovery 28
Landscape monitoring and management 28
IBM PureFlex System integration with SAP NetWeaver Landscape Virtualization Management 30
Management components 31
Managed SAP landscape 32
SAP-specific offerings for IBM PureFlex System 34
Lab services and IBM support 34
Summary 35
Resources 36
Trademarks and special notices 38
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
3
Abstract
This paper provides an overview on how modern SAP ecosystem consisting of the SAP NetWeaver technology layer SAP Business Suite applications and complementary SAP modules can be deployed on an IBMreg PureFlextrade System This paper focuses on IBM POWER processor-based units (POWER compute nodes) hosting the classical SAP core components It also describes how complementary x86-based IBM PureFlex System units can be integrated for specific SAP scenarios while still maintaining a unified systems management Related documents with a x86- and POWER IBM i focus are available too Links are included in the Resources section
The newly released rdquoIBM Systems Solution for SAP Business Suite and SAP HANArdquo extends the SAP application portfolio which can be deployed on the internal PureFlex nodes with external special purpose compute nodes namely IBM Systems x servers running a SAP HANA in-memory database and applications Typical use cases for IBM PureFlex System-only landscapes are described and also some comments are about the integration of an IBM PureFlex System with existing SAP customer infrastructures are explained in this paper
The IBM Flex System Manager serves as the unified management console for the components contained within the IBM PureFlex System chassis and the external IBM Systems Solution running SAP HANA This paper describes the Flex System Manager functions available and how they fit into SAP landscape monitoring
On the application side the Flex System Manager integrates with the SAP NetWeaver Landscape Virtualization Management enabling consistent management of infrastructure and SAP application layers The paper also illustrates the architecture and benefits which can be achieved by combining IBM platform technologies with infrastructure management tools of the SAP NetWeaver stack The combination of the SAP NetWeaver Landscape Virtualization Management software and IBM Flex System Manager supports cloud-enabling tasks as there are SAP system provisioning cloning copying and refreshing in a highly automated manner
Introduction
The Introduction section provides an overview of the IBMreg PureFlextrade System components
IBM PureFlex System overview
Platform concept
The IBM PureFlex System is an integration platform for different server architectures (IBM POWERreg
and x86) and the associated operating systems Integration also applies for systems storage from a
physical and management perspective Each IBM PureFlex System base system contains two layers
of hardware management
Chassis Management Module (CMM)
The CMM replaces the Advanced Management Module known from the traditional IBM
BladeCenterreg servers Both provide basic infrastructure access and management
Flex System Manager (FSM)
The CMM can be complemented by a dedicated management node running the Flex System
Manager (FSM) software stack while providing unified access and end-to-end management
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
4
of up to four heterogeneously populated IBM PureFlex System chassis Technically the FSM
is an 8-core appliance node running Linuxreg and kernel-based virtual machine (KVM) and the
FSM software on top Optionally the FSM appliance can be duplicated for resiliency of this
focal management layer Some key FSM functions include
Management of up to four chassis
Setup and configuration wizards
Heterogeneous nodes server storage network lifecycle management
Discovery inventory updates configuration status reliable logging events
IBM Systems Director Active Energy Managertrade feature
Network control with Voltaire Fabric Management (discovery and monitoring
fabric service provisioning)
Single sign-on audit logging role-based access control user management
Integration APIs to higher-level systems and enterprise management software like IBM
SmartCloudreg or IBM Tivolireg products
Figure 1 IBM PureFlex System Portfolio
This concept matches the trend to heterogeneous SAP system landscapes Customers can deploy
exactly the server units within the IBM PureFlex System that they need to best accommodate their
functional and nonfunctional SAP application requirements Although the core SAP Business Suite
applications support almost all platforms and virtualization layers certain SAP components such as
BWA HANA and TREX are linked to the x86 processors and a Linux OS for example IBM PureFlex
System with FSM allow for a unified monitoring and administration independent from the platform and
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
5
OS mix while fully using the native platform strengths of each IBM server family and the related
environments
Besides the compute nodes customers can integrate the IBM Flex System V7000 Storage Node
with full IBM System Storagereg SAN Volume Controller functionality into the same 10U-chassis
Key storage management functions supported include
Fully virtualized storage and virtualization of third party external storage
IBM System Storage Easy Tiertrade
Thin provisioning
Real-Time disk compression
Storage Management integrated with Flex System Manager
The storage node includes a storage controller and space for up to 24 disks with a maximum capacity
of 900 GB each This allows for a gross data volume of up to 21 TB within a very compact volume
Attachment to DB server nodes is done using a fast internal network without peripheral equipment and
complexity The internal IBM PureFlex System disk capacity can be extended by attaching external
Storwize V7000 expansion units or other external storage devices through the SAN Volume Controller
capabilities of the Storwize V7000 controller
POWER based PureFlex Systems can be ordered in three pre-configured flavors Express Standard
and Enterprise configurations are available
Table 1 PureFlex POWER based component stack
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
6
As of November 2012 build-to-order systems (BTU) are available too These systems are referred to
as ldquoFlex Systemsrdquo versus the pre-packaged ldquoPureFlexrdquo configurations specified in Table 1 BTU
systems offer the advantage of higher configuration flexibility for the price of less integration and
automization through built-in expertise
Node scalability and performance
Node scalability and performance applies to the vertical scalability and transaction performance of
individual nodes contained within an IBM PureFlex System chassis Published SAP ECC 60 EHP 4
Sales and Distribution benchmarks provide leadership SAP Application Performance Standard (SAPS)
capacities
POWER Node Number of
coresfrequency
SAPS ECC 60
Certification No
IBM PureFlex p260 node 833 16355GHz
IBM PureFlex p260+ node 841 163641GHz 54700
2012035
IBM PureFlex p270+ node
(DB2 105)
24341GHz 68380
2013019
IBM PureFlex p460 node 16 32355GHz 93080
2012015
Table 2 POWER compute nodes overview
The SAPS capacity of the new 32-core POWER nodes is about 40 higher compared to an IBM
BladeCenter PS704 Express blade with the same number of cores and it compares well with an IBM
Powerreg 750 32-core system This discrete system has been very successful in the midrange SAP
marketplace Consequently customers can easily migrate from discrete mid-size servers to an IBM
PureFlex System node of their choice without redesigning their SAP landscape and changing the
existing operational environment
The November 2012 announcement has introduced newest POWER7+ technology to the p260+ half-
wide nodes A higher frequency but mostly a 25x larger cache provide additional +25 SAPS
capacity according to SAP SampD benchmark results in Table 2For those customers who need
scalability beyond a single node or prefer SAP 3-tier implementations or scale-out DB servers the
IBM PureFlex System chassis and its inherent network topology provides an ideal physical
consolidation platform with a single point of control for infrastructure management
IBM PureFlex System scalability continues in the way that multiple (up to four) chassis can be
clustered and still managed as a single IT entity However when it comes to application scalability
across nodes classical parameters such as networking latency also need to be considered
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
7
Caution needs to be paid to the available physical memory per node respectively per SAP system
Depending on the type of internal disks installed in a POWER node it is not possible to install the
maximum amount of memory That is why itrsquos not recommended to use internal disks for POWER
nodes running SAP applications Storage should be provided by an external solution See section
ldquoStorage attachmentrdquo for details
System connectivity
IBM PureFlex System provides state-of-the-art system connectivity by scalable switch elements
providing up to four switch partitions per physical switch (three partitions at for initial release) These
can be a combination of
24-port BNT 10Gb Fibre Channel over Convergence Enhanced Ethernet (software
key to increase ports)
20-port 8Gb FC
24-port BNT 1Gb
48-port BNT 1Gb (SW key to increase four 10Gb ports)
Mezzanine cards
2-port 8Gb FC (QLogic)
4-port 1Gb (Broadcom)
The scalable structure allows extending IO capacity along with increasing application needs As the
number of nodes and their IO adapters grow additional switch capacity can be installed in an IBM
PureFlex System chassis
Figure 2 IBM PureFlex System switch configurations
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
8
The IBM PureFlex System network topology provides an internal network for monitoring and
management purposes This is used by the CMM and the FSM appliance to interact with the hardware
components and virtualization layers
Figure 3 IBM PureFlex System network topology
Reliability availability and serviceability (RAS) features
SAP business applications are mostly mission-critical Hence reliability and minimum downtimes of a
platform are of high significance IBM PureFlex System components have inherited many RAS
attributes of the discrete IBM server families
Hot plug power and cooling
Concurrent firmware code updates
Processor de-allocation
Hot plug nodes
Dual-power supply
Auto reboot on power loss
Temperature monitors
Error correction code (ECC)-protected memory
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
9
SAP reference landscape on IBM PureFlex System
The SAP reference landscape on IBM PureFlex System section provides an introduction to the SAP
landscape topology and example reference landscapes for IBM POWER and AIX based core SAP
systems running on IBM PureFlex System
Introduction to SAP landscape topology
SAP customer landscapes consist of several SAP systems each supporting a specific business
application or dedicated to development and testing purposes
The most common SAP applications are combined as SAP Business Suite which combines functions for
enterprise resource planning (ERP) customer relationship management (CRM) supply chain
management (SCM) and business warehouse (BW) All of these modules (and much more) can be
installed as dedicated SAP business applications too Their common underlying technology stack is the
SAP NetWeaver layer SAP NetWeaver provides typical middleware functionality to SAP sites such as
Web Application Server Portal Service Bus reporting and so on But the SAP NetWeaver layer also
provides abstraction of the SAP Business Suite towards hardware OS and relational database
management systems (RDBMS) This enables the SAP Business Suite to run on top of almost all server
platforms
SAP industry solutions and the All-In-One midmarket offering are based on the identical architecture and
contain a blend of the Business Suite modules customized with industry-specific data and transactions
All of the Business Suite components can be either implemented in 2-tier or 3-tier mode While the 2-tier
mode is the most efficient way of implementing a SAP instance from a resource and complexity
perspective 3-tier implementations provide advantages in scalability availability and flexibility
Figure 4 multiple level consolidation
Some applications can be extended with dedicated functional systems used to either complement or to
accelerate transactions Prominent examples are Adobe Document Server TREX BWA and the SAP in-
memory database HANA These technology components do not rely on the NetWeaver stack and thus run
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
10
on dedicated x86-based environments For scalability reasons these modules often follow a scale-out
paradigm
The variety and count of back-end and complementary systems is customer individual but in general
demands for physical system consolidation by using virtualization technologies
Another dimension of SAP landscape growth is the requirement of a strict isolation of production and
nonproduction environments by SAP The nonproduction environments mostly consist of sandbox
development test and QA systems The SAP transport system links these stages and allows critical
changes in either the OS or the application being tested before being promoted to business-critical SAP
instances
Supported SAP solution stacks
For the POWER nodes the same software stacks as with discrete IBM Power Systemstrade are supported
that is IBM AIXreg IBM i and Linux servers Same is true for the common databases IBM DB2reg for Linux
UNIXreg and Windows DB2 for IBM i and Oracle for AIX Restrictions on release level might apply
though All supported OSDBSAP module combinations are maintained in the product availability matrix
on the SAP Service Marketplace As one big advantage of IBM PureFlex System SAP modules which are
not supported on the POWER nodes can be deployed in the same chassis using the x86 nodes
The following table shows the supported OS and DB levels on the POWER nodes at time of
announcement
X = supported
AIX 61 71 IBM i 61 71 PowerLinux
SLES 1011
RHEL 5 6
DB2 for i X
DB2 for Linux
UNIX and
Windows 97 10
X X
MaxDB 78 X X
Oracle 1102
incl RAC
X
Sybase ASE 157 X
Table 3 supported OS and DB levels
On top of these OS and DB combinations all SAP NetWeaver 7x releases and modules are supported as
technology and middleware stack
SAP NetWeaver Landscape Virtualization Management is also supported for IBM PureFlex System and
extends the FSM with application monitoring and cloud-enabling operations More details on these are
described in the ldquoLandscape monitoring and managementrdquo section
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
11
Landscape planning
The landscape planning section describes the underlying concepts for system layout the integration of
external storage solutions and integration aspects for existing SAP landscapes and complementary SAP
component
System layout concepts
Applications running on IBM PureFlex System can take full advantage of the virtualization and
partitioning capabilities offered by the operating systems running on IBM PureFlex System For
POWER nodes the identical virtualization and partitioning capabilities are available for AIX IBM i and
PowerLinux using IBM PowerVMreg virtualization For x86 nodes the VMware kernel-based virtual
machine (KVM) and Hyper-V virtualization hypervisors are available This enables a very flexible
landscape implementation on IBM PureFlex System
The SAP concept of separating production from the development and test systems is applied by
choosing separate OS instances for those systems Depending on the sizing requirements this can
occupy a dedicated node or (in most cases) be an LPAR in a shared resource pool which is
partitioned to contain multiple components of a SAP Business Suite landscape
In order to make best use of the physical resources it is recommended to combine production LPARs
with high priority (that is weighting factor) with nonproduction LPARs with lower priority on a POWER
node This allows unexpected load peaks within a SAP production system to be covered by additional
processor resources out of these less-critical LPARs Also it is a good idea to collocate SAP instances
with recurring load peaks within a single node For example SAP systems serving users in different
time-zones fall into this category
Independent from IBM PureFlex System the advice is to apply generic IBM POWER7reg best practices
for PowerVM parameterization as provided by the POWER brand and SAP sizing guidelines
While processor (de-) allocation happens very dynamically within a millisecond timescale this does
not apply to physical memory Hence the memory associated to an LPAR in a pool ideally covers the
maximum of the LPARs peak virtual processor allocation SAP applications are rather memory
consuming with a large workload dependent variation though The available memory on a IBM
PureFlex System POWER node is sufficient for many SAP workloads in particular for the very
common SAP ERP component and such that do not make use of a Javatrade stack Whenever SAP
sizing results (per SAP Quick Sizer output for example) indicate that 8 GB per core are not sufficient or
you want to consolidate many SAP instances into a single shared pool you have the following two
options with IBM PureFlex System in order to increase memory capacity
Configure the POWER nodes with internal SSDs or boot from external storage ie no HDDs
contained in node in order to double the memory per core ratio
Configure and activate Active Memory Expansion (AME)
The expansion factor again is heavily workload dependent As a starting point assume memory
expansion by
20 times for SAP ABAP-only dialogue servers
15 times for SAP DB servers and only
11 times for SAP Java instances
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
12
Hardware accelerated AME introduced with the POWER7+ nodes is supported by SAP
Measurements have shown no significant differences over the traditional sw-only AME version
AIX Workload Partitions (WPARs) are another option for saving physical memory on constrained
nodes WPARs are supported for AIX 7 running on a node also SAP supports WPARs As WPARs
reside within an AIX host environment and not as dedicated LPARs there are several advantages by
deploying smaller SAP systems into these
WPARs do not require an incremental hypervisor and OS memory footprint
WPARs can dynamically reallocate memory within the host AIX space This does not cause a
delay by hypervisor activities and therefore results in real-time memory virtualization
As an additional benefit WPARs require less OS maintenance efforts compared to an identical
number of LPARs each running an own AIX or Linux OS This is of interest as soon as
operational costs are linked to the count of managed OS images
The PowerVM hypervisor theoretically limits the smallest SAP instance to occupy as little as 110th of
a node core But what is the largest SAP system that can reside within a single IBM PureFlex System
chassis This question might be of interest for prospects that plan downsizing from large-scale
servers
If you assume a typical DB-to-Application Server ratio of 14 for SAP ERP production instances this
results in the largest 3-tier SAP ERP system of (132 cores DB server + 432 cores application
servers) = 160 cores which can be covered by the POWER nodes that fit into a single 10U high IBM
PureFlex System chassis As a rough approximation assume effectively 2000 SAPS per core (this is
a conservative approach for SAP production compared to a SAP sales and distribution benchmark
environment) which results in a single SAP system of 320000 SAPS This capacity is in the range of
a medium-sized discrete Power 795 server
As most of the SAP systems are database centric the limiting factor is not only the processor
capacity but also a well-balanced IO and database design Details are covered in the following
section
For larger SAP database instances and in order to increase their resiliency customers might consider
implementing a scale-out relational database management system (RDBMS) by deploying several
nodes as concurrent DB nodes The internal IBM PureFlex System network bandwidth favors
horizontal scalability IBM DB2 pureScalereg or Oracle Real Application Cluster (RAC) are both
supported for SAP production use and have been tested on IBM PureFlex System Beyond increased
database scalability the failure of a single DB node will not cause the attached SAP systems to stop
but to continue with a reduced DB throughput
Introducing the IBM Systems Solution for SAP Business Suite and SAP HANA
SAP HANA is exclusively supported on certified hardware ndash for example IBM System x3950 X5 ndash that
uses the Intel EX processor architecture As of today HANA cannot be deployed on any compute
node within the PureFlex chassis However certified x3950 X5 based HANA appliances also
including storage and system software components may be installed in the same PureFlex rack A
reference architecture introducing this solution offering has been included in section Integration of
SAP Appliance-based components of this document
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
13
Storage attachment
In the previous section the design criteria for the server nodes have been explained This section
explains the storage and IO relevant parameters for an IBM PureFlex System-based SAP landscape
The IBM PureFlex System compute nodes allow adding a limited amount of internal storage to the
node For most of the business applications the available internal disk space might not be sufficient
Therefore storage needs to be supplied by an storage solution The IBM PureFlex System chassis
can be equipped with the internal Flex System V7000 storage node This can be connected via the
chassis internal switches directly over Fibre Channel of Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE)
Figure 5 Chassis internal storage attachment
External storage system like the IBM Storwize V7000 or the IBM SAN Volume Controller or any
other IBM System Storage can be connected through the chassis switches as well
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
14
Figure 6 Chassis internal and external storage attachment
Access to either of the storage solutions from the POWER nodes requires a Virtual IO Server (VIOS)
installed Due to the limited FC ports on the half wide compute nodes a dual VIOS setup is only
possible using Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE)as shown in figures 5 and 6 above
IBM Flex System V7000
In general the IBM PureFlex System can connect to any SAN storage solution The internal IBM Flex
System V7000 is the most powerful and easy-to-use innovative midrange disk system in the storage
marketplace and is the best fit for IBM PureFlex System The Flex System V7000 is fully compatible
with the IBM Storwize V7000 storage system
The integrated Easy Tier functionality provides significant performance improvements by
automatic migration of hot data blocks to high-performing SSDs
Thin provisioning consumes used space only no pre-allocation required
Dynamic migration provides continuous availability of the applications while migrating data
online
IBM FlashCopy replication supports faster and more efficient data copies for online
backup testing or data mining
25-inch disk form factor 24 per expansion unit 240 total disks
Cluster up to 4 node pairs and 960 disks
Each node pair provides dual RAID controller to provide high availability access
No SAN or fiber channel cabling is required between the compute and storage nodes
Real time disk compression reduces the amount of required storage space Compression
rates are between 50 and 70 for SAP systems running on IBM i and the DB2 for i
database
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
15
Integration of the V7000 storage management into the Flex System Manager
Value of Easy Tier to SAP
The SAP ERP system workloads represent online transaction processing (OLTP) characteristics
Typically not all data of the SAP system or database is accessed during a given time frame for
example during a 24-hour period Statistically there exist contiguously accessed data areas some of
which are hot These hot spots are part of the disk system that has significantly high activity and
usually cause long wait times for IO requests The change rate of the hot data areas is not in terms of
minutes but most likely stays constant over a longer period of time for example 24 hours
Here Easy Tier is able to monitor and move these hot areas from HDD to SSD Easy Tier
automatically creates a data migration plan to incrementally move the hottest data to SSDs and the
cold data back to the spinning disks Easy Tier adapts to clientsrsquo changing workloads and it does this
without any administrative effort to constantly tune their storage systems As a result the SAP
transaction time is reduced
Value of Real Time Disk Compression to SAP
Today traditional database systems provide various compression technologies to store data This
requires know-how to identify which tables to compress and to setup and maintain efficient
compression over time With real time disk compression offered by Storwize V7000 the complete disk
set of the partition running the SAP systems can be easily compressed Disk compression saves
between 50 and 70 percent of storage space with minimal performance impact to most SAP
workloads This is comparable to native DB gains and can save license and operational DB-admin
cost A combination of two compression technologies does not bring further advantages
IBM Flex System V7000 Storage Node
The IBM Flex System V7000 Storage Node requires a minimum of 2 full wide slots to be installed into
an IBM Flex System chassis It provides direct Fibre Channel Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE)
and iSCSI connection to the PureFlex compute nodes The Flex System Manager will identify the
storage system automatically
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
16
The Flex System V7000 management user interface (GUI) is compatible with the Storwize V7000 GUI
IBM PureFlex System and Storwize V7000
The Storwize V7000 storage can be connected to the IBM PureFlex System chassis either through
Fiber Channel (SAN) or through Ethernet (iSCSI) Both the connections provided block-level access to
the storage system
With IBM PureFlex System the test team recommends SAN access by using the IBM PureFlex
System integrated SAN switch where four FC connections are required to ensure multipathing More
connections are not required for connecting to a single chassis
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
17
Setting up a stretched cluster is not supported by the integrated V7000 SVC Customers will require a
traditional SVC to support such a resilient disk setup Of course other technologies like AIX LVM
mirroring Metro Mirror etc are supported
Configuration of Flex System V7000 and Storwize V7000
To gain maximum flexibility in respect to capacity utilization and performance workload balancing the
number of storage pools configured (Managed Disk Groups) should be as few as possible for a single
V7000 system (node pair) Depending on the performance requirement the use of Easy Tier in
combination with SSDs is recommended
A fully equipped chassis is capable to handle 300000 SAPS leading to a workload of approximately
100000 IOPS Assuming a storage demand of 100 TB usable results in the following
recommendation
24 SSD 25-inch 400 GB each plugged into the V7000 controller
Four expansion units each with 24 SAS drives 25-inch each 900 GB
One expansion unit 23 SAS drives 25-inch each 900 GB and 1 SSD 25 inches 400 GB
(spare)
RAIDs (Managed Disk) are configured as RAID 5 7+1
Total of 25 SSD and 119 SAS
Integration with existing SAP landscapes
The IBM PureFlex System chassis can be integrated into existing SAP landscapes Physically the IBM
PureFlex System chassis fits into any standard 19-inch rack which provides a minimum of 10 spare height
units Other non-IBM PureFlex System components can be housed within the same standard rack as long
as power distribution units provide sufficient energy A fully populated IBM PureFlex System chassis can
contain up to six 2500 watts energy supplies which can be configured for several redundancy modes
The Ethernet and FC switches provide connectivity to an existing network and storage infrastructure As
discussed in the previous section the IBM PureFlex System FC switch connects to existing SAN storage
solutions LPARs stored on the SAN can be migrated to an IBM PureFlex System POWER node by
assigning the disks to the IBM PureFlex System nodersquos VIOS and boot from those This allows very fast
migration of exiting SAP systems to IBM PureFlex System with minimal downtime
External SAN storage can be attached to a new PureFlex chassis in several ways Ideally external LUNs
are connected via the integrated V7000 SAN Volume Controller as managed disks Thus storage
administration can exploit SVC virtualization and management capabilities If latter is not a focus the
PureFlex FC-switches can be attached to existing SAN-fabrics using transparent NPIV mode see Figure
6 Storage vendors need to support this and storage SAN administration will be performed with native
vendor tools not via FSM
Tests have shown that IBM PowerVM Live Partition Mobility (LPM) is possible between nodes and
external systems given the network is set up appropriately This allows to migrate running LPARs from
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
18
discrete Power Systems to POWER nodes and to migrate from POWER nodes to discrete Power
Systems
The FSM administration layer can co-exist with already implemented cross-platform management solutions like eg the IBM Systems Director It also can become integrated with higher level enterprise service management software as a monitored and managed layer
Figure 7 integration of management components
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
19
Integration of SAP Appliance-based components
Certain SAP components are not available on all SAP supported operating systems and databases If
such components are required to support customersrsquo business processes they need to be installed on top
of a supported OS which is not necessarily the same location where the SAP core applications are stored
With IBM PureFlex System supporting both x86 and POWER processor-based operating systems those
complementary components can be tightly integrated into the landscape The required hardware
resources can be hosted within one IBM PureFlex System chassis Besides the compact server footprint in
the datacenter the internal network eliminates the need for network cables and switches to connect the
systems The IBM PureFlex System management provided by CMM and FSM reduces the complexity of
managing the heterogeneous environment
This allows the creation of a complete SAP landscape within a single box Core SAP Business Suite
components are running on the POWER nodes while complementary components such as SAP
Enterprise Search and SAP Business Warehouse Accelerator can run on x86 nodes
The IBM Systems Solution for SAP Business Suite and SAP HANA SAP HANA is the strategic in-memory
database by SAP AG to accelerate in particular business analytics but also transactional business In
order to achieve magnitudes of acceleration SAP HANA exploits specific design features of the Intel EX
processor architecture with optimized low-level coding Consequently SAP HANA is exclusively
supported on certified hardware using this processor type ndash for example IBM System x3950 X5
The IBM SAP HANA offering is a standardized portfolio of System x hardware (IBM Systems x3950 X5 -
7143-Hxx systems) with internal (SSD SAS) storage for data persistency plus software components and
surrounding services Exclusively Linux namely SLES 11 is supported as operating system
As of today such an appliance cannot be deployed on any compute node within the PureFlex chassis
Instead IBM x3950 X5 based SAP HANA building blocks may be installed into the same rack as the
PureFlex chassis and act as external HANA compute nodes Connection to both x86 and POWER based
internal compute nodes running standard SAP applications or complementary SAP HANA instances is
done via Ethernet through a TOR switch
A big advantage of re-using external technology is that well established and beneficial concepts can be 11
applied for PureFlex focused landscapes too As an excelling example IBM GPFS (General Parallel File
System) not only enables the IBM SAP HANA solution to grow beyond the capacity of a single system into
a scale-out solution but also adds high availability and disaster recovery features to the IBM HANA
appliance
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
20
The scope of the Flex System Manager has been extended to allow the integrated management of
PureFlex internal components and IBM x3950 X5 based SAP HANA building blocks
It provides administrative functions like
Manual discovery inventory
Release Management (FW and SW installation and update)
Power Control
Remote Access
System Configuration
System Health and Status
Service and Support
for workload optimized x3950 X5 SAP HANA appliances
Figure 8 FSM menu of external x3950 X5 based IBM SAP HANA appliances
The screenshot above shows external x3950 X5 nodes appearing on the FlexSystem Manager panel and
the applicable activities to be performed
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
21
From a hardware point-of-view IBM PureFlex Systems offer the administrative integration of the HANA
building blocks (T-shirt sizes) listed in Table 4They meet the SAP defined HANA sizing grid and do not
need to be purchased together with a PureFlex System This allows the integration of existing HANA
systems with a newly deployed PureFlex System at customer site
Building block
Server (MTM)
CPUs Main memory
S+ x3950 X5
(7143-HAx) 2x Intel Xeon
E7-8870 256 GB
M x3950 X5
(7143-HBx) 4x Intel Xeon
E7-8870 512 GB
L
x3950 X5 (7143HBx)
+ x3950 X5
(7143HCx)
8x Intel Xeon E7-8870
1024 GB
XM x3950 X5
(7143-HDx) 4x Intel Xeon
E7-8870 1TB
32x 32GB
XL x3950 X5
(7143-HDx + 7143-HEx)
8x Intel Xeon E7-8870
2TB 64x 32GB
XXL x3950 X5
(7143-HBx + 7143-HCx)
8x Intel Xeon E7-8870
4TB 128x 32GB
Table 4 IBM SAP HANA Appliance building blocks (June 2013)
This list will change pretty frequently as new models and HANA configurations will become supported
Therefore always check the SAP list of supported models in the SAP HANA PAM (requires authorization)
or consult an IBM Techline representative SAP technology and management components as well as
common operational functions like the Tivoli Storage Manager for BackupRestore of ERP and HANA may
be deployed on PureFlex compute nodes and act on both environments
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
22
Figure 9 Architecture of SAP Business Suite on PureFlex and SAP HANA on System x3950 X5 Workload Optimized Solution for SAP HANA
In case of IBM SAP HANA scale-out configurations the Integrated Management Module of x3950 X5
servers and the SAP HANA appliance related network interfaces (like SAP client access HANA Studio
ERP backup and restore HWSW-Admin) will be connected to the PureFlex Device Management and
Client Data network via Ethernet through TOR switches Such a scale-out configuration is deployed with
separate racks
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
23
Figure 10 SAP HANA Appliances with PureFlex Network Topology
Depended on the amount of external network connections single node IBM SAP HANA appliances may
be connected via available ports on integrated switches of the PureFlex chassis The single node SAP
HANA appliance could be deployed in the same rack with IBM PureFlex System
FlexSystem Native Node Support for SAP Business Warehouse Accelerator
The SAP Business Warehouse Accelerator (BWA) was the initial approach to accelerate OLAP workload
with a dedicated appliance attached to a SAP Business Warehouse system SAP BWA follows a ldquoplug amp
playrdquo design easier to implement than SAP HANA and has a longer history Hence SAP BWA still has a
broad installed base among SAP BI customers
SAP BWA has not been this highly optimized for the Intel EX-CPU type This fact allows deploying SAP
BWA appliances on XEON-based FlexSystem nodes running a SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 SP2
operating system
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
24
The ldquoIBM Flex System Solution for SAP NetWeaver Business Warehouse Acceleratorrdquo extends the
established IBM BladeCenter offerings for SAP BWA with scalable FlexSystem configurations comprising
of x240 compute nodes inside the Flex-chassis and externally attached IBM Storage Systems DS3500
This combination meets the SAP BWA appliance criteria while providing an excellent priceperformance
ratio
Table 5 FlexSystem building blocks for IBM SAP Business Warehouse Accelerator Appliances (August 2013)
As with the SAP BWA appliances based on IBM BladeCenter the IBM GPFS filesystem improves overall
IO performance data scalability and resiliency The building blocks have been pre-tested and optimized
to deliver easy integration and quick implementation Order and shipment processes of the pre-built
systems are identical to those of the traditional IBM BWA platforms
Since SAP BWA is an encapsulated appliance it cannot exploit all functionality provided by FSM for full
topology management Passive ndash in the sense of monitoring - functions like inventory system health
hardware service and support are applicable Dedicated BWA-FlexSystem chassis can be attached to
PureFlex systems hosting a SAP BI solution and monitored from there Performing active administrative
functions which may have an impact on the BWA configuration are not allowed however
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
25
SAP on AIX reference landscapes for IBM PureFlex System
1 Minimal system = ERP BW all on POWER nodes
This is the simplest case of deploying
core SAP components in an IBM
PureFlex System System All SAP
modules are supported on POWER and
either an AIX or PowerLinux OS Two
nodes for physical redundancy each with
PowerVM and VIO virtualization are
used
In order to make use of autonomous load
balancing by PowerVM it is
recommended to mix production and
nonproduction SAP instances within a
shared processor pool on each of the
single nodes SAP 2-tier deployments
need to be preferred for smaller systems
Consider packing non- production
systems into WPARs for less LPAR
complexity
2 3-tier SAP ERP with scale-out DB and application-server tier all on POWER nodes
This option combines DB scale-out with
an SAP 3-tier application-server scale
out The advantage of a multinode DB
is a hot-standby high availability
without DB downtime as with classical
cold-standby cluster solutions Also
both the nodes contribute to an
aggregate DB throughput when in
normal operation As such a setup
appears for business-critical scenarios
a hot-standby FSM appliance has also
been configured (planned in 2012)
This in any case ensures that the
overall system monitoring and
adjustment can take place
Figure 11 minimal system
Figure 12 scale-out database
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
26
3 Mixed system = SAP Business Suite core applications TREX and non-SAP applications
This setup makes use of the IBM
PureFlex System heterogeneous
capabilities While several core SAP
Business Suite applications stay on
POWER nodes they are now
complemented by SAP TREX and a
NetWeaver development
environment which are supported
only on an x86 architecture There
are more than these components
there are newer appliances such as
BWA and HANA which mandate
such a setup
Further applications can be
consolidated into the same IBM
PureFlex System chassis as well
4 SAP NetWeaver landscape = SAP Business Suite core applications SAP Enterprise Portal
SAP Process Integration (service bus) and SAP Business Objects
This is a heterogeneous setup with
majority of SAP core systems on AIX
SAP Business Objects XI runs on
larger AIX LPAR for scaling while the
Business Objects end-user oriented
systems are consolidated in virtual
machines hosted on an x86 node
This scenario also outlines the
capability of IBM PureFlex System to
run x86 Linux and PowerLinux
distributions This applies to non-SAP
and many SAP components Inter-
system communication strongly takes
advantage of the internal networking
bandwidth of IBM PureFlex System
Figure 14 SAP Process Integration and SAP Business Objects
Figure 13 complementary components
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
27
5 Mixed system with SAP HANA = SAP Business Suite core applications deployed on
PureFlex nodes plus SAP HANA Appliances (= IBM Systems Solution for SAP Business
Suite and SAP HANA)
This setup makes use of the externalized IBM PureFlex System capabilities in shape of the IBM Systems Solution for SAP Business Suite and SAP HANA
Several core SAP applications are
deployed on internal POWER or x86
nodes and are complemented by an
external SAP HANA environment which is
being built of the x3950 X5 based standard
IBM appliance offering
This enables customers running SAP
HANA always to benefit from newest
certified System x HANA appliances and
operational improvements in that space
while creating administrative synergies
between the SAP HANA and traditional
SAP Business Suite infrastructure
Starting from physical integration today
the FlexSystem Manager will provide
integrated administrative capabilities
The IBM PureFlex system offers an
integrated infrastructure for all SAP
components SAP applications on
PureFlex System compute nodes may
access SAP HANA DB on IBM x3950 X5
servers as well as traditional data bases
(eg IBM DB2) running on PureFlex
System
Figure 15 SAP HANA Integration
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
28
High availability and disaster recovery
The single point of failures (SPOFs) for SAP systems stay untouched by the introduction of IBM PureFlex
System These are the database server and the central services for ABAP and Java including the enqueue
server
These SPOFs occur within each production SAP business component of the landscape that is multiple
clusters (such as ERP CRM SCM and so on) must be implemented
In addition central technical building blocks such as SAP Enterprise Portal (for user access) Process
Integration as Enterprise Service Bus need to be setup resilient
While the high availability and disaster recovery concepts for all these SPOFs are well known in general
they have not been tested in a special IBM PureFlex System environment at time of authoring this paper
As scenario 2 indicates multi-node databases like Oracle RAC are supported on IBM PureFlex System
Landscape monitoring and management
As the SAP landscapes tend to become a heterogeneous aggregation of servers and operating systems
this implies a certain level of complexity for SAP landscape administration Consolidating the SAP
landscape into an IBM PureFlex System with its consistent management capabilities helps to reduce this
complexity
The combination of the IBM PureFlex System and SAP NetWeaver technology offers multiple native
monitoring and administration layers for the complete hardware and software stack These are
Chassis Management Module
Flex System Management
SAP Computing Center Management System (SAP CCMS)
SAP Solution Manager
minus SAP Solution Manager aims at SAP application management and business key
performance indicator (KPI) monitoring but also is a mandatory tool for SAP
release and patch management
SAP NetWeaver Landscape Virtualization Management (LVM)
The IBM PureFlex System FSM and SAP LVM Enterprise are optional components the remaining ones
are part of virtualized base installation
In order to gain maximum efficiency for daily operations it is important to select the most appropriate tools
for specific administrative tasks and organizations In addition consistency and transparency need to be
maintained
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
29
The following table provides a high-level orientation for a selected set of administrator tasks in SAP
ecosystems
CMM FSM SAP LVM SAP CCMS SAP Solution Manager
Chassis topology view and administration
Through CMM
Virtualization metrics Through Flex System
Manager
Virtualization topology and administration
Through Flex System
Manager
OS DB SAP performance
Provisioning of a new virtual server Through Flex System
Manager
Virtual server start stop and live migration
Through Flex System
Manager
SAP service reallocation
SAP system refresh cloning
Alerting Chassis focus Systems focus
Task monitoring
OS DB SAP Base
Business KPIs
Integration to an upper-level enterprise management
Into Flex System
Manager
Into SAP Solution Manager
Table 6 monitoring and management layers
FSM is based on IBM Systems Director and provides comparable functions For POWER nodes FSM is
mandatory for advanced virtualization management As most of these functions are beneficial (if not
mandatory) for SAP (production) systems the FSM appears as an essential component for SAP on IBM
PureFlex environments
As a single point of control FSM provides a web-based interface to manage all aspects of the IBM
PureFlex System hardware components For example an interactive chassis map provides status
overview and serves as an entry point to manage the different resources Setup wizards guide you through
the process of initial setup and maintenance tasks
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
30
Figure 16 FSM chassis map
SAP CCMS is fully functional for IBM PureFlex System It allows monitoring and adjustment of base SAP
application and database settings Also PowerVM-specific metrics such as LPAR and WPAR resources
AME settings and so on can be accesses through the native SAP administrator GUI
IBM PureFlex System integration with SAP NetWeaver Landscape
Virtualization Management
The described cloud solution for SAP landscapes becomes available by a combination of the IBM FSM
capabilities and SAP NetWeaver Landscape Virtualization Management for automation tasks at the
application level
This solution enables common cloud scenarios with the SAP software stack and the underlying
infrastructure It aims to connect application management services with system virtualization and storage
management services It is a management tool for customers who run their SAP systems in their own data
center and want to become more efficient by automating provisioning and cloning tasks
Various scenarios around system copy and system refresh are supported including post-copy automation
Those labor-expensive tasks have been made easy with SAP Landscape Virtualization Management and
IBM PureFlex System
In more detail the following use cases are covered for cloud environments running SAP applications
Cloning of a SAP system (creating an identical copy in a fenced environment)
Creating an initial copy of a SAP system (with changing the SAP system identifier)
Refreshing a test SAP system with the content of a productive system
Automation of system copyrefresh post processing activities
Monitoring and visualization of virtualized SAP landscapes
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
31
SAP Landscape Virtualization Management is in many cases complementary to the inherent IBM PureFlex
System management layers SAP Landscape Virtualization Management enables access to many relevant
IBM PureFlex System and virtualization parameters to the SAP management software and provides IT
self-services to SAP administrators
The available IBM and SAP literature which describes the interaction of IBM Systems Director and SAP
Landscape Virtualization Management also applies to IBM PureFlex System FSM is the enriched IBM
Systems Director specifically optimized and packaged for IBM PureFlex System
IBM Tivoli Storage FlashCopy Manager adds a unique value for SAP landscapes This software enables
application-aware database-consistent online backups which can be used to create the cloned system By
exploiting storage snapshot techniques the backup is taken almost instantaneously
The solution has been developed as modular building blocks This provides a high degree of flexibility and
extensibility The following table shows the products and editions that are used for each scenario
Table 7 Use cases per management layer
Management components
SAP NetWeaver Landscape Virtualization Management 10 integrates with the following IBM
management products
IBM Flex System Manager
FSM is used for virtualization monitoring and management and for the operating system
provisioning scenarios on IBM PureFlex System
IBM Tivoli Storage FlashCopy Manager 3101
Tivoli Storage FlashCopy Manager is required for storage cloning of online SAP systems
System
monitoring
SAP
relocate
AIX
provisioning
SAP
Clone
SAP
Copy
SAP
Refresh
Flex
System
Manager
(not needed) (not needed) (not needed) (not needed)
FlashCopy
Manager
(not needed) (not needed) (not needed)
Storage any NFS GPFS
SVC V7000
or XIV
any SVC V7000
or XIV
SVC V7000
or XIV
SVC V7000
or XIV
SAP LVM Standard
Edition
Standard
Edition
Standard
Edition
Enterprise
Edition
Enterprise
Edition
Enterprise
Edition
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
32
The management products can be installed on a single AIX LPAR within IBM PureFlex System
Alternatively the products might be installed on different servers for example SAP NetWeaver
Landscape Virtualization Management may run on any of the supported SAP platforms
The following graphic shows a high-level view of how SAP Landscape Virtualization Management
integrates with the IBM PureFlex System FSM stack to enable cloud scenarios on this platform
Figure 17 SAP Landscape Virtualization Manager integration with FSM
Managed SAP landscape
The following IBM PureFlex System infrastructure is supported with SAP NetWeaver Landscape
Virtualization Management
IBM POWER nodes
AIX 61 or 71
IBM SAN Volume Controller IBM Storwize V7000 or IBM XIVreg Storage System1
SAP NetWeaver 7x using IBM DB2 for Linux UNIX and Windows Oracle Database or
SAP MaxDB is supported
1 SAN Volume Controller and Storwize V7000 support requires SAP Landscape Virtualization Management SP3
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
33
It is assumed that the storage is attached using single or dual VIOS (IBM PowerVM VIOS) For the
storage-cloning scenario the SAN storage system must be attached in the N_Port ID Virtualization
(NPIV) mode NPIV is a FC adapter (HBA) feature that allows multiple LPARs to share a physical port
The clone is created using the FlashCopy feature of the SAN Volume Controller or the snapshot
feature of the XIV Storage System These methods create a logical copy of the data volumes within
seconds while the SAP source system stays fully operational
Whenever an IBM PureFlex System environment needs to be integrated into an existing enterprise
monitoring and management solution (for example an existing IBM Systems Director hierarchy or the IBM
Tivoli Suite) FSM provides interfaces for seamless upward integration
Furthermore SAP Landscape Virtualization Management can be used to manage SAP landscapes within
and outside of IBM PureFlex System and also across different platforms
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
34
SAP-specific offerings for IBM PureFlex System
This section lists specific offerings for SAP on IBM PureFlex System
Lab services and IBM support
As capacity and capability of a larger IBM PureFlex System installation are comparable to large scale
UNIX or mainframe installations IBM provides hardware and software support beyond the standards of
commodity blade systems
Including three Global Centers of Competence IBM Maintenance and Technical Support Services provide
integrated support on the FSM-based environments when there is not a clear understanding of whether
there is a hardware or a software issue All of this can be backed up with the latest version of IBM
Electronic Service Agent trade which has been enhanced for IBM PureFlex System and proactively monitors
and reports hardware events back to IBM support Even if a client has a comprehensive in-house support
organization this can selectively be enhanced through the addition of specific services within the portfolio
to cover critical areas of weakness or exposure
For complex IBM PureFlex System environments and where mission-critical applications are deployed
(which applies to SAP production systems) premium services are available and cover
Enhanced technical support custom technical support
Microcode support managed technical support
Committed fix services
Availability management hard disk retention
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
35
Summary
This paper provides reference architectures of how heterogeneous SAP landscapes can be consolidated
using IBM PureFlex System While running the core business applications on POWER nodes with AIX as
operating system complementary SAP components are added on x86 nodes IBM PureFlex System
enables a very tight integration of infrastructure components including servers networking and storage
Seamless monitoring and management functions of the infrastructure are provided by the FSM
The integration aspect is taken even further with the integration of the SAP Landscape Virtualization
Manager application with the FSM This enables SAP cloud usage scenarios for SAP systems running on
IBM PureFlex System
For individual questions or to request a briefing about this topic contact the IBM SAP International
Competence Center at isiccdeibmcom
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
36
Resources
These websites provide useful references to supplement the information contained in this paper
IBM Systems on PartnerWorld
ibmcompartnerworldsystems
IBM Redbooks
ibmcomredbooks
IBM cloud computing
ibmcomsolutionssapusenlandingcloud_solutionshtml
IBM Cloud Solutions for SAP clients
ibmcomcloud-computingusen
IBM SmartCloud Entry for AIX on PartnerWorld (requires PartnerWorld login)
ibmcompartnerworldpagestg_com_sys_smartcloud
SAP HANA on workload optimized IBM System x appliances
ibmcomsolutionssaphana
IBM internal SSI-URL with a collection of SAP related PureSystem materials
httpsw3-
03ssoibmcomsalessupportShowDocwssdocid=SGDN258263T70735C63ampnode=brandsB6000|brandsBI5
00|clientsetIA|alliancesT5000|alliancesT5150|channelDR|channelF2F|solutionQ00|solution210ampappname=C
C_SSIGD
select the ldquoCollateralrdquo Tab in ldquoMain Contentrdquo section
Related SAP on PureFlex paper with System x focus ldquoReference Architecture - SAP
Systems on IBM PureSystems based on x86 nodesrdquo
httpw3ibmcomsupporttechdocsatsmastrnsfWebIndexWP102167
httpwwwibmcomsupporttechdocsatsmastrnsfWebIndexWP102167
httpwww-03ibmcompartnerworldpartnerinfosrcatsmastrnsfWebIndexWP102167
Related SAP on PureFlex paper with IBM i focus ldquoEfficiently deploying SAP landscapes
on the IBM PureFlex Systemrdquo
httpw3ibmcomsupporttechdocsatsmastrnsfWebIndexWP102087
httpwwwibmcomsupporttechdocsatsmastrnsfWebIndexWP102087
httpwww-03ibmcompartnerworldpartnerinfosrcatsmastrnsfWebIndexWP102087
Virtualization for SAP on IBM PureSystems with Microsoft Hyper-V
httpwwwibmcomsupporttechdocsatsmastrnsfWebIndexWP102153
IBM Workload Optimized Solution for SAP HANA ndash Quick Start Guide
provides technical overview HW models network requirements for IBM Systems Solution
for SAP HANA appliance
httpdownloadboulderibmcomibmdlpubsystemssupportsystem_x_pdf46w8274pdf
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
37
IBM internal SAP HANA Wiki
httpsw3-connectionsibmcomwikishomelang=en-
uswikiWaef4c0eb0f35_427f_a25e_670e392682b1pageSAP20HANA
FlexSystem with SAP BWA Presentations (click to open link)
Seller
Customer
General IBM Sales Kit ldquoSAP NetWeaver Business Warehouse Accelerator (BWA)rdquo
Implementation Guide for BWA on IBM Flex System x240
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
38
Trademarks and special notices
copy Copyright IBM Corporation 2013
References in this document to IBM products or services do not imply that IBM intends to make them
available in every country
IBM the IBM logo and ibmcom are trademarks or registered trademarks of International Business
Machines Corporation in the United States other countries or both If these and other IBM trademarked
terms are marked on their first occurrence in this information with a trademark symbol (reg or trade) these
symbols indicate US registered or common law trademarks owned by IBM at the time this information
was published Such trademarks may also be registered or common law trademarks in other countries A
current list of IBM trademarks is available on the Web at Copyright and trademark information at
wwwibmcomlegalcopytradeshtml
Java and all Java-based trademarks and logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of Oracle andor
its affiliates
Microsoft Windows Windows NT and the Windows logo are trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the
United States other countries or both
Intel Intel Inside (logos) MMX and Pentium are trademarks of Intel Corporation in the United States
other countries or both
UNIX is a registered trademark of The Open Group in the United States and other countries
Linux is a trademark of Linus Torvalds in the United States other countries or both
Other company product or service names may be trademarks or service marks of others
Information is provided AS IS without warranty of any kind
All customer examples described are presented as illustrations of how those customers have used IBM
products and the results they may have achieved Actual environmental costs and performance
characteristics may vary by customer
Information concerning non-IBM products was obtained from a supplier of these products published
announcement material or other publicly available sources and does not constitute an endorsement of
such products by IBM Sources for non-IBM list prices and performance numbers are taken from publicly
available information including vendor announcements and vendor worldwide homepages IBM has not
tested these products and cannot confirm the accuracy of performance capability or any other claims
related to non-IBM products Questions on the capability of non-IBM products should be addressed to the
supplier of those products
All statements regarding IBM future direction and intent are subject to change or withdrawal without notice
and represent goals and objectives only Contact your local IBM office or IBM authorized reseller for the
full text of the specific Statement of Direction
Some information addresses anticipated future capabilities Such information is not intended as a definitive
statement of a commitment to specific levels of performance function or delivery schedules with respect to
any future products Such commitments are only made in IBM product announcements The information is
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
39
presented here to communicate IBMs current investment and development activities as a good faith effort
to help with our customers future planning
Performance is based on measurements and projections using standard IBM benchmarks in a controlled
environment The actual throughput or performance that any user will experience will vary depending upon
considerations such as the amount of multiprogramming in the users job stream the IO configuration the
storage configuration and the workload processed Therefore no assurance can be given that an
individual user will achieve throughput or performance improvements equivalent to the ratios stated here
Photographs shown are of engineering prototypes Changes may be incorporated in production models
Any references in this information to non-IBM websites are provided for convenience only and do not in
any manner serve as an endorsement of those websites The materials at those websites are not part of
the materials for this IBM product and use of those websites is at your own risk
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
2
Table of contents
Table of contents 2
Abstract 3
Introduction 3
IBM PureFlex System overview 3
Platform concept 3
Node scalability and performance 6
System connectivity 7
Reliability availability and serviceability (RAS) features 8
SAP reference landscape on IBM PureFlex System 9
Introduction to SAP landscape topology 9
Supported SAP solution stacks 10
Landscape planning 11
System layout concepts 11
Introducing the IBM Systems Solution for SAP Business Suite and SAP HANA 12
Storage attachment 13
Integration with existing SAP landscapes 17
Integration of SAP Appliance-based components 19
FlexSystem Native Node Support for SAP Business Warehouse Accelerator 23
SAP on AIX reference landscapes for IBM PureFlex System 25
High availability and disaster recovery 28
Landscape monitoring and management 28
IBM PureFlex System integration with SAP NetWeaver Landscape Virtualization Management 30
Management components 31
Managed SAP landscape 32
SAP-specific offerings for IBM PureFlex System 34
Lab services and IBM support 34
Summary 35
Resources 36
Trademarks and special notices 38
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
3
Abstract
This paper provides an overview on how modern SAP ecosystem consisting of the SAP NetWeaver technology layer SAP Business Suite applications and complementary SAP modules can be deployed on an IBMreg PureFlextrade System This paper focuses on IBM POWER processor-based units (POWER compute nodes) hosting the classical SAP core components It also describes how complementary x86-based IBM PureFlex System units can be integrated for specific SAP scenarios while still maintaining a unified systems management Related documents with a x86- and POWER IBM i focus are available too Links are included in the Resources section
The newly released rdquoIBM Systems Solution for SAP Business Suite and SAP HANArdquo extends the SAP application portfolio which can be deployed on the internal PureFlex nodes with external special purpose compute nodes namely IBM Systems x servers running a SAP HANA in-memory database and applications Typical use cases for IBM PureFlex System-only landscapes are described and also some comments are about the integration of an IBM PureFlex System with existing SAP customer infrastructures are explained in this paper
The IBM Flex System Manager serves as the unified management console for the components contained within the IBM PureFlex System chassis and the external IBM Systems Solution running SAP HANA This paper describes the Flex System Manager functions available and how they fit into SAP landscape monitoring
On the application side the Flex System Manager integrates with the SAP NetWeaver Landscape Virtualization Management enabling consistent management of infrastructure and SAP application layers The paper also illustrates the architecture and benefits which can be achieved by combining IBM platform technologies with infrastructure management tools of the SAP NetWeaver stack The combination of the SAP NetWeaver Landscape Virtualization Management software and IBM Flex System Manager supports cloud-enabling tasks as there are SAP system provisioning cloning copying and refreshing in a highly automated manner
Introduction
The Introduction section provides an overview of the IBMreg PureFlextrade System components
IBM PureFlex System overview
Platform concept
The IBM PureFlex System is an integration platform for different server architectures (IBM POWERreg
and x86) and the associated operating systems Integration also applies for systems storage from a
physical and management perspective Each IBM PureFlex System base system contains two layers
of hardware management
Chassis Management Module (CMM)
The CMM replaces the Advanced Management Module known from the traditional IBM
BladeCenterreg servers Both provide basic infrastructure access and management
Flex System Manager (FSM)
The CMM can be complemented by a dedicated management node running the Flex System
Manager (FSM) software stack while providing unified access and end-to-end management
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
4
of up to four heterogeneously populated IBM PureFlex System chassis Technically the FSM
is an 8-core appliance node running Linuxreg and kernel-based virtual machine (KVM) and the
FSM software on top Optionally the FSM appliance can be duplicated for resiliency of this
focal management layer Some key FSM functions include
Management of up to four chassis
Setup and configuration wizards
Heterogeneous nodes server storage network lifecycle management
Discovery inventory updates configuration status reliable logging events
IBM Systems Director Active Energy Managertrade feature
Network control with Voltaire Fabric Management (discovery and monitoring
fabric service provisioning)
Single sign-on audit logging role-based access control user management
Integration APIs to higher-level systems and enterprise management software like IBM
SmartCloudreg or IBM Tivolireg products
Figure 1 IBM PureFlex System Portfolio
This concept matches the trend to heterogeneous SAP system landscapes Customers can deploy
exactly the server units within the IBM PureFlex System that they need to best accommodate their
functional and nonfunctional SAP application requirements Although the core SAP Business Suite
applications support almost all platforms and virtualization layers certain SAP components such as
BWA HANA and TREX are linked to the x86 processors and a Linux OS for example IBM PureFlex
System with FSM allow for a unified monitoring and administration independent from the platform and
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
5
OS mix while fully using the native platform strengths of each IBM server family and the related
environments
Besides the compute nodes customers can integrate the IBM Flex System V7000 Storage Node
with full IBM System Storagereg SAN Volume Controller functionality into the same 10U-chassis
Key storage management functions supported include
Fully virtualized storage and virtualization of third party external storage
IBM System Storage Easy Tiertrade
Thin provisioning
Real-Time disk compression
Storage Management integrated with Flex System Manager
The storage node includes a storage controller and space for up to 24 disks with a maximum capacity
of 900 GB each This allows for a gross data volume of up to 21 TB within a very compact volume
Attachment to DB server nodes is done using a fast internal network without peripheral equipment and
complexity The internal IBM PureFlex System disk capacity can be extended by attaching external
Storwize V7000 expansion units or other external storage devices through the SAN Volume Controller
capabilities of the Storwize V7000 controller
POWER based PureFlex Systems can be ordered in three pre-configured flavors Express Standard
and Enterprise configurations are available
Table 1 PureFlex POWER based component stack
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
6
As of November 2012 build-to-order systems (BTU) are available too These systems are referred to
as ldquoFlex Systemsrdquo versus the pre-packaged ldquoPureFlexrdquo configurations specified in Table 1 BTU
systems offer the advantage of higher configuration flexibility for the price of less integration and
automization through built-in expertise
Node scalability and performance
Node scalability and performance applies to the vertical scalability and transaction performance of
individual nodes contained within an IBM PureFlex System chassis Published SAP ECC 60 EHP 4
Sales and Distribution benchmarks provide leadership SAP Application Performance Standard (SAPS)
capacities
POWER Node Number of
coresfrequency
SAPS ECC 60
Certification No
IBM PureFlex p260 node 833 16355GHz
IBM PureFlex p260+ node 841 163641GHz 54700
2012035
IBM PureFlex p270+ node
(DB2 105)
24341GHz 68380
2013019
IBM PureFlex p460 node 16 32355GHz 93080
2012015
Table 2 POWER compute nodes overview
The SAPS capacity of the new 32-core POWER nodes is about 40 higher compared to an IBM
BladeCenter PS704 Express blade with the same number of cores and it compares well with an IBM
Powerreg 750 32-core system This discrete system has been very successful in the midrange SAP
marketplace Consequently customers can easily migrate from discrete mid-size servers to an IBM
PureFlex System node of their choice without redesigning their SAP landscape and changing the
existing operational environment
The November 2012 announcement has introduced newest POWER7+ technology to the p260+ half-
wide nodes A higher frequency but mostly a 25x larger cache provide additional +25 SAPS
capacity according to SAP SampD benchmark results in Table 2For those customers who need
scalability beyond a single node or prefer SAP 3-tier implementations or scale-out DB servers the
IBM PureFlex System chassis and its inherent network topology provides an ideal physical
consolidation platform with a single point of control for infrastructure management
IBM PureFlex System scalability continues in the way that multiple (up to four) chassis can be
clustered and still managed as a single IT entity However when it comes to application scalability
across nodes classical parameters such as networking latency also need to be considered
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
7
Caution needs to be paid to the available physical memory per node respectively per SAP system
Depending on the type of internal disks installed in a POWER node it is not possible to install the
maximum amount of memory That is why itrsquos not recommended to use internal disks for POWER
nodes running SAP applications Storage should be provided by an external solution See section
ldquoStorage attachmentrdquo for details
System connectivity
IBM PureFlex System provides state-of-the-art system connectivity by scalable switch elements
providing up to four switch partitions per physical switch (three partitions at for initial release) These
can be a combination of
24-port BNT 10Gb Fibre Channel over Convergence Enhanced Ethernet (software
key to increase ports)
20-port 8Gb FC
24-port BNT 1Gb
48-port BNT 1Gb (SW key to increase four 10Gb ports)
Mezzanine cards
2-port 8Gb FC (QLogic)
4-port 1Gb (Broadcom)
The scalable structure allows extending IO capacity along with increasing application needs As the
number of nodes and their IO adapters grow additional switch capacity can be installed in an IBM
PureFlex System chassis
Figure 2 IBM PureFlex System switch configurations
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
8
The IBM PureFlex System network topology provides an internal network for monitoring and
management purposes This is used by the CMM and the FSM appliance to interact with the hardware
components and virtualization layers
Figure 3 IBM PureFlex System network topology
Reliability availability and serviceability (RAS) features
SAP business applications are mostly mission-critical Hence reliability and minimum downtimes of a
platform are of high significance IBM PureFlex System components have inherited many RAS
attributes of the discrete IBM server families
Hot plug power and cooling
Concurrent firmware code updates
Processor de-allocation
Hot plug nodes
Dual-power supply
Auto reboot on power loss
Temperature monitors
Error correction code (ECC)-protected memory
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
9
SAP reference landscape on IBM PureFlex System
The SAP reference landscape on IBM PureFlex System section provides an introduction to the SAP
landscape topology and example reference landscapes for IBM POWER and AIX based core SAP
systems running on IBM PureFlex System
Introduction to SAP landscape topology
SAP customer landscapes consist of several SAP systems each supporting a specific business
application or dedicated to development and testing purposes
The most common SAP applications are combined as SAP Business Suite which combines functions for
enterprise resource planning (ERP) customer relationship management (CRM) supply chain
management (SCM) and business warehouse (BW) All of these modules (and much more) can be
installed as dedicated SAP business applications too Their common underlying technology stack is the
SAP NetWeaver layer SAP NetWeaver provides typical middleware functionality to SAP sites such as
Web Application Server Portal Service Bus reporting and so on But the SAP NetWeaver layer also
provides abstraction of the SAP Business Suite towards hardware OS and relational database
management systems (RDBMS) This enables the SAP Business Suite to run on top of almost all server
platforms
SAP industry solutions and the All-In-One midmarket offering are based on the identical architecture and
contain a blend of the Business Suite modules customized with industry-specific data and transactions
All of the Business Suite components can be either implemented in 2-tier or 3-tier mode While the 2-tier
mode is the most efficient way of implementing a SAP instance from a resource and complexity
perspective 3-tier implementations provide advantages in scalability availability and flexibility
Figure 4 multiple level consolidation
Some applications can be extended with dedicated functional systems used to either complement or to
accelerate transactions Prominent examples are Adobe Document Server TREX BWA and the SAP in-
memory database HANA These technology components do not rely on the NetWeaver stack and thus run
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
10
on dedicated x86-based environments For scalability reasons these modules often follow a scale-out
paradigm
The variety and count of back-end and complementary systems is customer individual but in general
demands for physical system consolidation by using virtualization technologies
Another dimension of SAP landscape growth is the requirement of a strict isolation of production and
nonproduction environments by SAP The nonproduction environments mostly consist of sandbox
development test and QA systems The SAP transport system links these stages and allows critical
changes in either the OS or the application being tested before being promoted to business-critical SAP
instances
Supported SAP solution stacks
For the POWER nodes the same software stacks as with discrete IBM Power Systemstrade are supported
that is IBM AIXreg IBM i and Linux servers Same is true for the common databases IBM DB2reg for Linux
UNIXreg and Windows DB2 for IBM i and Oracle for AIX Restrictions on release level might apply
though All supported OSDBSAP module combinations are maintained in the product availability matrix
on the SAP Service Marketplace As one big advantage of IBM PureFlex System SAP modules which are
not supported on the POWER nodes can be deployed in the same chassis using the x86 nodes
The following table shows the supported OS and DB levels on the POWER nodes at time of
announcement
X = supported
AIX 61 71 IBM i 61 71 PowerLinux
SLES 1011
RHEL 5 6
DB2 for i X
DB2 for Linux
UNIX and
Windows 97 10
X X
MaxDB 78 X X
Oracle 1102
incl RAC
X
Sybase ASE 157 X
Table 3 supported OS and DB levels
On top of these OS and DB combinations all SAP NetWeaver 7x releases and modules are supported as
technology and middleware stack
SAP NetWeaver Landscape Virtualization Management is also supported for IBM PureFlex System and
extends the FSM with application monitoring and cloud-enabling operations More details on these are
described in the ldquoLandscape monitoring and managementrdquo section
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
11
Landscape planning
The landscape planning section describes the underlying concepts for system layout the integration of
external storage solutions and integration aspects for existing SAP landscapes and complementary SAP
component
System layout concepts
Applications running on IBM PureFlex System can take full advantage of the virtualization and
partitioning capabilities offered by the operating systems running on IBM PureFlex System For
POWER nodes the identical virtualization and partitioning capabilities are available for AIX IBM i and
PowerLinux using IBM PowerVMreg virtualization For x86 nodes the VMware kernel-based virtual
machine (KVM) and Hyper-V virtualization hypervisors are available This enables a very flexible
landscape implementation on IBM PureFlex System
The SAP concept of separating production from the development and test systems is applied by
choosing separate OS instances for those systems Depending on the sizing requirements this can
occupy a dedicated node or (in most cases) be an LPAR in a shared resource pool which is
partitioned to contain multiple components of a SAP Business Suite landscape
In order to make best use of the physical resources it is recommended to combine production LPARs
with high priority (that is weighting factor) with nonproduction LPARs with lower priority on a POWER
node This allows unexpected load peaks within a SAP production system to be covered by additional
processor resources out of these less-critical LPARs Also it is a good idea to collocate SAP instances
with recurring load peaks within a single node For example SAP systems serving users in different
time-zones fall into this category
Independent from IBM PureFlex System the advice is to apply generic IBM POWER7reg best practices
for PowerVM parameterization as provided by the POWER brand and SAP sizing guidelines
While processor (de-) allocation happens very dynamically within a millisecond timescale this does
not apply to physical memory Hence the memory associated to an LPAR in a pool ideally covers the
maximum of the LPARs peak virtual processor allocation SAP applications are rather memory
consuming with a large workload dependent variation though The available memory on a IBM
PureFlex System POWER node is sufficient for many SAP workloads in particular for the very
common SAP ERP component and such that do not make use of a Javatrade stack Whenever SAP
sizing results (per SAP Quick Sizer output for example) indicate that 8 GB per core are not sufficient or
you want to consolidate many SAP instances into a single shared pool you have the following two
options with IBM PureFlex System in order to increase memory capacity
Configure the POWER nodes with internal SSDs or boot from external storage ie no HDDs
contained in node in order to double the memory per core ratio
Configure and activate Active Memory Expansion (AME)
The expansion factor again is heavily workload dependent As a starting point assume memory
expansion by
20 times for SAP ABAP-only dialogue servers
15 times for SAP DB servers and only
11 times for SAP Java instances
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
12
Hardware accelerated AME introduced with the POWER7+ nodes is supported by SAP
Measurements have shown no significant differences over the traditional sw-only AME version
AIX Workload Partitions (WPARs) are another option for saving physical memory on constrained
nodes WPARs are supported for AIX 7 running on a node also SAP supports WPARs As WPARs
reside within an AIX host environment and not as dedicated LPARs there are several advantages by
deploying smaller SAP systems into these
WPARs do not require an incremental hypervisor and OS memory footprint
WPARs can dynamically reallocate memory within the host AIX space This does not cause a
delay by hypervisor activities and therefore results in real-time memory virtualization
As an additional benefit WPARs require less OS maintenance efforts compared to an identical
number of LPARs each running an own AIX or Linux OS This is of interest as soon as
operational costs are linked to the count of managed OS images
The PowerVM hypervisor theoretically limits the smallest SAP instance to occupy as little as 110th of
a node core But what is the largest SAP system that can reside within a single IBM PureFlex System
chassis This question might be of interest for prospects that plan downsizing from large-scale
servers
If you assume a typical DB-to-Application Server ratio of 14 for SAP ERP production instances this
results in the largest 3-tier SAP ERP system of (132 cores DB server + 432 cores application
servers) = 160 cores which can be covered by the POWER nodes that fit into a single 10U high IBM
PureFlex System chassis As a rough approximation assume effectively 2000 SAPS per core (this is
a conservative approach for SAP production compared to a SAP sales and distribution benchmark
environment) which results in a single SAP system of 320000 SAPS This capacity is in the range of
a medium-sized discrete Power 795 server
As most of the SAP systems are database centric the limiting factor is not only the processor
capacity but also a well-balanced IO and database design Details are covered in the following
section
For larger SAP database instances and in order to increase their resiliency customers might consider
implementing a scale-out relational database management system (RDBMS) by deploying several
nodes as concurrent DB nodes The internal IBM PureFlex System network bandwidth favors
horizontal scalability IBM DB2 pureScalereg or Oracle Real Application Cluster (RAC) are both
supported for SAP production use and have been tested on IBM PureFlex System Beyond increased
database scalability the failure of a single DB node will not cause the attached SAP systems to stop
but to continue with a reduced DB throughput
Introducing the IBM Systems Solution for SAP Business Suite and SAP HANA
SAP HANA is exclusively supported on certified hardware ndash for example IBM System x3950 X5 ndash that
uses the Intel EX processor architecture As of today HANA cannot be deployed on any compute
node within the PureFlex chassis However certified x3950 X5 based HANA appliances also
including storage and system software components may be installed in the same PureFlex rack A
reference architecture introducing this solution offering has been included in section Integration of
SAP Appliance-based components of this document
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
13
Storage attachment
In the previous section the design criteria for the server nodes have been explained This section
explains the storage and IO relevant parameters for an IBM PureFlex System-based SAP landscape
The IBM PureFlex System compute nodes allow adding a limited amount of internal storage to the
node For most of the business applications the available internal disk space might not be sufficient
Therefore storage needs to be supplied by an storage solution The IBM PureFlex System chassis
can be equipped with the internal Flex System V7000 storage node This can be connected via the
chassis internal switches directly over Fibre Channel of Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE)
Figure 5 Chassis internal storage attachment
External storage system like the IBM Storwize V7000 or the IBM SAN Volume Controller or any
other IBM System Storage can be connected through the chassis switches as well
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
14
Figure 6 Chassis internal and external storage attachment
Access to either of the storage solutions from the POWER nodes requires a Virtual IO Server (VIOS)
installed Due to the limited FC ports on the half wide compute nodes a dual VIOS setup is only
possible using Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE)as shown in figures 5 and 6 above
IBM Flex System V7000
In general the IBM PureFlex System can connect to any SAN storage solution The internal IBM Flex
System V7000 is the most powerful and easy-to-use innovative midrange disk system in the storage
marketplace and is the best fit for IBM PureFlex System The Flex System V7000 is fully compatible
with the IBM Storwize V7000 storage system
The integrated Easy Tier functionality provides significant performance improvements by
automatic migration of hot data blocks to high-performing SSDs
Thin provisioning consumes used space only no pre-allocation required
Dynamic migration provides continuous availability of the applications while migrating data
online
IBM FlashCopy replication supports faster and more efficient data copies for online
backup testing or data mining
25-inch disk form factor 24 per expansion unit 240 total disks
Cluster up to 4 node pairs and 960 disks
Each node pair provides dual RAID controller to provide high availability access
No SAN or fiber channel cabling is required between the compute and storage nodes
Real time disk compression reduces the amount of required storage space Compression
rates are between 50 and 70 for SAP systems running on IBM i and the DB2 for i
database
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
15
Integration of the V7000 storage management into the Flex System Manager
Value of Easy Tier to SAP
The SAP ERP system workloads represent online transaction processing (OLTP) characteristics
Typically not all data of the SAP system or database is accessed during a given time frame for
example during a 24-hour period Statistically there exist contiguously accessed data areas some of
which are hot These hot spots are part of the disk system that has significantly high activity and
usually cause long wait times for IO requests The change rate of the hot data areas is not in terms of
minutes but most likely stays constant over a longer period of time for example 24 hours
Here Easy Tier is able to monitor and move these hot areas from HDD to SSD Easy Tier
automatically creates a data migration plan to incrementally move the hottest data to SSDs and the
cold data back to the spinning disks Easy Tier adapts to clientsrsquo changing workloads and it does this
without any administrative effort to constantly tune their storage systems As a result the SAP
transaction time is reduced
Value of Real Time Disk Compression to SAP
Today traditional database systems provide various compression technologies to store data This
requires know-how to identify which tables to compress and to setup and maintain efficient
compression over time With real time disk compression offered by Storwize V7000 the complete disk
set of the partition running the SAP systems can be easily compressed Disk compression saves
between 50 and 70 percent of storage space with minimal performance impact to most SAP
workloads This is comparable to native DB gains and can save license and operational DB-admin
cost A combination of two compression technologies does not bring further advantages
IBM Flex System V7000 Storage Node
The IBM Flex System V7000 Storage Node requires a minimum of 2 full wide slots to be installed into
an IBM Flex System chassis It provides direct Fibre Channel Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE)
and iSCSI connection to the PureFlex compute nodes The Flex System Manager will identify the
storage system automatically
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
16
The Flex System V7000 management user interface (GUI) is compatible with the Storwize V7000 GUI
IBM PureFlex System and Storwize V7000
The Storwize V7000 storage can be connected to the IBM PureFlex System chassis either through
Fiber Channel (SAN) or through Ethernet (iSCSI) Both the connections provided block-level access to
the storage system
With IBM PureFlex System the test team recommends SAN access by using the IBM PureFlex
System integrated SAN switch where four FC connections are required to ensure multipathing More
connections are not required for connecting to a single chassis
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
17
Setting up a stretched cluster is not supported by the integrated V7000 SVC Customers will require a
traditional SVC to support such a resilient disk setup Of course other technologies like AIX LVM
mirroring Metro Mirror etc are supported
Configuration of Flex System V7000 and Storwize V7000
To gain maximum flexibility in respect to capacity utilization and performance workload balancing the
number of storage pools configured (Managed Disk Groups) should be as few as possible for a single
V7000 system (node pair) Depending on the performance requirement the use of Easy Tier in
combination with SSDs is recommended
A fully equipped chassis is capable to handle 300000 SAPS leading to a workload of approximately
100000 IOPS Assuming a storage demand of 100 TB usable results in the following
recommendation
24 SSD 25-inch 400 GB each plugged into the V7000 controller
Four expansion units each with 24 SAS drives 25-inch each 900 GB
One expansion unit 23 SAS drives 25-inch each 900 GB and 1 SSD 25 inches 400 GB
(spare)
RAIDs (Managed Disk) are configured as RAID 5 7+1
Total of 25 SSD and 119 SAS
Integration with existing SAP landscapes
The IBM PureFlex System chassis can be integrated into existing SAP landscapes Physically the IBM
PureFlex System chassis fits into any standard 19-inch rack which provides a minimum of 10 spare height
units Other non-IBM PureFlex System components can be housed within the same standard rack as long
as power distribution units provide sufficient energy A fully populated IBM PureFlex System chassis can
contain up to six 2500 watts energy supplies which can be configured for several redundancy modes
The Ethernet and FC switches provide connectivity to an existing network and storage infrastructure As
discussed in the previous section the IBM PureFlex System FC switch connects to existing SAN storage
solutions LPARs stored on the SAN can be migrated to an IBM PureFlex System POWER node by
assigning the disks to the IBM PureFlex System nodersquos VIOS and boot from those This allows very fast
migration of exiting SAP systems to IBM PureFlex System with minimal downtime
External SAN storage can be attached to a new PureFlex chassis in several ways Ideally external LUNs
are connected via the integrated V7000 SAN Volume Controller as managed disks Thus storage
administration can exploit SVC virtualization and management capabilities If latter is not a focus the
PureFlex FC-switches can be attached to existing SAN-fabrics using transparent NPIV mode see Figure
6 Storage vendors need to support this and storage SAN administration will be performed with native
vendor tools not via FSM
Tests have shown that IBM PowerVM Live Partition Mobility (LPM) is possible between nodes and
external systems given the network is set up appropriately This allows to migrate running LPARs from
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
18
discrete Power Systems to POWER nodes and to migrate from POWER nodes to discrete Power
Systems
The FSM administration layer can co-exist with already implemented cross-platform management solutions like eg the IBM Systems Director It also can become integrated with higher level enterprise service management software as a monitored and managed layer
Figure 7 integration of management components
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
19
Integration of SAP Appliance-based components
Certain SAP components are not available on all SAP supported operating systems and databases If
such components are required to support customersrsquo business processes they need to be installed on top
of a supported OS which is not necessarily the same location where the SAP core applications are stored
With IBM PureFlex System supporting both x86 and POWER processor-based operating systems those
complementary components can be tightly integrated into the landscape The required hardware
resources can be hosted within one IBM PureFlex System chassis Besides the compact server footprint in
the datacenter the internal network eliminates the need for network cables and switches to connect the
systems The IBM PureFlex System management provided by CMM and FSM reduces the complexity of
managing the heterogeneous environment
This allows the creation of a complete SAP landscape within a single box Core SAP Business Suite
components are running on the POWER nodes while complementary components such as SAP
Enterprise Search and SAP Business Warehouse Accelerator can run on x86 nodes
The IBM Systems Solution for SAP Business Suite and SAP HANA SAP HANA is the strategic in-memory
database by SAP AG to accelerate in particular business analytics but also transactional business In
order to achieve magnitudes of acceleration SAP HANA exploits specific design features of the Intel EX
processor architecture with optimized low-level coding Consequently SAP HANA is exclusively
supported on certified hardware using this processor type ndash for example IBM System x3950 X5
The IBM SAP HANA offering is a standardized portfolio of System x hardware (IBM Systems x3950 X5 -
7143-Hxx systems) with internal (SSD SAS) storage for data persistency plus software components and
surrounding services Exclusively Linux namely SLES 11 is supported as operating system
As of today such an appliance cannot be deployed on any compute node within the PureFlex chassis
Instead IBM x3950 X5 based SAP HANA building blocks may be installed into the same rack as the
PureFlex chassis and act as external HANA compute nodes Connection to both x86 and POWER based
internal compute nodes running standard SAP applications or complementary SAP HANA instances is
done via Ethernet through a TOR switch
A big advantage of re-using external technology is that well established and beneficial concepts can be 11
applied for PureFlex focused landscapes too As an excelling example IBM GPFS (General Parallel File
System) not only enables the IBM SAP HANA solution to grow beyond the capacity of a single system into
a scale-out solution but also adds high availability and disaster recovery features to the IBM HANA
appliance
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
20
The scope of the Flex System Manager has been extended to allow the integrated management of
PureFlex internal components and IBM x3950 X5 based SAP HANA building blocks
It provides administrative functions like
Manual discovery inventory
Release Management (FW and SW installation and update)
Power Control
Remote Access
System Configuration
System Health and Status
Service and Support
for workload optimized x3950 X5 SAP HANA appliances
Figure 8 FSM menu of external x3950 X5 based IBM SAP HANA appliances
The screenshot above shows external x3950 X5 nodes appearing on the FlexSystem Manager panel and
the applicable activities to be performed
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
21
From a hardware point-of-view IBM PureFlex Systems offer the administrative integration of the HANA
building blocks (T-shirt sizes) listed in Table 4They meet the SAP defined HANA sizing grid and do not
need to be purchased together with a PureFlex System This allows the integration of existing HANA
systems with a newly deployed PureFlex System at customer site
Building block
Server (MTM)
CPUs Main memory
S+ x3950 X5
(7143-HAx) 2x Intel Xeon
E7-8870 256 GB
M x3950 X5
(7143-HBx) 4x Intel Xeon
E7-8870 512 GB
L
x3950 X5 (7143HBx)
+ x3950 X5
(7143HCx)
8x Intel Xeon E7-8870
1024 GB
XM x3950 X5
(7143-HDx) 4x Intel Xeon
E7-8870 1TB
32x 32GB
XL x3950 X5
(7143-HDx + 7143-HEx)
8x Intel Xeon E7-8870
2TB 64x 32GB
XXL x3950 X5
(7143-HBx + 7143-HCx)
8x Intel Xeon E7-8870
4TB 128x 32GB
Table 4 IBM SAP HANA Appliance building blocks (June 2013)
This list will change pretty frequently as new models and HANA configurations will become supported
Therefore always check the SAP list of supported models in the SAP HANA PAM (requires authorization)
or consult an IBM Techline representative SAP technology and management components as well as
common operational functions like the Tivoli Storage Manager for BackupRestore of ERP and HANA may
be deployed on PureFlex compute nodes and act on both environments
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
22
Figure 9 Architecture of SAP Business Suite on PureFlex and SAP HANA on System x3950 X5 Workload Optimized Solution for SAP HANA
In case of IBM SAP HANA scale-out configurations the Integrated Management Module of x3950 X5
servers and the SAP HANA appliance related network interfaces (like SAP client access HANA Studio
ERP backup and restore HWSW-Admin) will be connected to the PureFlex Device Management and
Client Data network via Ethernet through TOR switches Such a scale-out configuration is deployed with
separate racks
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
23
Figure 10 SAP HANA Appliances with PureFlex Network Topology
Depended on the amount of external network connections single node IBM SAP HANA appliances may
be connected via available ports on integrated switches of the PureFlex chassis The single node SAP
HANA appliance could be deployed in the same rack with IBM PureFlex System
FlexSystem Native Node Support for SAP Business Warehouse Accelerator
The SAP Business Warehouse Accelerator (BWA) was the initial approach to accelerate OLAP workload
with a dedicated appliance attached to a SAP Business Warehouse system SAP BWA follows a ldquoplug amp
playrdquo design easier to implement than SAP HANA and has a longer history Hence SAP BWA still has a
broad installed base among SAP BI customers
SAP BWA has not been this highly optimized for the Intel EX-CPU type This fact allows deploying SAP
BWA appliances on XEON-based FlexSystem nodes running a SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 SP2
operating system
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
24
The ldquoIBM Flex System Solution for SAP NetWeaver Business Warehouse Acceleratorrdquo extends the
established IBM BladeCenter offerings for SAP BWA with scalable FlexSystem configurations comprising
of x240 compute nodes inside the Flex-chassis and externally attached IBM Storage Systems DS3500
This combination meets the SAP BWA appliance criteria while providing an excellent priceperformance
ratio
Table 5 FlexSystem building blocks for IBM SAP Business Warehouse Accelerator Appliances (August 2013)
As with the SAP BWA appliances based on IBM BladeCenter the IBM GPFS filesystem improves overall
IO performance data scalability and resiliency The building blocks have been pre-tested and optimized
to deliver easy integration and quick implementation Order and shipment processes of the pre-built
systems are identical to those of the traditional IBM BWA platforms
Since SAP BWA is an encapsulated appliance it cannot exploit all functionality provided by FSM for full
topology management Passive ndash in the sense of monitoring - functions like inventory system health
hardware service and support are applicable Dedicated BWA-FlexSystem chassis can be attached to
PureFlex systems hosting a SAP BI solution and monitored from there Performing active administrative
functions which may have an impact on the BWA configuration are not allowed however
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
25
SAP on AIX reference landscapes for IBM PureFlex System
1 Minimal system = ERP BW all on POWER nodes
This is the simplest case of deploying
core SAP components in an IBM
PureFlex System System All SAP
modules are supported on POWER and
either an AIX or PowerLinux OS Two
nodes for physical redundancy each with
PowerVM and VIO virtualization are
used
In order to make use of autonomous load
balancing by PowerVM it is
recommended to mix production and
nonproduction SAP instances within a
shared processor pool on each of the
single nodes SAP 2-tier deployments
need to be preferred for smaller systems
Consider packing non- production
systems into WPARs for less LPAR
complexity
2 3-tier SAP ERP with scale-out DB and application-server tier all on POWER nodes
This option combines DB scale-out with
an SAP 3-tier application-server scale
out The advantage of a multinode DB
is a hot-standby high availability
without DB downtime as with classical
cold-standby cluster solutions Also
both the nodes contribute to an
aggregate DB throughput when in
normal operation As such a setup
appears for business-critical scenarios
a hot-standby FSM appliance has also
been configured (planned in 2012)
This in any case ensures that the
overall system monitoring and
adjustment can take place
Figure 11 minimal system
Figure 12 scale-out database
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
26
3 Mixed system = SAP Business Suite core applications TREX and non-SAP applications
This setup makes use of the IBM
PureFlex System heterogeneous
capabilities While several core SAP
Business Suite applications stay on
POWER nodes they are now
complemented by SAP TREX and a
NetWeaver development
environment which are supported
only on an x86 architecture There
are more than these components
there are newer appliances such as
BWA and HANA which mandate
such a setup
Further applications can be
consolidated into the same IBM
PureFlex System chassis as well
4 SAP NetWeaver landscape = SAP Business Suite core applications SAP Enterprise Portal
SAP Process Integration (service bus) and SAP Business Objects
This is a heterogeneous setup with
majority of SAP core systems on AIX
SAP Business Objects XI runs on
larger AIX LPAR for scaling while the
Business Objects end-user oriented
systems are consolidated in virtual
machines hosted on an x86 node
This scenario also outlines the
capability of IBM PureFlex System to
run x86 Linux and PowerLinux
distributions This applies to non-SAP
and many SAP components Inter-
system communication strongly takes
advantage of the internal networking
bandwidth of IBM PureFlex System
Figure 14 SAP Process Integration and SAP Business Objects
Figure 13 complementary components
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
27
5 Mixed system with SAP HANA = SAP Business Suite core applications deployed on
PureFlex nodes plus SAP HANA Appliances (= IBM Systems Solution for SAP Business
Suite and SAP HANA)
This setup makes use of the externalized IBM PureFlex System capabilities in shape of the IBM Systems Solution for SAP Business Suite and SAP HANA
Several core SAP applications are
deployed on internal POWER or x86
nodes and are complemented by an
external SAP HANA environment which is
being built of the x3950 X5 based standard
IBM appliance offering
This enables customers running SAP
HANA always to benefit from newest
certified System x HANA appliances and
operational improvements in that space
while creating administrative synergies
between the SAP HANA and traditional
SAP Business Suite infrastructure
Starting from physical integration today
the FlexSystem Manager will provide
integrated administrative capabilities
The IBM PureFlex system offers an
integrated infrastructure for all SAP
components SAP applications on
PureFlex System compute nodes may
access SAP HANA DB on IBM x3950 X5
servers as well as traditional data bases
(eg IBM DB2) running on PureFlex
System
Figure 15 SAP HANA Integration
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
28
High availability and disaster recovery
The single point of failures (SPOFs) for SAP systems stay untouched by the introduction of IBM PureFlex
System These are the database server and the central services for ABAP and Java including the enqueue
server
These SPOFs occur within each production SAP business component of the landscape that is multiple
clusters (such as ERP CRM SCM and so on) must be implemented
In addition central technical building blocks such as SAP Enterprise Portal (for user access) Process
Integration as Enterprise Service Bus need to be setup resilient
While the high availability and disaster recovery concepts for all these SPOFs are well known in general
they have not been tested in a special IBM PureFlex System environment at time of authoring this paper
As scenario 2 indicates multi-node databases like Oracle RAC are supported on IBM PureFlex System
Landscape monitoring and management
As the SAP landscapes tend to become a heterogeneous aggregation of servers and operating systems
this implies a certain level of complexity for SAP landscape administration Consolidating the SAP
landscape into an IBM PureFlex System with its consistent management capabilities helps to reduce this
complexity
The combination of the IBM PureFlex System and SAP NetWeaver technology offers multiple native
monitoring and administration layers for the complete hardware and software stack These are
Chassis Management Module
Flex System Management
SAP Computing Center Management System (SAP CCMS)
SAP Solution Manager
minus SAP Solution Manager aims at SAP application management and business key
performance indicator (KPI) monitoring but also is a mandatory tool for SAP
release and patch management
SAP NetWeaver Landscape Virtualization Management (LVM)
The IBM PureFlex System FSM and SAP LVM Enterprise are optional components the remaining ones
are part of virtualized base installation
In order to gain maximum efficiency for daily operations it is important to select the most appropriate tools
for specific administrative tasks and organizations In addition consistency and transparency need to be
maintained
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
29
The following table provides a high-level orientation for a selected set of administrator tasks in SAP
ecosystems
CMM FSM SAP LVM SAP CCMS SAP Solution Manager
Chassis topology view and administration
Through CMM
Virtualization metrics Through Flex System
Manager
Virtualization topology and administration
Through Flex System
Manager
OS DB SAP performance
Provisioning of a new virtual server Through Flex System
Manager
Virtual server start stop and live migration
Through Flex System
Manager
SAP service reallocation
SAP system refresh cloning
Alerting Chassis focus Systems focus
Task monitoring
OS DB SAP Base
Business KPIs
Integration to an upper-level enterprise management
Into Flex System
Manager
Into SAP Solution Manager
Table 6 monitoring and management layers
FSM is based on IBM Systems Director and provides comparable functions For POWER nodes FSM is
mandatory for advanced virtualization management As most of these functions are beneficial (if not
mandatory) for SAP (production) systems the FSM appears as an essential component for SAP on IBM
PureFlex environments
As a single point of control FSM provides a web-based interface to manage all aspects of the IBM
PureFlex System hardware components For example an interactive chassis map provides status
overview and serves as an entry point to manage the different resources Setup wizards guide you through
the process of initial setup and maintenance tasks
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
30
Figure 16 FSM chassis map
SAP CCMS is fully functional for IBM PureFlex System It allows monitoring and adjustment of base SAP
application and database settings Also PowerVM-specific metrics such as LPAR and WPAR resources
AME settings and so on can be accesses through the native SAP administrator GUI
IBM PureFlex System integration with SAP NetWeaver Landscape
Virtualization Management
The described cloud solution for SAP landscapes becomes available by a combination of the IBM FSM
capabilities and SAP NetWeaver Landscape Virtualization Management for automation tasks at the
application level
This solution enables common cloud scenarios with the SAP software stack and the underlying
infrastructure It aims to connect application management services with system virtualization and storage
management services It is a management tool for customers who run their SAP systems in their own data
center and want to become more efficient by automating provisioning and cloning tasks
Various scenarios around system copy and system refresh are supported including post-copy automation
Those labor-expensive tasks have been made easy with SAP Landscape Virtualization Management and
IBM PureFlex System
In more detail the following use cases are covered for cloud environments running SAP applications
Cloning of a SAP system (creating an identical copy in a fenced environment)
Creating an initial copy of a SAP system (with changing the SAP system identifier)
Refreshing a test SAP system with the content of a productive system
Automation of system copyrefresh post processing activities
Monitoring and visualization of virtualized SAP landscapes
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
31
SAP Landscape Virtualization Management is in many cases complementary to the inherent IBM PureFlex
System management layers SAP Landscape Virtualization Management enables access to many relevant
IBM PureFlex System and virtualization parameters to the SAP management software and provides IT
self-services to SAP administrators
The available IBM and SAP literature which describes the interaction of IBM Systems Director and SAP
Landscape Virtualization Management also applies to IBM PureFlex System FSM is the enriched IBM
Systems Director specifically optimized and packaged for IBM PureFlex System
IBM Tivoli Storage FlashCopy Manager adds a unique value for SAP landscapes This software enables
application-aware database-consistent online backups which can be used to create the cloned system By
exploiting storage snapshot techniques the backup is taken almost instantaneously
The solution has been developed as modular building blocks This provides a high degree of flexibility and
extensibility The following table shows the products and editions that are used for each scenario
Table 7 Use cases per management layer
Management components
SAP NetWeaver Landscape Virtualization Management 10 integrates with the following IBM
management products
IBM Flex System Manager
FSM is used for virtualization monitoring and management and for the operating system
provisioning scenarios on IBM PureFlex System
IBM Tivoli Storage FlashCopy Manager 3101
Tivoli Storage FlashCopy Manager is required for storage cloning of online SAP systems
System
monitoring
SAP
relocate
AIX
provisioning
SAP
Clone
SAP
Copy
SAP
Refresh
Flex
System
Manager
(not needed) (not needed) (not needed) (not needed)
FlashCopy
Manager
(not needed) (not needed) (not needed)
Storage any NFS GPFS
SVC V7000
or XIV
any SVC V7000
or XIV
SVC V7000
or XIV
SVC V7000
or XIV
SAP LVM Standard
Edition
Standard
Edition
Standard
Edition
Enterprise
Edition
Enterprise
Edition
Enterprise
Edition
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
32
The management products can be installed on a single AIX LPAR within IBM PureFlex System
Alternatively the products might be installed on different servers for example SAP NetWeaver
Landscape Virtualization Management may run on any of the supported SAP platforms
The following graphic shows a high-level view of how SAP Landscape Virtualization Management
integrates with the IBM PureFlex System FSM stack to enable cloud scenarios on this platform
Figure 17 SAP Landscape Virtualization Manager integration with FSM
Managed SAP landscape
The following IBM PureFlex System infrastructure is supported with SAP NetWeaver Landscape
Virtualization Management
IBM POWER nodes
AIX 61 or 71
IBM SAN Volume Controller IBM Storwize V7000 or IBM XIVreg Storage System1
SAP NetWeaver 7x using IBM DB2 for Linux UNIX and Windows Oracle Database or
SAP MaxDB is supported
1 SAN Volume Controller and Storwize V7000 support requires SAP Landscape Virtualization Management SP3
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
33
It is assumed that the storage is attached using single or dual VIOS (IBM PowerVM VIOS) For the
storage-cloning scenario the SAN storage system must be attached in the N_Port ID Virtualization
(NPIV) mode NPIV is a FC adapter (HBA) feature that allows multiple LPARs to share a physical port
The clone is created using the FlashCopy feature of the SAN Volume Controller or the snapshot
feature of the XIV Storage System These methods create a logical copy of the data volumes within
seconds while the SAP source system stays fully operational
Whenever an IBM PureFlex System environment needs to be integrated into an existing enterprise
monitoring and management solution (for example an existing IBM Systems Director hierarchy or the IBM
Tivoli Suite) FSM provides interfaces for seamless upward integration
Furthermore SAP Landscape Virtualization Management can be used to manage SAP landscapes within
and outside of IBM PureFlex System and also across different platforms
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
34
SAP-specific offerings for IBM PureFlex System
This section lists specific offerings for SAP on IBM PureFlex System
Lab services and IBM support
As capacity and capability of a larger IBM PureFlex System installation are comparable to large scale
UNIX or mainframe installations IBM provides hardware and software support beyond the standards of
commodity blade systems
Including three Global Centers of Competence IBM Maintenance and Technical Support Services provide
integrated support on the FSM-based environments when there is not a clear understanding of whether
there is a hardware or a software issue All of this can be backed up with the latest version of IBM
Electronic Service Agent trade which has been enhanced for IBM PureFlex System and proactively monitors
and reports hardware events back to IBM support Even if a client has a comprehensive in-house support
organization this can selectively be enhanced through the addition of specific services within the portfolio
to cover critical areas of weakness or exposure
For complex IBM PureFlex System environments and where mission-critical applications are deployed
(which applies to SAP production systems) premium services are available and cover
Enhanced technical support custom technical support
Microcode support managed technical support
Committed fix services
Availability management hard disk retention
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
35
Summary
This paper provides reference architectures of how heterogeneous SAP landscapes can be consolidated
using IBM PureFlex System While running the core business applications on POWER nodes with AIX as
operating system complementary SAP components are added on x86 nodes IBM PureFlex System
enables a very tight integration of infrastructure components including servers networking and storage
Seamless monitoring and management functions of the infrastructure are provided by the FSM
The integration aspect is taken even further with the integration of the SAP Landscape Virtualization
Manager application with the FSM This enables SAP cloud usage scenarios for SAP systems running on
IBM PureFlex System
For individual questions or to request a briefing about this topic contact the IBM SAP International
Competence Center at isiccdeibmcom
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
36
Resources
These websites provide useful references to supplement the information contained in this paper
IBM Systems on PartnerWorld
ibmcompartnerworldsystems
IBM Redbooks
ibmcomredbooks
IBM cloud computing
ibmcomsolutionssapusenlandingcloud_solutionshtml
IBM Cloud Solutions for SAP clients
ibmcomcloud-computingusen
IBM SmartCloud Entry for AIX on PartnerWorld (requires PartnerWorld login)
ibmcompartnerworldpagestg_com_sys_smartcloud
SAP HANA on workload optimized IBM System x appliances
ibmcomsolutionssaphana
IBM internal SSI-URL with a collection of SAP related PureSystem materials
httpsw3-
03ssoibmcomsalessupportShowDocwssdocid=SGDN258263T70735C63ampnode=brandsB6000|brandsBI5
00|clientsetIA|alliancesT5000|alliancesT5150|channelDR|channelF2F|solutionQ00|solution210ampappname=C
C_SSIGD
select the ldquoCollateralrdquo Tab in ldquoMain Contentrdquo section
Related SAP on PureFlex paper with System x focus ldquoReference Architecture - SAP
Systems on IBM PureSystems based on x86 nodesrdquo
httpw3ibmcomsupporttechdocsatsmastrnsfWebIndexWP102167
httpwwwibmcomsupporttechdocsatsmastrnsfWebIndexWP102167
httpwww-03ibmcompartnerworldpartnerinfosrcatsmastrnsfWebIndexWP102167
Related SAP on PureFlex paper with IBM i focus ldquoEfficiently deploying SAP landscapes
on the IBM PureFlex Systemrdquo
httpw3ibmcomsupporttechdocsatsmastrnsfWebIndexWP102087
httpwwwibmcomsupporttechdocsatsmastrnsfWebIndexWP102087
httpwww-03ibmcompartnerworldpartnerinfosrcatsmastrnsfWebIndexWP102087
Virtualization for SAP on IBM PureSystems with Microsoft Hyper-V
httpwwwibmcomsupporttechdocsatsmastrnsfWebIndexWP102153
IBM Workload Optimized Solution for SAP HANA ndash Quick Start Guide
provides technical overview HW models network requirements for IBM Systems Solution
for SAP HANA appliance
httpdownloadboulderibmcomibmdlpubsystemssupportsystem_x_pdf46w8274pdf
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
37
IBM internal SAP HANA Wiki
httpsw3-connectionsibmcomwikishomelang=en-
uswikiWaef4c0eb0f35_427f_a25e_670e392682b1pageSAP20HANA
FlexSystem with SAP BWA Presentations (click to open link)
Seller
Customer
General IBM Sales Kit ldquoSAP NetWeaver Business Warehouse Accelerator (BWA)rdquo
Implementation Guide for BWA on IBM Flex System x240
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
38
Trademarks and special notices
copy Copyright IBM Corporation 2013
References in this document to IBM products or services do not imply that IBM intends to make them
available in every country
IBM the IBM logo and ibmcom are trademarks or registered trademarks of International Business
Machines Corporation in the United States other countries or both If these and other IBM trademarked
terms are marked on their first occurrence in this information with a trademark symbol (reg or trade) these
symbols indicate US registered or common law trademarks owned by IBM at the time this information
was published Such trademarks may also be registered or common law trademarks in other countries A
current list of IBM trademarks is available on the Web at Copyright and trademark information at
wwwibmcomlegalcopytradeshtml
Java and all Java-based trademarks and logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of Oracle andor
its affiliates
Microsoft Windows Windows NT and the Windows logo are trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the
United States other countries or both
Intel Intel Inside (logos) MMX and Pentium are trademarks of Intel Corporation in the United States
other countries or both
UNIX is a registered trademark of The Open Group in the United States and other countries
Linux is a trademark of Linus Torvalds in the United States other countries or both
Other company product or service names may be trademarks or service marks of others
Information is provided AS IS without warranty of any kind
All customer examples described are presented as illustrations of how those customers have used IBM
products and the results they may have achieved Actual environmental costs and performance
characteristics may vary by customer
Information concerning non-IBM products was obtained from a supplier of these products published
announcement material or other publicly available sources and does not constitute an endorsement of
such products by IBM Sources for non-IBM list prices and performance numbers are taken from publicly
available information including vendor announcements and vendor worldwide homepages IBM has not
tested these products and cannot confirm the accuracy of performance capability or any other claims
related to non-IBM products Questions on the capability of non-IBM products should be addressed to the
supplier of those products
All statements regarding IBM future direction and intent are subject to change or withdrawal without notice
and represent goals and objectives only Contact your local IBM office or IBM authorized reseller for the
full text of the specific Statement of Direction
Some information addresses anticipated future capabilities Such information is not intended as a definitive
statement of a commitment to specific levels of performance function or delivery schedules with respect to
any future products Such commitments are only made in IBM product announcements The information is
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
39
presented here to communicate IBMs current investment and development activities as a good faith effort
to help with our customers future planning
Performance is based on measurements and projections using standard IBM benchmarks in a controlled
environment The actual throughput or performance that any user will experience will vary depending upon
considerations such as the amount of multiprogramming in the users job stream the IO configuration the
storage configuration and the workload processed Therefore no assurance can be given that an
individual user will achieve throughput or performance improvements equivalent to the ratios stated here
Photographs shown are of engineering prototypes Changes may be incorporated in production models
Any references in this information to non-IBM websites are provided for convenience only and do not in
any manner serve as an endorsement of those websites The materials at those websites are not part of
the materials for this IBM product and use of those websites is at your own risk
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
3
Abstract
This paper provides an overview on how modern SAP ecosystem consisting of the SAP NetWeaver technology layer SAP Business Suite applications and complementary SAP modules can be deployed on an IBMreg PureFlextrade System This paper focuses on IBM POWER processor-based units (POWER compute nodes) hosting the classical SAP core components It also describes how complementary x86-based IBM PureFlex System units can be integrated for specific SAP scenarios while still maintaining a unified systems management Related documents with a x86- and POWER IBM i focus are available too Links are included in the Resources section
The newly released rdquoIBM Systems Solution for SAP Business Suite and SAP HANArdquo extends the SAP application portfolio which can be deployed on the internal PureFlex nodes with external special purpose compute nodes namely IBM Systems x servers running a SAP HANA in-memory database and applications Typical use cases for IBM PureFlex System-only landscapes are described and also some comments are about the integration of an IBM PureFlex System with existing SAP customer infrastructures are explained in this paper
The IBM Flex System Manager serves as the unified management console for the components contained within the IBM PureFlex System chassis and the external IBM Systems Solution running SAP HANA This paper describes the Flex System Manager functions available and how they fit into SAP landscape monitoring
On the application side the Flex System Manager integrates with the SAP NetWeaver Landscape Virtualization Management enabling consistent management of infrastructure and SAP application layers The paper also illustrates the architecture and benefits which can be achieved by combining IBM platform technologies with infrastructure management tools of the SAP NetWeaver stack The combination of the SAP NetWeaver Landscape Virtualization Management software and IBM Flex System Manager supports cloud-enabling tasks as there are SAP system provisioning cloning copying and refreshing in a highly automated manner
Introduction
The Introduction section provides an overview of the IBMreg PureFlextrade System components
IBM PureFlex System overview
Platform concept
The IBM PureFlex System is an integration platform for different server architectures (IBM POWERreg
and x86) and the associated operating systems Integration also applies for systems storage from a
physical and management perspective Each IBM PureFlex System base system contains two layers
of hardware management
Chassis Management Module (CMM)
The CMM replaces the Advanced Management Module known from the traditional IBM
BladeCenterreg servers Both provide basic infrastructure access and management
Flex System Manager (FSM)
The CMM can be complemented by a dedicated management node running the Flex System
Manager (FSM) software stack while providing unified access and end-to-end management
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
4
of up to four heterogeneously populated IBM PureFlex System chassis Technically the FSM
is an 8-core appliance node running Linuxreg and kernel-based virtual machine (KVM) and the
FSM software on top Optionally the FSM appliance can be duplicated for resiliency of this
focal management layer Some key FSM functions include
Management of up to four chassis
Setup and configuration wizards
Heterogeneous nodes server storage network lifecycle management
Discovery inventory updates configuration status reliable logging events
IBM Systems Director Active Energy Managertrade feature
Network control with Voltaire Fabric Management (discovery and monitoring
fabric service provisioning)
Single sign-on audit logging role-based access control user management
Integration APIs to higher-level systems and enterprise management software like IBM
SmartCloudreg or IBM Tivolireg products
Figure 1 IBM PureFlex System Portfolio
This concept matches the trend to heterogeneous SAP system landscapes Customers can deploy
exactly the server units within the IBM PureFlex System that they need to best accommodate their
functional and nonfunctional SAP application requirements Although the core SAP Business Suite
applications support almost all platforms and virtualization layers certain SAP components such as
BWA HANA and TREX are linked to the x86 processors and a Linux OS for example IBM PureFlex
System with FSM allow for a unified monitoring and administration independent from the platform and
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
5
OS mix while fully using the native platform strengths of each IBM server family and the related
environments
Besides the compute nodes customers can integrate the IBM Flex System V7000 Storage Node
with full IBM System Storagereg SAN Volume Controller functionality into the same 10U-chassis
Key storage management functions supported include
Fully virtualized storage and virtualization of third party external storage
IBM System Storage Easy Tiertrade
Thin provisioning
Real-Time disk compression
Storage Management integrated with Flex System Manager
The storage node includes a storage controller and space for up to 24 disks with a maximum capacity
of 900 GB each This allows for a gross data volume of up to 21 TB within a very compact volume
Attachment to DB server nodes is done using a fast internal network without peripheral equipment and
complexity The internal IBM PureFlex System disk capacity can be extended by attaching external
Storwize V7000 expansion units or other external storage devices through the SAN Volume Controller
capabilities of the Storwize V7000 controller
POWER based PureFlex Systems can be ordered in three pre-configured flavors Express Standard
and Enterprise configurations are available
Table 1 PureFlex POWER based component stack
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
6
As of November 2012 build-to-order systems (BTU) are available too These systems are referred to
as ldquoFlex Systemsrdquo versus the pre-packaged ldquoPureFlexrdquo configurations specified in Table 1 BTU
systems offer the advantage of higher configuration flexibility for the price of less integration and
automization through built-in expertise
Node scalability and performance
Node scalability and performance applies to the vertical scalability and transaction performance of
individual nodes contained within an IBM PureFlex System chassis Published SAP ECC 60 EHP 4
Sales and Distribution benchmarks provide leadership SAP Application Performance Standard (SAPS)
capacities
POWER Node Number of
coresfrequency
SAPS ECC 60
Certification No
IBM PureFlex p260 node 833 16355GHz
IBM PureFlex p260+ node 841 163641GHz 54700
2012035
IBM PureFlex p270+ node
(DB2 105)
24341GHz 68380
2013019
IBM PureFlex p460 node 16 32355GHz 93080
2012015
Table 2 POWER compute nodes overview
The SAPS capacity of the new 32-core POWER nodes is about 40 higher compared to an IBM
BladeCenter PS704 Express blade with the same number of cores and it compares well with an IBM
Powerreg 750 32-core system This discrete system has been very successful in the midrange SAP
marketplace Consequently customers can easily migrate from discrete mid-size servers to an IBM
PureFlex System node of their choice without redesigning their SAP landscape and changing the
existing operational environment
The November 2012 announcement has introduced newest POWER7+ technology to the p260+ half-
wide nodes A higher frequency but mostly a 25x larger cache provide additional +25 SAPS
capacity according to SAP SampD benchmark results in Table 2For those customers who need
scalability beyond a single node or prefer SAP 3-tier implementations or scale-out DB servers the
IBM PureFlex System chassis and its inherent network topology provides an ideal physical
consolidation platform with a single point of control for infrastructure management
IBM PureFlex System scalability continues in the way that multiple (up to four) chassis can be
clustered and still managed as a single IT entity However when it comes to application scalability
across nodes classical parameters such as networking latency also need to be considered
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
7
Caution needs to be paid to the available physical memory per node respectively per SAP system
Depending on the type of internal disks installed in a POWER node it is not possible to install the
maximum amount of memory That is why itrsquos not recommended to use internal disks for POWER
nodes running SAP applications Storage should be provided by an external solution See section
ldquoStorage attachmentrdquo for details
System connectivity
IBM PureFlex System provides state-of-the-art system connectivity by scalable switch elements
providing up to four switch partitions per physical switch (three partitions at for initial release) These
can be a combination of
24-port BNT 10Gb Fibre Channel over Convergence Enhanced Ethernet (software
key to increase ports)
20-port 8Gb FC
24-port BNT 1Gb
48-port BNT 1Gb (SW key to increase four 10Gb ports)
Mezzanine cards
2-port 8Gb FC (QLogic)
4-port 1Gb (Broadcom)
The scalable structure allows extending IO capacity along with increasing application needs As the
number of nodes and their IO adapters grow additional switch capacity can be installed in an IBM
PureFlex System chassis
Figure 2 IBM PureFlex System switch configurations
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
8
The IBM PureFlex System network topology provides an internal network for monitoring and
management purposes This is used by the CMM and the FSM appliance to interact with the hardware
components and virtualization layers
Figure 3 IBM PureFlex System network topology
Reliability availability and serviceability (RAS) features
SAP business applications are mostly mission-critical Hence reliability and minimum downtimes of a
platform are of high significance IBM PureFlex System components have inherited many RAS
attributes of the discrete IBM server families
Hot plug power and cooling
Concurrent firmware code updates
Processor de-allocation
Hot plug nodes
Dual-power supply
Auto reboot on power loss
Temperature monitors
Error correction code (ECC)-protected memory
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
9
SAP reference landscape on IBM PureFlex System
The SAP reference landscape on IBM PureFlex System section provides an introduction to the SAP
landscape topology and example reference landscapes for IBM POWER and AIX based core SAP
systems running on IBM PureFlex System
Introduction to SAP landscape topology
SAP customer landscapes consist of several SAP systems each supporting a specific business
application or dedicated to development and testing purposes
The most common SAP applications are combined as SAP Business Suite which combines functions for
enterprise resource planning (ERP) customer relationship management (CRM) supply chain
management (SCM) and business warehouse (BW) All of these modules (and much more) can be
installed as dedicated SAP business applications too Their common underlying technology stack is the
SAP NetWeaver layer SAP NetWeaver provides typical middleware functionality to SAP sites such as
Web Application Server Portal Service Bus reporting and so on But the SAP NetWeaver layer also
provides abstraction of the SAP Business Suite towards hardware OS and relational database
management systems (RDBMS) This enables the SAP Business Suite to run on top of almost all server
platforms
SAP industry solutions and the All-In-One midmarket offering are based on the identical architecture and
contain a blend of the Business Suite modules customized with industry-specific data and transactions
All of the Business Suite components can be either implemented in 2-tier or 3-tier mode While the 2-tier
mode is the most efficient way of implementing a SAP instance from a resource and complexity
perspective 3-tier implementations provide advantages in scalability availability and flexibility
Figure 4 multiple level consolidation
Some applications can be extended with dedicated functional systems used to either complement or to
accelerate transactions Prominent examples are Adobe Document Server TREX BWA and the SAP in-
memory database HANA These technology components do not rely on the NetWeaver stack and thus run
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
10
on dedicated x86-based environments For scalability reasons these modules often follow a scale-out
paradigm
The variety and count of back-end and complementary systems is customer individual but in general
demands for physical system consolidation by using virtualization technologies
Another dimension of SAP landscape growth is the requirement of a strict isolation of production and
nonproduction environments by SAP The nonproduction environments mostly consist of sandbox
development test and QA systems The SAP transport system links these stages and allows critical
changes in either the OS or the application being tested before being promoted to business-critical SAP
instances
Supported SAP solution stacks
For the POWER nodes the same software stacks as with discrete IBM Power Systemstrade are supported
that is IBM AIXreg IBM i and Linux servers Same is true for the common databases IBM DB2reg for Linux
UNIXreg and Windows DB2 for IBM i and Oracle for AIX Restrictions on release level might apply
though All supported OSDBSAP module combinations are maintained in the product availability matrix
on the SAP Service Marketplace As one big advantage of IBM PureFlex System SAP modules which are
not supported on the POWER nodes can be deployed in the same chassis using the x86 nodes
The following table shows the supported OS and DB levels on the POWER nodes at time of
announcement
X = supported
AIX 61 71 IBM i 61 71 PowerLinux
SLES 1011
RHEL 5 6
DB2 for i X
DB2 for Linux
UNIX and
Windows 97 10
X X
MaxDB 78 X X
Oracle 1102
incl RAC
X
Sybase ASE 157 X
Table 3 supported OS and DB levels
On top of these OS and DB combinations all SAP NetWeaver 7x releases and modules are supported as
technology and middleware stack
SAP NetWeaver Landscape Virtualization Management is also supported for IBM PureFlex System and
extends the FSM with application monitoring and cloud-enabling operations More details on these are
described in the ldquoLandscape monitoring and managementrdquo section
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
11
Landscape planning
The landscape planning section describes the underlying concepts for system layout the integration of
external storage solutions and integration aspects for existing SAP landscapes and complementary SAP
component
System layout concepts
Applications running on IBM PureFlex System can take full advantage of the virtualization and
partitioning capabilities offered by the operating systems running on IBM PureFlex System For
POWER nodes the identical virtualization and partitioning capabilities are available for AIX IBM i and
PowerLinux using IBM PowerVMreg virtualization For x86 nodes the VMware kernel-based virtual
machine (KVM) and Hyper-V virtualization hypervisors are available This enables a very flexible
landscape implementation on IBM PureFlex System
The SAP concept of separating production from the development and test systems is applied by
choosing separate OS instances for those systems Depending on the sizing requirements this can
occupy a dedicated node or (in most cases) be an LPAR in a shared resource pool which is
partitioned to contain multiple components of a SAP Business Suite landscape
In order to make best use of the physical resources it is recommended to combine production LPARs
with high priority (that is weighting factor) with nonproduction LPARs with lower priority on a POWER
node This allows unexpected load peaks within a SAP production system to be covered by additional
processor resources out of these less-critical LPARs Also it is a good idea to collocate SAP instances
with recurring load peaks within a single node For example SAP systems serving users in different
time-zones fall into this category
Independent from IBM PureFlex System the advice is to apply generic IBM POWER7reg best practices
for PowerVM parameterization as provided by the POWER brand and SAP sizing guidelines
While processor (de-) allocation happens very dynamically within a millisecond timescale this does
not apply to physical memory Hence the memory associated to an LPAR in a pool ideally covers the
maximum of the LPARs peak virtual processor allocation SAP applications are rather memory
consuming with a large workload dependent variation though The available memory on a IBM
PureFlex System POWER node is sufficient for many SAP workloads in particular for the very
common SAP ERP component and such that do not make use of a Javatrade stack Whenever SAP
sizing results (per SAP Quick Sizer output for example) indicate that 8 GB per core are not sufficient or
you want to consolidate many SAP instances into a single shared pool you have the following two
options with IBM PureFlex System in order to increase memory capacity
Configure the POWER nodes with internal SSDs or boot from external storage ie no HDDs
contained in node in order to double the memory per core ratio
Configure and activate Active Memory Expansion (AME)
The expansion factor again is heavily workload dependent As a starting point assume memory
expansion by
20 times for SAP ABAP-only dialogue servers
15 times for SAP DB servers and only
11 times for SAP Java instances
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
12
Hardware accelerated AME introduced with the POWER7+ nodes is supported by SAP
Measurements have shown no significant differences over the traditional sw-only AME version
AIX Workload Partitions (WPARs) are another option for saving physical memory on constrained
nodes WPARs are supported for AIX 7 running on a node also SAP supports WPARs As WPARs
reside within an AIX host environment and not as dedicated LPARs there are several advantages by
deploying smaller SAP systems into these
WPARs do not require an incremental hypervisor and OS memory footprint
WPARs can dynamically reallocate memory within the host AIX space This does not cause a
delay by hypervisor activities and therefore results in real-time memory virtualization
As an additional benefit WPARs require less OS maintenance efforts compared to an identical
number of LPARs each running an own AIX or Linux OS This is of interest as soon as
operational costs are linked to the count of managed OS images
The PowerVM hypervisor theoretically limits the smallest SAP instance to occupy as little as 110th of
a node core But what is the largest SAP system that can reside within a single IBM PureFlex System
chassis This question might be of interest for prospects that plan downsizing from large-scale
servers
If you assume a typical DB-to-Application Server ratio of 14 for SAP ERP production instances this
results in the largest 3-tier SAP ERP system of (132 cores DB server + 432 cores application
servers) = 160 cores which can be covered by the POWER nodes that fit into a single 10U high IBM
PureFlex System chassis As a rough approximation assume effectively 2000 SAPS per core (this is
a conservative approach for SAP production compared to a SAP sales and distribution benchmark
environment) which results in a single SAP system of 320000 SAPS This capacity is in the range of
a medium-sized discrete Power 795 server
As most of the SAP systems are database centric the limiting factor is not only the processor
capacity but also a well-balanced IO and database design Details are covered in the following
section
For larger SAP database instances and in order to increase their resiliency customers might consider
implementing a scale-out relational database management system (RDBMS) by deploying several
nodes as concurrent DB nodes The internal IBM PureFlex System network bandwidth favors
horizontal scalability IBM DB2 pureScalereg or Oracle Real Application Cluster (RAC) are both
supported for SAP production use and have been tested on IBM PureFlex System Beyond increased
database scalability the failure of a single DB node will not cause the attached SAP systems to stop
but to continue with a reduced DB throughput
Introducing the IBM Systems Solution for SAP Business Suite and SAP HANA
SAP HANA is exclusively supported on certified hardware ndash for example IBM System x3950 X5 ndash that
uses the Intel EX processor architecture As of today HANA cannot be deployed on any compute
node within the PureFlex chassis However certified x3950 X5 based HANA appliances also
including storage and system software components may be installed in the same PureFlex rack A
reference architecture introducing this solution offering has been included in section Integration of
SAP Appliance-based components of this document
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
13
Storage attachment
In the previous section the design criteria for the server nodes have been explained This section
explains the storage and IO relevant parameters for an IBM PureFlex System-based SAP landscape
The IBM PureFlex System compute nodes allow adding a limited amount of internal storage to the
node For most of the business applications the available internal disk space might not be sufficient
Therefore storage needs to be supplied by an storage solution The IBM PureFlex System chassis
can be equipped with the internal Flex System V7000 storage node This can be connected via the
chassis internal switches directly over Fibre Channel of Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE)
Figure 5 Chassis internal storage attachment
External storage system like the IBM Storwize V7000 or the IBM SAN Volume Controller or any
other IBM System Storage can be connected through the chassis switches as well
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
14
Figure 6 Chassis internal and external storage attachment
Access to either of the storage solutions from the POWER nodes requires a Virtual IO Server (VIOS)
installed Due to the limited FC ports on the half wide compute nodes a dual VIOS setup is only
possible using Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE)as shown in figures 5 and 6 above
IBM Flex System V7000
In general the IBM PureFlex System can connect to any SAN storage solution The internal IBM Flex
System V7000 is the most powerful and easy-to-use innovative midrange disk system in the storage
marketplace and is the best fit for IBM PureFlex System The Flex System V7000 is fully compatible
with the IBM Storwize V7000 storage system
The integrated Easy Tier functionality provides significant performance improvements by
automatic migration of hot data blocks to high-performing SSDs
Thin provisioning consumes used space only no pre-allocation required
Dynamic migration provides continuous availability of the applications while migrating data
online
IBM FlashCopy replication supports faster and more efficient data copies for online
backup testing or data mining
25-inch disk form factor 24 per expansion unit 240 total disks
Cluster up to 4 node pairs and 960 disks
Each node pair provides dual RAID controller to provide high availability access
No SAN or fiber channel cabling is required between the compute and storage nodes
Real time disk compression reduces the amount of required storage space Compression
rates are between 50 and 70 for SAP systems running on IBM i and the DB2 for i
database
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
15
Integration of the V7000 storage management into the Flex System Manager
Value of Easy Tier to SAP
The SAP ERP system workloads represent online transaction processing (OLTP) characteristics
Typically not all data of the SAP system or database is accessed during a given time frame for
example during a 24-hour period Statistically there exist contiguously accessed data areas some of
which are hot These hot spots are part of the disk system that has significantly high activity and
usually cause long wait times for IO requests The change rate of the hot data areas is not in terms of
minutes but most likely stays constant over a longer period of time for example 24 hours
Here Easy Tier is able to monitor and move these hot areas from HDD to SSD Easy Tier
automatically creates a data migration plan to incrementally move the hottest data to SSDs and the
cold data back to the spinning disks Easy Tier adapts to clientsrsquo changing workloads and it does this
without any administrative effort to constantly tune their storage systems As a result the SAP
transaction time is reduced
Value of Real Time Disk Compression to SAP
Today traditional database systems provide various compression technologies to store data This
requires know-how to identify which tables to compress and to setup and maintain efficient
compression over time With real time disk compression offered by Storwize V7000 the complete disk
set of the partition running the SAP systems can be easily compressed Disk compression saves
between 50 and 70 percent of storage space with minimal performance impact to most SAP
workloads This is comparable to native DB gains and can save license and operational DB-admin
cost A combination of two compression technologies does not bring further advantages
IBM Flex System V7000 Storage Node
The IBM Flex System V7000 Storage Node requires a minimum of 2 full wide slots to be installed into
an IBM Flex System chassis It provides direct Fibre Channel Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE)
and iSCSI connection to the PureFlex compute nodes The Flex System Manager will identify the
storage system automatically
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
16
The Flex System V7000 management user interface (GUI) is compatible with the Storwize V7000 GUI
IBM PureFlex System and Storwize V7000
The Storwize V7000 storage can be connected to the IBM PureFlex System chassis either through
Fiber Channel (SAN) or through Ethernet (iSCSI) Both the connections provided block-level access to
the storage system
With IBM PureFlex System the test team recommends SAN access by using the IBM PureFlex
System integrated SAN switch where four FC connections are required to ensure multipathing More
connections are not required for connecting to a single chassis
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
17
Setting up a stretched cluster is not supported by the integrated V7000 SVC Customers will require a
traditional SVC to support such a resilient disk setup Of course other technologies like AIX LVM
mirroring Metro Mirror etc are supported
Configuration of Flex System V7000 and Storwize V7000
To gain maximum flexibility in respect to capacity utilization and performance workload balancing the
number of storage pools configured (Managed Disk Groups) should be as few as possible for a single
V7000 system (node pair) Depending on the performance requirement the use of Easy Tier in
combination with SSDs is recommended
A fully equipped chassis is capable to handle 300000 SAPS leading to a workload of approximately
100000 IOPS Assuming a storage demand of 100 TB usable results in the following
recommendation
24 SSD 25-inch 400 GB each plugged into the V7000 controller
Four expansion units each with 24 SAS drives 25-inch each 900 GB
One expansion unit 23 SAS drives 25-inch each 900 GB and 1 SSD 25 inches 400 GB
(spare)
RAIDs (Managed Disk) are configured as RAID 5 7+1
Total of 25 SSD and 119 SAS
Integration with existing SAP landscapes
The IBM PureFlex System chassis can be integrated into existing SAP landscapes Physically the IBM
PureFlex System chassis fits into any standard 19-inch rack which provides a minimum of 10 spare height
units Other non-IBM PureFlex System components can be housed within the same standard rack as long
as power distribution units provide sufficient energy A fully populated IBM PureFlex System chassis can
contain up to six 2500 watts energy supplies which can be configured for several redundancy modes
The Ethernet and FC switches provide connectivity to an existing network and storage infrastructure As
discussed in the previous section the IBM PureFlex System FC switch connects to existing SAN storage
solutions LPARs stored on the SAN can be migrated to an IBM PureFlex System POWER node by
assigning the disks to the IBM PureFlex System nodersquos VIOS and boot from those This allows very fast
migration of exiting SAP systems to IBM PureFlex System with minimal downtime
External SAN storage can be attached to a new PureFlex chassis in several ways Ideally external LUNs
are connected via the integrated V7000 SAN Volume Controller as managed disks Thus storage
administration can exploit SVC virtualization and management capabilities If latter is not a focus the
PureFlex FC-switches can be attached to existing SAN-fabrics using transparent NPIV mode see Figure
6 Storage vendors need to support this and storage SAN administration will be performed with native
vendor tools not via FSM
Tests have shown that IBM PowerVM Live Partition Mobility (LPM) is possible between nodes and
external systems given the network is set up appropriately This allows to migrate running LPARs from
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
18
discrete Power Systems to POWER nodes and to migrate from POWER nodes to discrete Power
Systems
The FSM administration layer can co-exist with already implemented cross-platform management solutions like eg the IBM Systems Director It also can become integrated with higher level enterprise service management software as a monitored and managed layer
Figure 7 integration of management components
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
19
Integration of SAP Appliance-based components
Certain SAP components are not available on all SAP supported operating systems and databases If
such components are required to support customersrsquo business processes they need to be installed on top
of a supported OS which is not necessarily the same location where the SAP core applications are stored
With IBM PureFlex System supporting both x86 and POWER processor-based operating systems those
complementary components can be tightly integrated into the landscape The required hardware
resources can be hosted within one IBM PureFlex System chassis Besides the compact server footprint in
the datacenter the internal network eliminates the need for network cables and switches to connect the
systems The IBM PureFlex System management provided by CMM and FSM reduces the complexity of
managing the heterogeneous environment
This allows the creation of a complete SAP landscape within a single box Core SAP Business Suite
components are running on the POWER nodes while complementary components such as SAP
Enterprise Search and SAP Business Warehouse Accelerator can run on x86 nodes
The IBM Systems Solution for SAP Business Suite and SAP HANA SAP HANA is the strategic in-memory
database by SAP AG to accelerate in particular business analytics but also transactional business In
order to achieve magnitudes of acceleration SAP HANA exploits specific design features of the Intel EX
processor architecture with optimized low-level coding Consequently SAP HANA is exclusively
supported on certified hardware using this processor type ndash for example IBM System x3950 X5
The IBM SAP HANA offering is a standardized portfolio of System x hardware (IBM Systems x3950 X5 -
7143-Hxx systems) with internal (SSD SAS) storage for data persistency plus software components and
surrounding services Exclusively Linux namely SLES 11 is supported as operating system
As of today such an appliance cannot be deployed on any compute node within the PureFlex chassis
Instead IBM x3950 X5 based SAP HANA building blocks may be installed into the same rack as the
PureFlex chassis and act as external HANA compute nodes Connection to both x86 and POWER based
internal compute nodes running standard SAP applications or complementary SAP HANA instances is
done via Ethernet through a TOR switch
A big advantage of re-using external technology is that well established and beneficial concepts can be 11
applied for PureFlex focused landscapes too As an excelling example IBM GPFS (General Parallel File
System) not only enables the IBM SAP HANA solution to grow beyond the capacity of a single system into
a scale-out solution but also adds high availability and disaster recovery features to the IBM HANA
appliance
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
20
The scope of the Flex System Manager has been extended to allow the integrated management of
PureFlex internal components and IBM x3950 X5 based SAP HANA building blocks
It provides administrative functions like
Manual discovery inventory
Release Management (FW and SW installation and update)
Power Control
Remote Access
System Configuration
System Health and Status
Service and Support
for workload optimized x3950 X5 SAP HANA appliances
Figure 8 FSM menu of external x3950 X5 based IBM SAP HANA appliances
The screenshot above shows external x3950 X5 nodes appearing on the FlexSystem Manager panel and
the applicable activities to be performed
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
21
From a hardware point-of-view IBM PureFlex Systems offer the administrative integration of the HANA
building blocks (T-shirt sizes) listed in Table 4They meet the SAP defined HANA sizing grid and do not
need to be purchased together with a PureFlex System This allows the integration of existing HANA
systems with a newly deployed PureFlex System at customer site
Building block
Server (MTM)
CPUs Main memory
S+ x3950 X5
(7143-HAx) 2x Intel Xeon
E7-8870 256 GB
M x3950 X5
(7143-HBx) 4x Intel Xeon
E7-8870 512 GB
L
x3950 X5 (7143HBx)
+ x3950 X5
(7143HCx)
8x Intel Xeon E7-8870
1024 GB
XM x3950 X5
(7143-HDx) 4x Intel Xeon
E7-8870 1TB
32x 32GB
XL x3950 X5
(7143-HDx + 7143-HEx)
8x Intel Xeon E7-8870
2TB 64x 32GB
XXL x3950 X5
(7143-HBx + 7143-HCx)
8x Intel Xeon E7-8870
4TB 128x 32GB
Table 4 IBM SAP HANA Appliance building blocks (June 2013)
This list will change pretty frequently as new models and HANA configurations will become supported
Therefore always check the SAP list of supported models in the SAP HANA PAM (requires authorization)
or consult an IBM Techline representative SAP technology and management components as well as
common operational functions like the Tivoli Storage Manager for BackupRestore of ERP and HANA may
be deployed on PureFlex compute nodes and act on both environments
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
22
Figure 9 Architecture of SAP Business Suite on PureFlex and SAP HANA on System x3950 X5 Workload Optimized Solution for SAP HANA
In case of IBM SAP HANA scale-out configurations the Integrated Management Module of x3950 X5
servers and the SAP HANA appliance related network interfaces (like SAP client access HANA Studio
ERP backup and restore HWSW-Admin) will be connected to the PureFlex Device Management and
Client Data network via Ethernet through TOR switches Such a scale-out configuration is deployed with
separate racks
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
23
Figure 10 SAP HANA Appliances with PureFlex Network Topology
Depended on the amount of external network connections single node IBM SAP HANA appliances may
be connected via available ports on integrated switches of the PureFlex chassis The single node SAP
HANA appliance could be deployed in the same rack with IBM PureFlex System
FlexSystem Native Node Support for SAP Business Warehouse Accelerator
The SAP Business Warehouse Accelerator (BWA) was the initial approach to accelerate OLAP workload
with a dedicated appliance attached to a SAP Business Warehouse system SAP BWA follows a ldquoplug amp
playrdquo design easier to implement than SAP HANA and has a longer history Hence SAP BWA still has a
broad installed base among SAP BI customers
SAP BWA has not been this highly optimized for the Intel EX-CPU type This fact allows deploying SAP
BWA appliances on XEON-based FlexSystem nodes running a SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 SP2
operating system
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
24
The ldquoIBM Flex System Solution for SAP NetWeaver Business Warehouse Acceleratorrdquo extends the
established IBM BladeCenter offerings for SAP BWA with scalable FlexSystem configurations comprising
of x240 compute nodes inside the Flex-chassis and externally attached IBM Storage Systems DS3500
This combination meets the SAP BWA appliance criteria while providing an excellent priceperformance
ratio
Table 5 FlexSystem building blocks for IBM SAP Business Warehouse Accelerator Appliances (August 2013)
As with the SAP BWA appliances based on IBM BladeCenter the IBM GPFS filesystem improves overall
IO performance data scalability and resiliency The building blocks have been pre-tested and optimized
to deliver easy integration and quick implementation Order and shipment processes of the pre-built
systems are identical to those of the traditional IBM BWA platforms
Since SAP BWA is an encapsulated appliance it cannot exploit all functionality provided by FSM for full
topology management Passive ndash in the sense of monitoring - functions like inventory system health
hardware service and support are applicable Dedicated BWA-FlexSystem chassis can be attached to
PureFlex systems hosting a SAP BI solution and monitored from there Performing active administrative
functions which may have an impact on the BWA configuration are not allowed however
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
25
SAP on AIX reference landscapes for IBM PureFlex System
1 Minimal system = ERP BW all on POWER nodes
This is the simplest case of deploying
core SAP components in an IBM
PureFlex System System All SAP
modules are supported on POWER and
either an AIX or PowerLinux OS Two
nodes for physical redundancy each with
PowerVM and VIO virtualization are
used
In order to make use of autonomous load
balancing by PowerVM it is
recommended to mix production and
nonproduction SAP instances within a
shared processor pool on each of the
single nodes SAP 2-tier deployments
need to be preferred for smaller systems
Consider packing non- production
systems into WPARs for less LPAR
complexity
2 3-tier SAP ERP with scale-out DB and application-server tier all on POWER nodes
This option combines DB scale-out with
an SAP 3-tier application-server scale
out The advantage of a multinode DB
is a hot-standby high availability
without DB downtime as with classical
cold-standby cluster solutions Also
both the nodes contribute to an
aggregate DB throughput when in
normal operation As such a setup
appears for business-critical scenarios
a hot-standby FSM appliance has also
been configured (planned in 2012)
This in any case ensures that the
overall system monitoring and
adjustment can take place
Figure 11 minimal system
Figure 12 scale-out database
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
26
3 Mixed system = SAP Business Suite core applications TREX and non-SAP applications
This setup makes use of the IBM
PureFlex System heterogeneous
capabilities While several core SAP
Business Suite applications stay on
POWER nodes they are now
complemented by SAP TREX and a
NetWeaver development
environment which are supported
only on an x86 architecture There
are more than these components
there are newer appliances such as
BWA and HANA which mandate
such a setup
Further applications can be
consolidated into the same IBM
PureFlex System chassis as well
4 SAP NetWeaver landscape = SAP Business Suite core applications SAP Enterprise Portal
SAP Process Integration (service bus) and SAP Business Objects
This is a heterogeneous setup with
majority of SAP core systems on AIX
SAP Business Objects XI runs on
larger AIX LPAR for scaling while the
Business Objects end-user oriented
systems are consolidated in virtual
machines hosted on an x86 node
This scenario also outlines the
capability of IBM PureFlex System to
run x86 Linux and PowerLinux
distributions This applies to non-SAP
and many SAP components Inter-
system communication strongly takes
advantage of the internal networking
bandwidth of IBM PureFlex System
Figure 14 SAP Process Integration and SAP Business Objects
Figure 13 complementary components
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
27
5 Mixed system with SAP HANA = SAP Business Suite core applications deployed on
PureFlex nodes plus SAP HANA Appliances (= IBM Systems Solution for SAP Business
Suite and SAP HANA)
This setup makes use of the externalized IBM PureFlex System capabilities in shape of the IBM Systems Solution for SAP Business Suite and SAP HANA
Several core SAP applications are
deployed on internal POWER or x86
nodes and are complemented by an
external SAP HANA environment which is
being built of the x3950 X5 based standard
IBM appliance offering
This enables customers running SAP
HANA always to benefit from newest
certified System x HANA appliances and
operational improvements in that space
while creating administrative synergies
between the SAP HANA and traditional
SAP Business Suite infrastructure
Starting from physical integration today
the FlexSystem Manager will provide
integrated administrative capabilities
The IBM PureFlex system offers an
integrated infrastructure for all SAP
components SAP applications on
PureFlex System compute nodes may
access SAP HANA DB on IBM x3950 X5
servers as well as traditional data bases
(eg IBM DB2) running on PureFlex
System
Figure 15 SAP HANA Integration
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
28
High availability and disaster recovery
The single point of failures (SPOFs) for SAP systems stay untouched by the introduction of IBM PureFlex
System These are the database server and the central services for ABAP and Java including the enqueue
server
These SPOFs occur within each production SAP business component of the landscape that is multiple
clusters (such as ERP CRM SCM and so on) must be implemented
In addition central technical building blocks such as SAP Enterprise Portal (for user access) Process
Integration as Enterprise Service Bus need to be setup resilient
While the high availability and disaster recovery concepts for all these SPOFs are well known in general
they have not been tested in a special IBM PureFlex System environment at time of authoring this paper
As scenario 2 indicates multi-node databases like Oracle RAC are supported on IBM PureFlex System
Landscape monitoring and management
As the SAP landscapes tend to become a heterogeneous aggregation of servers and operating systems
this implies a certain level of complexity for SAP landscape administration Consolidating the SAP
landscape into an IBM PureFlex System with its consistent management capabilities helps to reduce this
complexity
The combination of the IBM PureFlex System and SAP NetWeaver technology offers multiple native
monitoring and administration layers for the complete hardware and software stack These are
Chassis Management Module
Flex System Management
SAP Computing Center Management System (SAP CCMS)
SAP Solution Manager
minus SAP Solution Manager aims at SAP application management and business key
performance indicator (KPI) monitoring but also is a mandatory tool for SAP
release and patch management
SAP NetWeaver Landscape Virtualization Management (LVM)
The IBM PureFlex System FSM and SAP LVM Enterprise are optional components the remaining ones
are part of virtualized base installation
In order to gain maximum efficiency for daily operations it is important to select the most appropriate tools
for specific administrative tasks and organizations In addition consistency and transparency need to be
maintained
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
29
The following table provides a high-level orientation for a selected set of administrator tasks in SAP
ecosystems
CMM FSM SAP LVM SAP CCMS SAP Solution Manager
Chassis topology view and administration
Through CMM
Virtualization metrics Through Flex System
Manager
Virtualization topology and administration
Through Flex System
Manager
OS DB SAP performance
Provisioning of a new virtual server Through Flex System
Manager
Virtual server start stop and live migration
Through Flex System
Manager
SAP service reallocation
SAP system refresh cloning
Alerting Chassis focus Systems focus
Task monitoring
OS DB SAP Base
Business KPIs
Integration to an upper-level enterprise management
Into Flex System
Manager
Into SAP Solution Manager
Table 6 monitoring and management layers
FSM is based on IBM Systems Director and provides comparable functions For POWER nodes FSM is
mandatory for advanced virtualization management As most of these functions are beneficial (if not
mandatory) for SAP (production) systems the FSM appears as an essential component for SAP on IBM
PureFlex environments
As a single point of control FSM provides a web-based interface to manage all aspects of the IBM
PureFlex System hardware components For example an interactive chassis map provides status
overview and serves as an entry point to manage the different resources Setup wizards guide you through
the process of initial setup and maintenance tasks
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
30
Figure 16 FSM chassis map
SAP CCMS is fully functional for IBM PureFlex System It allows monitoring and adjustment of base SAP
application and database settings Also PowerVM-specific metrics such as LPAR and WPAR resources
AME settings and so on can be accesses through the native SAP administrator GUI
IBM PureFlex System integration with SAP NetWeaver Landscape
Virtualization Management
The described cloud solution for SAP landscapes becomes available by a combination of the IBM FSM
capabilities and SAP NetWeaver Landscape Virtualization Management for automation tasks at the
application level
This solution enables common cloud scenarios with the SAP software stack and the underlying
infrastructure It aims to connect application management services with system virtualization and storage
management services It is a management tool for customers who run their SAP systems in their own data
center and want to become more efficient by automating provisioning and cloning tasks
Various scenarios around system copy and system refresh are supported including post-copy automation
Those labor-expensive tasks have been made easy with SAP Landscape Virtualization Management and
IBM PureFlex System
In more detail the following use cases are covered for cloud environments running SAP applications
Cloning of a SAP system (creating an identical copy in a fenced environment)
Creating an initial copy of a SAP system (with changing the SAP system identifier)
Refreshing a test SAP system with the content of a productive system
Automation of system copyrefresh post processing activities
Monitoring and visualization of virtualized SAP landscapes
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
31
SAP Landscape Virtualization Management is in many cases complementary to the inherent IBM PureFlex
System management layers SAP Landscape Virtualization Management enables access to many relevant
IBM PureFlex System and virtualization parameters to the SAP management software and provides IT
self-services to SAP administrators
The available IBM and SAP literature which describes the interaction of IBM Systems Director and SAP
Landscape Virtualization Management also applies to IBM PureFlex System FSM is the enriched IBM
Systems Director specifically optimized and packaged for IBM PureFlex System
IBM Tivoli Storage FlashCopy Manager adds a unique value for SAP landscapes This software enables
application-aware database-consistent online backups which can be used to create the cloned system By
exploiting storage snapshot techniques the backup is taken almost instantaneously
The solution has been developed as modular building blocks This provides a high degree of flexibility and
extensibility The following table shows the products and editions that are used for each scenario
Table 7 Use cases per management layer
Management components
SAP NetWeaver Landscape Virtualization Management 10 integrates with the following IBM
management products
IBM Flex System Manager
FSM is used for virtualization monitoring and management and for the operating system
provisioning scenarios on IBM PureFlex System
IBM Tivoli Storage FlashCopy Manager 3101
Tivoli Storage FlashCopy Manager is required for storage cloning of online SAP systems
System
monitoring
SAP
relocate
AIX
provisioning
SAP
Clone
SAP
Copy
SAP
Refresh
Flex
System
Manager
(not needed) (not needed) (not needed) (not needed)
FlashCopy
Manager
(not needed) (not needed) (not needed)
Storage any NFS GPFS
SVC V7000
or XIV
any SVC V7000
or XIV
SVC V7000
or XIV
SVC V7000
or XIV
SAP LVM Standard
Edition
Standard
Edition
Standard
Edition
Enterprise
Edition
Enterprise
Edition
Enterprise
Edition
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
32
The management products can be installed on a single AIX LPAR within IBM PureFlex System
Alternatively the products might be installed on different servers for example SAP NetWeaver
Landscape Virtualization Management may run on any of the supported SAP platforms
The following graphic shows a high-level view of how SAP Landscape Virtualization Management
integrates with the IBM PureFlex System FSM stack to enable cloud scenarios on this platform
Figure 17 SAP Landscape Virtualization Manager integration with FSM
Managed SAP landscape
The following IBM PureFlex System infrastructure is supported with SAP NetWeaver Landscape
Virtualization Management
IBM POWER nodes
AIX 61 or 71
IBM SAN Volume Controller IBM Storwize V7000 or IBM XIVreg Storage System1
SAP NetWeaver 7x using IBM DB2 for Linux UNIX and Windows Oracle Database or
SAP MaxDB is supported
1 SAN Volume Controller and Storwize V7000 support requires SAP Landscape Virtualization Management SP3
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
33
It is assumed that the storage is attached using single or dual VIOS (IBM PowerVM VIOS) For the
storage-cloning scenario the SAN storage system must be attached in the N_Port ID Virtualization
(NPIV) mode NPIV is a FC adapter (HBA) feature that allows multiple LPARs to share a physical port
The clone is created using the FlashCopy feature of the SAN Volume Controller or the snapshot
feature of the XIV Storage System These methods create a logical copy of the data volumes within
seconds while the SAP source system stays fully operational
Whenever an IBM PureFlex System environment needs to be integrated into an existing enterprise
monitoring and management solution (for example an existing IBM Systems Director hierarchy or the IBM
Tivoli Suite) FSM provides interfaces for seamless upward integration
Furthermore SAP Landscape Virtualization Management can be used to manage SAP landscapes within
and outside of IBM PureFlex System and also across different platforms
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
34
SAP-specific offerings for IBM PureFlex System
This section lists specific offerings for SAP on IBM PureFlex System
Lab services and IBM support
As capacity and capability of a larger IBM PureFlex System installation are comparable to large scale
UNIX or mainframe installations IBM provides hardware and software support beyond the standards of
commodity blade systems
Including three Global Centers of Competence IBM Maintenance and Technical Support Services provide
integrated support on the FSM-based environments when there is not a clear understanding of whether
there is a hardware or a software issue All of this can be backed up with the latest version of IBM
Electronic Service Agent trade which has been enhanced for IBM PureFlex System and proactively monitors
and reports hardware events back to IBM support Even if a client has a comprehensive in-house support
organization this can selectively be enhanced through the addition of specific services within the portfolio
to cover critical areas of weakness or exposure
For complex IBM PureFlex System environments and where mission-critical applications are deployed
(which applies to SAP production systems) premium services are available and cover
Enhanced technical support custom technical support
Microcode support managed technical support
Committed fix services
Availability management hard disk retention
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
35
Summary
This paper provides reference architectures of how heterogeneous SAP landscapes can be consolidated
using IBM PureFlex System While running the core business applications on POWER nodes with AIX as
operating system complementary SAP components are added on x86 nodes IBM PureFlex System
enables a very tight integration of infrastructure components including servers networking and storage
Seamless monitoring and management functions of the infrastructure are provided by the FSM
The integration aspect is taken even further with the integration of the SAP Landscape Virtualization
Manager application with the FSM This enables SAP cloud usage scenarios for SAP systems running on
IBM PureFlex System
For individual questions or to request a briefing about this topic contact the IBM SAP International
Competence Center at isiccdeibmcom
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
36
Resources
These websites provide useful references to supplement the information contained in this paper
IBM Systems on PartnerWorld
ibmcompartnerworldsystems
IBM Redbooks
ibmcomredbooks
IBM cloud computing
ibmcomsolutionssapusenlandingcloud_solutionshtml
IBM Cloud Solutions for SAP clients
ibmcomcloud-computingusen
IBM SmartCloud Entry for AIX on PartnerWorld (requires PartnerWorld login)
ibmcompartnerworldpagestg_com_sys_smartcloud
SAP HANA on workload optimized IBM System x appliances
ibmcomsolutionssaphana
IBM internal SSI-URL with a collection of SAP related PureSystem materials
httpsw3-
03ssoibmcomsalessupportShowDocwssdocid=SGDN258263T70735C63ampnode=brandsB6000|brandsBI5
00|clientsetIA|alliancesT5000|alliancesT5150|channelDR|channelF2F|solutionQ00|solution210ampappname=C
C_SSIGD
select the ldquoCollateralrdquo Tab in ldquoMain Contentrdquo section
Related SAP on PureFlex paper with System x focus ldquoReference Architecture - SAP
Systems on IBM PureSystems based on x86 nodesrdquo
httpw3ibmcomsupporttechdocsatsmastrnsfWebIndexWP102167
httpwwwibmcomsupporttechdocsatsmastrnsfWebIndexWP102167
httpwww-03ibmcompartnerworldpartnerinfosrcatsmastrnsfWebIndexWP102167
Related SAP on PureFlex paper with IBM i focus ldquoEfficiently deploying SAP landscapes
on the IBM PureFlex Systemrdquo
httpw3ibmcomsupporttechdocsatsmastrnsfWebIndexWP102087
httpwwwibmcomsupporttechdocsatsmastrnsfWebIndexWP102087
httpwww-03ibmcompartnerworldpartnerinfosrcatsmastrnsfWebIndexWP102087
Virtualization for SAP on IBM PureSystems with Microsoft Hyper-V
httpwwwibmcomsupporttechdocsatsmastrnsfWebIndexWP102153
IBM Workload Optimized Solution for SAP HANA ndash Quick Start Guide
provides technical overview HW models network requirements for IBM Systems Solution
for SAP HANA appliance
httpdownloadboulderibmcomibmdlpubsystemssupportsystem_x_pdf46w8274pdf
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
37
IBM internal SAP HANA Wiki
httpsw3-connectionsibmcomwikishomelang=en-
uswikiWaef4c0eb0f35_427f_a25e_670e392682b1pageSAP20HANA
FlexSystem with SAP BWA Presentations (click to open link)
Seller
Customer
General IBM Sales Kit ldquoSAP NetWeaver Business Warehouse Accelerator (BWA)rdquo
Implementation Guide for BWA on IBM Flex System x240
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
38
Trademarks and special notices
copy Copyright IBM Corporation 2013
References in this document to IBM products or services do not imply that IBM intends to make them
available in every country
IBM the IBM logo and ibmcom are trademarks or registered trademarks of International Business
Machines Corporation in the United States other countries or both If these and other IBM trademarked
terms are marked on their first occurrence in this information with a trademark symbol (reg or trade) these
symbols indicate US registered or common law trademarks owned by IBM at the time this information
was published Such trademarks may also be registered or common law trademarks in other countries A
current list of IBM trademarks is available on the Web at Copyright and trademark information at
wwwibmcomlegalcopytradeshtml
Java and all Java-based trademarks and logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of Oracle andor
its affiliates
Microsoft Windows Windows NT and the Windows logo are trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the
United States other countries or both
Intel Intel Inside (logos) MMX and Pentium are trademarks of Intel Corporation in the United States
other countries or both
UNIX is a registered trademark of The Open Group in the United States and other countries
Linux is a trademark of Linus Torvalds in the United States other countries or both
Other company product or service names may be trademarks or service marks of others
Information is provided AS IS without warranty of any kind
All customer examples described are presented as illustrations of how those customers have used IBM
products and the results they may have achieved Actual environmental costs and performance
characteristics may vary by customer
Information concerning non-IBM products was obtained from a supplier of these products published
announcement material or other publicly available sources and does not constitute an endorsement of
such products by IBM Sources for non-IBM list prices and performance numbers are taken from publicly
available information including vendor announcements and vendor worldwide homepages IBM has not
tested these products and cannot confirm the accuracy of performance capability or any other claims
related to non-IBM products Questions on the capability of non-IBM products should be addressed to the
supplier of those products
All statements regarding IBM future direction and intent are subject to change or withdrawal without notice
and represent goals and objectives only Contact your local IBM office or IBM authorized reseller for the
full text of the specific Statement of Direction
Some information addresses anticipated future capabilities Such information is not intended as a definitive
statement of a commitment to specific levels of performance function or delivery schedules with respect to
any future products Such commitments are only made in IBM product announcements The information is
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
39
presented here to communicate IBMs current investment and development activities as a good faith effort
to help with our customers future planning
Performance is based on measurements and projections using standard IBM benchmarks in a controlled
environment The actual throughput or performance that any user will experience will vary depending upon
considerations such as the amount of multiprogramming in the users job stream the IO configuration the
storage configuration and the workload processed Therefore no assurance can be given that an
individual user will achieve throughput or performance improvements equivalent to the ratios stated here
Photographs shown are of engineering prototypes Changes may be incorporated in production models
Any references in this information to non-IBM websites are provided for convenience only and do not in
any manner serve as an endorsement of those websites The materials at those websites are not part of
the materials for this IBM product and use of those websites is at your own risk
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
4
of up to four heterogeneously populated IBM PureFlex System chassis Technically the FSM
is an 8-core appliance node running Linuxreg and kernel-based virtual machine (KVM) and the
FSM software on top Optionally the FSM appliance can be duplicated for resiliency of this
focal management layer Some key FSM functions include
Management of up to four chassis
Setup and configuration wizards
Heterogeneous nodes server storage network lifecycle management
Discovery inventory updates configuration status reliable logging events
IBM Systems Director Active Energy Managertrade feature
Network control with Voltaire Fabric Management (discovery and monitoring
fabric service provisioning)
Single sign-on audit logging role-based access control user management
Integration APIs to higher-level systems and enterprise management software like IBM
SmartCloudreg or IBM Tivolireg products
Figure 1 IBM PureFlex System Portfolio
This concept matches the trend to heterogeneous SAP system landscapes Customers can deploy
exactly the server units within the IBM PureFlex System that they need to best accommodate their
functional and nonfunctional SAP application requirements Although the core SAP Business Suite
applications support almost all platforms and virtualization layers certain SAP components such as
BWA HANA and TREX are linked to the x86 processors and a Linux OS for example IBM PureFlex
System with FSM allow for a unified monitoring and administration independent from the platform and
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
5
OS mix while fully using the native platform strengths of each IBM server family and the related
environments
Besides the compute nodes customers can integrate the IBM Flex System V7000 Storage Node
with full IBM System Storagereg SAN Volume Controller functionality into the same 10U-chassis
Key storage management functions supported include
Fully virtualized storage and virtualization of third party external storage
IBM System Storage Easy Tiertrade
Thin provisioning
Real-Time disk compression
Storage Management integrated with Flex System Manager
The storage node includes a storage controller and space for up to 24 disks with a maximum capacity
of 900 GB each This allows for a gross data volume of up to 21 TB within a very compact volume
Attachment to DB server nodes is done using a fast internal network without peripheral equipment and
complexity The internal IBM PureFlex System disk capacity can be extended by attaching external
Storwize V7000 expansion units or other external storage devices through the SAN Volume Controller
capabilities of the Storwize V7000 controller
POWER based PureFlex Systems can be ordered in three pre-configured flavors Express Standard
and Enterprise configurations are available
Table 1 PureFlex POWER based component stack
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
6
As of November 2012 build-to-order systems (BTU) are available too These systems are referred to
as ldquoFlex Systemsrdquo versus the pre-packaged ldquoPureFlexrdquo configurations specified in Table 1 BTU
systems offer the advantage of higher configuration flexibility for the price of less integration and
automization through built-in expertise
Node scalability and performance
Node scalability and performance applies to the vertical scalability and transaction performance of
individual nodes contained within an IBM PureFlex System chassis Published SAP ECC 60 EHP 4
Sales and Distribution benchmarks provide leadership SAP Application Performance Standard (SAPS)
capacities
POWER Node Number of
coresfrequency
SAPS ECC 60
Certification No
IBM PureFlex p260 node 833 16355GHz
IBM PureFlex p260+ node 841 163641GHz 54700
2012035
IBM PureFlex p270+ node
(DB2 105)
24341GHz 68380
2013019
IBM PureFlex p460 node 16 32355GHz 93080
2012015
Table 2 POWER compute nodes overview
The SAPS capacity of the new 32-core POWER nodes is about 40 higher compared to an IBM
BladeCenter PS704 Express blade with the same number of cores and it compares well with an IBM
Powerreg 750 32-core system This discrete system has been very successful in the midrange SAP
marketplace Consequently customers can easily migrate from discrete mid-size servers to an IBM
PureFlex System node of their choice without redesigning their SAP landscape and changing the
existing operational environment
The November 2012 announcement has introduced newest POWER7+ technology to the p260+ half-
wide nodes A higher frequency but mostly a 25x larger cache provide additional +25 SAPS
capacity according to SAP SampD benchmark results in Table 2For those customers who need
scalability beyond a single node or prefer SAP 3-tier implementations or scale-out DB servers the
IBM PureFlex System chassis and its inherent network topology provides an ideal physical
consolidation platform with a single point of control for infrastructure management
IBM PureFlex System scalability continues in the way that multiple (up to four) chassis can be
clustered and still managed as a single IT entity However when it comes to application scalability
across nodes classical parameters such as networking latency also need to be considered
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
7
Caution needs to be paid to the available physical memory per node respectively per SAP system
Depending on the type of internal disks installed in a POWER node it is not possible to install the
maximum amount of memory That is why itrsquos not recommended to use internal disks for POWER
nodes running SAP applications Storage should be provided by an external solution See section
ldquoStorage attachmentrdquo for details
System connectivity
IBM PureFlex System provides state-of-the-art system connectivity by scalable switch elements
providing up to four switch partitions per physical switch (three partitions at for initial release) These
can be a combination of
24-port BNT 10Gb Fibre Channel over Convergence Enhanced Ethernet (software
key to increase ports)
20-port 8Gb FC
24-port BNT 1Gb
48-port BNT 1Gb (SW key to increase four 10Gb ports)
Mezzanine cards
2-port 8Gb FC (QLogic)
4-port 1Gb (Broadcom)
The scalable structure allows extending IO capacity along with increasing application needs As the
number of nodes and their IO adapters grow additional switch capacity can be installed in an IBM
PureFlex System chassis
Figure 2 IBM PureFlex System switch configurations
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
8
The IBM PureFlex System network topology provides an internal network for monitoring and
management purposes This is used by the CMM and the FSM appliance to interact with the hardware
components and virtualization layers
Figure 3 IBM PureFlex System network topology
Reliability availability and serviceability (RAS) features
SAP business applications are mostly mission-critical Hence reliability and minimum downtimes of a
platform are of high significance IBM PureFlex System components have inherited many RAS
attributes of the discrete IBM server families
Hot plug power and cooling
Concurrent firmware code updates
Processor de-allocation
Hot plug nodes
Dual-power supply
Auto reboot on power loss
Temperature monitors
Error correction code (ECC)-protected memory
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
9
SAP reference landscape on IBM PureFlex System
The SAP reference landscape on IBM PureFlex System section provides an introduction to the SAP
landscape topology and example reference landscapes for IBM POWER and AIX based core SAP
systems running on IBM PureFlex System
Introduction to SAP landscape topology
SAP customer landscapes consist of several SAP systems each supporting a specific business
application or dedicated to development and testing purposes
The most common SAP applications are combined as SAP Business Suite which combines functions for
enterprise resource planning (ERP) customer relationship management (CRM) supply chain
management (SCM) and business warehouse (BW) All of these modules (and much more) can be
installed as dedicated SAP business applications too Their common underlying technology stack is the
SAP NetWeaver layer SAP NetWeaver provides typical middleware functionality to SAP sites such as
Web Application Server Portal Service Bus reporting and so on But the SAP NetWeaver layer also
provides abstraction of the SAP Business Suite towards hardware OS and relational database
management systems (RDBMS) This enables the SAP Business Suite to run on top of almost all server
platforms
SAP industry solutions and the All-In-One midmarket offering are based on the identical architecture and
contain a blend of the Business Suite modules customized with industry-specific data and transactions
All of the Business Suite components can be either implemented in 2-tier or 3-tier mode While the 2-tier
mode is the most efficient way of implementing a SAP instance from a resource and complexity
perspective 3-tier implementations provide advantages in scalability availability and flexibility
Figure 4 multiple level consolidation
Some applications can be extended with dedicated functional systems used to either complement or to
accelerate transactions Prominent examples are Adobe Document Server TREX BWA and the SAP in-
memory database HANA These technology components do not rely on the NetWeaver stack and thus run
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
10
on dedicated x86-based environments For scalability reasons these modules often follow a scale-out
paradigm
The variety and count of back-end and complementary systems is customer individual but in general
demands for physical system consolidation by using virtualization technologies
Another dimension of SAP landscape growth is the requirement of a strict isolation of production and
nonproduction environments by SAP The nonproduction environments mostly consist of sandbox
development test and QA systems The SAP transport system links these stages and allows critical
changes in either the OS or the application being tested before being promoted to business-critical SAP
instances
Supported SAP solution stacks
For the POWER nodes the same software stacks as with discrete IBM Power Systemstrade are supported
that is IBM AIXreg IBM i and Linux servers Same is true for the common databases IBM DB2reg for Linux
UNIXreg and Windows DB2 for IBM i and Oracle for AIX Restrictions on release level might apply
though All supported OSDBSAP module combinations are maintained in the product availability matrix
on the SAP Service Marketplace As one big advantage of IBM PureFlex System SAP modules which are
not supported on the POWER nodes can be deployed in the same chassis using the x86 nodes
The following table shows the supported OS and DB levels on the POWER nodes at time of
announcement
X = supported
AIX 61 71 IBM i 61 71 PowerLinux
SLES 1011
RHEL 5 6
DB2 for i X
DB2 for Linux
UNIX and
Windows 97 10
X X
MaxDB 78 X X
Oracle 1102
incl RAC
X
Sybase ASE 157 X
Table 3 supported OS and DB levels
On top of these OS and DB combinations all SAP NetWeaver 7x releases and modules are supported as
technology and middleware stack
SAP NetWeaver Landscape Virtualization Management is also supported for IBM PureFlex System and
extends the FSM with application monitoring and cloud-enabling operations More details on these are
described in the ldquoLandscape monitoring and managementrdquo section
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
11
Landscape planning
The landscape planning section describes the underlying concepts for system layout the integration of
external storage solutions and integration aspects for existing SAP landscapes and complementary SAP
component
System layout concepts
Applications running on IBM PureFlex System can take full advantage of the virtualization and
partitioning capabilities offered by the operating systems running on IBM PureFlex System For
POWER nodes the identical virtualization and partitioning capabilities are available for AIX IBM i and
PowerLinux using IBM PowerVMreg virtualization For x86 nodes the VMware kernel-based virtual
machine (KVM) and Hyper-V virtualization hypervisors are available This enables a very flexible
landscape implementation on IBM PureFlex System
The SAP concept of separating production from the development and test systems is applied by
choosing separate OS instances for those systems Depending on the sizing requirements this can
occupy a dedicated node or (in most cases) be an LPAR in a shared resource pool which is
partitioned to contain multiple components of a SAP Business Suite landscape
In order to make best use of the physical resources it is recommended to combine production LPARs
with high priority (that is weighting factor) with nonproduction LPARs with lower priority on a POWER
node This allows unexpected load peaks within a SAP production system to be covered by additional
processor resources out of these less-critical LPARs Also it is a good idea to collocate SAP instances
with recurring load peaks within a single node For example SAP systems serving users in different
time-zones fall into this category
Independent from IBM PureFlex System the advice is to apply generic IBM POWER7reg best practices
for PowerVM parameterization as provided by the POWER brand and SAP sizing guidelines
While processor (de-) allocation happens very dynamically within a millisecond timescale this does
not apply to physical memory Hence the memory associated to an LPAR in a pool ideally covers the
maximum of the LPARs peak virtual processor allocation SAP applications are rather memory
consuming with a large workload dependent variation though The available memory on a IBM
PureFlex System POWER node is sufficient for many SAP workloads in particular for the very
common SAP ERP component and such that do not make use of a Javatrade stack Whenever SAP
sizing results (per SAP Quick Sizer output for example) indicate that 8 GB per core are not sufficient or
you want to consolidate many SAP instances into a single shared pool you have the following two
options with IBM PureFlex System in order to increase memory capacity
Configure the POWER nodes with internal SSDs or boot from external storage ie no HDDs
contained in node in order to double the memory per core ratio
Configure and activate Active Memory Expansion (AME)
The expansion factor again is heavily workload dependent As a starting point assume memory
expansion by
20 times for SAP ABAP-only dialogue servers
15 times for SAP DB servers and only
11 times for SAP Java instances
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
12
Hardware accelerated AME introduced with the POWER7+ nodes is supported by SAP
Measurements have shown no significant differences over the traditional sw-only AME version
AIX Workload Partitions (WPARs) are another option for saving physical memory on constrained
nodes WPARs are supported for AIX 7 running on a node also SAP supports WPARs As WPARs
reside within an AIX host environment and not as dedicated LPARs there are several advantages by
deploying smaller SAP systems into these
WPARs do not require an incremental hypervisor and OS memory footprint
WPARs can dynamically reallocate memory within the host AIX space This does not cause a
delay by hypervisor activities and therefore results in real-time memory virtualization
As an additional benefit WPARs require less OS maintenance efforts compared to an identical
number of LPARs each running an own AIX or Linux OS This is of interest as soon as
operational costs are linked to the count of managed OS images
The PowerVM hypervisor theoretically limits the smallest SAP instance to occupy as little as 110th of
a node core But what is the largest SAP system that can reside within a single IBM PureFlex System
chassis This question might be of interest for prospects that plan downsizing from large-scale
servers
If you assume a typical DB-to-Application Server ratio of 14 for SAP ERP production instances this
results in the largest 3-tier SAP ERP system of (132 cores DB server + 432 cores application
servers) = 160 cores which can be covered by the POWER nodes that fit into a single 10U high IBM
PureFlex System chassis As a rough approximation assume effectively 2000 SAPS per core (this is
a conservative approach for SAP production compared to a SAP sales and distribution benchmark
environment) which results in a single SAP system of 320000 SAPS This capacity is in the range of
a medium-sized discrete Power 795 server
As most of the SAP systems are database centric the limiting factor is not only the processor
capacity but also a well-balanced IO and database design Details are covered in the following
section
For larger SAP database instances and in order to increase their resiliency customers might consider
implementing a scale-out relational database management system (RDBMS) by deploying several
nodes as concurrent DB nodes The internal IBM PureFlex System network bandwidth favors
horizontal scalability IBM DB2 pureScalereg or Oracle Real Application Cluster (RAC) are both
supported for SAP production use and have been tested on IBM PureFlex System Beyond increased
database scalability the failure of a single DB node will not cause the attached SAP systems to stop
but to continue with a reduced DB throughput
Introducing the IBM Systems Solution for SAP Business Suite and SAP HANA
SAP HANA is exclusively supported on certified hardware ndash for example IBM System x3950 X5 ndash that
uses the Intel EX processor architecture As of today HANA cannot be deployed on any compute
node within the PureFlex chassis However certified x3950 X5 based HANA appliances also
including storage and system software components may be installed in the same PureFlex rack A
reference architecture introducing this solution offering has been included in section Integration of
SAP Appliance-based components of this document
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
13
Storage attachment
In the previous section the design criteria for the server nodes have been explained This section
explains the storage and IO relevant parameters for an IBM PureFlex System-based SAP landscape
The IBM PureFlex System compute nodes allow adding a limited amount of internal storage to the
node For most of the business applications the available internal disk space might not be sufficient
Therefore storage needs to be supplied by an storage solution The IBM PureFlex System chassis
can be equipped with the internal Flex System V7000 storage node This can be connected via the
chassis internal switches directly over Fibre Channel of Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE)
Figure 5 Chassis internal storage attachment
External storage system like the IBM Storwize V7000 or the IBM SAN Volume Controller or any
other IBM System Storage can be connected through the chassis switches as well
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
14
Figure 6 Chassis internal and external storage attachment
Access to either of the storage solutions from the POWER nodes requires a Virtual IO Server (VIOS)
installed Due to the limited FC ports on the half wide compute nodes a dual VIOS setup is only
possible using Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE)as shown in figures 5 and 6 above
IBM Flex System V7000
In general the IBM PureFlex System can connect to any SAN storage solution The internal IBM Flex
System V7000 is the most powerful and easy-to-use innovative midrange disk system in the storage
marketplace and is the best fit for IBM PureFlex System The Flex System V7000 is fully compatible
with the IBM Storwize V7000 storage system
The integrated Easy Tier functionality provides significant performance improvements by
automatic migration of hot data blocks to high-performing SSDs
Thin provisioning consumes used space only no pre-allocation required
Dynamic migration provides continuous availability of the applications while migrating data
online
IBM FlashCopy replication supports faster and more efficient data copies for online
backup testing or data mining
25-inch disk form factor 24 per expansion unit 240 total disks
Cluster up to 4 node pairs and 960 disks
Each node pair provides dual RAID controller to provide high availability access
No SAN or fiber channel cabling is required between the compute and storage nodes
Real time disk compression reduces the amount of required storage space Compression
rates are between 50 and 70 for SAP systems running on IBM i and the DB2 for i
database
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
15
Integration of the V7000 storage management into the Flex System Manager
Value of Easy Tier to SAP
The SAP ERP system workloads represent online transaction processing (OLTP) characteristics
Typically not all data of the SAP system or database is accessed during a given time frame for
example during a 24-hour period Statistically there exist contiguously accessed data areas some of
which are hot These hot spots are part of the disk system that has significantly high activity and
usually cause long wait times for IO requests The change rate of the hot data areas is not in terms of
minutes but most likely stays constant over a longer period of time for example 24 hours
Here Easy Tier is able to monitor and move these hot areas from HDD to SSD Easy Tier
automatically creates a data migration plan to incrementally move the hottest data to SSDs and the
cold data back to the spinning disks Easy Tier adapts to clientsrsquo changing workloads and it does this
without any administrative effort to constantly tune their storage systems As a result the SAP
transaction time is reduced
Value of Real Time Disk Compression to SAP
Today traditional database systems provide various compression technologies to store data This
requires know-how to identify which tables to compress and to setup and maintain efficient
compression over time With real time disk compression offered by Storwize V7000 the complete disk
set of the partition running the SAP systems can be easily compressed Disk compression saves
between 50 and 70 percent of storage space with minimal performance impact to most SAP
workloads This is comparable to native DB gains and can save license and operational DB-admin
cost A combination of two compression technologies does not bring further advantages
IBM Flex System V7000 Storage Node
The IBM Flex System V7000 Storage Node requires a minimum of 2 full wide slots to be installed into
an IBM Flex System chassis It provides direct Fibre Channel Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE)
and iSCSI connection to the PureFlex compute nodes The Flex System Manager will identify the
storage system automatically
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
16
The Flex System V7000 management user interface (GUI) is compatible with the Storwize V7000 GUI
IBM PureFlex System and Storwize V7000
The Storwize V7000 storage can be connected to the IBM PureFlex System chassis either through
Fiber Channel (SAN) or through Ethernet (iSCSI) Both the connections provided block-level access to
the storage system
With IBM PureFlex System the test team recommends SAN access by using the IBM PureFlex
System integrated SAN switch where four FC connections are required to ensure multipathing More
connections are not required for connecting to a single chassis
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
17
Setting up a stretched cluster is not supported by the integrated V7000 SVC Customers will require a
traditional SVC to support such a resilient disk setup Of course other technologies like AIX LVM
mirroring Metro Mirror etc are supported
Configuration of Flex System V7000 and Storwize V7000
To gain maximum flexibility in respect to capacity utilization and performance workload balancing the
number of storage pools configured (Managed Disk Groups) should be as few as possible for a single
V7000 system (node pair) Depending on the performance requirement the use of Easy Tier in
combination with SSDs is recommended
A fully equipped chassis is capable to handle 300000 SAPS leading to a workload of approximately
100000 IOPS Assuming a storage demand of 100 TB usable results in the following
recommendation
24 SSD 25-inch 400 GB each plugged into the V7000 controller
Four expansion units each with 24 SAS drives 25-inch each 900 GB
One expansion unit 23 SAS drives 25-inch each 900 GB and 1 SSD 25 inches 400 GB
(spare)
RAIDs (Managed Disk) are configured as RAID 5 7+1
Total of 25 SSD and 119 SAS
Integration with existing SAP landscapes
The IBM PureFlex System chassis can be integrated into existing SAP landscapes Physically the IBM
PureFlex System chassis fits into any standard 19-inch rack which provides a minimum of 10 spare height
units Other non-IBM PureFlex System components can be housed within the same standard rack as long
as power distribution units provide sufficient energy A fully populated IBM PureFlex System chassis can
contain up to six 2500 watts energy supplies which can be configured for several redundancy modes
The Ethernet and FC switches provide connectivity to an existing network and storage infrastructure As
discussed in the previous section the IBM PureFlex System FC switch connects to existing SAN storage
solutions LPARs stored on the SAN can be migrated to an IBM PureFlex System POWER node by
assigning the disks to the IBM PureFlex System nodersquos VIOS and boot from those This allows very fast
migration of exiting SAP systems to IBM PureFlex System with minimal downtime
External SAN storage can be attached to a new PureFlex chassis in several ways Ideally external LUNs
are connected via the integrated V7000 SAN Volume Controller as managed disks Thus storage
administration can exploit SVC virtualization and management capabilities If latter is not a focus the
PureFlex FC-switches can be attached to existing SAN-fabrics using transparent NPIV mode see Figure
6 Storage vendors need to support this and storage SAN administration will be performed with native
vendor tools not via FSM
Tests have shown that IBM PowerVM Live Partition Mobility (LPM) is possible between nodes and
external systems given the network is set up appropriately This allows to migrate running LPARs from
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
18
discrete Power Systems to POWER nodes and to migrate from POWER nodes to discrete Power
Systems
The FSM administration layer can co-exist with already implemented cross-platform management solutions like eg the IBM Systems Director It also can become integrated with higher level enterprise service management software as a monitored and managed layer
Figure 7 integration of management components
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
19
Integration of SAP Appliance-based components
Certain SAP components are not available on all SAP supported operating systems and databases If
such components are required to support customersrsquo business processes they need to be installed on top
of a supported OS which is not necessarily the same location where the SAP core applications are stored
With IBM PureFlex System supporting both x86 and POWER processor-based operating systems those
complementary components can be tightly integrated into the landscape The required hardware
resources can be hosted within one IBM PureFlex System chassis Besides the compact server footprint in
the datacenter the internal network eliminates the need for network cables and switches to connect the
systems The IBM PureFlex System management provided by CMM and FSM reduces the complexity of
managing the heterogeneous environment
This allows the creation of a complete SAP landscape within a single box Core SAP Business Suite
components are running on the POWER nodes while complementary components such as SAP
Enterprise Search and SAP Business Warehouse Accelerator can run on x86 nodes
The IBM Systems Solution for SAP Business Suite and SAP HANA SAP HANA is the strategic in-memory
database by SAP AG to accelerate in particular business analytics but also transactional business In
order to achieve magnitudes of acceleration SAP HANA exploits specific design features of the Intel EX
processor architecture with optimized low-level coding Consequently SAP HANA is exclusively
supported on certified hardware using this processor type ndash for example IBM System x3950 X5
The IBM SAP HANA offering is a standardized portfolio of System x hardware (IBM Systems x3950 X5 -
7143-Hxx systems) with internal (SSD SAS) storage for data persistency plus software components and
surrounding services Exclusively Linux namely SLES 11 is supported as operating system
As of today such an appliance cannot be deployed on any compute node within the PureFlex chassis
Instead IBM x3950 X5 based SAP HANA building blocks may be installed into the same rack as the
PureFlex chassis and act as external HANA compute nodes Connection to both x86 and POWER based
internal compute nodes running standard SAP applications or complementary SAP HANA instances is
done via Ethernet through a TOR switch
A big advantage of re-using external technology is that well established and beneficial concepts can be 11
applied for PureFlex focused landscapes too As an excelling example IBM GPFS (General Parallel File
System) not only enables the IBM SAP HANA solution to grow beyond the capacity of a single system into
a scale-out solution but also adds high availability and disaster recovery features to the IBM HANA
appliance
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
20
The scope of the Flex System Manager has been extended to allow the integrated management of
PureFlex internal components and IBM x3950 X5 based SAP HANA building blocks
It provides administrative functions like
Manual discovery inventory
Release Management (FW and SW installation and update)
Power Control
Remote Access
System Configuration
System Health and Status
Service and Support
for workload optimized x3950 X5 SAP HANA appliances
Figure 8 FSM menu of external x3950 X5 based IBM SAP HANA appliances
The screenshot above shows external x3950 X5 nodes appearing on the FlexSystem Manager panel and
the applicable activities to be performed
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
21
From a hardware point-of-view IBM PureFlex Systems offer the administrative integration of the HANA
building blocks (T-shirt sizes) listed in Table 4They meet the SAP defined HANA sizing grid and do not
need to be purchased together with a PureFlex System This allows the integration of existing HANA
systems with a newly deployed PureFlex System at customer site
Building block
Server (MTM)
CPUs Main memory
S+ x3950 X5
(7143-HAx) 2x Intel Xeon
E7-8870 256 GB
M x3950 X5
(7143-HBx) 4x Intel Xeon
E7-8870 512 GB
L
x3950 X5 (7143HBx)
+ x3950 X5
(7143HCx)
8x Intel Xeon E7-8870
1024 GB
XM x3950 X5
(7143-HDx) 4x Intel Xeon
E7-8870 1TB
32x 32GB
XL x3950 X5
(7143-HDx + 7143-HEx)
8x Intel Xeon E7-8870
2TB 64x 32GB
XXL x3950 X5
(7143-HBx + 7143-HCx)
8x Intel Xeon E7-8870
4TB 128x 32GB
Table 4 IBM SAP HANA Appliance building blocks (June 2013)
This list will change pretty frequently as new models and HANA configurations will become supported
Therefore always check the SAP list of supported models in the SAP HANA PAM (requires authorization)
or consult an IBM Techline representative SAP technology and management components as well as
common operational functions like the Tivoli Storage Manager for BackupRestore of ERP and HANA may
be deployed on PureFlex compute nodes and act on both environments
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
22
Figure 9 Architecture of SAP Business Suite on PureFlex and SAP HANA on System x3950 X5 Workload Optimized Solution for SAP HANA
In case of IBM SAP HANA scale-out configurations the Integrated Management Module of x3950 X5
servers and the SAP HANA appliance related network interfaces (like SAP client access HANA Studio
ERP backup and restore HWSW-Admin) will be connected to the PureFlex Device Management and
Client Data network via Ethernet through TOR switches Such a scale-out configuration is deployed with
separate racks
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
23
Figure 10 SAP HANA Appliances with PureFlex Network Topology
Depended on the amount of external network connections single node IBM SAP HANA appliances may
be connected via available ports on integrated switches of the PureFlex chassis The single node SAP
HANA appliance could be deployed in the same rack with IBM PureFlex System
FlexSystem Native Node Support for SAP Business Warehouse Accelerator
The SAP Business Warehouse Accelerator (BWA) was the initial approach to accelerate OLAP workload
with a dedicated appliance attached to a SAP Business Warehouse system SAP BWA follows a ldquoplug amp
playrdquo design easier to implement than SAP HANA and has a longer history Hence SAP BWA still has a
broad installed base among SAP BI customers
SAP BWA has not been this highly optimized for the Intel EX-CPU type This fact allows deploying SAP
BWA appliances on XEON-based FlexSystem nodes running a SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 SP2
operating system
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
24
The ldquoIBM Flex System Solution for SAP NetWeaver Business Warehouse Acceleratorrdquo extends the
established IBM BladeCenter offerings for SAP BWA with scalable FlexSystem configurations comprising
of x240 compute nodes inside the Flex-chassis and externally attached IBM Storage Systems DS3500
This combination meets the SAP BWA appliance criteria while providing an excellent priceperformance
ratio
Table 5 FlexSystem building blocks for IBM SAP Business Warehouse Accelerator Appliances (August 2013)
As with the SAP BWA appliances based on IBM BladeCenter the IBM GPFS filesystem improves overall
IO performance data scalability and resiliency The building blocks have been pre-tested and optimized
to deliver easy integration and quick implementation Order and shipment processes of the pre-built
systems are identical to those of the traditional IBM BWA platforms
Since SAP BWA is an encapsulated appliance it cannot exploit all functionality provided by FSM for full
topology management Passive ndash in the sense of monitoring - functions like inventory system health
hardware service and support are applicable Dedicated BWA-FlexSystem chassis can be attached to
PureFlex systems hosting a SAP BI solution and monitored from there Performing active administrative
functions which may have an impact on the BWA configuration are not allowed however
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
25
SAP on AIX reference landscapes for IBM PureFlex System
1 Minimal system = ERP BW all on POWER nodes
This is the simplest case of deploying
core SAP components in an IBM
PureFlex System System All SAP
modules are supported on POWER and
either an AIX or PowerLinux OS Two
nodes for physical redundancy each with
PowerVM and VIO virtualization are
used
In order to make use of autonomous load
balancing by PowerVM it is
recommended to mix production and
nonproduction SAP instances within a
shared processor pool on each of the
single nodes SAP 2-tier deployments
need to be preferred for smaller systems
Consider packing non- production
systems into WPARs for less LPAR
complexity
2 3-tier SAP ERP with scale-out DB and application-server tier all on POWER nodes
This option combines DB scale-out with
an SAP 3-tier application-server scale
out The advantage of a multinode DB
is a hot-standby high availability
without DB downtime as with classical
cold-standby cluster solutions Also
both the nodes contribute to an
aggregate DB throughput when in
normal operation As such a setup
appears for business-critical scenarios
a hot-standby FSM appliance has also
been configured (planned in 2012)
This in any case ensures that the
overall system monitoring and
adjustment can take place
Figure 11 minimal system
Figure 12 scale-out database
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
26
3 Mixed system = SAP Business Suite core applications TREX and non-SAP applications
This setup makes use of the IBM
PureFlex System heterogeneous
capabilities While several core SAP
Business Suite applications stay on
POWER nodes they are now
complemented by SAP TREX and a
NetWeaver development
environment which are supported
only on an x86 architecture There
are more than these components
there are newer appliances such as
BWA and HANA which mandate
such a setup
Further applications can be
consolidated into the same IBM
PureFlex System chassis as well
4 SAP NetWeaver landscape = SAP Business Suite core applications SAP Enterprise Portal
SAP Process Integration (service bus) and SAP Business Objects
This is a heterogeneous setup with
majority of SAP core systems on AIX
SAP Business Objects XI runs on
larger AIX LPAR for scaling while the
Business Objects end-user oriented
systems are consolidated in virtual
machines hosted on an x86 node
This scenario also outlines the
capability of IBM PureFlex System to
run x86 Linux and PowerLinux
distributions This applies to non-SAP
and many SAP components Inter-
system communication strongly takes
advantage of the internal networking
bandwidth of IBM PureFlex System
Figure 14 SAP Process Integration and SAP Business Objects
Figure 13 complementary components
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
27
5 Mixed system with SAP HANA = SAP Business Suite core applications deployed on
PureFlex nodes plus SAP HANA Appliances (= IBM Systems Solution for SAP Business
Suite and SAP HANA)
This setup makes use of the externalized IBM PureFlex System capabilities in shape of the IBM Systems Solution for SAP Business Suite and SAP HANA
Several core SAP applications are
deployed on internal POWER or x86
nodes and are complemented by an
external SAP HANA environment which is
being built of the x3950 X5 based standard
IBM appliance offering
This enables customers running SAP
HANA always to benefit from newest
certified System x HANA appliances and
operational improvements in that space
while creating administrative synergies
between the SAP HANA and traditional
SAP Business Suite infrastructure
Starting from physical integration today
the FlexSystem Manager will provide
integrated administrative capabilities
The IBM PureFlex system offers an
integrated infrastructure for all SAP
components SAP applications on
PureFlex System compute nodes may
access SAP HANA DB on IBM x3950 X5
servers as well as traditional data bases
(eg IBM DB2) running on PureFlex
System
Figure 15 SAP HANA Integration
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
28
High availability and disaster recovery
The single point of failures (SPOFs) for SAP systems stay untouched by the introduction of IBM PureFlex
System These are the database server and the central services for ABAP and Java including the enqueue
server
These SPOFs occur within each production SAP business component of the landscape that is multiple
clusters (such as ERP CRM SCM and so on) must be implemented
In addition central technical building blocks such as SAP Enterprise Portal (for user access) Process
Integration as Enterprise Service Bus need to be setup resilient
While the high availability and disaster recovery concepts for all these SPOFs are well known in general
they have not been tested in a special IBM PureFlex System environment at time of authoring this paper
As scenario 2 indicates multi-node databases like Oracle RAC are supported on IBM PureFlex System
Landscape monitoring and management
As the SAP landscapes tend to become a heterogeneous aggregation of servers and operating systems
this implies a certain level of complexity for SAP landscape administration Consolidating the SAP
landscape into an IBM PureFlex System with its consistent management capabilities helps to reduce this
complexity
The combination of the IBM PureFlex System and SAP NetWeaver technology offers multiple native
monitoring and administration layers for the complete hardware and software stack These are
Chassis Management Module
Flex System Management
SAP Computing Center Management System (SAP CCMS)
SAP Solution Manager
minus SAP Solution Manager aims at SAP application management and business key
performance indicator (KPI) monitoring but also is a mandatory tool for SAP
release and patch management
SAP NetWeaver Landscape Virtualization Management (LVM)
The IBM PureFlex System FSM and SAP LVM Enterprise are optional components the remaining ones
are part of virtualized base installation
In order to gain maximum efficiency for daily operations it is important to select the most appropriate tools
for specific administrative tasks and organizations In addition consistency and transparency need to be
maintained
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
29
The following table provides a high-level orientation for a selected set of administrator tasks in SAP
ecosystems
CMM FSM SAP LVM SAP CCMS SAP Solution Manager
Chassis topology view and administration
Through CMM
Virtualization metrics Through Flex System
Manager
Virtualization topology and administration
Through Flex System
Manager
OS DB SAP performance
Provisioning of a new virtual server Through Flex System
Manager
Virtual server start stop and live migration
Through Flex System
Manager
SAP service reallocation
SAP system refresh cloning
Alerting Chassis focus Systems focus
Task monitoring
OS DB SAP Base
Business KPIs
Integration to an upper-level enterprise management
Into Flex System
Manager
Into SAP Solution Manager
Table 6 monitoring and management layers
FSM is based on IBM Systems Director and provides comparable functions For POWER nodes FSM is
mandatory for advanced virtualization management As most of these functions are beneficial (if not
mandatory) for SAP (production) systems the FSM appears as an essential component for SAP on IBM
PureFlex environments
As a single point of control FSM provides a web-based interface to manage all aspects of the IBM
PureFlex System hardware components For example an interactive chassis map provides status
overview and serves as an entry point to manage the different resources Setup wizards guide you through
the process of initial setup and maintenance tasks
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
30
Figure 16 FSM chassis map
SAP CCMS is fully functional for IBM PureFlex System It allows monitoring and adjustment of base SAP
application and database settings Also PowerVM-specific metrics such as LPAR and WPAR resources
AME settings and so on can be accesses through the native SAP administrator GUI
IBM PureFlex System integration with SAP NetWeaver Landscape
Virtualization Management
The described cloud solution for SAP landscapes becomes available by a combination of the IBM FSM
capabilities and SAP NetWeaver Landscape Virtualization Management for automation tasks at the
application level
This solution enables common cloud scenarios with the SAP software stack and the underlying
infrastructure It aims to connect application management services with system virtualization and storage
management services It is a management tool for customers who run their SAP systems in their own data
center and want to become more efficient by automating provisioning and cloning tasks
Various scenarios around system copy and system refresh are supported including post-copy automation
Those labor-expensive tasks have been made easy with SAP Landscape Virtualization Management and
IBM PureFlex System
In more detail the following use cases are covered for cloud environments running SAP applications
Cloning of a SAP system (creating an identical copy in a fenced environment)
Creating an initial copy of a SAP system (with changing the SAP system identifier)
Refreshing a test SAP system with the content of a productive system
Automation of system copyrefresh post processing activities
Monitoring and visualization of virtualized SAP landscapes
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
31
SAP Landscape Virtualization Management is in many cases complementary to the inherent IBM PureFlex
System management layers SAP Landscape Virtualization Management enables access to many relevant
IBM PureFlex System and virtualization parameters to the SAP management software and provides IT
self-services to SAP administrators
The available IBM and SAP literature which describes the interaction of IBM Systems Director and SAP
Landscape Virtualization Management also applies to IBM PureFlex System FSM is the enriched IBM
Systems Director specifically optimized and packaged for IBM PureFlex System
IBM Tivoli Storage FlashCopy Manager adds a unique value for SAP landscapes This software enables
application-aware database-consistent online backups which can be used to create the cloned system By
exploiting storage snapshot techniques the backup is taken almost instantaneously
The solution has been developed as modular building blocks This provides a high degree of flexibility and
extensibility The following table shows the products and editions that are used for each scenario
Table 7 Use cases per management layer
Management components
SAP NetWeaver Landscape Virtualization Management 10 integrates with the following IBM
management products
IBM Flex System Manager
FSM is used for virtualization monitoring and management and for the operating system
provisioning scenarios on IBM PureFlex System
IBM Tivoli Storage FlashCopy Manager 3101
Tivoli Storage FlashCopy Manager is required for storage cloning of online SAP systems
System
monitoring
SAP
relocate
AIX
provisioning
SAP
Clone
SAP
Copy
SAP
Refresh
Flex
System
Manager
(not needed) (not needed) (not needed) (not needed)
FlashCopy
Manager
(not needed) (not needed) (not needed)
Storage any NFS GPFS
SVC V7000
or XIV
any SVC V7000
or XIV
SVC V7000
or XIV
SVC V7000
or XIV
SAP LVM Standard
Edition
Standard
Edition
Standard
Edition
Enterprise
Edition
Enterprise
Edition
Enterprise
Edition
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
32
The management products can be installed on a single AIX LPAR within IBM PureFlex System
Alternatively the products might be installed on different servers for example SAP NetWeaver
Landscape Virtualization Management may run on any of the supported SAP platforms
The following graphic shows a high-level view of how SAP Landscape Virtualization Management
integrates with the IBM PureFlex System FSM stack to enable cloud scenarios on this platform
Figure 17 SAP Landscape Virtualization Manager integration with FSM
Managed SAP landscape
The following IBM PureFlex System infrastructure is supported with SAP NetWeaver Landscape
Virtualization Management
IBM POWER nodes
AIX 61 or 71
IBM SAN Volume Controller IBM Storwize V7000 or IBM XIVreg Storage System1
SAP NetWeaver 7x using IBM DB2 for Linux UNIX and Windows Oracle Database or
SAP MaxDB is supported
1 SAN Volume Controller and Storwize V7000 support requires SAP Landscape Virtualization Management SP3
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
33
It is assumed that the storage is attached using single or dual VIOS (IBM PowerVM VIOS) For the
storage-cloning scenario the SAN storage system must be attached in the N_Port ID Virtualization
(NPIV) mode NPIV is a FC adapter (HBA) feature that allows multiple LPARs to share a physical port
The clone is created using the FlashCopy feature of the SAN Volume Controller or the snapshot
feature of the XIV Storage System These methods create a logical copy of the data volumes within
seconds while the SAP source system stays fully operational
Whenever an IBM PureFlex System environment needs to be integrated into an existing enterprise
monitoring and management solution (for example an existing IBM Systems Director hierarchy or the IBM
Tivoli Suite) FSM provides interfaces for seamless upward integration
Furthermore SAP Landscape Virtualization Management can be used to manage SAP landscapes within
and outside of IBM PureFlex System and also across different platforms
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
34
SAP-specific offerings for IBM PureFlex System
This section lists specific offerings for SAP on IBM PureFlex System
Lab services and IBM support
As capacity and capability of a larger IBM PureFlex System installation are comparable to large scale
UNIX or mainframe installations IBM provides hardware and software support beyond the standards of
commodity blade systems
Including three Global Centers of Competence IBM Maintenance and Technical Support Services provide
integrated support on the FSM-based environments when there is not a clear understanding of whether
there is a hardware or a software issue All of this can be backed up with the latest version of IBM
Electronic Service Agent trade which has been enhanced for IBM PureFlex System and proactively monitors
and reports hardware events back to IBM support Even if a client has a comprehensive in-house support
organization this can selectively be enhanced through the addition of specific services within the portfolio
to cover critical areas of weakness or exposure
For complex IBM PureFlex System environments and where mission-critical applications are deployed
(which applies to SAP production systems) premium services are available and cover
Enhanced technical support custom technical support
Microcode support managed technical support
Committed fix services
Availability management hard disk retention
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
35
Summary
This paper provides reference architectures of how heterogeneous SAP landscapes can be consolidated
using IBM PureFlex System While running the core business applications on POWER nodes with AIX as
operating system complementary SAP components are added on x86 nodes IBM PureFlex System
enables a very tight integration of infrastructure components including servers networking and storage
Seamless monitoring and management functions of the infrastructure are provided by the FSM
The integration aspect is taken even further with the integration of the SAP Landscape Virtualization
Manager application with the FSM This enables SAP cloud usage scenarios for SAP systems running on
IBM PureFlex System
For individual questions or to request a briefing about this topic contact the IBM SAP International
Competence Center at isiccdeibmcom
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
36
Resources
These websites provide useful references to supplement the information contained in this paper
IBM Systems on PartnerWorld
ibmcompartnerworldsystems
IBM Redbooks
ibmcomredbooks
IBM cloud computing
ibmcomsolutionssapusenlandingcloud_solutionshtml
IBM Cloud Solutions for SAP clients
ibmcomcloud-computingusen
IBM SmartCloud Entry for AIX on PartnerWorld (requires PartnerWorld login)
ibmcompartnerworldpagestg_com_sys_smartcloud
SAP HANA on workload optimized IBM System x appliances
ibmcomsolutionssaphana
IBM internal SSI-URL with a collection of SAP related PureSystem materials
httpsw3-
03ssoibmcomsalessupportShowDocwssdocid=SGDN258263T70735C63ampnode=brandsB6000|brandsBI5
00|clientsetIA|alliancesT5000|alliancesT5150|channelDR|channelF2F|solutionQ00|solution210ampappname=C
C_SSIGD
select the ldquoCollateralrdquo Tab in ldquoMain Contentrdquo section
Related SAP on PureFlex paper with System x focus ldquoReference Architecture - SAP
Systems on IBM PureSystems based on x86 nodesrdquo
httpw3ibmcomsupporttechdocsatsmastrnsfWebIndexWP102167
httpwwwibmcomsupporttechdocsatsmastrnsfWebIndexWP102167
httpwww-03ibmcompartnerworldpartnerinfosrcatsmastrnsfWebIndexWP102167
Related SAP on PureFlex paper with IBM i focus ldquoEfficiently deploying SAP landscapes
on the IBM PureFlex Systemrdquo
httpw3ibmcomsupporttechdocsatsmastrnsfWebIndexWP102087
httpwwwibmcomsupporttechdocsatsmastrnsfWebIndexWP102087
httpwww-03ibmcompartnerworldpartnerinfosrcatsmastrnsfWebIndexWP102087
Virtualization for SAP on IBM PureSystems with Microsoft Hyper-V
httpwwwibmcomsupporttechdocsatsmastrnsfWebIndexWP102153
IBM Workload Optimized Solution for SAP HANA ndash Quick Start Guide
provides technical overview HW models network requirements for IBM Systems Solution
for SAP HANA appliance
httpdownloadboulderibmcomibmdlpubsystemssupportsystem_x_pdf46w8274pdf
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
37
IBM internal SAP HANA Wiki
httpsw3-connectionsibmcomwikishomelang=en-
uswikiWaef4c0eb0f35_427f_a25e_670e392682b1pageSAP20HANA
FlexSystem with SAP BWA Presentations (click to open link)
Seller
Customer
General IBM Sales Kit ldquoSAP NetWeaver Business Warehouse Accelerator (BWA)rdquo
Implementation Guide for BWA on IBM Flex System x240
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
38
Trademarks and special notices
copy Copyright IBM Corporation 2013
References in this document to IBM products or services do not imply that IBM intends to make them
available in every country
IBM the IBM logo and ibmcom are trademarks or registered trademarks of International Business
Machines Corporation in the United States other countries or both If these and other IBM trademarked
terms are marked on their first occurrence in this information with a trademark symbol (reg or trade) these
symbols indicate US registered or common law trademarks owned by IBM at the time this information
was published Such trademarks may also be registered or common law trademarks in other countries A
current list of IBM trademarks is available on the Web at Copyright and trademark information at
wwwibmcomlegalcopytradeshtml
Java and all Java-based trademarks and logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of Oracle andor
its affiliates
Microsoft Windows Windows NT and the Windows logo are trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the
United States other countries or both
Intel Intel Inside (logos) MMX and Pentium are trademarks of Intel Corporation in the United States
other countries or both
UNIX is a registered trademark of The Open Group in the United States and other countries
Linux is a trademark of Linus Torvalds in the United States other countries or both
Other company product or service names may be trademarks or service marks of others
Information is provided AS IS without warranty of any kind
All customer examples described are presented as illustrations of how those customers have used IBM
products and the results they may have achieved Actual environmental costs and performance
characteristics may vary by customer
Information concerning non-IBM products was obtained from a supplier of these products published
announcement material or other publicly available sources and does not constitute an endorsement of
such products by IBM Sources for non-IBM list prices and performance numbers are taken from publicly
available information including vendor announcements and vendor worldwide homepages IBM has not
tested these products and cannot confirm the accuracy of performance capability or any other claims
related to non-IBM products Questions on the capability of non-IBM products should be addressed to the
supplier of those products
All statements regarding IBM future direction and intent are subject to change or withdrawal without notice
and represent goals and objectives only Contact your local IBM office or IBM authorized reseller for the
full text of the specific Statement of Direction
Some information addresses anticipated future capabilities Such information is not intended as a definitive
statement of a commitment to specific levels of performance function or delivery schedules with respect to
any future products Such commitments are only made in IBM product announcements The information is
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
39
presented here to communicate IBMs current investment and development activities as a good faith effort
to help with our customers future planning
Performance is based on measurements and projections using standard IBM benchmarks in a controlled
environment The actual throughput or performance that any user will experience will vary depending upon
considerations such as the amount of multiprogramming in the users job stream the IO configuration the
storage configuration and the workload processed Therefore no assurance can be given that an
individual user will achieve throughput or performance improvements equivalent to the ratios stated here
Photographs shown are of engineering prototypes Changes may be incorporated in production models
Any references in this information to non-IBM websites are provided for convenience only and do not in
any manner serve as an endorsement of those websites The materials at those websites are not part of
the materials for this IBM product and use of those websites is at your own risk
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
5
OS mix while fully using the native platform strengths of each IBM server family and the related
environments
Besides the compute nodes customers can integrate the IBM Flex System V7000 Storage Node
with full IBM System Storagereg SAN Volume Controller functionality into the same 10U-chassis
Key storage management functions supported include
Fully virtualized storage and virtualization of third party external storage
IBM System Storage Easy Tiertrade
Thin provisioning
Real-Time disk compression
Storage Management integrated with Flex System Manager
The storage node includes a storage controller and space for up to 24 disks with a maximum capacity
of 900 GB each This allows for a gross data volume of up to 21 TB within a very compact volume
Attachment to DB server nodes is done using a fast internal network without peripheral equipment and
complexity The internal IBM PureFlex System disk capacity can be extended by attaching external
Storwize V7000 expansion units or other external storage devices through the SAN Volume Controller
capabilities of the Storwize V7000 controller
POWER based PureFlex Systems can be ordered in three pre-configured flavors Express Standard
and Enterprise configurations are available
Table 1 PureFlex POWER based component stack
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
6
As of November 2012 build-to-order systems (BTU) are available too These systems are referred to
as ldquoFlex Systemsrdquo versus the pre-packaged ldquoPureFlexrdquo configurations specified in Table 1 BTU
systems offer the advantage of higher configuration flexibility for the price of less integration and
automization through built-in expertise
Node scalability and performance
Node scalability and performance applies to the vertical scalability and transaction performance of
individual nodes contained within an IBM PureFlex System chassis Published SAP ECC 60 EHP 4
Sales and Distribution benchmarks provide leadership SAP Application Performance Standard (SAPS)
capacities
POWER Node Number of
coresfrequency
SAPS ECC 60
Certification No
IBM PureFlex p260 node 833 16355GHz
IBM PureFlex p260+ node 841 163641GHz 54700
2012035
IBM PureFlex p270+ node
(DB2 105)
24341GHz 68380
2013019
IBM PureFlex p460 node 16 32355GHz 93080
2012015
Table 2 POWER compute nodes overview
The SAPS capacity of the new 32-core POWER nodes is about 40 higher compared to an IBM
BladeCenter PS704 Express blade with the same number of cores and it compares well with an IBM
Powerreg 750 32-core system This discrete system has been very successful in the midrange SAP
marketplace Consequently customers can easily migrate from discrete mid-size servers to an IBM
PureFlex System node of their choice without redesigning their SAP landscape and changing the
existing operational environment
The November 2012 announcement has introduced newest POWER7+ technology to the p260+ half-
wide nodes A higher frequency but mostly a 25x larger cache provide additional +25 SAPS
capacity according to SAP SampD benchmark results in Table 2For those customers who need
scalability beyond a single node or prefer SAP 3-tier implementations or scale-out DB servers the
IBM PureFlex System chassis and its inherent network topology provides an ideal physical
consolidation platform with a single point of control for infrastructure management
IBM PureFlex System scalability continues in the way that multiple (up to four) chassis can be
clustered and still managed as a single IT entity However when it comes to application scalability
across nodes classical parameters such as networking latency also need to be considered
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
7
Caution needs to be paid to the available physical memory per node respectively per SAP system
Depending on the type of internal disks installed in a POWER node it is not possible to install the
maximum amount of memory That is why itrsquos not recommended to use internal disks for POWER
nodes running SAP applications Storage should be provided by an external solution See section
ldquoStorage attachmentrdquo for details
System connectivity
IBM PureFlex System provides state-of-the-art system connectivity by scalable switch elements
providing up to four switch partitions per physical switch (three partitions at for initial release) These
can be a combination of
24-port BNT 10Gb Fibre Channel over Convergence Enhanced Ethernet (software
key to increase ports)
20-port 8Gb FC
24-port BNT 1Gb
48-port BNT 1Gb (SW key to increase four 10Gb ports)
Mezzanine cards
2-port 8Gb FC (QLogic)
4-port 1Gb (Broadcom)
The scalable structure allows extending IO capacity along with increasing application needs As the
number of nodes and their IO adapters grow additional switch capacity can be installed in an IBM
PureFlex System chassis
Figure 2 IBM PureFlex System switch configurations
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
8
The IBM PureFlex System network topology provides an internal network for monitoring and
management purposes This is used by the CMM and the FSM appliance to interact with the hardware
components and virtualization layers
Figure 3 IBM PureFlex System network topology
Reliability availability and serviceability (RAS) features
SAP business applications are mostly mission-critical Hence reliability and minimum downtimes of a
platform are of high significance IBM PureFlex System components have inherited many RAS
attributes of the discrete IBM server families
Hot plug power and cooling
Concurrent firmware code updates
Processor de-allocation
Hot plug nodes
Dual-power supply
Auto reboot on power loss
Temperature monitors
Error correction code (ECC)-protected memory
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
9
SAP reference landscape on IBM PureFlex System
The SAP reference landscape on IBM PureFlex System section provides an introduction to the SAP
landscape topology and example reference landscapes for IBM POWER and AIX based core SAP
systems running on IBM PureFlex System
Introduction to SAP landscape topology
SAP customer landscapes consist of several SAP systems each supporting a specific business
application or dedicated to development and testing purposes
The most common SAP applications are combined as SAP Business Suite which combines functions for
enterprise resource planning (ERP) customer relationship management (CRM) supply chain
management (SCM) and business warehouse (BW) All of these modules (and much more) can be
installed as dedicated SAP business applications too Their common underlying technology stack is the
SAP NetWeaver layer SAP NetWeaver provides typical middleware functionality to SAP sites such as
Web Application Server Portal Service Bus reporting and so on But the SAP NetWeaver layer also
provides abstraction of the SAP Business Suite towards hardware OS and relational database
management systems (RDBMS) This enables the SAP Business Suite to run on top of almost all server
platforms
SAP industry solutions and the All-In-One midmarket offering are based on the identical architecture and
contain a blend of the Business Suite modules customized with industry-specific data and transactions
All of the Business Suite components can be either implemented in 2-tier or 3-tier mode While the 2-tier
mode is the most efficient way of implementing a SAP instance from a resource and complexity
perspective 3-tier implementations provide advantages in scalability availability and flexibility
Figure 4 multiple level consolidation
Some applications can be extended with dedicated functional systems used to either complement or to
accelerate transactions Prominent examples are Adobe Document Server TREX BWA and the SAP in-
memory database HANA These technology components do not rely on the NetWeaver stack and thus run
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
10
on dedicated x86-based environments For scalability reasons these modules often follow a scale-out
paradigm
The variety and count of back-end and complementary systems is customer individual but in general
demands for physical system consolidation by using virtualization technologies
Another dimension of SAP landscape growth is the requirement of a strict isolation of production and
nonproduction environments by SAP The nonproduction environments mostly consist of sandbox
development test and QA systems The SAP transport system links these stages and allows critical
changes in either the OS or the application being tested before being promoted to business-critical SAP
instances
Supported SAP solution stacks
For the POWER nodes the same software stacks as with discrete IBM Power Systemstrade are supported
that is IBM AIXreg IBM i and Linux servers Same is true for the common databases IBM DB2reg for Linux
UNIXreg and Windows DB2 for IBM i and Oracle for AIX Restrictions on release level might apply
though All supported OSDBSAP module combinations are maintained in the product availability matrix
on the SAP Service Marketplace As one big advantage of IBM PureFlex System SAP modules which are
not supported on the POWER nodes can be deployed in the same chassis using the x86 nodes
The following table shows the supported OS and DB levels on the POWER nodes at time of
announcement
X = supported
AIX 61 71 IBM i 61 71 PowerLinux
SLES 1011
RHEL 5 6
DB2 for i X
DB2 for Linux
UNIX and
Windows 97 10
X X
MaxDB 78 X X
Oracle 1102
incl RAC
X
Sybase ASE 157 X
Table 3 supported OS and DB levels
On top of these OS and DB combinations all SAP NetWeaver 7x releases and modules are supported as
technology and middleware stack
SAP NetWeaver Landscape Virtualization Management is also supported for IBM PureFlex System and
extends the FSM with application monitoring and cloud-enabling operations More details on these are
described in the ldquoLandscape monitoring and managementrdquo section
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
11
Landscape planning
The landscape planning section describes the underlying concepts for system layout the integration of
external storage solutions and integration aspects for existing SAP landscapes and complementary SAP
component
System layout concepts
Applications running on IBM PureFlex System can take full advantage of the virtualization and
partitioning capabilities offered by the operating systems running on IBM PureFlex System For
POWER nodes the identical virtualization and partitioning capabilities are available for AIX IBM i and
PowerLinux using IBM PowerVMreg virtualization For x86 nodes the VMware kernel-based virtual
machine (KVM) and Hyper-V virtualization hypervisors are available This enables a very flexible
landscape implementation on IBM PureFlex System
The SAP concept of separating production from the development and test systems is applied by
choosing separate OS instances for those systems Depending on the sizing requirements this can
occupy a dedicated node or (in most cases) be an LPAR in a shared resource pool which is
partitioned to contain multiple components of a SAP Business Suite landscape
In order to make best use of the physical resources it is recommended to combine production LPARs
with high priority (that is weighting factor) with nonproduction LPARs with lower priority on a POWER
node This allows unexpected load peaks within a SAP production system to be covered by additional
processor resources out of these less-critical LPARs Also it is a good idea to collocate SAP instances
with recurring load peaks within a single node For example SAP systems serving users in different
time-zones fall into this category
Independent from IBM PureFlex System the advice is to apply generic IBM POWER7reg best practices
for PowerVM parameterization as provided by the POWER brand and SAP sizing guidelines
While processor (de-) allocation happens very dynamically within a millisecond timescale this does
not apply to physical memory Hence the memory associated to an LPAR in a pool ideally covers the
maximum of the LPARs peak virtual processor allocation SAP applications are rather memory
consuming with a large workload dependent variation though The available memory on a IBM
PureFlex System POWER node is sufficient for many SAP workloads in particular for the very
common SAP ERP component and such that do not make use of a Javatrade stack Whenever SAP
sizing results (per SAP Quick Sizer output for example) indicate that 8 GB per core are not sufficient or
you want to consolidate many SAP instances into a single shared pool you have the following two
options with IBM PureFlex System in order to increase memory capacity
Configure the POWER nodes with internal SSDs or boot from external storage ie no HDDs
contained in node in order to double the memory per core ratio
Configure and activate Active Memory Expansion (AME)
The expansion factor again is heavily workload dependent As a starting point assume memory
expansion by
20 times for SAP ABAP-only dialogue servers
15 times for SAP DB servers and only
11 times for SAP Java instances
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
12
Hardware accelerated AME introduced with the POWER7+ nodes is supported by SAP
Measurements have shown no significant differences over the traditional sw-only AME version
AIX Workload Partitions (WPARs) are another option for saving physical memory on constrained
nodes WPARs are supported for AIX 7 running on a node also SAP supports WPARs As WPARs
reside within an AIX host environment and not as dedicated LPARs there are several advantages by
deploying smaller SAP systems into these
WPARs do not require an incremental hypervisor and OS memory footprint
WPARs can dynamically reallocate memory within the host AIX space This does not cause a
delay by hypervisor activities and therefore results in real-time memory virtualization
As an additional benefit WPARs require less OS maintenance efforts compared to an identical
number of LPARs each running an own AIX or Linux OS This is of interest as soon as
operational costs are linked to the count of managed OS images
The PowerVM hypervisor theoretically limits the smallest SAP instance to occupy as little as 110th of
a node core But what is the largest SAP system that can reside within a single IBM PureFlex System
chassis This question might be of interest for prospects that plan downsizing from large-scale
servers
If you assume a typical DB-to-Application Server ratio of 14 for SAP ERP production instances this
results in the largest 3-tier SAP ERP system of (132 cores DB server + 432 cores application
servers) = 160 cores which can be covered by the POWER nodes that fit into a single 10U high IBM
PureFlex System chassis As a rough approximation assume effectively 2000 SAPS per core (this is
a conservative approach for SAP production compared to a SAP sales and distribution benchmark
environment) which results in a single SAP system of 320000 SAPS This capacity is in the range of
a medium-sized discrete Power 795 server
As most of the SAP systems are database centric the limiting factor is not only the processor
capacity but also a well-balanced IO and database design Details are covered in the following
section
For larger SAP database instances and in order to increase their resiliency customers might consider
implementing a scale-out relational database management system (RDBMS) by deploying several
nodes as concurrent DB nodes The internal IBM PureFlex System network bandwidth favors
horizontal scalability IBM DB2 pureScalereg or Oracle Real Application Cluster (RAC) are both
supported for SAP production use and have been tested on IBM PureFlex System Beyond increased
database scalability the failure of a single DB node will not cause the attached SAP systems to stop
but to continue with a reduced DB throughput
Introducing the IBM Systems Solution for SAP Business Suite and SAP HANA
SAP HANA is exclusively supported on certified hardware ndash for example IBM System x3950 X5 ndash that
uses the Intel EX processor architecture As of today HANA cannot be deployed on any compute
node within the PureFlex chassis However certified x3950 X5 based HANA appliances also
including storage and system software components may be installed in the same PureFlex rack A
reference architecture introducing this solution offering has been included in section Integration of
SAP Appliance-based components of this document
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
13
Storage attachment
In the previous section the design criteria for the server nodes have been explained This section
explains the storage and IO relevant parameters for an IBM PureFlex System-based SAP landscape
The IBM PureFlex System compute nodes allow adding a limited amount of internal storage to the
node For most of the business applications the available internal disk space might not be sufficient
Therefore storage needs to be supplied by an storage solution The IBM PureFlex System chassis
can be equipped with the internal Flex System V7000 storage node This can be connected via the
chassis internal switches directly over Fibre Channel of Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE)
Figure 5 Chassis internal storage attachment
External storage system like the IBM Storwize V7000 or the IBM SAN Volume Controller or any
other IBM System Storage can be connected through the chassis switches as well
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
14
Figure 6 Chassis internal and external storage attachment
Access to either of the storage solutions from the POWER nodes requires a Virtual IO Server (VIOS)
installed Due to the limited FC ports on the half wide compute nodes a dual VIOS setup is only
possible using Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE)as shown in figures 5 and 6 above
IBM Flex System V7000
In general the IBM PureFlex System can connect to any SAN storage solution The internal IBM Flex
System V7000 is the most powerful and easy-to-use innovative midrange disk system in the storage
marketplace and is the best fit for IBM PureFlex System The Flex System V7000 is fully compatible
with the IBM Storwize V7000 storage system
The integrated Easy Tier functionality provides significant performance improvements by
automatic migration of hot data blocks to high-performing SSDs
Thin provisioning consumes used space only no pre-allocation required
Dynamic migration provides continuous availability of the applications while migrating data
online
IBM FlashCopy replication supports faster and more efficient data copies for online
backup testing or data mining
25-inch disk form factor 24 per expansion unit 240 total disks
Cluster up to 4 node pairs and 960 disks
Each node pair provides dual RAID controller to provide high availability access
No SAN or fiber channel cabling is required between the compute and storage nodes
Real time disk compression reduces the amount of required storage space Compression
rates are between 50 and 70 for SAP systems running on IBM i and the DB2 for i
database
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
15
Integration of the V7000 storage management into the Flex System Manager
Value of Easy Tier to SAP
The SAP ERP system workloads represent online transaction processing (OLTP) characteristics
Typically not all data of the SAP system or database is accessed during a given time frame for
example during a 24-hour period Statistically there exist contiguously accessed data areas some of
which are hot These hot spots are part of the disk system that has significantly high activity and
usually cause long wait times for IO requests The change rate of the hot data areas is not in terms of
minutes but most likely stays constant over a longer period of time for example 24 hours
Here Easy Tier is able to monitor and move these hot areas from HDD to SSD Easy Tier
automatically creates a data migration plan to incrementally move the hottest data to SSDs and the
cold data back to the spinning disks Easy Tier adapts to clientsrsquo changing workloads and it does this
without any administrative effort to constantly tune their storage systems As a result the SAP
transaction time is reduced
Value of Real Time Disk Compression to SAP
Today traditional database systems provide various compression technologies to store data This
requires know-how to identify which tables to compress and to setup and maintain efficient
compression over time With real time disk compression offered by Storwize V7000 the complete disk
set of the partition running the SAP systems can be easily compressed Disk compression saves
between 50 and 70 percent of storage space with minimal performance impact to most SAP
workloads This is comparable to native DB gains and can save license and operational DB-admin
cost A combination of two compression technologies does not bring further advantages
IBM Flex System V7000 Storage Node
The IBM Flex System V7000 Storage Node requires a minimum of 2 full wide slots to be installed into
an IBM Flex System chassis It provides direct Fibre Channel Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE)
and iSCSI connection to the PureFlex compute nodes The Flex System Manager will identify the
storage system automatically
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
16
The Flex System V7000 management user interface (GUI) is compatible with the Storwize V7000 GUI
IBM PureFlex System and Storwize V7000
The Storwize V7000 storage can be connected to the IBM PureFlex System chassis either through
Fiber Channel (SAN) or through Ethernet (iSCSI) Both the connections provided block-level access to
the storage system
With IBM PureFlex System the test team recommends SAN access by using the IBM PureFlex
System integrated SAN switch where four FC connections are required to ensure multipathing More
connections are not required for connecting to a single chassis
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
17
Setting up a stretched cluster is not supported by the integrated V7000 SVC Customers will require a
traditional SVC to support such a resilient disk setup Of course other technologies like AIX LVM
mirroring Metro Mirror etc are supported
Configuration of Flex System V7000 and Storwize V7000
To gain maximum flexibility in respect to capacity utilization and performance workload balancing the
number of storage pools configured (Managed Disk Groups) should be as few as possible for a single
V7000 system (node pair) Depending on the performance requirement the use of Easy Tier in
combination with SSDs is recommended
A fully equipped chassis is capable to handle 300000 SAPS leading to a workload of approximately
100000 IOPS Assuming a storage demand of 100 TB usable results in the following
recommendation
24 SSD 25-inch 400 GB each plugged into the V7000 controller
Four expansion units each with 24 SAS drives 25-inch each 900 GB
One expansion unit 23 SAS drives 25-inch each 900 GB and 1 SSD 25 inches 400 GB
(spare)
RAIDs (Managed Disk) are configured as RAID 5 7+1
Total of 25 SSD and 119 SAS
Integration with existing SAP landscapes
The IBM PureFlex System chassis can be integrated into existing SAP landscapes Physically the IBM
PureFlex System chassis fits into any standard 19-inch rack which provides a minimum of 10 spare height
units Other non-IBM PureFlex System components can be housed within the same standard rack as long
as power distribution units provide sufficient energy A fully populated IBM PureFlex System chassis can
contain up to six 2500 watts energy supplies which can be configured for several redundancy modes
The Ethernet and FC switches provide connectivity to an existing network and storage infrastructure As
discussed in the previous section the IBM PureFlex System FC switch connects to existing SAN storage
solutions LPARs stored on the SAN can be migrated to an IBM PureFlex System POWER node by
assigning the disks to the IBM PureFlex System nodersquos VIOS and boot from those This allows very fast
migration of exiting SAP systems to IBM PureFlex System with minimal downtime
External SAN storage can be attached to a new PureFlex chassis in several ways Ideally external LUNs
are connected via the integrated V7000 SAN Volume Controller as managed disks Thus storage
administration can exploit SVC virtualization and management capabilities If latter is not a focus the
PureFlex FC-switches can be attached to existing SAN-fabrics using transparent NPIV mode see Figure
6 Storage vendors need to support this and storage SAN administration will be performed with native
vendor tools not via FSM
Tests have shown that IBM PowerVM Live Partition Mobility (LPM) is possible between nodes and
external systems given the network is set up appropriately This allows to migrate running LPARs from
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
18
discrete Power Systems to POWER nodes and to migrate from POWER nodes to discrete Power
Systems
The FSM administration layer can co-exist with already implemented cross-platform management solutions like eg the IBM Systems Director It also can become integrated with higher level enterprise service management software as a monitored and managed layer
Figure 7 integration of management components
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
19
Integration of SAP Appliance-based components
Certain SAP components are not available on all SAP supported operating systems and databases If
such components are required to support customersrsquo business processes they need to be installed on top
of a supported OS which is not necessarily the same location where the SAP core applications are stored
With IBM PureFlex System supporting both x86 and POWER processor-based operating systems those
complementary components can be tightly integrated into the landscape The required hardware
resources can be hosted within one IBM PureFlex System chassis Besides the compact server footprint in
the datacenter the internal network eliminates the need for network cables and switches to connect the
systems The IBM PureFlex System management provided by CMM and FSM reduces the complexity of
managing the heterogeneous environment
This allows the creation of a complete SAP landscape within a single box Core SAP Business Suite
components are running on the POWER nodes while complementary components such as SAP
Enterprise Search and SAP Business Warehouse Accelerator can run on x86 nodes
The IBM Systems Solution for SAP Business Suite and SAP HANA SAP HANA is the strategic in-memory
database by SAP AG to accelerate in particular business analytics but also transactional business In
order to achieve magnitudes of acceleration SAP HANA exploits specific design features of the Intel EX
processor architecture with optimized low-level coding Consequently SAP HANA is exclusively
supported on certified hardware using this processor type ndash for example IBM System x3950 X5
The IBM SAP HANA offering is a standardized portfolio of System x hardware (IBM Systems x3950 X5 -
7143-Hxx systems) with internal (SSD SAS) storage for data persistency plus software components and
surrounding services Exclusively Linux namely SLES 11 is supported as operating system
As of today such an appliance cannot be deployed on any compute node within the PureFlex chassis
Instead IBM x3950 X5 based SAP HANA building blocks may be installed into the same rack as the
PureFlex chassis and act as external HANA compute nodes Connection to both x86 and POWER based
internal compute nodes running standard SAP applications or complementary SAP HANA instances is
done via Ethernet through a TOR switch
A big advantage of re-using external technology is that well established and beneficial concepts can be 11
applied for PureFlex focused landscapes too As an excelling example IBM GPFS (General Parallel File
System) not only enables the IBM SAP HANA solution to grow beyond the capacity of a single system into
a scale-out solution but also adds high availability and disaster recovery features to the IBM HANA
appliance
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
20
The scope of the Flex System Manager has been extended to allow the integrated management of
PureFlex internal components and IBM x3950 X5 based SAP HANA building blocks
It provides administrative functions like
Manual discovery inventory
Release Management (FW and SW installation and update)
Power Control
Remote Access
System Configuration
System Health and Status
Service and Support
for workload optimized x3950 X5 SAP HANA appliances
Figure 8 FSM menu of external x3950 X5 based IBM SAP HANA appliances
The screenshot above shows external x3950 X5 nodes appearing on the FlexSystem Manager panel and
the applicable activities to be performed
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
21
From a hardware point-of-view IBM PureFlex Systems offer the administrative integration of the HANA
building blocks (T-shirt sizes) listed in Table 4They meet the SAP defined HANA sizing grid and do not
need to be purchased together with a PureFlex System This allows the integration of existing HANA
systems with a newly deployed PureFlex System at customer site
Building block
Server (MTM)
CPUs Main memory
S+ x3950 X5
(7143-HAx) 2x Intel Xeon
E7-8870 256 GB
M x3950 X5
(7143-HBx) 4x Intel Xeon
E7-8870 512 GB
L
x3950 X5 (7143HBx)
+ x3950 X5
(7143HCx)
8x Intel Xeon E7-8870
1024 GB
XM x3950 X5
(7143-HDx) 4x Intel Xeon
E7-8870 1TB
32x 32GB
XL x3950 X5
(7143-HDx + 7143-HEx)
8x Intel Xeon E7-8870
2TB 64x 32GB
XXL x3950 X5
(7143-HBx + 7143-HCx)
8x Intel Xeon E7-8870
4TB 128x 32GB
Table 4 IBM SAP HANA Appliance building blocks (June 2013)
This list will change pretty frequently as new models and HANA configurations will become supported
Therefore always check the SAP list of supported models in the SAP HANA PAM (requires authorization)
or consult an IBM Techline representative SAP technology and management components as well as
common operational functions like the Tivoli Storage Manager for BackupRestore of ERP and HANA may
be deployed on PureFlex compute nodes and act on both environments
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
22
Figure 9 Architecture of SAP Business Suite on PureFlex and SAP HANA on System x3950 X5 Workload Optimized Solution for SAP HANA
In case of IBM SAP HANA scale-out configurations the Integrated Management Module of x3950 X5
servers and the SAP HANA appliance related network interfaces (like SAP client access HANA Studio
ERP backup and restore HWSW-Admin) will be connected to the PureFlex Device Management and
Client Data network via Ethernet through TOR switches Such a scale-out configuration is deployed with
separate racks
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
23
Figure 10 SAP HANA Appliances with PureFlex Network Topology
Depended on the amount of external network connections single node IBM SAP HANA appliances may
be connected via available ports on integrated switches of the PureFlex chassis The single node SAP
HANA appliance could be deployed in the same rack with IBM PureFlex System
FlexSystem Native Node Support for SAP Business Warehouse Accelerator
The SAP Business Warehouse Accelerator (BWA) was the initial approach to accelerate OLAP workload
with a dedicated appliance attached to a SAP Business Warehouse system SAP BWA follows a ldquoplug amp
playrdquo design easier to implement than SAP HANA and has a longer history Hence SAP BWA still has a
broad installed base among SAP BI customers
SAP BWA has not been this highly optimized for the Intel EX-CPU type This fact allows deploying SAP
BWA appliances on XEON-based FlexSystem nodes running a SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 SP2
operating system
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
24
The ldquoIBM Flex System Solution for SAP NetWeaver Business Warehouse Acceleratorrdquo extends the
established IBM BladeCenter offerings for SAP BWA with scalable FlexSystem configurations comprising
of x240 compute nodes inside the Flex-chassis and externally attached IBM Storage Systems DS3500
This combination meets the SAP BWA appliance criteria while providing an excellent priceperformance
ratio
Table 5 FlexSystem building blocks for IBM SAP Business Warehouse Accelerator Appliances (August 2013)
As with the SAP BWA appliances based on IBM BladeCenter the IBM GPFS filesystem improves overall
IO performance data scalability and resiliency The building blocks have been pre-tested and optimized
to deliver easy integration and quick implementation Order and shipment processes of the pre-built
systems are identical to those of the traditional IBM BWA platforms
Since SAP BWA is an encapsulated appliance it cannot exploit all functionality provided by FSM for full
topology management Passive ndash in the sense of monitoring - functions like inventory system health
hardware service and support are applicable Dedicated BWA-FlexSystem chassis can be attached to
PureFlex systems hosting a SAP BI solution and monitored from there Performing active administrative
functions which may have an impact on the BWA configuration are not allowed however
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
25
SAP on AIX reference landscapes for IBM PureFlex System
1 Minimal system = ERP BW all on POWER nodes
This is the simplest case of deploying
core SAP components in an IBM
PureFlex System System All SAP
modules are supported on POWER and
either an AIX or PowerLinux OS Two
nodes for physical redundancy each with
PowerVM and VIO virtualization are
used
In order to make use of autonomous load
balancing by PowerVM it is
recommended to mix production and
nonproduction SAP instances within a
shared processor pool on each of the
single nodes SAP 2-tier deployments
need to be preferred for smaller systems
Consider packing non- production
systems into WPARs for less LPAR
complexity
2 3-tier SAP ERP with scale-out DB and application-server tier all on POWER nodes
This option combines DB scale-out with
an SAP 3-tier application-server scale
out The advantage of a multinode DB
is a hot-standby high availability
without DB downtime as with classical
cold-standby cluster solutions Also
both the nodes contribute to an
aggregate DB throughput when in
normal operation As such a setup
appears for business-critical scenarios
a hot-standby FSM appliance has also
been configured (planned in 2012)
This in any case ensures that the
overall system monitoring and
adjustment can take place
Figure 11 minimal system
Figure 12 scale-out database
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
26
3 Mixed system = SAP Business Suite core applications TREX and non-SAP applications
This setup makes use of the IBM
PureFlex System heterogeneous
capabilities While several core SAP
Business Suite applications stay on
POWER nodes they are now
complemented by SAP TREX and a
NetWeaver development
environment which are supported
only on an x86 architecture There
are more than these components
there are newer appliances such as
BWA and HANA which mandate
such a setup
Further applications can be
consolidated into the same IBM
PureFlex System chassis as well
4 SAP NetWeaver landscape = SAP Business Suite core applications SAP Enterprise Portal
SAP Process Integration (service bus) and SAP Business Objects
This is a heterogeneous setup with
majority of SAP core systems on AIX
SAP Business Objects XI runs on
larger AIX LPAR for scaling while the
Business Objects end-user oriented
systems are consolidated in virtual
machines hosted on an x86 node
This scenario also outlines the
capability of IBM PureFlex System to
run x86 Linux and PowerLinux
distributions This applies to non-SAP
and many SAP components Inter-
system communication strongly takes
advantage of the internal networking
bandwidth of IBM PureFlex System
Figure 14 SAP Process Integration and SAP Business Objects
Figure 13 complementary components
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
27
5 Mixed system with SAP HANA = SAP Business Suite core applications deployed on
PureFlex nodes plus SAP HANA Appliances (= IBM Systems Solution for SAP Business
Suite and SAP HANA)
This setup makes use of the externalized IBM PureFlex System capabilities in shape of the IBM Systems Solution for SAP Business Suite and SAP HANA
Several core SAP applications are
deployed on internal POWER or x86
nodes and are complemented by an
external SAP HANA environment which is
being built of the x3950 X5 based standard
IBM appliance offering
This enables customers running SAP
HANA always to benefit from newest
certified System x HANA appliances and
operational improvements in that space
while creating administrative synergies
between the SAP HANA and traditional
SAP Business Suite infrastructure
Starting from physical integration today
the FlexSystem Manager will provide
integrated administrative capabilities
The IBM PureFlex system offers an
integrated infrastructure for all SAP
components SAP applications on
PureFlex System compute nodes may
access SAP HANA DB on IBM x3950 X5
servers as well as traditional data bases
(eg IBM DB2) running on PureFlex
System
Figure 15 SAP HANA Integration
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
28
High availability and disaster recovery
The single point of failures (SPOFs) for SAP systems stay untouched by the introduction of IBM PureFlex
System These are the database server and the central services for ABAP and Java including the enqueue
server
These SPOFs occur within each production SAP business component of the landscape that is multiple
clusters (such as ERP CRM SCM and so on) must be implemented
In addition central technical building blocks such as SAP Enterprise Portal (for user access) Process
Integration as Enterprise Service Bus need to be setup resilient
While the high availability and disaster recovery concepts for all these SPOFs are well known in general
they have not been tested in a special IBM PureFlex System environment at time of authoring this paper
As scenario 2 indicates multi-node databases like Oracle RAC are supported on IBM PureFlex System
Landscape monitoring and management
As the SAP landscapes tend to become a heterogeneous aggregation of servers and operating systems
this implies a certain level of complexity for SAP landscape administration Consolidating the SAP
landscape into an IBM PureFlex System with its consistent management capabilities helps to reduce this
complexity
The combination of the IBM PureFlex System and SAP NetWeaver technology offers multiple native
monitoring and administration layers for the complete hardware and software stack These are
Chassis Management Module
Flex System Management
SAP Computing Center Management System (SAP CCMS)
SAP Solution Manager
minus SAP Solution Manager aims at SAP application management and business key
performance indicator (KPI) monitoring but also is a mandatory tool for SAP
release and patch management
SAP NetWeaver Landscape Virtualization Management (LVM)
The IBM PureFlex System FSM and SAP LVM Enterprise are optional components the remaining ones
are part of virtualized base installation
In order to gain maximum efficiency for daily operations it is important to select the most appropriate tools
for specific administrative tasks and organizations In addition consistency and transparency need to be
maintained
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
29
The following table provides a high-level orientation for a selected set of administrator tasks in SAP
ecosystems
CMM FSM SAP LVM SAP CCMS SAP Solution Manager
Chassis topology view and administration
Through CMM
Virtualization metrics Through Flex System
Manager
Virtualization topology and administration
Through Flex System
Manager
OS DB SAP performance
Provisioning of a new virtual server Through Flex System
Manager
Virtual server start stop and live migration
Through Flex System
Manager
SAP service reallocation
SAP system refresh cloning
Alerting Chassis focus Systems focus
Task monitoring
OS DB SAP Base
Business KPIs
Integration to an upper-level enterprise management
Into Flex System
Manager
Into SAP Solution Manager
Table 6 monitoring and management layers
FSM is based on IBM Systems Director and provides comparable functions For POWER nodes FSM is
mandatory for advanced virtualization management As most of these functions are beneficial (if not
mandatory) for SAP (production) systems the FSM appears as an essential component for SAP on IBM
PureFlex environments
As a single point of control FSM provides a web-based interface to manage all aspects of the IBM
PureFlex System hardware components For example an interactive chassis map provides status
overview and serves as an entry point to manage the different resources Setup wizards guide you through
the process of initial setup and maintenance tasks
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
30
Figure 16 FSM chassis map
SAP CCMS is fully functional for IBM PureFlex System It allows monitoring and adjustment of base SAP
application and database settings Also PowerVM-specific metrics such as LPAR and WPAR resources
AME settings and so on can be accesses through the native SAP administrator GUI
IBM PureFlex System integration with SAP NetWeaver Landscape
Virtualization Management
The described cloud solution for SAP landscapes becomes available by a combination of the IBM FSM
capabilities and SAP NetWeaver Landscape Virtualization Management for automation tasks at the
application level
This solution enables common cloud scenarios with the SAP software stack and the underlying
infrastructure It aims to connect application management services with system virtualization and storage
management services It is a management tool for customers who run their SAP systems in their own data
center and want to become more efficient by automating provisioning and cloning tasks
Various scenarios around system copy and system refresh are supported including post-copy automation
Those labor-expensive tasks have been made easy with SAP Landscape Virtualization Management and
IBM PureFlex System
In more detail the following use cases are covered for cloud environments running SAP applications
Cloning of a SAP system (creating an identical copy in a fenced environment)
Creating an initial copy of a SAP system (with changing the SAP system identifier)
Refreshing a test SAP system with the content of a productive system
Automation of system copyrefresh post processing activities
Monitoring and visualization of virtualized SAP landscapes
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
31
SAP Landscape Virtualization Management is in many cases complementary to the inherent IBM PureFlex
System management layers SAP Landscape Virtualization Management enables access to many relevant
IBM PureFlex System and virtualization parameters to the SAP management software and provides IT
self-services to SAP administrators
The available IBM and SAP literature which describes the interaction of IBM Systems Director and SAP
Landscape Virtualization Management also applies to IBM PureFlex System FSM is the enriched IBM
Systems Director specifically optimized and packaged for IBM PureFlex System
IBM Tivoli Storage FlashCopy Manager adds a unique value for SAP landscapes This software enables
application-aware database-consistent online backups which can be used to create the cloned system By
exploiting storage snapshot techniques the backup is taken almost instantaneously
The solution has been developed as modular building blocks This provides a high degree of flexibility and
extensibility The following table shows the products and editions that are used for each scenario
Table 7 Use cases per management layer
Management components
SAP NetWeaver Landscape Virtualization Management 10 integrates with the following IBM
management products
IBM Flex System Manager
FSM is used for virtualization monitoring and management and for the operating system
provisioning scenarios on IBM PureFlex System
IBM Tivoli Storage FlashCopy Manager 3101
Tivoli Storage FlashCopy Manager is required for storage cloning of online SAP systems
System
monitoring
SAP
relocate
AIX
provisioning
SAP
Clone
SAP
Copy
SAP
Refresh
Flex
System
Manager
(not needed) (not needed) (not needed) (not needed)
FlashCopy
Manager
(not needed) (not needed) (not needed)
Storage any NFS GPFS
SVC V7000
or XIV
any SVC V7000
or XIV
SVC V7000
or XIV
SVC V7000
or XIV
SAP LVM Standard
Edition
Standard
Edition
Standard
Edition
Enterprise
Edition
Enterprise
Edition
Enterprise
Edition
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
32
The management products can be installed on a single AIX LPAR within IBM PureFlex System
Alternatively the products might be installed on different servers for example SAP NetWeaver
Landscape Virtualization Management may run on any of the supported SAP platforms
The following graphic shows a high-level view of how SAP Landscape Virtualization Management
integrates with the IBM PureFlex System FSM stack to enable cloud scenarios on this platform
Figure 17 SAP Landscape Virtualization Manager integration with FSM
Managed SAP landscape
The following IBM PureFlex System infrastructure is supported with SAP NetWeaver Landscape
Virtualization Management
IBM POWER nodes
AIX 61 or 71
IBM SAN Volume Controller IBM Storwize V7000 or IBM XIVreg Storage System1
SAP NetWeaver 7x using IBM DB2 for Linux UNIX and Windows Oracle Database or
SAP MaxDB is supported
1 SAN Volume Controller and Storwize V7000 support requires SAP Landscape Virtualization Management SP3
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
33
It is assumed that the storage is attached using single or dual VIOS (IBM PowerVM VIOS) For the
storage-cloning scenario the SAN storage system must be attached in the N_Port ID Virtualization
(NPIV) mode NPIV is a FC adapter (HBA) feature that allows multiple LPARs to share a physical port
The clone is created using the FlashCopy feature of the SAN Volume Controller or the snapshot
feature of the XIV Storage System These methods create a logical copy of the data volumes within
seconds while the SAP source system stays fully operational
Whenever an IBM PureFlex System environment needs to be integrated into an existing enterprise
monitoring and management solution (for example an existing IBM Systems Director hierarchy or the IBM
Tivoli Suite) FSM provides interfaces for seamless upward integration
Furthermore SAP Landscape Virtualization Management can be used to manage SAP landscapes within
and outside of IBM PureFlex System and also across different platforms
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
34
SAP-specific offerings for IBM PureFlex System
This section lists specific offerings for SAP on IBM PureFlex System
Lab services and IBM support
As capacity and capability of a larger IBM PureFlex System installation are comparable to large scale
UNIX or mainframe installations IBM provides hardware and software support beyond the standards of
commodity blade systems
Including three Global Centers of Competence IBM Maintenance and Technical Support Services provide
integrated support on the FSM-based environments when there is not a clear understanding of whether
there is a hardware or a software issue All of this can be backed up with the latest version of IBM
Electronic Service Agent trade which has been enhanced for IBM PureFlex System and proactively monitors
and reports hardware events back to IBM support Even if a client has a comprehensive in-house support
organization this can selectively be enhanced through the addition of specific services within the portfolio
to cover critical areas of weakness or exposure
For complex IBM PureFlex System environments and where mission-critical applications are deployed
(which applies to SAP production systems) premium services are available and cover
Enhanced technical support custom technical support
Microcode support managed technical support
Committed fix services
Availability management hard disk retention
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
35
Summary
This paper provides reference architectures of how heterogeneous SAP landscapes can be consolidated
using IBM PureFlex System While running the core business applications on POWER nodes with AIX as
operating system complementary SAP components are added on x86 nodes IBM PureFlex System
enables a very tight integration of infrastructure components including servers networking and storage
Seamless monitoring and management functions of the infrastructure are provided by the FSM
The integration aspect is taken even further with the integration of the SAP Landscape Virtualization
Manager application with the FSM This enables SAP cloud usage scenarios for SAP systems running on
IBM PureFlex System
For individual questions or to request a briefing about this topic contact the IBM SAP International
Competence Center at isiccdeibmcom
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
36
Resources
These websites provide useful references to supplement the information contained in this paper
IBM Systems on PartnerWorld
ibmcompartnerworldsystems
IBM Redbooks
ibmcomredbooks
IBM cloud computing
ibmcomsolutionssapusenlandingcloud_solutionshtml
IBM Cloud Solutions for SAP clients
ibmcomcloud-computingusen
IBM SmartCloud Entry for AIX on PartnerWorld (requires PartnerWorld login)
ibmcompartnerworldpagestg_com_sys_smartcloud
SAP HANA on workload optimized IBM System x appliances
ibmcomsolutionssaphana
IBM internal SSI-URL with a collection of SAP related PureSystem materials
httpsw3-
03ssoibmcomsalessupportShowDocwssdocid=SGDN258263T70735C63ampnode=brandsB6000|brandsBI5
00|clientsetIA|alliancesT5000|alliancesT5150|channelDR|channelF2F|solutionQ00|solution210ampappname=C
C_SSIGD
select the ldquoCollateralrdquo Tab in ldquoMain Contentrdquo section
Related SAP on PureFlex paper with System x focus ldquoReference Architecture - SAP
Systems on IBM PureSystems based on x86 nodesrdquo
httpw3ibmcomsupporttechdocsatsmastrnsfWebIndexWP102167
httpwwwibmcomsupporttechdocsatsmastrnsfWebIndexWP102167
httpwww-03ibmcompartnerworldpartnerinfosrcatsmastrnsfWebIndexWP102167
Related SAP on PureFlex paper with IBM i focus ldquoEfficiently deploying SAP landscapes
on the IBM PureFlex Systemrdquo
httpw3ibmcomsupporttechdocsatsmastrnsfWebIndexWP102087
httpwwwibmcomsupporttechdocsatsmastrnsfWebIndexWP102087
httpwww-03ibmcompartnerworldpartnerinfosrcatsmastrnsfWebIndexWP102087
Virtualization for SAP on IBM PureSystems with Microsoft Hyper-V
httpwwwibmcomsupporttechdocsatsmastrnsfWebIndexWP102153
IBM Workload Optimized Solution for SAP HANA ndash Quick Start Guide
provides technical overview HW models network requirements for IBM Systems Solution
for SAP HANA appliance
httpdownloadboulderibmcomibmdlpubsystemssupportsystem_x_pdf46w8274pdf
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
37
IBM internal SAP HANA Wiki
httpsw3-connectionsibmcomwikishomelang=en-
uswikiWaef4c0eb0f35_427f_a25e_670e392682b1pageSAP20HANA
FlexSystem with SAP BWA Presentations (click to open link)
Seller
Customer
General IBM Sales Kit ldquoSAP NetWeaver Business Warehouse Accelerator (BWA)rdquo
Implementation Guide for BWA on IBM Flex System x240
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
38
Trademarks and special notices
copy Copyright IBM Corporation 2013
References in this document to IBM products or services do not imply that IBM intends to make them
available in every country
IBM the IBM logo and ibmcom are trademarks or registered trademarks of International Business
Machines Corporation in the United States other countries or both If these and other IBM trademarked
terms are marked on their first occurrence in this information with a trademark symbol (reg or trade) these
symbols indicate US registered or common law trademarks owned by IBM at the time this information
was published Such trademarks may also be registered or common law trademarks in other countries A
current list of IBM trademarks is available on the Web at Copyright and trademark information at
wwwibmcomlegalcopytradeshtml
Java and all Java-based trademarks and logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of Oracle andor
its affiliates
Microsoft Windows Windows NT and the Windows logo are trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the
United States other countries or both
Intel Intel Inside (logos) MMX and Pentium are trademarks of Intel Corporation in the United States
other countries or both
UNIX is a registered trademark of The Open Group in the United States and other countries
Linux is a trademark of Linus Torvalds in the United States other countries or both
Other company product or service names may be trademarks or service marks of others
Information is provided AS IS without warranty of any kind
All customer examples described are presented as illustrations of how those customers have used IBM
products and the results they may have achieved Actual environmental costs and performance
characteristics may vary by customer
Information concerning non-IBM products was obtained from a supplier of these products published
announcement material or other publicly available sources and does not constitute an endorsement of
such products by IBM Sources for non-IBM list prices and performance numbers are taken from publicly
available information including vendor announcements and vendor worldwide homepages IBM has not
tested these products and cannot confirm the accuracy of performance capability or any other claims
related to non-IBM products Questions on the capability of non-IBM products should be addressed to the
supplier of those products
All statements regarding IBM future direction and intent are subject to change or withdrawal without notice
and represent goals and objectives only Contact your local IBM office or IBM authorized reseller for the
full text of the specific Statement of Direction
Some information addresses anticipated future capabilities Such information is not intended as a definitive
statement of a commitment to specific levels of performance function or delivery schedules with respect to
any future products Such commitments are only made in IBM product announcements The information is
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
39
presented here to communicate IBMs current investment and development activities as a good faith effort
to help with our customers future planning
Performance is based on measurements and projections using standard IBM benchmarks in a controlled
environment The actual throughput or performance that any user will experience will vary depending upon
considerations such as the amount of multiprogramming in the users job stream the IO configuration the
storage configuration and the workload processed Therefore no assurance can be given that an
individual user will achieve throughput or performance improvements equivalent to the ratios stated here
Photographs shown are of engineering prototypes Changes may be incorporated in production models
Any references in this information to non-IBM websites are provided for convenience only and do not in
any manner serve as an endorsement of those websites The materials at those websites are not part of
the materials for this IBM product and use of those websites is at your own risk
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
6
As of November 2012 build-to-order systems (BTU) are available too These systems are referred to
as ldquoFlex Systemsrdquo versus the pre-packaged ldquoPureFlexrdquo configurations specified in Table 1 BTU
systems offer the advantage of higher configuration flexibility for the price of less integration and
automization through built-in expertise
Node scalability and performance
Node scalability and performance applies to the vertical scalability and transaction performance of
individual nodes contained within an IBM PureFlex System chassis Published SAP ECC 60 EHP 4
Sales and Distribution benchmarks provide leadership SAP Application Performance Standard (SAPS)
capacities
POWER Node Number of
coresfrequency
SAPS ECC 60
Certification No
IBM PureFlex p260 node 833 16355GHz
IBM PureFlex p260+ node 841 163641GHz 54700
2012035
IBM PureFlex p270+ node
(DB2 105)
24341GHz 68380
2013019
IBM PureFlex p460 node 16 32355GHz 93080
2012015
Table 2 POWER compute nodes overview
The SAPS capacity of the new 32-core POWER nodes is about 40 higher compared to an IBM
BladeCenter PS704 Express blade with the same number of cores and it compares well with an IBM
Powerreg 750 32-core system This discrete system has been very successful in the midrange SAP
marketplace Consequently customers can easily migrate from discrete mid-size servers to an IBM
PureFlex System node of their choice without redesigning their SAP landscape and changing the
existing operational environment
The November 2012 announcement has introduced newest POWER7+ technology to the p260+ half-
wide nodes A higher frequency but mostly a 25x larger cache provide additional +25 SAPS
capacity according to SAP SampD benchmark results in Table 2For those customers who need
scalability beyond a single node or prefer SAP 3-tier implementations or scale-out DB servers the
IBM PureFlex System chassis and its inherent network topology provides an ideal physical
consolidation platform with a single point of control for infrastructure management
IBM PureFlex System scalability continues in the way that multiple (up to four) chassis can be
clustered and still managed as a single IT entity However when it comes to application scalability
across nodes classical parameters such as networking latency also need to be considered
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
7
Caution needs to be paid to the available physical memory per node respectively per SAP system
Depending on the type of internal disks installed in a POWER node it is not possible to install the
maximum amount of memory That is why itrsquos not recommended to use internal disks for POWER
nodes running SAP applications Storage should be provided by an external solution See section
ldquoStorage attachmentrdquo for details
System connectivity
IBM PureFlex System provides state-of-the-art system connectivity by scalable switch elements
providing up to four switch partitions per physical switch (three partitions at for initial release) These
can be a combination of
24-port BNT 10Gb Fibre Channel over Convergence Enhanced Ethernet (software
key to increase ports)
20-port 8Gb FC
24-port BNT 1Gb
48-port BNT 1Gb (SW key to increase four 10Gb ports)
Mezzanine cards
2-port 8Gb FC (QLogic)
4-port 1Gb (Broadcom)
The scalable structure allows extending IO capacity along with increasing application needs As the
number of nodes and their IO adapters grow additional switch capacity can be installed in an IBM
PureFlex System chassis
Figure 2 IBM PureFlex System switch configurations
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
8
The IBM PureFlex System network topology provides an internal network for monitoring and
management purposes This is used by the CMM and the FSM appliance to interact with the hardware
components and virtualization layers
Figure 3 IBM PureFlex System network topology
Reliability availability and serviceability (RAS) features
SAP business applications are mostly mission-critical Hence reliability and minimum downtimes of a
platform are of high significance IBM PureFlex System components have inherited many RAS
attributes of the discrete IBM server families
Hot plug power and cooling
Concurrent firmware code updates
Processor de-allocation
Hot plug nodes
Dual-power supply
Auto reboot on power loss
Temperature monitors
Error correction code (ECC)-protected memory
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
9
SAP reference landscape on IBM PureFlex System
The SAP reference landscape on IBM PureFlex System section provides an introduction to the SAP
landscape topology and example reference landscapes for IBM POWER and AIX based core SAP
systems running on IBM PureFlex System
Introduction to SAP landscape topology
SAP customer landscapes consist of several SAP systems each supporting a specific business
application or dedicated to development and testing purposes
The most common SAP applications are combined as SAP Business Suite which combines functions for
enterprise resource planning (ERP) customer relationship management (CRM) supply chain
management (SCM) and business warehouse (BW) All of these modules (and much more) can be
installed as dedicated SAP business applications too Their common underlying technology stack is the
SAP NetWeaver layer SAP NetWeaver provides typical middleware functionality to SAP sites such as
Web Application Server Portal Service Bus reporting and so on But the SAP NetWeaver layer also
provides abstraction of the SAP Business Suite towards hardware OS and relational database
management systems (RDBMS) This enables the SAP Business Suite to run on top of almost all server
platforms
SAP industry solutions and the All-In-One midmarket offering are based on the identical architecture and
contain a blend of the Business Suite modules customized with industry-specific data and transactions
All of the Business Suite components can be either implemented in 2-tier or 3-tier mode While the 2-tier
mode is the most efficient way of implementing a SAP instance from a resource and complexity
perspective 3-tier implementations provide advantages in scalability availability and flexibility
Figure 4 multiple level consolidation
Some applications can be extended with dedicated functional systems used to either complement or to
accelerate transactions Prominent examples are Adobe Document Server TREX BWA and the SAP in-
memory database HANA These technology components do not rely on the NetWeaver stack and thus run
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
10
on dedicated x86-based environments For scalability reasons these modules often follow a scale-out
paradigm
The variety and count of back-end and complementary systems is customer individual but in general
demands for physical system consolidation by using virtualization technologies
Another dimension of SAP landscape growth is the requirement of a strict isolation of production and
nonproduction environments by SAP The nonproduction environments mostly consist of sandbox
development test and QA systems The SAP transport system links these stages and allows critical
changes in either the OS or the application being tested before being promoted to business-critical SAP
instances
Supported SAP solution stacks
For the POWER nodes the same software stacks as with discrete IBM Power Systemstrade are supported
that is IBM AIXreg IBM i and Linux servers Same is true for the common databases IBM DB2reg for Linux
UNIXreg and Windows DB2 for IBM i and Oracle for AIX Restrictions on release level might apply
though All supported OSDBSAP module combinations are maintained in the product availability matrix
on the SAP Service Marketplace As one big advantage of IBM PureFlex System SAP modules which are
not supported on the POWER nodes can be deployed in the same chassis using the x86 nodes
The following table shows the supported OS and DB levels on the POWER nodes at time of
announcement
X = supported
AIX 61 71 IBM i 61 71 PowerLinux
SLES 1011
RHEL 5 6
DB2 for i X
DB2 for Linux
UNIX and
Windows 97 10
X X
MaxDB 78 X X
Oracle 1102
incl RAC
X
Sybase ASE 157 X
Table 3 supported OS and DB levels
On top of these OS and DB combinations all SAP NetWeaver 7x releases and modules are supported as
technology and middleware stack
SAP NetWeaver Landscape Virtualization Management is also supported for IBM PureFlex System and
extends the FSM with application monitoring and cloud-enabling operations More details on these are
described in the ldquoLandscape monitoring and managementrdquo section
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
11
Landscape planning
The landscape planning section describes the underlying concepts for system layout the integration of
external storage solutions and integration aspects for existing SAP landscapes and complementary SAP
component
System layout concepts
Applications running on IBM PureFlex System can take full advantage of the virtualization and
partitioning capabilities offered by the operating systems running on IBM PureFlex System For
POWER nodes the identical virtualization and partitioning capabilities are available for AIX IBM i and
PowerLinux using IBM PowerVMreg virtualization For x86 nodes the VMware kernel-based virtual
machine (KVM) and Hyper-V virtualization hypervisors are available This enables a very flexible
landscape implementation on IBM PureFlex System
The SAP concept of separating production from the development and test systems is applied by
choosing separate OS instances for those systems Depending on the sizing requirements this can
occupy a dedicated node or (in most cases) be an LPAR in a shared resource pool which is
partitioned to contain multiple components of a SAP Business Suite landscape
In order to make best use of the physical resources it is recommended to combine production LPARs
with high priority (that is weighting factor) with nonproduction LPARs with lower priority on a POWER
node This allows unexpected load peaks within a SAP production system to be covered by additional
processor resources out of these less-critical LPARs Also it is a good idea to collocate SAP instances
with recurring load peaks within a single node For example SAP systems serving users in different
time-zones fall into this category
Independent from IBM PureFlex System the advice is to apply generic IBM POWER7reg best practices
for PowerVM parameterization as provided by the POWER brand and SAP sizing guidelines
While processor (de-) allocation happens very dynamically within a millisecond timescale this does
not apply to physical memory Hence the memory associated to an LPAR in a pool ideally covers the
maximum of the LPARs peak virtual processor allocation SAP applications are rather memory
consuming with a large workload dependent variation though The available memory on a IBM
PureFlex System POWER node is sufficient for many SAP workloads in particular for the very
common SAP ERP component and such that do not make use of a Javatrade stack Whenever SAP
sizing results (per SAP Quick Sizer output for example) indicate that 8 GB per core are not sufficient or
you want to consolidate many SAP instances into a single shared pool you have the following two
options with IBM PureFlex System in order to increase memory capacity
Configure the POWER nodes with internal SSDs or boot from external storage ie no HDDs
contained in node in order to double the memory per core ratio
Configure and activate Active Memory Expansion (AME)
The expansion factor again is heavily workload dependent As a starting point assume memory
expansion by
20 times for SAP ABAP-only dialogue servers
15 times for SAP DB servers and only
11 times for SAP Java instances
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
12
Hardware accelerated AME introduced with the POWER7+ nodes is supported by SAP
Measurements have shown no significant differences over the traditional sw-only AME version
AIX Workload Partitions (WPARs) are another option for saving physical memory on constrained
nodes WPARs are supported for AIX 7 running on a node also SAP supports WPARs As WPARs
reside within an AIX host environment and not as dedicated LPARs there are several advantages by
deploying smaller SAP systems into these
WPARs do not require an incremental hypervisor and OS memory footprint
WPARs can dynamically reallocate memory within the host AIX space This does not cause a
delay by hypervisor activities and therefore results in real-time memory virtualization
As an additional benefit WPARs require less OS maintenance efforts compared to an identical
number of LPARs each running an own AIX or Linux OS This is of interest as soon as
operational costs are linked to the count of managed OS images
The PowerVM hypervisor theoretically limits the smallest SAP instance to occupy as little as 110th of
a node core But what is the largest SAP system that can reside within a single IBM PureFlex System
chassis This question might be of interest for prospects that plan downsizing from large-scale
servers
If you assume a typical DB-to-Application Server ratio of 14 for SAP ERP production instances this
results in the largest 3-tier SAP ERP system of (132 cores DB server + 432 cores application
servers) = 160 cores which can be covered by the POWER nodes that fit into a single 10U high IBM
PureFlex System chassis As a rough approximation assume effectively 2000 SAPS per core (this is
a conservative approach for SAP production compared to a SAP sales and distribution benchmark
environment) which results in a single SAP system of 320000 SAPS This capacity is in the range of
a medium-sized discrete Power 795 server
As most of the SAP systems are database centric the limiting factor is not only the processor
capacity but also a well-balanced IO and database design Details are covered in the following
section
For larger SAP database instances and in order to increase their resiliency customers might consider
implementing a scale-out relational database management system (RDBMS) by deploying several
nodes as concurrent DB nodes The internal IBM PureFlex System network bandwidth favors
horizontal scalability IBM DB2 pureScalereg or Oracle Real Application Cluster (RAC) are both
supported for SAP production use and have been tested on IBM PureFlex System Beyond increased
database scalability the failure of a single DB node will not cause the attached SAP systems to stop
but to continue with a reduced DB throughput
Introducing the IBM Systems Solution for SAP Business Suite and SAP HANA
SAP HANA is exclusively supported on certified hardware ndash for example IBM System x3950 X5 ndash that
uses the Intel EX processor architecture As of today HANA cannot be deployed on any compute
node within the PureFlex chassis However certified x3950 X5 based HANA appliances also
including storage and system software components may be installed in the same PureFlex rack A
reference architecture introducing this solution offering has been included in section Integration of
SAP Appliance-based components of this document
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
13
Storage attachment
In the previous section the design criteria for the server nodes have been explained This section
explains the storage and IO relevant parameters for an IBM PureFlex System-based SAP landscape
The IBM PureFlex System compute nodes allow adding a limited amount of internal storage to the
node For most of the business applications the available internal disk space might not be sufficient
Therefore storage needs to be supplied by an storage solution The IBM PureFlex System chassis
can be equipped with the internal Flex System V7000 storage node This can be connected via the
chassis internal switches directly over Fibre Channel of Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE)
Figure 5 Chassis internal storage attachment
External storage system like the IBM Storwize V7000 or the IBM SAN Volume Controller or any
other IBM System Storage can be connected through the chassis switches as well
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
14
Figure 6 Chassis internal and external storage attachment
Access to either of the storage solutions from the POWER nodes requires a Virtual IO Server (VIOS)
installed Due to the limited FC ports on the half wide compute nodes a dual VIOS setup is only
possible using Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE)as shown in figures 5 and 6 above
IBM Flex System V7000
In general the IBM PureFlex System can connect to any SAN storage solution The internal IBM Flex
System V7000 is the most powerful and easy-to-use innovative midrange disk system in the storage
marketplace and is the best fit for IBM PureFlex System The Flex System V7000 is fully compatible
with the IBM Storwize V7000 storage system
The integrated Easy Tier functionality provides significant performance improvements by
automatic migration of hot data blocks to high-performing SSDs
Thin provisioning consumes used space only no pre-allocation required
Dynamic migration provides continuous availability of the applications while migrating data
online
IBM FlashCopy replication supports faster and more efficient data copies for online
backup testing or data mining
25-inch disk form factor 24 per expansion unit 240 total disks
Cluster up to 4 node pairs and 960 disks
Each node pair provides dual RAID controller to provide high availability access
No SAN or fiber channel cabling is required between the compute and storage nodes
Real time disk compression reduces the amount of required storage space Compression
rates are between 50 and 70 for SAP systems running on IBM i and the DB2 for i
database
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
15
Integration of the V7000 storage management into the Flex System Manager
Value of Easy Tier to SAP
The SAP ERP system workloads represent online transaction processing (OLTP) characteristics
Typically not all data of the SAP system or database is accessed during a given time frame for
example during a 24-hour period Statistically there exist contiguously accessed data areas some of
which are hot These hot spots are part of the disk system that has significantly high activity and
usually cause long wait times for IO requests The change rate of the hot data areas is not in terms of
minutes but most likely stays constant over a longer period of time for example 24 hours
Here Easy Tier is able to monitor and move these hot areas from HDD to SSD Easy Tier
automatically creates a data migration plan to incrementally move the hottest data to SSDs and the
cold data back to the spinning disks Easy Tier adapts to clientsrsquo changing workloads and it does this
without any administrative effort to constantly tune their storage systems As a result the SAP
transaction time is reduced
Value of Real Time Disk Compression to SAP
Today traditional database systems provide various compression technologies to store data This
requires know-how to identify which tables to compress and to setup and maintain efficient
compression over time With real time disk compression offered by Storwize V7000 the complete disk
set of the partition running the SAP systems can be easily compressed Disk compression saves
between 50 and 70 percent of storage space with minimal performance impact to most SAP
workloads This is comparable to native DB gains and can save license and operational DB-admin
cost A combination of two compression technologies does not bring further advantages
IBM Flex System V7000 Storage Node
The IBM Flex System V7000 Storage Node requires a minimum of 2 full wide slots to be installed into
an IBM Flex System chassis It provides direct Fibre Channel Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE)
and iSCSI connection to the PureFlex compute nodes The Flex System Manager will identify the
storage system automatically
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
16
The Flex System V7000 management user interface (GUI) is compatible with the Storwize V7000 GUI
IBM PureFlex System and Storwize V7000
The Storwize V7000 storage can be connected to the IBM PureFlex System chassis either through
Fiber Channel (SAN) or through Ethernet (iSCSI) Both the connections provided block-level access to
the storage system
With IBM PureFlex System the test team recommends SAN access by using the IBM PureFlex
System integrated SAN switch where four FC connections are required to ensure multipathing More
connections are not required for connecting to a single chassis
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
17
Setting up a stretched cluster is not supported by the integrated V7000 SVC Customers will require a
traditional SVC to support such a resilient disk setup Of course other technologies like AIX LVM
mirroring Metro Mirror etc are supported
Configuration of Flex System V7000 and Storwize V7000
To gain maximum flexibility in respect to capacity utilization and performance workload balancing the
number of storage pools configured (Managed Disk Groups) should be as few as possible for a single
V7000 system (node pair) Depending on the performance requirement the use of Easy Tier in
combination with SSDs is recommended
A fully equipped chassis is capable to handle 300000 SAPS leading to a workload of approximately
100000 IOPS Assuming a storage demand of 100 TB usable results in the following
recommendation
24 SSD 25-inch 400 GB each plugged into the V7000 controller
Four expansion units each with 24 SAS drives 25-inch each 900 GB
One expansion unit 23 SAS drives 25-inch each 900 GB and 1 SSD 25 inches 400 GB
(spare)
RAIDs (Managed Disk) are configured as RAID 5 7+1
Total of 25 SSD and 119 SAS
Integration with existing SAP landscapes
The IBM PureFlex System chassis can be integrated into existing SAP landscapes Physically the IBM
PureFlex System chassis fits into any standard 19-inch rack which provides a minimum of 10 spare height
units Other non-IBM PureFlex System components can be housed within the same standard rack as long
as power distribution units provide sufficient energy A fully populated IBM PureFlex System chassis can
contain up to six 2500 watts energy supplies which can be configured for several redundancy modes
The Ethernet and FC switches provide connectivity to an existing network and storage infrastructure As
discussed in the previous section the IBM PureFlex System FC switch connects to existing SAN storage
solutions LPARs stored on the SAN can be migrated to an IBM PureFlex System POWER node by
assigning the disks to the IBM PureFlex System nodersquos VIOS and boot from those This allows very fast
migration of exiting SAP systems to IBM PureFlex System with minimal downtime
External SAN storage can be attached to a new PureFlex chassis in several ways Ideally external LUNs
are connected via the integrated V7000 SAN Volume Controller as managed disks Thus storage
administration can exploit SVC virtualization and management capabilities If latter is not a focus the
PureFlex FC-switches can be attached to existing SAN-fabrics using transparent NPIV mode see Figure
6 Storage vendors need to support this and storage SAN administration will be performed with native
vendor tools not via FSM
Tests have shown that IBM PowerVM Live Partition Mobility (LPM) is possible between nodes and
external systems given the network is set up appropriately This allows to migrate running LPARs from
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
18
discrete Power Systems to POWER nodes and to migrate from POWER nodes to discrete Power
Systems
The FSM administration layer can co-exist with already implemented cross-platform management solutions like eg the IBM Systems Director It also can become integrated with higher level enterprise service management software as a monitored and managed layer
Figure 7 integration of management components
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
19
Integration of SAP Appliance-based components
Certain SAP components are not available on all SAP supported operating systems and databases If
such components are required to support customersrsquo business processes they need to be installed on top
of a supported OS which is not necessarily the same location where the SAP core applications are stored
With IBM PureFlex System supporting both x86 and POWER processor-based operating systems those
complementary components can be tightly integrated into the landscape The required hardware
resources can be hosted within one IBM PureFlex System chassis Besides the compact server footprint in
the datacenter the internal network eliminates the need for network cables and switches to connect the
systems The IBM PureFlex System management provided by CMM and FSM reduces the complexity of
managing the heterogeneous environment
This allows the creation of a complete SAP landscape within a single box Core SAP Business Suite
components are running on the POWER nodes while complementary components such as SAP
Enterprise Search and SAP Business Warehouse Accelerator can run on x86 nodes
The IBM Systems Solution for SAP Business Suite and SAP HANA SAP HANA is the strategic in-memory
database by SAP AG to accelerate in particular business analytics but also transactional business In
order to achieve magnitudes of acceleration SAP HANA exploits specific design features of the Intel EX
processor architecture with optimized low-level coding Consequently SAP HANA is exclusively
supported on certified hardware using this processor type ndash for example IBM System x3950 X5
The IBM SAP HANA offering is a standardized portfolio of System x hardware (IBM Systems x3950 X5 -
7143-Hxx systems) with internal (SSD SAS) storage for data persistency plus software components and
surrounding services Exclusively Linux namely SLES 11 is supported as operating system
As of today such an appliance cannot be deployed on any compute node within the PureFlex chassis
Instead IBM x3950 X5 based SAP HANA building blocks may be installed into the same rack as the
PureFlex chassis and act as external HANA compute nodes Connection to both x86 and POWER based
internal compute nodes running standard SAP applications or complementary SAP HANA instances is
done via Ethernet through a TOR switch
A big advantage of re-using external technology is that well established and beneficial concepts can be 11
applied for PureFlex focused landscapes too As an excelling example IBM GPFS (General Parallel File
System) not only enables the IBM SAP HANA solution to grow beyond the capacity of a single system into
a scale-out solution but also adds high availability and disaster recovery features to the IBM HANA
appliance
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
20
The scope of the Flex System Manager has been extended to allow the integrated management of
PureFlex internal components and IBM x3950 X5 based SAP HANA building blocks
It provides administrative functions like
Manual discovery inventory
Release Management (FW and SW installation and update)
Power Control
Remote Access
System Configuration
System Health and Status
Service and Support
for workload optimized x3950 X5 SAP HANA appliances
Figure 8 FSM menu of external x3950 X5 based IBM SAP HANA appliances
The screenshot above shows external x3950 X5 nodes appearing on the FlexSystem Manager panel and
the applicable activities to be performed
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
21
From a hardware point-of-view IBM PureFlex Systems offer the administrative integration of the HANA
building blocks (T-shirt sizes) listed in Table 4They meet the SAP defined HANA sizing grid and do not
need to be purchased together with a PureFlex System This allows the integration of existing HANA
systems with a newly deployed PureFlex System at customer site
Building block
Server (MTM)
CPUs Main memory
S+ x3950 X5
(7143-HAx) 2x Intel Xeon
E7-8870 256 GB
M x3950 X5
(7143-HBx) 4x Intel Xeon
E7-8870 512 GB
L
x3950 X5 (7143HBx)
+ x3950 X5
(7143HCx)
8x Intel Xeon E7-8870
1024 GB
XM x3950 X5
(7143-HDx) 4x Intel Xeon
E7-8870 1TB
32x 32GB
XL x3950 X5
(7143-HDx + 7143-HEx)
8x Intel Xeon E7-8870
2TB 64x 32GB
XXL x3950 X5
(7143-HBx + 7143-HCx)
8x Intel Xeon E7-8870
4TB 128x 32GB
Table 4 IBM SAP HANA Appliance building blocks (June 2013)
This list will change pretty frequently as new models and HANA configurations will become supported
Therefore always check the SAP list of supported models in the SAP HANA PAM (requires authorization)
or consult an IBM Techline representative SAP technology and management components as well as
common operational functions like the Tivoli Storage Manager for BackupRestore of ERP and HANA may
be deployed on PureFlex compute nodes and act on both environments
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
22
Figure 9 Architecture of SAP Business Suite on PureFlex and SAP HANA on System x3950 X5 Workload Optimized Solution for SAP HANA
In case of IBM SAP HANA scale-out configurations the Integrated Management Module of x3950 X5
servers and the SAP HANA appliance related network interfaces (like SAP client access HANA Studio
ERP backup and restore HWSW-Admin) will be connected to the PureFlex Device Management and
Client Data network via Ethernet through TOR switches Such a scale-out configuration is deployed with
separate racks
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
23
Figure 10 SAP HANA Appliances with PureFlex Network Topology
Depended on the amount of external network connections single node IBM SAP HANA appliances may
be connected via available ports on integrated switches of the PureFlex chassis The single node SAP
HANA appliance could be deployed in the same rack with IBM PureFlex System
FlexSystem Native Node Support for SAP Business Warehouse Accelerator
The SAP Business Warehouse Accelerator (BWA) was the initial approach to accelerate OLAP workload
with a dedicated appliance attached to a SAP Business Warehouse system SAP BWA follows a ldquoplug amp
playrdquo design easier to implement than SAP HANA and has a longer history Hence SAP BWA still has a
broad installed base among SAP BI customers
SAP BWA has not been this highly optimized for the Intel EX-CPU type This fact allows deploying SAP
BWA appliances on XEON-based FlexSystem nodes running a SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 SP2
operating system
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
24
The ldquoIBM Flex System Solution for SAP NetWeaver Business Warehouse Acceleratorrdquo extends the
established IBM BladeCenter offerings for SAP BWA with scalable FlexSystem configurations comprising
of x240 compute nodes inside the Flex-chassis and externally attached IBM Storage Systems DS3500
This combination meets the SAP BWA appliance criteria while providing an excellent priceperformance
ratio
Table 5 FlexSystem building blocks for IBM SAP Business Warehouse Accelerator Appliances (August 2013)
As with the SAP BWA appliances based on IBM BladeCenter the IBM GPFS filesystem improves overall
IO performance data scalability and resiliency The building blocks have been pre-tested and optimized
to deliver easy integration and quick implementation Order and shipment processes of the pre-built
systems are identical to those of the traditional IBM BWA platforms
Since SAP BWA is an encapsulated appliance it cannot exploit all functionality provided by FSM for full
topology management Passive ndash in the sense of monitoring - functions like inventory system health
hardware service and support are applicable Dedicated BWA-FlexSystem chassis can be attached to
PureFlex systems hosting a SAP BI solution and monitored from there Performing active administrative
functions which may have an impact on the BWA configuration are not allowed however
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
25
SAP on AIX reference landscapes for IBM PureFlex System
1 Minimal system = ERP BW all on POWER nodes
This is the simplest case of deploying
core SAP components in an IBM
PureFlex System System All SAP
modules are supported on POWER and
either an AIX or PowerLinux OS Two
nodes for physical redundancy each with
PowerVM and VIO virtualization are
used
In order to make use of autonomous load
balancing by PowerVM it is
recommended to mix production and
nonproduction SAP instances within a
shared processor pool on each of the
single nodes SAP 2-tier deployments
need to be preferred for smaller systems
Consider packing non- production
systems into WPARs for less LPAR
complexity
2 3-tier SAP ERP with scale-out DB and application-server tier all on POWER nodes
This option combines DB scale-out with
an SAP 3-tier application-server scale
out The advantage of a multinode DB
is a hot-standby high availability
without DB downtime as with classical
cold-standby cluster solutions Also
both the nodes contribute to an
aggregate DB throughput when in
normal operation As such a setup
appears for business-critical scenarios
a hot-standby FSM appliance has also
been configured (planned in 2012)
This in any case ensures that the
overall system monitoring and
adjustment can take place
Figure 11 minimal system
Figure 12 scale-out database
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
26
3 Mixed system = SAP Business Suite core applications TREX and non-SAP applications
This setup makes use of the IBM
PureFlex System heterogeneous
capabilities While several core SAP
Business Suite applications stay on
POWER nodes they are now
complemented by SAP TREX and a
NetWeaver development
environment which are supported
only on an x86 architecture There
are more than these components
there are newer appliances such as
BWA and HANA which mandate
such a setup
Further applications can be
consolidated into the same IBM
PureFlex System chassis as well
4 SAP NetWeaver landscape = SAP Business Suite core applications SAP Enterprise Portal
SAP Process Integration (service bus) and SAP Business Objects
This is a heterogeneous setup with
majority of SAP core systems on AIX
SAP Business Objects XI runs on
larger AIX LPAR for scaling while the
Business Objects end-user oriented
systems are consolidated in virtual
machines hosted on an x86 node
This scenario also outlines the
capability of IBM PureFlex System to
run x86 Linux and PowerLinux
distributions This applies to non-SAP
and many SAP components Inter-
system communication strongly takes
advantage of the internal networking
bandwidth of IBM PureFlex System
Figure 14 SAP Process Integration and SAP Business Objects
Figure 13 complementary components
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
27
5 Mixed system with SAP HANA = SAP Business Suite core applications deployed on
PureFlex nodes plus SAP HANA Appliances (= IBM Systems Solution for SAP Business
Suite and SAP HANA)
This setup makes use of the externalized IBM PureFlex System capabilities in shape of the IBM Systems Solution for SAP Business Suite and SAP HANA
Several core SAP applications are
deployed on internal POWER or x86
nodes and are complemented by an
external SAP HANA environment which is
being built of the x3950 X5 based standard
IBM appliance offering
This enables customers running SAP
HANA always to benefit from newest
certified System x HANA appliances and
operational improvements in that space
while creating administrative synergies
between the SAP HANA and traditional
SAP Business Suite infrastructure
Starting from physical integration today
the FlexSystem Manager will provide
integrated administrative capabilities
The IBM PureFlex system offers an
integrated infrastructure for all SAP
components SAP applications on
PureFlex System compute nodes may
access SAP HANA DB on IBM x3950 X5
servers as well as traditional data bases
(eg IBM DB2) running on PureFlex
System
Figure 15 SAP HANA Integration
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
28
High availability and disaster recovery
The single point of failures (SPOFs) for SAP systems stay untouched by the introduction of IBM PureFlex
System These are the database server and the central services for ABAP and Java including the enqueue
server
These SPOFs occur within each production SAP business component of the landscape that is multiple
clusters (such as ERP CRM SCM and so on) must be implemented
In addition central technical building blocks such as SAP Enterprise Portal (for user access) Process
Integration as Enterprise Service Bus need to be setup resilient
While the high availability and disaster recovery concepts for all these SPOFs are well known in general
they have not been tested in a special IBM PureFlex System environment at time of authoring this paper
As scenario 2 indicates multi-node databases like Oracle RAC are supported on IBM PureFlex System
Landscape monitoring and management
As the SAP landscapes tend to become a heterogeneous aggregation of servers and operating systems
this implies a certain level of complexity for SAP landscape administration Consolidating the SAP
landscape into an IBM PureFlex System with its consistent management capabilities helps to reduce this
complexity
The combination of the IBM PureFlex System and SAP NetWeaver technology offers multiple native
monitoring and administration layers for the complete hardware and software stack These are
Chassis Management Module
Flex System Management
SAP Computing Center Management System (SAP CCMS)
SAP Solution Manager
minus SAP Solution Manager aims at SAP application management and business key
performance indicator (KPI) monitoring but also is a mandatory tool for SAP
release and patch management
SAP NetWeaver Landscape Virtualization Management (LVM)
The IBM PureFlex System FSM and SAP LVM Enterprise are optional components the remaining ones
are part of virtualized base installation
In order to gain maximum efficiency for daily operations it is important to select the most appropriate tools
for specific administrative tasks and organizations In addition consistency and transparency need to be
maintained
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
29
The following table provides a high-level orientation for a selected set of administrator tasks in SAP
ecosystems
CMM FSM SAP LVM SAP CCMS SAP Solution Manager
Chassis topology view and administration
Through CMM
Virtualization metrics Through Flex System
Manager
Virtualization topology and administration
Through Flex System
Manager
OS DB SAP performance
Provisioning of a new virtual server Through Flex System
Manager
Virtual server start stop and live migration
Through Flex System
Manager
SAP service reallocation
SAP system refresh cloning
Alerting Chassis focus Systems focus
Task monitoring
OS DB SAP Base
Business KPIs
Integration to an upper-level enterprise management
Into Flex System
Manager
Into SAP Solution Manager
Table 6 monitoring and management layers
FSM is based on IBM Systems Director and provides comparable functions For POWER nodes FSM is
mandatory for advanced virtualization management As most of these functions are beneficial (if not
mandatory) for SAP (production) systems the FSM appears as an essential component for SAP on IBM
PureFlex environments
As a single point of control FSM provides a web-based interface to manage all aspects of the IBM
PureFlex System hardware components For example an interactive chassis map provides status
overview and serves as an entry point to manage the different resources Setup wizards guide you through
the process of initial setup and maintenance tasks
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
30
Figure 16 FSM chassis map
SAP CCMS is fully functional for IBM PureFlex System It allows monitoring and adjustment of base SAP
application and database settings Also PowerVM-specific metrics such as LPAR and WPAR resources
AME settings and so on can be accesses through the native SAP administrator GUI
IBM PureFlex System integration with SAP NetWeaver Landscape
Virtualization Management
The described cloud solution for SAP landscapes becomes available by a combination of the IBM FSM
capabilities and SAP NetWeaver Landscape Virtualization Management for automation tasks at the
application level
This solution enables common cloud scenarios with the SAP software stack and the underlying
infrastructure It aims to connect application management services with system virtualization and storage
management services It is a management tool for customers who run their SAP systems in their own data
center and want to become more efficient by automating provisioning and cloning tasks
Various scenarios around system copy and system refresh are supported including post-copy automation
Those labor-expensive tasks have been made easy with SAP Landscape Virtualization Management and
IBM PureFlex System
In more detail the following use cases are covered for cloud environments running SAP applications
Cloning of a SAP system (creating an identical copy in a fenced environment)
Creating an initial copy of a SAP system (with changing the SAP system identifier)
Refreshing a test SAP system with the content of a productive system
Automation of system copyrefresh post processing activities
Monitoring and visualization of virtualized SAP landscapes
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
31
SAP Landscape Virtualization Management is in many cases complementary to the inherent IBM PureFlex
System management layers SAP Landscape Virtualization Management enables access to many relevant
IBM PureFlex System and virtualization parameters to the SAP management software and provides IT
self-services to SAP administrators
The available IBM and SAP literature which describes the interaction of IBM Systems Director and SAP
Landscape Virtualization Management also applies to IBM PureFlex System FSM is the enriched IBM
Systems Director specifically optimized and packaged for IBM PureFlex System
IBM Tivoli Storage FlashCopy Manager adds a unique value for SAP landscapes This software enables
application-aware database-consistent online backups which can be used to create the cloned system By
exploiting storage snapshot techniques the backup is taken almost instantaneously
The solution has been developed as modular building blocks This provides a high degree of flexibility and
extensibility The following table shows the products and editions that are used for each scenario
Table 7 Use cases per management layer
Management components
SAP NetWeaver Landscape Virtualization Management 10 integrates with the following IBM
management products
IBM Flex System Manager
FSM is used for virtualization monitoring and management and for the operating system
provisioning scenarios on IBM PureFlex System
IBM Tivoli Storage FlashCopy Manager 3101
Tivoli Storage FlashCopy Manager is required for storage cloning of online SAP systems
System
monitoring
SAP
relocate
AIX
provisioning
SAP
Clone
SAP
Copy
SAP
Refresh
Flex
System
Manager
(not needed) (not needed) (not needed) (not needed)
FlashCopy
Manager
(not needed) (not needed) (not needed)
Storage any NFS GPFS
SVC V7000
or XIV
any SVC V7000
or XIV
SVC V7000
or XIV
SVC V7000
or XIV
SAP LVM Standard
Edition
Standard
Edition
Standard
Edition
Enterprise
Edition
Enterprise
Edition
Enterprise
Edition
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
32
The management products can be installed on a single AIX LPAR within IBM PureFlex System
Alternatively the products might be installed on different servers for example SAP NetWeaver
Landscape Virtualization Management may run on any of the supported SAP platforms
The following graphic shows a high-level view of how SAP Landscape Virtualization Management
integrates with the IBM PureFlex System FSM stack to enable cloud scenarios on this platform
Figure 17 SAP Landscape Virtualization Manager integration with FSM
Managed SAP landscape
The following IBM PureFlex System infrastructure is supported with SAP NetWeaver Landscape
Virtualization Management
IBM POWER nodes
AIX 61 or 71
IBM SAN Volume Controller IBM Storwize V7000 or IBM XIVreg Storage System1
SAP NetWeaver 7x using IBM DB2 for Linux UNIX and Windows Oracle Database or
SAP MaxDB is supported
1 SAN Volume Controller and Storwize V7000 support requires SAP Landscape Virtualization Management SP3
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
33
It is assumed that the storage is attached using single or dual VIOS (IBM PowerVM VIOS) For the
storage-cloning scenario the SAN storage system must be attached in the N_Port ID Virtualization
(NPIV) mode NPIV is a FC adapter (HBA) feature that allows multiple LPARs to share a physical port
The clone is created using the FlashCopy feature of the SAN Volume Controller or the snapshot
feature of the XIV Storage System These methods create a logical copy of the data volumes within
seconds while the SAP source system stays fully operational
Whenever an IBM PureFlex System environment needs to be integrated into an existing enterprise
monitoring and management solution (for example an existing IBM Systems Director hierarchy or the IBM
Tivoli Suite) FSM provides interfaces for seamless upward integration
Furthermore SAP Landscape Virtualization Management can be used to manage SAP landscapes within
and outside of IBM PureFlex System and also across different platforms
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
34
SAP-specific offerings for IBM PureFlex System
This section lists specific offerings for SAP on IBM PureFlex System
Lab services and IBM support
As capacity and capability of a larger IBM PureFlex System installation are comparable to large scale
UNIX or mainframe installations IBM provides hardware and software support beyond the standards of
commodity blade systems
Including three Global Centers of Competence IBM Maintenance and Technical Support Services provide
integrated support on the FSM-based environments when there is not a clear understanding of whether
there is a hardware or a software issue All of this can be backed up with the latest version of IBM
Electronic Service Agent trade which has been enhanced for IBM PureFlex System and proactively monitors
and reports hardware events back to IBM support Even if a client has a comprehensive in-house support
organization this can selectively be enhanced through the addition of specific services within the portfolio
to cover critical areas of weakness or exposure
For complex IBM PureFlex System environments and where mission-critical applications are deployed
(which applies to SAP production systems) premium services are available and cover
Enhanced technical support custom technical support
Microcode support managed technical support
Committed fix services
Availability management hard disk retention
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
35
Summary
This paper provides reference architectures of how heterogeneous SAP landscapes can be consolidated
using IBM PureFlex System While running the core business applications on POWER nodes with AIX as
operating system complementary SAP components are added on x86 nodes IBM PureFlex System
enables a very tight integration of infrastructure components including servers networking and storage
Seamless monitoring and management functions of the infrastructure are provided by the FSM
The integration aspect is taken even further with the integration of the SAP Landscape Virtualization
Manager application with the FSM This enables SAP cloud usage scenarios for SAP systems running on
IBM PureFlex System
For individual questions or to request a briefing about this topic contact the IBM SAP International
Competence Center at isiccdeibmcom
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
36
Resources
These websites provide useful references to supplement the information contained in this paper
IBM Systems on PartnerWorld
ibmcompartnerworldsystems
IBM Redbooks
ibmcomredbooks
IBM cloud computing
ibmcomsolutionssapusenlandingcloud_solutionshtml
IBM Cloud Solutions for SAP clients
ibmcomcloud-computingusen
IBM SmartCloud Entry for AIX on PartnerWorld (requires PartnerWorld login)
ibmcompartnerworldpagestg_com_sys_smartcloud
SAP HANA on workload optimized IBM System x appliances
ibmcomsolutionssaphana
IBM internal SSI-URL with a collection of SAP related PureSystem materials
httpsw3-
03ssoibmcomsalessupportShowDocwssdocid=SGDN258263T70735C63ampnode=brandsB6000|brandsBI5
00|clientsetIA|alliancesT5000|alliancesT5150|channelDR|channelF2F|solutionQ00|solution210ampappname=C
C_SSIGD
select the ldquoCollateralrdquo Tab in ldquoMain Contentrdquo section
Related SAP on PureFlex paper with System x focus ldquoReference Architecture - SAP
Systems on IBM PureSystems based on x86 nodesrdquo
httpw3ibmcomsupporttechdocsatsmastrnsfWebIndexWP102167
httpwwwibmcomsupporttechdocsatsmastrnsfWebIndexWP102167
httpwww-03ibmcompartnerworldpartnerinfosrcatsmastrnsfWebIndexWP102167
Related SAP on PureFlex paper with IBM i focus ldquoEfficiently deploying SAP landscapes
on the IBM PureFlex Systemrdquo
httpw3ibmcomsupporttechdocsatsmastrnsfWebIndexWP102087
httpwwwibmcomsupporttechdocsatsmastrnsfWebIndexWP102087
httpwww-03ibmcompartnerworldpartnerinfosrcatsmastrnsfWebIndexWP102087
Virtualization for SAP on IBM PureSystems with Microsoft Hyper-V
httpwwwibmcomsupporttechdocsatsmastrnsfWebIndexWP102153
IBM Workload Optimized Solution for SAP HANA ndash Quick Start Guide
provides technical overview HW models network requirements for IBM Systems Solution
for SAP HANA appliance
httpdownloadboulderibmcomibmdlpubsystemssupportsystem_x_pdf46w8274pdf
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
37
IBM internal SAP HANA Wiki
httpsw3-connectionsibmcomwikishomelang=en-
uswikiWaef4c0eb0f35_427f_a25e_670e392682b1pageSAP20HANA
FlexSystem with SAP BWA Presentations (click to open link)
Seller
Customer
General IBM Sales Kit ldquoSAP NetWeaver Business Warehouse Accelerator (BWA)rdquo
Implementation Guide for BWA on IBM Flex System x240
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
38
Trademarks and special notices
copy Copyright IBM Corporation 2013
References in this document to IBM products or services do not imply that IBM intends to make them
available in every country
IBM the IBM logo and ibmcom are trademarks or registered trademarks of International Business
Machines Corporation in the United States other countries or both If these and other IBM trademarked
terms are marked on their first occurrence in this information with a trademark symbol (reg or trade) these
symbols indicate US registered or common law trademarks owned by IBM at the time this information
was published Such trademarks may also be registered or common law trademarks in other countries A
current list of IBM trademarks is available on the Web at Copyright and trademark information at
wwwibmcomlegalcopytradeshtml
Java and all Java-based trademarks and logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of Oracle andor
its affiliates
Microsoft Windows Windows NT and the Windows logo are trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the
United States other countries or both
Intel Intel Inside (logos) MMX and Pentium are trademarks of Intel Corporation in the United States
other countries or both
UNIX is a registered trademark of The Open Group in the United States and other countries
Linux is a trademark of Linus Torvalds in the United States other countries or both
Other company product or service names may be trademarks or service marks of others
Information is provided AS IS without warranty of any kind
All customer examples described are presented as illustrations of how those customers have used IBM
products and the results they may have achieved Actual environmental costs and performance
characteristics may vary by customer
Information concerning non-IBM products was obtained from a supplier of these products published
announcement material or other publicly available sources and does not constitute an endorsement of
such products by IBM Sources for non-IBM list prices and performance numbers are taken from publicly
available information including vendor announcements and vendor worldwide homepages IBM has not
tested these products and cannot confirm the accuracy of performance capability or any other claims
related to non-IBM products Questions on the capability of non-IBM products should be addressed to the
supplier of those products
All statements regarding IBM future direction and intent are subject to change or withdrawal without notice
and represent goals and objectives only Contact your local IBM office or IBM authorized reseller for the
full text of the specific Statement of Direction
Some information addresses anticipated future capabilities Such information is not intended as a definitive
statement of a commitment to specific levels of performance function or delivery schedules with respect to
any future products Such commitments are only made in IBM product announcements The information is
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
39
presented here to communicate IBMs current investment and development activities as a good faith effort
to help with our customers future planning
Performance is based on measurements and projections using standard IBM benchmarks in a controlled
environment The actual throughput or performance that any user will experience will vary depending upon
considerations such as the amount of multiprogramming in the users job stream the IO configuration the
storage configuration and the workload processed Therefore no assurance can be given that an
individual user will achieve throughput or performance improvements equivalent to the ratios stated here
Photographs shown are of engineering prototypes Changes may be incorporated in production models
Any references in this information to non-IBM websites are provided for convenience only and do not in
any manner serve as an endorsement of those websites The materials at those websites are not part of
the materials for this IBM product and use of those websites is at your own risk
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
7
Caution needs to be paid to the available physical memory per node respectively per SAP system
Depending on the type of internal disks installed in a POWER node it is not possible to install the
maximum amount of memory That is why itrsquos not recommended to use internal disks for POWER
nodes running SAP applications Storage should be provided by an external solution See section
ldquoStorage attachmentrdquo for details
System connectivity
IBM PureFlex System provides state-of-the-art system connectivity by scalable switch elements
providing up to four switch partitions per physical switch (three partitions at for initial release) These
can be a combination of
24-port BNT 10Gb Fibre Channel over Convergence Enhanced Ethernet (software
key to increase ports)
20-port 8Gb FC
24-port BNT 1Gb
48-port BNT 1Gb (SW key to increase four 10Gb ports)
Mezzanine cards
2-port 8Gb FC (QLogic)
4-port 1Gb (Broadcom)
The scalable structure allows extending IO capacity along with increasing application needs As the
number of nodes and their IO adapters grow additional switch capacity can be installed in an IBM
PureFlex System chassis
Figure 2 IBM PureFlex System switch configurations
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
8
The IBM PureFlex System network topology provides an internal network for monitoring and
management purposes This is used by the CMM and the FSM appliance to interact with the hardware
components and virtualization layers
Figure 3 IBM PureFlex System network topology
Reliability availability and serviceability (RAS) features
SAP business applications are mostly mission-critical Hence reliability and minimum downtimes of a
platform are of high significance IBM PureFlex System components have inherited many RAS
attributes of the discrete IBM server families
Hot plug power and cooling
Concurrent firmware code updates
Processor de-allocation
Hot plug nodes
Dual-power supply
Auto reboot on power loss
Temperature monitors
Error correction code (ECC)-protected memory
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
9
SAP reference landscape on IBM PureFlex System
The SAP reference landscape on IBM PureFlex System section provides an introduction to the SAP
landscape topology and example reference landscapes for IBM POWER and AIX based core SAP
systems running on IBM PureFlex System
Introduction to SAP landscape topology
SAP customer landscapes consist of several SAP systems each supporting a specific business
application or dedicated to development and testing purposes
The most common SAP applications are combined as SAP Business Suite which combines functions for
enterprise resource planning (ERP) customer relationship management (CRM) supply chain
management (SCM) and business warehouse (BW) All of these modules (and much more) can be
installed as dedicated SAP business applications too Their common underlying technology stack is the
SAP NetWeaver layer SAP NetWeaver provides typical middleware functionality to SAP sites such as
Web Application Server Portal Service Bus reporting and so on But the SAP NetWeaver layer also
provides abstraction of the SAP Business Suite towards hardware OS and relational database
management systems (RDBMS) This enables the SAP Business Suite to run on top of almost all server
platforms
SAP industry solutions and the All-In-One midmarket offering are based on the identical architecture and
contain a blend of the Business Suite modules customized with industry-specific data and transactions
All of the Business Suite components can be either implemented in 2-tier or 3-tier mode While the 2-tier
mode is the most efficient way of implementing a SAP instance from a resource and complexity
perspective 3-tier implementations provide advantages in scalability availability and flexibility
Figure 4 multiple level consolidation
Some applications can be extended with dedicated functional systems used to either complement or to
accelerate transactions Prominent examples are Adobe Document Server TREX BWA and the SAP in-
memory database HANA These technology components do not rely on the NetWeaver stack and thus run
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
10
on dedicated x86-based environments For scalability reasons these modules often follow a scale-out
paradigm
The variety and count of back-end and complementary systems is customer individual but in general
demands for physical system consolidation by using virtualization technologies
Another dimension of SAP landscape growth is the requirement of a strict isolation of production and
nonproduction environments by SAP The nonproduction environments mostly consist of sandbox
development test and QA systems The SAP transport system links these stages and allows critical
changes in either the OS or the application being tested before being promoted to business-critical SAP
instances
Supported SAP solution stacks
For the POWER nodes the same software stacks as with discrete IBM Power Systemstrade are supported
that is IBM AIXreg IBM i and Linux servers Same is true for the common databases IBM DB2reg for Linux
UNIXreg and Windows DB2 for IBM i and Oracle for AIX Restrictions on release level might apply
though All supported OSDBSAP module combinations are maintained in the product availability matrix
on the SAP Service Marketplace As one big advantage of IBM PureFlex System SAP modules which are
not supported on the POWER nodes can be deployed in the same chassis using the x86 nodes
The following table shows the supported OS and DB levels on the POWER nodes at time of
announcement
X = supported
AIX 61 71 IBM i 61 71 PowerLinux
SLES 1011
RHEL 5 6
DB2 for i X
DB2 for Linux
UNIX and
Windows 97 10
X X
MaxDB 78 X X
Oracle 1102
incl RAC
X
Sybase ASE 157 X
Table 3 supported OS and DB levels
On top of these OS and DB combinations all SAP NetWeaver 7x releases and modules are supported as
technology and middleware stack
SAP NetWeaver Landscape Virtualization Management is also supported for IBM PureFlex System and
extends the FSM with application monitoring and cloud-enabling operations More details on these are
described in the ldquoLandscape monitoring and managementrdquo section
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
11
Landscape planning
The landscape planning section describes the underlying concepts for system layout the integration of
external storage solutions and integration aspects for existing SAP landscapes and complementary SAP
component
System layout concepts
Applications running on IBM PureFlex System can take full advantage of the virtualization and
partitioning capabilities offered by the operating systems running on IBM PureFlex System For
POWER nodes the identical virtualization and partitioning capabilities are available for AIX IBM i and
PowerLinux using IBM PowerVMreg virtualization For x86 nodes the VMware kernel-based virtual
machine (KVM) and Hyper-V virtualization hypervisors are available This enables a very flexible
landscape implementation on IBM PureFlex System
The SAP concept of separating production from the development and test systems is applied by
choosing separate OS instances for those systems Depending on the sizing requirements this can
occupy a dedicated node or (in most cases) be an LPAR in a shared resource pool which is
partitioned to contain multiple components of a SAP Business Suite landscape
In order to make best use of the physical resources it is recommended to combine production LPARs
with high priority (that is weighting factor) with nonproduction LPARs with lower priority on a POWER
node This allows unexpected load peaks within a SAP production system to be covered by additional
processor resources out of these less-critical LPARs Also it is a good idea to collocate SAP instances
with recurring load peaks within a single node For example SAP systems serving users in different
time-zones fall into this category
Independent from IBM PureFlex System the advice is to apply generic IBM POWER7reg best practices
for PowerVM parameterization as provided by the POWER brand and SAP sizing guidelines
While processor (de-) allocation happens very dynamically within a millisecond timescale this does
not apply to physical memory Hence the memory associated to an LPAR in a pool ideally covers the
maximum of the LPARs peak virtual processor allocation SAP applications are rather memory
consuming with a large workload dependent variation though The available memory on a IBM
PureFlex System POWER node is sufficient for many SAP workloads in particular for the very
common SAP ERP component and such that do not make use of a Javatrade stack Whenever SAP
sizing results (per SAP Quick Sizer output for example) indicate that 8 GB per core are not sufficient or
you want to consolidate many SAP instances into a single shared pool you have the following two
options with IBM PureFlex System in order to increase memory capacity
Configure the POWER nodes with internal SSDs or boot from external storage ie no HDDs
contained in node in order to double the memory per core ratio
Configure and activate Active Memory Expansion (AME)
The expansion factor again is heavily workload dependent As a starting point assume memory
expansion by
20 times for SAP ABAP-only dialogue servers
15 times for SAP DB servers and only
11 times for SAP Java instances
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
12
Hardware accelerated AME introduced with the POWER7+ nodes is supported by SAP
Measurements have shown no significant differences over the traditional sw-only AME version
AIX Workload Partitions (WPARs) are another option for saving physical memory on constrained
nodes WPARs are supported for AIX 7 running on a node also SAP supports WPARs As WPARs
reside within an AIX host environment and not as dedicated LPARs there are several advantages by
deploying smaller SAP systems into these
WPARs do not require an incremental hypervisor and OS memory footprint
WPARs can dynamically reallocate memory within the host AIX space This does not cause a
delay by hypervisor activities and therefore results in real-time memory virtualization
As an additional benefit WPARs require less OS maintenance efforts compared to an identical
number of LPARs each running an own AIX or Linux OS This is of interest as soon as
operational costs are linked to the count of managed OS images
The PowerVM hypervisor theoretically limits the smallest SAP instance to occupy as little as 110th of
a node core But what is the largest SAP system that can reside within a single IBM PureFlex System
chassis This question might be of interest for prospects that plan downsizing from large-scale
servers
If you assume a typical DB-to-Application Server ratio of 14 for SAP ERP production instances this
results in the largest 3-tier SAP ERP system of (132 cores DB server + 432 cores application
servers) = 160 cores which can be covered by the POWER nodes that fit into a single 10U high IBM
PureFlex System chassis As a rough approximation assume effectively 2000 SAPS per core (this is
a conservative approach for SAP production compared to a SAP sales and distribution benchmark
environment) which results in a single SAP system of 320000 SAPS This capacity is in the range of
a medium-sized discrete Power 795 server
As most of the SAP systems are database centric the limiting factor is not only the processor
capacity but also a well-balanced IO and database design Details are covered in the following
section
For larger SAP database instances and in order to increase their resiliency customers might consider
implementing a scale-out relational database management system (RDBMS) by deploying several
nodes as concurrent DB nodes The internal IBM PureFlex System network bandwidth favors
horizontal scalability IBM DB2 pureScalereg or Oracle Real Application Cluster (RAC) are both
supported for SAP production use and have been tested on IBM PureFlex System Beyond increased
database scalability the failure of a single DB node will not cause the attached SAP systems to stop
but to continue with a reduced DB throughput
Introducing the IBM Systems Solution for SAP Business Suite and SAP HANA
SAP HANA is exclusively supported on certified hardware ndash for example IBM System x3950 X5 ndash that
uses the Intel EX processor architecture As of today HANA cannot be deployed on any compute
node within the PureFlex chassis However certified x3950 X5 based HANA appliances also
including storage and system software components may be installed in the same PureFlex rack A
reference architecture introducing this solution offering has been included in section Integration of
SAP Appliance-based components of this document
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
13
Storage attachment
In the previous section the design criteria for the server nodes have been explained This section
explains the storage and IO relevant parameters for an IBM PureFlex System-based SAP landscape
The IBM PureFlex System compute nodes allow adding a limited amount of internal storage to the
node For most of the business applications the available internal disk space might not be sufficient
Therefore storage needs to be supplied by an storage solution The IBM PureFlex System chassis
can be equipped with the internal Flex System V7000 storage node This can be connected via the
chassis internal switches directly over Fibre Channel of Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE)
Figure 5 Chassis internal storage attachment
External storage system like the IBM Storwize V7000 or the IBM SAN Volume Controller or any
other IBM System Storage can be connected through the chassis switches as well
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
14
Figure 6 Chassis internal and external storage attachment
Access to either of the storage solutions from the POWER nodes requires a Virtual IO Server (VIOS)
installed Due to the limited FC ports on the half wide compute nodes a dual VIOS setup is only
possible using Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE)as shown in figures 5 and 6 above
IBM Flex System V7000
In general the IBM PureFlex System can connect to any SAN storage solution The internal IBM Flex
System V7000 is the most powerful and easy-to-use innovative midrange disk system in the storage
marketplace and is the best fit for IBM PureFlex System The Flex System V7000 is fully compatible
with the IBM Storwize V7000 storage system
The integrated Easy Tier functionality provides significant performance improvements by
automatic migration of hot data blocks to high-performing SSDs
Thin provisioning consumes used space only no pre-allocation required
Dynamic migration provides continuous availability of the applications while migrating data
online
IBM FlashCopy replication supports faster and more efficient data copies for online
backup testing or data mining
25-inch disk form factor 24 per expansion unit 240 total disks
Cluster up to 4 node pairs and 960 disks
Each node pair provides dual RAID controller to provide high availability access
No SAN or fiber channel cabling is required between the compute and storage nodes
Real time disk compression reduces the amount of required storage space Compression
rates are between 50 and 70 for SAP systems running on IBM i and the DB2 for i
database
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
15
Integration of the V7000 storage management into the Flex System Manager
Value of Easy Tier to SAP
The SAP ERP system workloads represent online transaction processing (OLTP) characteristics
Typically not all data of the SAP system or database is accessed during a given time frame for
example during a 24-hour period Statistically there exist contiguously accessed data areas some of
which are hot These hot spots are part of the disk system that has significantly high activity and
usually cause long wait times for IO requests The change rate of the hot data areas is not in terms of
minutes but most likely stays constant over a longer period of time for example 24 hours
Here Easy Tier is able to monitor and move these hot areas from HDD to SSD Easy Tier
automatically creates a data migration plan to incrementally move the hottest data to SSDs and the
cold data back to the spinning disks Easy Tier adapts to clientsrsquo changing workloads and it does this
without any administrative effort to constantly tune their storage systems As a result the SAP
transaction time is reduced
Value of Real Time Disk Compression to SAP
Today traditional database systems provide various compression technologies to store data This
requires know-how to identify which tables to compress and to setup and maintain efficient
compression over time With real time disk compression offered by Storwize V7000 the complete disk
set of the partition running the SAP systems can be easily compressed Disk compression saves
between 50 and 70 percent of storage space with minimal performance impact to most SAP
workloads This is comparable to native DB gains and can save license and operational DB-admin
cost A combination of two compression technologies does not bring further advantages
IBM Flex System V7000 Storage Node
The IBM Flex System V7000 Storage Node requires a minimum of 2 full wide slots to be installed into
an IBM Flex System chassis It provides direct Fibre Channel Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE)
and iSCSI connection to the PureFlex compute nodes The Flex System Manager will identify the
storage system automatically
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
16
The Flex System V7000 management user interface (GUI) is compatible with the Storwize V7000 GUI
IBM PureFlex System and Storwize V7000
The Storwize V7000 storage can be connected to the IBM PureFlex System chassis either through
Fiber Channel (SAN) or through Ethernet (iSCSI) Both the connections provided block-level access to
the storage system
With IBM PureFlex System the test team recommends SAN access by using the IBM PureFlex
System integrated SAN switch where four FC connections are required to ensure multipathing More
connections are not required for connecting to a single chassis
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
17
Setting up a stretched cluster is not supported by the integrated V7000 SVC Customers will require a
traditional SVC to support such a resilient disk setup Of course other technologies like AIX LVM
mirroring Metro Mirror etc are supported
Configuration of Flex System V7000 and Storwize V7000
To gain maximum flexibility in respect to capacity utilization and performance workload balancing the
number of storage pools configured (Managed Disk Groups) should be as few as possible for a single
V7000 system (node pair) Depending on the performance requirement the use of Easy Tier in
combination with SSDs is recommended
A fully equipped chassis is capable to handle 300000 SAPS leading to a workload of approximately
100000 IOPS Assuming a storage demand of 100 TB usable results in the following
recommendation
24 SSD 25-inch 400 GB each plugged into the V7000 controller
Four expansion units each with 24 SAS drives 25-inch each 900 GB
One expansion unit 23 SAS drives 25-inch each 900 GB and 1 SSD 25 inches 400 GB
(spare)
RAIDs (Managed Disk) are configured as RAID 5 7+1
Total of 25 SSD and 119 SAS
Integration with existing SAP landscapes
The IBM PureFlex System chassis can be integrated into existing SAP landscapes Physically the IBM
PureFlex System chassis fits into any standard 19-inch rack which provides a minimum of 10 spare height
units Other non-IBM PureFlex System components can be housed within the same standard rack as long
as power distribution units provide sufficient energy A fully populated IBM PureFlex System chassis can
contain up to six 2500 watts energy supplies which can be configured for several redundancy modes
The Ethernet and FC switches provide connectivity to an existing network and storage infrastructure As
discussed in the previous section the IBM PureFlex System FC switch connects to existing SAN storage
solutions LPARs stored on the SAN can be migrated to an IBM PureFlex System POWER node by
assigning the disks to the IBM PureFlex System nodersquos VIOS and boot from those This allows very fast
migration of exiting SAP systems to IBM PureFlex System with minimal downtime
External SAN storage can be attached to a new PureFlex chassis in several ways Ideally external LUNs
are connected via the integrated V7000 SAN Volume Controller as managed disks Thus storage
administration can exploit SVC virtualization and management capabilities If latter is not a focus the
PureFlex FC-switches can be attached to existing SAN-fabrics using transparent NPIV mode see Figure
6 Storage vendors need to support this and storage SAN administration will be performed with native
vendor tools not via FSM
Tests have shown that IBM PowerVM Live Partition Mobility (LPM) is possible between nodes and
external systems given the network is set up appropriately This allows to migrate running LPARs from
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
18
discrete Power Systems to POWER nodes and to migrate from POWER nodes to discrete Power
Systems
The FSM administration layer can co-exist with already implemented cross-platform management solutions like eg the IBM Systems Director It also can become integrated with higher level enterprise service management software as a monitored and managed layer
Figure 7 integration of management components
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
19
Integration of SAP Appliance-based components
Certain SAP components are not available on all SAP supported operating systems and databases If
such components are required to support customersrsquo business processes they need to be installed on top
of a supported OS which is not necessarily the same location where the SAP core applications are stored
With IBM PureFlex System supporting both x86 and POWER processor-based operating systems those
complementary components can be tightly integrated into the landscape The required hardware
resources can be hosted within one IBM PureFlex System chassis Besides the compact server footprint in
the datacenter the internal network eliminates the need for network cables and switches to connect the
systems The IBM PureFlex System management provided by CMM and FSM reduces the complexity of
managing the heterogeneous environment
This allows the creation of a complete SAP landscape within a single box Core SAP Business Suite
components are running on the POWER nodes while complementary components such as SAP
Enterprise Search and SAP Business Warehouse Accelerator can run on x86 nodes
The IBM Systems Solution for SAP Business Suite and SAP HANA SAP HANA is the strategic in-memory
database by SAP AG to accelerate in particular business analytics but also transactional business In
order to achieve magnitudes of acceleration SAP HANA exploits specific design features of the Intel EX
processor architecture with optimized low-level coding Consequently SAP HANA is exclusively
supported on certified hardware using this processor type ndash for example IBM System x3950 X5
The IBM SAP HANA offering is a standardized portfolio of System x hardware (IBM Systems x3950 X5 -
7143-Hxx systems) with internal (SSD SAS) storage for data persistency plus software components and
surrounding services Exclusively Linux namely SLES 11 is supported as operating system
As of today such an appliance cannot be deployed on any compute node within the PureFlex chassis
Instead IBM x3950 X5 based SAP HANA building blocks may be installed into the same rack as the
PureFlex chassis and act as external HANA compute nodes Connection to both x86 and POWER based
internal compute nodes running standard SAP applications or complementary SAP HANA instances is
done via Ethernet through a TOR switch
A big advantage of re-using external technology is that well established and beneficial concepts can be 11
applied for PureFlex focused landscapes too As an excelling example IBM GPFS (General Parallel File
System) not only enables the IBM SAP HANA solution to grow beyond the capacity of a single system into
a scale-out solution but also adds high availability and disaster recovery features to the IBM HANA
appliance
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
20
The scope of the Flex System Manager has been extended to allow the integrated management of
PureFlex internal components and IBM x3950 X5 based SAP HANA building blocks
It provides administrative functions like
Manual discovery inventory
Release Management (FW and SW installation and update)
Power Control
Remote Access
System Configuration
System Health and Status
Service and Support
for workload optimized x3950 X5 SAP HANA appliances
Figure 8 FSM menu of external x3950 X5 based IBM SAP HANA appliances
The screenshot above shows external x3950 X5 nodes appearing on the FlexSystem Manager panel and
the applicable activities to be performed
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
21
From a hardware point-of-view IBM PureFlex Systems offer the administrative integration of the HANA
building blocks (T-shirt sizes) listed in Table 4They meet the SAP defined HANA sizing grid and do not
need to be purchased together with a PureFlex System This allows the integration of existing HANA
systems with a newly deployed PureFlex System at customer site
Building block
Server (MTM)
CPUs Main memory
S+ x3950 X5
(7143-HAx) 2x Intel Xeon
E7-8870 256 GB
M x3950 X5
(7143-HBx) 4x Intel Xeon
E7-8870 512 GB
L
x3950 X5 (7143HBx)
+ x3950 X5
(7143HCx)
8x Intel Xeon E7-8870
1024 GB
XM x3950 X5
(7143-HDx) 4x Intel Xeon
E7-8870 1TB
32x 32GB
XL x3950 X5
(7143-HDx + 7143-HEx)
8x Intel Xeon E7-8870
2TB 64x 32GB
XXL x3950 X5
(7143-HBx + 7143-HCx)
8x Intel Xeon E7-8870
4TB 128x 32GB
Table 4 IBM SAP HANA Appliance building blocks (June 2013)
This list will change pretty frequently as new models and HANA configurations will become supported
Therefore always check the SAP list of supported models in the SAP HANA PAM (requires authorization)
or consult an IBM Techline representative SAP technology and management components as well as
common operational functions like the Tivoli Storage Manager for BackupRestore of ERP and HANA may
be deployed on PureFlex compute nodes and act on both environments
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
22
Figure 9 Architecture of SAP Business Suite on PureFlex and SAP HANA on System x3950 X5 Workload Optimized Solution for SAP HANA
In case of IBM SAP HANA scale-out configurations the Integrated Management Module of x3950 X5
servers and the SAP HANA appliance related network interfaces (like SAP client access HANA Studio
ERP backup and restore HWSW-Admin) will be connected to the PureFlex Device Management and
Client Data network via Ethernet through TOR switches Such a scale-out configuration is deployed with
separate racks
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
23
Figure 10 SAP HANA Appliances with PureFlex Network Topology
Depended on the amount of external network connections single node IBM SAP HANA appliances may
be connected via available ports on integrated switches of the PureFlex chassis The single node SAP
HANA appliance could be deployed in the same rack with IBM PureFlex System
FlexSystem Native Node Support for SAP Business Warehouse Accelerator
The SAP Business Warehouse Accelerator (BWA) was the initial approach to accelerate OLAP workload
with a dedicated appliance attached to a SAP Business Warehouse system SAP BWA follows a ldquoplug amp
playrdquo design easier to implement than SAP HANA and has a longer history Hence SAP BWA still has a
broad installed base among SAP BI customers
SAP BWA has not been this highly optimized for the Intel EX-CPU type This fact allows deploying SAP
BWA appliances on XEON-based FlexSystem nodes running a SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 SP2
operating system
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
24
The ldquoIBM Flex System Solution for SAP NetWeaver Business Warehouse Acceleratorrdquo extends the
established IBM BladeCenter offerings for SAP BWA with scalable FlexSystem configurations comprising
of x240 compute nodes inside the Flex-chassis and externally attached IBM Storage Systems DS3500
This combination meets the SAP BWA appliance criteria while providing an excellent priceperformance
ratio
Table 5 FlexSystem building blocks for IBM SAP Business Warehouse Accelerator Appliances (August 2013)
As with the SAP BWA appliances based on IBM BladeCenter the IBM GPFS filesystem improves overall
IO performance data scalability and resiliency The building blocks have been pre-tested and optimized
to deliver easy integration and quick implementation Order and shipment processes of the pre-built
systems are identical to those of the traditional IBM BWA platforms
Since SAP BWA is an encapsulated appliance it cannot exploit all functionality provided by FSM for full
topology management Passive ndash in the sense of monitoring - functions like inventory system health
hardware service and support are applicable Dedicated BWA-FlexSystem chassis can be attached to
PureFlex systems hosting a SAP BI solution and monitored from there Performing active administrative
functions which may have an impact on the BWA configuration are not allowed however
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
25
SAP on AIX reference landscapes for IBM PureFlex System
1 Minimal system = ERP BW all on POWER nodes
This is the simplest case of deploying
core SAP components in an IBM
PureFlex System System All SAP
modules are supported on POWER and
either an AIX or PowerLinux OS Two
nodes for physical redundancy each with
PowerVM and VIO virtualization are
used
In order to make use of autonomous load
balancing by PowerVM it is
recommended to mix production and
nonproduction SAP instances within a
shared processor pool on each of the
single nodes SAP 2-tier deployments
need to be preferred for smaller systems
Consider packing non- production
systems into WPARs for less LPAR
complexity
2 3-tier SAP ERP with scale-out DB and application-server tier all on POWER nodes
This option combines DB scale-out with
an SAP 3-tier application-server scale
out The advantage of a multinode DB
is a hot-standby high availability
without DB downtime as with classical
cold-standby cluster solutions Also
both the nodes contribute to an
aggregate DB throughput when in
normal operation As such a setup
appears for business-critical scenarios
a hot-standby FSM appliance has also
been configured (planned in 2012)
This in any case ensures that the
overall system monitoring and
adjustment can take place
Figure 11 minimal system
Figure 12 scale-out database
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
26
3 Mixed system = SAP Business Suite core applications TREX and non-SAP applications
This setup makes use of the IBM
PureFlex System heterogeneous
capabilities While several core SAP
Business Suite applications stay on
POWER nodes they are now
complemented by SAP TREX and a
NetWeaver development
environment which are supported
only on an x86 architecture There
are more than these components
there are newer appliances such as
BWA and HANA which mandate
such a setup
Further applications can be
consolidated into the same IBM
PureFlex System chassis as well
4 SAP NetWeaver landscape = SAP Business Suite core applications SAP Enterprise Portal
SAP Process Integration (service bus) and SAP Business Objects
This is a heterogeneous setup with
majority of SAP core systems on AIX
SAP Business Objects XI runs on
larger AIX LPAR for scaling while the
Business Objects end-user oriented
systems are consolidated in virtual
machines hosted on an x86 node
This scenario also outlines the
capability of IBM PureFlex System to
run x86 Linux and PowerLinux
distributions This applies to non-SAP
and many SAP components Inter-
system communication strongly takes
advantage of the internal networking
bandwidth of IBM PureFlex System
Figure 14 SAP Process Integration and SAP Business Objects
Figure 13 complementary components
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
27
5 Mixed system with SAP HANA = SAP Business Suite core applications deployed on
PureFlex nodes plus SAP HANA Appliances (= IBM Systems Solution for SAP Business
Suite and SAP HANA)
This setup makes use of the externalized IBM PureFlex System capabilities in shape of the IBM Systems Solution for SAP Business Suite and SAP HANA
Several core SAP applications are
deployed on internal POWER or x86
nodes and are complemented by an
external SAP HANA environment which is
being built of the x3950 X5 based standard
IBM appliance offering
This enables customers running SAP
HANA always to benefit from newest
certified System x HANA appliances and
operational improvements in that space
while creating administrative synergies
between the SAP HANA and traditional
SAP Business Suite infrastructure
Starting from physical integration today
the FlexSystem Manager will provide
integrated administrative capabilities
The IBM PureFlex system offers an
integrated infrastructure for all SAP
components SAP applications on
PureFlex System compute nodes may
access SAP HANA DB on IBM x3950 X5
servers as well as traditional data bases
(eg IBM DB2) running on PureFlex
System
Figure 15 SAP HANA Integration
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
28
High availability and disaster recovery
The single point of failures (SPOFs) for SAP systems stay untouched by the introduction of IBM PureFlex
System These are the database server and the central services for ABAP and Java including the enqueue
server
These SPOFs occur within each production SAP business component of the landscape that is multiple
clusters (such as ERP CRM SCM and so on) must be implemented
In addition central technical building blocks such as SAP Enterprise Portal (for user access) Process
Integration as Enterprise Service Bus need to be setup resilient
While the high availability and disaster recovery concepts for all these SPOFs are well known in general
they have not been tested in a special IBM PureFlex System environment at time of authoring this paper
As scenario 2 indicates multi-node databases like Oracle RAC are supported on IBM PureFlex System
Landscape monitoring and management
As the SAP landscapes tend to become a heterogeneous aggregation of servers and operating systems
this implies a certain level of complexity for SAP landscape administration Consolidating the SAP
landscape into an IBM PureFlex System with its consistent management capabilities helps to reduce this
complexity
The combination of the IBM PureFlex System and SAP NetWeaver technology offers multiple native
monitoring and administration layers for the complete hardware and software stack These are
Chassis Management Module
Flex System Management
SAP Computing Center Management System (SAP CCMS)
SAP Solution Manager
minus SAP Solution Manager aims at SAP application management and business key
performance indicator (KPI) monitoring but also is a mandatory tool for SAP
release and patch management
SAP NetWeaver Landscape Virtualization Management (LVM)
The IBM PureFlex System FSM and SAP LVM Enterprise are optional components the remaining ones
are part of virtualized base installation
In order to gain maximum efficiency for daily operations it is important to select the most appropriate tools
for specific administrative tasks and organizations In addition consistency and transparency need to be
maintained
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
29
The following table provides a high-level orientation for a selected set of administrator tasks in SAP
ecosystems
CMM FSM SAP LVM SAP CCMS SAP Solution Manager
Chassis topology view and administration
Through CMM
Virtualization metrics Through Flex System
Manager
Virtualization topology and administration
Through Flex System
Manager
OS DB SAP performance
Provisioning of a new virtual server Through Flex System
Manager
Virtual server start stop and live migration
Through Flex System
Manager
SAP service reallocation
SAP system refresh cloning
Alerting Chassis focus Systems focus
Task monitoring
OS DB SAP Base
Business KPIs
Integration to an upper-level enterprise management
Into Flex System
Manager
Into SAP Solution Manager
Table 6 monitoring and management layers
FSM is based on IBM Systems Director and provides comparable functions For POWER nodes FSM is
mandatory for advanced virtualization management As most of these functions are beneficial (if not
mandatory) for SAP (production) systems the FSM appears as an essential component for SAP on IBM
PureFlex environments
As a single point of control FSM provides a web-based interface to manage all aspects of the IBM
PureFlex System hardware components For example an interactive chassis map provides status
overview and serves as an entry point to manage the different resources Setup wizards guide you through
the process of initial setup and maintenance tasks
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
30
Figure 16 FSM chassis map
SAP CCMS is fully functional for IBM PureFlex System It allows monitoring and adjustment of base SAP
application and database settings Also PowerVM-specific metrics such as LPAR and WPAR resources
AME settings and so on can be accesses through the native SAP administrator GUI
IBM PureFlex System integration with SAP NetWeaver Landscape
Virtualization Management
The described cloud solution for SAP landscapes becomes available by a combination of the IBM FSM
capabilities and SAP NetWeaver Landscape Virtualization Management for automation tasks at the
application level
This solution enables common cloud scenarios with the SAP software stack and the underlying
infrastructure It aims to connect application management services with system virtualization and storage
management services It is a management tool for customers who run their SAP systems in their own data
center and want to become more efficient by automating provisioning and cloning tasks
Various scenarios around system copy and system refresh are supported including post-copy automation
Those labor-expensive tasks have been made easy with SAP Landscape Virtualization Management and
IBM PureFlex System
In more detail the following use cases are covered for cloud environments running SAP applications
Cloning of a SAP system (creating an identical copy in a fenced environment)
Creating an initial copy of a SAP system (with changing the SAP system identifier)
Refreshing a test SAP system with the content of a productive system
Automation of system copyrefresh post processing activities
Monitoring and visualization of virtualized SAP landscapes
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
31
SAP Landscape Virtualization Management is in many cases complementary to the inherent IBM PureFlex
System management layers SAP Landscape Virtualization Management enables access to many relevant
IBM PureFlex System and virtualization parameters to the SAP management software and provides IT
self-services to SAP administrators
The available IBM and SAP literature which describes the interaction of IBM Systems Director and SAP
Landscape Virtualization Management also applies to IBM PureFlex System FSM is the enriched IBM
Systems Director specifically optimized and packaged for IBM PureFlex System
IBM Tivoli Storage FlashCopy Manager adds a unique value for SAP landscapes This software enables
application-aware database-consistent online backups which can be used to create the cloned system By
exploiting storage snapshot techniques the backup is taken almost instantaneously
The solution has been developed as modular building blocks This provides a high degree of flexibility and
extensibility The following table shows the products and editions that are used for each scenario
Table 7 Use cases per management layer
Management components
SAP NetWeaver Landscape Virtualization Management 10 integrates with the following IBM
management products
IBM Flex System Manager
FSM is used for virtualization monitoring and management and for the operating system
provisioning scenarios on IBM PureFlex System
IBM Tivoli Storage FlashCopy Manager 3101
Tivoli Storage FlashCopy Manager is required for storage cloning of online SAP systems
System
monitoring
SAP
relocate
AIX
provisioning
SAP
Clone
SAP
Copy
SAP
Refresh
Flex
System
Manager
(not needed) (not needed) (not needed) (not needed)
FlashCopy
Manager
(not needed) (not needed) (not needed)
Storage any NFS GPFS
SVC V7000
or XIV
any SVC V7000
or XIV
SVC V7000
or XIV
SVC V7000
or XIV
SAP LVM Standard
Edition
Standard
Edition
Standard
Edition
Enterprise
Edition
Enterprise
Edition
Enterprise
Edition
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
32
The management products can be installed on a single AIX LPAR within IBM PureFlex System
Alternatively the products might be installed on different servers for example SAP NetWeaver
Landscape Virtualization Management may run on any of the supported SAP platforms
The following graphic shows a high-level view of how SAP Landscape Virtualization Management
integrates with the IBM PureFlex System FSM stack to enable cloud scenarios on this platform
Figure 17 SAP Landscape Virtualization Manager integration with FSM
Managed SAP landscape
The following IBM PureFlex System infrastructure is supported with SAP NetWeaver Landscape
Virtualization Management
IBM POWER nodes
AIX 61 or 71
IBM SAN Volume Controller IBM Storwize V7000 or IBM XIVreg Storage System1
SAP NetWeaver 7x using IBM DB2 for Linux UNIX and Windows Oracle Database or
SAP MaxDB is supported
1 SAN Volume Controller and Storwize V7000 support requires SAP Landscape Virtualization Management SP3
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
33
It is assumed that the storage is attached using single or dual VIOS (IBM PowerVM VIOS) For the
storage-cloning scenario the SAN storage system must be attached in the N_Port ID Virtualization
(NPIV) mode NPIV is a FC adapter (HBA) feature that allows multiple LPARs to share a physical port
The clone is created using the FlashCopy feature of the SAN Volume Controller or the snapshot
feature of the XIV Storage System These methods create a logical copy of the data volumes within
seconds while the SAP source system stays fully operational
Whenever an IBM PureFlex System environment needs to be integrated into an existing enterprise
monitoring and management solution (for example an existing IBM Systems Director hierarchy or the IBM
Tivoli Suite) FSM provides interfaces for seamless upward integration
Furthermore SAP Landscape Virtualization Management can be used to manage SAP landscapes within
and outside of IBM PureFlex System and also across different platforms
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
34
SAP-specific offerings for IBM PureFlex System
This section lists specific offerings for SAP on IBM PureFlex System
Lab services and IBM support
As capacity and capability of a larger IBM PureFlex System installation are comparable to large scale
UNIX or mainframe installations IBM provides hardware and software support beyond the standards of
commodity blade systems
Including three Global Centers of Competence IBM Maintenance and Technical Support Services provide
integrated support on the FSM-based environments when there is not a clear understanding of whether
there is a hardware or a software issue All of this can be backed up with the latest version of IBM
Electronic Service Agent trade which has been enhanced for IBM PureFlex System and proactively monitors
and reports hardware events back to IBM support Even if a client has a comprehensive in-house support
organization this can selectively be enhanced through the addition of specific services within the portfolio
to cover critical areas of weakness or exposure
For complex IBM PureFlex System environments and where mission-critical applications are deployed
(which applies to SAP production systems) premium services are available and cover
Enhanced technical support custom technical support
Microcode support managed technical support
Committed fix services
Availability management hard disk retention
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
35
Summary
This paper provides reference architectures of how heterogeneous SAP landscapes can be consolidated
using IBM PureFlex System While running the core business applications on POWER nodes with AIX as
operating system complementary SAP components are added on x86 nodes IBM PureFlex System
enables a very tight integration of infrastructure components including servers networking and storage
Seamless monitoring and management functions of the infrastructure are provided by the FSM
The integration aspect is taken even further with the integration of the SAP Landscape Virtualization
Manager application with the FSM This enables SAP cloud usage scenarios for SAP systems running on
IBM PureFlex System
For individual questions or to request a briefing about this topic contact the IBM SAP International
Competence Center at isiccdeibmcom
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
36
Resources
These websites provide useful references to supplement the information contained in this paper
IBM Systems on PartnerWorld
ibmcompartnerworldsystems
IBM Redbooks
ibmcomredbooks
IBM cloud computing
ibmcomsolutionssapusenlandingcloud_solutionshtml
IBM Cloud Solutions for SAP clients
ibmcomcloud-computingusen
IBM SmartCloud Entry for AIX on PartnerWorld (requires PartnerWorld login)
ibmcompartnerworldpagestg_com_sys_smartcloud
SAP HANA on workload optimized IBM System x appliances
ibmcomsolutionssaphana
IBM internal SSI-URL with a collection of SAP related PureSystem materials
httpsw3-
03ssoibmcomsalessupportShowDocwssdocid=SGDN258263T70735C63ampnode=brandsB6000|brandsBI5
00|clientsetIA|alliancesT5000|alliancesT5150|channelDR|channelF2F|solutionQ00|solution210ampappname=C
C_SSIGD
select the ldquoCollateralrdquo Tab in ldquoMain Contentrdquo section
Related SAP on PureFlex paper with System x focus ldquoReference Architecture - SAP
Systems on IBM PureSystems based on x86 nodesrdquo
httpw3ibmcomsupporttechdocsatsmastrnsfWebIndexWP102167
httpwwwibmcomsupporttechdocsatsmastrnsfWebIndexWP102167
httpwww-03ibmcompartnerworldpartnerinfosrcatsmastrnsfWebIndexWP102167
Related SAP on PureFlex paper with IBM i focus ldquoEfficiently deploying SAP landscapes
on the IBM PureFlex Systemrdquo
httpw3ibmcomsupporttechdocsatsmastrnsfWebIndexWP102087
httpwwwibmcomsupporttechdocsatsmastrnsfWebIndexWP102087
httpwww-03ibmcompartnerworldpartnerinfosrcatsmastrnsfWebIndexWP102087
Virtualization for SAP on IBM PureSystems with Microsoft Hyper-V
httpwwwibmcomsupporttechdocsatsmastrnsfWebIndexWP102153
IBM Workload Optimized Solution for SAP HANA ndash Quick Start Guide
provides technical overview HW models network requirements for IBM Systems Solution
for SAP HANA appliance
httpdownloadboulderibmcomibmdlpubsystemssupportsystem_x_pdf46w8274pdf
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
37
IBM internal SAP HANA Wiki
httpsw3-connectionsibmcomwikishomelang=en-
uswikiWaef4c0eb0f35_427f_a25e_670e392682b1pageSAP20HANA
FlexSystem with SAP BWA Presentations (click to open link)
Seller
Customer
General IBM Sales Kit ldquoSAP NetWeaver Business Warehouse Accelerator (BWA)rdquo
Implementation Guide for BWA on IBM Flex System x240
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
38
Trademarks and special notices
copy Copyright IBM Corporation 2013
References in this document to IBM products or services do not imply that IBM intends to make them
available in every country
IBM the IBM logo and ibmcom are trademarks or registered trademarks of International Business
Machines Corporation in the United States other countries or both If these and other IBM trademarked
terms are marked on their first occurrence in this information with a trademark symbol (reg or trade) these
symbols indicate US registered or common law trademarks owned by IBM at the time this information
was published Such trademarks may also be registered or common law trademarks in other countries A
current list of IBM trademarks is available on the Web at Copyright and trademark information at
wwwibmcomlegalcopytradeshtml
Java and all Java-based trademarks and logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of Oracle andor
its affiliates
Microsoft Windows Windows NT and the Windows logo are trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the
United States other countries or both
Intel Intel Inside (logos) MMX and Pentium are trademarks of Intel Corporation in the United States
other countries or both
UNIX is a registered trademark of The Open Group in the United States and other countries
Linux is a trademark of Linus Torvalds in the United States other countries or both
Other company product or service names may be trademarks or service marks of others
Information is provided AS IS without warranty of any kind
All customer examples described are presented as illustrations of how those customers have used IBM
products and the results they may have achieved Actual environmental costs and performance
characteristics may vary by customer
Information concerning non-IBM products was obtained from a supplier of these products published
announcement material or other publicly available sources and does not constitute an endorsement of
such products by IBM Sources for non-IBM list prices and performance numbers are taken from publicly
available information including vendor announcements and vendor worldwide homepages IBM has not
tested these products and cannot confirm the accuracy of performance capability or any other claims
related to non-IBM products Questions on the capability of non-IBM products should be addressed to the
supplier of those products
All statements regarding IBM future direction and intent are subject to change or withdrawal without notice
and represent goals and objectives only Contact your local IBM office or IBM authorized reseller for the
full text of the specific Statement of Direction
Some information addresses anticipated future capabilities Such information is not intended as a definitive
statement of a commitment to specific levels of performance function or delivery schedules with respect to
any future products Such commitments are only made in IBM product announcements The information is
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
39
presented here to communicate IBMs current investment and development activities as a good faith effort
to help with our customers future planning
Performance is based on measurements and projections using standard IBM benchmarks in a controlled
environment The actual throughput or performance that any user will experience will vary depending upon
considerations such as the amount of multiprogramming in the users job stream the IO configuration the
storage configuration and the workload processed Therefore no assurance can be given that an
individual user will achieve throughput or performance improvements equivalent to the ratios stated here
Photographs shown are of engineering prototypes Changes may be incorporated in production models
Any references in this information to non-IBM websites are provided for convenience only and do not in
any manner serve as an endorsement of those websites The materials at those websites are not part of
the materials for this IBM product and use of those websites is at your own risk
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
8
The IBM PureFlex System network topology provides an internal network for monitoring and
management purposes This is used by the CMM and the FSM appliance to interact with the hardware
components and virtualization layers
Figure 3 IBM PureFlex System network topology
Reliability availability and serviceability (RAS) features
SAP business applications are mostly mission-critical Hence reliability and minimum downtimes of a
platform are of high significance IBM PureFlex System components have inherited many RAS
attributes of the discrete IBM server families
Hot plug power and cooling
Concurrent firmware code updates
Processor de-allocation
Hot plug nodes
Dual-power supply
Auto reboot on power loss
Temperature monitors
Error correction code (ECC)-protected memory
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
9
SAP reference landscape on IBM PureFlex System
The SAP reference landscape on IBM PureFlex System section provides an introduction to the SAP
landscape topology and example reference landscapes for IBM POWER and AIX based core SAP
systems running on IBM PureFlex System
Introduction to SAP landscape topology
SAP customer landscapes consist of several SAP systems each supporting a specific business
application or dedicated to development and testing purposes
The most common SAP applications are combined as SAP Business Suite which combines functions for
enterprise resource planning (ERP) customer relationship management (CRM) supply chain
management (SCM) and business warehouse (BW) All of these modules (and much more) can be
installed as dedicated SAP business applications too Their common underlying technology stack is the
SAP NetWeaver layer SAP NetWeaver provides typical middleware functionality to SAP sites such as
Web Application Server Portal Service Bus reporting and so on But the SAP NetWeaver layer also
provides abstraction of the SAP Business Suite towards hardware OS and relational database
management systems (RDBMS) This enables the SAP Business Suite to run on top of almost all server
platforms
SAP industry solutions and the All-In-One midmarket offering are based on the identical architecture and
contain a blend of the Business Suite modules customized with industry-specific data and transactions
All of the Business Suite components can be either implemented in 2-tier or 3-tier mode While the 2-tier
mode is the most efficient way of implementing a SAP instance from a resource and complexity
perspective 3-tier implementations provide advantages in scalability availability and flexibility
Figure 4 multiple level consolidation
Some applications can be extended with dedicated functional systems used to either complement or to
accelerate transactions Prominent examples are Adobe Document Server TREX BWA and the SAP in-
memory database HANA These technology components do not rely on the NetWeaver stack and thus run
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
10
on dedicated x86-based environments For scalability reasons these modules often follow a scale-out
paradigm
The variety and count of back-end and complementary systems is customer individual but in general
demands for physical system consolidation by using virtualization technologies
Another dimension of SAP landscape growth is the requirement of a strict isolation of production and
nonproduction environments by SAP The nonproduction environments mostly consist of sandbox
development test and QA systems The SAP transport system links these stages and allows critical
changes in either the OS or the application being tested before being promoted to business-critical SAP
instances
Supported SAP solution stacks
For the POWER nodes the same software stacks as with discrete IBM Power Systemstrade are supported
that is IBM AIXreg IBM i and Linux servers Same is true for the common databases IBM DB2reg for Linux
UNIXreg and Windows DB2 for IBM i and Oracle for AIX Restrictions on release level might apply
though All supported OSDBSAP module combinations are maintained in the product availability matrix
on the SAP Service Marketplace As one big advantage of IBM PureFlex System SAP modules which are
not supported on the POWER nodes can be deployed in the same chassis using the x86 nodes
The following table shows the supported OS and DB levels on the POWER nodes at time of
announcement
X = supported
AIX 61 71 IBM i 61 71 PowerLinux
SLES 1011
RHEL 5 6
DB2 for i X
DB2 for Linux
UNIX and
Windows 97 10
X X
MaxDB 78 X X
Oracle 1102
incl RAC
X
Sybase ASE 157 X
Table 3 supported OS and DB levels
On top of these OS and DB combinations all SAP NetWeaver 7x releases and modules are supported as
technology and middleware stack
SAP NetWeaver Landscape Virtualization Management is also supported for IBM PureFlex System and
extends the FSM with application monitoring and cloud-enabling operations More details on these are
described in the ldquoLandscape monitoring and managementrdquo section
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
11
Landscape planning
The landscape planning section describes the underlying concepts for system layout the integration of
external storage solutions and integration aspects for existing SAP landscapes and complementary SAP
component
System layout concepts
Applications running on IBM PureFlex System can take full advantage of the virtualization and
partitioning capabilities offered by the operating systems running on IBM PureFlex System For
POWER nodes the identical virtualization and partitioning capabilities are available for AIX IBM i and
PowerLinux using IBM PowerVMreg virtualization For x86 nodes the VMware kernel-based virtual
machine (KVM) and Hyper-V virtualization hypervisors are available This enables a very flexible
landscape implementation on IBM PureFlex System
The SAP concept of separating production from the development and test systems is applied by
choosing separate OS instances for those systems Depending on the sizing requirements this can
occupy a dedicated node or (in most cases) be an LPAR in a shared resource pool which is
partitioned to contain multiple components of a SAP Business Suite landscape
In order to make best use of the physical resources it is recommended to combine production LPARs
with high priority (that is weighting factor) with nonproduction LPARs with lower priority on a POWER
node This allows unexpected load peaks within a SAP production system to be covered by additional
processor resources out of these less-critical LPARs Also it is a good idea to collocate SAP instances
with recurring load peaks within a single node For example SAP systems serving users in different
time-zones fall into this category
Independent from IBM PureFlex System the advice is to apply generic IBM POWER7reg best practices
for PowerVM parameterization as provided by the POWER brand and SAP sizing guidelines
While processor (de-) allocation happens very dynamically within a millisecond timescale this does
not apply to physical memory Hence the memory associated to an LPAR in a pool ideally covers the
maximum of the LPARs peak virtual processor allocation SAP applications are rather memory
consuming with a large workload dependent variation though The available memory on a IBM
PureFlex System POWER node is sufficient for many SAP workloads in particular for the very
common SAP ERP component and such that do not make use of a Javatrade stack Whenever SAP
sizing results (per SAP Quick Sizer output for example) indicate that 8 GB per core are not sufficient or
you want to consolidate many SAP instances into a single shared pool you have the following two
options with IBM PureFlex System in order to increase memory capacity
Configure the POWER nodes with internal SSDs or boot from external storage ie no HDDs
contained in node in order to double the memory per core ratio
Configure and activate Active Memory Expansion (AME)
The expansion factor again is heavily workload dependent As a starting point assume memory
expansion by
20 times for SAP ABAP-only dialogue servers
15 times for SAP DB servers and only
11 times for SAP Java instances
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
12
Hardware accelerated AME introduced with the POWER7+ nodes is supported by SAP
Measurements have shown no significant differences over the traditional sw-only AME version
AIX Workload Partitions (WPARs) are another option for saving physical memory on constrained
nodes WPARs are supported for AIX 7 running on a node also SAP supports WPARs As WPARs
reside within an AIX host environment and not as dedicated LPARs there are several advantages by
deploying smaller SAP systems into these
WPARs do not require an incremental hypervisor and OS memory footprint
WPARs can dynamically reallocate memory within the host AIX space This does not cause a
delay by hypervisor activities and therefore results in real-time memory virtualization
As an additional benefit WPARs require less OS maintenance efforts compared to an identical
number of LPARs each running an own AIX or Linux OS This is of interest as soon as
operational costs are linked to the count of managed OS images
The PowerVM hypervisor theoretically limits the smallest SAP instance to occupy as little as 110th of
a node core But what is the largest SAP system that can reside within a single IBM PureFlex System
chassis This question might be of interest for prospects that plan downsizing from large-scale
servers
If you assume a typical DB-to-Application Server ratio of 14 for SAP ERP production instances this
results in the largest 3-tier SAP ERP system of (132 cores DB server + 432 cores application
servers) = 160 cores which can be covered by the POWER nodes that fit into a single 10U high IBM
PureFlex System chassis As a rough approximation assume effectively 2000 SAPS per core (this is
a conservative approach for SAP production compared to a SAP sales and distribution benchmark
environment) which results in a single SAP system of 320000 SAPS This capacity is in the range of
a medium-sized discrete Power 795 server
As most of the SAP systems are database centric the limiting factor is not only the processor
capacity but also a well-balanced IO and database design Details are covered in the following
section
For larger SAP database instances and in order to increase their resiliency customers might consider
implementing a scale-out relational database management system (RDBMS) by deploying several
nodes as concurrent DB nodes The internal IBM PureFlex System network bandwidth favors
horizontal scalability IBM DB2 pureScalereg or Oracle Real Application Cluster (RAC) are both
supported for SAP production use and have been tested on IBM PureFlex System Beyond increased
database scalability the failure of a single DB node will not cause the attached SAP systems to stop
but to continue with a reduced DB throughput
Introducing the IBM Systems Solution for SAP Business Suite and SAP HANA
SAP HANA is exclusively supported on certified hardware ndash for example IBM System x3950 X5 ndash that
uses the Intel EX processor architecture As of today HANA cannot be deployed on any compute
node within the PureFlex chassis However certified x3950 X5 based HANA appliances also
including storage and system software components may be installed in the same PureFlex rack A
reference architecture introducing this solution offering has been included in section Integration of
SAP Appliance-based components of this document
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
13
Storage attachment
In the previous section the design criteria for the server nodes have been explained This section
explains the storage and IO relevant parameters for an IBM PureFlex System-based SAP landscape
The IBM PureFlex System compute nodes allow adding a limited amount of internal storage to the
node For most of the business applications the available internal disk space might not be sufficient
Therefore storage needs to be supplied by an storage solution The IBM PureFlex System chassis
can be equipped with the internal Flex System V7000 storage node This can be connected via the
chassis internal switches directly over Fibre Channel of Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE)
Figure 5 Chassis internal storage attachment
External storage system like the IBM Storwize V7000 or the IBM SAN Volume Controller or any
other IBM System Storage can be connected through the chassis switches as well
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
14
Figure 6 Chassis internal and external storage attachment
Access to either of the storage solutions from the POWER nodes requires a Virtual IO Server (VIOS)
installed Due to the limited FC ports on the half wide compute nodes a dual VIOS setup is only
possible using Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE)as shown in figures 5 and 6 above
IBM Flex System V7000
In general the IBM PureFlex System can connect to any SAN storage solution The internal IBM Flex
System V7000 is the most powerful and easy-to-use innovative midrange disk system in the storage
marketplace and is the best fit for IBM PureFlex System The Flex System V7000 is fully compatible
with the IBM Storwize V7000 storage system
The integrated Easy Tier functionality provides significant performance improvements by
automatic migration of hot data blocks to high-performing SSDs
Thin provisioning consumes used space only no pre-allocation required
Dynamic migration provides continuous availability of the applications while migrating data
online
IBM FlashCopy replication supports faster and more efficient data copies for online
backup testing or data mining
25-inch disk form factor 24 per expansion unit 240 total disks
Cluster up to 4 node pairs and 960 disks
Each node pair provides dual RAID controller to provide high availability access
No SAN or fiber channel cabling is required between the compute and storage nodes
Real time disk compression reduces the amount of required storage space Compression
rates are between 50 and 70 for SAP systems running on IBM i and the DB2 for i
database
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
15
Integration of the V7000 storage management into the Flex System Manager
Value of Easy Tier to SAP
The SAP ERP system workloads represent online transaction processing (OLTP) characteristics
Typically not all data of the SAP system or database is accessed during a given time frame for
example during a 24-hour period Statistically there exist contiguously accessed data areas some of
which are hot These hot spots are part of the disk system that has significantly high activity and
usually cause long wait times for IO requests The change rate of the hot data areas is not in terms of
minutes but most likely stays constant over a longer period of time for example 24 hours
Here Easy Tier is able to monitor and move these hot areas from HDD to SSD Easy Tier
automatically creates a data migration plan to incrementally move the hottest data to SSDs and the
cold data back to the spinning disks Easy Tier adapts to clientsrsquo changing workloads and it does this
without any administrative effort to constantly tune their storage systems As a result the SAP
transaction time is reduced
Value of Real Time Disk Compression to SAP
Today traditional database systems provide various compression technologies to store data This
requires know-how to identify which tables to compress and to setup and maintain efficient
compression over time With real time disk compression offered by Storwize V7000 the complete disk
set of the partition running the SAP systems can be easily compressed Disk compression saves
between 50 and 70 percent of storage space with minimal performance impact to most SAP
workloads This is comparable to native DB gains and can save license and operational DB-admin
cost A combination of two compression technologies does not bring further advantages
IBM Flex System V7000 Storage Node
The IBM Flex System V7000 Storage Node requires a minimum of 2 full wide slots to be installed into
an IBM Flex System chassis It provides direct Fibre Channel Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE)
and iSCSI connection to the PureFlex compute nodes The Flex System Manager will identify the
storage system automatically
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
16
The Flex System V7000 management user interface (GUI) is compatible with the Storwize V7000 GUI
IBM PureFlex System and Storwize V7000
The Storwize V7000 storage can be connected to the IBM PureFlex System chassis either through
Fiber Channel (SAN) or through Ethernet (iSCSI) Both the connections provided block-level access to
the storage system
With IBM PureFlex System the test team recommends SAN access by using the IBM PureFlex
System integrated SAN switch where four FC connections are required to ensure multipathing More
connections are not required for connecting to a single chassis
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
17
Setting up a stretched cluster is not supported by the integrated V7000 SVC Customers will require a
traditional SVC to support such a resilient disk setup Of course other technologies like AIX LVM
mirroring Metro Mirror etc are supported
Configuration of Flex System V7000 and Storwize V7000
To gain maximum flexibility in respect to capacity utilization and performance workload balancing the
number of storage pools configured (Managed Disk Groups) should be as few as possible for a single
V7000 system (node pair) Depending on the performance requirement the use of Easy Tier in
combination with SSDs is recommended
A fully equipped chassis is capable to handle 300000 SAPS leading to a workload of approximately
100000 IOPS Assuming a storage demand of 100 TB usable results in the following
recommendation
24 SSD 25-inch 400 GB each plugged into the V7000 controller
Four expansion units each with 24 SAS drives 25-inch each 900 GB
One expansion unit 23 SAS drives 25-inch each 900 GB and 1 SSD 25 inches 400 GB
(spare)
RAIDs (Managed Disk) are configured as RAID 5 7+1
Total of 25 SSD and 119 SAS
Integration with existing SAP landscapes
The IBM PureFlex System chassis can be integrated into existing SAP landscapes Physically the IBM
PureFlex System chassis fits into any standard 19-inch rack which provides a minimum of 10 spare height
units Other non-IBM PureFlex System components can be housed within the same standard rack as long
as power distribution units provide sufficient energy A fully populated IBM PureFlex System chassis can
contain up to six 2500 watts energy supplies which can be configured for several redundancy modes
The Ethernet and FC switches provide connectivity to an existing network and storage infrastructure As
discussed in the previous section the IBM PureFlex System FC switch connects to existing SAN storage
solutions LPARs stored on the SAN can be migrated to an IBM PureFlex System POWER node by
assigning the disks to the IBM PureFlex System nodersquos VIOS and boot from those This allows very fast
migration of exiting SAP systems to IBM PureFlex System with minimal downtime
External SAN storage can be attached to a new PureFlex chassis in several ways Ideally external LUNs
are connected via the integrated V7000 SAN Volume Controller as managed disks Thus storage
administration can exploit SVC virtualization and management capabilities If latter is not a focus the
PureFlex FC-switches can be attached to existing SAN-fabrics using transparent NPIV mode see Figure
6 Storage vendors need to support this and storage SAN administration will be performed with native
vendor tools not via FSM
Tests have shown that IBM PowerVM Live Partition Mobility (LPM) is possible between nodes and
external systems given the network is set up appropriately This allows to migrate running LPARs from
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
18
discrete Power Systems to POWER nodes and to migrate from POWER nodes to discrete Power
Systems
The FSM administration layer can co-exist with already implemented cross-platform management solutions like eg the IBM Systems Director It also can become integrated with higher level enterprise service management software as a monitored and managed layer
Figure 7 integration of management components
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
19
Integration of SAP Appliance-based components
Certain SAP components are not available on all SAP supported operating systems and databases If
such components are required to support customersrsquo business processes they need to be installed on top
of a supported OS which is not necessarily the same location where the SAP core applications are stored
With IBM PureFlex System supporting both x86 and POWER processor-based operating systems those
complementary components can be tightly integrated into the landscape The required hardware
resources can be hosted within one IBM PureFlex System chassis Besides the compact server footprint in
the datacenter the internal network eliminates the need for network cables and switches to connect the
systems The IBM PureFlex System management provided by CMM and FSM reduces the complexity of
managing the heterogeneous environment
This allows the creation of a complete SAP landscape within a single box Core SAP Business Suite
components are running on the POWER nodes while complementary components such as SAP
Enterprise Search and SAP Business Warehouse Accelerator can run on x86 nodes
The IBM Systems Solution for SAP Business Suite and SAP HANA SAP HANA is the strategic in-memory
database by SAP AG to accelerate in particular business analytics but also transactional business In
order to achieve magnitudes of acceleration SAP HANA exploits specific design features of the Intel EX
processor architecture with optimized low-level coding Consequently SAP HANA is exclusively
supported on certified hardware using this processor type ndash for example IBM System x3950 X5
The IBM SAP HANA offering is a standardized portfolio of System x hardware (IBM Systems x3950 X5 -
7143-Hxx systems) with internal (SSD SAS) storage for data persistency plus software components and
surrounding services Exclusively Linux namely SLES 11 is supported as operating system
As of today such an appliance cannot be deployed on any compute node within the PureFlex chassis
Instead IBM x3950 X5 based SAP HANA building blocks may be installed into the same rack as the
PureFlex chassis and act as external HANA compute nodes Connection to both x86 and POWER based
internal compute nodes running standard SAP applications or complementary SAP HANA instances is
done via Ethernet through a TOR switch
A big advantage of re-using external technology is that well established and beneficial concepts can be 11
applied for PureFlex focused landscapes too As an excelling example IBM GPFS (General Parallel File
System) not only enables the IBM SAP HANA solution to grow beyond the capacity of a single system into
a scale-out solution but also adds high availability and disaster recovery features to the IBM HANA
appliance
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
20
The scope of the Flex System Manager has been extended to allow the integrated management of
PureFlex internal components and IBM x3950 X5 based SAP HANA building blocks
It provides administrative functions like
Manual discovery inventory
Release Management (FW and SW installation and update)
Power Control
Remote Access
System Configuration
System Health and Status
Service and Support
for workload optimized x3950 X5 SAP HANA appliances
Figure 8 FSM menu of external x3950 X5 based IBM SAP HANA appliances
The screenshot above shows external x3950 X5 nodes appearing on the FlexSystem Manager panel and
the applicable activities to be performed
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
21
From a hardware point-of-view IBM PureFlex Systems offer the administrative integration of the HANA
building blocks (T-shirt sizes) listed in Table 4They meet the SAP defined HANA sizing grid and do not
need to be purchased together with a PureFlex System This allows the integration of existing HANA
systems with a newly deployed PureFlex System at customer site
Building block
Server (MTM)
CPUs Main memory
S+ x3950 X5
(7143-HAx) 2x Intel Xeon
E7-8870 256 GB
M x3950 X5
(7143-HBx) 4x Intel Xeon
E7-8870 512 GB
L
x3950 X5 (7143HBx)
+ x3950 X5
(7143HCx)
8x Intel Xeon E7-8870
1024 GB
XM x3950 X5
(7143-HDx) 4x Intel Xeon
E7-8870 1TB
32x 32GB
XL x3950 X5
(7143-HDx + 7143-HEx)
8x Intel Xeon E7-8870
2TB 64x 32GB
XXL x3950 X5
(7143-HBx + 7143-HCx)
8x Intel Xeon E7-8870
4TB 128x 32GB
Table 4 IBM SAP HANA Appliance building blocks (June 2013)
This list will change pretty frequently as new models and HANA configurations will become supported
Therefore always check the SAP list of supported models in the SAP HANA PAM (requires authorization)
or consult an IBM Techline representative SAP technology and management components as well as
common operational functions like the Tivoli Storage Manager for BackupRestore of ERP and HANA may
be deployed on PureFlex compute nodes and act on both environments
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
22
Figure 9 Architecture of SAP Business Suite on PureFlex and SAP HANA on System x3950 X5 Workload Optimized Solution for SAP HANA
In case of IBM SAP HANA scale-out configurations the Integrated Management Module of x3950 X5
servers and the SAP HANA appliance related network interfaces (like SAP client access HANA Studio
ERP backup and restore HWSW-Admin) will be connected to the PureFlex Device Management and
Client Data network via Ethernet through TOR switches Such a scale-out configuration is deployed with
separate racks
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
23
Figure 10 SAP HANA Appliances with PureFlex Network Topology
Depended on the amount of external network connections single node IBM SAP HANA appliances may
be connected via available ports on integrated switches of the PureFlex chassis The single node SAP
HANA appliance could be deployed in the same rack with IBM PureFlex System
FlexSystem Native Node Support for SAP Business Warehouse Accelerator
The SAP Business Warehouse Accelerator (BWA) was the initial approach to accelerate OLAP workload
with a dedicated appliance attached to a SAP Business Warehouse system SAP BWA follows a ldquoplug amp
playrdquo design easier to implement than SAP HANA and has a longer history Hence SAP BWA still has a
broad installed base among SAP BI customers
SAP BWA has not been this highly optimized for the Intel EX-CPU type This fact allows deploying SAP
BWA appliances on XEON-based FlexSystem nodes running a SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 SP2
operating system
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
24
The ldquoIBM Flex System Solution for SAP NetWeaver Business Warehouse Acceleratorrdquo extends the
established IBM BladeCenter offerings for SAP BWA with scalable FlexSystem configurations comprising
of x240 compute nodes inside the Flex-chassis and externally attached IBM Storage Systems DS3500
This combination meets the SAP BWA appliance criteria while providing an excellent priceperformance
ratio
Table 5 FlexSystem building blocks for IBM SAP Business Warehouse Accelerator Appliances (August 2013)
As with the SAP BWA appliances based on IBM BladeCenter the IBM GPFS filesystem improves overall
IO performance data scalability and resiliency The building blocks have been pre-tested and optimized
to deliver easy integration and quick implementation Order and shipment processes of the pre-built
systems are identical to those of the traditional IBM BWA platforms
Since SAP BWA is an encapsulated appliance it cannot exploit all functionality provided by FSM for full
topology management Passive ndash in the sense of monitoring - functions like inventory system health
hardware service and support are applicable Dedicated BWA-FlexSystem chassis can be attached to
PureFlex systems hosting a SAP BI solution and monitored from there Performing active administrative
functions which may have an impact on the BWA configuration are not allowed however
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
25
SAP on AIX reference landscapes for IBM PureFlex System
1 Minimal system = ERP BW all on POWER nodes
This is the simplest case of deploying
core SAP components in an IBM
PureFlex System System All SAP
modules are supported on POWER and
either an AIX or PowerLinux OS Two
nodes for physical redundancy each with
PowerVM and VIO virtualization are
used
In order to make use of autonomous load
balancing by PowerVM it is
recommended to mix production and
nonproduction SAP instances within a
shared processor pool on each of the
single nodes SAP 2-tier deployments
need to be preferred for smaller systems
Consider packing non- production
systems into WPARs for less LPAR
complexity
2 3-tier SAP ERP with scale-out DB and application-server tier all on POWER nodes
This option combines DB scale-out with
an SAP 3-tier application-server scale
out The advantage of a multinode DB
is a hot-standby high availability
without DB downtime as with classical
cold-standby cluster solutions Also
both the nodes contribute to an
aggregate DB throughput when in
normal operation As such a setup
appears for business-critical scenarios
a hot-standby FSM appliance has also
been configured (planned in 2012)
This in any case ensures that the
overall system monitoring and
adjustment can take place
Figure 11 minimal system
Figure 12 scale-out database
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
26
3 Mixed system = SAP Business Suite core applications TREX and non-SAP applications
This setup makes use of the IBM
PureFlex System heterogeneous
capabilities While several core SAP
Business Suite applications stay on
POWER nodes they are now
complemented by SAP TREX and a
NetWeaver development
environment which are supported
only on an x86 architecture There
are more than these components
there are newer appliances such as
BWA and HANA which mandate
such a setup
Further applications can be
consolidated into the same IBM
PureFlex System chassis as well
4 SAP NetWeaver landscape = SAP Business Suite core applications SAP Enterprise Portal
SAP Process Integration (service bus) and SAP Business Objects
This is a heterogeneous setup with
majority of SAP core systems on AIX
SAP Business Objects XI runs on
larger AIX LPAR for scaling while the
Business Objects end-user oriented
systems are consolidated in virtual
machines hosted on an x86 node
This scenario also outlines the
capability of IBM PureFlex System to
run x86 Linux and PowerLinux
distributions This applies to non-SAP
and many SAP components Inter-
system communication strongly takes
advantage of the internal networking
bandwidth of IBM PureFlex System
Figure 14 SAP Process Integration and SAP Business Objects
Figure 13 complementary components
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
27
5 Mixed system with SAP HANA = SAP Business Suite core applications deployed on
PureFlex nodes plus SAP HANA Appliances (= IBM Systems Solution for SAP Business
Suite and SAP HANA)
This setup makes use of the externalized IBM PureFlex System capabilities in shape of the IBM Systems Solution for SAP Business Suite and SAP HANA
Several core SAP applications are
deployed on internal POWER or x86
nodes and are complemented by an
external SAP HANA environment which is
being built of the x3950 X5 based standard
IBM appliance offering
This enables customers running SAP
HANA always to benefit from newest
certified System x HANA appliances and
operational improvements in that space
while creating administrative synergies
between the SAP HANA and traditional
SAP Business Suite infrastructure
Starting from physical integration today
the FlexSystem Manager will provide
integrated administrative capabilities
The IBM PureFlex system offers an
integrated infrastructure for all SAP
components SAP applications on
PureFlex System compute nodes may
access SAP HANA DB on IBM x3950 X5
servers as well as traditional data bases
(eg IBM DB2) running on PureFlex
System
Figure 15 SAP HANA Integration
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
28
High availability and disaster recovery
The single point of failures (SPOFs) for SAP systems stay untouched by the introduction of IBM PureFlex
System These are the database server and the central services for ABAP and Java including the enqueue
server
These SPOFs occur within each production SAP business component of the landscape that is multiple
clusters (such as ERP CRM SCM and so on) must be implemented
In addition central technical building blocks such as SAP Enterprise Portal (for user access) Process
Integration as Enterprise Service Bus need to be setup resilient
While the high availability and disaster recovery concepts for all these SPOFs are well known in general
they have not been tested in a special IBM PureFlex System environment at time of authoring this paper
As scenario 2 indicates multi-node databases like Oracle RAC are supported on IBM PureFlex System
Landscape monitoring and management
As the SAP landscapes tend to become a heterogeneous aggregation of servers and operating systems
this implies a certain level of complexity for SAP landscape administration Consolidating the SAP
landscape into an IBM PureFlex System with its consistent management capabilities helps to reduce this
complexity
The combination of the IBM PureFlex System and SAP NetWeaver technology offers multiple native
monitoring and administration layers for the complete hardware and software stack These are
Chassis Management Module
Flex System Management
SAP Computing Center Management System (SAP CCMS)
SAP Solution Manager
minus SAP Solution Manager aims at SAP application management and business key
performance indicator (KPI) monitoring but also is a mandatory tool for SAP
release and patch management
SAP NetWeaver Landscape Virtualization Management (LVM)
The IBM PureFlex System FSM and SAP LVM Enterprise are optional components the remaining ones
are part of virtualized base installation
In order to gain maximum efficiency for daily operations it is important to select the most appropriate tools
for specific administrative tasks and organizations In addition consistency and transparency need to be
maintained
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
29
The following table provides a high-level orientation for a selected set of administrator tasks in SAP
ecosystems
CMM FSM SAP LVM SAP CCMS SAP Solution Manager
Chassis topology view and administration
Through CMM
Virtualization metrics Through Flex System
Manager
Virtualization topology and administration
Through Flex System
Manager
OS DB SAP performance
Provisioning of a new virtual server Through Flex System
Manager
Virtual server start stop and live migration
Through Flex System
Manager
SAP service reallocation
SAP system refresh cloning
Alerting Chassis focus Systems focus
Task monitoring
OS DB SAP Base
Business KPIs
Integration to an upper-level enterprise management
Into Flex System
Manager
Into SAP Solution Manager
Table 6 monitoring and management layers
FSM is based on IBM Systems Director and provides comparable functions For POWER nodes FSM is
mandatory for advanced virtualization management As most of these functions are beneficial (if not
mandatory) for SAP (production) systems the FSM appears as an essential component for SAP on IBM
PureFlex environments
As a single point of control FSM provides a web-based interface to manage all aspects of the IBM
PureFlex System hardware components For example an interactive chassis map provides status
overview and serves as an entry point to manage the different resources Setup wizards guide you through
the process of initial setup and maintenance tasks
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
30
Figure 16 FSM chassis map
SAP CCMS is fully functional for IBM PureFlex System It allows monitoring and adjustment of base SAP
application and database settings Also PowerVM-specific metrics such as LPAR and WPAR resources
AME settings and so on can be accesses through the native SAP administrator GUI
IBM PureFlex System integration with SAP NetWeaver Landscape
Virtualization Management
The described cloud solution for SAP landscapes becomes available by a combination of the IBM FSM
capabilities and SAP NetWeaver Landscape Virtualization Management for automation tasks at the
application level
This solution enables common cloud scenarios with the SAP software stack and the underlying
infrastructure It aims to connect application management services with system virtualization and storage
management services It is a management tool for customers who run their SAP systems in their own data
center and want to become more efficient by automating provisioning and cloning tasks
Various scenarios around system copy and system refresh are supported including post-copy automation
Those labor-expensive tasks have been made easy with SAP Landscape Virtualization Management and
IBM PureFlex System
In more detail the following use cases are covered for cloud environments running SAP applications
Cloning of a SAP system (creating an identical copy in a fenced environment)
Creating an initial copy of a SAP system (with changing the SAP system identifier)
Refreshing a test SAP system with the content of a productive system
Automation of system copyrefresh post processing activities
Monitoring and visualization of virtualized SAP landscapes
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
31
SAP Landscape Virtualization Management is in many cases complementary to the inherent IBM PureFlex
System management layers SAP Landscape Virtualization Management enables access to many relevant
IBM PureFlex System and virtualization parameters to the SAP management software and provides IT
self-services to SAP administrators
The available IBM and SAP literature which describes the interaction of IBM Systems Director and SAP
Landscape Virtualization Management also applies to IBM PureFlex System FSM is the enriched IBM
Systems Director specifically optimized and packaged for IBM PureFlex System
IBM Tivoli Storage FlashCopy Manager adds a unique value for SAP landscapes This software enables
application-aware database-consistent online backups which can be used to create the cloned system By
exploiting storage snapshot techniques the backup is taken almost instantaneously
The solution has been developed as modular building blocks This provides a high degree of flexibility and
extensibility The following table shows the products and editions that are used for each scenario
Table 7 Use cases per management layer
Management components
SAP NetWeaver Landscape Virtualization Management 10 integrates with the following IBM
management products
IBM Flex System Manager
FSM is used for virtualization monitoring and management and for the operating system
provisioning scenarios on IBM PureFlex System
IBM Tivoli Storage FlashCopy Manager 3101
Tivoli Storage FlashCopy Manager is required for storage cloning of online SAP systems
System
monitoring
SAP
relocate
AIX
provisioning
SAP
Clone
SAP
Copy
SAP
Refresh
Flex
System
Manager
(not needed) (not needed) (not needed) (not needed)
FlashCopy
Manager
(not needed) (not needed) (not needed)
Storage any NFS GPFS
SVC V7000
or XIV
any SVC V7000
or XIV
SVC V7000
or XIV
SVC V7000
or XIV
SAP LVM Standard
Edition
Standard
Edition
Standard
Edition
Enterprise
Edition
Enterprise
Edition
Enterprise
Edition
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
32
The management products can be installed on a single AIX LPAR within IBM PureFlex System
Alternatively the products might be installed on different servers for example SAP NetWeaver
Landscape Virtualization Management may run on any of the supported SAP platforms
The following graphic shows a high-level view of how SAP Landscape Virtualization Management
integrates with the IBM PureFlex System FSM stack to enable cloud scenarios on this platform
Figure 17 SAP Landscape Virtualization Manager integration with FSM
Managed SAP landscape
The following IBM PureFlex System infrastructure is supported with SAP NetWeaver Landscape
Virtualization Management
IBM POWER nodes
AIX 61 or 71
IBM SAN Volume Controller IBM Storwize V7000 or IBM XIVreg Storage System1
SAP NetWeaver 7x using IBM DB2 for Linux UNIX and Windows Oracle Database or
SAP MaxDB is supported
1 SAN Volume Controller and Storwize V7000 support requires SAP Landscape Virtualization Management SP3
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
33
It is assumed that the storage is attached using single or dual VIOS (IBM PowerVM VIOS) For the
storage-cloning scenario the SAN storage system must be attached in the N_Port ID Virtualization
(NPIV) mode NPIV is a FC adapter (HBA) feature that allows multiple LPARs to share a physical port
The clone is created using the FlashCopy feature of the SAN Volume Controller or the snapshot
feature of the XIV Storage System These methods create a logical copy of the data volumes within
seconds while the SAP source system stays fully operational
Whenever an IBM PureFlex System environment needs to be integrated into an existing enterprise
monitoring and management solution (for example an existing IBM Systems Director hierarchy or the IBM
Tivoli Suite) FSM provides interfaces for seamless upward integration
Furthermore SAP Landscape Virtualization Management can be used to manage SAP landscapes within
and outside of IBM PureFlex System and also across different platforms
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
34
SAP-specific offerings for IBM PureFlex System
This section lists specific offerings for SAP on IBM PureFlex System
Lab services and IBM support
As capacity and capability of a larger IBM PureFlex System installation are comparable to large scale
UNIX or mainframe installations IBM provides hardware and software support beyond the standards of
commodity blade systems
Including three Global Centers of Competence IBM Maintenance and Technical Support Services provide
integrated support on the FSM-based environments when there is not a clear understanding of whether
there is a hardware or a software issue All of this can be backed up with the latest version of IBM
Electronic Service Agent trade which has been enhanced for IBM PureFlex System and proactively monitors
and reports hardware events back to IBM support Even if a client has a comprehensive in-house support
organization this can selectively be enhanced through the addition of specific services within the portfolio
to cover critical areas of weakness or exposure
For complex IBM PureFlex System environments and where mission-critical applications are deployed
(which applies to SAP production systems) premium services are available and cover
Enhanced technical support custom technical support
Microcode support managed technical support
Committed fix services
Availability management hard disk retention
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
35
Summary
This paper provides reference architectures of how heterogeneous SAP landscapes can be consolidated
using IBM PureFlex System While running the core business applications on POWER nodes with AIX as
operating system complementary SAP components are added on x86 nodes IBM PureFlex System
enables a very tight integration of infrastructure components including servers networking and storage
Seamless monitoring and management functions of the infrastructure are provided by the FSM
The integration aspect is taken even further with the integration of the SAP Landscape Virtualization
Manager application with the FSM This enables SAP cloud usage scenarios for SAP systems running on
IBM PureFlex System
For individual questions or to request a briefing about this topic contact the IBM SAP International
Competence Center at isiccdeibmcom
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
36
Resources
These websites provide useful references to supplement the information contained in this paper
IBM Systems on PartnerWorld
ibmcompartnerworldsystems
IBM Redbooks
ibmcomredbooks
IBM cloud computing
ibmcomsolutionssapusenlandingcloud_solutionshtml
IBM Cloud Solutions for SAP clients
ibmcomcloud-computingusen
IBM SmartCloud Entry for AIX on PartnerWorld (requires PartnerWorld login)
ibmcompartnerworldpagestg_com_sys_smartcloud
SAP HANA on workload optimized IBM System x appliances
ibmcomsolutionssaphana
IBM internal SSI-URL with a collection of SAP related PureSystem materials
httpsw3-
03ssoibmcomsalessupportShowDocwssdocid=SGDN258263T70735C63ampnode=brandsB6000|brandsBI5
00|clientsetIA|alliancesT5000|alliancesT5150|channelDR|channelF2F|solutionQ00|solution210ampappname=C
C_SSIGD
select the ldquoCollateralrdquo Tab in ldquoMain Contentrdquo section
Related SAP on PureFlex paper with System x focus ldquoReference Architecture - SAP
Systems on IBM PureSystems based on x86 nodesrdquo
httpw3ibmcomsupporttechdocsatsmastrnsfWebIndexWP102167
httpwwwibmcomsupporttechdocsatsmastrnsfWebIndexWP102167
httpwww-03ibmcompartnerworldpartnerinfosrcatsmastrnsfWebIndexWP102167
Related SAP on PureFlex paper with IBM i focus ldquoEfficiently deploying SAP landscapes
on the IBM PureFlex Systemrdquo
httpw3ibmcomsupporttechdocsatsmastrnsfWebIndexWP102087
httpwwwibmcomsupporttechdocsatsmastrnsfWebIndexWP102087
httpwww-03ibmcompartnerworldpartnerinfosrcatsmastrnsfWebIndexWP102087
Virtualization for SAP on IBM PureSystems with Microsoft Hyper-V
httpwwwibmcomsupporttechdocsatsmastrnsfWebIndexWP102153
IBM Workload Optimized Solution for SAP HANA ndash Quick Start Guide
provides technical overview HW models network requirements for IBM Systems Solution
for SAP HANA appliance
httpdownloadboulderibmcomibmdlpubsystemssupportsystem_x_pdf46w8274pdf
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
37
IBM internal SAP HANA Wiki
httpsw3-connectionsibmcomwikishomelang=en-
uswikiWaef4c0eb0f35_427f_a25e_670e392682b1pageSAP20HANA
FlexSystem with SAP BWA Presentations (click to open link)
Seller
Customer
General IBM Sales Kit ldquoSAP NetWeaver Business Warehouse Accelerator (BWA)rdquo
Implementation Guide for BWA on IBM Flex System x240
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
38
Trademarks and special notices
copy Copyright IBM Corporation 2013
References in this document to IBM products or services do not imply that IBM intends to make them
available in every country
IBM the IBM logo and ibmcom are trademarks or registered trademarks of International Business
Machines Corporation in the United States other countries or both If these and other IBM trademarked
terms are marked on their first occurrence in this information with a trademark symbol (reg or trade) these
symbols indicate US registered or common law trademarks owned by IBM at the time this information
was published Such trademarks may also be registered or common law trademarks in other countries A
current list of IBM trademarks is available on the Web at Copyright and trademark information at
wwwibmcomlegalcopytradeshtml
Java and all Java-based trademarks and logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of Oracle andor
its affiliates
Microsoft Windows Windows NT and the Windows logo are trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the
United States other countries or both
Intel Intel Inside (logos) MMX and Pentium are trademarks of Intel Corporation in the United States
other countries or both
UNIX is a registered trademark of The Open Group in the United States and other countries
Linux is a trademark of Linus Torvalds in the United States other countries or both
Other company product or service names may be trademarks or service marks of others
Information is provided AS IS without warranty of any kind
All customer examples described are presented as illustrations of how those customers have used IBM
products and the results they may have achieved Actual environmental costs and performance
characteristics may vary by customer
Information concerning non-IBM products was obtained from a supplier of these products published
announcement material or other publicly available sources and does not constitute an endorsement of
such products by IBM Sources for non-IBM list prices and performance numbers are taken from publicly
available information including vendor announcements and vendor worldwide homepages IBM has not
tested these products and cannot confirm the accuracy of performance capability or any other claims
related to non-IBM products Questions on the capability of non-IBM products should be addressed to the
supplier of those products
All statements regarding IBM future direction and intent are subject to change or withdrawal without notice
and represent goals and objectives only Contact your local IBM office or IBM authorized reseller for the
full text of the specific Statement of Direction
Some information addresses anticipated future capabilities Such information is not intended as a definitive
statement of a commitment to specific levels of performance function or delivery schedules with respect to
any future products Such commitments are only made in IBM product announcements The information is
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
39
presented here to communicate IBMs current investment and development activities as a good faith effort
to help with our customers future planning
Performance is based on measurements and projections using standard IBM benchmarks in a controlled
environment The actual throughput or performance that any user will experience will vary depending upon
considerations such as the amount of multiprogramming in the users job stream the IO configuration the
storage configuration and the workload processed Therefore no assurance can be given that an
individual user will achieve throughput or performance improvements equivalent to the ratios stated here
Photographs shown are of engineering prototypes Changes may be incorporated in production models
Any references in this information to non-IBM websites are provided for convenience only and do not in
any manner serve as an endorsement of those websites The materials at those websites are not part of
the materials for this IBM product and use of those websites is at your own risk
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
9
SAP reference landscape on IBM PureFlex System
The SAP reference landscape on IBM PureFlex System section provides an introduction to the SAP
landscape topology and example reference landscapes for IBM POWER and AIX based core SAP
systems running on IBM PureFlex System
Introduction to SAP landscape topology
SAP customer landscapes consist of several SAP systems each supporting a specific business
application or dedicated to development and testing purposes
The most common SAP applications are combined as SAP Business Suite which combines functions for
enterprise resource planning (ERP) customer relationship management (CRM) supply chain
management (SCM) and business warehouse (BW) All of these modules (and much more) can be
installed as dedicated SAP business applications too Their common underlying technology stack is the
SAP NetWeaver layer SAP NetWeaver provides typical middleware functionality to SAP sites such as
Web Application Server Portal Service Bus reporting and so on But the SAP NetWeaver layer also
provides abstraction of the SAP Business Suite towards hardware OS and relational database
management systems (RDBMS) This enables the SAP Business Suite to run on top of almost all server
platforms
SAP industry solutions and the All-In-One midmarket offering are based on the identical architecture and
contain a blend of the Business Suite modules customized with industry-specific data and transactions
All of the Business Suite components can be either implemented in 2-tier or 3-tier mode While the 2-tier
mode is the most efficient way of implementing a SAP instance from a resource and complexity
perspective 3-tier implementations provide advantages in scalability availability and flexibility
Figure 4 multiple level consolidation
Some applications can be extended with dedicated functional systems used to either complement or to
accelerate transactions Prominent examples are Adobe Document Server TREX BWA and the SAP in-
memory database HANA These technology components do not rely on the NetWeaver stack and thus run
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
10
on dedicated x86-based environments For scalability reasons these modules often follow a scale-out
paradigm
The variety and count of back-end and complementary systems is customer individual but in general
demands for physical system consolidation by using virtualization technologies
Another dimension of SAP landscape growth is the requirement of a strict isolation of production and
nonproduction environments by SAP The nonproduction environments mostly consist of sandbox
development test and QA systems The SAP transport system links these stages and allows critical
changes in either the OS or the application being tested before being promoted to business-critical SAP
instances
Supported SAP solution stacks
For the POWER nodes the same software stacks as with discrete IBM Power Systemstrade are supported
that is IBM AIXreg IBM i and Linux servers Same is true for the common databases IBM DB2reg for Linux
UNIXreg and Windows DB2 for IBM i and Oracle for AIX Restrictions on release level might apply
though All supported OSDBSAP module combinations are maintained in the product availability matrix
on the SAP Service Marketplace As one big advantage of IBM PureFlex System SAP modules which are
not supported on the POWER nodes can be deployed in the same chassis using the x86 nodes
The following table shows the supported OS and DB levels on the POWER nodes at time of
announcement
X = supported
AIX 61 71 IBM i 61 71 PowerLinux
SLES 1011
RHEL 5 6
DB2 for i X
DB2 for Linux
UNIX and
Windows 97 10
X X
MaxDB 78 X X
Oracle 1102
incl RAC
X
Sybase ASE 157 X
Table 3 supported OS and DB levels
On top of these OS and DB combinations all SAP NetWeaver 7x releases and modules are supported as
technology and middleware stack
SAP NetWeaver Landscape Virtualization Management is also supported for IBM PureFlex System and
extends the FSM with application monitoring and cloud-enabling operations More details on these are
described in the ldquoLandscape monitoring and managementrdquo section
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
11
Landscape planning
The landscape planning section describes the underlying concepts for system layout the integration of
external storage solutions and integration aspects for existing SAP landscapes and complementary SAP
component
System layout concepts
Applications running on IBM PureFlex System can take full advantage of the virtualization and
partitioning capabilities offered by the operating systems running on IBM PureFlex System For
POWER nodes the identical virtualization and partitioning capabilities are available for AIX IBM i and
PowerLinux using IBM PowerVMreg virtualization For x86 nodes the VMware kernel-based virtual
machine (KVM) and Hyper-V virtualization hypervisors are available This enables a very flexible
landscape implementation on IBM PureFlex System
The SAP concept of separating production from the development and test systems is applied by
choosing separate OS instances for those systems Depending on the sizing requirements this can
occupy a dedicated node or (in most cases) be an LPAR in a shared resource pool which is
partitioned to contain multiple components of a SAP Business Suite landscape
In order to make best use of the physical resources it is recommended to combine production LPARs
with high priority (that is weighting factor) with nonproduction LPARs with lower priority on a POWER
node This allows unexpected load peaks within a SAP production system to be covered by additional
processor resources out of these less-critical LPARs Also it is a good idea to collocate SAP instances
with recurring load peaks within a single node For example SAP systems serving users in different
time-zones fall into this category
Independent from IBM PureFlex System the advice is to apply generic IBM POWER7reg best practices
for PowerVM parameterization as provided by the POWER brand and SAP sizing guidelines
While processor (de-) allocation happens very dynamically within a millisecond timescale this does
not apply to physical memory Hence the memory associated to an LPAR in a pool ideally covers the
maximum of the LPARs peak virtual processor allocation SAP applications are rather memory
consuming with a large workload dependent variation though The available memory on a IBM
PureFlex System POWER node is sufficient for many SAP workloads in particular for the very
common SAP ERP component and such that do not make use of a Javatrade stack Whenever SAP
sizing results (per SAP Quick Sizer output for example) indicate that 8 GB per core are not sufficient or
you want to consolidate many SAP instances into a single shared pool you have the following two
options with IBM PureFlex System in order to increase memory capacity
Configure the POWER nodes with internal SSDs or boot from external storage ie no HDDs
contained in node in order to double the memory per core ratio
Configure and activate Active Memory Expansion (AME)
The expansion factor again is heavily workload dependent As a starting point assume memory
expansion by
20 times for SAP ABAP-only dialogue servers
15 times for SAP DB servers and only
11 times for SAP Java instances
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
12
Hardware accelerated AME introduced with the POWER7+ nodes is supported by SAP
Measurements have shown no significant differences over the traditional sw-only AME version
AIX Workload Partitions (WPARs) are another option for saving physical memory on constrained
nodes WPARs are supported for AIX 7 running on a node also SAP supports WPARs As WPARs
reside within an AIX host environment and not as dedicated LPARs there are several advantages by
deploying smaller SAP systems into these
WPARs do not require an incremental hypervisor and OS memory footprint
WPARs can dynamically reallocate memory within the host AIX space This does not cause a
delay by hypervisor activities and therefore results in real-time memory virtualization
As an additional benefit WPARs require less OS maintenance efforts compared to an identical
number of LPARs each running an own AIX or Linux OS This is of interest as soon as
operational costs are linked to the count of managed OS images
The PowerVM hypervisor theoretically limits the smallest SAP instance to occupy as little as 110th of
a node core But what is the largest SAP system that can reside within a single IBM PureFlex System
chassis This question might be of interest for prospects that plan downsizing from large-scale
servers
If you assume a typical DB-to-Application Server ratio of 14 for SAP ERP production instances this
results in the largest 3-tier SAP ERP system of (132 cores DB server + 432 cores application
servers) = 160 cores which can be covered by the POWER nodes that fit into a single 10U high IBM
PureFlex System chassis As a rough approximation assume effectively 2000 SAPS per core (this is
a conservative approach for SAP production compared to a SAP sales and distribution benchmark
environment) which results in a single SAP system of 320000 SAPS This capacity is in the range of
a medium-sized discrete Power 795 server
As most of the SAP systems are database centric the limiting factor is not only the processor
capacity but also a well-balanced IO and database design Details are covered in the following
section
For larger SAP database instances and in order to increase their resiliency customers might consider
implementing a scale-out relational database management system (RDBMS) by deploying several
nodes as concurrent DB nodes The internal IBM PureFlex System network bandwidth favors
horizontal scalability IBM DB2 pureScalereg or Oracle Real Application Cluster (RAC) are both
supported for SAP production use and have been tested on IBM PureFlex System Beyond increased
database scalability the failure of a single DB node will not cause the attached SAP systems to stop
but to continue with a reduced DB throughput
Introducing the IBM Systems Solution for SAP Business Suite and SAP HANA
SAP HANA is exclusively supported on certified hardware ndash for example IBM System x3950 X5 ndash that
uses the Intel EX processor architecture As of today HANA cannot be deployed on any compute
node within the PureFlex chassis However certified x3950 X5 based HANA appliances also
including storage and system software components may be installed in the same PureFlex rack A
reference architecture introducing this solution offering has been included in section Integration of
SAP Appliance-based components of this document
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
13
Storage attachment
In the previous section the design criteria for the server nodes have been explained This section
explains the storage and IO relevant parameters for an IBM PureFlex System-based SAP landscape
The IBM PureFlex System compute nodes allow adding a limited amount of internal storage to the
node For most of the business applications the available internal disk space might not be sufficient
Therefore storage needs to be supplied by an storage solution The IBM PureFlex System chassis
can be equipped with the internal Flex System V7000 storage node This can be connected via the
chassis internal switches directly over Fibre Channel of Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE)
Figure 5 Chassis internal storage attachment
External storage system like the IBM Storwize V7000 or the IBM SAN Volume Controller or any
other IBM System Storage can be connected through the chassis switches as well
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
14
Figure 6 Chassis internal and external storage attachment
Access to either of the storage solutions from the POWER nodes requires a Virtual IO Server (VIOS)
installed Due to the limited FC ports on the half wide compute nodes a dual VIOS setup is only
possible using Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE)as shown in figures 5 and 6 above
IBM Flex System V7000
In general the IBM PureFlex System can connect to any SAN storage solution The internal IBM Flex
System V7000 is the most powerful and easy-to-use innovative midrange disk system in the storage
marketplace and is the best fit for IBM PureFlex System The Flex System V7000 is fully compatible
with the IBM Storwize V7000 storage system
The integrated Easy Tier functionality provides significant performance improvements by
automatic migration of hot data blocks to high-performing SSDs
Thin provisioning consumes used space only no pre-allocation required
Dynamic migration provides continuous availability of the applications while migrating data
online
IBM FlashCopy replication supports faster and more efficient data copies for online
backup testing or data mining
25-inch disk form factor 24 per expansion unit 240 total disks
Cluster up to 4 node pairs and 960 disks
Each node pair provides dual RAID controller to provide high availability access
No SAN or fiber channel cabling is required between the compute and storage nodes
Real time disk compression reduces the amount of required storage space Compression
rates are between 50 and 70 for SAP systems running on IBM i and the DB2 for i
database
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
15
Integration of the V7000 storage management into the Flex System Manager
Value of Easy Tier to SAP
The SAP ERP system workloads represent online transaction processing (OLTP) characteristics
Typically not all data of the SAP system or database is accessed during a given time frame for
example during a 24-hour period Statistically there exist contiguously accessed data areas some of
which are hot These hot spots are part of the disk system that has significantly high activity and
usually cause long wait times for IO requests The change rate of the hot data areas is not in terms of
minutes but most likely stays constant over a longer period of time for example 24 hours
Here Easy Tier is able to monitor and move these hot areas from HDD to SSD Easy Tier
automatically creates a data migration plan to incrementally move the hottest data to SSDs and the
cold data back to the spinning disks Easy Tier adapts to clientsrsquo changing workloads and it does this
without any administrative effort to constantly tune their storage systems As a result the SAP
transaction time is reduced
Value of Real Time Disk Compression to SAP
Today traditional database systems provide various compression technologies to store data This
requires know-how to identify which tables to compress and to setup and maintain efficient
compression over time With real time disk compression offered by Storwize V7000 the complete disk
set of the partition running the SAP systems can be easily compressed Disk compression saves
between 50 and 70 percent of storage space with minimal performance impact to most SAP
workloads This is comparable to native DB gains and can save license and operational DB-admin
cost A combination of two compression technologies does not bring further advantages
IBM Flex System V7000 Storage Node
The IBM Flex System V7000 Storage Node requires a minimum of 2 full wide slots to be installed into
an IBM Flex System chassis It provides direct Fibre Channel Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE)
and iSCSI connection to the PureFlex compute nodes The Flex System Manager will identify the
storage system automatically
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
16
The Flex System V7000 management user interface (GUI) is compatible with the Storwize V7000 GUI
IBM PureFlex System and Storwize V7000
The Storwize V7000 storage can be connected to the IBM PureFlex System chassis either through
Fiber Channel (SAN) or through Ethernet (iSCSI) Both the connections provided block-level access to
the storage system
With IBM PureFlex System the test team recommends SAN access by using the IBM PureFlex
System integrated SAN switch where four FC connections are required to ensure multipathing More
connections are not required for connecting to a single chassis
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
17
Setting up a stretched cluster is not supported by the integrated V7000 SVC Customers will require a
traditional SVC to support such a resilient disk setup Of course other technologies like AIX LVM
mirroring Metro Mirror etc are supported
Configuration of Flex System V7000 and Storwize V7000
To gain maximum flexibility in respect to capacity utilization and performance workload balancing the
number of storage pools configured (Managed Disk Groups) should be as few as possible for a single
V7000 system (node pair) Depending on the performance requirement the use of Easy Tier in
combination with SSDs is recommended
A fully equipped chassis is capable to handle 300000 SAPS leading to a workload of approximately
100000 IOPS Assuming a storage demand of 100 TB usable results in the following
recommendation
24 SSD 25-inch 400 GB each plugged into the V7000 controller
Four expansion units each with 24 SAS drives 25-inch each 900 GB
One expansion unit 23 SAS drives 25-inch each 900 GB and 1 SSD 25 inches 400 GB
(spare)
RAIDs (Managed Disk) are configured as RAID 5 7+1
Total of 25 SSD and 119 SAS
Integration with existing SAP landscapes
The IBM PureFlex System chassis can be integrated into existing SAP landscapes Physically the IBM
PureFlex System chassis fits into any standard 19-inch rack which provides a minimum of 10 spare height
units Other non-IBM PureFlex System components can be housed within the same standard rack as long
as power distribution units provide sufficient energy A fully populated IBM PureFlex System chassis can
contain up to six 2500 watts energy supplies which can be configured for several redundancy modes
The Ethernet and FC switches provide connectivity to an existing network and storage infrastructure As
discussed in the previous section the IBM PureFlex System FC switch connects to existing SAN storage
solutions LPARs stored on the SAN can be migrated to an IBM PureFlex System POWER node by
assigning the disks to the IBM PureFlex System nodersquos VIOS and boot from those This allows very fast
migration of exiting SAP systems to IBM PureFlex System with minimal downtime
External SAN storage can be attached to a new PureFlex chassis in several ways Ideally external LUNs
are connected via the integrated V7000 SAN Volume Controller as managed disks Thus storage
administration can exploit SVC virtualization and management capabilities If latter is not a focus the
PureFlex FC-switches can be attached to existing SAN-fabrics using transparent NPIV mode see Figure
6 Storage vendors need to support this and storage SAN administration will be performed with native
vendor tools not via FSM
Tests have shown that IBM PowerVM Live Partition Mobility (LPM) is possible between nodes and
external systems given the network is set up appropriately This allows to migrate running LPARs from
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
18
discrete Power Systems to POWER nodes and to migrate from POWER nodes to discrete Power
Systems
The FSM administration layer can co-exist with already implemented cross-platform management solutions like eg the IBM Systems Director It also can become integrated with higher level enterprise service management software as a monitored and managed layer
Figure 7 integration of management components
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
19
Integration of SAP Appliance-based components
Certain SAP components are not available on all SAP supported operating systems and databases If
such components are required to support customersrsquo business processes they need to be installed on top
of a supported OS which is not necessarily the same location where the SAP core applications are stored
With IBM PureFlex System supporting both x86 and POWER processor-based operating systems those
complementary components can be tightly integrated into the landscape The required hardware
resources can be hosted within one IBM PureFlex System chassis Besides the compact server footprint in
the datacenter the internal network eliminates the need for network cables and switches to connect the
systems The IBM PureFlex System management provided by CMM and FSM reduces the complexity of
managing the heterogeneous environment
This allows the creation of a complete SAP landscape within a single box Core SAP Business Suite
components are running on the POWER nodes while complementary components such as SAP
Enterprise Search and SAP Business Warehouse Accelerator can run on x86 nodes
The IBM Systems Solution for SAP Business Suite and SAP HANA SAP HANA is the strategic in-memory
database by SAP AG to accelerate in particular business analytics but also transactional business In
order to achieve magnitudes of acceleration SAP HANA exploits specific design features of the Intel EX
processor architecture with optimized low-level coding Consequently SAP HANA is exclusively
supported on certified hardware using this processor type ndash for example IBM System x3950 X5
The IBM SAP HANA offering is a standardized portfolio of System x hardware (IBM Systems x3950 X5 -
7143-Hxx systems) with internal (SSD SAS) storage for data persistency plus software components and
surrounding services Exclusively Linux namely SLES 11 is supported as operating system
As of today such an appliance cannot be deployed on any compute node within the PureFlex chassis
Instead IBM x3950 X5 based SAP HANA building blocks may be installed into the same rack as the
PureFlex chassis and act as external HANA compute nodes Connection to both x86 and POWER based
internal compute nodes running standard SAP applications or complementary SAP HANA instances is
done via Ethernet through a TOR switch
A big advantage of re-using external technology is that well established and beneficial concepts can be 11
applied for PureFlex focused landscapes too As an excelling example IBM GPFS (General Parallel File
System) not only enables the IBM SAP HANA solution to grow beyond the capacity of a single system into
a scale-out solution but also adds high availability and disaster recovery features to the IBM HANA
appliance
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
20
The scope of the Flex System Manager has been extended to allow the integrated management of
PureFlex internal components and IBM x3950 X5 based SAP HANA building blocks
It provides administrative functions like
Manual discovery inventory
Release Management (FW and SW installation and update)
Power Control
Remote Access
System Configuration
System Health and Status
Service and Support
for workload optimized x3950 X5 SAP HANA appliances
Figure 8 FSM menu of external x3950 X5 based IBM SAP HANA appliances
The screenshot above shows external x3950 X5 nodes appearing on the FlexSystem Manager panel and
the applicable activities to be performed
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
21
From a hardware point-of-view IBM PureFlex Systems offer the administrative integration of the HANA
building blocks (T-shirt sizes) listed in Table 4They meet the SAP defined HANA sizing grid and do not
need to be purchased together with a PureFlex System This allows the integration of existing HANA
systems with a newly deployed PureFlex System at customer site
Building block
Server (MTM)
CPUs Main memory
S+ x3950 X5
(7143-HAx) 2x Intel Xeon
E7-8870 256 GB
M x3950 X5
(7143-HBx) 4x Intel Xeon
E7-8870 512 GB
L
x3950 X5 (7143HBx)
+ x3950 X5
(7143HCx)
8x Intel Xeon E7-8870
1024 GB
XM x3950 X5
(7143-HDx) 4x Intel Xeon
E7-8870 1TB
32x 32GB
XL x3950 X5
(7143-HDx + 7143-HEx)
8x Intel Xeon E7-8870
2TB 64x 32GB
XXL x3950 X5
(7143-HBx + 7143-HCx)
8x Intel Xeon E7-8870
4TB 128x 32GB
Table 4 IBM SAP HANA Appliance building blocks (June 2013)
This list will change pretty frequently as new models and HANA configurations will become supported
Therefore always check the SAP list of supported models in the SAP HANA PAM (requires authorization)
or consult an IBM Techline representative SAP technology and management components as well as
common operational functions like the Tivoli Storage Manager for BackupRestore of ERP and HANA may
be deployed on PureFlex compute nodes and act on both environments
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
22
Figure 9 Architecture of SAP Business Suite on PureFlex and SAP HANA on System x3950 X5 Workload Optimized Solution for SAP HANA
In case of IBM SAP HANA scale-out configurations the Integrated Management Module of x3950 X5
servers and the SAP HANA appliance related network interfaces (like SAP client access HANA Studio
ERP backup and restore HWSW-Admin) will be connected to the PureFlex Device Management and
Client Data network via Ethernet through TOR switches Such a scale-out configuration is deployed with
separate racks
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
23
Figure 10 SAP HANA Appliances with PureFlex Network Topology
Depended on the amount of external network connections single node IBM SAP HANA appliances may
be connected via available ports on integrated switches of the PureFlex chassis The single node SAP
HANA appliance could be deployed in the same rack with IBM PureFlex System
FlexSystem Native Node Support for SAP Business Warehouse Accelerator
The SAP Business Warehouse Accelerator (BWA) was the initial approach to accelerate OLAP workload
with a dedicated appliance attached to a SAP Business Warehouse system SAP BWA follows a ldquoplug amp
playrdquo design easier to implement than SAP HANA and has a longer history Hence SAP BWA still has a
broad installed base among SAP BI customers
SAP BWA has not been this highly optimized for the Intel EX-CPU type This fact allows deploying SAP
BWA appliances on XEON-based FlexSystem nodes running a SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 SP2
operating system
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
24
The ldquoIBM Flex System Solution for SAP NetWeaver Business Warehouse Acceleratorrdquo extends the
established IBM BladeCenter offerings for SAP BWA with scalable FlexSystem configurations comprising
of x240 compute nodes inside the Flex-chassis and externally attached IBM Storage Systems DS3500
This combination meets the SAP BWA appliance criteria while providing an excellent priceperformance
ratio
Table 5 FlexSystem building blocks for IBM SAP Business Warehouse Accelerator Appliances (August 2013)
As with the SAP BWA appliances based on IBM BladeCenter the IBM GPFS filesystem improves overall
IO performance data scalability and resiliency The building blocks have been pre-tested and optimized
to deliver easy integration and quick implementation Order and shipment processes of the pre-built
systems are identical to those of the traditional IBM BWA platforms
Since SAP BWA is an encapsulated appliance it cannot exploit all functionality provided by FSM for full
topology management Passive ndash in the sense of monitoring - functions like inventory system health
hardware service and support are applicable Dedicated BWA-FlexSystem chassis can be attached to
PureFlex systems hosting a SAP BI solution and monitored from there Performing active administrative
functions which may have an impact on the BWA configuration are not allowed however
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
25
SAP on AIX reference landscapes for IBM PureFlex System
1 Minimal system = ERP BW all on POWER nodes
This is the simplest case of deploying
core SAP components in an IBM
PureFlex System System All SAP
modules are supported on POWER and
either an AIX or PowerLinux OS Two
nodes for physical redundancy each with
PowerVM and VIO virtualization are
used
In order to make use of autonomous load
balancing by PowerVM it is
recommended to mix production and
nonproduction SAP instances within a
shared processor pool on each of the
single nodes SAP 2-tier deployments
need to be preferred for smaller systems
Consider packing non- production
systems into WPARs for less LPAR
complexity
2 3-tier SAP ERP with scale-out DB and application-server tier all on POWER nodes
This option combines DB scale-out with
an SAP 3-tier application-server scale
out The advantage of a multinode DB
is a hot-standby high availability
without DB downtime as with classical
cold-standby cluster solutions Also
both the nodes contribute to an
aggregate DB throughput when in
normal operation As such a setup
appears for business-critical scenarios
a hot-standby FSM appliance has also
been configured (planned in 2012)
This in any case ensures that the
overall system monitoring and
adjustment can take place
Figure 11 minimal system
Figure 12 scale-out database
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
26
3 Mixed system = SAP Business Suite core applications TREX and non-SAP applications
This setup makes use of the IBM
PureFlex System heterogeneous
capabilities While several core SAP
Business Suite applications stay on
POWER nodes they are now
complemented by SAP TREX and a
NetWeaver development
environment which are supported
only on an x86 architecture There
are more than these components
there are newer appliances such as
BWA and HANA which mandate
such a setup
Further applications can be
consolidated into the same IBM
PureFlex System chassis as well
4 SAP NetWeaver landscape = SAP Business Suite core applications SAP Enterprise Portal
SAP Process Integration (service bus) and SAP Business Objects
This is a heterogeneous setup with
majority of SAP core systems on AIX
SAP Business Objects XI runs on
larger AIX LPAR for scaling while the
Business Objects end-user oriented
systems are consolidated in virtual
machines hosted on an x86 node
This scenario also outlines the
capability of IBM PureFlex System to
run x86 Linux and PowerLinux
distributions This applies to non-SAP
and many SAP components Inter-
system communication strongly takes
advantage of the internal networking
bandwidth of IBM PureFlex System
Figure 14 SAP Process Integration and SAP Business Objects
Figure 13 complementary components
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
27
5 Mixed system with SAP HANA = SAP Business Suite core applications deployed on
PureFlex nodes plus SAP HANA Appliances (= IBM Systems Solution for SAP Business
Suite and SAP HANA)
This setup makes use of the externalized IBM PureFlex System capabilities in shape of the IBM Systems Solution for SAP Business Suite and SAP HANA
Several core SAP applications are
deployed on internal POWER or x86
nodes and are complemented by an
external SAP HANA environment which is
being built of the x3950 X5 based standard
IBM appliance offering
This enables customers running SAP
HANA always to benefit from newest
certified System x HANA appliances and
operational improvements in that space
while creating administrative synergies
between the SAP HANA and traditional
SAP Business Suite infrastructure
Starting from physical integration today
the FlexSystem Manager will provide
integrated administrative capabilities
The IBM PureFlex system offers an
integrated infrastructure for all SAP
components SAP applications on
PureFlex System compute nodes may
access SAP HANA DB on IBM x3950 X5
servers as well as traditional data bases
(eg IBM DB2) running on PureFlex
System
Figure 15 SAP HANA Integration
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
28
High availability and disaster recovery
The single point of failures (SPOFs) for SAP systems stay untouched by the introduction of IBM PureFlex
System These are the database server and the central services for ABAP and Java including the enqueue
server
These SPOFs occur within each production SAP business component of the landscape that is multiple
clusters (such as ERP CRM SCM and so on) must be implemented
In addition central technical building blocks such as SAP Enterprise Portal (for user access) Process
Integration as Enterprise Service Bus need to be setup resilient
While the high availability and disaster recovery concepts for all these SPOFs are well known in general
they have not been tested in a special IBM PureFlex System environment at time of authoring this paper
As scenario 2 indicates multi-node databases like Oracle RAC are supported on IBM PureFlex System
Landscape monitoring and management
As the SAP landscapes tend to become a heterogeneous aggregation of servers and operating systems
this implies a certain level of complexity for SAP landscape administration Consolidating the SAP
landscape into an IBM PureFlex System with its consistent management capabilities helps to reduce this
complexity
The combination of the IBM PureFlex System and SAP NetWeaver technology offers multiple native
monitoring and administration layers for the complete hardware and software stack These are
Chassis Management Module
Flex System Management
SAP Computing Center Management System (SAP CCMS)
SAP Solution Manager
minus SAP Solution Manager aims at SAP application management and business key
performance indicator (KPI) monitoring but also is a mandatory tool for SAP
release and patch management
SAP NetWeaver Landscape Virtualization Management (LVM)
The IBM PureFlex System FSM and SAP LVM Enterprise are optional components the remaining ones
are part of virtualized base installation
In order to gain maximum efficiency for daily operations it is important to select the most appropriate tools
for specific administrative tasks and organizations In addition consistency and transparency need to be
maintained
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
29
The following table provides a high-level orientation for a selected set of administrator tasks in SAP
ecosystems
CMM FSM SAP LVM SAP CCMS SAP Solution Manager
Chassis topology view and administration
Through CMM
Virtualization metrics Through Flex System
Manager
Virtualization topology and administration
Through Flex System
Manager
OS DB SAP performance
Provisioning of a new virtual server Through Flex System
Manager
Virtual server start stop and live migration
Through Flex System
Manager
SAP service reallocation
SAP system refresh cloning
Alerting Chassis focus Systems focus
Task monitoring
OS DB SAP Base
Business KPIs
Integration to an upper-level enterprise management
Into Flex System
Manager
Into SAP Solution Manager
Table 6 monitoring and management layers
FSM is based on IBM Systems Director and provides comparable functions For POWER nodes FSM is
mandatory for advanced virtualization management As most of these functions are beneficial (if not
mandatory) for SAP (production) systems the FSM appears as an essential component for SAP on IBM
PureFlex environments
As a single point of control FSM provides a web-based interface to manage all aspects of the IBM
PureFlex System hardware components For example an interactive chassis map provides status
overview and serves as an entry point to manage the different resources Setup wizards guide you through
the process of initial setup and maintenance tasks
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
30
Figure 16 FSM chassis map
SAP CCMS is fully functional for IBM PureFlex System It allows monitoring and adjustment of base SAP
application and database settings Also PowerVM-specific metrics such as LPAR and WPAR resources
AME settings and so on can be accesses through the native SAP administrator GUI
IBM PureFlex System integration with SAP NetWeaver Landscape
Virtualization Management
The described cloud solution for SAP landscapes becomes available by a combination of the IBM FSM
capabilities and SAP NetWeaver Landscape Virtualization Management for automation tasks at the
application level
This solution enables common cloud scenarios with the SAP software stack and the underlying
infrastructure It aims to connect application management services with system virtualization and storage
management services It is a management tool for customers who run their SAP systems in their own data
center and want to become more efficient by automating provisioning and cloning tasks
Various scenarios around system copy and system refresh are supported including post-copy automation
Those labor-expensive tasks have been made easy with SAP Landscape Virtualization Management and
IBM PureFlex System
In more detail the following use cases are covered for cloud environments running SAP applications
Cloning of a SAP system (creating an identical copy in a fenced environment)
Creating an initial copy of a SAP system (with changing the SAP system identifier)
Refreshing a test SAP system with the content of a productive system
Automation of system copyrefresh post processing activities
Monitoring and visualization of virtualized SAP landscapes
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
31
SAP Landscape Virtualization Management is in many cases complementary to the inherent IBM PureFlex
System management layers SAP Landscape Virtualization Management enables access to many relevant
IBM PureFlex System and virtualization parameters to the SAP management software and provides IT
self-services to SAP administrators
The available IBM and SAP literature which describes the interaction of IBM Systems Director and SAP
Landscape Virtualization Management also applies to IBM PureFlex System FSM is the enriched IBM
Systems Director specifically optimized and packaged for IBM PureFlex System
IBM Tivoli Storage FlashCopy Manager adds a unique value for SAP landscapes This software enables
application-aware database-consistent online backups which can be used to create the cloned system By
exploiting storage snapshot techniques the backup is taken almost instantaneously
The solution has been developed as modular building blocks This provides a high degree of flexibility and
extensibility The following table shows the products and editions that are used for each scenario
Table 7 Use cases per management layer
Management components
SAP NetWeaver Landscape Virtualization Management 10 integrates with the following IBM
management products
IBM Flex System Manager
FSM is used for virtualization monitoring and management and for the operating system
provisioning scenarios on IBM PureFlex System
IBM Tivoli Storage FlashCopy Manager 3101
Tivoli Storage FlashCopy Manager is required for storage cloning of online SAP systems
System
monitoring
SAP
relocate
AIX
provisioning
SAP
Clone
SAP
Copy
SAP
Refresh
Flex
System
Manager
(not needed) (not needed) (not needed) (not needed)
FlashCopy
Manager
(not needed) (not needed) (not needed)
Storage any NFS GPFS
SVC V7000
or XIV
any SVC V7000
or XIV
SVC V7000
or XIV
SVC V7000
or XIV
SAP LVM Standard
Edition
Standard
Edition
Standard
Edition
Enterprise
Edition
Enterprise
Edition
Enterprise
Edition
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
32
The management products can be installed on a single AIX LPAR within IBM PureFlex System
Alternatively the products might be installed on different servers for example SAP NetWeaver
Landscape Virtualization Management may run on any of the supported SAP platforms
The following graphic shows a high-level view of how SAP Landscape Virtualization Management
integrates with the IBM PureFlex System FSM stack to enable cloud scenarios on this platform
Figure 17 SAP Landscape Virtualization Manager integration with FSM
Managed SAP landscape
The following IBM PureFlex System infrastructure is supported with SAP NetWeaver Landscape
Virtualization Management
IBM POWER nodes
AIX 61 or 71
IBM SAN Volume Controller IBM Storwize V7000 or IBM XIVreg Storage System1
SAP NetWeaver 7x using IBM DB2 for Linux UNIX and Windows Oracle Database or
SAP MaxDB is supported
1 SAN Volume Controller and Storwize V7000 support requires SAP Landscape Virtualization Management SP3
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
33
It is assumed that the storage is attached using single or dual VIOS (IBM PowerVM VIOS) For the
storage-cloning scenario the SAN storage system must be attached in the N_Port ID Virtualization
(NPIV) mode NPIV is a FC adapter (HBA) feature that allows multiple LPARs to share a physical port
The clone is created using the FlashCopy feature of the SAN Volume Controller or the snapshot
feature of the XIV Storage System These methods create a logical copy of the data volumes within
seconds while the SAP source system stays fully operational
Whenever an IBM PureFlex System environment needs to be integrated into an existing enterprise
monitoring and management solution (for example an existing IBM Systems Director hierarchy or the IBM
Tivoli Suite) FSM provides interfaces for seamless upward integration
Furthermore SAP Landscape Virtualization Management can be used to manage SAP landscapes within
and outside of IBM PureFlex System and also across different platforms
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
34
SAP-specific offerings for IBM PureFlex System
This section lists specific offerings for SAP on IBM PureFlex System
Lab services and IBM support
As capacity and capability of a larger IBM PureFlex System installation are comparable to large scale
UNIX or mainframe installations IBM provides hardware and software support beyond the standards of
commodity blade systems
Including three Global Centers of Competence IBM Maintenance and Technical Support Services provide
integrated support on the FSM-based environments when there is not a clear understanding of whether
there is a hardware or a software issue All of this can be backed up with the latest version of IBM
Electronic Service Agent trade which has been enhanced for IBM PureFlex System and proactively monitors
and reports hardware events back to IBM support Even if a client has a comprehensive in-house support
organization this can selectively be enhanced through the addition of specific services within the portfolio
to cover critical areas of weakness or exposure
For complex IBM PureFlex System environments and where mission-critical applications are deployed
(which applies to SAP production systems) premium services are available and cover
Enhanced technical support custom technical support
Microcode support managed technical support
Committed fix services
Availability management hard disk retention
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
35
Summary
This paper provides reference architectures of how heterogeneous SAP landscapes can be consolidated
using IBM PureFlex System While running the core business applications on POWER nodes with AIX as
operating system complementary SAP components are added on x86 nodes IBM PureFlex System
enables a very tight integration of infrastructure components including servers networking and storage
Seamless monitoring and management functions of the infrastructure are provided by the FSM
The integration aspect is taken even further with the integration of the SAP Landscape Virtualization
Manager application with the FSM This enables SAP cloud usage scenarios for SAP systems running on
IBM PureFlex System
For individual questions or to request a briefing about this topic contact the IBM SAP International
Competence Center at isiccdeibmcom
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
36
Resources
These websites provide useful references to supplement the information contained in this paper
IBM Systems on PartnerWorld
ibmcompartnerworldsystems
IBM Redbooks
ibmcomredbooks
IBM cloud computing
ibmcomsolutionssapusenlandingcloud_solutionshtml
IBM Cloud Solutions for SAP clients
ibmcomcloud-computingusen
IBM SmartCloud Entry for AIX on PartnerWorld (requires PartnerWorld login)
ibmcompartnerworldpagestg_com_sys_smartcloud
SAP HANA on workload optimized IBM System x appliances
ibmcomsolutionssaphana
IBM internal SSI-URL with a collection of SAP related PureSystem materials
httpsw3-
03ssoibmcomsalessupportShowDocwssdocid=SGDN258263T70735C63ampnode=brandsB6000|brandsBI5
00|clientsetIA|alliancesT5000|alliancesT5150|channelDR|channelF2F|solutionQ00|solution210ampappname=C
C_SSIGD
select the ldquoCollateralrdquo Tab in ldquoMain Contentrdquo section
Related SAP on PureFlex paper with System x focus ldquoReference Architecture - SAP
Systems on IBM PureSystems based on x86 nodesrdquo
httpw3ibmcomsupporttechdocsatsmastrnsfWebIndexWP102167
httpwwwibmcomsupporttechdocsatsmastrnsfWebIndexWP102167
httpwww-03ibmcompartnerworldpartnerinfosrcatsmastrnsfWebIndexWP102167
Related SAP on PureFlex paper with IBM i focus ldquoEfficiently deploying SAP landscapes
on the IBM PureFlex Systemrdquo
httpw3ibmcomsupporttechdocsatsmastrnsfWebIndexWP102087
httpwwwibmcomsupporttechdocsatsmastrnsfWebIndexWP102087
httpwww-03ibmcompartnerworldpartnerinfosrcatsmastrnsfWebIndexWP102087
Virtualization for SAP on IBM PureSystems with Microsoft Hyper-V
httpwwwibmcomsupporttechdocsatsmastrnsfWebIndexWP102153
IBM Workload Optimized Solution for SAP HANA ndash Quick Start Guide
provides technical overview HW models network requirements for IBM Systems Solution
for SAP HANA appliance
httpdownloadboulderibmcomibmdlpubsystemssupportsystem_x_pdf46w8274pdf
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
37
IBM internal SAP HANA Wiki
httpsw3-connectionsibmcomwikishomelang=en-
uswikiWaef4c0eb0f35_427f_a25e_670e392682b1pageSAP20HANA
FlexSystem with SAP BWA Presentations (click to open link)
Seller
Customer
General IBM Sales Kit ldquoSAP NetWeaver Business Warehouse Accelerator (BWA)rdquo
Implementation Guide for BWA on IBM Flex System x240
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
38
Trademarks and special notices
copy Copyright IBM Corporation 2013
References in this document to IBM products or services do not imply that IBM intends to make them
available in every country
IBM the IBM logo and ibmcom are trademarks or registered trademarks of International Business
Machines Corporation in the United States other countries or both If these and other IBM trademarked
terms are marked on their first occurrence in this information with a trademark symbol (reg or trade) these
symbols indicate US registered or common law trademarks owned by IBM at the time this information
was published Such trademarks may also be registered or common law trademarks in other countries A
current list of IBM trademarks is available on the Web at Copyright and trademark information at
wwwibmcomlegalcopytradeshtml
Java and all Java-based trademarks and logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of Oracle andor
its affiliates
Microsoft Windows Windows NT and the Windows logo are trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the
United States other countries or both
Intel Intel Inside (logos) MMX and Pentium are trademarks of Intel Corporation in the United States
other countries or both
UNIX is a registered trademark of The Open Group in the United States and other countries
Linux is a trademark of Linus Torvalds in the United States other countries or both
Other company product or service names may be trademarks or service marks of others
Information is provided AS IS without warranty of any kind
All customer examples described are presented as illustrations of how those customers have used IBM
products and the results they may have achieved Actual environmental costs and performance
characteristics may vary by customer
Information concerning non-IBM products was obtained from a supplier of these products published
announcement material or other publicly available sources and does not constitute an endorsement of
such products by IBM Sources for non-IBM list prices and performance numbers are taken from publicly
available information including vendor announcements and vendor worldwide homepages IBM has not
tested these products and cannot confirm the accuracy of performance capability or any other claims
related to non-IBM products Questions on the capability of non-IBM products should be addressed to the
supplier of those products
All statements regarding IBM future direction and intent are subject to change or withdrawal without notice
and represent goals and objectives only Contact your local IBM office or IBM authorized reseller for the
full text of the specific Statement of Direction
Some information addresses anticipated future capabilities Such information is not intended as a definitive
statement of a commitment to specific levels of performance function or delivery schedules with respect to
any future products Such commitments are only made in IBM product announcements The information is
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
39
presented here to communicate IBMs current investment and development activities as a good faith effort
to help with our customers future planning
Performance is based on measurements and projections using standard IBM benchmarks in a controlled
environment The actual throughput or performance that any user will experience will vary depending upon
considerations such as the amount of multiprogramming in the users job stream the IO configuration the
storage configuration and the workload processed Therefore no assurance can be given that an
individual user will achieve throughput or performance improvements equivalent to the ratios stated here
Photographs shown are of engineering prototypes Changes may be incorporated in production models
Any references in this information to non-IBM websites are provided for convenience only and do not in
any manner serve as an endorsement of those websites The materials at those websites are not part of
the materials for this IBM product and use of those websites is at your own risk
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
10
on dedicated x86-based environments For scalability reasons these modules often follow a scale-out
paradigm
The variety and count of back-end and complementary systems is customer individual but in general
demands for physical system consolidation by using virtualization technologies
Another dimension of SAP landscape growth is the requirement of a strict isolation of production and
nonproduction environments by SAP The nonproduction environments mostly consist of sandbox
development test and QA systems The SAP transport system links these stages and allows critical
changes in either the OS or the application being tested before being promoted to business-critical SAP
instances
Supported SAP solution stacks
For the POWER nodes the same software stacks as with discrete IBM Power Systemstrade are supported
that is IBM AIXreg IBM i and Linux servers Same is true for the common databases IBM DB2reg for Linux
UNIXreg and Windows DB2 for IBM i and Oracle for AIX Restrictions on release level might apply
though All supported OSDBSAP module combinations are maintained in the product availability matrix
on the SAP Service Marketplace As one big advantage of IBM PureFlex System SAP modules which are
not supported on the POWER nodes can be deployed in the same chassis using the x86 nodes
The following table shows the supported OS and DB levels on the POWER nodes at time of
announcement
X = supported
AIX 61 71 IBM i 61 71 PowerLinux
SLES 1011
RHEL 5 6
DB2 for i X
DB2 for Linux
UNIX and
Windows 97 10
X X
MaxDB 78 X X
Oracle 1102
incl RAC
X
Sybase ASE 157 X
Table 3 supported OS and DB levels
On top of these OS and DB combinations all SAP NetWeaver 7x releases and modules are supported as
technology and middleware stack
SAP NetWeaver Landscape Virtualization Management is also supported for IBM PureFlex System and
extends the FSM with application monitoring and cloud-enabling operations More details on these are
described in the ldquoLandscape monitoring and managementrdquo section
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
11
Landscape planning
The landscape planning section describes the underlying concepts for system layout the integration of
external storage solutions and integration aspects for existing SAP landscapes and complementary SAP
component
System layout concepts
Applications running on IBM PureFlex System can take full advantage of the virtualization and
partitioning capabilities offered by the operating systems running on IBM PureFlex System For
POWER nodes the identical virtualization and partitioning capabilities are available for AIX IBM i and
PowerLinux using IBM PowerVMreg virtualization For x86 nodes the VMware kernel-based virtual
machine (KVM) and Hyper-V virtualization hypervisors are available This enables a very flexible
landscape implementation on IBM PureFlex System
The SAP concept of separating production from the development and test systems is applied by
choosing separate OS instances for those systems Depending on the sizing requirements this can
occupy a dedicated node or (in most cases) be an LPAR in a shared resource pool which is
partitioned to contain multiple components of a SAP Business Suite landscape
In order to make best use of the physical resources it is recommended to combine production LPARs
with high priority (that is weighting factor) with nonproduction LPARs with lower priority on a POWER
node This allows unexpected load peaks within a SAP production system to be covered by additional
processor resources out of these less-critical LPARs Also it is a good idea to collocate SAP instances
with recurring load peaks within a single node For example SAP systems serving users in different
time-zones fall into this category
Independent from IBM PureFlex System the advice is to apply generic IBM POWER7reg best practices
for PowerVM parameterization as provided by the POWER brand and SAP sizing guidelines
While processor (de-) allocation happens very dynamically within a millisecond timescale this does
not apply to physical memory Hence the memory associated to an LPAR in a pool ideally covers the
maximum of the LPARs peak virtual processor allocation SAP applications are rather memory
consuming with a large workload dependent variation though The available memory on a IBM
PureFlex System POWER node is sufficient for many SAP workloads in particular for the very
common SAP ERP component and such that do not make use of a Javatrade stack Whenever SAP
sizing results (per SAP Quick Sizer output for example) indicate that 8 GB per core are not sufficient or
you want to consolidate many SAP instances into a single shared pool you have the following two
options with IBM PureFlex System in order to increase memory capacity
Configure the POWER nodes with internal SSDs or boot from external storage ie no HDDs
contained in node in order to double the memory per core ratio
Configure and activate Active Memory Expansion (AME)
The expansion factor again is heavily workload dependent As a starting point assume memory
expansion by
20 times for SAP ABAP-only dialogue servers
15 times for SAP DB servers and only
11 times for SAP Java instances
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
12
Hardware accelerated AME introduced with the POWER7+ nodes is supported by SAP
Measurements have shown no significant differences over the traditional sw-only AME version
AIX Workload Partitions (WPARs) are another option for saving physical memory on constrained
nodes WPARs are supported for AIX 7 running on a node also SAP supports WPARs As WPARs
reside within an AIX host environment and not as dedicated LPARs there are several advantages by
deploying smaller SAP systems into these
WPARs do not require an incremental hypervisor and OS memory footprint
WPARs can dynamically reallocate memory within the host AIX space This does not cause a
delay by hypervisor activities and therefore results in real-time memory virtualization
As an additional benefit WPARs require less OS maintenance efforts compared to an identical
number of LPARs each running an own AIX or Linux OS This is of interest as soon as
operational costs are linked to the count of managed OS images
The PowerVM hypervisor theoretically limits the smallest SAP instance to occupy as little as 110th of
a node core But what is the largest SAP system that can reside within a single IBM PureFlex System
chassis This question might be of interest for prospects that plan downsizing from large-scale
servers
If you assume a typical DB-to-Application Server ratio of 14 for SAP ERP production instances this
results in the largest 3-tier SAP ERP system of (132 cores DB server + 432 cores application
servers) = 160 cores which can be covered by the POWER nodes that fit into a single 10U high IBM
PureFlex System chassis As a rough approximation assume effectively 2000 SAPS per core (this is
a conservative approach for SAP production compared to a SAP sales and distribution benchmark
environment) which results in a single SAP system of 320000 SAPS This capacity is in the range of
a medium-sized discrete Power 795 server
As most of the SAP systems are database centric the limiting factor is not only the processor
capacity but also a well-balanced IO and database design Details are covered in the following
section
For larger SAP database instances and in order to increase their resiliency customers might consider
implementing a scale-out relational database management system (RDBMS) by deploying several
nodes as concurrent DB nodes The internal IBM PureFlex System network bandwidth favors
horizontal scalability IBM DB2 pureScalereg or Oracle Real Application Cluster (RAC) are both
supported for SAP production use and have been tested on IBM PureFlex System Beyond increased
database scalability the failure of a single DB node will not cause the attached SAP systems to stop
but to continue with a reduced DB throughput
Introducing the IBM Systems Solution for SAP Business Suite and SAP HANA
SAP HANA is exclusively supported on certified hardware ndash for example IBM System x3950 X5 ndash that
uses the Intel EX processor architecture As of today HANA cannot be deployed on any compute
node within the PureFlex chassis However certified x3950 X5 based HANA appliances also
including storage and system software components may be installed in the same PureFlex rack A
reference architecture introducing this solution offering has been included in section Integration of
SAP Appliance-based components of this document
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
13
Storage attachment
In the previous section the design criteria for the server nodes have been explained This section
explains the storage and IO relevant parameters for an IBM PureFlex System-based SAP landscape
The IBM PureFlex System compute nodes allow adding a limited amount of internal storage to the
node For most of the business applications the available internal disk space might not be sufficient
Therefore storage needs to be supplied by an storage solution The IBM PureFlex System chassis
can be equipped with the internal Flex System V7000 storage node This can be connected via the
chassis internal switches directly over Fibre Channel of Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE)
Figure 5 Chassis internal storage attachment
External storage system like the IBM Storwize V7000 or the IBM SAN Volume Controller or any
other IBM System Storage can be connected through the chassis switches as well
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
14
Figure 6 Chassis internal and external storage attachment
Access to either of the storage solutions from the POWER nodes requires a Virtual IO Server (VIOS)
installed Due to the limited FC ports on the half wide compute nodes a dual VIOS setup is only
possible using Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE)as shown in figures 5 and 6 above
IBM Flex System V7000
In general the IBM PureFlex System can connect to any SAN storage solution The internal IBM Flex
System V7000 is the most powerful and easy-to-use innovative midrange disk system in the storage
marketplace and is the best fit for IBM PureFlex System The Flex System V7000 is fully compatible
with the IBM Storwize V7000 storage system
The integrated Easy Tier functionality provides significant performance improvements by
automatic migration of hot data blocks to high-performing SSDs
Thin provisioning consumes used space only no pre-allocation required
Dynamic migration provides continuous availability of the applications while migrating data
online
IBM FlashCopy replication supports faster and more efficient data copies for online
backup testing or data mining
25-inch disk form factor 24 per expansion unit 240 total disks
Cluster up to 4 node pairs and 960 disks
Each node pair provides dual RAID controller to provide high availability access
No SAN or fiber channel cabling is required between the compute and storage nodes
Real time disk compression reduces the amount of required storage space Compression
rates are between 50 and 70 for SAP systems running on IBM i and the DB2 for i
database
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
15
Integration of the V7000 storage management into the Flex System Manager
Value of Easy Tier to SAP
The SAP ERP system workloads represent online transaction processing (OLTP) characteristics
Typically not all data of the SAP system or database is accessed during a given time frame for
example during a 24-hour period Statistically there exist contiguously accessed data areas some of
which are hot These hot spots are part of the disk system that has significantly high activity and
usually cause long wait times for IO requests The change rate of the hot data areas is not in terms of
minutes but most likely stays constant over a longer period of time for example 24 hours
Here Easy Tier is able to monitor and move these hot areas from HDD to SSD Easy Tier
automatically creates a data migration plan to incrementally move the hottest data to SSDs and the
cold data back to the spinning disks Easy Tier adapts to clientsrsquo changing workloads and it does this
without any administrative effort to constantly tune their storage systems As a result the SAP
transaction time is reduced
Value of Real Time Disk Compression to SAP
Today traditional database systems provide various compression technologies to store data This
requires know-how to identify which tables to compress and to setup and maintain efficient
compression over time With real time disk compression offered by Storwize V7000 the complete disk
set of the partition running the SAP systems can be easily compressed Disk compression saves
between 50 and 70 percent of storage space with minimal performance impact to most SAP
workloads This is comparable to native DB gains and can save license and operational DB-admin
cost A combination of two compression technologies does not bring further advantages
IBM Flex System V7000 Storage Node
The IBM Flex System V7000 Storage Node requires a minimum of 2 full wide slots to be installed into
an IBM Flex System chassis It provides direct Fibre Channel Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE)
and iSCSI connection to the PureFlex compute nodes The Flex System Manager will identify the
storage system automatically
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
16
The Flex System V7000 management user interface (GUI) is compatible with the Storwize V7000 GUI
IBM PureFlex System and Storwize V7000
The Storwize V7000 storage can be connected to the IBM PureFlex System chassis either through
Fiber Channel (SAN) or through Ethernet (iSCSI) Both the connections provided block-level access to
the storage system
With IBM PureFlex System the test team recommends SAN access by using the IBM PureFlex
System integrated SAN switch where four FC connections are required to ensure multipathing More
connections are not required for connecting to a single chassis
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
17
Setting up a stretched cluster is not supported by the integrated V7000 SVC Customers will require a
traditional SVC to support such a resilient disk setup Of course other technologies like AIX LVM
mirroring Metro Mirror etc are supported
Configuration of Flex System V7000 and Storwize V7000
To gain maximum flexibility in respect to capacity utilization and performance workload balancing the
number of storage pools configured (Managed Disk Groups) should be as few as possible for a single
V7000 system (node pair) Depending on the performance requirement the use of Easy Tier in
combination with SSDs is recommended
A fully equipped chassis is capable to handle 300000 SAPS leading to a workload of approximately
100000 IOPS Assuming a storage demand of 100 TB usable results in the following
recommendation
24 SSD 25-inch 400 GB each plugged into the V7000 controller
Four expansion units each with 24 SAS drives 25-inch each 900 GB
One expansion unit 23 SAS drives 25-inch each 900 GB and 1 SSD 25 inches 400 GB
(spare)
RAIDs (Managed Disk) are configured as RAID 5 7+1
Total of 25 SSD and 119 SAS
Integration with existing SAP landscapes
The IBM PureFlex System chassis can be integrated into existing SAP landscapes Physically the IBM
PureFlex System chassis fits into any standard 19-inch rack which provides a minimum of 10 spare height
units Other non-IBM PureFlex System components can be housed within the same standard rack as long
as power distribution units provide sufficient energy A fully populated IBM PureFlex System chassis can
contain up to six 2500 watts energy supplies which can be configured for several redundancy modes
The Ethernet and FC switches provide connectivity to an existing network and storage infrastructure As
discussed in the previous section the IBM PureFlex System FC switch connects to existing SAN storage
solutions LPARs stored on the SAN can be migrated to an IBM PureFlex System POWER node by
assigning the disks to the IBM PureFlex System nodersquos VIOS and boot from those This allows very fast
migration of exiting SAP systems to IBM PureFlex System with minimal downtime
External SAN storage can be attached to a new PureFlex chassis in several ways Ideally external LUNs
are connected via the integrated V7000 SAN Volume Controller as managed disks Thus storage
administration can exploit SVC virtualization and management capabilities If latter is not a focus the
PureFlex FC-switches can be attached to existing SAN-fabrics using transparent NPIV mode see Figure
6 Storage vendors need to support this and storage SAN administration will be performed with native
vendor tools not via FSM
Tests have shown that IBM PowerVM Live Partition Mobility (LPM) is possible between nodes and
external systems given the network is set up appropriately This allows to migrate running LPARs from
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
18
discrete Power Systems to POWER nodes and to migrate from POWER nodes to discrete Power
Systems
The FSM administration layer can co-exist with already implemented cross-platform management solutions like eg the IBM Systems Director It also can become integrated with higher level enterprise service management software as a monitored and managed layer
Figure 7 integration of management components
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
19
Integration of SAP Appliance-based components
Certain SAP components are not available on all SAP supported operating systems and databases If
such components are required to support customersrsquo business processes they need to be installed on top
of a supported OS which is not necessarily the same location where the SAP core applications are stored
With IBM PureFlex System supporting both x86 and POWER processor-based operating systems those
complementary components can be tightly integrated into the landscape The required hardware
resources can be hosted within one IBM PureFlex System chassis Besides the compact server footprint in
the datacenter the internal network eliminates the need for network cables and switches to connect the
systems The IBM PureFlex System management provided by CMM and FSM reduces the complexity of
managing the heterogeneous environment
This allows the creation of a complete SAP landscape within a single box Core SAP Business Suite
components are running on the POWER nodes while complementary components such as SAP
Enterprise Search and SAP Business Warehouse Accelerator can run on x86 nodes
The IBM Systems Solution for SAP Business Suite and SAP HANA SAP HANA is the strategic in-memory
database by SAP AG to accelerate in particular business analytics but also transactional business In
order to achieve magnitudes of acceleration SAP HANA exploits specific design features of the Intel EX
processor architecture with optimized low-level coding Consequently SAP HANA is exclusively
supported on certified hardware using this processor type ndash for example IBM System x3950 X5
The IBM SAP HANA offering is a standardized portfolio of System x hardware (IBM Systems x3950 X5 -
7143-Hxx systems) with internal (SSD SAS) storage for data persistency plus software components and
surrounding services Exclusively Linux namely SLES 11 is supported as operating system
As of today such an appliance cannot be deployed on any compute node within the PureFlex chassis
Instead IBM x3950 X5 based SAP HANA building blocks may be installed into the same rack as the
PureFlex chassis and act as external HANA compute nodes Connection to both x86 and POWER based
internal compute nodes running standard SAP applications or complementary SAP HANA instances is
done via Ethernet through a TOR switch
A big advantage of re-using external technology is that well established and beneficial concepts can be 11
applied for PureFlex focused landscapes too As an excelling example IBM GPFS (General Parallel File
System) not only enables the IBM SAP HANA solution to grow beyond the capacity of a single system into
a scale-out solution but also adds high availability and disaster recovery features to the IBM HANA
appliance
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
20
The scope of the Flex System Manager has been extended to allow the integrated management of
PureFlex internal components and IBM x3950 X5 based SAP HANA building blocks
It provides administrative functions like
Manual discovery inventory
Release Management (FW and SW installation and update)
Power Control
Remote Access
System Configuration
System Health and Status
Service and Support
for workload optimized x3950 X5 SAP HANA appliances
Figure 8 FSM menu of external x3950 X5 based IBM SAP HANA appliances
The screenshot above shows external x3950 X5 nodes appearing on the FlexSystem Manager panel and
the applicable activities to be performed
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
21
From a hardware point-of-view IBM PureFlex Systems offer the administrative integration of the HANA
building blocks (T-shirt sizes) listed in Table 4They meet the SAP defined HANA sizing grid and do not
need to be purchased together with a PureFlex System This allows the integration of existing HANA
systems with a newly deployed PureFlex System at customer site
Building block
Server (MTM)
CPUs Main memory
S+ x3950 X5
(7143-HAx) 2x Intel Xeon
E7-8870 256 GB
M x3950 X5
(7143-HBx) 4x Intel Xeon
E7-8870 512 GB
L
x3950 X5 (7143HBx)
+ x3950 X5
(7143HCx)
8x Intel Xeon E7-8870
1024 GB
XM x3950 X5
(7143-HDx) 4x Intel Xeon
E7-8870 1TB
32x 32GB
XL x3950 X5
(7143-HDx + 7143-HEx)
8x Intel Xeon E7-8870
2TB 64x 32GB
XXL x3950 X5
(7143-HBx + 7143-HCx)
8x Intel Xeon E7-8870
4TB 128x 32GB
Table 4 IBM SAP HANA Appliance building blocks (June 2013)
This list will change pretty frequently as new models and HANA configurations will become supported
Therefore always check the SAP list of supported models in the SAP HANA PAM (requires authorization)
or consult an IBM Techline representative SAP technology and management components as well as
common operational functions like the Tivoli Storage Manager for BackupRestore of ERP and HANA may
be deployed on PureFlex compute nodes and act on both environments
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
22
Figure 9 Architecture of SAP Business Suite on PureFlex and SAP HANA on System x3950 X5 Workload Optimized Solution for SAP HANA
In case of IBM SAP HANA scale-out configurations the Integrated Management Module of x3950 X5
servers and the SAP HANA appliance related network interfaces (like SAP client access HANA Studio
ERP backup and restore HWSW-Admin) will be connected to the PureFlex Device Management and
Client Data network via Ethernet through TOR switches Such a scale-out configuration is deployed with
separate racks
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
23
Figure 10 SAP HANA Appliances with PureFlex Network Topology
Depended on the amount of external network connections single node IBM SAP HANA appliances may
be connected via available ports on integrated switches of the PureFlex chassis The single node SAP
HANA appliance could be deployed in the same rack with IBM PureFlex System
FlexSystem Native Node Support for SAP Business Warehouse Accelerator
The SAP Business Warehouse Accelerator (BWA) was the initial approach to accelerate OLAP workload
with a dedicated appliance attached to a SAP Business Warehouse system SAP BWA follows a ldquoplug amp
playrdquo design easier to implement than SAP HANA and has a longer history Hence SAP BWA still has a
broad installed base among SAP BI customers
SAP BWA has not been this highly optimized for the Intel EX-CPU type This fact allows deploying SAP
BWA appliances on XEON-based FlexSystem nodes running a SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 SP2
operating system
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
24
The ldquoIBM Flex System Solution for SAP NetWeaver Business Warehouse Acceleratorrdquo extends the
established IBM BladeCenter offerings for SAP BWA with scalable FlexSystem configurations comprising
of x240 compute nodes inside the Flex-chassis and externally attached IBM Storage Systems DS3500
This combination meets the SAP BWA appliance criteria while providing an excellent priceperformance
ratio
Table 5 FlexSystem building blocks for IBM SAP Business Warehouse Accelerator Appliances (August 2013)
As with the SAP BWA appliances based on IBM BladeCenter the IBM GPFS filesystem improves overall
IO performance data scalability and resiliency The building blocks have been pre-tested and optimized
to deliver easy integration and quick implementation Order and shipment processes of the pre-built
systems are identical to those of the traditional IBM BWA platforms
Since SAP BWA is an encapsulated appliance it cannot exploit all functionality provided by FSM for full
topology management Passive ndash in the sense of monitoring - functions like inventory system health
hardware service and support are applicable Dedicated BWA-FlexSystem chassis can be attached to
PureFlex systems hosting a SAP BI solution and monitored from there Performing active administrative
functions which may have an impact on the BWA configuration are not allowed however
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
25
SAP on AIX reference landscapes for IBM PureFlex System
1 Minimal system = ERP BW all on POWER nodes
This is the simplest case of deploying
core SAP components in an IBM
PureFlex System System All SAP
modules are supported on POWER and
either an AIX or PowerLinux OS Two
nodes for physical redundancy each with
PowerVM and VIO virtualization are
used
In order to make use of autonomous load
balancing by PowerVM it is
recommended to mix production and
nonproduction SAP instances within a
shared processor pool on each of the
single nodes SAP 2-tier deployments
need to be preferred for smaller systems
Consider packing non- production
systems into WPARs for less LPAR
complexity
2 3-tier SAP ERP with scale-out DB and application-server tier all on POWER nodes
This option combines DB scale-out with
an SAP 3-tier application-server scale
out The advantage of a multinode DB
is a hot-standby high availability
without DB downtime as with classical
cold-standby cluster solutions Also
both the nodes contribute to an
aggregate DB throughput when in
normal operation As such a setup
appears for business-critical scenarios
a hot-standby FSM appliance has also
been configured (planned in 2012)
This in any case ensures that the
overall system monitoring and
adjustment can take place
Figure 11 minimal system
Figure 12 scale-out database
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
26
3 Mixed system = SAP Business Suite core applications TREX and non-SAP applications
This setup makes use of the IBM
PureFlex System heterogeneous
capabilities While several core SAP
Business Suite applications stay on
POWER nodes they are now
complemented by SAP TREX and a
NetWeaver development
environment which are supported
only on an x86 architecture There
are more than these components
there are newer appliances such as
BWA and HANA which mandate
such a setup
Further applications can be
consolidated into the same IBM
PureFlex System chassis as well
4 SAP NetWeaver landscape = SAP Business Suite core applications SAP Enterprise Portal
SAP Process Integration (service bus) and SAP Business Objects
This is a heterogeneous setup with
majority of SAP core systems on AIX
SAP Business Objects XI runs on
larger AIX LPAR for scaling while the
Business Objects end-user oriented
systems are consolidated in virtual
machines hosted on an x86 node
This scenario also outlines the
capability of IBM PureFlex System to
run x86 Linux and PowerLinux
distributions This applies to non-SAP
and many SAP components Inter-
system communication strongly takes
advantage of the internal networking
bandwidth of IBM PureFlex System
Figure 14 SAP Process Integration and SAP Business Objects
Figure 13 complementary components
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
27
5 Mixed system with SAP HANA = SAP Business Suite core applications deployed on
PureFlex nodes plus SAP HANA Appliances (= IBM Systems Solution for SAP Business
Suite and SAP HANA)
This setup makes use of the externalized IBM PureFlex System capabilities in shape of the IBM Systems Solution for SAP Business Suite and SAP HANA
Several core SAP applications are
deployed on internal POWER or x86
nodes and are complemented by an
external SAP HANA environment which is
being built of the x3950 X5 based standard
IBM appliance offering
This enables customers running SAP
HANA always to benefit from newest
certified System x HANA appliances and
operational improvements in that space
while creating administrative synergies
between the SAP HANA and traditional
SAP Business Suite infrastructure
Starting from physical integration today
the FlexSystem Manager will provide
integrated administrative capabilities
The IBM PureFlex system offers an
integrated infrastructure for all SAP
components SAP applications on
PureFlex System compute nodes may
access SAP HANA DB on IBM x3950 X5
servers as well as traditional data bases
(eg IBM DB2) running on PureFlex
System
Figure 15 SAP HANA Integration
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
28
High availability and disaster recovery
The single point of failures (SPOFs) for SAP systems stay untouched by the introduction of IBM PureFlex
System These are the database server and the central services for ABAP and Java including the enqueue
server
These SPOFs occur within each production SAP business component of the landscape that is multiple
clusters (such as ERP CRM SCM and so on) must be implemented
In addition central technical building blocks such as SAP Enterprise Portal (for user access) Process
Integration as Enterprise Service Bus need to be setup resilient
While the high availability and disaster recovery concepts for all these SPOFs are well known in general
they have not been tested in a special IBM PureFlex System environment at time of authoring this paper
As scenario 2 indicates multi-node databases like Oracle RAC are supported on IBM PureFlex System
Landscape monitoring and management
As the SAP landscapes tend to become a heterogeneous aggregation of servers and operating systems
this implies a certain level of complexity for SAP landscape administration Consolidating the SAP
landscape into an IBM PureFlex System with its consistent management capabilities helps to reduce this
complexity
The combination of the IBM PureFlex System and SAP NetWeaver technology offers multiple native
monitoring and administration layers for the complete hardware and software stack These are
Chassis Management Module
Flex System Management
SAP Computing Center Management System (SAP CCMS)
SAP Solution Manager
minus SAP Solution Manager aims at SAP application management and business key
performance indicator (KPI) monitoring but also is a mandatory tool for SAP
release and patch management
SAP NetWeaver Landscape Virtualization Management (LVM)
The IBM PureFlex System FSM and SAP LVM Enterprise are optional components the remaining ones
are part of virtualized base installation
In order to gain maximum efficiency for daily operations it is important to select the most appropriate tools
for specific administrative tasks and organizations In addition consistency and transparency need to be
maintained
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
29
The following table provides a high-level orientation for a selected set of administrator tasks in SAP
ecosystems
CMM FSM SAP LVM SAP CCMS SAP Solution Manager
Chassis topology view and administration
Through CMM
Virtualization metrics Through Flex System
Manager
Virtualization topology and administration
Through Flex System
Manager
OS DB SAP performance
Provisioning of a new virtual server Through Flex System
Manager
Virtual server start stop and live migration
Through Flex System
Manager
SAP service reallocation
SAP system refresh cloning
Alerting Chassis focus Systems focus
Task monitoring
OS DB SAP Base
Business KPIs
Integration to an upper-level enterprise management
Into Flex System
Manager
Into SAP Solution Manager
Table 6 monitoring and management layers
FSM is based on IBM Systems Director and provides comparable functions For POWER nodes FSM is
mandatory for advanced virtualization management As most of these functions are beneficial (if not
mandatory) for SAP (production) systems the FSM appears as an essential component for SAP on IBM
PureFlex environments
As a single point of control FSM provides a web-based interface to manage all aspects of the IBM
PureFlex System hardware components For example an interactive chassis map provides status
overview and serves as an entry point to manage the different resources Setup wizards guide you through
the process of initial setup and maintenance tasks
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
30
Figure 16 FSM chassis map
SAP CCMS is fully functional for IBM PureFlex System It allows monitoring and adjustment of base SAP
application and database settings Also PowerVM-specific metrics such as LPAR and WPAR resources
AME settings and so on can be accesses through the native SAP administrator GUI
IBM PureFlex System integration with SAP NetWeaver Landscape
Virtualization Management
The described cloud solution for SAP landscapes becomes available by a combination of the IBM FSM
capabilities and SAP NetWeaver Landscape Virtualization Management for automation tasks at the
application level
This solution enables common cloud scenarios with the SAP software stack and the underlying
infrastructure It aims to connect application management services with system virtualization and storage
management services It is a management tool for customers who run their SAP systems in their own data
center and want to become more efficient by automating provisioning and cloning tasks
Various scenarios around system copy and system refresh are supported including post-copy automation
Those labor-expensive tasks have been made easy with SAP Landscape Virtualization Management and
IBM PureFlex System
In more detail the following use cases are covered for cloud environments running SAP applications
Cloning of a SAP system (creating an identical copy in a fenced environment)
Creating an initial copy of a SAP system (with changing the SAP system identifier)
Refreshing a test SAP system with the content of a productive system
Automation of system copyrefresh post processing activities
Monitoring and visualization of virtualized SAP landscapes
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
31
SAP Landscape Virtualization Management is in many cases complementary to the inherent IBM PureFlex
System management layers SAP Landscape Virtualization Management enables access to many relevant
IBM PureFlex System and virtualization parameters to the SAP management software and provides IT
self-services to SAP administrators
The available IBM and SAP literature which describes the interaction of IBM Systems Director and SAP
Landscape Virtualization Management also applies to IBM PureFlex System FSM is the enriched IBM
Systems Director specifically optimized and packaged for IBM PureFlex System
IBM Tivoli Storage FlashCopy Manager adds a unique value for SAP landscapes This software enables
application-aware database-consistent online backups which can be used to create the cloned system By
exploiting storage snapshot techniques the backup is taken almost instantaneously
The solution has been developed as modular building blocks This provides a high degree of flexibility and
extensibility The following table shows the products and editions that are used for each scenario
Table 7 Use cases per management layer
Management components
SAP NetWeaver Landscape Virtualization Management 10 integrates with the following IBM
management products
IBM Flex System Manager
FSM is used for virtualization monitoring and management and for the operating system
provisioning scenarios on IBM PureFlex System
IBM Tivoli Storage FlashCopy Manager 3101
Tivoli Storage FlashCopy Manager is required for storage cloning of online SAP systems
System
monitoring
SAP
relocate
AIX
provisioning
SAP
Clone
SAP
Copy
SAP
Refresh
Flex
System
Manager
(not needed) (not needed) (not needed) (not needed)
FlashCopy
Manager
(not needed) (not needed) (not needed)
Storage any NFS GPFS
SVC V7000
or XIV
any SVC V7000
or XIV
SVC V7000
or XIV
SVC V7000
or XIV
SAP LVM Standard
Edition
Standard
Edition
Standard
Edition
Enterprise
Edition
Enterprise
Edition
Enterprise
Edition
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
32
The management products can be installed on a single AIX LPAR within IBM PureFlex System
Alternatively the products might be installed on different servers for example SAP NetWeaver
Landscape Virtualization Management may run on any of the supported SAP platforms
The following graphic shows a high-level view of how SAP Landscape Virtualization Management
integrates with the IBM PureFlex System FSM stack to enable cloud scenarios on this platform
Figure 17 SAP Landscape Virtualization Manager integration with FSM
Managed SAP landscape
The following IBM PureFlex System infrastructure is supported with SAP NetWeaver Landscape
Virtualization Management
IBM POWER nodes
AIX 61 or 71
IBM SAN Volume Controller IBM Storwize V7000 or IBM XIVreg Storage System1
SAP NetWeaver 7x using IBM DB2 for Linux UNIX and Windows Oracle Database or
SAP MaxDB is supported
1 SAN Volume Controller and Storwize V7000 support requires SAP Landscape Virtualization Management SP3
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
33
It is assumed that the storage is attached using single or dual VIOS (IBM PowerVM VIOS) For the
storage-cloning scenario the SAN storage system must be attached in the N_Port ID Virtualization
(NPIV) mode NPIV is a FC adapter (HBA) feature that allows multiple LPARs to share a physical port
The clone is created using the FlashCopy feature of the SAN Volume Controller or the snapshot
feature of the XIV Storage System These methods create a logical copy of the data volumes within
seconds while the SAP source system stays fully operational
Whenever an IBM PureFlex System environment needs to be integrated into an existing enterprise
monitoring and management solution (for example an existing IBM Systems Director hierarchy or the IBM
Tivoli Suite) FSM provides interfaces for seamless upward integration
Furthermore SAP Landscape Virtualization Management can be used to manage SAP landscapes within
and outside of IBM PureFlex System and also across different platforms
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
34
SAP-specific offerings for IBM PureFlex System
This section lists specific offerings for SAP on IBM PureFlex System
Lab services and IBM support
As capacity and capability of a larger IBM PureFlex System installation are comparable to large scale
UNIX or mainframe installations IBM provides hardware and software support beyond the standards of
commodity blade systems
Including three Global Centers of Competence IBM Maintenance and Technical Support Services provide
integrated support on the FSM-based environments when there is not a clear understanding of whether
there is a hardware or a software issue All of this can be backed up with the latest version of IBM
Electronic Service Agent trade which has been enhanced for IBM PureFlex System and proactively monitors
and reports hardware events back to IBM support Even if a client has a comprehensive in-house support
organization this can selectively be enhanced through the addition of specific services within the portfolio
to cover critical areas of weakness or exposure
For complex IBM PureFlex System environments and where mission-critical applications are deployed
(which applies to SAP production systems) premium services are available and cover
Enhanced technical support custom technical support
Microcode support managed technical support
Committed fix services
Availability management hard disk retention
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
35
Summary
This paper provides reference architectures of how heterogeneous SAP landscapes can be consolidated
using IBM PureFlex System While running the core business applications on POWER nodes with AIX as
operating system complementary SAP components are added on x86 nodes IBM PureFlex System
enables a very tight integration of infrastructure components including servers networking and storage
Seamless monitoring and management functions of the infrastructure are provided by the FSM
The integration aspect is taken even further with the integration of the SAP Landscape Virtualization
Manager application with the FSM This enables SAP cloud usage scenarios for SAP systems running on
IBM PureFlex System
For individual questions or to request a briefing about this topic contact the IBM SAP International
Competence Center at isiccdeibmcom
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
36
Resources
These websites provide useful references to supplement the information contained in this paper
IBM Systems on PartnerWorld
ibmcompartnerworldsystems
IBM Redbooks
ibmcomredbooks
IBM cloud computing
ibmcomsolutionssapusenlandingcloud_solutionshtml
IBM Cloud Solutions for SAP clients
ibmcomcloud-computingusen
IBM SmartCloud Entry for AIX on PartnerWorld (requires PartnerWorld login)
ibmcompartnerworldpagestg_com_sys_smartcloud
SAP HANA on workload optimized IBM System x appliances
ibmcomsolutionssaphana
IBM internal SSI-URL with a collection of SAP related PureSystem materials
httpsw3-
03ssoibmcomsalessupportShowDocwssdocid=SGDN258263T70735C63ampnode=brandsB6000|brandsBI5
00|clientsetIA|alliancesT5000|alliancesT5150|channelDR|channelF2F|solutionQ00|solution210ampappname=C
C_SSIGD
select the ldquoCollateralrdquo Tab in ldquoMain Contentrdquo section
Related SAP on PureFlex paper with System x focus ldquoReference Architecture - SAP
Systems on IBM PureSystems based on x86 nodesrdquo
httpw3ibmcomsupporttechdocsatsmastrnsfWebIndexWP102167
httpwwwibmcomsupporttechdocsatsmastrnsfWebIndexWP102167
httpwww-03ibmcompartnerworldpartnerinfosrcatsmastrnsfWebIndexWP102167
Related SAP on PureFlex paper with IBM i focus ldquoEfficiently deploying SAP landscapes
on the IBM PureFlex Systemrdquo
httpw3ibmcomsupporttechdocsatsmastrnsfWebIndexWP102087
httpwwwibmcomsupporttechdocsatsmastrnsfWebIndexWP102087
httpwww-03ibmcompartnerworldpartnerinfosrcatsmastrnsfWebIndexWP102087
Virtualization for SAP on IBM PureSystems with Microsoft Hyper-V
httpwwwibmcomsupporttechdocsatsmastrnsfWebIndexWP102153
IBM Workload Optimized Solution for SAP HANA ndash Quick Start Guide
provides technical overview HW models network requirements for IBM Systems Solution
for SAP HANA appliance
httpdownloadboulderibmcomibmdlpubsystemssupportsystem_x_pdf46w8274pdf
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
37
IBM internal SAP HANA Wiki
httpsw3-connectionsibmcomwikishomelang=en-
uswikiWaef4c0eb0f35_427f_a25e_670e392682b1pageSAP20HANA
FlexSystem with SAP BWA Presentations (click to open link)
Seller
Customer
General IBM Sales Kit ldquoSAP NetWeaver Business Warehouse Accelerator (BWA)rdquo
Implementation Guide for BWA on IBM Flex System x240
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
38
Trademarks and special notices
copy Copyright IBM Corporation 2013
References in this document to IBM products or services do not imply that IBM intends to make them
available in every country
IBM the IBM logo and ibmcom are trademarks or registered trademarks of International Business
Machines Corporation in the United States other countries or both If these and other IBM trademarked
terms are marked on their first occurrence in this information with a trademark symbol (reg or trade) these
symbols indicate US registered or common law trademarks owned by IBM at the time this information
was published Such trademarks may also be registered or common law trademarks in other countries A
current list of IBM trademarks is available on the Web at Copyright and trademark information at
wwwibmcomlegalcopytradeshtml
Java and all Java-based trademarks and logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of Oracle andor
its affiliates
Microsoft Windows Windows NT and the Windows logo are trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the
United States other countries or both
Intel Intel Inside (logos) MMX and Pentium are trademarks of Intel Corporation in the United States
other countries or both
UNIX is a registered trademark of The Open Group in the United States and other countries
Linux is a trademark of Linus Torvalds in the United States other countries or both
Other company product or service names may be trademarks or service marks of others
Information is provided AS IS without warranty of any kind
All customer examples described are presented as illustrations of how those customers have used IBM
products and the results they may have achieved Actual environmental costs and performance
characteristics may vary by customer
Information concerning non-IBM products was obtained from a supplier of these products published
announcement material or other publicly available sources and does not constitute an endorsement of
such products by IBM Sources for non-IBM list prices and performance numbers are taken from publicly
available information including vendor announcements and vendor worldwide homepages IBM has not
tested these products and cannot confirm the accuracy of performance capability or any other claims
related to non-IBM products Questions on the capability of non-IBM products should be addressed to the
supplier of those products
All statements regarding IBM future direction and intent are subject to change or withdrawal without notice
and represent goals and objectives only Contact your local IBM office or IBM authorized reseller for the
full text of the specific Statement of Direction
Some information addresses anticipated future capabilities Such information is not intended as a definitive
statement of a commitment to specific levels of performance function or delivery schedules with respect to
any future products Such commitments are only made in IBM product announcements The information is
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
39
presented here to communicate IBMs current investment and development activities as a good faith effort
to help with our customers future planning
Performance is based on measurements and projections using standard IBM benchmarks in a controlled
environment The actual throughput or performance that any user will experience will vary depending upon
considerations such as the amount of multiprogramming in the users job stream the IO configuration the
storage configuration and the workload processed Therefore no assurance can be given that an
individual user will achieve throughput or performance improvements equivalent to the ratios stated here
Photographs shown are of engineering prototypes Changes may be incorporated in production models
Any references in this information to non-IBM websites are provided for convenience only and do not in
any manner serve as an endorsement of those websites The materials at those websites are not part of
the materials for this IBM product and use of those websites is at your own risk
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
11
Landscape planning
The landscape planning section describes the underlying concepts for system layout the integration of
external storage solutions and integration aspects for existing SAP landscapes and complementary SAP
component
System layout concepts
Applications running on IBM PureFlex System can take full advantage of the virtualization and
partitioning capabilities offered by the operating systems running on IBM PureFlex System For
POWER nodes the identical virtualization and partitioning capabilities are available for AIX IBM i and
PowerLinux using IBM PowerVMreg virtualization For x86 nodes the VMware kernel-based virtual
machine (KVM) and Hyper-V virtualization hypervisors are available This enables a very flexible
landscape implementation on IBM PureFlex System
The SAP concept of separating production from the development and test systems is applied by
choosing separate OS instances for those systems Depending on the sizing requirements this can
occupy a dedicated node or (in most cases) be an LPAR in a shared resource pool which is
partitioned to contain multiple components of a SAP Business Suite landscape
In order to make best use of the physical resources it is recommended to combine production LPARs
with high priority (that is weighting factor) with nonproduction LPARs with lower priority on a POWER
node This allows unexpected load peaks within a SAP production system to be covered by additional
processor resources out of these less-critical LPARs Also it is a good idea to collocate SAP instances
with recurring load peaks within a single node For example SAP systems serving users in different
time-zones fall into this category
Independent from IBM PureFlex System the advice is to apply generic IBM POWER7reg best practices
for PowerVM parameterization as provided by the POWER brand and SAP sizing guidelines
While processor (de-) allocation happens very dynamically within a millisecond timescale this does
not apply to physical memory Hence the memory associated to an LPAR in a pool ideally covers the
maximum of the LPARs peak virtual processor allocation SAP applications are rather memory
consuming with a large workload dependent variation though The available memory on a IBM
PureFlex System POWER node is sufficient for many SAP workloads in particular for the very
common SAP ERP component and such that do not make use of a Javatrade stack Whenever SAP
sizing results (per SAP Quick Sizer output for example) indicate that 8 GB per core are not sufficient or
you want to consolidate many SAP instances into a single shared pool you have the following two
options with IBM PureFlex System in order to increase memory capacity
Configure the POWER nodes with internal SSDs or boot from external storage ie no HDDs
contained in node in order to double the memory per core ratio
Configure and activate Active Memory Expansion (AME)
The expansion factor again is heavily workload dependent As a starting point assume memory
expansion by
20 times for SAP ABAP-only dialogue servers
15 times for SAP DB servers and only
11 times for SAP Java instances
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
12
Hardware accelerated AME introduced with the POWER7+ nodes is supported by SAP
Measurements have shown no significant differences over the traditional sw-only AME version
AIX Workload Partitions (WPARs) are another option for saving physical memory on constrained
nodes WPARs are supported for AIX 7 running on a node also SAP supports WPARs As WPARs
reside within an AIX host environment and not as dedicated LPARs there are several advantages by
deploying smaller SAP systems into these
WPARs do not require an incremental hypervisor and OS memory footprint
WPARs can dynamically reallocate memory within the host AIX space This does not cause a
delay by hypervisor activities and therefore results in real-time memory virtualization
As an additional benefit WPARs require less OS maintenance efforts compared to an identical
number of LPARs each running an own AIX or Linux OS This is of interest as soon as
operational costs are linked to the count of managed OS images
The PowerVM hypervisor theoretically limits the smallest SAP instance to occupy as little as 110th of
a node core But what is the largest SAP system that can reside within a single IBM PureFlex System
chassis This question might be of interest for prospects that plan downsizing from large-scale
servers
If you assume a typical DB-to-Application Server ratio of 14 for SAP ERP production instances this
results in the largest 3-tier SAP ERP system of (132 cores DB server + 432 cores application
servers) = 160 cores which can be covered by the POWER nodes that fit into a single 10U high IBM
PureFlex System chassis As a rough approximation assume effectively 2000 SAPS per core (this is
a conservative approach for SAP production compared to a SAP sales and distribution benchmark
environment) which results in a single SAP system of 320000 SAPS This capacity is in the range of
a medium-sized discrete Power 795 server
As most of the SAP systems are database centric the limiting factor is not only the processor
capacity but also a well-balanced IO and database design Details are covered in the following
section
For larger SAP database instances and in order to increase their resiliency customers might consider
implementing a scale-out relational database management system (RDBMS) by deploying several
nodes as concurrent DB nodes The internal IBM PureFlex System network bandwidth favors
horizontal scalability IBM DB2 pureScalereg or Oracle Real Application Cluster (RAC) are both
supported for SAP production use and have been tested on IBM PureFlex System Beyond increased
database scalability the failure of a single DB node will not cause the attached SAP systems to stop
but to continue with a reduced DB throughput
Introducing the IBM Systems Solution for SAP Business Suite and SAP HANA
SAP HANA is exclusively supported on certified hardware ndash for example IBM System x3950 X5 ndash that
uses the Intel EX processor architecture As of today HANA cannot be deployed on any compute
node within the PureFlex chassis However certified x3950 X5 based HANA appliances also
including storage and system software components may be installed in the same PureFlex rack A
reference architecture introducing this solution offering has been included in section Integration of
SAP Appliance-based components of this document
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
13
Storage attachment
In the previous section the design criteria for the server nodes have been explained This section
explains the storage and IO relevant parameters for an IBM PureFlex System-based SAP landscape
The IBM PureFlex System compute nodes allow adding a limited amount of internal storage to the
node For most of the business applications the available internal disk space might not be sufficient
Therefore storage needs to be supplied by an storage solution The IBM PureFlex System chassis
can be equipped with the internal Flex System V7000 storage node This can be connected via the
chassis internal switches directly over Fibre Channel of Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE)
Figure 5 Chassis internal storage attachment
External storage system like the IBM Storwize V7000 or the IBM SAN Volume Controller or any
other IBM System Storage can be connected through the chassis switches as well
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
14
Figure 6 Chassis internal and external storage attachment
Access to either of the storage solutions from the POWER nodes requires a Virtual IO Server (VIOS)
installed Due to the limited FC ports on the half wide compute nodes a dual VIOS setup is only
possible using Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE)as shown in figures 5 and 6 above
IBM Flex System V7000
In general the IBM PureFlex System can connect to any SAN storage solution The internal IBM Flex
System V7000 is the most powerful and easy-to-use innovative midrange disk system in the storage
marketplace and is the best fit for IBM PureFlex System The Flex System V7000 is fully compatible
with the IBM Storwize V7000 storage system
The integrated Easy Tier functionality provides significant performance improvements by
automatic migration of hot data blocks to high-performing SSDs
Thin provisioning consumes used space only no pre-allocation required
Dynamic migration provides continuous availability of the applications while migrating data
online
IBM FlashCopy replication supports faster and more efficient data copies for online
backup testing or data mining
25-inch disk form factor 24 per expansion unit 240 total disks
Cluster up to 4 node pairs and 960 disks
Each node pair provides dual RAID controller to provide high availability access
No SAN or fiber channel cabling is required between the compute and storage nodes
Real time disk compression reduces the amount of required storage space Compression
rates are between 50 and 70 for SAP systems running on IBM i and the DB2 for i
database
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
15
Integration of the V7000 storage management into the Flex System Manager
Value of Easy Tier to SAP
The SAP ERP system workloads represent online transaction processing (OLTP) characteristics
Typically not all data of the SAP system or database is accessed during a given time frame for
example during a 24-hour period Statistically there exist contiguously accessed data areas some of
which are hot These hot spots are part of the disk system that has significantly high activity and
usually cause long wait times for IO requests The change rate of the hot data areas is not in terms of
minutes but most likely stays constant over a longer period of time for example 24 hours
Here Easy Tier is able to monitor and move these hot areas from HDD to SSD Easy Tier
automatically creates a data migration plan to incrementally move the hottest data to SSDs and the
cold data back to the spinning disks Easy Tier adapts to clientsrsquo changing workloads and it does this
without any administrative effort to constantly tune their storage systems As a result the SAP
transaction time is reduced
Value of Real Time Disk Compression to SAP
Today traditional database systems provide various compression technologies to store data This
requires know-how to identify which tables to compress and to setup and maintain efficient
compression over time With real time disk compression offered by Storwize V7000 the complete disk
set of the partition running the SAP systems can be easily compressed Disk compression saves
between 50 and 70 percent of storage space with minimal performance impact to most SAP
workloads This is comparable to native DB gains and can save license and operational DB-admin
cost A combination of two compression technologies does not bring further advantages
IBM Flex System V7000 Storage Node
The IBM Flex System V7000 Storage Node requires a minimum of 2 full wide slots to be installed into
an IBM Flex System chassis It provides direct Fibre Channel Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE)
and iSCSI connection to the PureFlex compute nodes The Flex System Manager will identify the
storage system automatically
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
16
The Flex System V7000 management user interface (GUI) is compatible with the Storwize V7000 GUI
IBM PureFlex System and Storwize V7000
The Storwize V7000 storage can be connected to the IBM PureFlex System chassis either through
Fiber Channel (SAN) or through Ethernet (iSCSI) Both the connections provided block-level access to
the storage system
With IBM PureFlex System the test team recommends SAN access by using the IBM PureFlex
System integrated SAN switch where four FC connections are required to ensure multipathing More
connections are not required for connecting to a single chassis
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
17
Setting up a stretched cluster is not supported by the integrated V7000 SVC Customers will require a
traditional SVC to support such a resilient disk setup Of course other technologies like AIX LVM
mirroring Metro Mirror etc are supported
Configuration of Flex System V7000 and Storwize V7000
To gain maximum flexibility in respect to capacity utilization and performance workload balancing the
number of storage pools configured (Managed Disk Groups) should be as few as possible for a single
V7000 system (node pair) Depending on the performance requirement the use of Easy Tier in
combination with SSDs is recommended
A fully equipped chassis is capable to handle 300000 SAPS leading to a workload of approximately
100000 IOPS Assuming a storage demand of 100 TB usable results in the following
recommendation
24 SSD 25-inch 400 GB each plugged into the V7000 controller
Four expansion units each with 24 SAS drives 25-inch each 900 GB
One expansion unit 23 SAS drives 25-inch each 900 GB and 1 SSD 25 inches 400 GB
(spare)
RAIDs (Managed Disk) are configured as RAID 5 7+1
Total of 25 SSD and 119 SAS
Integration with existing SAP landscapes
The IBM PureFlex System chassis can be integrated into existing SAP landscapes Physically the IBM
PureFlex System chassis fits into any standard 19-inch rack which provides a minimum of 10 spare height
units Other non-IBM PureFlex System components can be housed within the same standard rack as long
as power distribution units provide sufficient energy A fully populated IBM PureFlex System chassis can
contain up to six 2500 watts energy supplies which can be configured for several redundancy modes
The Ethernet and FC switches provide connectivity to an existing network and storage infrastructure As
discussed in the previous section the IBM PureFlex System FC switch connects to existing SAN storage
solutions LPARs stored on the SAN can be migrated to an IBM PureFlex System POWER node by
assigning the disks to the IBM PureFlex System nodersquos VIOS and boot from those This allows very fast
migration of exiting SAP systems to IBM PureFlex System with minimal downtime
External SAN storage can be attached to a new PureFlex chassis in several ways Ideally external LUNs
are connected via the integrated V7000 SAN Volume Controller as managed disks Thus storage
administration can exploit SVC virtualization and management capabilities If latter is not a focus the
PureFlex FC-switches can be attached to existing SAN-fabrics using transparent NPIV mode see Figure
6 Storage vendors need to support this and storage SAN administration will be performed with native
vendor tools not via FSM
Tests have shown that IBM PowerVM Live Partition Mobility (LPM) is possible between nodes and
external systems given the network is set up appropriately This allows to migrate running LPARs from
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
18
discrete Power Systems to POWER nodes and to migrate from POWER nodes to discrete Power
Systems
The FSM administration layer can co-exist with already implemented cross-platform management solutions like eg the IBM Systems Director It also can become integrated with higher level enterprise service management software as a monitored and managed layer
Figure 7 integration of management components
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
19
Integration of SAP Appliance-based components
Certain SAP components are not available on all SAP supported operating systems and databases If
such components are required to support customersrsquo business processes they need to be installed on top
of a supported OS which is not necessarily the same location where the SAP core applications are stored
With IBM PureFlex System supporting both x86 and POWER processor-based operating systems those
complementary components can be tightly integrated into the landscape The required hardware
resources can be hosted within one IBM PureFlex System chassis Besides the compact server footprint in
the datacenter the internal network eliminates the need for network cables and switches to connect the
systems The IBM PureFlex System management provided by CMM and FSM reduces the complexity of
managing the heterogeneous environment
This allows the creation of a complete SAP landscape within a single box Core SAP Business Suite
components are running on the POWER nodes while complementary components such as SAP
Enterprise Search and SAP Business Warehouse Accelerator can run on x86 nodes
The IBM Systems Solution for SAP Business Suite and SAP HANA SAP HANA is the strategic in-memory
database by SAP AG to accelerate in particular business analytics but also transactional business In
order to achieve magnitudes of acceleration SAP HANA exploits specific design features of the Intel EX
processor architecture with optimized low-level coding Consequently SAP HANA is exclusively
supported on certified hardware using this processor type ndash for example IBM System x3950 X5
The IBM SAP HANA offering is a standardized portfolio of System x hardware (IBM Systems x3950 X5 -
7143-Hxx systems) with internal (SSD SAS) storage for data persistency plus software components and
surrounding services Exclusively Linux namely SLES 11 is supported as operating system
As of today such an appliance cannot be deployed on any compute node within the PureFlex chassis
Instead IBM x3950 X5 based SAP HANA building blocks may be installed into the same rack as the
PureFlex chassis and act as external HANA compute nodes Connection to both x86 and POWER based
internal compute nodes running standard SAP applications or complementary SAP HANA instances is
done via Ethernet through a TOR switch
A big advantage of re-using external technology is that well established and beneficial concepts can be 11
applied for PureFlex focused landscapes too As an excelling example IBM GPFS (General Parallel File
System) not only enables the IBM SAP HANA solution to grow beyond the capacity of a single system into
a scale-out solution but also adds high availability and disaster recovery features to the IBM HANA
appliance
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
20
The scope of the Flex System Manager has been extended to allow the integrated management of
PureFlex internal components and IBM x3950 X5 based SAP HANA building blocks
It provides administrative functions like
Manual discovery inventory
Release Management (FW and SW installation and update)
Power Control
Remote Access
System Configuration
System Health and Status
Service and Support
for workload optimized x3950 X5 SAP HANA appliances
Figure 8 FSM menu of external x3950 X5 based IBM SAP HANA appliances
The screenshot above shows external x3950 X5 nodes appearing on the FlexSystem Manager panel and
the applicable activities to be performed
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
21
From a hardware point-of-view IBM PureFlex Systems offer the administrative integration of the HANA
building blocks (T-shirt sizes) listed in Table 4They meet the SAP defined HANA sizing grid and do not
need to be purchased together with a PureFlex System This allows the integration of existing HANA
systems with a newly deployed PureFlex System at customer site
Building block
Server (MTM)
CPUs Main memory
S+ x3950 X5
(7143-HAx) 2x Intel Xeon
E7-8870 256 GB
M x3950 X5
(7143-HBx) 4x Intel Xeon
E7-8870 512 GB
L
x3950 X5 (7143HBx)
+ x3950 X5
(7143HCx)
8x Intel Xeon E7-8870
1024 GB
XM x3950 X5
(7143-HDx) 4x Intel Xeon
E7-8870 1TB
32x 32GB
XL x3950 X5
(7143-HDx + 7143-HEx)
8x Intel Xeon E7-8870
2TB 64x 32GB
XXL x3950 X5
(7143-HBx + 7143-HCx)
8x Intel Xeon E7-8870
4TB 128x 32GB
Table 4 IBM SAP HANA Appliance building blocks (June 2013)
This list will change pretty frequently as new models and HANA configurations will become supported
Therefore always check the SAP list of supported models in the SAP HANA PAM (requires authorization)
or consult an IBM Techline representative SAP technology and management components as well as
common operational functions like the Tivoli Storage Manager for BackupRestore of ERP and HANA may
be deployed on PureFlex compute nodes and act on both environments
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
22
Figure 9 Architecture of SAP Business Suite on PureFlex and SAP HANA on System x3950 X5 Workload Optimized Solution for SAP HANA
In case of IBM SAP HANA scale-out configurations the Integrated Management Module of x3950 X5
servers and the SAP HANA appliance related network interfaces (like SAP client access HANA Studio
ERP backup and restore HWSW-Admin) will be connected to the PureFlex Device Management and
Client Data network via Ethernet through TOR switches Such a scale-out configuration is deployed with
separate racks
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
23
Figure 10 SAP HANA Appliances with PureFlex Network Topology
Depended on the amount of external network connections single node IBM SAP HANA appliances may
be connected via available ports on integrated switches of the PureFlex chassis The single node SAP
HANA appliance could be deployed in the same rack with IBM PureFlex System
FlexSystem Native Node Support for SAP Business Warehouse Accelerator
The SAP Business Warehouse Accelerator (BWA) was the initial approach to accelerate OLAP workload
with a dedicated appliance attached to a SAP Business Warehouse system SAP BWA follows a ldquoplug amp
playrdquo design easier to implement than SAP HANA and has a longer history Hence SAP BWA still has a
broad installed base among SAP BI customers
SAP BWA has not been this highly optimized for the Intel EX-CPU type This fact allows deploying SAP
BWA appliances on XEON-based FlexSystem nodes running a SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 SP2
operating system
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
24
The ldquoIBM Flex System Solution for SAP NetWeaver Business Warehouse Acceleratorrdquo extends the
established IBM BladeCenter offerings for SAP BWA with scalable FlexSystem configurations comprising
of x240 compute nodes inside the Flex-chassis and externally attached IBM Storage Systems DS3500
This combination meets the SAP BWA appliance criteria while providing an excellent priceperformance
ratio
Table 5 FlexSystem building blocks for IBM SAP Business Warehouse Accelerator Appliances (August 2013)
As with the SAP BWA appliances based on IBM BladeCenter the IBM GPFS filesystem improves overall
IO performance data scalability and resiliency The building blocks have been pre-tested and optimized
to deliver easy integration and quick implementation Order and shipment processes of the pre-built
systems are identical to those of the traditional IBM BWA platforms
Since SAP BWA is an encapsulated appliance it cannot exploit all functionality provided by FSM for full
topology management Passive ndash in the sense of monitoring - functions like inventory system health
hardware service and support are applicable Dedicated BWA-FlexSystem chassis can be attached to
PureFlex systems hosting a SAP BI solution and monitored from there Performing active administrative
functions which may have an impact on the BWA configuration are not allowed however
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
25
SAP on AIX reference landscapes for IBM PureFlex System
1 Minimal system = ERP BW all on POWER nodes
This is the simplest case of deploying
core SAP components in an IBM
PureFlex System System All SAP
modules are supported on POWER and
either an AIX or PowerLinux OS Two
nodes for physical redundancy each with
PowerVM and VIO virtualization are
used
In order to make use of autonomous load
balancing by PowerVM it is
recommended to mix production and
nonproduction SAP instances within a
shared processor pool on each of the
single nodes SAP 2-tier deployments
need to be preferred for smaller systems
Consider packing non- production
systems into WPARs for less LPAR
complexity
2 3-tier SAP ERP with scale-out DB and application-server tier all on POWER nodes
This option combines DB scale-out with
an SAP 3-tier application-server scale
out The advantage of a multinode DB
is a hot-standby high availability
without DB downtime as with classical
cold-standby cluster solutions Also
both the nodes contribute to an
aggregate DB throughput when in
normal operation As such a setup
appears for business-critical scenarios
a hot-standby FSM appliance has also
been configured (planned in 2012)
This in any case ensures that the
overall system monitoring and
adjustment can take place
Figure 11 minimal system
Figure 12 scale-out database
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
26
3 Mixed system = SAP Business Suite core applications TREX and non-SAP applications
This setup makes use of the IBM
PureFlex System heterogeneous
capabilities While several core SAP
Business Suite applications stay on
POWER nodes they are now
complemented by SAP TREX and a
NetWeaver development
environment which are supported
only on an x86 architecture There
are more than these components
there are newer appliances such as
BWA and HANA which mandate
such a setup
Further applications can be
consolidated into the same IBM
PureFlex System chassis as well
4 SAP NetWeaver landscape = SAP Business Suite core applications SAP Enterprise Portal
SAP Process Integration (service bus) and SAP Business Objects
This is a heterogeneous setup with
majority of SAP core systems on AIX
SAP Business Objects XI runs on
larger AIX LPAR for scaling while the
Business Objects end-user oriented
systems are consolidated in virtual
machines hosted on an x86 node
This scenario also outlines the
capability of IBM PureFlex System to
run x86 Linux and PowerLinux
distributions This applies to non-SAP
and many SAP components Inter-
system communication strongly takes
advantage of the internal networking
bandwidth of IBM PureFlex System
Figure 14 SAP Process Integration and SAP Business Objects
Figure 13 complementary components
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
27
5 Mixed system with SAP HANA = SAP Business Suite core applications deployed on
PureFlex nodes plus SAP HANA Appliances (= IBM Systems Solution for SAP Business
Suite and SAP HANA)
This setup makes use of the externalized IBM PureFlex System capabilities in shape of the IBM Systems Solution for SAP Business Suite and SAP HANA
Several core SAP applications are
deployed on internal POWER or x86
nodes and are complemented by an
external SAP HANA environment which is
being built of the x3950 X5 based standard
IBM appliance offering
This enables customers running SAP
HANA always to benefit from newest
certified System x HANA appliances and
operational improvements in that space
while creating administrative synergies
between the SAP HANA and traditional
SAP Business Suite infrastructure
Starting from physical integration today
the FlexSystem Manager will provide
integrated administrative capabilities
The IBM PureFlex system offers an
integrated infrastructure for all SAP
components SAP applications on
PureFlex System compute nodes may
access SAP HANA DB on IBM x3950 X5
servers as well as traditional data bases
(eg IBM DB2) running on PureFlex
System
Figure 15 SAP HANA Integration
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
28
High availability and disaster recovery
The single point of failures (SPOFs) for SAP systems stay untouched by the introduction of IBM PureFlex
System These are the database server and the central services for ABAP and Java including the enqueue
server
These SPOFs occur within each production SAP business component of the landscape that is multiple
clusters (such as ERP CRM SCM and so on) must be implemented
In addition central technical building blocks such as SAP Enterprise Portal (for user access) Process
Integration as Enterprise Service Bus need to be setup resilient
While the high availability and disaster recovery concepts for all these SPOFs are well known in general
they have not been tested in a special IBM PureFlex System environment at time of authoring this paper
As scenario 2 indicates multi-node databases like Oracle RAC are supported on IBM PureFlex System
Landscape monitoring and management
As the SAP landscapes tend to become a heterogeneous aggregation of servers and operating systems
this implies a certain level of complexity for SAP landscape administration Consolidating the SAP
landscape into an IBM PureFlex System with its consistent management capabilities helps to reduce this
complexity
The combination of the IBM PureFlex System and SAP NetWeaver technology offers multiple native
monitoring and administration layers for the complete hardware and software stack These are
Chassis Management Module
Flex System Management
SAP Computing Center Management System (SAP CCMS)
SAP Solution Manager
minus SAP Solution Manager aims at SAP application management and business key
performance indicator (KPI) monitoring but also is a mandatory tool for SAP
release and patch management
SAP NetWeaver Landscape Virtualization Management (LVM)
The IBM PureFlex System FSM and SAP LVM Enterprise are optional components the remaining ones
are part of virtualized base installation
In order to gain maximum efficiency for daily operations it is important to select the most appropriate tools
for specific administrative tasks and organizations In addition consistency and transparency need to be
maintained
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
29
The following table provides a high-level orientation for a selected set of administrator tasks in SAP
ecosystems
CMM FSM SAP LVM SAP CCMS SAP Solution Manager
Chassis topology view and administration
Through CMM
Virtualization metrics Through Flex System
Manager
Virtualization topology and administration
Through Flex System
Manager
OS DB SAP performance
Provisioning of a new virtual server Through Flex System
Manager
Virtual server start stop and live migration
Through Flex System
Manager
SAP service reallocation
SAP system refresh cloning
Alerting Chassis focus Systems focus
Task monitoring
OS DB SAP Base
Business KPIs
Integration to an upper-level enterprise management
Into Flex System
Manager
Into SAP Solution Manager
Table 6 monitoring and management layers
FSM is based on IBM Systems Director and provides comparable functions For POWER nodes FSM is
mandatory for advanced virtualization management As most of these functions are beneficial (if not
mandatory) for SAP (production) systems the FSM appears as an essential component for SAP on IBM
PureFlex environments
As a single point of control FSM provides a web-based interface to manage all aspects of the IBM
PureFlex System hardware components For example an interactive chassis map provides status
overview and serves as an entry point to manage the different resources Setup wizards guide you through
the process of initial setup and maintenance tasks
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
30
Figure 16 FSM chassis map
SAP CCMS is fully functional for IBM PureFlex System It allows monitoring and adjustment of base SAP
application and database settings Also PowerVM-specific metrics such as LPAR and WPAR resources
AME settings and so on can be accesses through the native SAP administrator GUI
IBM PureFlex System integration with SAP NetWeaver Landscape
Virtualization Management
The described cloud solution for SAP landscapes becomes available by a combination of the IBM FSM
capabilities and SAP NetWeaver Landscape Virtualization Management for automation tasks at the
application level
This solution enables common cloud scenarios with the SAP software stack and the underlying
infrastructure It aims to connect application management services with system virtualization and storage
management services It is a management tool for customers who run their SAP systems in their own data
center and want to become more efficient by automating provisioning and cloning tasks
Various scenarios around system copy and system refresh are supported including post-copy automation
Those labor-expensive tasks have been made easy with SAP Landscape Virtualization Management and
IBM PureFlex System
In more detail the following use cases are covered for cloud environments running SAP applications
Cloning of a SAP system (creating an identical copy in a fenced environment)
Creating an initial copy of a SAP system (with changing the SAP system identifier)
Refreshing a test SAP system with the content of a productive system
Automation of system copyrefresh post processing activities
Monitoring and visualization of virtualized SAP landscapes
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
31
SAP Landscape Virtualization Management is in many cases complementary to the inherent IBM PureFlex
System management layers SAP Landscape Virtualization Management enables access to many relevant
IBM PureFlex System and virtualization parameters to the SAP management software and provides IT
self-services to SAP administrators
The available IBM and SAP literature which describes the interaction of IBM Systems Director and SAP
Landscape Virtualization Management also applies to IBM PureFlex System FSM is the enriched IBM
Systems Director specifically optimized and packaged for IBM PureFlex System
IBM Tivoli Storage FlashCopy Manager adds a unique value for SAP landscapes This software enables
application-aware database-consistent online backups which can be used to create the cloned system By
exploiting storage snapshot techniques the backup is taken almost instantaneously
The solution has been developed as modular building blocks This provides a high degree of flexibility and
extensibility The following table shows the products and editions that are used for each scenario
Table 7 Use cases per management layer
Management components
SAP NetWeaver Landscape Virtualization Management 10 integrates with the following IBM
management products
IBM Flex System Manager
FSM is used for virtualization monitoring and management and for the operating system
provisioning scenarios on IBM PureFlex System
IBM Tivoli Storage FlashCopy Manager 3101
Tivoli Storage FlashCopy Manager is required for storage cloning of online SAP systems
System
monitoring
SAP
relocate
AIX
provisioning
SAP
Clone
SAP
Copy
SAP
Refresh
Flex
System
Manager
(not needed) (not needed) (not needed) (not needed)
FlashCopy
Manager
(not needed) (not needed) (not needed)
Storage any NFS GPFS
SVC V7000
or XIV
any SVC V7000
or XIV
SVC V7000
or XIV
SVC V7000
or XIV
SAP LVM Standard
Edition
Standard
Edition
Standard
Edition
Enterprise
Edition
Enterprise
Edition
Enterprise
Edition
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
32
The management products can be installed on a single AIX LPAR within IBM PureFlex System
Alternatively the products might be installed on different servers for example SAP NetWeaver
Landscape Virtualization Management may run on any of the supported SAP platforms
The following graphic shows a high-level view of how SAP Landscape Virtualization Management
integrates with the IBM PureFlex System FSM stack to enable cloud scenarios on this platform
Figure 17 SAP Landscape Virtualization Manager integration with FSM
Managed SAP landscape
The following IBM PureFlex System infrastructure is supported with SAP NetWeaver Landscape
Virtualization Management
IBM POWER nodes
AIX 61 or 71
IBM SAN Volume Controller IBM Storwize V7000 or IBM XIVreg Storage System1
SAP NetWeaver 7x using IBM DB2 for Linux UNIX and Windows Oracle Database or
SAP MaxDB is supported
1 SAN Volume Controller and Storwize V7000 support requires SAP Landscape Virtualization Management SP3
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
33
It is assumed that the storage is attached using single or dual VIOS (IBM PowerVM VIOS) For the
storage-cloning scenario the SAN storage system must be attached in the N_Port ID Virtualization
(NPIV) mode NPIV is a FC adapter (HBA) feature that allows multiple LPARs to share a physical port
The clone is created using the FlashCopy feature of the SAN Volume Controller or the snapshot
feature of the XIV Storage System These methods create a logical copy of the data volumes within
seconds while the SAP source system stays fully operational
Whenever an IBM PureFlex System environment needs to be integrated into an existing enterprise
monitoring and management solution (for example an existing IBM Systems Director hierarchy or the IBM
Tivoli Suite) FSM provides interfaces for seamless upward integration
Furthermore SAP Landscape Virtualization Management can be used to manage SAP landscapes within
and outside of IBM PureFlex System and also across different platforms
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
34
SAP-specific offerings for IBM PureFlex System
This section lists specific offerings for SAP on IBM PureFlex System
Lab services and IBM support
As capacity and capability of a larger IBM PureFlex System installation are comparable to large scale
UNIX or mainframe installations IBM provides hardware and software support beyond the standards of
commodity blade systems
Including three Global Centers of Competence IBM Maintenance and Technical Support Services provide
integrated support on the FSM-based environments when there is not a clear understanding of whether
there is a hardware or a software issue All of this can be backed up with the latest version of IBM
Electronic Service Agent trade which has been enhanced for IBM PureFlex System and proactively monitors
and reports hardware events back to IBM support Even if a client has a comprehensive in-house support
organization this can selectively be enhanced through the addition of specific services within the portfolio
to cover critical areas of weakness or exposure
For complex IBM PureFlex System environments and where mission-critical applications are deployed
(which applies to SAP production systems) premium services are available and cover
Enhanced technical support custom technical support
Microcode support managed technical support
Committed fix services
Availability management hard disk retention
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
35
Summary
This paper provides reference architectures of how heterogeneous SAP landscapes can be consolidated
using IBM PureFlex System While running the core business applications on POWER nodes with AIX as
operating system complementary SAP components are added on x86 nodes IBM PureFlex System
enables a very tight integration of infrastructure components including servers networking and storage
Seamless monitoring and management functions of the infrastructure are provided by the FSM
The integration aspect is taken even further with the integration of the SAP Landscape Virtualization
Manager application with the FSM This enables SAP cloud usage scenarios for SAP systems running on
IBM PureFlex System
For individual questions or to request a briefing about this topic contact the IBM SAP International
Competence Center at isiccdeibmcom
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
36
Resources
These websites provide useful references to supplement the information contained in this paper
IBM Systems on PartnerWorld
ibmcompartnerworldsystems
IBM Redbooks
ibmcomredbooks
IBM cloud computing
ibmcomsolutionssapusenlandingcloud_solutionshtml
IBM Cloud Solutions for SAP clients
ibmcomcloud-computingusen
IBM SmartCloud Entry for AIX on PartnerWorld (requires PartnerWorld login)
ibmcompartnerworldpagestg_com_sys_smartcloud
SAP HANA on workload optimized IBM System x appliances
ibmcomsolutionssaphana
IBM internal SSI-URL with a collection of SAP related PureSystem materials
httpsw3-
03ssoibmcomsalessupportShowDocwssdocid=SGDN258263T70735C63ampnode=brandsB6000|brandsBI5
00|clientsetIA|alliancesT5000|alliancesT5150|channelDR|channelF2F|solutionQ00|solution210ampappname=C
C_SSIGD
select the ldquoCollateralrdquo Tab in ldquoMain Contentrdquo section
Related SAP on PureFlex paper with System x focus ldquoReference Architecture - SAP
Systems on IBM PureSystems based on x86 nodesrdquo
httpw3ibmcomsupporttechdocsatsmastrnsfWebIndexWP102167
httpwwwibmcomsupporttechdocsatsmastrnsfWebIndexWP102167
httpwww-03ibmcompartnerworldpartnerinfosrcatsmastrnsfWebIndexWP102167
Related SAP on PureFlex paper with IBM i focus ldquoEfficiently deploying SAP landscapes
on the IBM PureFlex Systemrdquo
httpw3ibmcomsupporttechdocsatsmastrnsfWebIndexWP102087
httpwwwibmcomsupporttechdocsatsmastrnsfWebIndexWP102087
httpwww-03ibmcompartnerworldpartnerinfosrcatsmastrnsfWebIndexWP102087
Virtualization for SAP on IBM PureSystems with Microsoft Hyper-V
httpwwwibmcomsupporttechdocsatsmastrnsfWebIndexWP102153
IBM Workload Optimized Solution for SAP HANA ndash Quick Start Guide
provides technical overview HW models network requirements for IBM Systems Solution
for SAP HANA appliance
httpdownloadboulderibmcomibmdlpubsystemssupportsystem_x_pdf46w8274pdf
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
37
IBM internal SAP HANA Wiki
httpsw3-connectionsibmcomwikishomelang=en-
uswikiWaef4c0eb0f35_427f_a25e_670e392682b1pageSAP20HANA
FlexSystem with SAP BWA Presentations (click to open link)
Seller
Customer
General IBM Sales Kit ldquoSAP NetWeaver Business Warehouse Accelerator (BWA)rdquo
Implementation Guide for BWA on IBM Flex System x240
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
38
Trademarks and special notices
copy Copyright IBM Corporation 2013
References in this document to IBM products or services do not imply that IBM intends to make them
available in every country
IBM the IBM logo and ibmcom are trademarks or registered trademarks of International Business
Machines Corporation in the United States other countries or both If these and other IBM trademarked
terms are marked on their first occurrence in this information with a trademark symbol (reg or trade) these
symbols indicate US registered or common law trademarks owned by IBM at the time this information
was published Such trademarks may also be registered or common law trademarks in other countries A
current list of IBM trademarks is available on the Web at Copyright and trademark information at
wwwibmcomlegalcopytradeshtml
Java and all Java-based trademarks and logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of Oracle andor
its affiliates
Microsoft Windows Windows NT and the Windows logo are trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the
United States other countries or both
Intel Intel Inside (logos) MMX and Pentium are trademarks of Intel Corporation in the United States
other countries or both
UNIX is a registered trademark of The Open Group in the United States and other countries
Linux is a trademark of Linus Torvalds in the United States other countries or both
Other company product or service names may be trademarks or service marks of others
Information is provided AS IS without warranty of any kind
All customer examples described are presented as illustrations of how those customers have used IBM
products and the results they may have achieved Actual environmental costs and performance
characteristics may vary by customer
Information concerning non-IBM products was obtained from a supplier of these products published
announcement material or other publicly available sources and does not constitute an endorsement of
such products by IBM Sources for non-IBM list prices and performance numbers are taken from publicly
available information including vendor announcements and vendor worldwide homepages IBM has not
tested these products and cannot confirm the accuracy of performance capability or any other claims
related to non-IBM products Questions on the capability of non-IBM products should be addressed to the
supplier of those products
All statements regarding IBM future direction and intent are subject to change or withdrawal without notice
and represent goals and objectives only Contact your local IBM office or IBM authorized reseller for the
full text of the specific Statement of Direction
Some information addresses anticipated future capabilities Such information is not intended as a definitive
statement of a commitment to specific levels of performance function or delivery schedules with respect to
any future products Such commitments are only made in IBM product announcements The information is
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
39
presented here to communicate IBMs current investment and development activities as a good faith effort
to help with our customers future planning
Performance is based on measurements and projections using standard IBM benchmarks in a controlled
environment The actual throughput or performance that any user will experience will vary depending upon
considerations such as the amount of multiprogramming in the users job stream the IO configuration the
storage configuration and the workload processed Therefore no assurance can be given that an
individual user will achieve throughput or performance improvements equivalent to the ratios stated here
Photographs shown are of engineering prototypes Changes may be incorporated in production models
Any references in this information to non-IBM websites are provided for convenience only and do not in
any manner serve as an endorsement of those websites The materials at those websites are not part of
the materials for this IBM product and use of those websites is at your own risk
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
12
Hardware accelerated AME introduced with the POWER7+ nodes is supported by SAP
Measurements have shown no significant differences over the traditional sw-only AME version
AIX Workload Partitions (WPARs) are another option for saving physical memory on constrained
nodes WPARs are supported for AIX 7 running on a node also SAP supports WPARs As WPARs
reside within an AIX host environment and not as dedicated LPARs there are several advantages by
deploying smaller SAP systems into these
WPARs do not require an incremental hypervisor and OS memory footprint
WPARs can dynamically reallocate memory within the host AIX space This does not cause a
delay by hypervisor activities and therefore results in real-time memory virtualization
As an additional benefit WPARs require less OS maintenance efforts compared to an identical
number of LPARs each running an own AIX or Linux OS This is of interest as soon as
operational costs are linked to the count of managed OS images
The PowerVM hypervisor theoretically limits the smallest SAP instance to occupy as little as 110th of
a node core But what is the largest SAP system that can reside within a single IBM PureFlex System
chassis This question might be of interest for prospects that plan downsizing from large-scale
servers
If you assume a typical DB-to-Application Server ratio of 14 for SAP ERP production instances this
results in the largest 3-tier SAP ERP system of (132 cores DB server + 432 cores application
servers) = 160 cores which can be covered by the POWER nodes that fit into a single 10U high IBM
PureFlex System chassis As a rough approximation assume effectively 2000 SAPS per core (this is
a conservative approach for SAP production compared to a SAP sales and distribution benchmark
environment) which results in a single SAP system of 320000 SAPS This capacity is in the range of
a medium-sized discrete Power 795 server
As most of the SAP systems are database centric the limiting factor is not only the processor
capacity but also a well-balanced IO and database design Details are covered in the following
section
For larger SAP database instances and in order to increase their resiliency customers might consider
implementing a scale-out relational database management system (RDBMS) by deploying several
nodes as concurrent DB nodes The internal IBM PureFlex System network bandwidth favors
horizontal scalability IBM DB2 pureScalereg or Oracle Real Application Cluster (RAC) are both
supported for SAP production use and have been tested on IBM PureFlex System Beyond increased
database scalability the failure of a single DB node will not cause the attached SAP systems to stop
but to continue with a reduced DB throughput
Introducing the IBM Systems Solution for SAP Business Suite and SAP HANA
SAP HANA is exclusively supported on certified hardware ndash for example IBM System x3950 X5 ndash that
uses the Intel EX processor architecture As of today HANA cannot be deployed on any compute
node within the PureFlex chassis However certified x3950 X5 based HANA appliances also
including storage and system software components may be installed in the same PureFlex rack A
reference architecture introducing this solution offering has been included in section Integration of
SAP Appliance-based components of this document
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
13
Storage attachment
In the previous section the design criteria for the server nodes have been explained This section
explains the storage and IO relevant parameters for an IBM PureFlex System-based SAP landscape
The IBM PureFlex System compute nodes allow adding a limited amount of internal storage to the
node For most of the business applications the available internal disk space might not be sufficient
Therefore storage needs to be supplied by an storage solution The IBM PureFlex System chassis
can be equipped with the internal Flex System V7000 storage node This can be connected via the
chassis internal switches directly over Fibre Channel of Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE)
Figure 5 Chassis internal storage attachment
External storage system like the IBM Storwize V7000 or the IBM SAN Volume Controller or any
other IBM System Storage can be connected through the chassis switches as well
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
14
Figure 6 Chassis internal and external storage attachment
Access to either of the storage solutions from the POWER nodes requires a Virtual IO Server (VIOS)
installed Due to the limited FC ports on the half wide compute nodes a dual VIOS setup is only
possible using Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE)as shown in figures 5 and 6 above
IBM Flex System V7000
In general the IBM PureFlex System can connect to any SAN storage solution The internal IBM Flex
System V7000 is the most powerful and easy-to-use innovative midrange disk system in the storage
marketplace and is the best fit for IBM PureFlex System The Flex System V7000 is fully compatible
with the IBM Storwize V7000 storage system
The integrated Easy Tier functionality provides significant performance improvements by
automatic migration of hot data blocks to high-performing SSDs
Thin provisioning consumes used space only no pre-allocation required
Dynamic migration provides continuous availability of the applications while migrating data
online
IBM FlashCopy replication supports faster and more efficient data copies for online
backup testing or data mining
25-inch disk form factor 24 per expansion unit 240 total disks
Cluster up to 4 node pairs and 960 disks
Each node pair provides dual RAID controller to provide high availability access
No SAN or fiber channel cabling is required between the compute and storage nodes
Real time disk compression reduces the amount of required storage space Compression
rates are between 50 and 70 for SAP systems running on IBM i and the DB2 for i
database
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
15
Integration of the V7000 storage management into the Flex System Manager
Value of Easy Tier to SAP
The SAP ERP system workloads represent online transaction processing (OLTP) characteristics
Typically not all data of the SAP system or database is accessed during a given time frame for
example during a 24-hour period Statistically there exist contiguously accessed data areas some of
which are hot These hot spots are part of the disk system that has significantly high activity and
usually cause long wait times for IO requests The change rate of the hot data areas is not in terms of
minutes but most likely stays constant over a longer period of time for example 24 hours
Here Easy Tier is able to monitor and move these hot areas from HDD to SSD Easy Tier
automatically creates a data migration plan to incrementally move the hottest data to SSDs and the
cold data back to the spinning disks Easy Tier adapts to clientsrsquo changing workloads and it does this
without any administrative effort to constantly tune their storage systems As a result the SAP
transaction time is reduced
Value of Real Time Disk Compression to SAP
Today traditional database systems provide various compression technologies to store data This
requires know-how to identify which tables to compress and to setup and maintain efficient
compression over time With real time disk compression offered by Storwize V7000 the complete disk
set of the partition running the SAP systems can be easily compressed Disk compression saves
between 50 and 70 percent of storage space with minimal performance impact to most SAP
workloads This is comparable to native DB gains and can save license and operational DB-admin
cost A combination of two compression technologies does not bring further advantages
IBM Flex System V7000 Storage Node
The IBM Flex System V7000 Storage Node requires a minimum of 2 full wide slots to be installed into
an IBM Flex System chassis It provides direct Fibre Channel Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE)
and iSCSI connection to the PureFlex compute nodes The Flex System Manager will identify the
storage system automatically
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
16
The Flex System V7000 management user interface (GUI) is compatible with the Storwize V7000 GUI
IBM PureFlex System and Storwize V7000
The Storwize V7000 storage can be connected to the IBM PureFlex System chassis either through
Fiber Channel (SAN) or through Ethernet (iSCSI) Both the connections provided block-level access to
the storage system
With IBM PureFlex System the test team recommends SAN access by using the IBM PureFlex
System integrated SAN switch where four FC connections are required to ensure multipathing More
connections are not required for connecting to a single chassis
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
17
Setting up a stretched cluster is not supported by the integrated V7000 SVC Customers will require a
traditional SVC to support such a resilient disk setup Of course other technologies like AIX LVM
mirroring Metro Mirror etc are supported
Configuration of Flex System V7000 and Storwize V7000
To gain maximum flexibility in respect to capacity utilization and performance workload balancing the
number of storage pools configured (Managed Disk Groups) should be as few as possible for a single
V7000 system (node pair) Depending on the performance requirement the use of Easy Tier in
combination with SSDs is recommended
A fully equipped chassis is capable to handle 300000 SAPS leading to a workload of approximately
100000 IOPS Assuming a storage demand of 100 TB usable results in the following
recommendation
24 SSD 25-inch 400 GB each plugged into the V7000 controller
Four expansion units each with 24 SAS drives 25-inch each 900 GB
One expansion unit 23 SAS drives 25-inch each 900 GB and 1 SSD 25 inches 400 GB
(spare)
RAIDs (Managed Disk) are configured as RAID 5 7+1
Total of 25 SSD and 119 SAS
Integration with existing SAP landscapes
The IBM PureFlex System chassis can be integrated into existing SAP landscapes Physically the IBM
PureFlex System chassis fits into any standard 19-inch rack which provides a minimum of 10 spare height
units Other non-IBM PureFlex System components can be housed within the same standard rack as long
as power distribution units provide sufficient energy A fully populated IBM PureFlex System chassis can
contain up to six 2500 watts energy supplies which can be configured for several redundancy modes
The Ethernet and FC switches provide connectivity to an existing network and storage infrastructure As
discussed in the previous section the IBM PureFlex System FC switch connects to existing SAN storage
solutions LPARs stored on the SAN can be migrated to an IBM PureFlex System POWER node by
assigning the disks to the IBM PureFlex System nodersquos VIOS and boot from those This allows very fast
migration of exiting SAP systems to IBM PureFlex System with minimal downtime
External SAN storage can be attached to a new PureFlex chassis in several ways Ideally external LUNs
are connected via the integrated V7000 SAN Volume Controller as managed disks Thus storage
administration can exploit SVC virtualization and management capabilities If latter is not a focus the
PureFlex FC-switches can be attached to existing SAN-fabrics using transparent NPIV mode see Figure
6 Storage vendors need to support this and storage SAN administration will be performed with native
vendor tools not via FSM
Tests have shown that IBM PowerVM Live Partition Mobility (LPM) is possible between nodes and
external systems given the network is set up appropriately This allows to migrate running LPARs from
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
18
discrete Power Systems to POWER nodes and to migrate from POWER nodes to discrete Power
Systems
The FSM administration layer can co-exist with already implemented cross-platform management solutions like eg the IBM Systems Director It also can become integrated with higher level enterprise service management software as a monitored and managed layer
Figure 7 integration of management components
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
19
Integration of SAP Appliance-based components
Certain SAP components are not available on all SAP supported operating systems and databases If
such components are required to support customersrsquo business processes they need to be installed on top
of a supported OS which is not necessarily the same location where the SAP core applications are stored
With IBM PureFlex System supporting both x86 and POWER processor-based operating systems those
complementary components can be tightly integrated into the landscape The required hardware
resources can be hosted within one IBM PureFlex System chassis Besides the compact server footprint in
the datacenter the internal network eliminates the need for network cables and switches to connect the
systems The IBM PureFlex System management provided by CMM and FSM reduces the complexity of
managing the heterogeneous environment
This allows the creation of a complete SAP landscape within a single box Core SAP Business Suite
components are running on the POWER nodes while complementary components such as SAP
Enterprise Search and SAP Business Warehouse Accelerator can run on x86 nodes
The IBM Systems Solution for SAP Business Suite and SAP HANA SAP HANA is the strategic in-memory
database by SAP AG to accelerate in particular business analytics but also transactional business In
order to achieve magnitudes of acceleration SAP HANA exploits specific design features of the Intel EX
processor architecture with optimized low-level coding Consequently SAP HANA is exclusively
supported on certified hardware using this processor type ndash for example IBM System x3950 X5
The IBM SAP HANA offering is a standardized portfolio of System x hardware (IBM Systems x3950 X5 -
7143-Hxx systems) with internal (SSD SAS) storage for data persistency plus software components and
surrounding services Exclusively Linux namely SLES 11 is supported as operating system
As of today such an appliance cannot be deployed on any compute node within the PureFlex chassis
Instead IBM x3950 X5 based SAP HANA building blocks may be installed into the same rack as the
PureFlex chassis and act as external HANA compute nodes Connection to both x86 and POWER based
internal compute nodes running standard SAP applications or complementary SAP HANA instances is
done via Ethernet through a TOR switch
A big advantage of re-using external technology is that well established and beneficial concepts can be 11
applied for PureFlex focused landscapes too As an excelling example IBM GPFS (General Parallel File
System) not only enables the IBM SAP HANA solution to grow beyond the capacity of a single system into
a scale-out solution but also adds high availability and disaster recovery features to the IBM HANA
appliance
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
20
The scope of the Flex System Manager has been extended to allow the integrated management of
PureFlex internal components and IBM x3950 X5 based SAP HANA building blocks
It provides administrative functions like
Manual discovery inventory
Release Management (FW and SW installation and update)
Power Control
Remote Access
System Configuration
System Health and Status
Service and Support
for workload optimized x3950 X5 SAP HANA appliances
Figure 8 FSM menu of external x3950 X5 based IBM SAP HANA appliances
The screenshot above shows external x3950 X5 nodes appearing on the FlexSystem Manager panel and
the applicable activities to be performed
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
21
From a hardware point-of-view IBM PureFlex Systems offer the administrative integration of the HANA
building blocks (T-shirt sizes) listed in Table 4They meet the SAP defined HANA sizing grid and do not
need to be purchased together with a PureFlex System This allows the integration of existing HANA
systems with a newly deployed PureFlex System at customer site
Building block
Server (MTM)
CPUs Main memory
S+ x3950 X5
(7143-HAx) 2x Intel Xeon
E7-8870 256 GB
M x3950 X5
(7143-HBx) 4x Intel Xeon
E7-8870 512 GB
L
x3950 X5 (7143HBx)
+ x3950 X5
(7143HCx)
8x Intel Xeon E7-8870
1024 GB
XM x3950 X5
(7143-HDx) 4x Intel Xeon
E7-8870 1TB
32x 32GB
XL x3950 X5
(7143-HDx + 7143-HEx)
8x Intel Xeon E7-8870
2TB 64x 32GB
XXL x3950 X5
(7143-HBx + 7143-HCx)
8x Intel Xeon E7-8870
4TB 128x 32GB
Table 4 IBM SAP HANA Appliance building blocks (June 2013)
This list will change pretty frequently as new models and HANA configurations will become supported
Therefore always check the SAP list of supported models in the SAP HANA PAM (requires authorization)
or consult an IBM Techline representative SAP technology and management components as well as
common operational functions like the Tivoli Storage Manager for BackupRestore of ERP and HANA may
be deployed on PureFlex compute nodes and act on both environments
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
22
Figure 9 Architecture of SAP Business Suite on PureFlex and SAP HANA on System x3950 X5 Workload Optimized Solution for SAP HANA
In case of IBM SAP HANA scale-out configurations the Integrated Management Module of x3950 X5
servers and the SAP HANA appliance related network interfaces (like SAP client access HANA Studio
ERP backup and restore HWSW-Admin) will be connected to the PureFlex Device Management and
Client Data network via Ethernet through TOR switches Such a scale-out configuration is deployed with
separate racks
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
23
Figure 10 SAP HANA Appliances with PureFlex Network Topology
Depended on the amount of external network connections single node IBM SAP HANA appliances may
be connected via available ports on integrated switches of the PureFlex chassis The single node SAP
HANA appliance could be deployed in the same rack with IBM PureFlex System
FlexSystem Native Node Support for SAP Business Warehouse Accelerator
The SAP Business Warehouse Accelerator (BWA) was the initial approach to accelerate OLAP workload
with a dedicated appliance attached to a SAP Business Warehouse system SAP BWA follows a ldquoplug amp
playrdquo design easier to implement than SAP HANA and has a longer history Hence SAP BWA still has a
broad installed base among SAP BI customers
SAP BWA has not been this highly optimized for the Intel EX-CPU type This fact allows deploying SAP
BWA appliances on XEON-based FlexSystem nodes running a SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 SP2
operating system
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
24
The ldquoIBM Flex System Solution for SAP NetWeaver Business Warehouse Acceleratorrdquo extends the
established IBM BladeCenter offerings for SAP BWA with scalable FlexSystem configurations comprising
of x240 compute nodes inside the Flex-chassis and externally attached IBM Storage Systems DS3500
This combination meets the SAP BWA appliance criteria while providing an excellent priceperformance
ratio
Table 5 FlexSystem building blocks for IBM SAP Business Warehouse Accelerator Appliances (August 2013)
As with the SAP BWA appliances based on IBM BladeCenter the IBM GPFS filesystem improves overall
IO performance data scalability and resiliency The building blocks have been pre-tested and optimized
to deliver easy integration and quick implementation Order and shipment processes of the pre-built
systems are identical to those of the traditional IBM BWA platforms
Since SAP BWA is an encapsulated appliance it cannot exploit all functionality provided by FSM for full
topology management Passive ndash in the sense of monitoring - functions like inventory system health
hardware service and support are applicable Dedicated BWA-FlexSystem chassis can be attached to
PureFlex systems hosting a SAP BI solution and monitored from there Performing active administrative
functions which may have an impact on the BWA configuration are not allowed however
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
25
SAP on AIX reference landscapes for IBM PureFlex System
1 Minimal system = ERP BW all on POWER nodes
This is the simplest case of deploying
core SAP components in an IBM
PureFlex System System All SAP
modules are supported on POWER and
either an AIX or PowerLinux OS Two
nodes for physical redundancy each with
PowerVM and VIO virtualization are
used
In order to make use of autonomous load
balancing by PowerVM it is
recommended to mix production and
nonproduction SAP instances within a
shared processor pool on each of the
single nodes SAP 2-tier deployments
need to be preferred for smaller systems
Consider packing non- production
systems into WPARs for less LPAR
complexity
2 3-tier SAP ERP with scale-out DB and application-server tier all on POWER nodes
This option combines DB scale-out with
an SAP 3-tier application-server scale
out The advantage of a multinode DB
is a hot-standby high availability
without DB downtime as with classical
cold-standby cluster solutions Also
both the nodes contribute to an
aggregate DB throughput when in
normal operation As such a setup
appears for business-critical scenarios
a hot-standby FSM appliance has also
been configured (planned in 2012)
This in any case ensures that the
overall system monitoring and
adjustment can take place
Figure 11 minimal system
Figure 12 scale-out database
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
26
3 Mixed system = SAP Business Suite core applications TREX and non-SAP applications
This setup makes use of the IBM
PureFlex System heterogeneous
capabilities While several core SAP
Business Suite applications stay on
POWER nodes they are now
complemented by SAP TREX and a
NetWeaver development
environment which are supported
only on an x86 architecture There
are more than these components
there are newer appliances such as
BWA and HANA which mandate
such a setup
Further applications can be
consolidated into the same IBM
PureFlex System chassis as well
4 SAP NetWeaver landscape = SAP Business Suite core applications SAP Enterprise Portal
SAP Process Integration (service bus) and SAP Business Objects
This is a heterogeneous setup with
majority of SAP core systems on AIX
SAP Business Objects XI runs on
larger AIX LPAR for scaling while the
Business Objects end-user oriented
systems are consolidated in virtual
machines hosted on an x86 node
This scenario also outlines the
capability of IBM PureFlex System to
run x86 Linux and PowerLinux
distributions This applies to non-SAP
and many SAP components Inter-
system communication strongly takes
advantage of the internal networking
bandwidth of IBM PureFlex System
Figure 14 SAP Process Integration and SAP Business Objects
Figure 13 complementary components
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
27
5 Mixed system with SAP HANA = SAP Business Suite core applications deployed on
PureFlex nodes plus SAP HANA Appliances (= IBM Systems Solution for SAP Business
Suite and SAP HANA)
This setup makes use of the externalized IBM PureFlex System capabilities in shape of the IBM Systems Solution for SAP Business Suite and SAP HANA
Several core SAP applications are
deployed on internal POWER or x86
nodes and are complemented by an
external SAP HANA environment which is
being built of the x3950 X5 based standard
IBM appliance offering
This enables customers running SAP
HANA always to benefit from newest
certified System x HANA appliances and
operational improvements in that space
while creating administrative synergies
between the SAP HANA and traditional
SAP Business Suite infrastructure
Starting from physical integration today
the FlexSystem Manager will provide
integrated administrative capabilities
The IBM PureFlex system offers an
integrated infrastructure for all SAP
components SAP applications on
PureFlex System compute nodes may
access SAP HANA DB on IBM x3950 X5
servers as well as traditional data bases
(eg IBM DB2) running on PureFlex
System
Figure 15 SAP HANA Integration
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
28
High availability and disaster recovery
The single point of failures (SPOFs) for SAP systems stay untouched by the introduction of IBM PureFlex
System These are the database server and the central services for ABAP and Java including the enqueue
server
These SPOFs occur within each production SAP business component of the landscape that is multiple
clusters (such as ERP CRM SCM and so on) must be implemented
In addition central technical building blocks such as SAP Enterprise Portal (for user access) Process
Integration as Enterprise Service Bus need to be setup resilient
While the high availability and disaster recovery concepts for all these SPOFs are well known in general
they have not been tested in a special IBM PureFlex System environment at time of authoring this paper
As scenario 2 indicates multi-node databases like Oracle RAC are supported on IBM PureFlex System
Landscape monitoring and management
As the SAP landscapes tend to become a heterogeneous aggregation of servers and operating systems
this implies a certain level of complexity for SAP landscape administration Consolidating the SAP
landscape into an IBM PureFlex System with its consistent management capabilities helps to reduce this
complexity
The combination of the IBM PureFlex System and SAP NetWeaver technology offers multiple native
monitoring and administration layers for the complete hardware and software stack These are
Chassis Management Module
Flex System Management
SAP Computing Center Management System (SAP CCMS)
SAP Solution Manager
minus SAP Solution Manager aims at SAP application management and business key
performance indicator (KPI) monitoring but also is a mandatory tool for SAP
release and patch management
SAP NetWeaver Landscape Virtualization Management (LVM)
The IBM PureFlex System FSM and SAP LVM Enterprise are optional components the remaining ones
are part of virtualized base installation
In order to gain maximum efficiency for daily operations it is important to select the most appropriate tools
for specific administrative tasks and organizations In addition consistency and transparency need to be
maintained
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
29
The following table provides a high-level orientation for a selected set of administrator tasks in SAP
ecosystems
CMM FSM SAP LVM SAP CCMS SAP Solution Manager
Chassis topology view and administration
Through CMM
Virtualization metrics Through Flex System
Manager
Virtualization topology and administration
Through Flex System
Manager
OS DB SAP performance
Provisioning of a new virtual server Through Flex System
Manager
Virtual server start stop and live migration
Through Flex System
Manager
SAP service reallocation
SAP system refresh cloning
Alerting Chassis focus Systems focus
Task monitoring
OS DB SAP Base
Business KPIs
Integration to an upper-level enterprise management
Into Flex System
Manager
Into SAP Solution Manager
Table 6 monitoring and management layers
FSM is based on IBM Systems Director and provides comparable functions For POWER nodes FSM is
mandatory for advanced virtualization management As most of these functions are beneficial (if not
mandatory) for SAP (production) systems the FSM appears as an essential component for SAP on IBM
PureFlex environments
As a single point of control FSM provides a web-based interface to manage all aspects of the IBM
PureFlex System hardware components For example an interactive chassis map provides status
overview and serves as an entry point to manage the different resources Setup wizards guide you through
the process of initial setup and maintenance tasks
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
30
Figure 16 FSM chassis map
SAP CCMS is fully functional for IBM PureFlex System It allows monitoring and adjustment of base SAP
application and database settings Also PowerVM-specific metrics such as LPAR and WPAR resources
AME settings and so on can be accesses through the native SAP administrator GUI
IBM PureFlex System integration with SAP NetWeaver Landscape
Virtualization Management
The described cloud solution for SAP landscapes becomes available by a combination of the IBM FSM
capabilities and SAP NetWeaver Landscape Virtualization Management for automation tasks at the
application level
This solution enables common cloud scenarios with the SAP software stack and the underlying
infrastructure It aims to connect application management services with system virtualization and storage
management services It is a management tool for customers who run their SAP systems in their own data
center and want to become more efficient by automating provisioning and cloning tasks
Various scenarios around system copy and system refresh are supported including post-copy automation
Those labor-expensive tasks have been made easy with SAP Landscape Virtualization Management and
IBM PureFlex System
In more detail the following use cases are covered for cloud environments running SAP applications
Cloning of a SAP system (creating an identical copy in a fenced environment)
Creating an initial copy of a SAP system (with changing the SAP system identifier)
Refreshing a test SAP system with the content of a productive system
Automation of system copyrefresh post processing activities
Monitoring and visualization of virtualized SAP landscapes
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
31
SAP Landscape Virtualization Management is in many cases complementary to the inherent IBM PureFlex
System management layers SAP Landscape Virtualization Management enables access to many relevant
IBM PureFlex System and virtualization parameters to the SAP management software and provides IT
self-services to SAP administrators
The available IBM and SAP literature which describes the interaction of IBM Systems Director and SAP
Landscape Virtualization Management also applies to IBM PureFlex System FSM is the enriched IBM
Systems Director specifically optimized and packaged for IBM PureFlex System
IBM Tivoli Storage FlashCopy Manager adds a unique value for SAP landscapes This software enables
application-aware database-consistent online backups which can be used to create the cloned system By
exploiting storage snapshot techniques the backup is taken almost instantaneously
The solution has been developed as modular building blocks This provides a high degree of flexibility and
extensibility The following table shows the products and editions that are used for each scenario
Table 7 Use cases per management layer
Management components
SAP NetWeaver Landscape Virtualization Management 10 integrates with the following IBM
management products
IBM Flex System Manager
FSM is used for virtualization monitoring and management and for the operating system
provisioning scenarios on IBM PureFlex System
IBM Tivoli Storage FlashCopy Manager 3101
Tivoli Storage FlashCopy Manager is required for storage cloning of online SAP systems
System
monitoring
SAP
relocate
AIX
provisioning
SAP
Clone
SAP
Copy
SAP
Refresh
Flex
System
Manager
(not needed) (not needed) (not needed) (not needed)
FlashCopy
Manager
(not needed) (not needed) (not needed)
Storage any NFS GPFS
SVC V7000
or XIV
any SVC V7000
or XIV
SVC V7000
or XIV
SVC V7000
or XIV
SAP LVM Standard
Edition
Standard
Edition
Standard
Edition
Enterprise
Edition
Enterprise
Edition
Enterprise
Edition
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
32
The management products can be installed on a single AIX LPAR within IBM PureFlex System
Alternatively the products might be installed on different servers for example SAP NetWeaver
Landscape Virtualization Management may run on any of the supported SAP platforms
The following graphic shows a high-level view of how SAP Landscape Virtualization Management
integrates with the IBM PureFlex System FSM stack to enable cloud scenarios on this platform
Figure 17 SAP Landscape Virtualization Manager integration with FSM
Managed SAP landscape
The following IBM PureFlex System infrastructure is supported with SAP NetWeaver Landscape
Virtualization Management
IBM POWER nodes
AIX 61 or 71
IBM SAN Volume Controller IBM Storwize V7000 or IBM XIVreg Storage System1
SAP NetWeaver 7x using IBM DB2 for Linux UNIX and Windows Oracle Database or
SAP MaxDB is supported
1 SAN Volume Controller and Storwize V7000 support requires SAP Landscape Virtualization Management SP3
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
33
It is assumed that the storage is attached using single or dual VIOS (IBM PowerVM VIOS) For the
storage-cloning scenario the SAN storage system must be attached in the N_Port ID Virtualization
(NPIV) mode NPIV is a FC adapter (HBA) feature that allows multiple LPARs to share a physical port
The clone is created using the FlashCopy feature of the SAN Volume Controller or the snapshot
feature of the XIV Storage System These methods create a logical copy of the data volumes within
seconds while the SAP source system stays fully operational
Whenever an IBM PureFlex System environment needs to be integrated into an existing enterprise
monitoring and management solution (for example an existing IBM Systems Director hierarchy or the IBM
Tivoli Suite) FSM provides interfaces for seamless upward integration
Furthermore SAP Landscape Virtualization Management can be used to manage SAP landscapes within
and outside of IBM PureFlex System and also across different platforms
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
34
SAP-specific offerings for IBM PureFlex System
This section lists specific offerings for SAP on IBM PureFlex System
Lab services and IBM support
As capacity and capability of a larger IBM PureFlex System installation are comparable to large scale
UNIX or mainframe installations IBM provides hardware and software support beyond the standards of
commodity blade systems
Including three Global Centers of Competence IBM Maintenance and Technical Support Services provide
integrated support on the FSM-based environments when there is not a clear understanding of whether
there is a hardware or a software issue All of this can be backed up with the latest version of IBM
Electronic Service Agent trade which has been enhanced for IBM PureFlex System and proactively monitors
and reports hardware events back to IBM support Even if a client has a comprehensive in-house support
organization this can selectively be enhanced through the addition of specific services within the portfolio
to cover critical areas of weakness or exposure
For complex IBM PureFlex System environments and where mission-critical applications are deployed
(which applies to SAP production systems) premium services are available and cover
Enhanced technical support custom technical support
Microcode support managed technical support
Committed fix services
Availability management hard disk retention
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
35
Summary
This paper provides reference architectures of how heterogeneous SAP landscapes can be consolidated
using IBM PureFlex System While running the core business applications on POWER nodes with AIX as
operating system complementary SAP components are added on x86 nodes IBM PureFlex System
enables a very tight integration of infrastructure components including servers networking and storage
Seamless monitoring and management functions of the infrastructure are provided by the FSM
The integration aspect is taken even further with the integration of the SAP Landscape Virtualization
Manager application with the FSM This enables SAP cloud usage scenarios for SAP systems running on
IBM PureFlex System
For individual questions or to request a briefing about this topic contact the IBM SAP International
Competence Center at isiccdeibmcom
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
36
Resources
These websites provide useful references to supplement the information contained in this paper
IBM Systems on PartnerWorld
ibmcompartnerworldsystems
IBM Redbooks
ibmcomredbooks
IBM cloud computing
ibmcomsolutionssapusenlandingcloud_solutionshtml
IBM Cloud Solutions for SAP clients
ibmcomcloud-computingusen
IBM SmartCloud Entry for AIX on PartnerWorld (requires PartnerWorld login)
ibmcompartnerworldpagestg_com_sys_smartcloud
SAP HANA on workload optimized IBM System x appliances
ibmcomsolutionssaphana
IBM internal SSI-URL with a collection of SAP related PureSystem materials
httpsw3-
03ssoibmcomsalessupportShowDocwssdocid=SGDN258263T70735C63ampnode=brandsB6000|brandsBI5
00|clientsetIA|alliancesT5000|alliancesT5150|channelDR|channelF2F|solutionQ00|solution210ampappname=C
C_SSIGD
select the ldquoCollateralrdquo Tab in ldquoMain Contentrdquo section
Related SAP on PureFlex paper with System x focus ldquoReference Architecture - SAP
Systems on IBM PureSystems based on x86 nodesrdquo
httpw3ibmcomsupporttechdocsatsmastrnsfWebIndexWP102167
httpwwwibmcomsupporttechdocsatsmastrnsfWebIndexWP102167
httpwww-03ibmcompartnerworldpartnerinfosrcatsmastrnsfWebIndexWP102167
Related SAP on PureFlex paper with IBM i focus ldquoEfficiently deploying SAP landscapes
on the IBM PureFlex Systemrdquo
httpw3ibmcomsupporttechdocsatsmastrnsfWebIndexWP102087
httpwwwibmcomsupporttechdocsatsmastrnsfWebIndexWP102087
httpwww-03ibmcompartnerworldpartnerinfosrcatsmastrnsfWebIndexWP102087
Virtualization for SAP on IBM PureSystems with Microsoft Hyper-V
httpwwwibmcomsupporttechdocsatsmastrnsfWebIndexWP102153
IBM Workload Optimized Solution for SAP HANA ndash Quick Start Guide
provides technical overview HW models network requirements for IBM Systems Solution
for SAP HANA appliance
httpdownloadboulderibmcomibmdlpubsystemssupportsystem_x_pdf46w8274pdf
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
37
IBM internal SAP HANA Wiki
httpsw3-connectionsibmcomwikishomelang=en-
uswikiWaef4c0eb0f35_427f_a25e_670e392682b1pageSAP20HANA
FlexSystem with SAP BWA Presentations (click to open link)
Seller
Customer
General IBM Sales Kit ldquoSAP NetWeaver Business Warehouse Accelerator (BWA)rdquo
Implementation Guide for BWA on IBM Flex System x240
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
38
Trademarks and special notices
copy Copyright IBM Corporation 2013
References in this document to IBM products or services do not imply that IBM intends to make them
available in every country
IBM the IBM logo and ibmcom are trademarks or registered trademarks of International Business
Machines Corporation in the United States other countries or both If these and other IBM trademarked
terms are marked on their first occurrence in this information with a trademark symbol (reg or trade) these
symbols indicate US registered or common law trademarks owned by IBM at the time this information
was published Such trademarks may also be registered or common law trademarks in other countries A
current list of IBM trademarks is available on the Web at Copyright and trademark information at
wwwibmcomlegalcopytradeshtml
Java and all Java-based trademarks and logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of Oracle andor
its affiliates
Microsoft Windows Windows NT and the Windows logo are trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the
United States other countries or both
Intel Intel Inside (logos) MMX and Pentium are trademarks of Intel Corporation in the United States
other countries or both
UNIX is a registered trademark of The Open Group in the United States and other countries
Linux is a trademark of Linus Torvalds in the United States other countries or both
Other company product or service names may be trademarks or service marks of others
Information is provided AS IS without warranty of any kind
All customer examples described are presented as illustrations of how those customers have used IBM
products and the results they may have achieved Actual environmental costs and performance
characteristics may vary by customer
Information concerning non-IBM products was obtained from a supplier of these products published
announcement material or other publicly available sources and does not constitute an endorsement of
such products by IBM Sources for non-IBM list prices and performance numbers are taken from publicly
available information including vendor announcements and vendor worldwide homepages IBM has not
tested these products and cannot confirm the accuracy of performance capability or any other claims
related to non-IBM products Questions on the capability of non-IBM products should be addressed to the
supplier of those products
All statements regarding IBM future direction and intent are subject to change or withdrawal without notice
and represent goals and objectives only Contact your local IBM office or IBM authorized reseller for the
full text of the specific Statement of Direction
Some information addresses anticipated future capabilities Such information is not intended as a definitive
statement of a commitment to specific levels of performance function or delivery schedules with respect to
any future products Such commitments are only made in IBM product announcements The information is
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
39
presented here to communicate IBMs current investment and development activities as a good faith effort
to help with our customers future planning
Performance is based on measurements and projections using standard IBM benchmarks in a controlled
environment The actual throughput or performance that any user will experience will vary depending upon
considerations such as the amount of multiprogramming in the users job stream the IO configuration the
storage configuration and the workload processed Therefore no assurance can be given that an
individual user will achieve throughput or performance improvements equivalent to the ratios stated here
Photographs shown are of engineering prototypes Changes may be incorporated in production models
Any references in this information to non-IBM websites are provided for convenience only and do not in
any manner serve as an endorsement of those websites The materials at those websites are not part of
the materials for this IBM product and use of those websites is at your own risk
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
13
Storage attachment
In the previous section the design criteria for the server nodes have been explained This section
explains the storage and IO relevant parameters for an IBM PureFlex System-based SAP landscape
The IBM PureFlex System compute nodes allow adding a limited amount of internal storage to the
node For most of the business applications the available internal disk space might not be sufficient
Therefore storage needs to be supplied by an storage solution The IBM PureFlex System chassis
can be equipped with the internal Flex System V7000 storage node This can be connected via the
chassis internal switches directly over Fibre Channel of Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE)
Figure 5 Chassis internal storage attachment
External storage system like the IBM Storwize V7000 or the IBM SAN Volume Controller or any
other IBM System Storage can be connected through the chassis switches as well
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
14
Figure 6 Chassis internal and external storage attachment
Access to either of the storage solutions from the POWER nodes requires a Virtual IO Server (VIOS)
installed Due to the limited FC ports on the half wide compute nodes a dual VIOS setup is only
possible using Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE)as shown in figures 5 and 6 above
IBM Flex System V7000
In general the IBM PureFlex System can connect to any SAN storage solution The internal IBM Flex
System V7000 is the most powerful and easy-to-use innovative midrange disk system in the storage
marketplace and is the best fit for IBM PureFlex System The Flex System V7000 is fully compatible
with the IBM Storwize V7000 storage system
The integrated Easy Tier functionality provides significant performance improvements by
automatic migration of hot data blocks to high-performing SSDs
Thin provisioning consumes used space only no pre-allocation required
Dynamic migration provides continuous availability of the applications while migrating data
online
IBM FlashCopy replication supports faster and more efficient data copies for online
backup testing or data mining
25-inch disk form factor 24 per expansion unit 240 total disks
Cluster up to 4 node pairs and 960 disks
Each node pair provides dual RAID controller to provide high availability access
No SAN or fiber channel cabling is required between the compute and storage nodes
Real time disk compression reduces the amount of required storage space Compression
rates are between 50 and 70 for SAP systems running on IBM i and the DB2 for i
database
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
15
Integration of the V7000 storage management into the Flex System Manager
Value of Easy Tier to SAP
The SAP ERP system workloads represent online transaction processing (OLTP) characteristics
Typically not all data of the SAP system or database is accessed during a given time frame for
example during a 24-hour period Statistically there exist contiguously accessed data areas some of
which are hot These hot spots are part of the disk system that has significantly high activity and
usually cause long wait times for IO requests The change rate of the hot data areas is not in terms of
minutes but most likely stays constant over a longer period of time for example 24 hours
Here Easy Tier is able to monitor and move these hot areas from HDD to SSD Easy Tier
automatically creates a data migration plan to incrementally move the hottest data to SSDs and the
cold data back to the spinning disks Easy Tier adapts to clientsrsquo changing workloads and it does this
without any administrative effort to constantly tune their storage systems As a result the SAP
transaction time is reduced
Value of Real Time Disk Compression to SAP
Today traditional database systems provide various compression technologies to store data This
requires know-how to identify which tables to compress and to setup and maintain efficient
compression over time With real time disk compression offered by Storwize V7000 the complete disk
set of the partition running the SAP systems can be easily compressed Disk compression saves
between 50 and 70 percent of storage space with minimal performance impact to most SAP
workloads This is comparable to native DB gains and can save license and operational DB-admin
cost A combination of two compression technologies does not bring further advantages
IBM Flex System V7000 Storage Node
The IBM Flex System V7000 Storage Node requires a minimum of 2 full wide slots to be installed into
an IBM Flex System chassis It provides direct Fibre Channel Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE)
and iSCSI connection to the PureFlex compute nodes The Flex System Manager will identify the
storage system automatically
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
16
The Flex System V7000 management user interface (GUI) is compatible with the Storwize V7000 GUI
IBM PureFlex System and Storwize V7000
The Storwize V7000 storage can be connected to the IBM PureFlex System chassis either through
Fiber Channel (SAN) or through Ethernet (iSCSI) Both the connections provided block-level access to
the storage system
With IBM PureFlex System the test team recommends SAN access by using the IBM PureFlex
System integrated SAN switch where four FC connections are required to ensure multipathing More
connections are not required for connecting to a single chassis
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
17
Setting up a stretched cluster is not supported by the integrated V7000 SVC Customers will require a
traditional SVC to support such a resilient disk setup Of course other technologies like AIX LVM
mirroring Metro Mirror etc are supported
Configuration of Flex System V7000 and Storwize V7000
To gain maximum flexibility in respect to capacity utilization and performance workload balancing the
number of storage pools configured (Managed Disk Groups) should be as few as possible for a single
V7000 system (node pair) Depending on the performance requirement the use of Easy Tier in
combination with SSDs is recommended
A fully equipped chassis is capable to handle 300000 SAPS leading to a workload of approximately
100000 IOPS Assuming a storage demand of 100 TB usable results in the following
recommendation
24 SSD 25-inch 400 GB each plugged into the V7000 controller
Four expansion units each with 24 SAS drives 25-inch each 900 GB
One expansion unit 23 SAS drives 25-inch each 900 GB and 1 SSD 25 inches 400 GB
(spare)
RAIDs (Managed Disk) are configured as RAID 5 7+1
Total of 25 SSD and 119 SAS
Integration with existing SAP landscapes
The IBM PureFlex System chassis can be integrated into existing SAP landscapes Physically the IBM
PureFlex System chassis fits into any standard 19-inch rack which provides a minimum of 10 spare height
units Other non-IBM PureFlex System components can be housed within the same standard rack as long
as power distribution units provide sufficient energy A fully populated IBM PureFlex System chassis can
contain up to six 2500 watts energy supplies which can be configured for several redundancy modes
The Ethernet and FC switches provide connectivity to an existing network and storage infrastructure As
discussed in the previous section the IBM PureFlex System FC switch connects to existing SAN storage
solutions LPARs stored on the SAN can be migrated to an IBM PureFlex System POWER node by
assigning the disks to the IBM PureFlex System nodersquos VIOS and boot from those This allows very fast
migration of exiting SAP systems to IBM PureFlex System with minimal downtime
External SAN storage can be attached to a new PureFlex chassis in several ways Ideally external LUNs
are connected via the integrated V7000 SAN Volume Controller as managed disks Thus storage
administration can exploit SVC virtualization and management capabilities If latter is not a focus the
PureFlex FC-switches can be attached to existing SAN-fabrics using transparent NPIV mode see Figure
6 Storage vendors need to support this and storage SAN administration will be performed with native
vendor tools not via FSM
Tests have shown that IBM PowerVM Live Partition Mobility (LPM) is possible between nodes and
external systems given the network is set up appropriately This allows to migrate running LPARs from
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
18
discrete Power Systems to POWER nodes and to migrate from POWER nodes to discrete Power
Systems
The FSM administration layer can co-exist with already implemented cross-platform management solutions like eg the IBM Systems Director It also can become integrated with higher level enterprise service management software as a monitored and managed layer
Figure 7 integration of management components
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
19
Integration of SAP Appliance-based components
Certain SAP components are not available on all SAP supported operating systems and databases If
such components are required to support customersrsquo business processes they need to be installed on top
of a supported OS which is not necessarily the same location where the SAP core applications are stored
With IBM PureFlex System supporting both x86 and POWER processor-based operating systems those
complementary components can be tightly integrated into the landscape The required hardware
resources can be hosted within one IBM PureFlex System chassis Besides the compact server footprint in
the datacenter the internal network eliminates the need for network cables and switches to connect the
systems The IBM PureFlex System management provided by CMM and FSM reduces the complexity of
managing the heterogeneous environment
This allows the creation of a complete SAP landscape within a single box Core SAP Business Suite
components are running on the POWER nodes while complementary components such as SAP
Enterprise Search and SAP Business Warehouse Accelerator can run on x86 nodes
The IBM Systems Solution for SAP Business Suite and SAP HANA SAP HANA is the strategic in-memory
database by SAP AG to accelerate in particular business analytics but also transactional business In
order to achieve magnitudes of acceleration SAP HANA exploits specific design features of the Intel EX
processor architecture with optimized low-level coding Consequently SAP HANA is exclusively
supported on certified hardware using this processor type ndash for example IBM System x3950 X5
The IBM SAP HANA offering is a standardized portfolio of System x hardware (IBM Systems x3950 X5 -
7143-Hxx systems) with internal (SSD SAS) storage for data persistency plus software components and
surrounding services Exclusively Linux namely SLES 11 is supported as operating system
As of today such an appliance cannot be deployed on any compute node within the PureFlex chassis
Instead IBM x3950 X5 based SAP HANA building blocks may be installed into the same rack as the
PureFlex chassis and act as external HANA compute nodes Connection to both x86 and POWER based
internal compute nodes running standard SAP applications or complementary SAP HANA instances is
done via Ethernet through a TOR switch
A big advantage of re-using external technology is that well established and beneficial concepts can be 11
applied for PureFlex focused landscapes too As an excelling example IBM GPFS (General Parallel File
System) not only enables the IBM SAP HANA solution to grow beyond the capacity of a single system into
a scale-out solution but also adds high availability and disaster recovery features to the IBM HANA
appliance
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
20
The scope of the Flex System Manager has been extended to allow the integrated management of
PureFlex internal components and IBM x3950 X5 based SAP HANA building blocks
It provides administrative functions like
Manual discovery inventory
Release Management (FW and SW installation and update)
Power Control
Remote Access
System Configuration
System Health and Status
Service and Support
for workload optimized x3950 X5 SAP HANA appliances
Figure 8 FSM menu of external x3950 X5 based IBM SAP HANA appliances
The screenshot above shows external x3950 X5 nodes appearing on the FlexSystem Manager panel and
the applicable activities to be performed
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
21
From a hardware point-of-view IBM PureFlex Systems offer the administrative integration of the HANA
building blocks (T-shirt sizes) listed in Table 4They meet the SAP defined HANA sizing grid and do not
need to be purchased together with a PureFlex System This allows the integration of existing HANA
systems with a newly deployed PureFlex System at customer site
Building block
Server (MTM)
CPUs Main memory
S+ x3950 X5
(7143-HAx) 2x Intel Xeon
E7-8870 256 GB
M x3950 X5
(7143-HBx) 4x Intel Xeon
E7-8870 512 GB
L
x3950 X5 (7143HBx)
+ x3950 X5
(7143HCx)
8x Intel Xeon E7-8870
1024 GB
XM x3950 X5
(7143-HDx) 4x Intel Xeon
E7-8870 1TB
32x 32GB
XL x3950 X5
(7143-HDx + 7143-HEx)
8x Intel Xeon E7-8870
2TB 64x 32GB
XXL x3950 X5
(7143-HBx + 7143-HCx)
8x Intel Xeon E7-8870
4TB 128x 32GB
Table 4 IBM SAP HANA Appliance building blocks (June 2013)
This list will change pretty frequently as new models and HANA configurations will become supported
Therefore always check the SAP list of supported models in the SAP HANA PAM (requires authorization)
or consult an IBM Techline representative SAP technology and management components as well as
common operational functions like the Tivoli Storage Manager for BackupRestore of ERP and HANA may
be deployed on PureFlex compute nodes and act on both environments
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
22
Figure 9 Architecture of SAP Business Suite on PureFlex and SAP HANA on System x3950 X5 Workload Optimized Solution for SAP HANA
In case of IBM SAP HANA scale-out configurations the Integrated Management Module of x3950 X5
servers and the SAP HANA appliance related network interfaces (like SAP client access HANA Studio
ERP backup and restore HWSW-Admin) will be connected to the PureFlex Device Management and
Client Data network via Ethernet through TOR switches Such a scale-out configuration is deployed with
separate racks
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
23
Figure 10 SAP HANA Appliances with PureFlex Network Topology
Depended on the amount of external network connections single node IBM SAP HANA appliances may
be connected via available ports on integrated switches of the PureFlex chassis The single node SAP
HANA appliance could be deployed in the same rack with IBM PureFlex System
FlexSystem Native Node Support for SAP Business Warehouse Accelerator
The SAP Business Warehouse Accelerator (BWA) was the initial approach to accelerate OLAP workload
with a dedicated appliance attached to a SAP Business Warehouse system SAP BWA follows a ldquoplug amp
playrdquo design easier to implement than SAP HANA and has a longer history Hence SAP BWA still has a
broad installed base among SAP BI customers
SAP BWA has not been this highly optimized for the Intel EX-CPU type This fact allows deploying SAP
BWA appliances on XEON-based FlexSystem nodes running a SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 SP2
operating system
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
24
The ldquoIBM Flex System Solution for SAP NetWeaver Business Warehouse Acceleratorrdquo extends the
established IBM BladeCenter offerings for SAP BWA with scalable FlexSystem configurations comprising
of x240 compute nodes inside the Flex-chassis and externally attached IBM Storage Systems DS3500
This combination meets the SAP BWA appliance criteria while providing an excellent priceperformance
ratio
Table 5 FlexSystem building blocks for IBM SAP Business Warehouse Accelerator Appliances (August 2013)
As with the SAP BWA appliances based on IBM BladeCenter the IBM GPFS filesystem improves overall
IO performance data scalability and resiliency The building blocks have been pre-tested and optimized
to deliver easy integration and quick implementation Order and shipment processes of the pre-built
systems are identical to those of the traditional IBM BWA platforms
Since SAP BWA is an encapsulated appliance it cannot exploit all functionality provided by FSM for full
topology management Passive ndash in the sense of monitoring - functions like inventory system health
hardware service and support are applicable Dedicated BWA-FlexSystem chassis can be attached to
PureFlex systems hosting a SAP BI solution and monitored from there Performing active administrative
functions which may have an impact on the BWA configuration are not allowed however
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
25
SAP on AIX reference landscapes for IBM PureFlex System
1 Minimal system = ERP BW all on POWER nodes
This is the simplest case of deploying
core SAP components in an IBM
PureFlex System System All SAP
modules are supported on POWER and
either an AIX or PowerLinux OS Two
nodes for physical redundancy each with
PowerVM and VIO virtualization are
used
In order to make use of autonomous load
balancing by PowerVM it is
recommended to mix production and
nonproduction SAP instances within a
shared processor pool on each of the
single nodes SAP 2-tier deployments
need to be preferred for smaller systems
Consider packing non- production
systems into WPARs for less LPAR
complexity
2 3-tier SAP ERP with scale-out DB and application-server tier all on POWER nodes
This option combines DB scale-out with
an SAP 3-tier application-server scale
out The advantage of a multinode DB
is a hot-standby high availability
without DB downtime as with classical
cold-standby cluster solutions Also
both the nodes contribute to an
aggregate DB throughput when in
normal operation As such a setup
appears for business-critical scenarios
a hot-standby FSM appliance has also
been configured (planned in 2012)
This in any case ensures that the
overall system monitoring and
adjustment can take place
Figure 11 minimal system
Figure 12 scale-out database
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
26
3 Mixed system = SAP Business Suite core applications TREX and non-SAP applications
This setup makes use of the IBM
PureFlex System heterogeneous
capabilities While several core SAP
Business Suite applications stay on
POWER nodes they are now
complemented by SAP TREX and a
NetWeaver development
environment which are supported
only on an x86 architecture There
are more than these components
there are newer appliances such as
BWA and HANA which mandate
such a setup
Further applications can be
consolidated into the same IBM
PureFlex System chassis as well
4 SAP NetWeaver landscape = SAP Business Suite core applications SAP Enterprise Portal
SAP Process Integration (service bus) and SAP Business Objects
This is a heterogeneous setup with
majority of SAP core systems on AIX
SAP Business Objects XI runs on
larger AIX LPAR for scaling while the
Business Objects end-user oriented
systems are consolidated in virtual
machines hosted on an x86 node
This scenario also outlines the
capability of IBM PureFlex System to
run x86 Linux and PowerLinux
distributions This applies to non-SAP
and many SAP components Inter-
system communication strongly takes
advantage of the internal networking
bandwidth of IBM PureFlex System
Figure 14 SAP Process Integration and SAP Business Objects
Figure 13 complementary components
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
27
5 Mixed system with SAP HANA = SAP Business Suite core applications deployed on
PureFlex nodes plus SAP HANA Appliances (= IBM Systems Solution for SAP Business
Suite and SAP HANA)
This setup makes use of the externalized IBM PureFlex System capabilities in shape of the IBM Systems Solution for SAP Business Suite and SAP HANA
Several core SAP applications are
deployed on internal POWER or x86
nodes and are complemented by an
external SAP HANA environment which is
being built of the x3950 X5 based standard
IBM appliance offering
This enables customers running SAP
HANA always to benefit from newest
certified System x HANA appliances and
operational improvements in that space
while creating administrative synergies
between the SAP HANA and traditional
SAP Business Suite infrastructure
Starting from physical integration today
the FlexSystem Manager will provide
integrated administrative capabilities
The IBM PureFlex system offers an
integrated infrastructure for all SAP
components SAP applications on
PureFlex System compute nodes may
access SAP HANA DB on IBM x3950 X5
servers as well as traditional data bases
(eg IBM DB2) running on PureFlex
System
Figure 15 SAP HANA Integration
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
28
High availability and disaster recovery
The single point of failures (SPOFs) for SAP systems stay untouched by the introduction of IBM PureFlex
System These are the database server and the central services for ABAP and Java including the enqueue
server
These SPOFs occur within each production SAP business component of the landscape that is multiple
clusters (such as ERP CRM SCM and so on) must be implemented
In addition central technical building blocks such as SAP Enterprise Portal (for user access) Process
Integration as Enterprise Service Bus need to be setup resilient
While the high availability and disaster recovery concepts for all these SPOFs are well known in general
they have not been tested in a special IBM PureFlex System environment at time of authoring this paper
As scenario 2 indicates multi-node databases like Oracle RAC are supported on IBM PureFlex System
Landscape monitoring and management
As the SAP landscapes tend to become a heterogeneous aggregation of servers and operating systems
this implies a certain level of complexity for SAP landscape administration Consolidating the SAP
landscape into an IBM PureFlex System with its consistent management capabilities helps to reduce this
complexity
The combination of the IBM PureFlex System and SAP NetWeaver technology offers multiple native
monitoring and administration layers for the complete hardware and software stack These are
Chassis Management Module
Flex System Management
SAP Computing Center Management System (SAP CCMS)
SAP Solution Manager
minus SAP Solution Manager aims at SAP application management and business key
performance indicator (KPI) monitoring but also is a mandatory tool for SAP
release and patch management
SAP NetWeaver Landscape Virtualization Management (LVM)
The IBM PureFlex System FSM and SAP LVM Enterprise are optional components the remaining ones
are part of virtualized base installation
In order to gain maximum efficiency for daily operations it is important to select the most appropriate tools
for specific administrative tasks and organizations In addition consistency and transparency need to be
maintained
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
29
The following table provides a high-level orientation for a selected set of administrator tasks in SAP
ecosystems
CMM FSM SAP LVM SAP CCMS SAP Solution Manager
Chassis topology view and administration
Through CMM
Virtualization metrics Through Flex System
Manager
Virtualization topology and administration
Through Flex System
Manager
OS DB SAP performance
Provisioning of a new virtual server Through Flex System
Manager
Virtual server start stop and live migration
Through Flex System
Manager
SAP service reallocation
SAP system refresh cloning
Alerting Chassis focus Systems focus
Task monitoring
OS DB SAP Base
Business KPIs
Integration to an upper-level enterprise management
Into Flex System
Manager
Into SAP Solution Manager
Table 6 monitoring and management layers
FSM is based on IBM Systems Director and provides comparable functions For POWER nodes FSM is
mandatory for advanced virtualization management As most of these functions are beneficial (if not
mandatory) for SAP (production) systems the FSM appears as an essential component for SAP on IBM
PureFlex environments
As a single point of control FSM provides a web-based interface to manage all aspects of the IBM
PureFlex System hardware components For example an interactive chassis map provides status
overview and serves as an entry point to manage the different resources Setup wizards guide you through
the process of initial setup and maintenance tasks
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
30
Figure 16 FSM chassis map
SAP CCMS is fully functional for IBM PureFlex System It allows monitoring and adjustment of base SAP
application and database settings Also PowerVM-specific metrics such as LPAR and WPAR resources
AME settings and so on can be accesses through the native SAP administrator GUI
IBM PureFlex System integration with SAP NetWeaver Landscape
Virtualization Management
The described cloud solution for SAP landscapes becomes available by a combination of the IBM FSM
capabilities and SAP NetWeaver Landscape Virtualization Management for automation tasks at the
application level
This solution enables common cloud scenarios with the SAP software stack and the underlying
infrastructure It aims to connect application management services with system virtualization and storage
management services It is a management tool for customers who run their SAP systems in their own data
center and want to become more efficient by automating provisioning and cloning tasks
Various scenarios around system copy and system refresh are supported including post-copy automation
Those labor-expensive tasks have been made easy with SAP Landscape Virtualization Management and
IBM PureFlex System
In more detail the following use cases are covered for cloud environments running SAP applications
Cloning of a SAP system (creating an identical copy in a fenced environment)
Creating an initial copy of a SAP system (with changing the SAP system identifier)
Refreshing a test SAP system with the content of a productive system
Automation of system copyrefresh post processing activities
Monitoring and visualization of virtualized SAP landscapes
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
31
SAP Landscape Virtualization Management is in many cases complementary to the inherent IBM PureFlex
System management layers SAP Landscape Virtualization Management enables access to many relevant
IBM PureFlex System and virtualization parameters to the SAP management software and provides IT
self-services to SAP administrators
The available IBM and SAP literature which describes the interaction of IBM Systems Director and SAP
Landscape Virtualization Management also applies to IBM PureFlex System FSM is the enriched IBM
Systems Director specifically optimized and packaged for IBM PureFlex System
IBM Tivoli Storage FlashCopy Manager adds a unique value for SAP landscapes This software enables
application-aware database-consistent online backups which can be used to create the cloned system By
exploiting storage snapshot techniques the backup is taken almost instantaneously
The solution has been developed as modular building blocks This provides a high degree of flexibility and
extensibility The following table shows the products and editions that are used for each scenario
Table 7 Use cases per management layer
Management components
SAP NetWeaver Landscape Virtualization Management 10 integrates with the following IBM
management products
IBM Flex System Manager
FSM is used for virtualization monitoring and management and for the operating system
provisioning scenarios on IBM PureFlex System
IBM Tivoli Storage FlashCopy Manager 3101
Tivoli Storage FlashCopy Manager is required for storage cloning of online SAP systems
System
monitoring
SAP
relocate
AIX
provisioning
SAP
Clone
SAP
Copy
SAP
Refresh
Flex
System
Manager
(not needed) (not needed) (not needed) (not needed)
FlashCopy
Manager
(not needed) (not needed) (not needed)
Storage any NFS GPFS
SVC V7000
or XIV
any SVC V7000
or XIV
SVC V7000
or XIV
SVC V7000
or XIV
SAP LVM Standard
Edition
Standard
Edition
Standard
Edition
Enterprise
Edition
Enterprise
Edition
Enterprise
Edition
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
32
The management products can be installed on a single AIX LPAR within IBM PureFlex System
Alternatively the products might be installed on different servers for example SAP NetWeaver
Landscape Virtualization Management may run on any of the supported SAP platforms
The following graphic shows a high-level view of how SAP Landscape Virtualization Management
integrates with the IBM PureFlex System FSM stack to enable cloud scenarios on this platform
Figure 17 SAP Landscape Virtualization Manager integration with FSM
Managed SAP landscape
The following IBM PureFlex System infrastructure is supported with SAP NetWeaver Landscape
Virtualization Management
IBM POWER nodes
AIX 61 or 71
IBM SAN Volume Controller IBM Storwize V7000 or IBM XIVreg Storage System1
SAP NetWeaver 7x using IBM DB2 for Linux UNIX and Windows Oracle Database or
SAP MaxDB is supported
1 SAN Volume Controller and Storwize V7000 support requires SAP Landscape Virtualization Management SP3
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
33
It is assumed that the storage is attached using single or dual VIOS (IBM PowerVM VIOS) For the
storage-cloning scenario the SAN storage system must be attached in the N_Port ID Virtualization
(NPIV) mode NPIV is a FC adapter (HBA) feature that allows multiple LPARs to share a physical port
The clone is created using the FlashCopy feature of the SAN Volume Controller or the snapshot
feature of the XIV Storage System These methods create a logical copy of the data volumes within
seconds while the SAP source system stays fully operational
Whenever an IBM PureFlex System environment needs to be integrated into an existing enterprise
monitoring and management solution (for example an existing IBM Systems Director hierarchy or the IBM
Tivoli Suite) FSM provides interfaces for seamless upward integration
Furthermore SAP Landscape Virtualization Management can be used to manage SAP landscapes within
and outside of IBM PureFlex System and also across different platforms
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
34
SAP-specific offerings for IBM PureFlex System
This section lists specific offerings for SAP on IBM PureFlex System
Lab services and IBM support
As capacity and capability of a larger IBM PureFlex System installation are comparable to large scale
UNIX or mainframe installations IBM provides hardware and software support beyond the standards of
commodity blade systems
Including three Global Centers of Competence IBM Maintenance and Technical Support Services provide
integrated support on the FSM-based environments when there is not a clear understanding of whether
there is a hardware or a software issue All of this can be backed up with the latest version of IBM
Electronic Service Agent trade which has been enhanced for IBM PureFlex System and proactively monitors
and reports hardware events back to IBM support Even if a client has a comprehensive in-house support
organization this can selectively be enhanced through the addition of specific services within the portfolio
to cover critical areas of weakness or exposure
For complex IBM PureFlex System environments and where mission-critical applications are deployed
(which applies to SAP production systems) premium services are available and cover
Enhanced technical support custom technical support
Microcode support managed technical support
Committed fix services
Availability management hard disk retention
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
35
Summary
This paper provides reference architectures of how heterogeneous SAP landscapes can be consolidated
using IBM PureFlex System While running the core business applications on POWER nodes with AIX as
operating system complementary SAP components are added on x86 nodes IBM PureFlex System
enables a very tight integration of infrastructure components including servers networking and storage
Seamless monitoring and management functions of the infrastructure are provided by the FSM
The integration aspect is taken even further with the integration of the SAP Landscape Virtualization
Manager application with the FSM This enables SAP cloud usage scenarios for SAP systems running on
IBM PureFlex System
For individual questions or to request a briefing about this topic contact the IBM SAP International
Competence Center at isiccdeibmcom
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
36
Resources
These websites provide useful references to supplement the information contained in this paper
IBM Systems on PartnerWorld
ibmcompartnerworldsystems
IBM Redbooks
ibmcomredbooks
IBM cloud computing
ibmcomsolutionssapusenlandingcloud_solutionshtml
IBM Cloud Solutions for SAP clients
ibmcomcloud-computingusen
IBM SmartCloud Entry for AIX on PartnerWorld (requires PartnerWorld login)
ibmcompartnerworldpagestg_com_sys_smartcloud
SAP HANA on workload optimized IBM System x appliances
ibmcomsolutionssaphana
IBM internal SSI-URL with a collection of SAP related PureSystem materials
httpsw3-
03ssoibmcomsalessupportShowDocwssdocid=SGDN258263T70735C63ampnode=brandsB6000|brandsBI5
00|clientsetIA|alliancesT5000|alliancesT5150|channelDR|channelF2F|solutionQ00|solution210ampappname=C
C_SSIGD
select the ldquoCollateralrdquo Tab in ldquoMain Contentrdquo section
Related SAP on PureFlex paper with System x focus ldquoReference Architecture - SAP
Systems on IBM PureSystems based on x86 nodesrdquo
httpw3ibmcomsupporttechdocsatsmastrnsfWebIndexWP102167
httpwwwibmcomsupporttechdocsatsmastrnsfWebIndexWP102167
httpwww-03ibmcompartnerworldpartnerinfosrcatsmastrnsfWebIndexWP102167
Related SAP on PureFlex paper with IBM i focus ldquoEfficiently deploying SAP landscapes
on the IBM PureFlex Systemrdquo
httpw3ibmcomsupporttechdocsatsmastrnsfWebIndexWP102087
httpwwwibmcomsupporttechdocsatsmastrnsfWebIndexWP102087
httpwww-03ibmcompartnerworldpartnerinfosrcatsmastrnsfWebIndexWP102087
Virtualization for SAP on IBM PureSystems with Microsoft Hyper-V
httpwwwibmcomsupporttechdocsatsmastrnsfWebIndexWP102153
IBM Workload Optimized Solution for SAP HANA ndash Quick Start Guide
provides technical overview HW models network requirements for IBM Systems Solution
for SAP HANA appliance
httpdownloadboulderibmcomibmdlpubsystemssupportsystem_x_pdf46w8274pdf
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
37
IBM internal SAP HANA Wiki
httpsw3-connectionsibmcomwikishomelang=en-
uswikiWaef4c0eb0f35_427f_a25e_670e392682b1pageSAP20HANA
FlexSystem with SAP BWA Presentations (click to open link)
Seller
Customer
General IBM Sales Kit ldquoSAP NetWeaver Business Warehouse Accelerator (BWA)rdquo
Implementation Guide for BWA on IBM Flex System x240
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
38
Trademarks and special notices
copy Copyright IBM Corporation 2013
References in this document to IBM products or services do not imply that IBM intends to make them
available in every country
IBM the IBM logo and ibmcom are trademarks or registered trademarks of International Business
Machines Corporation in the United States other countries or both If these and other IBM trademarked
terms are marked on their first occurrence in this information with a trademark symbol (reg or trade) these
symbols indicate US registered or common law trademarks owned by IBM at the time this information
was published Such trademarks may also be registered or common law trademarks in other countries A
current list of IBM trademarks is available on the Web at Copyright and trademark information at
wwwibmcomlegalcopytradeshtml
Java and all Java-based trademarks and logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of Oracle andor
its affiliates
Microsoft Windows Windows NT and the Windows logo are trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the
United States other countries or both
Intel Intel Inside (logos) MMX and Pentium are trademarks of Intel Corporation in the United States
other countries or both
UNIX is a registered trademark of The Open Group in the United States and other countries
Linux is a trademark of Linus Torvalds in the United States other countries or both
Other company product or service names may be trademarks or service marks of others
Information is provided AS IS without warranty of any kind
All customer examples described are presented as illustrations of how those customers have used IBM
products and the results they may have achieved Actual environmental costs and performance
characteristics may vary by customer
Information concerning non-IBM products was obtained from a supplier of these products published
announcement material or other publicly available sources and does not constitute an endorsement of
such products by IBM Sources for non-IBM list prices and performance numbers are taken from publicly
available information including vendor announcements and vendor worldwide homepages IBM has not
tested these products and cannot confirm the accuracy of performance capability or any other claims
related to non-IBM products Questions on the capability of non-IBM products should be addressed to the
supplier of those products
All statements regarding IBM future direction and intent are subject to change or withdrawal without notice
and represent goals and objectives only Contact your local IBM office or IBM authorized reseller for the
full text of the specific Statement of Direction
Some information addresses anticipated future capabilities Such information is not intended as a definitive
statement of a commitment to specific levels of performance function or delivery schedules with respect to
any future products Such commitments are only made in IBM product announcements The information is
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
39
presented here to communicate IBMs current investment and development activities as a good faith effort
to help with our customers future planning
Performance is based on measurements and projections using standard IBM benchmarks in a controlled
environment The actual throughput or performance that any user will experience will vary depending upon
considerations such as the amount of multiprogramming in the users job stream the IO configuration the
storage configuration and the workload processed Therefore no assurance can be given that an
individual user will achieve throughput or performance improvements equivalent to the ratios stated here
Photographs shown are of engineering prototypes Changes may be incorporated in production models
Any references in this information to non-IBM websites are provided for convenience only and do not in
any manner serve as an endorsement of those websites The materials at those websites are not part of
the materials for this IBM product and use of those websites is at your own risk
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
14
Figure 6 Chassis internal and external storage attachment
Access to either of the storage solutions from the POWER nodes requires a Virtual IO Server (VIOS)
installed Due to the limited FC ports on the half wide compute nodes a dual VIOS setup is only
possible using Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE)as shown in figures 5 and 6 above
IBM Flex System V7000
In general the IBM PureFlex System can connect to any SAN storage solution The internal IBM Flex
System V7000 is the most powerful and easy-to-use innovative midrange disk system in the storage
marketplace and is the best fit for IBM PureFlex System The Flex System V7000 is fully compatible
with the IBM Storwize V7000 storage system
The integrated Easy Tier functionality provides significant performance improvements by
automatic migration of hot data blocks to high-performing SSDs
Thin provisioning consumes used space only no pre-allocation required
Dynamic migration provides continuous availability of the applications while migrating data
online
IBM FlashCopy replication supports faster and more efficient data copies for online
backup testing or data mining
25-inch disk form factor 24 per expansion unit 240 total disks
Cluster up to 4 node pairs and 960 disks
Each node pair provides dual RAID controller to provide high availability access
No SAN or fiber channel cabling is required between the compute and storage nodes
Real time disk compression reduces the amount of required storage space Compression
rates are between 50 and 70 for SAP systems running on IBM i and the DB2 for i
database
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
15
Integration of the V7000 storage management into the Flex System Manager
Value of Easy Tier to SAP
The SAP ERP system workloads represent online transaction processing (OLTP) characteristics
Typically not all data of the SAP system or database is accessed during a given time frame for
example during a 24-hour period Statistically there exist contiguously accessed data areas some of
which are hot These hot spots are part of the disk system that has significantly high activity and
usually cause long wait times for IO requests The change rate of the hot data areas is not in terms of
minutes but most likely stays constant over a longer period of time for example 24 hours
Here Easy Tier is able to monitor and move these hot areas from HDD to SSD Easy Tier
automatically creates a data migration plan to incrementally move the hottest data to SSDs and the
cold data back to the spinning disks Easy Tier adapts to clientsrsquo changing workloads and it does this
without any administrative effort to constantly tune their storage systems As a result the SAP
transaction time is reduced
Value of Real Time Disk Compression to SAP
Today traditional database systems provide various compression technologies to store data This
requires know-how to identify which tables to compress and to setup and maintain efficient
compression over time With real time disk compression offered by Storwize V7000 the complete disk
set of the partition running the SAP systems can be easily compressed Disk compression saves
between 50 and 70 percent of storage space with minimal performance impact to most SAP
workloads This is comparable to native DB gains and can save license and operational DB-admin
cost A combination of two compression technologies does not bring further advantages
IBM Flex System V7000 Storage Node
The IBM Flex System V7000 Storage Node requires a minimum of 2 full wide slots to be installed into
an IBM Flex System chassis It provides direct Fibre Channel Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE)
and iSCSI connection to the PureFlex compute nodes The Flex System Manager will identify the
storage system automatically
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
16
The Flex System V7000 management user interface (GUI) is compatible with the Storwize V7000 GUI
IBM PureFlex System and Storwize V7000
The Storwize V7000 storage can be connected to the IBM PureFlex System chassis either through
Fiber Channel (SAN) or through Ethernet (iSCSI) Both the connections provided block-level access to
the storage system
With IBM PureFlex System the test team recommends SAN access by using the IBM PureFlex
System integrated SAN switch where four FC connections are required to ensure multipathing More
connections are not required for connecting to a single chassis
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
17
Setting up a stretched cluster is not supported by the integrated V7000 SVC Customers will require a
traditional SVC to support such a resilient disk setup Of course other technologies like AIX LVM
mirroring Metro Mirror etc are supported
Configuration of Flex System V7000 and Storwize V7000
To gain maximum flexibility in respect to capacity utilization and performance workload balancing the
number of storage pools configured (Managed Disk Groups) should be as few as possible for a single
V7000 system (node pair) Depending on the performance requirement the use of Easy Tier in
combination with SSDs is recommended
A fully equipped chassis is capable to handle 300000 SAPS leading to a workload of approximately
100000 IOPS Assuming a storage demand of 100 TB usable results in the following
recommendation
24 SSD 25-inch 400 GB each plugged into the V7000 controller
Four expansion units each with 24 SAS drives 25-inch each 900 GB
One expansion unit 23 SAS drives 25-inch each 900 GB and 1 SSD 25 inches 400 GB
(spare)
RAIDs (Managed Disk) are configured as RAID 5 7+1
Total of 25 SSD and 119 SAS
Integration with existing SAP landscapes
The IBM PureFlex System chassis can be integrated into existing SAP landscapes Physically the IBM
PureFlex System chassis fits into any standard 19-inch rack which provides a minimum of 10 spare height
units Other non-IBM PureFlex System components can be housed within the same standard rack as long
as power distribution units provide sufficient energy A fully populated IBM PureFlex System chassis can
contain up to six 2500 watts energy supplies which can be configured for several redundancy modes
The Ethernet and FC switches provide connectivity to an existing network and storage infrastructure As
discussed in the previous section the IBM PureFlex System FC switch connects to existing SAN storage
solutions LPARs stored on the SAN can be migrated to an IBM PureFlex System POWER node by
assigning the disks to the IBM PureFlex System nodersquos VIOS and boot from those This allows very fast
migration of exiting SAP systems to IBM PureFlex System with minimal downtime
External SAN storage can be attached to a new PureFlex chassis in several ways Ideally external LUNs
are connected via the integrated V7000 SAN Volume Controller as managed disks Thus storage
administration can exploit SVC virtualization and management capabilities If latter is not a focus the
PureFlex FC-switches can be attached to existing SAN-fabrics using transparent NPIV mode see Figure
6 Storage vendors need to support this and storage SAN administration will be performed with native
vendor tools not via FSM
Tests have shown that IBM PowerVM Live Partition Mobility (LPM) is possible between nodes and
external systems given the network is set up appropriately This allows to migrate running LPARs from
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
18
discrete Power Systems to POWER nodes and to migrate from POWER nodes to discrete Power
Systems
The FSM administration layer can co-exist with already implemented cross-platform management solutions like eg the IBM Systems Director It also can become integrated with higher level enterprise service management software as a monitored and managed layer
Figure 7 integration of management components
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
19
Integration of SAP Appliance-based components
Certain SAP components are not available on all SAP supported operating systems and databases If
such components are required to support customersrsquo business processes they need to be installed on top
of a supported OS which is not necessarily the same location where the SAP core applications are stored
With IBM PureFlex System supporting both x86 and POWER processor-based operating systems those
complementary components can be tightly integrated into the landscape The required hardware
resources can be hosted within one IBM PureFlex System chassis Besides the compact server footprint in
the datacenter the internal network eliminates the need for network cables and switches to connect the
systems The IBM PureFlex System management provided by CMM and FSM reduces the complexity of
managing the heterogeneous environment
This allows the creation of a complete SAP landscape within a single box Core SAP Business Suite
components are running on the POWER nodes while complementary components such as SAP
Enterprise Search and SAP Business Warehouse Accelerator can run on x86 nodes
The IBM Systems Solution for SAP Business Suite and SAP HANA SAP HANA is the strategic in-memory
database by SAP AG to accelerate in particular business analytics but also transactional business In
order to achieve magnitudes of acceleration SAP HANA exploits specific design features of the Intel EX
processor architecture with optimized low-level coding Consequently SAP HANA is exclusively
supported on certified hardware using this processor type ndash for example IBM System x3950 X5
The IBM SAP HANA offering is a standardized portfolio of System x hardware (IBM Systems x3950 X5 -
7143-Hxx systems) with internal (SSD SAS) storage for data persistency plus software components and
surrounding services Exclusively Linux namely SLES 11 is supported as operating system
As of today such an appliance cannot be deployed on any compute node within the PureFlex chassis
Instead IBM x3950 X5 based SAP HANA building blocks may be installed into the same rack as the
PureFlex chassis and act as external HANA compute nodes Connection to both x86 and POWER based
internal compute nodes running standard SAP applications or complementary SAP HANA instances is
done via Ethernet through a TOR switch
A big advantage of re-using external technology is that well established and beneficial concepts can be 11
applied for PureFlex focused landscapes too As an excelling example IBM GPFS (General Parallel File
System) not only enables the IBM SAP HANA solution to grow beyond the capacity of a single system into
a scale-out solution but also adds high availability and disaster recovery features to the IBM HANA
appliance
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
20
The scope of the Flex System Manager has been extended to allow the integrated management of
PureFlex internal components and IBM x3950 X5 based SAP HANA building blocks
It provides administrative functions like
Manual discovery inventory
Release Management (FW and SW installation and update)
Power Control
Remote Access
System Configuration
System Health and Status
Service and Support
for workload optimized x3950 X5 SAP HANA appliances
Figure 8 FSM menu of external x3950 X5 based IBM SAP HANA appliances
The screenshot above shows external x3950 X5 nodes appearing on the FlexSystem Manager panel and
the applicable activities to be performed
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
21
From a hardware point-of-view IBM PureFlex Systems offer the administrative integration of the HANA
building blocks (T-shirt sizes) listed in Table 4They meet the SAP defined HANA sizing grid and do not
need to be purchased together with a PureFlex System This allows the integration of existing HANA
systems with a newly deployed PureFlex System at customer site
Building block
Server (MTM)
CPUs Main memory
S+ x3950 X5
(7143-HAx) 2x Intel Xeon
E7-8870 256 GB
M x3950 X5
(7143-HBx) 4x Intel Xeon
E7-8870 512 GB
L
x3950 X5 (7143HBx)
+ x3950 X5
(7143HCx)
8x Intel Xeon E7-8870
1024 GB
XM x3950 X5
(7143-HDx) 4x Intel Xeon
E7-8870 1TB
32x 32GB
XL x3950 X5
(7143-HDx + 7143-HEx)
8x Intel Xeon E7-8870
2TB 64x 32GB
XXL x3950 X5
(7143-HBx + 7143-HCx)
8x Intel Xeon E7-8870
4TB 128x 32GB
Table 4 IBM SAP HANA Appliance building blocks (June 2013)
This list will change pretty frequently as new models and HANA configurations will become supported
Therefore always check the SAP list of supported models in the SAP HANA PAM (requires authorization)
or consult an IBM Techline representative SAP technology and management components as well as
common operational functions like the Tivoli Storage Manager for BackupRestore of ERP and HANA may
be deployed on PureFlex compute nodes and act on both environments
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
22
Figure 9 Architecture of SAP Business Suite on PureFlex and SAP HANA on System x3950 X5 Workload Optimized Solution for SAP HANA
In case of IBM SAP HANA scale-out configurations the Integrated Management Module of x3950 X5
servers and the SAP HANA appliance related network interfaces (like SAP client access HANA Studio
ERP backup and restore HWSW-Admin) will be connected to the PureFlex Device Management and
Client Data network via Ethernet through TOR switches Such a scale-out configuration is deployed with
separate racks
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
23
Figure 10 SAP HANA Appliances with PureFlex Network Topology
Depended on the amount of external network connections single node IBM SAP HANA appliances may
be connected via available ports on integrated switches of the PureFlex chassis The single node SAP
HANA appliance could be deployed in the same rack with IBM PureFlex System
FlexSystem Native Node Support for SAP Business Warehouse Accelerator
The SAP Business Warehouse Accelerator (BWA) was the initial approach to accelerate OLAP workload
with a dedicated appliance attached to a SAP Business Warehouse system SAP BWA follows a ldquoplug amp
playrdquo design easier to implement than SAP HANA and has a longer history Hence SAP BWA still has a
broad installed base among SAP BI customers
SAP BWA has not been this highly optimized for the Intel EX-CPU type This fact allows deploying SAP
BWA appliances on XEON-based FlexSystem nodes running a SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 SP2
operating system
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
24
The ldquoIBM Flex System Solution for SAP NetWeaver Business Warehouse Acceleratorrdquo extends the
established IBM BladeCenter offerings for SAP BWA with scalable FlexSystem configurations comprising
of x240 compute nodes inside the Flex-chassis and externally attached IBM Storage Systems DS3500
This combination meets the SAP BWA appliance criteria while providing an excellent priceperformance
ratio
Table 5 FlexSystem building blocks for IBM SAP Business Warehouse Accelerator Appliances (August 2013)
As with the SAP BWA appliances based on IBM BladeCenter the IBM GPFS filesystem improves overall
IO performance data scalability and resiliency The building blocks have been pre-tested and optimized
to deliver easy integration and quick implementation Order and shipment processes of the pre-built
systems are identical to those of the traditional IBM BWA platforms
Since SAP BWA is an encapsulated appliance it cannot exploit all functionality provided by FSM for full
topology management Passive ndash in the sense of monitoring - functions like inventory system health
hardware service and support are applicable Dedicated BWA-FlexSystem chassis can be attached to
PureFlex systems hosting a SAP BI solution and monitored from there Performing active administrative
functions which may have an impact on the BWA configuration are not allowed however
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
25
SAP on AIX reference landscapes for IBM PureFlex System
1 Minimal system = ERP BW all on POWER nodes
This is the simplest case of deploying
core SAP components in an IBM
PureFlex System System All SAP
modules are supported on POWER and
either an AIX or PowerLinux OS Two
nodes for physical redundancy each with
PowerVM and VIO virtualization are
used
In order to make use of autonomous load
balancing by PowerVM it is
recommended to mix production and
nonproduction SAP instances within a
shared processor pool on each of the
single nodes SAP 2-tier deployments
need to be preferred for smaller systems
Consider packing non- production
systems into WPARs for less LPAR
complexity
2 3-tier SAP ERP with scale-out DB and application-server tier all on POWER nodes
This option combines DB scale-out with
an SAP 3-tier application-server scale
out The advantage of a multinode DB
is a hot-standby high availability
without DB downtime as with classical
cold-standby cluster solutions Also
both the nodes contribute to an
aggregate DB throughput when in
normal operation As such a setup
appears for business-critical scenarios
a hot-standby FSM appliance has also
been configured (planned in 2012)
This in any case ensures that the
overall system monitoring and
adjustment can take place
Figure 11 minimal system
Figure 12 scale-out database
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
26
3 Mixed system = SAP Business Suite core applications TREX and non-SAP applications
This setup makes use of the IBM
PureFlex System heterogeneous
capabilities While several core SAP
Business Suite applications stay on
POWER nodes they are now
complemented by SAP TREX and a
NetWeaver development
environment which are supported
only on an x86 architecture There
are more than these components
there are newer appliances such as
BWA and HANA which mandate
such a setup
Further applications can be
consolidated into the same IBM
PureFlex System chassis as well
4 SAP NetWeaver landscape = SAP Business Suite core applications SAP Enterprise Portal
SAP Process Integration (service bus) and SAP Business Objects
This is a heterogeneous setup with
majority of SAP core systems on AIX
SAP Business Objects XI runs on
larger AIX LPAR for scaling while the
Business Objects end-user oriented
systems are consolidated in virtual
machines hosted on an x86 node
This scenario also outlines the
capability of IBM PureFlex System to
run x86 Linux and PowerLinux
distributions This applies to non-SAP
and many SAP components Inter-
system communication strongly takes
advantage of the internal networking
bandwidth of IBM PureFlex System
Figure 14 SAP Process Integration and SAP Business Objects
Figure 13 complementary components
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
27
5 Mixed system with SAP HANA = SAP Business Suite core applications deployed on
PureFlex nodes plus SAP HANA Appliances (= IBM Systems Solution for SAP Business
Suite and SAP HANA)
This setup makes use of the externalized IBM PureFlex System capabilities in shape of the IBM Systems Solution for SAP Business Suite and SAP HANA
Several core SAP applications are
deployed on internal POWER or x86
nodes and are complemented by an
external SAP HANA environment which is
being built of the x3950 X5 based standard
IBM appliance offering
This enables customers running SAP
HANA always to benefit from newest
certified System x HANA appliances and
operational improvements in that space
while creating administrative synergies
between the SAP HANA and traditional
SAP Business Suite infrastructure
Starting from physical integration today
the FlexSystem Manager will provide
integrated administrative capabilities
The IBM PureFlex system offers an
integrated infrastructure for all SAP
components SAP applications on
PureFlex System compute nodes may
access SAP HANA DB on IBM x3950 X5
servers as well as traditional data bases
(eg IBM DB2) running on PureFlex
System
Figure 15 SAP HANA Integration
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
28
High availability and disaster recovery
The single point of failures (SPOFs) for SAP systems stay untouched by the introduction of IBM PureFlex
System These are the database server and the central services for ABAP and Java including the enqueue
server
These SPOFs occur within each production SAP business component of the landscape that is multiple
clusters (such as ERP CRM SCM and so on) must be implemented
In addition central technical building blocks such as SAP Enterprise Portal (for user access) Process
Integration as Enterprise Service Bus need to be setup resilient
While the high availability and disaster recovery concepts for all these SPOFs are well known in general
they have not been tested in a special IBM PureFlex System environment at time of authoring this paper
As scenario 2 indicates multi-node databases like Oracle RAC are supported on IBM PureFlex System
Landscape monitoring and management
As the SAP landscapes tend to become a heterogeneous aggregation of servers and operating systems
this implies a certain level of complexity for SAP landscape administration Consolidating the SAP
landscape into an IBM PureFlex System with its consistent management capabilities helps to reduce this
complexity
The combination of the IBM PureFlex System and SAP NetWeaver technology offers multiple native
monitoring and administration layers for the complete hardware and software stack These are
Chassis Management Module
Flex System Management
SAP Computing Center Management System (SAP CCMS)
SAP Solution Manager
minus SAP Solution Manager aims at SAP application management and business key
performance indicator (KPI) monitoring but also is a mandatory tool for SAP
release and patch management
SAP NetWeaver Landscape Virtualization Management (LVM)
The IBM PureFlex System FSM and SAP LVM Enterprise are optional components the remaining ones
are part of virtualized base installation
In order to gain maximum efficiency for daily operations it is important to select the most appropriate tools
for specific administrative tasks and organizations In addition consistency and transparency need to be
maintained
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
29
The following table provides a high-level orientation for a selected set of administrator tasks in SAP
ecosystems
CMM FSM SAP LVM SAP CCMS SAP Solution Manager
Chassis topology view and administration
Through CMM
Virtualization metrics Through Flex System
Manager
Virtualization topology and administration
Through Flex System
Manager
OS DB SAP performance
Provisioning of a new virtual server Through Flex System
Manager
Virtual server start stop and live migration
Through Flex System
Manager
SAP service reallocation
SAP system refresh cloning
Alerting Chassis focus Systems focus
Task monitoring
OS DB SAP Base
Business KPIs
Integration to an upper-level enterprise management
Into Flex System
Manager
Into SAP Solution Manager
Table 6 monitoring and management layers
FSM is based on IBM Systems Director and provides comparable functions For POWER nodes FSM is
mandatory for advanced virtualization management As most of these functions are beneficial (if not
mandatory) for SAP (production) systems the FSM appears as an essential component for SAP on IBM
PureFlex environments
As a single point of control FSM provides a web-based interface to manage all aspects of the IBM
PureFlex System hardware components For example an interactive chassis map provides status
overview and serves as an entry point to manage the different resources Setup wizards guide you through
the process of initial setup and maintenance tasks
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
30
Figure 16 FSM chassis map
SAP CCMS is fully functional for IBM PureFlex System It allows monitoring and adjustment of base SAP
application and database settings Also PowerVM-specific metrics such as LPAR and WPAR resources
AME settings and so on can be accesses through the native SAP administrator GUI
IBM PureFlex System integration with SAP NetWeaver Landscape
Virtualization Management
The described cloud solution for SAP landscapes becomes available by a combination of the IBM FSM
capabilities and SAP NetWeaver Landscape Virtualization Management for automation tasks at the
application level
This solution enables common cloud scenarios with the SAP software stack and the underlying
infrastructure It aims to connect application management services with system virtualization and storage
management services It is a management tool for customers who run their SAP systems in their own data
center and want to become more efficient by automating provisioning and cloning tasks
Various scenarios around system copy and system refresh are supported including post-copy automation
Those labor-expensive tasks have been made easy with SAP Landscape Virtualization Management and
IBM PureFlex System
In more detail the following use cases are covered for cloud environments running SAP applications
Cloning of a SAP system (creating an identical copy in a fenced environment)
Creating an initial copy of a SAP system (with changing the SAP system identifier)
Refreshing a test SAP system with the content of a productive system
Automation of system copyrefresh post processing activities
Monitoring and visualization of virtualized SAP landscapes
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
31
SAP Landscape Virtualization Management is in many cases complementary to the inherent IBM PureFlex
System management layers SAP Landscape Virtualization Management enables access to many relevant
IBM PureFlex System and virtualization parameters to the SAP management software and provides IT
self-services to SAP administrators
The available IBM and SAP literature which describes the interaction of IBM Systems Director and SAP
Landscape Virtualization Management also applies to IBM PureFlex System FSM is the enriched IBM
Systems Director specifically optimized and packaged for IBM PureFlex System
IBM Tivoli Storage FlashCopy Manager adds a unique value for SAP landscapes This software enables
application-aware database-consistent online backups which can be used to create the cloned system By
exploiting storage snapshot techniques the backup is taken almost instantaneously
The solution has been developed as modular building blocks This provides a high degree of flexibility and
extensibility The following table shows the products and editions that are used for each scenario
Table 7 Use cases per management layer
Management components
SAP NetWeaver Landscape Virtualization Management 10 integrates with the following IBM
management products
IBM Flex System Manager
FSM is used for virtualization monitoring and management and for the operating system
provisioning scenarios on IBM PureFlex System
IBM Tivoli Storage FlashCopy Manager 3101
Tivoli Storage FlashCopy Manager is required for storage cloning of online SAP systems
System
monitoring
SAP
relocate
AIX
provisioning
SAP
Clone
SAP
Copy
SAP
Refresh
Flex
System
Manager
(not needed) (not needed) (not needed) (not needed)
FlashCopy
Manager
(not needed) (not needed) (not needed)
Storage any NFS GPFS
SVC V7000
or XIV
any SVC V7000
or XIV
SVC V7000
or XIV
SVC V7000
or XIV
SAP LVM Standard
Edition
Standard
Edition
Standard
Edition
Enterprise
Edition
Enterprise
Edition
Enterprise
Edition
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
32
The management products can be installed on a single AIX LPAR within IBM PureFlex System
Alternatively the products might be installed on different servers for example SAP NetWeaver
Landscape Virtualization Management may run on any of the supported SAP platforms
The following graphic shows a high-level view of how SAP Landscape Virtualization Management
integrates with the IBM PureFlex System FSM stack to enable cloud scenarios on this platform
Figure 17 SAP Landscape Virtualization Manager integration with FSM
Managed SAP landscape
The following IBM PureFlex System infrastructure is supported with SAP NetWeaver Landscape
Virtualization Management
IBM POWER nodes
AIX 61 or 71
IBM SAN Volume Controller IBM Storwize V7000 or IBM XIVreg Storage System1
SAP NetWeaver 7x using IBM DB2 for Linux UNIX and Windows Oracle Database or
SAP MaxDB is supported
1 SAN Volume Controller and Storwize V7000 support requires SAP Landscape Virtualization Management SP3
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
33
It is assumed that the storage is attached using single or dual VIOS (IBM PowerVM VIOS) For the
storage-cloning scenario the SAN storage system must be attached in the N_Port ID Virtualization
(NPIV) mode NPIV is a FC adapter (HBA) feature that allows multiple LPARs to share a physical port
The clone is created using the FlashCopy feature of the SAN Volume Controller or the snapshot
feature of the XIV Storage System These methods create a logical copy of the data volumes within
seconds while the SAP source system stays fully operational
Whenever an IBM PureFlex System environment needs to be integrated into an existing enterprise
monitoring and management solution (for example an existing IBM Systems Director hierarchy or the IBM
Tivoli Suite) FSM provides interfaces for seamless upward integration
Furthermore SAP Landscape Virtualization Management can be used to manage SAP landscapes within
and outside of IBM PureFlex System and also across different platforms
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
34
SAP-specific offerings for IBM PureFlex System
This section lists specific offerings for SAP on IBM PureFlex System
Lab services and IBM support
As capacity and capability of a larger IBM PureFlex System installation are comparable to large scale
UNIX or mainframe installations IBM provides hardware and software support beyond the standards of
commodity blade systems
Including three Global Centers of Competence IBM Maintenance and Technical Support Services provide
integrated support on the FSM-based environments when there is not a clear understanding of whether
there is a hardware or a software issue All of this can be backed up with the latest version of IBM
Electronic Service Agent trade which has been enhanced for IBM PureFlex System and proactively monitors
and reports hardware events back to IBM support Even if a client has a comprehensive in-house support
organization this can selectively be enhanced through the addition of specific services within the portfolio
to cover critical areas of weakness or exposure
For complex IBM PureFlex System environments and where mission-critical applications are deployed
(which applies to SAP production systems) premium services are available and cover
Enhanced technical support custom technical support
Microcode support managed technical support
Committed fix services
Availability management hard disk retention
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
35
Summary
This paper provides reference architectures of how heterogeneous SAP landscapes can be consolidated
using IBM PureFlex System While running the core business applications on POWER nodes with AIX as
operating system complementary SAP components are added on x86 nodes IBM PureFlex System
enables a very tight integration of infrastructure components including servers networking and storage
Seamless monitoring and management functions of the infrastructure are provided by the FSM
The integration aspect is taken even further with the integration of the SAP Landscape Virtualization
Manager application with the FSM This enables SAP cloud usage scenarios for SAP systems running on
IBM PureFlex System
For individual questions or to request a briefing about this topic contact the IBM SAP International
Competence Center at isiccdeibmcom
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
36
Resources
These websites provide useful references to supplement the information contained in this paper
IBM Systems on PartnerWorld
ibmcompartnerworldsystems
IBM Redbooks
ibmcomredbooks
IBM cloud computing
ibmcomsolutionssapusenlandingcloud_solutionshtml
IBM Cloud Solutions for SAP clients
ibmcomcloud-computingusen
IBM SmartCloud Entry for AIX on PartnerWorld (requires PartnerWorld login)
ibmcompartnerworldpagestg_com_sys_smartcloud
SAP HANA on workload optimized IBM System x appliances
ibmcomsolutionssaphana
IBM internal SSI-URL with a collection of SAP related PureSystem materials
httpsw3-
03ssoibmcomsalessupportShowDocwssdocid=SGDN258263T70735C63ampnode=brandsB6000|brandsBI5
00|clientsetIA|alliancesT5000|alliancesT5150|channelDR|channelF2F|solutionQ00|solution210ampappname=C
C_SSIGD
select the ldquoCollateralrdquo Tab in ldquoMain Contentrdquo section
Related SAP on PureFlex paper with System x focus ldquoReference Architecture - SAP
Systems on IBM PureSystems based on x86 nodesrdquo
httpw3ibmcomsupporttechdocsatsmastrnsfWebIndexWP102167
httpwwwibmcomsupporttechdocsatsmastrnsfWebIndexWP102167
httpwww-03ibmcompartnerworldpartnerinfosrcatsmastrnsfWebIndexWP102167
Related SAP on PureFlex paper with IBM i focus ldquoEfficiently deploying SAP landscapes
on the IBM PureFlex Systemrdquo
httpw3ibmcomsupporttechdocsatsmastrnsfWebIndexWP102087
httpwwwibmcomsupporttechdocsatsmastrnsfWebIndexWP102087
httpwww-03ibmcompartnerworldpartnerinfosrcatsmastrnsfWebIndexWP102087
Virtualization for SAP on IBM PureSystems with Microsoft Hyper-V
httpwwwibmcomsupporttechdocsatsmastrnsfWebIndexWP102153
IBM Workload Optimized Solution for SAP HANA ndash Quick Start Guide
provides technical overview HW models network requirements for IBM Systems Solution
for SAP HANA appliance
httpdownloadboulderibmcomibmdlpubsystemssupportsystem_x_pdf46w8274pdf
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
37
IBM internal SAP HANA Wiki
httpsw3-connectionsibmcomwikishomelang=en-
uswikiWaef4c0eb0f35_427f_a25e_670e392682b1pageSAP20HANA
FlexSystem with SAP BWA Presentations (click to open link)
Seller
Customer
General IBM Sales Kit ldquoSAP NetWeaver Business Warehouse Accelerator (BWA)rdquo
Implementation Guide for BWA on IBM Flex System x240
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
38
Trademarks and special notices
copy Copyright IBM Corporation 2013
References in this document to IBM products or services do not imply that IBM intends to make them
available in every country
IBM the IBM logo and ibmcom are trademarks or registered trademarks of International Business
Machines Corporation in the United States other countries or both If these and other IBM trademarked
terms are marked on their first occurrence in this information with a trademark symbol (reg or trade) these
symbols indicate US registered or common law trademarks owned by IBM at the time this information
was published Such trademarks may also be registered or common law trademarks in other countries A
current list of IBM trademarks is available on the Web at Copyright and trademark information at
wwwibmcomlegalcopytradeshtml
Java and all Java-based trademarks and logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of Oracle andor
its affiliates
Microsoft Windows Windows NT and the Windows logo are trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the
United States other countries or both
Intel Intel Inside (logos) MMX and Pentium are trademarks of Intel Corporation in the United States
other countries or both
UNIX is a registered trademark of The Open Group in the United States and other countries
Linux is a trademark of Linus Torvalds in the United States other countries or both
Other company product or service names may be trademarks or service marks of others
Information is provided AS IS without warranty of any kind
All customer examples described are presented as illustrations of how those customers have used IBM
products and the results they may have achieved Actual environmental costs and performance
characteristics may vary by customer
Information concerning non-IBM products was obtained from a supplier of these products published
announcement material or other publicly available sources and does not constitute an endorsement of
such products by IBM Sources for non-IBM list prices and performance numbers are taken from publicly
available information including vendor announcements and vendor worldwide homepages IBM has not
tested these products and cannot confirm the accuracy of performance capability or any other claims
related to non-IBM products Questions on the capability of non-IBM products should be addressed to the
supplier of those products
All statements regarding IBM future direction and intent are subject to change or withdrawal without notice
and represent goals and objectives only Contact your local IBM office or IBM authorized reseller for the
full text of the specific Statement of Direction
Some information addresses anticipated future capabilities Such information is not intended as a definitive
statement of a commitment to specific levels of performance function or delivery schedules with respect to
any future products Such commitments are only made in IBM product announcements The information is
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
39
presented here to communicate IBMs current investment and development activities as a good faith effort
to help with our customers future planning
Performance is based on measurements and projections using standard IBM benchmarks in a controlled
environment The actual throughput or performance that any user will experience will vary depending upon
considerations such as the amount of multiprogramming in the users job stream the IO configuration the
storage configuration and the workload processed Therefore no assurance can be given that an
individual user will achieve throughput or performance improvements equivalent to the ratios stated here
Photographs shown are of engineering prototypes Changes may be incorporated in production models
Any references in this information to non-IBM websites are provided for convenience only and do not in
any manner serve as an endorsement of those websites The materials at those websites are not part of
the materials for this IBM product and use of those websites is at your own risk
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
15
Integration of the V7000 storage management into the Flex System Manager
Value of Easy Tier to SAP
The SAP ERP system workloads represent online transaction processing (OLTP) characteristics
Typically not all data of the SAP system or database is accessed during a given time frame for
example during a 24-hour period Statistically there exist contiguously accessed data areas some of
which are hot These hot spots are part of the disk system that has significantly high activity and
usually cause long wait times for IO requests The change rate of the hot data areas is not in terms of
minutes but most likely stays constant over a longer period of time for example 24 hours
Here Easy Tier is able to monitor and move these hot areas from HDD to SSD Easy Tier
automatically creates a data migration plan to incrementally move the hottest data to SSDs and the
cold data back to the spinning disks Easy Tier adapts to clientsrsquo changing workloads and it does this
without any administrative effort to constantly tune their storage systems As a result the SAP
transaction time is reduced
Value of Real Time Disk Compression to SAP
Today traditional database systems provide various compression technologies to store data This
requires know-how to identify which tables to compress and to setup and maintain efficient
compression over time With real time disk compression offered by Storwize V7000 the complete disk
set of the partition running the SAP systems can be easily compressed Disk compression saves
between 50 and 70 percent of storage space with minimal performance impact to most SAP
workloads This is comparable to native DB gains and can save license and operational DB-admin
cost A combination of two compression technologies does not bring further advantages
IBM Flex System V7000 Storage Node
The IBM Flex System V7000 Storage Node requires a minimum of 2 full wide slots to be installed into
an IBM Flex System chassis It provides direct Fibre Channel Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE)
and iSCSI connection to the PureFlex compute nodes The Flex System Manager will identify the
storage system automatically
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
16
The Flex System V7000 management user interface (GUI) is compatible with the Storwize V7000 GUI
IBM PureFlex System and Storwize V7000
The Storwize V7000 storage can be connected to the IBM PureFlex System chassis either through
Fiber Channel (SAN) or through Ethernet (iSCSI) Both the connections provided block-level access to
the storage system
With IBM PureFlex System the test team recommends SAN access by using the IBM PureFlex
System integrated SAN switch where four FC connections are required to ensure multipathing More
connections are not required for connecting to a single chassis
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
17
Setting up a stretched cluster is not supported by the integrated V7000 SVC Customers will require a
traditional SVC to support such a resilient disk setup Of course other technologies like AIX LVM
mirroring Metro Mirror etc are supported
Configuration of Flex System V7000 and Storwize V7000
To gain maximum flexibility in respect to capacity utilization and performance workload balancing the
number of storage pools configured (Managed Disk Groups) should be as few as possible for a single
V7000 system (node pair) Depending on the performance requirement the use of Easy Tier in
combination with SSDs is recommended
A fully equipped chassis is capable to handle 300000 SAPS leading to a workload of approximately
100000 IOPS Assuming a storage demand of 100 TB usable results in the following
recommendation
24 SSD 25-inch 400 GB each plugged into the V7000 controller
Four expansion units each with 24 SAS drives 25-inch each 900 GB
One expansion unit 23 SAS drives 25-inch each 900 GB and 1 SSD 25 inches 400 GB
(spare)
RAIDs (Managed Disk) are configured as RAID 5 7+1
Total of 25 SSD and 119 SAS
Integration with existing SAP landscapes
The IBM PureFlex System chassis can be integrated into existing SAP landscapes Physically the IBM
PureFlex System chassis fits into any standard 19-inch rack which provides a minimum of 10 spare height
units Other non-IBM PureFlex System components can be housed within the same standard rack as long
as power distribution units provide sufficient energy A fully populated IBM PureFlex System chassis can
contain up to six 2500 watts energy supplies which can be configured for several redundancy modes
The Ethernet and FC switches provide connectivity to an existing network and storage infrastructure As
discussed in the previous section the IBM PureFlex System FC switch connects to existing SAN storage
solutions LPARs stored on the SAN can be migrated to an IBM PureFlex System POWER node by
assigning the disks to the IBM PureFlex System nodersquos VIOS and boot from those This allows very fast
migration of exiting SAP systems to IBM PureFlex System with minimal downtime
External SAN storage can be attached to a new PureFlex chassis in several ways Ideally external LUNs
are connected via the integrated V7000 SAN Volume Controller as managed disks Thus storage
administration can exploit SVC virtualization and management capabilities If latter is not a focus the
PureFlex FC-switches can be attached to existing SAN-fabrics using transparent NPIV mode see Figure
6 Storage vendors need to support this and storage SAN administration will be performed with native
vendor tools not via FSM
Tests have shown that IBM PowerVM Live Partition Mobility (LPM) is possible between nodes and
external systems given the network is set up appropriately This allows to migrate running LPARs from
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
18
discrete Power Systems to POWER nodes and to migrate from POWER nodes to discrete Power
Systems
The FSM administration layer can co-exist with already implemented cross-platform management solutions like eg the IBM Systems Director It also can become integrated with higher level enterprise service management software as a monitored and managed layer
Figure 7 integration of management components
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
19
Integration of SAP Appliance-based components
Certain SAP components are not available on all SAP supported operating systems and databases If
such components are required to support customersrsquo business processes they need to be installed on top
of a supported OS which is not necessarily the same location where the SAP core applications are stored
With IBM PureFlex System supporting both x86 and POWER processor-based operating systems those
complementary components can be tightly integrated into the landscape The required hardware
resources can be hosted within one IBM PureFlex System chassis Besides the compact server footprint in
the datacenter the internal network eliminates the need for network cables and switches to connect the
systems The IBM PureFlex System management provided by CMM and FSM reduces the complexity of
managing the heterogeneous environment
This allows the creation of a complete SAP landscape within a single box Core SAP Business Suite
components are running on the POWER nodes while complementary components such as SAP
Enterprise Search and SAP Business Warehouse Accelerator can run on x86 nodes
The IBM Systems Solution for SAP Business Suite and SAP HANA SAP HANA is the strategic in-memory
database by SAP AG to accelerate in particular business analytics but also transactional business In
order to achieve magnitudes of acceleration SAP HANA exploits specific design features of the Intel EX
processor architecture with optimized low-level coding Consequently SAP HANA is exclusively
supported on certified hardware using this processor type ndash for example IBM System x3950 X5
The IBM SAP HANA offering is a standardized portfolio of System x hardware (IBM Systems x3950 X5 -
7143-Hxx systems) with internal (SSD SAS) storage for data persistency plus software components and
surrounding services Exclusively Linux namely SLES 11 is supported as operating system
As of today such an appliance cannot be deployed on any compute node within the PureFlex chassis
Instead IBM x3950 X5 based SAP HANA building blocks may be installed into the same rack as the
PureFlex chassis and act as external HANA compute nodes Connection to both x86 and POWER based
internal compute nodes running standard SAP applications or complementary SAP HANA instances is
done via Ethernet through a TOR switch
A big advantage of re-using external technology is that well established and beneficial concepts can be 11
applied for PureFlex focused landscapes too As an excelling example IBM GPFS (General Parallel File
System) not only enables the IBM SAP HANA solution to grow beyond the capacity of a single system into
a scale-out solution but also adds high availability and disaster recovery features to the IBM HANA
appliance
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
20
The scope of the Flex System Manager has been extended to allow the integrated management of
PureFlex internal components and IBM x3950 X5 based SAP HANA building blocks
It provides administrative functions like
Manual discovery inventory
Release Management (FW and SW installation and update)
Power Control
Remote Access
System Configuration
System Health and Status
Service and Support
for workload optimized x3950 X5 SAP HANA appliances
Figure 8 FSM menu of external x3950 X5 based IBM SAP HANA appliances
The screenshot above shows external x3950 X5 nodes appearing on the FlexSystem Manager panel and
the applicable activities to be performed
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
21
From a hardware point-of-view IBM PureFlex Systems offer the administrative integration of the HANA
building blocks (T-shirt sizes) listed in Table 4They meet the SAP defined HANA sizing grid and do not
need to be purchased together with a PureFlex System This allows the integration of existing HANA
systems with a newly deployed PureFlex System at customer site
Building block
Server (MTM)
CPUs Main memory
S+ x3950 X5
(7143-HAx) 2x Intel Xeon
E7-8870 256 GB
M x3950 X5
(7143-HBx) 4x Intel Xeon
E7-8870 512 GB
L
x3950 X5 (7143HBx)
+ x3950 X5
(7143HCx)
8x Intel Xeon E7-8870
1024 GB
XM x3950 X5
(7143-HDx) 4x Intel Xeon
E7-8870 1TB
32x 32GB
XL x3950 X5
(7143-HDx + 7143-HEx)
8x Intel Xeon E7-8870
2TB 64x 32GB
XXL x3950 X5
(7143-HBx + 7143-HCx)
8x Intel Xeon E7-8870
4TB 128x 32GB
Table 4 IBM SAP HANA Appliance building blocks (June 2013)
This list will change pretty frequently as new models and HANA configurations will become supported
Therefore always check the SAP list of supported models in the SAP HANA PAM (requires authorization)
or consult an IBM Techline representative SAP technology and management components as well as
common operational functions like the Tivoli Storage Manager for BackupRestore of ERP and HANA may
be deployed on PureFlex compute nodes and act on both environments
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
22
Figure 9 Architecture of SAP Business Suite on PureFlex and SAP HANA on System x3950 X5 Workload Optimized Solution for SAP HANA
In case of IBM SAP HANA scale-out configurations the Integrated Management Module of x3950 X5
servers and the SAP HANA appliance related network interfaces (like SAP client access HANA Studio
ERP backup and restore HWSW-Admin) will be connected to the PureFlex Device Management and
Client Data network via Ethernet through TOR switches Such a scale-out configuration is deployed with
separate racks
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
23
Figure 10 SAP HANA Appliances with PureFlex Network Topology
Depended on the amount of external network connections single node IBM SAP HANA appliances may
be connected via available ports on integrated switches of the PureFlex chassis The single node SAP
HANA appliance could be deployed in the same rack with IBM PureFlex System
FlexSystem Native Node Support for SAP Business Warehouse Accelerator
The SAP Business Warehouse Accelerator (BWA) was the initial approach to accelerate OLAP workload
with a dedicated appliance attached to a SAP Business Warehouse system SAP BWA follows a ldquoplug amp
playrdquo design easier to implement than SAP HANA and has a longer history Hence SAP BWA still has a
broad installed base among SAP BI customers
SAP BWA has not been this highly optimized for the Intel EX-CPU type This fact allows deploying SAP
BWA appliances on XEON-based FlexSystem nodes running a SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 SP2
operating system
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
24
The ldquoIBM Flex System Solution for SAP NetWeaver Business Warehouse Acceleratorrdquo extends the
established IBM BladeCenter offerings for SAP BWA with scalable FlexSystem configurations comprising
of x240 compute nodes inside the Flex-chassis and externally attached IBM Storage Systems DS3500
This combination meets the SAP BWA appliance criteria while providing an excellent priceperformance
ratio
Table 5 FlexSystem building blocks for IBM SAP Business Warehouse Accelerator Appliances (August 2013)
As with the SAP BWA appliances based on IBM BladeCenter the IBM GPFS filesystem improves overall
IO performance data scalability and resiliency The building blocks have been pre-tested and optimized
to deliver easy integration and quick implementation Order and shipment processes of the pre-built
systems are identical to those of the traditional IBM BWA platforms
Since SAP BWA is an encapsulated appliance it cannot exploit all functionality provided by FSM for full
topology management Passive ndash in the sense of monitoring - functions like inventory system health
hardware service and support are applicable Dedicated BWA-FlexSystem chassis can be attached to
PureFlex systems hosting a SAP BI solution and monitored from there Performing active administrative
functions which may have an impact on the BWA configuration are not allowed however
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
25
SAP on AIX reference landscapes for IBM PureFlex System
1 Minimal system = ERP BW all on POWER nodes
This is the simplest case of deploying
core SAP components in an IBM
PureFlex System System All SAP
modules are supported on POWER and
either an AIX or PowerLinux OS Two
nodes for physical redundancy each with
PowerVM and VIO virtualization are
used
In order to make use of autonomous load
balancing by PowerVM it is
recommended to mix production and
nonproduction SAP instances within a
shared processor pool on each of the
single nodes SAP 2-tier deployments
need to be preferred for smaller systems
Consider packing non- production
systems into WPARs for less LPAR
complexity
2 3-tier SAP ERP with scale-out DB and application-server tier all on POWER nodes
This option combines DB scale-out with
an SAP 3-tier application-server scale
out The advantage of a multinode DB
is a hot-standby high availability
without DB downtime as with classical
cold-standby cluster solutions Also
both the nodes contribute to an
aggregate DB throughput when in
normal operation As such a setup
appears for business-critical scenarios
a hot-standby FSM appliance has also
been configured (planned in 2012)
This in any case ensures that the
overall system monitoring and
adjustment can take place
Figure 11 minimal system
Figure 12 scale-out database
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
26
3 Mixed system = SAP Business Suite core applications TREX and non-SAP applications
This setup makes use of the IBM
PureFlex System heterogeneous
capabilities While several core SAP
Business Suite applications stay on
POWER nodes they are now
complemented by SAP TREX and a
NetWeaver development
environment which are supported
only on an x86 architecture There
are more than these components
there are newer appliances such as
BWA and HANA which mandate
such a setup
Further applications can be
consolidated into the same IBM
PureFlex System chassis as well
4 SAP NetWeaver landscape = SAP Business Suite core applications SAP Enterprise Portal
SAP Process Integration (service bus) and SAP Business Objects
This is a heterogeneous setup with
majority of SAP core systems on AIX
SAP Business Objects XI runs on
larger AIX LPAR for scaling while the
Business Objects end-user oriented
systems are consolidated in virtual
machines hosted on an x86 node
This scenario also outlines the
capability of IBM PureFlex System to
run x86 Linux and PowerLinux
distributions This applies to non-SAP
and many SAP components Inter-
system communication strongly takes
advantage of the internal networking
bandwidth of IBM PureFlex System
Figure 14 SAP Process Integration and SAP Business Objects
Figure 13 complementary components
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
27
5 Mixed system with SAP HANA = SAP Business Suite core applications deployed on
PureFlex nodes plus SAP HANA Appliances (= IBM Systems Solution for SAP Business
Suite and SAP HANA)
This setup makes use of the externalized IBM PureFlex System capabilities in shape of the IBM Systems Solution for SAP Business Suite and SAP HANA
Several core SAP applications are
deployed on internal POWER or x86
nodes and are complemented by an
external SAP HANA environment which is
being built of the x3950 X5 based standard
IBM appliance offering
This enables customers running SAP
HANA always to benefit from newest
certified System x HANA appliances and
operational improvements in that space
while creating administrative synergies
between the SAP HANA and traditional
SAP Business Suite infrastructure
Starting from physical integration today
the FlexSystem Manager will provide
integrated administrative capabilities
The IBM PureFlex system offers an
integrated infrastructure for all SAP
components SAP applications on
PureFlex System compute nodes may
access SAP HANA DB on IBM x3950 X5
servers as well as traditional data bases
(eg IBM DB2) running on PureFlex
System
Figure 15 SAP HANA Integration
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
28
High availability and disaster recovery
The single point of failures (SPOFs) for SAP systems stay untouched by the introduction of IBM PureFlex
System These are the database server and the central services for ABAP and Java including the enqueue
server
These SPOFs occur within each production SAP business component of the landscape that is multiple
clusters (such as ERP CRM SCM and so on) must be implemented
In addition central technical building blocks such as SAP Enterprise Portal (for user access) Process
Integration as Enterprise Service Bus need to be setup resilient
While the high availability and disaster recovery concepts for all these SPOFs are well known in general
they have not been tested in a special IBM PureFlex System environment at time of authoring this paper
As scenario 2 indicates multi-node databases like Oracle RAC are supported on IBM PureFlex System
Landscape monitoring and management
As the SAP landscapes tend to become a heterogeneous aggregation of servers and operating systems
this implies a certain level of complexity for SAP landscape administration Consolidating the SAP
landscape into an IBM PureFlex System with its consistent management capabilities helps to reduce this
complexity
The combination of the IBM PureFlex System and SAP NetWeaver technology offers multiple native
monitoring and administration layers for the complete hardware and software stack These are
Chassis Management Module
Flex System Management
SAP Computing Center Management System (SAP CCMS)
SAP Solution Manager
minus SAP Solution Manager aims at SAP application management and business key
performance indicator (KPI) monitoring but also is a mandatory tool for SAP
release and patch management
SAP NetWeaver Landscape Virtualization Management (LVM)
The IBM PureFlex System FSM and SAP LVM Enterprise are optional components the remaining ones
are part of virtualized base installation
In order to gain maximum efficiency for daily operations it is important to select the most appropriate tools
for specific administrative tasks and organizations In addition consistency and transparency need to be
maintained
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
29
The following table provides a high-level orientation for a selected set of administrator tasks in SAP
ecosystems
CMM FSM SAP LVM SAP CCMS SAP Solution Manager
Chassis topology view and administration
Through CMM
Virtualization metrics Through Flex System
Manager
Virtualization topology and administration
Through Flex System
Manager
OS DB SAP performance
Provisioning of a new virtual server Through Flex System
Manager
Virtual server start stop and live migration
Through Flex System
Manager
SAP service reallocation
SAP system refresh cloning
Alerting Chassis focus Systems focus
Task monitoring
OS DB SAP Base
Business KPIs
Integration to an upper-level enterprise management
Into Flex System
Manager
Into SAP Solution Manager
Table 6 monitoring and management layers
FSM is based on IBM Systems Director and provides comparable functions For POWER nodes FSM is
mandatory for advanced virtualization management As most of these functions are beneficial (if not
mandatory) for SAP (production) systems the FSM appears as an essential component for SAP on IBM
PureFlex environments
As a single point of control FSM provides a web-based interface to manage all aspects of the IBM
PureFlex System hardware components For example an interactive chassis map provides status
overview and serves as an entry point to manage the different resources Setup wizards guide you through
the process of initial setup and maintenance tasks
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
30
Figure 16 FSM chassis map
SAP CCMS is fully functional for IBM PureFlex System It allows monitoring and adjustment of base SAP
application and database settings Also PowerVM-specific metrics such as LPAR and WPAR resources
AME settings and so on can be accesses through the native SAP administrator GUI
IBM PureFlex System integration with SAP NetWeaver Landscape
Virtualization Management
The described cloud solution for SAP landscapes becomes available by a combination of the IBM FSM
capabilities and SAP NetWeaver Landscape Virtualization Management for automation tasks at the
application level
This solution enables common cloud scenarios with the SAP software stack and the underlying
infrastructure It aims to connect application management services with system virtualization and storage
management services It is a management tool for customers who run their SAP systems in their own data
center and want to become more efficient by automating provisioning and cloning tasks
Various scenarios around system copy and system refresh are supported including post-copy automation
Those labor-expensive tasks have been made easy with SAP Landscape Virtualization Management and
IBM PureFlex System
In more detail the following use cases are covered for cloud environments running SAP applications
Cloning of a SAP system (creating an identical copy in a fenced environment)
Creating an initial copy of a SAP system (with changing the SAP system identifier)
Refreshing a test SAP system with the content of a productive system
Automation of system copyrefresh post processing activities
Monitoring and visualization of virtualized SAP landscapes
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
31
SAP Landscape Virtualization Management is in many cases complementary to the inherent IBM PureFlex
System management layers SAP Landscape Virtualization Management enables access to many relevant
IBM PureFlex System and virtualization parameters to the SAP management software and provides IT
self-services to SAP administrators
The available IBM and SAP literature which describes the interaction of IBM Systems Director and SAP
Landscape Virtualization Management also applies to IBM PureFlex System FSM is the enriched IBM
Systems Director specifically optimized and packaged for IBM PureFlex System
IBM Tivoli Storage FlashCopy Manager adds a unique value for SAP landscapes This software enables
application-aware database-consistent online backups which can be used to create the cloned system By
exploiting storage snapshot techniques the backup is taken almost instantaneously
The solution has been developed as modular building blocks This provides a high degree of flexibility and
extensibility The following table shows the products and editions that are used for each scenario
Table 7 Use cases per management layer
Management components
SAP NetWeaver Landscape Virtualization Management 10 integrates with the following IBM
management products
IBM Flex System Manager
FSM is used for virtualization monitoring and management and for the operating system
provisioning scenarios on IBM PureFlex System
IBM Tivoli Storage FlashCopy Manager 3101
Tivoli Storage FlashCopy Manager is required for storage cloning of online SAP systems
System
monitoring
SAP
relocate
AIX
provisioning
SAP
Clone
SAP
Copy
SAP
Refresh
Flex
System
Manager
(not needed) (not needed) (not needed) (not needed)
FlashCopy
Manager
(not needed) (not needed) (not needed)
Storage any NFS GPFS
SVC V7000
or XIV
any SVC V7000
or XIV
SVC V7000
or XIV
SVC V7000
or XIV
SAP LVM Standard
Edition
Standard
Edition
Standard
Edition
Enterprise
Edition
Enterprise
Edition
Enterprise
Edition
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
32
The management products can be installed on a single AIX LPAR within IBM PureFlex System
Alternatively the products might be installed on different servers for example SAP NetWeaver
Landscape Virtualization Management may run on any of the supported SAP platforms
The following graphic shows a high-level view of how SAP Landscape Virtualization Management
integrates with the IBM PureFlex System FSM stack to enable cloud scenarios on this platform
Figure 17 SAP Landscape Virtualization Manager integration with FSM
Managed SAP landscape
The following IBM PureFlex System infrastructure is supported with SAP NetWeaver Landscape
Virtualization Management
IBM POWER nodes
AIX 61 or 71
IBM SAN Volume Controller IBM Storwize V7000 or IBM XIVreg Storage System1
SAP NetWeaver 7x using IBM DB2 for Linux UNIX and Windows Oracle Database or
SAP MaxDB is supported
1 SAN Volume Controller and Storwize V7000 support requires SAP Landscape Virtualization Management SP3
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
33
It is assumed that the storage is attached using single or dual VIOS (IBM PowerVM VIOS) For the
storage-cloning scenario the SAN storage system must be attached in the N_Port ID Virtualization
(NPIV) mode NPIV is a FC adapter (HBA) feature that allows multiple LPARs to share a physical port
The clone is created using the FlashCopy feature of the SAN Volume Controller or the snapshot
feature of the XIV Storage System These methods create a logical copy of the data volumes within
seconds while the SAP source system stays fully operational
Whenever an IBM PureFlex System environment needs to be integrated into an existing enterprise
monitoring and management solution (for example an existing IBM Systems Director hierarchy or the IBM
Tivoli Suite) FSM provides interfaces for seamless upward integration
Furthermore SAP Landscape Virtualization Management can be used to manage SAP landscapes within
and outside of IBM PureFlex System and also across different platforms
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
34
SAP-specific offerings for IBM PureFlex System
This section lists specific offerings for SAP on IBM PureFlex System
Lab services and IBM support
As capacity and capability of a larger IBM PureFlex System installation are comparable to large scale
UNIX or mainframe installations IBM provides hardware and software support beyond the standards of
commodity blade systems
Including three Global Centers of Competence IBM Maintenance and Technical Support Services provide
integrated support on the FSM-based environments when there is not a clear understanding of whether
there is a hardware or a software issue All of this can be backed up with the latest version of IBM
Electronic Service Agent trade which has been enhanced for IBM PureFlex System and proactively monitors
and reports hardware events back to IBM support Even if a client has a comprehensive in-house support
organization this can selectively be enhanced through the addition of specific services within the portfolio
to cover critical areas of weakness or exposure
For complex IBM PureFlex System environments and where mission-critical applications are deployed
(which applies to SAP production systems) premium services are available and cover
Enhanced technical support custom technical support
Microcode support managed technical support
Committed fix services
Availability management hard disk retention
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
35
Summary
This paper provides reference architectures of how heterogeneous SAP landscapes can be consolidated
using IBM PureFlex System While running the core business applications on POWER nodes with AIX as
operating system complementary SAP components are added on x86 nodes IBM PureFlex System
enables a very tight integration of infrastructure components including servers networking and storage
Seamless monitoring and management functions of the infrastructure are provided by the FSM
The integration aspect is taken even further with the integration of the SAP Landscape Virtualization
Manager application with the FSM This enables SAP cloud usage scenarios for SAP systems running on
IBM PureFlex System
For individual questions or to request a briefing about this topic contact the IBM SAP International
Competence Center at isiccdeibmcom
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
36
Resources
These websites provide useful references to supplement the information contained in this paper
IBM Systems on PartnerWorld
ibmcompartnerworldsystems
IBM Redbooks
ibmcomredbooks
IBM cloud computing
ibmcomsolutionssapusenlandingcloud_solutionshtml
IBM Cloud Solutions for SAP clients
ibmcomcloud-computingusen
IBM SmartCloud Entry for AIX on PartnerWorld (requires PartnerWorld login)
ibmcompartnerworldpagestg_com_sys_smartcloud
SAP HANA on workload optimized IBM System x appliances
ibmcomsolutionssaphana
IBM internal SSI-URL with a collection of SAP related PureSystem materials
httpsw3-
03ssoibmcomsalessupportShowDocwssdocid=SGDN258263T70735C63ampnode=brandsB6000|brandsBI5
00|clientsetIA|alliancesT5000|alliancesT5150|channelDR|channelF2F|solutionQ00|solution210ampappname=C
C_SSIGD
select the ldquoCollateralrdquo Tab in ldquoMain Contentrdquo section
Related SAP on PureFlex paper with System x focus ldquoReference Architecture - SAP
Systems on IBM PureSystems based on x86 nodesrdquo
httpw3ibmcomsupporttechdocsatsmastrnsfWebIndexWP102167
httpwwwibmcomsupporttechdocsatsmastrnsfWebIndexWP102167
httpwww-03ibmcompartnerworldpartnerinfosrcatsmastrnsfWebIndexWP102167
Related SAP on PureFlex paper with IBM i focus ldquoEfficiently deploying SAP landscapes
on the IBM PureFlex Systemrdquo
httpw3ibmcomsupporttechdocsatsmastrnsfWebIndexWP102087
httpwwwibmcomsupporttechdocsatsmastrnsfWebIndexWP102087
httpwww-03ibmcompartnerworldpartnerinfosrcatsmastrnsfWebIndexWP102087
Virtualization for SAP on IBM PureSystems with Microsoft Hyper-V
httpwwwibmcomsupporttechdocsatsmastrnsfWebIndexWP102153
IBM Workload Optimized Solution for SAP HANA ndash Quick Start Guide
provides technical overview HW models network requirements for IBM Systems Solution
for SAP HANA appliance
httpdownloadboulderibmcomibmdlpubsystemssupportsystem_x_pdf46w8274pdf
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
37
IBM internal SAP HANA Wiki
httpsw3-connectionsibmcomwikishomelang=en-
uswikiWaef4c0eb0f35_427f_a25e_670e392682b1pageSAP20HANA
FlexSystem with SAP BWA Presentations (click to open link)
Seller
Customer
General IBM Sales Kit ldquoSAP NetWeaver Business Warehouse Accelerator (BWA)rdquo
Implementation Guide for BWA on IBM Flex System x240
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
38
Trademarks and special notices
copy Copyright IBM Corporation 2013
References in this document to IBM products or services do not imply that IBM intends to make them
available in every country
IBM the IBM logo and ibmcom are trademarks or registered trademarks of International Business
Machines Corporation in the United States other countries or both If these and other IBM trademarked
terms are marked on their first occurrence in this information with a trademark symbol (reg or trade) these
symbols indicate US registered or common law trademarks owned by IBM at the time this information
was published Such trademarks may also be registered or common law trademarks in other countries A
current list of IBM trademarks is available on the Web at Copyright and trademark information at
wwwibmcomlegalcopytradeshtml
Java and all Java-based trademarks and logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of Oracle andor
its affiliates
Microsoft Windows Windows NT and the Windows logo are trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the
United States other countries or both
Intel Intel Inside (logos) MMX and Pentium are trademarks of Intel Corporation in the United States
other countries or both
UNIX is a registered trademark of The Open Group in the United States and other countries
Linux is a trademark of Linus Torvalds in the United States other countries or both
Other company product or service names may be trademarks or service marks of others
Information is provided AS IS without warranty of any kind
All customer examples described are presented as illustrations of how those customers have used IBM
products and the results they may have achieved Actual environmental costs and performance
characteristics may vary by customer
Information concerning non-IBM products was obtained from a supplier of these products published
announcement material or other publicly available sources and does not constitute an endorsement of
such products by IBM Sources for non-IBM list prices and performance numbers are taken from publicly
available information including vendor announcements and vendor worldwide homepages IBM has not
tested these products and cannot confirm the accuracy of performance capability or any other claims
related to non-IBM products Questions on the capability of non-IBM products should be addressed to the
supplier of those products
All statements regarding IBM future direction and intent are subject to change or withdrawal without notice
and represent goals and objectives only Contact your local IBM office or IBM authorized reseller for the
full text of the specific Statement of Direction
Some information addresses anticipated future capabilities Such information is not intended as a definitive
statement of a commitment to specific levels of performance function or delivery schedules with respect to
any future products Such commitments are only made in IBM product announcements The information is
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
39
presented here to communicate IBMs current investment and development activities as a good faith effort
to help with our customers future planning
Performance is based on measurements and projections using standard IBM benchmarks in a controlled
environment The actual throughput or performance that any user will experience will vary depending upon
considerations such as the amount of multiprogramming in the users job stream the IO configuration the
storage configuration and the workload processed Therefore no assurance can be given that an
individual user will achieve throughput or performance improvements equivalent to the ratios stated here
Photographs shown are of engineering prototypes Changes may be incorporated in production models
Any references in this information to non-IBM websites are provided for convenience only and do not in
any manner serve as an endorsement of those websites The materials at those websites are not part of
the materials for this IBM product and use of those websites is at your own risk
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
16
The Flex System V7000 management user interface (GUI) is compatible with the Storwize V7000 GUI
IBM PureFlex System and Storwize V7000
The Storwize V7000 storage can be connected to the IBM PureFlex System chassis either through
Fiber Channel (SAN) or through Ethernet (iSCSI) Both the connections provided block-level access to
the storage system
With IBM PureFlex System the test team recommends SAN access by using the IBM PureFlex
System integrated SAN switch where four FC connections are required to ensure multipathing More
connections are not required for connecting to a single chassis
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
17
Setting up a stretched cluster is not supported by the integrated V7000 SVC Customers will require a
traditional SVC to support such a resilient disk setup Of course other technologies like AIX LVM
mirroring Metro Mirror etc are supported
Configuration of Flex System V7000 and Storwize V7000
To gain maximum flexibility in respect to capacity utilization and performance workload balancing the
number of storage pools configured (Managed Disk Groups) should be as few as possible for a single
V7000 system (node pair) Depending on the performance requirement the use of Easy Tier in
combination with SSDs is recommended
A fully equipped chassis is capable to handle 300000 SAPS leading to a workload of approximately
100000 IOPS Assuming a storage demand of 100 TB usable results in the following
recommendation
24 SSD 25-inch 400 GB each plugged into the V7000 controller
Four expansion units each with 24 SAS drives 25-inch each 900 GB
One expansion unit 23 SAS drives 25-inch each 900 GB and 1 SSD 25 inches 400 GB
(spare)
RAIDs (Managed Disk) are configured as RAID 5 7+1
Total of 25 SSD and 119 SAS
Integration with existing SAP landscapes
The IBM PureFlex System chassis can be integrated into existing SAP landscapes Physically the IBM
PureFlex System chassis fits into any standard 19-inch rack which provides a minimum of 10 spare height
units Other non-IBM PureFlex System components can be housed within the same standard rack as long
as power distribution units provide sufficient energy A fully populated IBM PureFlex System chassis can
contain up to six 2500 watts energy supplies which can be configured for several redundancy modes
The Ethernet and FC switches provide connectivity to an existing network and storage infrastructure As
discussed in the previous section the IBM PureFlex System FC switch connects to existing SAN storage
solutions LPARs stored on the SAN can be migrated to an IBM PureFlex System POWER node by
assigning the disks to the IBM PureFlex System nodersquos VIOS and boot from those This allows very fast
migration of exiting SAP systems to IBM PureFlex System with minimal downtime
External SAN storage can be attached to a new PureFlex chassis in several ways Ideally external LUNs
are connected via the integrated V7000 SAN Volume Controller as managed disks Thus storage
administration can exploit SVC virtualization and management capabilities If latter is not a focus the
PureFlex FC-switches can be attached to existing SAN-fabrics using transparent NPIV mode see Figure
6 Storage vendors need to support this and storage SAN administration will be performed with native
vendor tools not via FSM
Tests have shown that IBM PowerVM Live Partition Mobility (LPM) is possible between nodes and
external systems given the network is set up appropriately This allows to migrate running LPARs from
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
18
discrete Power Systems to POWER nodes and to migrate from POWER nodes to discrete Power
Systems
The FSM administration layer can co-exist with already implemented cross-platform management solutions like eg the IBM Systems Director It also can become integrated with higher level enterprise service management software as a monitored and managed layer
Figure 7 integration of management components
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
19
Integration of SAP Appliance-based components
Certain SAP components are not available on all SAP supported operating systems and databases If
such components are required to support customersrsquo business processes they need to be installed on top
of a supported OS which is not necessarily the same location where the SAP core applications are stored
With IBM PureFlex System supporting both x86 and POWER processor-based operating systems those
complementary components can be tightly integrated into the landscape The required hardware
resources can be hosted within one IBM PureFlex System chassis Besides the compact server footprint in
the datacenter the internal network eliminates the need for network cables and switches to connect the
systems The IBM PureFlex System management provided by CMM and FSM reduces the complexity of
managing the heterogeneous environment
This allows the creation of a complete SAP landscape within a single box Core SAP Business Suite
components are running on the POWER nodes while complementary components such as SAP
Enterprise Search and SAP Business Warehouse Accelerator can run on x86 nodes
The IBM Systems Solution for SAP Business Suite and SAP HANA SAP HANA is the strategic in-memory
database by SAP AG to accelerate in particular business analytics but also transactional business In
order to achieve magnitudes of acceleration SAP HANA exploits specific design features of the Intel EX
processor architecture with optimized low-level coding Consequently SAP HANA is exclusively
supported on certified hardware using this processor type ndash for example IBM System x3950 X5
The IBM SAP HANA offering is a standardized portfolio of System x hardware (IBM Systems x3950 X5 -
7143-Hxx systems) with internal (SSD SAS) storage for data persistency plus software components and
surrounding services Exclusively Linux namely SLES 11 is supported as operating system
As of today such an appliance cannot be deployed on any compute node within the PureFlex chassis
Instead IBM x3950 X5 based SAP HANA building blocks may be installed into the same rack as the
PureFlex chassis and act as external HANA compute nodes Connection to both x86 and POWER based
internal compute nodes running standard SAP applications or complementary SAP HANA instances is
done via Ethernet through a TOR switch
A big advantage of re-using external technology is that well established and beneficial concepts can be 11
applied for PureFlex focused landscapes too As an excelling example IBM GPFS (General Parallel File
System) not only enables the IBM SAP HANA solution to grow beyond the capacity of a single system into
a scale-out solution but also adds high availability and disaster recovery features to the IBM HANA
appliance
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
20
The scope of the Flex System Manager has been extended to allow the integrated management of
PureFlex internal components and IBM x3950 X5 based SAP HANA building blocks
It provides administrative functions like
Manual discovery inventory
Release Management (FW and SW installation and update)
Power Control
Remote Access
System Configuration
System Health and Status
Service and Support
for workload optimized x3950 X5 SAP HANA appliances
Figure 8 FSM menu of external x3950 X5 based IBM SAP HANA appliances
The screenshot above shows external x3950 X5 nodes appearing on the FlexSystem Manager panel and
the applicable activities to be performed
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
21
From a hardware point-of-view IBM PureFlex Systems offer the administrative integration of the HANA
building blocks (T-shirt sizes) listed in Table 4They meet the SAP defined HANA sizing grid and do not
need to be purchased together with a PureFlex System This allows the integration of existing HANA
systems with a newly deployed PureFlex System at customer site
Building block
Server (MTM)
CPUs Main memory
S+ x3950 X5
(7143-HAx) 2x Intel Xeon
E7-8870 256 GB
M x3950 X5
(7143-HBx) 4x Intel Xeon
E7-8870 512 GB
L
x3950 X5 (7143HBx)
+ x3950 X5
(7143HCx)
8x Intel Xeon E7-8870
1024 GB
XM x3950 X5
(7143-HDx) 4x Intel Xeon
E7-8870 1TB
32x 32GB
XL x3950 X5
(7143-HDx + 7143-HEx)
8x Intel Xeon E7-8870
2TB 64x 32GB
XXL x3950 X5
(7143-HBx + 7143-HCx)
8x Intel Xeon E7-8870
4TB 128x 32GB
Table 4 IBM SAP HANA Appliance building blocks (June 2013)
This list will change pretty frequently as new models and HANA configurations will become supported
Therefore always check the SAP list of supported models in the SAP HANA PAM (requires authorization)
or consult an IBM Techline representative SAP technology and management components as well as
common operational functions like the Tivoli Storage Manager for BackupRestore of ERP and HANA may
be deployed on PureFlex compute nodes and act on both environments
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
22
Figure 9 Architecture of SAP Business Suite on PureFlex and SAP HANA on System x3950 X5 Workload Optimized Solution for SAP HANA
In case of IBM SAP HANA scale-out configurations the Integrated Management Module of x3950 X5
servers and the SAP HANA appliance related network interfaces (like SAP client access HANA Studio
ERP backup and restore HWSW-Admin) will be connected to the PureFlex Device Management and
Client Data network via Ethernet through TOR switches Such a scale-out configuration is deployed with
separate racks
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
23
Figure 10 SAP HANA Appliances with PureFlex Network Topology
Depended on the amount of external network connections single node IBM SAP HANA appliances may
be connected via available ports on integrated switches of the PureFlex chassis The single node SAP
HANA appliance could be deployed in the same rack with IBM PureFlex System
FlexSystem Native Node Support for SAP Business Warehouse Accelerator
The SAP Business Warehouse Accelerator (BWA) was the initial approach to accelerate OLAP workload
with a dedicated appliance attached to a SAP Business Warehouse system SAP BWA follows a ldquoplug amp
playrdquo design easier to implement than SAP HANA and has a longer history Hence SAP BWA still has a
broad installed base among SAP BI customers
SAP BWA has not been this highly optimized for the Intel EX-CPU type This fact allows deploying SAP
BWA appliances on XEON-based FlexSystem nodes running a SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 SP2
operating system
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
24
The ldquoIBM Flex System Solution for SAP NetWeaver Business Warehouse Acceleratorrdquo extends the
established IBM BladeCenter offerings for SAP BWA with scalable FlexSystem configurations comprising
of x240 compute nodes inside the Flex-chassis and externally attached IBM Storage Systems DS3500
This combination meets the SAP BWA appliance criteria while providing an excellent priceperformance
ratio
Table 5 FlexSystem building blocks for IBM SAP Business Warehouse Accelerator Appliances (August 2013)
As with the SAP BWA appliances based on IBM BladeCenter the IBM GPFS filesystem improves overall
IO performance data scalability and resiliency The building blocks have been pre-tested and optimized
to deliver easy integration and quick implementation Order and shipment processes of the pre-built
systems are identical to those of the traditional IBM BWA platforms
Since SAP BWA is an encapsulated appliance it cannot exploit all functionality provided by FSM for full
topology management Passive ndash in the sense of monitoring - functions like inventory system health
hardware service and support are applicable Dedicated BWA-FlexSystem chassis can be attached to
PureFlex systems hosting a SAP BI solution and monitored from there Performing active administrative
functions which may have an impact on the BWA configuration are not allowed however
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
25
SAP on AIX reference landscapes for IBM PureFlex System
1 Minimal system = ERP BW all on POWER nodes
This is the simplest case of deploying
core SAP components in an IBM
PureFlex System System All SAP
modules are supported on POWER and
either an AIX or PowerLinux OS Two
nodes for physical redundancy each with
PowerVM and VIO virtualization are
used
In order to make use of autonomous load
balancing by PowerVM it is
recommended to mix production and
nonproduction SAP instances within a
shared processor pool on each of the
single nodes SAP 2-tier deployments
need to be preferred for smaller systems
Consider packing non- production
systems into WPARs for less LPAR
complexity
2 3-tier SAP ERP with scale-out DB and application-server tier all on POWER nodes
This option combines DB scale-out with
an SAP 3-tier application-server scale
out The advantage of a multinode DB
is a hot-standby high availability
without DB downtime as with classical
cold-standby cluster solutions Also
both the nodes contribute to an
aggregate DB throughput when in
normal operation As such a setup
appears for business-critical scenarios
a hot-standby FSM appliance has also
been configured (planned in 2012)
This in any case ensures that the
overall system monitoring and
adjustment can take place
Figure 11 minimal system
Figure 12 scale-out database
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
26
3 Mixed system = SAP Business Suite core applications TREX and non-SAP applications
This setup makes use of the IBM
PureFlex System heterogeneous
capabilities While several core SAP
Business Suite applications stay on
POWER nodes they are now
complemented by SAP TREX and a
NetWeaver development
environment which are supported
only on an x86 architecture There
are more than these components
there are newer appliances such as
BWA and HANA which mandate
such a setup
Further applications can be
consolidated into the same IBM
PureFlex System chassis as well
4 SAP NetWeaver landscape = SAP Business Suite core applications SAP Enterprise Portal
SAP Process Integration (service bus) and SAP Business Objects
This is a heterogeneous setup with
majority of SAP core systems on AIX
SAP Business Objects XI runs on
larger AIX LPAR for scaling while the
Business Objects end-user oriented
systems are consolidated in virtual
machines hosted on an x86 node
This scenario also outlines the
capability of IBM PureFlex System to
run x86 Linux and PowerLinux
distributions This applies to non-SAP
and many SAP components Inter-
system communication strongly takes
advantage of the internal networking
bandwidth of IBM PureFlex System
Figure 14 SAP Process Integration and SAP Business Objects
Figure 13 complementary components
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
27
5 Mixed system with SAP HANA = SAP Business Suite core applications deployed on
PureFlex nodes plus SAP HANA Appliances (= IBM Systems Solution for SAP Business
Suite and SAP HANA)
This setup makes use of the externalized IBM PureFlex System capabilities in shape of the IBM Systems Solution for SAP Business Suite and SAP HANA
Several core SAP applications are
deployed on internal POWER or x86
nodes and are complemented by an
external SAP HANA environment which is
being built of the x3950 X5 based standard
IBM appliance offering
This enables customers running SAP
HANA always to benefit from newest
certified System x HANA appliances and
operational improvements in that space
while creating administrative synergies
between the SAP HANA and traditional
SAP Business Suite infrastructure
Starting from physical integration today
the FlexSystem Manager will provide
integrated administrative capabilities
The IBM PureFlex system offers an
integrated infrastructure for all SAP
components SAP applications on
PureFlex System compute nodes may
access SAP HANA DB on IBM x3950 X5
servers as well as traditional data bases
(eg IBM DB2) running on PureFlex
System
Figure 15 SAP HANA Integration
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
28
High availability and disaster recovery
The single point of failures (SPOFs) for SAP systems stay untouched by the introduction of IBM PureFlex
System These are the database server and the central services for ABAP and Java including the enqueue
server
These SPOFs occur within each production SAP business component of the landscape that is multiple
clusters (such as ERP CRM SCM and so on) must be implemented
In addition central technical building blocks such as SAP Enterprise Portal (for user access) Process
Integration as Enterprise Service Bus need to be setup resilient
While the high availability and disaster recovery concepts for all these SPOFs are well known in general
they have not been tested in a special IBM PureFlex System environment at time of authoring this paper
As scenario 2 indicates multi-node databases like Oracle RAC are supported on IBM PureFlex System
Landscape monitoring and management
As the SAP landscapes tend to become a heterogeneous aggregation of servers and operating systems
this implies a certain level of complexity for SAP landscape administration Consolidating the SAP
landscape into an IBM PureFlex System with its consistent management capabilities helps to reduce this
complexity
The combination of the IBM PureFlex System and SAP NetWeaver technology offers multiple native
monitoring and administration layers for the complete hardware and software stack These are
Chassis Management Module
Flex System Management
SAP Computing Center Management System (SAP CCMS)
SAP Solution Manager
minus SAP Solution Manager aims at SAP application management and business key
performance indicator (KPI) monitoring but also is a mandatory tool for SAP
release and patch management
SAP NetWeaver Landscape Virtualization Management (LVM)
The IBM PureFlex System FSM and SAP LVM Enterprise are optional components the remaining ones
are part of virtualized base installation
In order to gain maximum efficiency for daily operations it is important to select the most appropriate tools
for specific administrative tasks and organizations In addition consistency and transparency need to be
maintained
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
29
The following table provides a high-level orientation for a selected set of administrator tasks in SAP
ecosystems
CMM FSM SAP LVM SAP CCMS SAP Solution Manager
Chassis topology view and administration
Through CMM
Virtualization metrics Through Flex System
Manager
Virtualization topology and administration
Through Flex System
Manager
OS DB SAP performance
Provisioning of a new virtual server Through Flex System
Manager
Virtual server start stop and live migration
Through Flex System
Manager
SAP service reallocation
SAP system refresh cloning
Alerting Chassis focus Systems focus
Task monitoring
OS DB SAP Base
Business KPIs
Integration to an upper-level enterprise management
Into Flex System
Manager
Into SAP Solution Manager
Table 6 monitoring and management layers
FSM is based on IBM Systems Director and provides comparable functions For POWER nodes FSM is
mandatory for advanced virtualization management As most of these functions are beneficial (if not
mandatory) for SAP (production) systems the FSM appears as an essential component for SAP on IBM
PureFlex environments
As a single point of control FSM provides a web-based interface to manage all aspects of the IBM
PureFlex System hardware components For example an interactive chassis map provides status
overview and serves as an entry point to manage the different resources Setup wizards guide you through
the process of initial setup and maintenance tasks
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
30
Figure 16 FSM chassis map
SAP CCMS is fully functional for IBM PureFlex System It allows monitoring and adjustment of base SAP
application and database settings Also PowerVM-specific metrics such as LPAR and WPAR resources
AME settings and so on can be accesses through the native SAP administrator GUI
IBM PureFlex System integration with SAP NetWeaver Landscape
Virtualization Management
The described cloud solution for SAP landscapes becomes available by a combination of the IBM FSM
capabilities and SAP NetWeaver Landscape Virtualization Management for automation tasks at the
application level
This solution enables common cloud scenarios with the SAP software stack and the underlying
infrastructure It aims to connect application management services with system virtualization and storage
management services It is a management tool for customers who run their SAP systems in their own data
center and want to become more efficient by automating provisioning and cloning tasks
Various scenarios around system copy and system refresh are supported including post-copy automation
Those labor-expensive tasks have been made easy with SAP Landscape Virtualization Management and
IBM PureFlex System
In more detail the following use cases are covered for cloud environments running SAP applications
Cloning of a SAP system (creating an identical copy in a fenced environment)
Creating an initial copy of a SAP system (with changing the SAP system identifier)
Refreshing a test SAP system with the content of a productive system
Automation of system copyrefresh post processing activities
Monitoring and visualization of virtualized SAP landscapes
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
31
SAP Landscape Virtualization Management is in many cases complementary to the inherent IBM PureFlex
System management layers SAP Landscape Virtualization Management enables access to many relevant
IBM PureFlex System and virtualization parameters to the SAP management software and provides IT
self-services to SAP administrators
The available IBM and SAP literature which describes the interaction of IBM Systems Director and SAP
Landscape Virtualization Management also applies to IBM PureFlex System FSM is the enriched IBM
Systems Director specifically optimized and packaged for IBM PureFlex System
IBM Tivoli Storage FlashCopy Manager adds a unique value for SAP landscapes This software enables
application-aware database-consistent online backups which can be used to create the cloned system By
exploiting storage snapshot techniques the backup is taken almost instantaneously
The solution has been developed as modular building blocks This provides a high degree of flexibility and
extensibility The following table shows the products and editions that are used for each scenario
Table 7 Use cases per management layer
Management components
SAP NetWeaver Landscape Virtualization Management 10 integrates with the following IBM
management products
IBM Flex System Manager
FSM is used for virtualization monitoring and management and for the operating system
provisioning scenarios on IBM PureFlex System
IBM Tivoli Storage FlashCopy Manager 3101
Tivoli Storage FlashCopy Manager is required for storage cloning of online SAP systems
System
monitoring
SAP
relocate
AIX
provisioning
SAP
Clone
SAP
Copy
SAP
Refresh
Flex
System
Manager
(not needed) (not needed) (not needed) (not needed)
FlashCopy
Manager
(not needed) (not needed) (not needed)
Storage any NFS GPFS
SVC V7000
or XIV
any SVC V7000
or XIV
SVC V7000
or XIV
SVC V7000
or XIV
SAP LVM Standard
Edition
Standard
Edition
Standard
Edition
Enterprise
Edition
Enterprise
Edition
Enterprise
Edition
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
32
The management products can be installed on a single AIX LPAR within IBM PureFlex System
Alternatively the products might be installed on different servers for example SAP NetWeaver
Landscape Virtualization Management may run on any of the supported SAP platforms
The following graphic shows a high-level view of how SAP Landscape Virtualization Management
integrates with the IBM PureFlex System FSM stack to enable cloud scenarios on this platform
Figure 17 SAP Landscape Virtualization Manager integration with FSM
Managed SAP landscape
The following IBM PureFlex System infrastructure is supported with SAP NetWeaver Landscape
Virtualization Management
IBM POWER nodes
AIX 61 or 71
IBM SAN Volume Controller IBM Storwize V7000 or IBM XIVreg Storage System1
SAP NetWeaver 7x using IBM DB2 for Linux UNIX and Windows Oracle Database or
SAP MaxDB is supported
1 SAN Volume Controller and Storwize V7000 support requires SAP Landscape Virtualization Management SP3
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
33
It is assumed that the storage is attached using single or dual VIOS (IBM PowerVM VIOS) For the
storage-cloning scenario the SAN storage system must be attached in the N_Port ID Virtualization
(NPIV) mode NPIV is a FC adapter (HBA) feature that allows multiple LPARs to share a physical port
The clone is created using the FlashCopy feature of the SAN Volume Controller or the snapshot
feature of the XIV Storage System These methods create a logical copy of the data volumes within
seconds while the SAP source system stays fully operational
Whenever an IBM PureFlex System environment needs to be integrated into an existing enterprise
monitoring and management solution (for example an existing IBM Systems Director hierarchy or the IBM
Tivoli Suite) FSM provides interfaces for seamless upward integration
Furthermore SAP Landscape Virtualization Management can be used to manage SAP landscapes within
and outside of IBM PureFlex System and also across different platforms
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
34
SAP-specific offerings for IBM PureFlex System
This section lists specific offerings for SAP on IBM PureFlex System
Lab services and IBM support
As capacity and capability of a larger IBM PureFlex System installation are comparable to large scale
UNIX or mainframe installations IBM provides hardware and software support beyond the standards of
commodity blade systems
Including three Global Centers of Competence IBM Maintenance and Technical Support Services provide
integrated support on the FSM-based environments when there is not a clear understanding of whether
there is a hardware or a software issue All of this can be backed up with the latest version of IBM
Electronic Service Agent trade which has been enhanced for IBM PureFlex System and proactively monitors
and reports hardware events back to IBM support Even if a client has a comprehensive in-house support
organization this can selectively be enhanced through the addition of specific services within the portfolio
to cover critical areas of weakness or exposure
For complex IBM PureFlex System environments and where mission-critical applications are deployed
(which applies to SAP production systems) premium services are available and cover
Enhanced technical support custom technical support
Microcode support managed technical support
Committed fix services
Availability management hard disk retention
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
35
Summary
This paper provides reference architectures of how heterogeneous SAP landscapes can be consolidated
using IBM PureFlex System While running the core business applications on POWER nodes with AIX as
operating system complementary SAP components are added on x86 nodes IBM PureFlex System
enables a very tight integration of infrastructure components including servers networking and storage
Seamless monitoring and management functions of the infrastructure are provided by the FSM
The integration aspect is taken even further with the integration of the SAP Landscape Virtualization
Manager application with the FSM This enables SAP cloud usage scenarios for SAP systems running on
IBM PureFlex System
For individual questions or to request a briefing about this topic contact the IBM SAP International
Competence Center at isiccdeibmcom
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
36
Resources
These websites provide useful references to supplement the information contained in this paper
IBM Systems on PartnerWorld
ibmcompartnerworldsystems
IBM Redbooks
ibmcomredbooks
IBM cloud computing
ibmcomsolutionssapusenlandingcloud_solutionshtml
IBM Cloud Solutions for SAP clients
ibmcomcloud-computingusen
IBM SmartCloud Entry for AIX on PartnerWorld (requires PartnerWorld login)
ibmcompartnerworldpagestg_com_sys_smartcloud
SAP HANA on workload optimized IBM System x appliances
ibmcomsolutionssaphana
IBM internal SSI-URL with a collection of SAP related PureSystem materials
httpsw3-
03ssoibmcomsalessupportShowDocwssdocid=SGDN258263T70735C63ampnode=brandsB6000|brandsBI5
00|clientsetIA|alliancesT5000|alliancesT5150|channelDR|channelF2F|solutionQ00|solution210ampappname=C
C_SSIGD
select the ldquoCollateralrdquo Tab in ldquoMain Contentrdquo section
Related SAP on PureFlex paper with System x focus ldquoReference Architecture - SAP
Systems on IBM PureSystems based on x86 nodesrdquo
httpw3ibmcomsupporttechdocsatsmastrnsfWebIndexWP102167
httpwwwibmcomsupporttechdocsatsmastrnsfWebIndexWP102167
httpwww-03ibmcompartnerworldpartnerinfosrcatsmastrnsfWebIndexWP102167
Related SAP on PureFlex paper with IBM i focus ldquoEfficiently deploying SAP landscapes
on the IBM PureFlex Systemrdquo
httpw3ibmcomsupporttechdocsatsmastrnsfWebIndexWP102087
httpwwwibmcomsupporttechdocsatsmastrnsfWebIndexWP102087
httpwww-03ibmcompartnerworldpartnerinfosrcatsmastrnsfWebIndexWP102087
Virtualization for SAP on IBM PureSystems with Microsoft Hyper-V
httpwwwibmcomsupporttechdocsatsmastrnsfWebIndexWP102153
IBM Workload Optimized Solution for SAP HANA ndash Quick Start Guide
provides technical overview HW models network requirements for IBM Systems Solution
for SAP HANA appliance
httpdownloadboulderibmcomibmdlpubsystemssupportsystem_x_pdf46w8274pdf
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
37
IBM internal SAP HANA Wiki
httpsw3-connectionsibmcomwikishomelang=en-
uswikiWaef4c0eb0f35_427f_a25e_670e392682b1pageSAP20HANA
FlexSystem with SAP BWA Presentations (click to open link)
Seller
Customer
General IBM Sales Kit ldquoSAP NetWeaver Business Warehouse Accelerator (BWA)rdquo
Implementation Guide for BWA on IBM Flex System x240
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
38
Trademarks and special notices
copy Copyright IBM Corporation 2013
References in this document to IBM products or services do not imply that IBM intends to make them
available in every country
IBM the IBM logo and ibmcom are trademarks or registered trademarks of International Business
Machines Corporation in the United States other countries or both If these and other IBM trademarked
terms are marked on their first occurrence in this information with a trademark symbol (reg or trade) these
symbols indicate US registered or common law trademarks owned by IBM at the time this information
was published Such trademarks may also be registered or common law trademarks in other countries A
current list of IBM trademarks is available on the Web at Copyright and trademark information at
wwwibmcomlegalcopytradeshtml
Java and all Java-based trademarks and logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of Oracle andor
its affiliates
Microsoft Windows Windows NT and the Windows logo are trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the
United States other countries or both
Intel Intel Inside (logos) MMX and Pentium are trademarks of Intel Corporation in the United States
other countries or both
UNIX is a registered trademark of The Open Group in the United States and other countries
Linux is a trademark of Linus Torvalds in the United States other countries or both
Other company product or service names may be trademarks or service marks of others
Information is provided AS IS without warranty of any kind
All customer examples described are presented as illustrations of how those customers have used IBM
products and the results they may have achieved Actual environmental costs and performance
characteristics may vary by customer
Information concerning non-IBM products was obtained from a supplier of these products published
announcement material or other publicly available sources and does not constitute an endorsement of
such products by IBM Sources for non-IBM list prices and performance numbers are taken from publicly
available information including vendor announcements and vendor worldwide homepages IBM has not
tested these products and cannot confirm the accuracy of performance capability or any other claims
related to non-IBM products Questions on the capability of non-IBM products should be addressed to the
supplier of those products
All statements regarding IBM future direction and intent are subject to change or withdrawal without notice
and represent goals and objectives only Contact your local IBM office or IBM authorized reseller for the
full text of the specific Statement of Direction
Some information addresses anticipated future capabilities Such information is not intended as a definitive
statement of a commitment to specific levels of performance function or delivery schedules with respect to
any future products Such commitments are only made in IBM product announcements The information is
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
39
presented here to communicate IBMs current investment and development activities as a good faith effort
to help with our customers future planning
Performance is based on measurements and projections using standard IBM benchmarks in a controlled
environment The actual throughput or performance that any user will experience will vary depending upon
considerations such as the amount of multiprogramming in the users job stream the IO configuration the
storage configuration and the workload processed Therefore no assurance can be given that an
individual user will achieve throughput or performance improvements equivalent to the ratios stated here
Photographs shown are of engineering prototypes Changes may be incorporated in production models
Any references in this information to non-IBM websites are provided for convenience only and do not in
any manner serve as an endorsement of those websites The materials at those websites are not part of
the materials for this IBM product and use of those websites is at your own risk
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
17
Setting up a stretched cluster is not supported by the integrated V7000 SVC Customers will require a
traditional SVC to support such a resilient disk setup Of course other technologies like AIX LVM
mirroring Metro Mirror etc are supported
Configuration of Flex System V7000 and Storwize V7000
To gain maximum flexibility in respect to capacity utilization and performance workload balancing the
number of storage pools configured (Managed Disk Groups) should be as few as possible for a single
V7000 system (node pair) Depending on the performance requirement the use of Easy Tier in
combination with SSDs is recommended
A fully equipped chassis is capable to handle 300000 SAPS leading to a workload of approximately
100000 IOPS Assuming a storage demand of 100 TB usable results in the following
recommendation
24 SSD 25-inch 400 GB each plugged into the V7000 controller
Four expansion units each with 24 SAS drives 25-inch each 900 GB
One expansion unit 23 SAS drives 25-inch each 900 GB and 1 SSD 25 inches 400 GB
(spare)
RAIDs (Managed Disk) are configured as RAID 5 7+1
Total of 25 SSD and 119 SAS
Integration with existing SAP landscapes
The IBM PureFlex System chassis can be integrated into existing SAP landscapes Physically the IBM
PureFlex System chassis fits into any standard 19-inch rack which provides a minimum of 10 spare height
units Other non-IBM PureFlex System components can be housed within the same standard rack as long
as power distribution units provide sufficient energy A fully populated IBM PureFlex System chassis can
contain up to six 2500 watts energy supplies which can be configured for several redundancy modes
The Ethernet and FC switches provide connectivity to an existing network and storage infrastructure As
discussed in the previous section the IBM PureFlex System FC switch connects to existing SAN storage
solutions LPARs stored on the SAN can be migrated to an IBM PureFlex System POWER node by
assigning the disks to the IBM PureFlex System nodersquos VIOS and boot from those This allows very fast
migration of exiting SAP systems to IBM PureFlex System with minimal downtime
External SAN storage can be attached to a new PureFlex chassis in several ways Ideally external LUNs
are connected via the integrated V7000 SAN Volume Controller as managed disks Thus storage
administration can exploit SVC virtualization and management capabilities If latter is not a focus the
PureFlex FC-switches can be attached to existing SAN-fabrics using transparent NPIV mode see Figure
6 Storage vendors need to support this and storage SAN administration will be performed with native
vendor tools not via FSM
Tests have shown that IBM PowerVM Live Partition Mobility (LPM) is possible between nodes and
external systems given the network is set up appropriately This allows to migrate running LPARs from
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
18
discrete Power Systems to POWER nodes and to migrate from POWER nodes to discrete Power
Systems
The FSM administration layer can co-exist with already implemented cross-platform management solutions like eg the IBM Systems Director It also can become integrated with higher level enterprise service management software as a monitored and managed layer
Figure 7 integration of management components
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
19
Integration of SAP Appliance-based components
Certain SAP components are not available on all SAP supported operating systems and databases If
such components are required to support customersrsquo business processes they need to be installed on top
of a supported OS which is not necessarily the same location where the SAP core applications are stored
With IBM PureFlex System supporting both x86 and POWER processor-based operating systems those
complementary components can be tightly integrated into the landscape The required hardware
resources can be hosted within one IBM PureFlex System chassis Besides the compact server footprint in
the datacenter the internal network eliminates the need for network cables and switches to connect the
systems The IBM PureFlex System management provided by CMM and FSM reduces the complexity of
managing the heterogeneous environment
This allows the creation of a complete SAP landscape within a single box Core SAP Business Suite
components are running on the POWER nodes while complementary components such as SAP
Enterprise Search and SAP Business Warehouse Accelerator can run on x86 nodes
The IBM Systems Solution for SAP Business Suite and SAP HANA SAP HANA is the strategic in-memory
database by SAP AG to accelerate in particular business analytics but also transactional business In
order to achieve magnitudes of acceleration SAP HANA exploits specific design features of the Intel EX
processor architecture with optimized low-level coding Consequently SAP HANA is exclusively
supported on certified hardware using this processor type ndash for example IBM System x3950 X5
The IBM SAP HANA offering is a standardized portfolio of System x hardware (IBM Systems x3950 X5 -
7143-Hxx systems) with internal (SSD SAS) storage for data persistency plus software components and
surrounding services Exclusively Linux namely SLES 11 is supported as operating system
As of today such an appliance cannot be deployed on any compute node within the PureFlex chassis
Instead IBM x3950 X5 based SAP HANA building blocks may be installed into the same rack as the
PureFlex chassis and act as external HANA compute nodes Connection to both x86 and POWER based
internal compute nodes running standard SAP applications or complementary SAP HANA instances is
done via Ethernet through a TOR switch
A big advantage of re-using external technology is that well established and beneficial concepts can be 11
applied for PureFlex focused landscapes too As an excelling example IBM GPFS (General Parallel File
System) not only enables the IBM SAP HANA solution to grow beyond the capacity of a single system into
a scale-out solution but also adds high availability and disaster recovery features to the IBM HANA
appliance
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
20
The scope of the Flex System Manager has been extended to allow the integrated management of
PureFlex internal components and IBM x3950 X5 based SAP HANA building blocks
It provides administrative functions like
Manual discovery inventory
Release Management (FW and SW installation and update)
Power Control
Remote Access
System Configuration
System Health and Status
Service and Support
for workload optimized x3950 X5 SAP HANA appliances
Figure 8 FSM menu of external x3950 X5 based IBM SAP HANA appliances
The screenshot above shows external x3950 X5 nodes appearing on the FlexSystem Manager panel and
the applicable activities to be performed
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
21
From a hardware point-of-view IBM PureFlex Systems offer the administrative integration of the HANA
building blocks (T-shirt sizes) listed in Table 4They meet the SAP defined HANA sizing grid and do not
need to be purchased together with a PureFlex System This allows the integration of existing HANA
systems with a newly deployed PureFlex System at customer site
Building block
Server (MTM)
CPUs Main memory
S+ x3950 X5
(7143-HAx) 2x Intel Xeon
E7-8870 256 GB
M x3950 X5
(7143-HBx) 4x Intel Xeon
E7-8870 512 GB
L
x3950 X5 (7143HBx)
+ x3950 X5
(7143HCx)
8x Intel Xeon E7-8870
1024 GB
XM x3950 X5
(7143-HDx) 4x Intel Xeon
E7-8870 1TB
32x 32GB
XL x3950 X5
(7143-HDx + 7143-HEx)
8x Intel Xeon E7-8870
2TB 64x 32GB
XXL x3950 X5
(7143-HBx + 7143-HCx)
8x Intel Xeon E7-8870
4TB 128x 32GB
Table 4 IBM SAP HANA Appliance building blocks (June 2013)
This list will change pretty frequently as new models and HANA configurations will become supported
Therefore always check the SAP list of supported models in the SAP HANA PAM (requires authorization)
or consult an IBM Techline representative SAP technology and management components as well as
common operational functions like the Tivoli Storage Manager for BackupRestore of ERP and HANA may
be deployed on PureFlex compute nodes and act on both environments
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
22
Figure 9 Architecture of SAP Business Suite on PureFlex and SAP HANA on System x3950 X5 Workload Optimized Solution for SAP HANA
In case of IBM SAP HANA scale-out configurations the Integrated Management Module of x3950 X5
servers and the SAP HANA appliance related network interfaces (like SAP client access HANA Studio
ERP backup and restore HWSW-Admin) will be connected to the PureFlex Device Management and
Client Data network via Ethernet through TOR switches Such a scale-out configuration is deployed with
separate racks
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
23
Figure 10 SAP HANA Appliances with PureFlex Network Topology
Depended on the amount of external network connections single node IBM SAP HANA appliances may
be connected via available ports on integrated switches of the PureFlex chassis The single node SAP
HANA appliance could be deployed in the same rack with IBM PureFlex System
FlexSystem Native Node Support for SAP Business Warehouse Accelerator
The SAP Business Warehouse Accelerator (BWA) was the initial approach to accelerate OLAP workload
with a dedicated appliance attached to a SAP Business Warehouse system SAP BWA follows a ldquoplug amp
playrdquo design easier to implement than SAP HANA and has a longer history Hence SAP BWA still has a
broad installed base among SAP BI customers
SAP BWA has not been this highly optimized for the Intel EX-CPU type This fact allows deploying SAP
BWA appliances on XEON-based FlexSystem nodes running a SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 SP2
operating system
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
24
The ldquoIBM Flex System Solution for SAP NetWeaver Business Warehouse Acceleratorrdquo extends the
established IBM BladeCenter offerings for SAP BWA with scalable FlexSystem configurations comprising
of x240 compute nodes inside the Flex-chassis and externally attached IBM Storage Systems DS3500
This combination meets the SAP BWA appliance criteria while providing an excellent priceperformance
ratio
Table 5 FlexSystem building blocks for IBM SAP Business Warehouse Accelerator Appliances (August 2013)
As with the SAP BWA appliances based on IBM BladeCenter the IBM GPFS filesystem improves overall
IO performance data scalability and resiliency The building blocks have been pre-tested and optimized
to deliver easy integration and quick implementation Order and shipment processes of the pre-built
systems are identical to those of the traditional IBM BWA platforms
Since SAP BWA is an encapsulated appliance it cannot exploit all functionality provided by FSM for full
topology management Passive ndash in the sense of monitoring - functions like inventory system health
hardware service and support are applicable Dedicated BWA-FlexSystem chassis can be attached to
PureFlex systems hosting a SAP BI solution and monitored from there Performing active administrative
functions which may have an impact on the BWA configuration are not allowed however
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
25
SAP on AIX reference landscapes for IBM PureFlex System
1 Minimal system = ERP BW all on POWER nodes
This is the simplest case of deploying
core SAP components in an IBM
PureFlex System System All SAP
modules are supported on POWER and
either an AIX or PowerLinux OS Two
nodes for physical redundancy each with
PowerVM and VIO virtualization are
used
In order to make use of autonomous load
balancing by PowerVM it is
recommended to mix production and
nonproduction SAP instances within a
shared processor pool on each of the
single nodes SAP 2-tier deployments
need to be preferred for smaller systems
Consider packing non- production
systems into WPARs for less LPAR
complexity
2 3-tier SAP ERP with scale-out DB and application-server tier all on POWER nodes
This option combines DB scale-out with
an SAP 3-tier application-server scale
out The advantage of a multinode DB
is a hot-standby high availability
without DB downtime as with classical
cold-standby cluster solutions Also
both the nodes contribute to an
aggregate DB throughput when in
normal operation As such a setup
appears for business-critical scenarios
a hot-standby FSM appliance has also
been configured (planned in 2012)
This in any case ensures that the
overall system monitoring and
adjustment can take place
Figure 11 minimal system
Figure 12 scale-out database
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
26
3 Mixed system = SAP Business Suite core applications TREX and non-SAP applications
This setup makes use of the IBM
PureFlex System heterogeneous
capabilities While several core SAP
Business Suite applications stay on
POWER nodes they are now
complemented by SAP TREX and a
NetWeaver development
environment which are supported
only on an x86 architecture There
are more than these components
there are newer appliances such as
BWA and HANA which mandate
such a setup
Further applications can be
consolidated into the same IBM
PureFlex System chassis as well
4 SAP NetWeaver landscape = SAP Business Suite core applications SAP Enterprise Portal
SAP Process Integration (service bus) and SAP Business Objects
This is a heterogeneous setup with
majority of SAP core systems on AIX
SAP Business Objects XI runs on
larger AIX LPAR for scaling while the
Business Objects end-user oriented
systems are consolidated in virtual
machines hosted on an x86 node
This scenario also outlines the
capability of IBM PureFlex System to
run x86 Linux and PowerLinux
distributions This applies to non-SAP
and many SAP components Inter-
system communication strongly takes
advantage of the internal networking
bandwidth of IBM PureFlex System
Figure 14 SAP Process Integration and SAP Business Objects
Figure 13 complementary components
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
27
5 Mixed system with SAP HANA = SAP Business Suite core applications deployed on
PureFlex nodes plus SAP HANA Appliances (= IBM Systems Solution for SAP Business
Suite and SAP HANA)
This setup makes use of the externalized IBM PureFlex System capabilities in shape of the IBM Systems Solution for SAP Business Suite and SAP HANA
Several core SAP applications are
deployed on internal POWER or x86
nodes and are complemented by an
external SAP HANA environment which is
being built of the x3950 X5 based standard
IBM appliance offering
This enables customers running SAP
HANA always to benefit from newest
certified System x HANA appliances and
operational improvements in that space
while creating administrative synergies
between the SAP HANA and traditional
SAP Business Suite infrastructure
Starting from physical integration today
the FlexSystem Manager will provide
integrated administrative capabilities
The IBM PureFlex system offers an
integrated infrastructure for all SAP
components SAP applications on
PureFlex System compute nodes may
access SAP HANA DB on IBM x3950 X5
servers as well as traditional data bases
(eg IBM DB2) running on PureFlex
System
Figure 15 SAP HANA Integration
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
28
High availability and disaster recovery
The single point of failures (SPOFs) for SAP systems stay untouched by the introduction of IBM PureFlex
System These are the database server and the central services for ABAP and Java including the enqueue
server
These SPOFs occur within each production SAP business component of the landscape that is multiple
clusters (such as ERP CRM SCM and so on) must be implemented
In addition central technical building blocks such as SAP Enterprise Portal (for user access) Process
Integration as Enterprise Service Bus need to be setup resilient
While the high availability and disaster recovery concepts for all these SPOFs are well known in general
they have not been tested in a special IBM PureFlex System environment at time of authoring this paper
As scenario 2 indicates multi-node databases like Oracle RAC are supported on IBM PureFlex System
Landscape monitoring and management
As the SAP landscapes tend to become a heterogeneous aggregation of servers and operating systems
this implies a certain level of complexity for SAP landscape administration Consolidating the SAP
landscape into an IBM PureFlex System with its consistent management capabilities helps to reduce this
complexity
The combination of the IBM PureFlex System and SAP NetWeaver technology offers multiple native
monitoring and administration layers for the complete hardware and software stack These are
Chassis Management Module
Flex System Management
SAP Computing Center Management System (SAP CCMS)
SAP Solution Manager
minus SAP Solution Manager aims at SAP application management and business key
performance indicator (KPI) monitoring but also is a mandatory tool for SAP
release and patch management
SAP NetWeaver Landscape Virtualization Management (LVM)
The IBM PureFlex System FSM and SAP LVM Enterprise are optional components the remaining ones
are part of virtualized base installation
In order to gain maximum efficiency for daily operations it is important to select the most appropriate tools
for specific administrative tasks and organizations In addition consistency and transparency need to be
maintained
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
29
The following table provides a high-level orientation for a selected set of administrator tasks in SAP
ecosystems
CMM FSM SAP LVM SAP CCMS SAP Solution Manager
Chassis topology view and administration
Through CMM
Virtualization metrics Through Flex System
Manager
Virtualization topology and administration
Through Flex System
Manager
OS DB SAP performance
Provisioning of a new virtual server Through Flex System
Manager
Virtual server start stop and live migration
Through Flex System
Manager
SAP service reallocation
SAP system refresh cloning
Alerting Chassis focus Systems focus
Task monitoring
OS DB SAP Base
Business KPIs
Integration to an upper-level enterprise management
Into Flex System
Manager
Into SAP Solution Manager
Table 6 monitoring and management layers
FSM is based on IBM Systems Director and provides comparable functions For POWER nodes FSM is
mandatory for advanced virtualization management As most of these functions are beneficial (if not
mandatory) for SAP (production) systems the FSM appears as an essential component for SAP on IBM
PureFlex environments
As a single point of control FSM provides a web-based interface to manage all aspects of the IBM
PureFlex System hardware components For example an interactive chassis map provides status
overview and serves as an entry point to manage the different resources Setup wizards guide you through
the process of initial setup and maintenance tasks
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
30
Figure 16 FSM chassis map
SAP CCMS is fully functional for IBM PureFlex System It allows monitoring and adjustment of base SAP
application and database settings Also PowerVM-specific metrics such as LPAR and WPAR resources
AME settings and so on can be accesses through the native SAP administrator GUI
IBM PureFlex System integration with SAP NetWeaver Landscape
Virtualization Management
The described cloud solution for SAP landscapes becomes available by a combination of the IBM FSM
capabilities and SAP NetWeaver Landscape Virtualization Management for automation tasks at the
application level
This solution enables common cloud scenarios with the SAP software stack and the underlying
infrastructure It aims to connect application management services with system virtualization and storage
management services It is a management tool for customers who run their SAP systems in their own data
center and want to become more efficient by automating provisioning and cloning tasks
Various scenarios around system copy and system refresh are supported including post-copy automation
Those labor-expensive tasks have been made easy with SAP Landscape Virtualization Management and
IBM PureFlex System
In more detail the following use cases are covered for cloud environments running SAP applications
Cloning of a SAP system (creating an identical copy in a fenced environment)
Creating an initial copy of a SAP system (with changing the SAP system identifier)
Refreshing a test SAP system with the content of a productive system
Automation of system copyrefresh post processing activities
Monitoring and visualization of virtualized SAP landscapes
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
31
SAP Landscape Virtualization Management is in many cases complementary to the inherent IBM PureFlex
System management layers SAP Landscape Virtualization Management enables access to many relevant
IBM PureFlex System and virtualization parameters to the SAP management software and provides IT
self-services to SAP administrators
The available IBM and SAP literature which describes the interaction of IBM Systems Director and SAP
Landscape Virtualization Management also applies to IBM PureFlex System FSM is the enriched IBM
Systems Director specifically optimized and packaged for IBM PureFlex System
IBM Tivoli Storage FlashCopy Manager adds a unique value for SAP landscapes This software enables
application-aware database-consistent online backups which can be used to create the cloned system By
exploiting storage snapshot techniques the backup is taken almost instantaneously
The solution has been developed as modular building blocks This provides a high degree of flexibility and
extensibility The following table shows the products and editions that are used for each scenario
Table 7 Use cases per management layer
Management components
SAP NetWeaver Landscape Virtualization Management 10 integrates with the following IBM
management products
IBM Flex System Manager
FSM is used for virtualization monitoring and management and for the operating system
provisioning scenarios on IBM PureFlex System
IBM Tivoli Storage FlashCopy Manager 3101
Tivoli Storage FlashCopy Manager is required for storage cloning of online SAP systems
System
monitoring
SAP
relocate
AIX
provisioning
SAP
Clone
SAP
Copy
SAP
Refresh
Flex
System
Manager
(not needed) (not needed) (not needed) (not needed)
FlashCopy
Manager
(not needed) (not needed) (not needed)
Storage any NFS GPFS
SVC V7000
or XIV
any SVC V7000
or XIV
SVC V7000
or XIV
SVC V7000
or XIV
SAP LVM Standard
Edition
Standard
Edition
Standard
Edition
Enterprise
Edition
Enterprise
Edition
Enterprise
Edition
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
32
The management products can be installed on a single AIX LPAR within IBM PureFlex System
Alternatively the products might be installed on different servers for example SAP NetWeaver
Landscape Virtualization Management may run on any of the supported SAP platforms
The following graphic shows a high-level view of how SAP Landscape Virtualization Management
integrates with the IBM PureFlex System FSM stack to enable cloud scenarios on this platform
Figure 17 SAP Landscape Virtualization Manager integration with FSM
Managed SAP landscape
The following IBM PureFlex System infrastructure is supported with SAP NetWeaver Landscape
Virtualization Management
IBM POWER nodes
AIX 61 or 71
IBM SAN Volume Controller IBM Storwize V7000 or IBM XIVreg Storage System1
SAP NetWeaver 7x using IBM DB2 for Linux UNIX and Windows Oracle Database or
SAP MaxDB is supported
1 SAN Volume Controller and Storwize V7000 support requires SAP Landscape Virtualization Management SP3
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
33
It is assumed that the storage is attached using single or dual VIOS (IBM PowerVM VIOS) For the
storage-cloning scenario the SAN storage system must be attached in the N_Port ID Virtualization
(NPIV) mode NPIV is a FC adapter (HBA) feature that allows multiple LPARs to share a physical port
The clone is created using the FlashCopy feature of the SAN Volume Controller or the snapshot
feature of the XIV Storage System These methods create a logical copy of the data volumes within
seconds while the SAP source system stays fully operational
Whenever an IBM PureFlex System environment needs to be integrated into an existing enterprise
monitoring and management solution (for example an existing IBM Systems Director hierarchy or the IBM
Tivoli Suite) FSM provides interfaces for seamless upward integration
Furthermore SAP Landscape Virtualization Management can be used to manage SAP landscapes within
and outside of IBM PureFlex System and also across different platforms
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
34
SAP-specific offerings for IBM PureFlex System
This section lists specific offerings for SAP on IBM PureFlex System
Lab services and IBM support
As capacity and capability of a larger IBM PureFlex System installation are comparable to large scale
UNIX or mainframe installations IBM provides hardware and software support beyond the standards of
commodity blade systems
Including three Global Centers of Competence IBM Maintenance and Technical Support Services provide
integrated support on the FSM-based environments when there is not a clear understanding of whether
there is a hardware or a software issue All of this can be backed up with the latest version of IBM
Electronic Service Agent trade which has been enhanced for IBM PureFlex System and proactively monitors
and reports hardware events back to IBM support Even if a client has a comprehensive in-house support
organization this can selectively be enhanced through the addition of specific services within the portfolio
to cover critical areas of weakness or exposure
For complex IBM PureFlex System environments and where mission-critical applications are deployed
(which applies to SAP production systems) premium services are available and cover
Enhanced technical support custom technical support
Microcode support managed technical support
Committed fix services
Availability management hard disk retention
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
35
Summary
This paper provides reference architectures of how heterogeneous SAP landscapes can be consolidated
using IBM PureFlex System While running the core business applications on POWER nodes with AIX as
operating system complementary SAP components are added on x86 nodes IBM PureFlex System
enables a very tight integration of infrastructure components including servers networking and storage
Seamless monitoring and management functions of the infrastructure are provided by the FSM
The integration aspect is taken even further with the integration of the SAP Landscape Virtualization
Manager application with the FSM This enables SAP cloud usage scenarios for SAP systems running on
IBM PureFlex System
For individual questions or to request a briefing about this topic contact the IBM SAP International
Competence Center at isiccdeibmcom
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
36
Resources
These websites provide useful references to supplement the information contained in this paper
IBM Systems on PartnerWorld
ibmcompartnerworldsystems
IBM Redbooks
ibmcomredbooks
IBM cloud computing
ibmcomsolutionssapusenlandingcloud_solutionshtml
IBM Cloud Solutions for SAP clients
ibmcomcloud-computingusen
IBM SmartCloud Entry for AIX on PartnerWorld (requires PartnerWorld login)
ibmcompartnerworldpagestg_com_sys_smartcloud
SAP HANA on workload optimized IBM System x appliances
ibmcomsolutionssaphana
IBM internal SSI-URL with a collection of SAP related PureSystem materials
httpsw3-
03ssoibmcomsalessupportShowDocwssdocid=SGDN258263T70735C63ampnode=brandsB6000|brandsBI5
00|clientsetIA|alliancesT5000|alliancesT5150|channelDR|channelF2F|solutionQ00|solution210ampappname=C
C_SSIGD
select the ldquoCollateralrdquo Tab in ldquoMain Contentrdquo section
Related SAP on PureFlex paper with System x focus ldquoReference Architecture - SAP
Systems on IBM PureSystems based on x86 nodesrdquo
httpw3ibmcomsupporttechdocsatsmastrnsfWebIndexWP102167
httpwwwibmcomsupporttechdocsatsmastrnsfWebIndexWP102167
httpwww-03ibmcompartnerworldpartnerinfosrcatsmastrnsfWebIndexWP102167
Related SAP on PureFlex paper with IBM i focus ldquoEfficiently deploying SAP landscapes
on the IBM PureFlex Systemrdquo
httpw3ibmcomsupporttechdocsatsmastrnsfWebIndexWP102087
httpwwwibmcomsupporttechdocsatsmastrnsfWebIndexWP102087
httpwww-03ibmcompartnerworldpartnerinfosrcatsmastrnsfWebIndexWP102087
Virtualization for SAP on IBM PureSystems with Microsoft Hyper-V
httpwwwibmcomsupporttechdocsatsmastrnsfWebIndexWP102153
IBM Workload Optimized Solution for SAP HANA ndash Quick Start Guide
provides technical overview HW models network requirements for IBM Systems Solution
for SAP HANA appliance
httpdownloadboulderibmcomibmdlpubsystemssupportsystem_x_pdf46w8274pdf
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
37
IBM internal SAP HANA Wiki
httpsw3-connectionsibmcomwikishomelang=en-
uswikiWaef4c0eb0f35_427f_a25e_670e392682b1pageSAP20HANA
FlexSystem with SAP BWA Presentations (click to open link)
Seller
Customer
General IBM Sales Kit ldquoSAP NetWeaver Business Warehouse Accelerator (BWA)rdquo
Implementation Guide for BWA on IBM Flex System x240
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
38
Trademarks and special notices
copy Copyright IBM Corporation 2013
References in this document to IBM products or services do not imply that IBM intends to make them
available in every country
IBM the IBM logo and ibmcom are trademarks or registered trademarks of International Business
Machines Corporation in the United States other countries or both If these and other IBM trademarked
terms are marked on their first occurrence in this information with a trademark symbol (reg or trade) these
symbols indicate US registered or common law trademarks owned by IBM at the time this information
was published Such trademarks may also be registered or common law trademarks in other countries A
current list of IBM trademarks is available on the Web at Copyright and trademark information at
wwwibmcomlegalcopytradeshtml
Java and all Java-based trademarks and logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of Oracle andor
its affiliates
Microsoft Windows Windows NT and the Windows logo are trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the
United States other countries or both
Intel Intel Inside (logos) MMX and Pentium are trademarks of Intel Corporation in the United States
other countries or both
UNIX is a registered trademark of The Open Group in the United States and other countries
Linux is a trademark of Linus Torvalds in the United States other countries or both
Other company product or service names may be trademarks or service marks of others
Information is provided AS IS without warranty of any kind
All customer examples described are presented as illustrations of how those customers have used IBM
products and the results they may have achieved Actual environmental costs and performance
characteristics may vary by customer
Information concerning non-IBM products was obtained from a supplier of these products published
announcement material or other publicly available sources and does not constitute an endorsement of
such products by IBM Sources for non-IBM list prices and performance numbers are taken from publicly
available information including vendor announcements and vendor worldwide homepages IBM has not
tested these products and cannot confirm the accuracy of performance capability or any other claims
related to non-IBM products Questions on the capability of non-IBM products should be addressed to the
supplier of those products
All statements regarding IBM future direction and intent are subject to change or withdrawal without notice
and represent goals and objectives only Contact your local IBM office or IBM authorized reseller for the
full text of the specific Statement of Direction
Some information addresses anticipated future capabilities Such information is not intended as a definitive
statement of a commitment to specific levels of performance function or delivery schedules with respect to
any future products Such commitments are only made in IBM product announcements The information is
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
39
presented here to communicate IBMs current investment and development activities as a good faith effort
to help with our customers future planning
Performance is based on measurements and projections using standard IBM benchmarks in a controlled
environment The actual throughput or performance that any user will experience will vary depending upon
considerations such as the amount of multiprogramming in the users job stream the IO configuration the
storage configuration and the workload processed Therefore no assurance can be given that an
individual user will achieve throughput or performance improvements equivalent to the ratios stated here
Photographs shown are of engineering prototypes Changes may be incorporated in production models
Any references in this information to non-IBM websites are provided for convenience only and do not in
any manner serve as an endorsement of those websites The materials at those websites are not part of
the materials for this IBM product and use of those websites is at your own risk
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
18
discrete Power Systems to POWER nodes and to migrate from POWER nodes to discrete Power
Systems
The FSM administration layer can co-exist with already implemented cross-platform management solutions like eg the IBM Systems Director It also can become integrated with higher level enterprise service management software as a monitored and managed layer
Figure 7 integration of management components
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
19
Integration of SAP Appliance-based components
Certain SAP components are not available on all SAP supported operating systems and databases If
such components are required to support customersrsquo business processes they need to be installed on top
of a supported OS which is not necessarily the same location where the SAP core applications are stored
With IBM PureFlex System supporting both x86 and POWER processor-based operating systems those
complementary components can be tightly integrated into the landscape The required hardware
resources can be hosted within one IBM PureFlex System chassis Besides the compact server footprint in
the datacenter the internal network eliminates the need for network cables and switches to connect the
systems The IBM PureFlex System management provided by CMM and FSM reduces the complexity of
managing the heterogeneous environment
This allows the creation of a complete SAP landscape within a single box Core SAP Business Suite
components are running on the POWER nodes while complementary components such as SAP
Enterprise Search and SAP Business Warehouse Accelerator can run on x86 nodes
The IBM Systems Solution for SAP Business Suite and SAP HANA SAP HANA is the strategic in-memory
database by SAP AG to accelerate in particular business analytics but also transactional business In
order to achieve magnitudes of acceleration SAP HANA exploits specific design features of the Intel EX
processor architecture with optimized low-level coding Consequently SAP HANA is exclusively
supported on certified hardware using this processor type ndash for example IBM System x3950 X5
The IBM SAP HANA offering is a standardized portfolio of System x hardware (IBM Systems x3950 X5 -
7143-Hxx systems) with internal (SSD SAS) storage for data persistency plus software components and
surrounding services Exclusively Linux namely SLES 11 is supported as operating system
As of today such an appliance cannot be deployed on any compute node within the PureFlex chassis
Instead IBM x3950 X5 based SAP HANA building blocks may be installed into the same rack as the
PureFlex chassis and act as external HANA compute nodes Connection to both x86 and POWER based
internal compute nodes running standard SAP applications or complementary SAP HANA instances is
done via Ethernet through a TOR switch
A big advantage of re-using external technology is that well established and beneficial concepts can be 11
applied for PureFlex focused landscapes too As an excelling example IBM GPFS (General Parallel File
System) not only enables the IBM SAP HANA solution to grow beyond the capacity of a single system into
a scale-out solution but also adds high availability and disaster recovery features to the IBM HANA
appliance
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
20
The scope of the Flex System Manager has been extended to allow the integrated management of
PureFlex internal components and IBM x3950 X5 based SAP HANA building blocks
It provides administrative functions like
Manual discovery inventory
Release Management (FW and SW installation and update)
Power Control
Remote Access
System Configuration
System Health and Status
Service and Support
for workload optimized x3950 X5 SAP HANA appliances
Figure 8 FSM menu of external x3950 X5 based IBM SAP HANA appliances
The screenshot above shows external x3950 X5 nodes appearing on the FlexSystem Manager panel and
the applicable activities to be performed
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
21
From a hardware point-of-view IBM PureFlex Systems offer the administrative integration of the HANA
building blocks (T-shirt sizes) listed in Table 4They meet the SAP defined HANA sizing grid and do not
need to be purchased together with a PureFlex System This allows the integration of existing HANA
systems with a newly deployed PureFlex System at customer site
Building block
Server (MTM)
CPUs Main memory
S+ x3950 X5
(7143-HAx) 2x Intel Xeon
E7-8870 256 GB
M x3950 X5
(7143-HBx) 4x Intel Xeon
E7-8870 512 GB
L
x3950 X5 (7143HBx)
+ x3950 X5
(7143HCx)
8x Intel Xeon E7-8870
1024 GB
XM x3950 X5
(7143-HDx) 4x Intel Xeon
E7-8870 1TB
32x 32GB
XL x3950 X5
(7143-HDx + 7143-HEx)
8x Intel Xeon E7-8870
2TB 64x 32GB
XXL x3950 X5
(7143-HBx + 7143-HCx)
8x Intel Xeon E7-8870
4TB 128x 32GB
Table 4 IBM SAP HANA Appliance building blocks (June 2013)
This list will change pretty frequently as new models and HANA configurations will become supported
Therefore always check the SAP list of supported models in the SAP HANA PAM (requires authorization)
or consult an IBM Techline representative SAP technology and management components as well as
common operational functions like the Tivoli Storage Manager for BackupRestore of ERP and HANA may
be deployed on PureFlex compute nodes and act on both environments
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
22
Figure 9 Architecture of SAP Business Suite on PureFlex and SAP HANA on System x3950 X5 Workload Optimized Solution for SAP HANA
In case of IBM SAP HANA scale-out configurations the Integrated Management Module of x3950 X5
servers and the SAP HANA appliance related network interfaces (like SAP client access HANA Studio
ERP backup and restore HWSW-Admin) will be connected to the PureFlex Device Management and
Client Data network via Ethernet through TOR switches Such a scale-out configuration is deployed with
separate racks
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
23
Figure 10 SAP HANA Appliances with PureFlex Network Topology
Depended on the amount of external network connections single node IBM SAP HANA appliances may
be connected via available ports on integrated switches of the PureFlex chassis The single node SAP
HANA appliance could be deployed in the same rack with IBM PureFlex System
FlexSystem Native Node Support for SAP Business Warehouse Accelerator
The SAP Business Warehouse Accelerator (BWA) was the initial approach to accelerate OLAP workload
with a dedicated appliance attached to a SAP Business Warehouse system SAP BWA follows a ldquoplug amp
playrdquo design easier to implement than SAP HANA and has a longer history Hence SAP BWA still has a
broad installed base among SAP BI customers
SAP BWA has not been this highly optimized for the Intel EX-CPU type This fact allows deploying SAP
BWA appliances on XEON-based FlexSystem nodes running a SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 SP2
operating system
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
24
The ldquoIBM Flex System Solution for SAP NetWeaver Business Warehouse Acceleratorrdquo extends the
established IBM BladeCenter offerings for SAP BWA with scalable FlexSystem configurations comprising
of x240 compute nodes inside the Flex-chassis and externally attached IBM Storage Systems DS3500
This combination meets the SAP BWA appliance criteria while providing an excellent priceperformance
ratio
Table 5 FlexSystem building blocks for IBM SAP Business Warehouse Accelerator Appliances (August 2013)
As with the SAP BWA appliances based on IBM BladeCenter the IBM GPFS filesystem improves overall
IO performance data scalability and resiliency The building blocks have been pre-tested and optimized
to deliver easy integration and quick implementation Order and shipment processes of the pre-built
systems are identical to those of the traditional IBM BWA platforms
Since SAP BWA is an encapsulated appliance it cannot exploit all functionality provided by FSM for full
topology management Passive ndash in the sense of monitoring - functions like inventory system health
hardware service and support are applicable Dedicated BWA-FlexSystem chassis can be attached to
PureFlex systems hosting a SAP BI solution and monitored from there Performing active administrative
functions which may have an impact on the BWA configuration are not allowed however
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
25
SAP on AIX reference landscapes for IBM PureFlex System
1 Minimal system = ERP BW all on POWER nodes
This is the simplest case of deploying
core SAP components in an IBM
PureFlex System System All SAP
modules are supported on POWER and
either an AIX or PowerLinux OS Two
nodes for physical redundancy each with
PowerVM and VIO virtualization are
used
In order to make use of autonomous load
balancing by PowerVM it is
recommended to mix production and
nonproduction SAP instances within a
shared processor pool on each of the
single nodes SAP 2-tier deployments
need to be preferred for smaller systems
Consider packing non- production
systems into WPARs for less LPAR
complexity
2 3-tier SAP ERP with scale-out DB and application-server tier all on POWER nodes
This option combines DB scale-out with
an SAP 3-tier application-server scale
out The advantage of a multinode DB
is a hot-standby high availability
without DB downtime as with classical
cold-standby cluster solutions Also
both the nodes contribute to an
aggregate DB throughput when in
normal operation As such a setup
appears for business-critical scenarios
a hot-standby FSM appliance has also
been configured (planned in 2012)
This in any case ensures that the
overall system monitoring and
adjustment can take place
Figure 11 minimal system
Figure 12 scale-out database
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
26
3 Mixed system = SAP Business Suite core applications TREX and non-SAP applications
This setup makes use of the IBM
PureFlex System heterogeneous
capabilities While several core SAP
Business Suite applications stay on
POWER nodes they are now
complemented by SAP TREX and a
NetWeaver development
environment which are supported
only on an x86 architecture There
are more than these components
there are newer appliances such as
BWA and HANA which mandate
such a setup
Further applications can be
consolidated into the same IBM
PureFlex System chassis as well
4 SAP NetWeaver landscape = SAP Business Suite core applications SAP Enterprise Portal
SAP Process Integration (service bus) and SAP Business Objects
This is a heterogeneous setup with
majority of SAP core systems on AIX
SAP Business Objects XI runs on
larger AIX LPAR for scaling while the
Business Objects end-user oriented
systems are consolidated in virtual
machines hosted on an x86 node
This scenario also outlines the
capability of IBM PureFlex System to
run x86 Linux and PowerLinux
distributions This applies to non-SAP
and many SAP components Inter-
system communication strongly takes
advantage of the internal networking
bandwidth of IBM PureFlex System
Figure 14 SAP Process Integration and SAP Business Objects
Figure 13 complementary components
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
27
5 Mixed system with SAP HANA = SAP Business Suite core applications deployed on
PureFlex nodes plus SAP HANA Appliances (= IBM Systems Solution for SAP Business
Suite and SAP HANA)
This setup makes use of the externalized IBM PureFlex System capabilities in shape of the IBM Systems Solution for SAP Business Suite and SAP HANA
Several core SAP applications are
deployed on internal POWER or x86
nodes and are complemented by an
external SAP HANA environment which is
being built of the x3950 X5 based standard
IBM appliance offering
This enables customers running SAP
HANA always to benefit from newest
certified System x HANA appliances and
operational improvements in that space
while creating administrative synergies
between the SAP HANA and traditional
SAP Business Suite infrastructure
Starting from physical integration today
the FlexSystem Manager will provide
integrated administrative capabilities
The IBM PureFlex system offers an
integrated infrastructure for all SAP
components SAP applications on
PureFlex System compute nodes may
access SAP HANA DB on IBM x3950 X5
servers as well as traditional data bases
(eg IBM DB2) running on PureFlex
System
Figure 15 SAP HANA Integration
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
28
High availability and disaster recovery
The single point of failures (SPOFs) for SAP systems stay untouched by the introduction of IBM PureFlex
System These are the database server and the central services for ABAP and Java including the enqueue
server
These SPOFs occur within each production SAP business component of the landscape that is multiple
clusters (such as ERP CRM SCM and so on) must be implemented
In addition central technical building blocks such as SAP Enterprise Portal (for user access) Process
Integration as Enterprise Service Bus need to be setup resilient
While the high availability and disaster recovery concepts for all these SPOFs are well known in general
they have not been tested in a special IBM PureFlex System environment at time of authoring this paper
As scenario 2 indicates multi-node databases like Oracle RAC are supported on IBM PureFlex System
Landscape monitoring and management
As the SAP landscapes tend to become a heterogeneous aggregation of servers and operating systems
this implies a certain level of complexity for SAP landscape administration Consolidating the SAP
landscape into an IBM PureFlex System with its consistent management capabilities helps to reduce this
complexity
The combination of the IBM PureFlex System and SAP NetWeaver technology offers multiple native
monitoring and administration layers for the complete hardware and software stack These are
Chassis Management Module
Flex System Management
SAP Computing Center Management System (SAP CCMS)
SAP Solution Manager
minus SAP Solution Manager aims at SAP application management and business key
performance indicator (KPI) monitoring but also is a mandatory tool for SAP
release and patch management
SAP NetWeaver Landscape Virtualization Management (LVM)
The IBM PureFlex System FSM and SAP LVM Enterprise are optional components the remaining ones
are part of virtualized base installation
In order to gain maximum efficiency for daily operations it is important to select the most appropriate tools
for specific administrative tasks and organizations In addition consistency and transparency need to be
maintained
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
29
The following table provides a high-level orientation for a selected set of administrator tasks in SAP
ecosystems
CMM FSM SAP LVM SAP CCMS SAP Solution Manager
Chassis topology view and administration
Through CMM
Virtualization metrics Through Flex System
Manager
Virtualization topology and administration
Through Flex System
Manager
OS DB SAP performance
Provisioning of a new virtual server Through Flex System
Manager
Virtual server start stop and live migration
Through Flex System
Manager
SAP service reallocation
SAP system refresh cloning
Alerting Chassis focus Systems focus
Task monitoring
OS DB SAP Base
Business KPIs
Integration to an upper-level enterprise management
Into Flex System
Manager
Into SAP Solution Manager
Table 6 monitoring and management layers
FSM is based on IBM Systems Director and provides comparable functions For POWER nodes FSM is
mandatory for advanced virtualization management As most of these functions are beneficial (if not
mandatory) for SAP (production) systems the FSM appears as an essential component for SAP on IBM
PureFlex environments
As a single point of control FSM provides a web-based interface to manage all aspects of the IBM
PureFlex System hardware components For example an interactive chassis map provides status
overview and serves as an entry point to manage the different resources Setup wizards guide you through
the process of initial setup and maintenance tasks
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
30
Figure 16 FSM chassis map
SAP CCMS is fully functional for IBM PureFlex System It allows monitoring and adjustment of base SAP
application and database settings Also PowerVM-specific metrics such as LPAR and WPAR resources
AME settings and so on can be accesses through the native SAP administrator GUI
IBM PureFlex System integration with SAP NetWeaver Landscape
Virtualization Management
The described cloud solution for SAP landscapes becomes available by a combination of the IBM FSM
capabilities and SAP NetWeaver Landscape Virtualization Management for automation tasks at the
application level
This solution enables common cloud scenarios with the SAP software stack and the underlying
infrastructure It aims to connect application management services with system virtualization and storage
management services It is a management tool for customers who run their SAP systems in their own data
center and want to become more efficient by automating provisioning and cloning tasks
Various scenarios around system copy and system refresh are supported including post-copy automation
Those labor-expensive tasks have been made easy with SAP Landscape Virtualization Management and
IBM PureFlex System
In more detail the following use cases are covered for cloud environments running SAP applications
Cloning of a SAP system (creating an identical copy in a fenced environment)
Creating an initial copy of a SAP system (with changing the SAP system identifier)
Refreshing a test SAP system with the content of a productive system
Automation of system copyrefresh post processing activities
Monitoring and visualization of virtualized SAP landscapes
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
31
SAP Landscape Virtualization Management is in many cases complementary to the inherent IBM PureFlex
System management layers SAP Landscape Virtualization Management enables access to many relevant
IBM PureFlex System and virtualization parameters to the SAP management software and provides IT
self-services to SAP administrators
The available IBM and SAP literature which describes the interaction of IBM Systems Director and SAP
Landscape Virtualization Management also applies to IBM PureFlex System FSM is the enriched IBM
Systems Director specifically optimized and packaged for IBM PureFlex System
IBM Tivoli Storage FlashCopy Manager adds a unique value for SAP landscapes This software enables
application-aware database-consistent online backups which can be used to create the cloned system By
exploiting storage snapshot techniques the backup is taken almost instantaneously
The solution has been developed as modular building blocks This provides a high degree of flexibility and
extensibility The following table shows the products and editions that are used for each scenario
Table 7 Use cases per management layer
Management components
SAP NetWeaver Landscape Virtualization Management 10 integrates with the following IBM
management products
IBM Flex System Manager
FSM is used for virtualization monitoring and management and for the operating system
provisioning scenarios on IBM PureFlex System
IBM Tivoli Storage FlashCopy Manager 3101
Tivoli Storage FlashCopy Manager is required for storage cloning of online SAP systems
System
monitoring
SAP
relocate
AIX
provisioning
SAP
Clone
SAP
Copy
SAP
Refresh
Flex
System
Manager
(not needed) (not needed) (not needed) (not needed)
FlashCopy
Manager
(not needed) (not needed) (not needed)
Storage any NFS GPFS
SVC V7000
or XIV
any SVC V7000
or XIV
SVC V7000
or XIV
SVC V7000
or XIV
SAP LVM Standard
Edition
Standard
Edition
Standard
Edition
Enterprise
Edition
Enterprise
Edition
Enterprise
Edition
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
32
The management products can be installed on a single AIX LPAR within IBM PureFlex System
Alternatively the products might be installed on different servers for example SAP NetWeaver
Landscape Virtualization Management may run on any of the supported SAP platforms
The following graphic shows a high-level view of how SAP Landscape Virtualization Management
integrates with the IBM PureFlex System FSM stack to enable cloud scenarios on this platform
Figure 17 SAP Landscape Virtualization Manager integration with FSM
Managed SAP landscape
The following IBM PureFlex System infrastructure is supported with SAP NetWeaver Landscape
Virtualization Management
IBM POWER nodes
AIX 61 or 71
IBM SAN Volume Controller IBM Storwize V7000 or IBM XIVreg Storage System1
SAP NetWeaver 7x using IBM DB2 for Linux UNIX and Windows Oracle Database or
SAP MaxDB is supported
1 SAN Volume Controller and Storwize V7000 support requires SAP Landscape Virtualization Management SP3
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
33
It is assumed that the storage is attached using single or dual VIOS (IBM PowerVM VIOS) For the
storage-cloning scenario the SAN storage system must be attached in the N_Port ID Virtualization
(NPIV) mode NPIV is a FC adapter (HBA) feature that allows multiple LPARs to share a physical port
The clone is created using the FlashCopy feature of the SAN Volume Controller or the snapshot
feature of the XIV Storage System These methods create a logical copy of the data volumes within
seconds while the SAP source system stays fully operational
Whenever an IBM PureFlex System environment needs to be integrated into an existing enterprise
monitoring and management solution (for example an existing IBM Systems Director hierarchy or the IBM
Tivoli Suite) FSM provides interfaces for seamless upward integration
Furthermore SAP Landscape Virtualization Management can be used to manage SAP landscapes within
and outside of IBM PureFlex System and also across different platforms
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
34
SAP-specific offerings for IBM PureFlex System
This section lists specific offerings for SAP on IBM PureFlex System
Lab services and IBM support
As capacity and capability of a larger IBM PureFlex System installation are comparable to large scale
UNIX or mainframe installations IBM provides hardware and software support beyond the standards of
commodity blade systems
Including three Global Centers of Competence IBM Maintenance and Technical Support Services provide
integrated support on the FSM-based environments when there is not a clear understanding of whether
there is a hardware or a software issue All of this can be backed up with the latest version of IBM
Electronic Service Agent trade which has been enhanced for IBM PureFlex System and proactively monitors
and reports hardware events back to IBM support Even if a client has a comprehensive in-house support
organization this can selectively be enhanced through the addition of specific services within the portfolio
to cover critical areas of weakness or exposure
For complex IBM PureFlex System environments and where mission-critical applications are deployed
(which applies to SAP production systems) premium services are available and cover
Enhanced technical support custom technical support
Microcode support managed technical support
Committed fix services
Availability management hard disk retention
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
35
Summary
This paper provides reference architectures of how heterogeneous SAP landscapes can be consolidated
using IBM PureFlex System While running the core business applications on POWER nodes with AIX as
operating system complementary SAP components are added on x86 nodes IBM PureFlex System
enables a very tight integration of infrastructure components including servers networking and storage
Seamless monitoring and management functions of the infrastructure are provided by the FSM
The integration aspect is taken even further with the integration of the SAP Landscape Virtualization
Manager application with the FSM This enables SAP cloud usage scenarios for SAP systems running on
IBM PureFlex System
For individual questions or to request a briefing about this topic contact the IBM SAP International
Competence Center at isiccdeibmcom
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
36
Resources
These websites provide useful references to supplement the information contained in this paper
IBM Systems on PartnerWorld
ibmcompartnerworldsystems
IBM Redbooks
ibmcomredbooks
IBM cloud computing
ibmcomsolutionssapusenlandingcloud_solutionshtml
IBM Cloud Solutions for SAP clients
ibmcomcloud-computingusen
IBM SmartCloud Entry for AIX on PartnerWorld (requires PartnerWorld login)
ibmcompartnerworldpagestg_com_sys_smartcloud
SAP HANA on workload optimized IBM System x appliances
ibmcomsolutionssaphana
IBM internal SSI-URL with a collection of SAP related PureSystem materials
httpsw3-
03ssoibmcomsalessupportShowDocwssdocid=SGDN258263T70735C63ampnode=brandsB6000|brandsBI5
00|clientsetIA|alliancesT5000|alliancesT5150|channelDR|channelF2F|solutionQ00|solution210ampappname=C
C_SSIGD
select the ldquoCollateralrdquo Tab in ldquoMain Contentrdquo section
Related SAP on PureFlex paper with System x focus ldquoReference Architecture - SAP
Systems on IBM PureSystems based on x86 nodesrdquo
httpw3ibmcomsupporttechdocsatsmastrnsfWebIndexWP102167
httpwwwibmcomsupporttechdocsatsmastrnsfWebIndexWP102167
httpwww-03ibmcompartnerworldpartnerinfosrcatsmastrnsfWebIndexWP102167
Related SAP on PureFlex paper with IBM i focus ldquoEfficiently deploying SAP landscapes
on the IBM PureFlex Systemrdquo
httpw3ibmcomsupporttechdocsatsmastrnsfWebIndexWP102087
httpwwwibmcomsupporttechdocsatsmastrnsfWebIndexWP102087
httpwww-03ibmcompartnerworldpartnerinfosrcatsmastrnsfWebIndexWP102087
Virtualization for SAP on IBM PureSystems with Microsoft Hyper-V
httpwwwibmcomsupporttechdocsatsmastrnsfWebIndexWP102153
IBM Workload Optimized Solution for SAP HANA ndash Quick Start Guide
provides technical overview HW models network requirements for IBM Systems Solution
for SAP HANA appliance
httpdownloadboulderibmcomibmdlpubsystemssupportsystem_x_pdf46w8274pdf
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
37
IBM internal SAP HANA Wiki
httpsw3-connectionsibmcomwikishomelang=en-
uswikiWaef4c0eb0f35_427f_a25e_670e392682b1pageSAP20HANA
FlexSystem with SAP BWA Presentations (click to open link)
Seller
Customer
General IBM Sales Kit ldquoSAP NetWeaver Business Warehouse Accelerator (BWA)rdquo
Implementation Guide for BWA on IBM Flex System x240
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
38
Trademarks and special notices
copy Copyright IBM Corporation 2013
References in this document to IBM products or services do not imply that IBM intends to make them
available in every country
IBM the IBM logo and ibmcom are trademarks or registered trademarks of International Business
Machines Corporation in the United States other countries or both If these and other IBM trademarked
terms are marked on their first occurrence in this information with a trademark symbol (reg or trade) these
symbols indicate US registered or common law trademarks owned by IBM at the time this information
was published Such trademarks may also be registered or common law trademarks in other countries A
current list of IBM trademarks is available on the Web at Copyright and trademark information at
wwwibmcomlegalcopytradeshtml
Java and all Java-based trademarks and logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of Oracle andor
its affiliates
Microsoft Windows Windows NT and the Windows logo are trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the
United States other countries or both
Intel Intel Inside (logos) MMX and Pentium are trademarks of Intel Corporation in the United States
other countries or both
UNIX is a registered trademark of The Open Group in the United States and other countries
Linux is a trademark of Linus Torvalds in the United States other countries or both
Other company product or service names may be trademarks or service marks of others
Information is provided AS IS without warranty of any kind
All customer examples described are presented as illustrations of how those customers have used IBM
products and the results they may have achieved Actual environmental costs and performance
characteristics may vary by customer
Information concerning non-IBM products was obtained from a supplier of these products published
announcement material or other publicly available sources and does not constitute an endorsement of
such products by IBM Sources for non-IBM list prices and performance numbers are taken from publicly
available information including vendor announcements and vendor worldwide homepages IBM has not
tested these products and cannot confirm the accuracy of performance capability or any other claims
related to non-IBM products Questions on the capability of non-IBM products should be addressed to the
supplier of those products
All statements regarding IBM future direction and intent are subject to change or withdrawal without notice
and represent goals and objectives only Contact your local IBM office or IBM authorized reseller for the
full text of the specific Statement of Direction
Some information addresses anticipated future capabilities Such information is not intended as a definitive
statement of a commitment to specific levels of performance function or delivery schedules with respect to
any future products Such commitments are only made in IBM product announcements The information is
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
39
presented here to communicate IBMs current investment and development activities as a good faith effort
to help with our customers future planning
Performance is based on measurements and projections using standard IBM benchmarks in a controlled
environment The actual throughput or performance that any user will experience will vary depending upon
considerations such as the amount of multiprogramming in the users job stream the IO configuration the
storage configuration and the workload processed Therefore no assurance can be given that an
individual user will achieve throughput or performance improvements equivalent to the ratios stated here
Photographs shown are of engineering prototypes Changes may be incorporated in production models
Any references in this information to non-IBM websites are provided for convenience only and do not in
any manner serve as an endorsement of those websites The materials at those websites are not part of
the materials for this IBM product and use of those websites is at your own risk
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
19
Integration of SAP Appliance-based components
Certain SAP components are not available on all SAP supported operating systems and databases If
such components are required to support customersrsquo business processes they need to be installed on top
of a supported OS which is not necessarily the same location where the SAP core applications are stored
With IBM PureFlex System supporting both x86 and POWER processor-based operating systems those
complementary components can be tightly integrated into the landscape The required hardware
resources can be hosted within one IBM PureFlex System chassis Besides the compact server footprint in
the datacenter the internal network eliminates the need for network cables and switches to connect the
systems The IBM PureFlex System management provided by CMM and FSM reduces the complexity of
managing the heterogeneous environment
This allows the creation of a complete SAP landscape within a single box Core SAP Business Suite
components are running on the POWER nodes while complementary components such as SAP
Enterprise Search and SAP Business Warehouse Accelerator can run on x86 nodes
The IBM Systems Solution for SAP Business Suite and SAP HANA SAP HANA is the strategic in-memory
database by SAP AG to accelerate in particular business analytics but also transactional business In
order to achieve magnitudes of acceleration SAP HANA exploits specific design features of the Intel EX
processor architecture with optimized low-level coding Consequently SAP HANA is exclusively
supported on certified hardware using this processor type ndash for example IBM System x3950 X5
The IBM SAP HANA offering is a standardized portfolio of System x hardware (IBM Systems x3950 X5 -
7143-Hxx systems) with internal (SSD SAS) storage for data persistency plus software components and
surrounding services Exclusively Linux namely SLES 11 is supported as operating system
As of today such an appliance cannot be deployed on any compute node within the PureFlex chassis
Instead IBM x3950 X5 based SAP HANA building blocks may be installed into the same rack as the
PureFlex chassis and act as external HANA compute nodes Connection to both x86 and POWER based
internal compute nodes running standard SAP applications or complementary SAP HANA instances is
done via Ethernet through a TOR switch
A big advantage of re-using external technology is that well established and beneficial concepts can be 11
applied for PureFlex focused landscapes too As an excelling example IBM GPFS (General Parallel File
System) not only enables the IBM SAP HANA solution to grow beyond the capacity of a single system into
a scale-out solution but also adds high availability and disaster recovery features to the IBM HANA
appliance
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
20
The scope of the Flex System Manager has been extended to allow the integrated management of
PureFlex internal components and IBM x3950 X5 based SAP HANA building blocks
It provides administrative functions like
Manual discovery inventory
Release Management (FW and SW installation and update)
Power Control
Remote Access
System Configuration
System Health and Status
Service and Support
for workload optimized x3950 X5 SAP HANA appliances
Figure 8 FSM menu of external x3950 X5 based IBM SAP HANA appliances
The screenshot above shows external x3950 X5 nodes appearing on the FlexSystem Manager panel and
the applicable activities to be performed
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
21
From a hardware point-of-view IBM PureFlex Systems offer the administrative integration of the HANA
building blocks (T-shirt sizes) listed in Table 4They meet the SAP defined HANA sizing grid and do not
need to be purchased together with a PureFlex System This allows the integration of existing HANA
systems with a newly deployed PureFlex System at customer site
Building block
Server (MTM)
CPUs Main memory
S+ x3950 X5
(7143-HAx) 2x Intel Xeon
E7-8870 256 GB
M x3950 X5
(7143-HBx) 4x Intel Xeon
E7-8870 512 GB
L
x3950 X5 (7143HBx)
+ x3950 X5
(7143HCx)
8x Intel Xeon E7-8870
1024 GB
XM x3950 X5
(7143-HDx) 4x Intel Xeon
E7-8870 1TB
32x 32GB
XL x3950 X5
(7143-HDx + 7143-HEx)
8x Intel Xeon E7-8870
2TB 64x 32GB
XXL x3950 X5
(7143-HBx + 7143-HCx)
8x Intel Xeon E7-8870
4TB 128x 32GB
Table 4 IBM SAP HANA Appliance building blocks (June 2013)
This list will change pretty frequently as new models and HANA configurations will become supported
Therefore always check the SAP list of supported models in the SAP HANA PAM (requires authorization)
or consult an IBM Techline representative SAP technology and management components as well as
common operational functions like the Tivoli Storage Manager for BackupRestore of ERP and HANA may
be deployed on PureFlex compute nodes and act on both environments
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
22
Figure 9 Architecture of SAP Business Suite on PureFlex and SAP HANA on System x3950 X5 Workload Optimized Solution for SAP HANA
In case of IBM SAP HANA scale-out configurations the Integrated Management Module of x3950 X5
servers and the SAP HANA appliance related network interfaces (like SAP client access HANA Studio
ERP backup and restore HWSW-Admin) will be connected to the PureFlex Device Management and
Client Data network via Ethernet through TOR switches Such a scale-out configuration is deployed with
separate racks
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
23
Figure 10 SAP HANA Appliances with PureFlex Network Topology
Depended on the amount of external network connections single node IBM SAP HANA appliances may
be connected via available ports on integrated switches of the PureFlex chassis The single node SAP
HANA appliance could be deployed in the same rack with IBM PureFlex System
FlexSystem Native Node Support for SAP Business Warehouse Accelerator
The SAP Business Warehouse Accelerator (BWA) was the initial approach to accelerate OLAP workload
with a dedicated appliance attached to a SAP Business Warehouse system SAP BWA follows a ldquoplug amp
playrdquo design easier to implement than SAP HANA and has a longer history Hence SAP BWA still has a
broad installed base among SAP BI customers
SAP BWA has not been this highly optimized for the Intel EX-CPU type This fact allows deploying SAP
BWA appliances on XEON-based FlexSystem nodes running a SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 SP2
operating system
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
24
The ldquoIBM Flex System Solution for SAP NetWeaver Business Warehouse Acceleratorrdquo extends the
established IBM BladeCenter offerings for SAP BWA with scalable FlexSystem configurations comprising
of x240 compute nodes inside the Flex-chassis and externally attached IBM Storage Systems DS3500
This combination meets the SAP BWA appliance criteria while providing an excellent priceperformance
ratio
Table 5 FlexSystem building blocks for IBM SAP Business Warehouse Accelerator Appliances (August 2013)
As with the SAP BWA appliances based on IBM BladeCenter the IBM GPFS filesystem improves overall
IO performance data scalability and resiliency The building blocks have been pre-tested and optimized
to deliver easy integration and quick implementation Order and shipment processes of the pre-built
systems are identical to those of the traditional IBM BWA platforms
Since SAP BWA is an encapsulated appliance it cannot exploit all functionality provided by FSM for full
topology management Passive ndash in the sense of monitoring - functions like inventory system health
hardware service and support are applicable Dedicated BWA-FlexSystem chassis can be attached to
PureFlex systems hosting a SAP BI solution and monitored from there Performing active administrative
functions which may have an impact on the BWA configuration are not allowed however
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
25
SAP on AIX reference landscapes for IBM PureFlex System
1 Minimal system = ERP BW all on POWER nodes
This is the simplest case of deploying
core SAP components in an IBM
PureFlex System System All SAP
modules are supported on POWER and
either an AIX or PowerLinux OS Two
nodes for physical redundancy each with
PowerVM and VIO virtualization are
used
In order to make use of autonomous load
balancing by PowerVM it is
recommended to mix production and
nonproduction SAP instances within a
shared processor pool on each of the
single nodes SAP 2-tier deployments
need to be preferred for smaller systems
Consider packing non- production
systems into WPARs for less LPAR
complexity
2 3-tier SAP ERP with scale-out DB and application-server tier all on POWER nodes
This option combines DB scale-out with
an SAP 3-tier application-server scale
out The advantage of a multinode DB
is a hot-standby high availability
without DB downtime as with classical
cold-standby cluster solutions Also
both the nodes contribute to an
aggregate DB throughput when in
normal operation As such a setup
appears for business-critical scenarios
a hot-standby FSM appliance has also
been configured (planned in 2012)
This in any case ensures that the
overall system monitoring and
adjustment can take place
Figure 11 minimal system
Figure 12 scale-out database
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
26
3 Mixed system = SAP Business Suite core applications TREX and non-SAP applications
This setup makes use of the IBM
PureFlex System heterogeneous
capabilities While several core SAP
Business Suite applications stay on
POWER nodes they are now
complemented by SAP TREX and a
NetWeaver development
environment which are supported
only on an x86 architecture There
are more than these components
there are newer appliances such as
BWA and HANA which mandate
such a setup
Further applications can be
consolidated into the same IBM
PureFlex System chassis as well
4 SAP NetWeaver landscape = SAP Business Suite core applications SAP Enterprise Portal
SAP Process Integration (service bus) and SAP Business Objects
This is a heterogeneous setup with
majority of SAP core systems on AIX
SAP Business Objects XI runs on
larger AIX LPAR for scaling while the
Business Objects end-user oriented
systems are consolidated in virtual
machines hosted on an x86 node
This scenario also outlines the
capability of IBM PureFlex System to
run x86 Linux and PowerLinux
distributions This applies to non-SAP
and many SAP components Inter-
system communication strongly takes
advantage of the internal networking
bandwidth of IBM PureFlex System
Figure 14 SAP Process Integration and SAP Business Objects
Figure 13 complementary components
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
27
5 Mixed system with SAP HANA = SAP Business Suite core applications deployed on
PureFlex nodes plus SAP HANA Appliances (= IBM Systems Solution for SAP Business
Suite and SAP HANA)
This setup makes use of the externalized IBM PureFlex System capabilities in shape of the IBM Systems Solution for SAP Business Suite and SAP HANA
Several core SAP applications are
deployed on internal POWER or x86
nodes and are complemented by an
external SAP HANA environment which is
being built of the x3950 X5 based standard
IBM appliance offering
This enables customers running SAP
HANA always to benefit from newest
certified System x HANA appliances and
operational improvements in that space
while creating administrative synergies
between the SAP HANA and traditional
SAP Business Suite infrastructure
Starting from physical integration today
the FlexSystem Manager will provide
integrated administrative capabilities
The IBM PureFlex system offers an
integrated infrastructure for all SAP
components SAP applications on
PureFlex System compute nodes may
access SAP HANA DB on IBM x3950 X5
servers as well as traditional data bases
(eg IBM DB2) running on PureFlex
System
Figure 15 SAP HANA Integration
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
28
High availability and disaster recovery
The single point of failures (SPOFs) for SAP systems stay untouched by the introduction of IBM PureFlex
System These are the database server and the central services for ABAP and Java including the enqueue
server
These SPOFs occur within each production SAP business component of the landscape that is multiple
clusters (such as ERP CRM SCM and so on) must be implemented
In addition central technical building blocks such as SAP Enterprise Portal (for user access) Process
Integration as Enterprise Service Bus need to be setup resilient
While the high availability and disaster recovery concepts for all these SPOFs are well known in general
they have not been tested in a special IBM PureFlex System environment at time of authoring this paper
As scenario 2 indicates multi-node databases like Oracle RAC are supported on IBM PureFlex System
Landscape monitoring and management
As the SAP landscapes tend to become a heterogeneous aggregation of servers and operating systems
this implies a certain level of complexity for SAP landscape administration Consolidating the SAP
landscape into an IBM PureFlex System with its consistent management capabilities helps to reduce this
complexity
The combination of the IBM PureFlex System and SAP NetWeaver technology offers multiple native
monitoring and administration layers for the complete hardware and software stack These are
Chassis Management Module
Flex System Management
SAP Computing Center Management System (SAP CCMS)
SAP Solution Manager
minus SAP Solution Manager aims at SAP application management and business key
performance indicator (KPI) monitoring but also is a mandatory tool for SAP
release and patch management
SAP NetWeaver Landscape Virtualization Management (LVM)
The IBM PureFlex System FSM and SAP LVM Enterprise are optional components the remaining ones
are part of virtualized base installation
In order to gain maximum efficiency for daily operations it is important to select the most appropriate tools
for specific administrative tasks and organizations In addition consistency and transparency need to be
maintained
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
29
The following table provides a high-level orientation for a selected set of administrator tasks in SAP
ecosystems
CMM FSM SAP LVM SAP CCMS SAP Solution Manager
Chassis topology view and administration
Through CMM
Virtualization metrics Through Flex System
Manager
Virtualization topology and administration
Through Flex System
Manager
OS DB SAP performance
Provisioning of a new virtual server Through Flex System
Manager
Virtual server start stop and live migration
Through Flex System
Manager
SAP service reallocation
SAP system refresh cloning
Alerting Chassis focus Systems focus
Task monitoring
OS DB SAP Base
Business KPIs
Integration to an upper-level enterprise management
Into Flex System
Manager
Into SAP Solution Manager
Table 6 monitoring and management layers
FSM is based on IBM Systems Director and provides comparable functions For POWER nodes FSM is
mandatory for advanced virtualization management As most of these functions are beneficial (if not
mandatory) for SAP (production) systems the FSM appears as an essential component for SAP on IBM
PureFlex environments
As a single point of control FSM provides a web-based interface to manage all aspects of the IBM
PureFlex System hardware components For example an interactive chassis map provides status
overview and serves as an entry point to manage the different resources Setup wizards guide you through
the process of initial setup and maintenance tasks
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
30
Figure 16 FSM chassis map
SAP CCMS is fully functional for IBM PureFlex System It allows monitoring and adjustment of base SAP
application and database settings Also PowerVM-specific metrics such as LPAR and WPAR resources
AME settings and so on can be accesses through the native SAP administrator GUI
IBM PureFlex System integration with SAP NetWeaver Landscape
Virtualization Management
The described cloud solution for SAP landscapes becomes available by a combination of the IBM FSM
capabilities and SAP NetWeaver Landscape Virtualization Management for automation tasks at the
application level
This solution enables common cloud scenarios with the SAP software stack and the underlying
infrastructure It aims to connect application management services with system virtualization and storage
management services It is a management tool for customers who run their SAP systems in their own data
center and want to become more efficient by automating provisioning and cloning tasks
Various scenarios around system copy and system refresh are supported including post-copy automation
Those labor-expensive tasks have been made easy with SAP Landscape Virtualization Management and
IBM PureFlex System
In more detail the following use cases are covered for cloud environments running SAP applications
Cloning of a SAP system (creating an identical copy in a fenced environment)
Creating an initial copy of a SAP system (with changing the SAP system identifier)
Refreshing a test SAP system with the content of a productive system
Automation of system copyrefresh post processing activities
Monitoring and visualization of virtualized SAP landscapes
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
31
SAP Landscape Virtualization Management is in many cases complementary to the inherent IBM PureFlex
System management layers SAP Landscape Virtualization Management enables access to many relevant
IBM PureFlex System and virtualization parameters to the SAP management software and provides IT
self-services to SAP administrators
The available IBM and SAP literature which describes the interaction of IBM Systems Director and SAP
Landscape Virtualization Management also applies to IBM PureFlex System FSM is the enriched IBM
Systems Director specifically optimized and packaged for IBM PureFlex System
IBM Tivoli Storage FlashCopy Manager adds a unique value for SAP landscapes This software enables
application-aware database-consistent online backups which can be used to create the cloned system By
exploiting storage snapshot techniques the backup is taken almost instantaneously
The solution has been developed as modular building blocks This provides a high degree of flexibility and
extensibility The following table shows the products and editions that are used for each scenario
Table 7 Use cases per management layer
Management components
SAP NetWeaver Landscape Virtualization Management 10 integrates with the following IBM
management products
IBM Flex System Manager
FSM is used for virtualization monitoring and management and for the operating system
provisioning scenarios on IBM PureFlex System
IBM Tivoli Storage FlashCopy Manager 3101
Tivoli Storage FlashCopy Manager is required for storage cloning of online SAP systems
System
monitoring
SAP
relocate
AIX
provisioning
SAP
Clone
SAP
Copy
SAP
Refresh
Flex
System
Manager
(not needed) (not needed) (not needed) (not needed)
FlashCopy
Manager
(not needed) (not needed) (not needed)
Storage any NFS GPFS
SVC V7000
or XIV
any SVC V7000
or XIV
SVC V7000
or XIV
SVC V7000
or XIV
SAP LVM Standard
Edition
Standard
Edition
Standard
Edition
Enterprise
Edition
Enterprise
Edition
Enterprise
Edition
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
32
The management products can be installed on a single AIX LPAR within IBM PureFlex System
Alternatively the products might be installed on different servers for example SAP NetWeaver
Landscape Virtualization Management may run on any of the supported SAP platforms
The following graphic shows a high-level view of how SAP Landscape Virtualization Management
integrates with the IBM PureFlex System FSM stack to enable cloud scenarios on this platform
Figure 17 SAP Landscape Virtualization Manager integration with FSM
Managed SAP landscape
The following IBM PureFlex System infrastructure is supported with SAP NetWeaver Landscape
Virtualization Management
IBM POWER nodes
AIX 61 or 71
IBM SAN Volume Controller IBM Storwize V7000 or IBM XIVreg Storage System1
SAP NetWeaver 7x using IBM DB2 for Linux UNIX and Windows Oracle Database or
SAP MaxDB is supported
1 SAN Volume Controller and Storwize V7000 support requires SAP Landscape Virtualization Management SP3
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
33
It is assumed that the storage is attached using single or dual VIOS (IBM PowerVM VIOS) For the
storage-cloning scenario the SAN storage system must be attached in the N_Port ID Virtualization
(NPIV) mode NPIV is a FC adapter (HBA) feature that allows multiple LPARs to share a physical port
The clone is created using the FlashCopy feature of the SAN Volume Controller or the snapshot
feature of the XIV Storage System These methods create a logical copy of the data volumes within
seconds while the SAP source system stays fully operational
Whenever an IBM PureFlex System environment needs to be integrated into an existing enterprise
monitoring and management solution (for example an existing IBM Systems Director hierarchy or the IBM
Tivoli Suite) FSM provides interfaces for seamless upward integration
Furthermore SAP Landscape Virtualization Management can be used to manage SAP landscapes within
and outside of IBM PureFlex System and also across different platforms
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
34
SAP-specific offerings for IBM PureFlex System
This section lists specific offerings for SAP on IBM PureFlex System
Lab services and IBM support
As capacity and capability of a larger IBM PureFlex System installation are comparable to large scale
UNIX or mainframe installations IBM provides hardware and software support beyond the standards of
commodity blade systems
Including three Global Centers of Competence IBM Maintenance and Technical Support Services provide
integrated support on the FSM-based environments when there is not a clear understanding of whether
there is a hardware or a software issue All of this can be backed up with the latest version of IBM
Electronic Service Agent trade which has been enhanced for IBM PureFlex System and proactively monitors
and reports hardware events back to IBM support Even if a client has a comprehensive in-house support
organization this can selectively be enhanced through the addition of specific services within the portfolio
to cover critical areas of weakness or exposure
For complex IBM PureFlex System environments and where mission-critical applications are deployed
(which applies to SAP production systems) premium services are available and cover
Enhanced technical support custom technical support
Microcode support managed technical support
Committed fix services
Availability management hard disk retention
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
35
Summary
This paper provides reference architectures of how heterogeneous SAP landscapes can be consolidated
using IBM PureFlex System While running the core business applications on POWER nodes with AIX as
operating system complementary SAP components are added on x86 nodes IBM PureFlex System
enables a very tight integration of infrastructure components including servers networking and storage
Seamless monitoring and management functions of the infrastructure are provided by the FSM
The integration aspect is taken even further with the integration of the SAP Landscape Virtualization
Manager application with the FSM This enables SAP cloud usage scenarios for SAP systems running on
IBM PureFlex System
For individual questions or to request a briefing about this topic contact the IBM SAP International
Competence Center at isiccdeibmcom
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
36
Resources
These websites provide useful references to supplement the information contained in this paper
IBM Systems on PartnerWorld
ibmcompartnerworldsystems
IBM Redbooks
ibmcomredbooks
IBM cloud computing
ibmcomsolutionssapusenlandingcloud_solutionshtml
IBM Cloud Solutions for SAP clients
ibmcomcloud-computingusen
IBM SmartCloud Entry for AIX on PartnerWorld (requires PartnerWorld login)
ibmcompartnerworldpagestg_com_sys_smartcloud
SAP HANA on workload optimized IBM System x appliances
ibmcomsolutionssaphana
IBM internal SSI-URL with a collection of SAP related PureSystem materials
httpsw3-
03ssoibmcomsalessupportShowDocwssdocid=SGDN258263T70735C63ampnode=brandsB6000|brandsBI5
00|clientsetIA|alliancesT5000|alliancesT5150|channelDR|channelF2F|solutionQ00|solution210ampappname=C
C_SSIGD
select the ldquoCollateralrdquo Tab in ldquoMain Contentrdquo section
Related SAP on PureFlex paper with System x focus ldquoReference Architecture - SAP
Systems on IBM PureSystems based on x86 nodesrdquo
httpw3ibmcomsupporttechdocsatsmastrnsfWebIndexWP102167
httpwwwibmcomsupporttechdocsatsmastrnsfWebIndexWP102167
httpwww-03ibmcompartnerworldpartnerinfosrcatsmastrnsfWebIndexWP102167
Related SAP on PureFlex paper with IBM i focus ldquoEfficiently deploying SAP landscapes
on the IBM PureFlex Systemrdquo
httpw3ibmcomsupporttechdocsatsmastrnsfWebIndexWP102087
httpwwwibmcomsupporttechdocsatsmastrnsfWebIndexWP102087
httpwww-03ibmcompartnerworldpartnerinfosrcatsmastrnsfWebIndexWP102087
Virtualization for SAP on IBM PureSystems with Microsoft Hyper-V
httpwwwibmcomsupporttechdocsatsmastrnsfWebIndexWP102153
IBM Workload Optimized Solution for SAP HANA ndash Quick Start Guide
provides technical overview HW models network requirements for IBM Systems Solution
for SAP HANA appliance
httpdownloadboulderibmcomibmdlpubsystemssupportsystem_x_pdf46w8274pdf
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
37
IBM internal SAP HANA Wiki
httpsw3-connectionsibmcomwikishomelang=en-
uswikiWaef4c0eb0f35_427f_a25e_670e392682b1pageSAP20HANA
FlexSystem with SAP BWA Presentations (click to open link)
Seller
Customer
General IBM Sales Kit ldquoSAP NetWeaver Business Warehouse Accelerator (BWA)rdquo
Implementation Guide for BWA on IBM Flex System x240
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
38
Trademarks and special notices
copy Copyright IBM Corporation 2013
References in this document to IBM products or services do not imply that IBM intends to make them
available in every country
IBM the IBM logo and ibmcom are trademarks or registered trademarks of International Business
Machines Corporation in the United States other countries or both If these and other IBM trademarked
terms are marked on their first occurrence in this information with a trademark symbol (reg or trade) these
symbols indicate US registered or common law trademarks owned by IBM at the time this information
was published Such trademarks may also be registered or common law trademarks in other countries A
current list of IBM trademarks is available on the Web at Copyright and trademark information at
wwwibmcomlegalcopytradeshtml
Java and all Java-based trademarks and logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of Oracle andor
its affiliates
Microsoft Windows Windows NT and the Windows logo are trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the
United States other countries or both
Intel Intel Inside (logos) MMX and Pentium are trademarks of Intel Corporation in the United States
other countries or both
UNIX is a registered trademark of The Open Group in the United States and other countries
Linux is a trademark of Linus Torvalds in the United States other countries or both
Other company product or service names may be trademarks or service marks of others
Information is provided AS IS without warranty of any kind
All customer examples described are presented as illustrations of how those customers have used IBM
products and the results they may have achieved Actual environmental costs and performance
characteristics may vary by customer
Information concerning non-IBM products was obtained from a supplier of these products published
announcement material or other publicly available sources and does not constitute an endorsement of
such products by IBM Sources for non-IBM list prices and performance numbers are taken from publicly
available information including vendor announcements and vendor worldwide homepages IBM has not
tested these products and cannot confirm the accuracy of performance capability or any other claims
related to non-IBM products Questions on the capability of non-IBM products should be addressed to the
supplier of those products
All statements regarding IBM future direction and intent are subject to change or withdrawal without notice
and represent goals and objectives only Contact your local IBM office or IBM authorized reseller for the
full text of the specific Statement of Direction
Some information addresses anticipated future capabilities Such information is not intended as a definitive
statement of a commitment to specific levels of performance function or delivery schedules with respect to
any future products Such commitments are only made in IBM product announcements The information is
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
39
presented here to communicate IBMs current investment and development activities as a good faith effort
to help with our customers future planning
Performance is based on measurements and projections using standard IBM benchmarks in a controlled
environment The actual throughput or performance that any user will experience will vary depending upon
considerations such as the amount of multiprogramming in the users job stream the IO configuration the
storage configuration and the workload processed Therefore no assurance can be given that an
individual user will achieve throughput or performance improvements equivalent to the ratios stated here
Photographs shown are of engineering prototypes Changes may be incorporated in production models
Any references in this information to non-IBM websites are provided for convenience only and do not in
any manner serve as an endorsement of those websites The materials at those websites are not part of
the materials for this IBM product and use of those websites is at your own risk
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
20
The scope of the Flex System Manager has been extended to allow the integrated management of
PureFlex internal components and IBM x3950 X5 based SAP HANA building blocks
It provides administrative functions like
Manual discovery inventory
Release Management (FW and SW installation and update)
Power Control
Remote Access
System Configuration
System Health and Status
Service and Support
for workload optimized x3950 X5 SAP HANA appliances
Figure 8 FSM menu of external x3950 X5 based IBM SAP HANA appliances
The screenshot above shows external x3950 X5 nodes appearing on the FlexSystem Manager panel and
the applicable activities to be performed
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
21
From a hardware point-of-view IBM PureFlex Systems offer the administrative integration of the HANA
building blocks (T-shirt sizes) listed in Table 4They meet the SAP defined HANA sizing grid and do not
need to be purchased together with a PureFlex System This allows the integration of existing HANA
systems with a newly deployed PureFlex System at customer site
Building block
Server (MTM)
CPUs Main memory
S+ x3950 X5
(7143-HAx) 2x Intel Xeon
E7-8870 256 GB
M x3950 X5
(7143-HBx) 4x Intel Xeon
E7-8870 512 GB
L
x3950 X5 (7143HBx)
+ x3950 X5
(7143HCx)
8x Intel Xeon E7-8870
1024 GB
XM x3950 X5
(7143-HDx) 4x Intel Xeon
E7-8870 1TB
32x 32GB
XL x3950 X5
(7143-HDx + 7143-HEx)
8x Intel Xeon E7-8870
2TB 64x 32GB
XXL x3950 X5
(7143-HBx + 7143-HCx)
8x Intel Xeon E7-8870
4TB 128x 32GB
Table 4 IBM SAP HANA Appliance building blocks (June 2013)
This list will change pretty frequently as new models and HANA configurations will become supported
Therefore always check the SAP list of supported models in the SAP HANA PAM (requires authorization)
or consult an IBM Techline representative SAP technology and management components as well as
common operational functions like the Tivoli Storage Manager for BackupRestore of ERP and HANA may
be deployed on PureFlex compute nodes and act on both environments
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
22
Figure 9 Architecture of SAP Business Suite on PureFlex and SAP HANA on System x3950 X5 Workload Optimized Solution for SAP HANA
In case of IBM SAP HANA scale-out configurations the Integrated Management Module of x3950 X5
servers and the SAP HANA appliance related network interfaces (like SAP client access HANA Studio
ERP backup and restore HWSW-Admin) will be connected to the PureFlex Device Management and
Client Data network via Ethernet through TOR switches Such a scale-out configuration is deployed with
separate racks
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
23
Figure 10 SAP HANA Appliances with PureFlex Network Topology
Depended on the amount of external network connections single node IBM SAP HANA appliances may
be connected via available ports on integrated switches of the PureFlex chassis The single node SAP
HANA appliance could be deployed in the same rack with IBM PureFlex System
FlexSystem Native Node Support for SAP Business Warehouse Accelerator
The SAP Business Warehouse Accelerator (BWA) was the initial approach to accelerate OLAP workload
with a dedicated appliance attached to a SAP Business Warehouse system SAP BWA follows a ldquoplug amp
playrdquo design easier to implement than SAP HANA and has a longer history Hence SAP BWA still has a
broad installed base among SAP BI customers
SAP BWA has not been this highly optimized for the Intel EX-CPU type This fact allows deploying SAP
BWA appliances on XEON-based FlexSystem nodes running a SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 SP2
operating system
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
24
The ldquoIBM Flex System Solution for SAP NetWeaver Business Warehouse Acceleratorrdquo extends the
established IBM BladeCenter offerings for SAP BWA with scalable FlexSystem configurations comprising
of x240 compute nodes inside the Flex-chassis and externally attached IBM Storage Systems DS3500
This combination meets the SAP BWA appliance criteria while providing an excellent priceperformance
ratio
Table 5 FlexSystem building blocks for IBM SAP Business Warehouse Accelerator Appliances (August 2013)
As with the SAP BWA appliances based on IBM BladeCenter the IBM GPFS filesystem improves overall
IO performance data scalability and resiliency The building blocks have been pre-tested and optimized
to deliver easy integration and quick implementation Order and shipment processes of the pre-built
systems are identical to those of the traditional IBM BWA platforms
Since SAP BWA is an encapsulated appliance it cannot exploit all functionality provided by FSM for full
topology management Passive ndash in the sense of monitoring - functions like inventory system health
hardware service and support are applicable Dedicated BWA-FlexSystem chassis can be attached to
PureFlex systems hosting a SAP BI solution and monitored from there Performing active administrative
functions which may have an impact on the BWA configuration are not allowed however
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
25
SAP on AIX reference landscapes for IBM PureFlex System
1 Minimal system = ERP BW all on POWER nodes
This is the simplest case of deploying
core SAP components in an IBM
PureFlex System System All SAP
modules are supported on POWER and
either an AIX or PowerLinux OS Two
nodes for physical redundancy each with
PowerVM and VIO virtualization are
used
In order to make use of autonomous load
balancing by PowerVM it is
recommended to mix production and
nonproduction SAP instances within a
shared processor pool on each of the
single nodes SAP 2-tier deployments
need to be preferred for smaller systems
Consider packing non- production
systems into WPARs for less LPAR
complexity
2 3-tier SAP ERP with scale-out DB and application-server tier all on POWER nodes
This option combines DB scale-out with
an SAP 3-tier application-server scale
out The advantage of a multinode DB
is a hot-standby high availability
without DB downtime as with classical
cold-standby cluster solutions Also
both the nodes contribute to an
aggregate DB throughput when in
normal operation As such a setup
appears for business-critical scenarios
a hot-standby FSM appliance has also
been configured (planned in 2012)
This in any case ensures that the
overall system monitoring and
adjustment can take place
Figure 11 minimal system
Figure 12 scale-out database
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
26
3 Mixed system = SAP Business Suite core applications TREX and non-SAP applications
This setup makes use of the IBM
PureFlex System heterogeneous
capabilities While several core SAP
Business Suite applications stay on
POWER nodes they are now
complemented by SAP TREX and a
NetWeaver development
environment which are supported
only on an x86 architecture There
are more than these components
there are newer appliances such as
BWA and HANA which mandate
such a setup
Further applications can be
consolidated into the same IBM
PureFlex System chassis as well
4 SAP NetWeaver landscape = SAP Business Suite core applications SAP Enterprise Portal
SAP Process Integration (service bus) and SAP Business Objects
This is a heterogeneous setup with
majority of SAP core systems on AIX
SAP Business Objects XI runs on
larger AIX LPAR for scaling while the
Business Objects end-user oriented
systems are consolidated in virtual
machines hosted on an x86 node
This scenario also outlines the
capability of IBM PureFlex System to
run x86 Linux and PowerLinux
distributions This applies to non-SAP
and many SAP components Inter-
system communication strongly takes
advantage of the internal networking
bandwidth of IBM PureFlex System
Figure 14 SAP Process Integration and SAP Business Objects
Figure 13 complementary components
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
27
5 Mixed system with SAP HANA = SAP Business Suite core applications deployed on
PureFlex nodes plus SAP HANA Appliances (= IBM Systems Solution for SAP Business
Suite and SAP HANA)
This setup makes use of the externalized IBM PureFlex System capabilities in shape of the IBM Systems Solution for SAP Business Suite and SAP HANA
Several core SAP applications are
deployed on internal POWER or x86
nodes and are complemented by an
external SAP HANA environment which is
being built of the x3950 X5 based standard
IBM appliance offering
This enables customers running SAP
HANA always to benefit from newest
certified System x HANA appliances and
operational improvements in that space
while creating administrative synergies
between the SAP HANA and traditional
SAP Business Suite infrastructure
Starting from physical integration today
the FlexSystem Manager will provide
integrated administrative capabilities
The IBM PureFlex system offers an
integrated infrastructure for all SAP
components SAP applications on
PureFlex System compute nodes may
access SAP HANA DB on IBM x3950 X5
servers as well as traditional data bases
(eg IBM DB2) running on PureFlex
System
Figure 15 SAP HANA Integration
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
28
High availability and disaster recovery
The single point of failures (SPOFs) for SAP systems stay untouched by the introduction of IBM PureFlex
System These are the database server and the central services for ABAP and Java including the enqueue
server
These SPOFs occur within each production SAP business component of the landscape that is multiple
clusters (such as ERP CRM SCM and so on) must be implemented
In addition central technical building blocks such as SAP Enterprise Portal (for user access) Process
Integration as Enterprise Service Bus need to be setup resilient
While the high availability and disaster recovery concepts for all these SPOFs are well known in general
they have not been tested in a special IBM PureFlex System environment at time of authoring this paper
As scenario 2 indicates multi-node databases like Oracle RAC are supported on IBM PureFlex System
Landscape monitoring and management
As the SAP landscapes tend to become a heterogeneous aggregation of servers and operating systems
this implies a certain level of complexity for SAP landscape administration Consolidating the SAP
landscape into an IBM PureFlex System with its consistent management capabilities helps to reduce this
complexity
The combination of the IBM PureFlex System and SAP NetWeaver technology offers multiple native
monitoring and administration layers for the complete hardware and software stack These are
Chassis Management Module
Flex System Management
SAP Computing Center Management System (SAP CCMS)
SAP Solution Manager
minus SAP Solution Manager aims at SAP application management and business key
performance indicator (KPI) monitoring but also is a mandatory tool for SAP
release and patch management
SAP NetWeaver Landscape Virtualization Management (LVM)
The IBM PureFlex System FSM and SAP LVM Enterprise are optional components the remaining ones
are part of virtualized base installation
In order to gain maximum efficiency for daily operations it is important to select the most appropriate tools
for specific administrative tasks and organizations In addition consistency and transparency need to be
maintained
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
29
The following table provides a high-level orientation for a selected set of administrator tasks in SAP
ecosystems
CMM FSM SAP LVM SAP CCMS SAP Solution Manager
Chassis topology view and administration
Through CMM
Virtualization metrics Through Flex System
Manager
Virtualization topology and administration
Through Flex System
Manager
OS DB SAP performance
Provisioning of a new virtual server Through Flex System
Manager
Virtual server start stop and live migration
Through Flex System
Manager
SAP service reallocation
SAP system refresh cloning
Alerting Chassis focus Systems focus
Task monitoring
OS DB SAP Base
Business KPIs
Integration to an upper-level enterprise management
Into Flex System
Manager
Into SAP Solution Manager
Table 6 monitoring and management layers
FSM is based on IBM Systems Director and provides comparable functions For POWER nodes FSM is
mandatory for advanced virtualization management As most of these functions are beneficial (if not
mandatory) for SAP (production) systems the FSM appears as an essential component for SAP on IBM
PureFlex environments
As a single point of control FSM provides a web-based interface to manage all aspects of the IBM
PureFlex System hardware components For example an interactive chassis map provides status
overview and serves as an entry point to manage the different resources Setup wizards guide you through
the process of initial setup and maintenance tasks
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
30
Figure 16 FSM chassis map
SAP CCMS is fully functional for IBM PureFlex System It allows monitoring and adjustment of base SAP
application and database settings Also PowerVM-specific metrics such as LPAR and WPAR resources
AME settings and so on can be accesses through the native SAP administrator GUI
IBM PureFlex System integration with SAP NetWeaver Landscape
Virtualization Management
The described cloud solution for SAP landscapes becomes available by a combination of the IBM FSM
capabilities and SAP NetWeaver Landscape Virtualization Management for automation tasks at the
application level
This solution enables common cloud scenarios with the SAP software stack and the underlying
infrastructure It aims to connect application management services with system virtualization and storage
management services It is a management tool for customers who run their SAP systems in their own data
center and want to become more efficient by automating provisioning and cloning tasks
Various scenarios around system copy and system refresh are supported including post-copy automation
Those labor-expensive tasks have been made easy with SAP Landscape Virtualization Management and
IBM PureFlex System
In more detail the following use cases are covered for cloud environments running SAP applications
Cloning of a SAP system (creating an identical copy in a fenced environment)
Creating an initial copy of a SAP system (with changing the SAP system identifier)
Refreshing a test SAP system with the content of a productive system
Automation of system copyrefresh post processing activities
Monitoring and visualization of virtualized SAP landscapes
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
31
SAP Landscape Virtualization Management is in many cases complementary to the inherent IBM PureFlex
System management layers SAP Landscape Virtualization Management enables access to many relevant
IBM PureFlex System and virtualization parameters to the SAP management software and provides IT
self-services to SAP administrators
The available IBM and SAP literature which describes the interaction of IBM Systems Director and SAP
Landscape Virtualization Management also applies to IBM PureFlex System FSM is the enriched IBM
Systems Director specifically optimized and packaged for IBM PureFlex System
IBM Tivoli Storage FlashCopy Manager adds a unique value for SAP landscapes This software enables
application-aware database-consistent online backups which can be used to create the cloned system By
exploiting storage snapshot techniques the backup is taken almost instantaneously
The solution has been developed as modular building blocks This provides a high degree of flexibility and
extensibility The following table shows the products and editions that are used for each scenario
Table 7 Use cases per management layer
Management components
SAP NetWeaver Landscape Virtualization Management 10 integrates with the following IBM
management products
IBM Flex System Manager
FSM is used for virtualization monitoring and management and for the operating system
provisioning scenarios on IBM PureFlex System
IBM Tivoli Storage FlashCopy Manager 3101
Tivoli Storage FlashCopy Manager is required for storage cloning of online SAP systems
System
monitoring
SAP
relocate
AIX
provisioning
SAP
Clone
SAP
Copy
SAP
Refresh
Flex
System
Manager
(not needed) (not needed) (not needed) (not needed)
FlashCopy
Manager
(not needed) (not needed) (not needed)
Storage any NFS GPFS
SVC V7000
or XIV
any SVC V7000
or XIV
SVC V7000
or XIV
SVC V7000
or XIV
SAP LVM Standard
Edition
Standard
Edition
Standard
Edition
Enterprise
Edition
Enterprise
Edition
Enterprise
Edition
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
32
The management products can be installed on a single AIX LPAR within IBM PureFlex System
Alternatively the products might be installed on different servers for example SAP NetWeaver
Landscape Virtualization Management may run on any of the supported SAP platforms
The following graphic shows a high-level view of how SAP Landscape Virtualization Management
integrates with the IBM PureFlex System FSM stack to enable cloud scenarios on this platform
Figure 17 SAP Landscape Virtualization Manager integration with FSM
Managed SAP landscape
The following IBM PureFlex System infrastructure is supported with SAP NetWeaver Landscape
Virtualization Management
IBM POWER nodes
AIX 61 or 71
IBM SAN Volume Controller IBM Storwize V7000 or IBM XIVreg Storage System1
SAP NetWeaver 7x using IBM DB2 for Linux UNIX and Windows Oracle Database or
SAP MaxDB is supported
1 SAN Volume Controller and Storwize V7000 support requires SAP Landscape Virtualization Management SP3
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
33
It is assumed that the storage is attached using single or dual VIOS (IBM PowerVM VIOS) For the
storage-cloning scenario the SAN storage system must be attached in the N_Port ID Virtualization
(NPIV) mode NPIV is a FC adapter (HBA) feature that allows multiple LPARs to share a physical port
The clone is created using the FlashCopy feature of the SAN Volume Controller or the snapshot
feature of the XIV Storage System These methods create a logical copy of the data volumes within
seconds while the SAP source system stays fully operational
Whenever an IBM PureFlex System environment needs to be integrated into an existing enterprise
monitoring and management solution (for example an existing IBM Systems Director hierarchy or the IBM
Tivoli Suite) FSM provides interfaces for seamless upward integration
Furthermore SAP Landscape Virtualization Management can be used to manage SAP landscapes within
and outside of IBM PureFlex System and also across different platforms
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
34
SAP-specific offerings for IBM PureFlex System
This section lists specific offerings for SAP on IBM PureFlex System
Lab services and IBM support
As capacity and capability of a larger IBM PureFlex System installation are comparable to large scale
UNIX or mainframe installations IBM provides hardware and software support beyond the standards of
commodity blade systems
Including three Global Centers of Competence IBM Maintenance and Technical Support Services provide
integrated support on the FSM-based environments when there is not a clear understanding of whether
there is a hardware or a software issue All of this can be backed up with the latest version of IBM
Electronic Service Agent trade which has been enhanced for IBM PureFlex System and proactively monitors
and reports hardware events back to IBM support Even if a client has a comprehensive in-house support
organization this can selectively be enhanced through the addition of specific services within the portfolio
to cover critical areas of weakness or exposure
For complex IBM PureFlex System environments and where mission-critical applications are deployed
(which applies to SAP production systems) premium services are available and cover
Enhanced technical support custom technical support
Microcode support managed technical support
Committed fix services
Availability management hard disk retention
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
35
Summary
This paper provides reference architectures of how heterogeneous SAP landscapes can be consolidated
using IBM PureFlex System While running the core business applications on POWER nodes with AIX as
operating system complementary SAP components are added on x86 nodes IBM PureFlex System
enables a very tight integration of infrastructure components including servers networking and storage
Seamless monitoring and management functions of the infrastructure are provided by the FSM
The integration aspect is taken even further with the integration of the SAP Landscape Virtualization
Manager application with the FSM This enables SAP cloud usage scenarios for SAP systems running on
IBM PureFlex System
For individual questions or to request a briefing about this topic contact the IBM SAP International
Competence Center at isiccdeibmcom
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
36
Resources
These websites provide useful references to supplement the information contained in this paper
IBM Systems on PartnerWorld
ibmcompartnerworldsystems
IBM Redbooks
ibmcomredbooks
IBM cloud computing
ibmcomsolutionssapusenlandingcloud_solutionshtml
IBM Cloud Solutions for SAP clients
ibmcomcloud-computingusen
IBM SmartCloud Entry for AIX on PartnerWorld (requires PartnerWorld login)
ibmcompartnerworldpagestg_com_sys_smartcloud
SAP HANA on workload optimized IBM System x appliances
ibmcomsolutionssaphana
IBM internal SSI-URL with a collection of SAP related PureSystem materials
httpsw3-
03ssoibmcomsalessupportShowDocwssdocid=SGDN258263T70735C63ampnode=brandsB6000|brandsBI5
00|clientsetIA|alliancesT5000|alliancesT5150|channelDR|channelF2F|solutionQ00|solution210ampappname=C
C_SSIGD
select the ldquoCollateralrdquo Tab in ldquoMain Contentrdquo section
Related SAP on PureFlex paper with System x focus ldquoReference Architecture - SAP
Systems on IBM PureSystems based on x86 nodesrdquo
httpw3ibmcomsupporttechdocsatsmastrnsfWebIndexWP102167
httpwwwibmcomsupporttechdocsatsmastrnsfWebIndexWP102167
httpwww-03ibmcompartnerworldpartnerinfosrcatsmastrnsfWebIndexWP102167
Related SAP on PureFlex paper with IBM i focus ldquoEfficiently deploying SAP landscapes
on the IBM PureFlex Systemrdquo
httpw3ibmcomsupporttechdocsatsmastrnsfWebIndexWP102087
httpwwwibmcomsupporttechdocsatsmastrnsfWebIndexWP102087
httpwww-03ibmcompartnerworldpartnerinfosrcatsmastrnsfWebIndexWP102087
Virtualization for SAP on IBM PureSystems with Microsoft Hyper-V
httpwwwibmcomsupporttechdocsatsmastrnsfWebIndexWP102153
IBM Workload Optimized Solution for SAP HANA ndash Quick Start Guide
provides technical overview HW models network requirements for IBM Systems Solution
for SAP HANA appliance
httpdownloadboulderibmcomibmdlpubsystemssupportsystem_x_pdf46w8274pdf
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
37
IBM internal SAP HANA Wiki
httpsw3-connectionsibmcomwikishomelang=en-
uswikiWaef4c0eb0f35_427f_a25e_670e392682b1pageSAP20HANA
FlexSystem with SAP BWA Presentations (click to open link)
Seller
Customer
General IBM Sales Kit ldquoSAP NetWeaver Business Warehouse Accelerator (BWA)rdquo
Implementation Guide for BWA on IBM Flex System x240
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
38
Trademarks and special notices
copy Copyright IBM Corporation 2013
References in this document to IBM products or services do not imply that IBM intends to make them
available in every country
IBM the IBM logo and ibmcom are trademarks or registered trademarks of International Business
Machines Corporation in the United States other countries or both If these and other IBM trademarked
terms are marked on their first occurrence in this information with a trademark symbol (reg or trade) these
symbols indicate US registered or common law trademarks owned by IBM at the time this information
was published Such trademarks may also be registered or common law trademarks in other countries A
current list of IBM trademarks is available on the Web at Copyright and trademark information at
wwwibmcomlegalcopytradeshtml
Java and all Java-based trademarks and logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of Oracle andor
its affiliates
Microsoft Windows Windows NT and the Windows logo are trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the
United States other countries or both
Intel Intel Inside (logos) MMX and Pentium are trademarks of Intel Corporation in the United States
other countries or both
UNIX is a registered trademark of The Open Group in the United States and other countries
Linux is a trademark of Linus Torvalds in the United States other countries or both
Other company product or service names may be trademarks or service marks of others
Information is provided AS IS without warranty of any kind
All customer examples described are presented as illustrations of how those customers have used IBM
products and the results they may have achieved Actual environmental costs and performance
characteristics may vary by customer
Information concerning non-IBM products was obtained from a supplier of these products published
announcement material or other publicly available sources and does not constitute an endorsement of
such products by IBM Sources for non-IBM list prices and performance numbers are taken from publicly
available information including vendor announcements and vendor worldwide homepages IBM has not
tested these products and cannot confirm the accuracy of performance capability or any other claims
related to non-IBM products Questions on the capability of non-IBM products should be addressed to the
supplier of those products
All statements regarding IBM future direction and intent are subject to change or withdrawal without notice
and represent goals and objectives only Contact your local IBM office or IBM authorized reseller for the
full text of the specific Statement of Direction
Some information addresses anticipated future capabilities Such information is not intended as a definitive
statement of a commitment to specific levels of performance function or delivery schedules with respect to
any future products Such commitments are only made in IBM product announcements The information is
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
39
presented here to communicate IBMs current investment and development activities as a good faith effort
to help with our customers future planning
Performance is based on measurements and projections using standard IBM benchmarks in a controlled
environment The actual throughput or performance that any user will experience will vary depending upon
considerations such as the amount of multiprogramming in the users job stream the IO configuration the
storage configuration and the workload processed Therefore no assurance can be given that an
individual user will achieve throughput or performance improvements equivalent to the ratios stated here
Photographs shown are of engineering prototypes Changes may be incorporated in production models
Any references in this information to non-IBM websites are provided for convenience only and do not in
any manner serve as an endorsement of those websites The materials at those websites are not part of
the materials for this IBM product and use of those websites is at your own risk
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
21
From a hardware point-of-view IBM PureFlex Systems offer the administrative integration of the HANA
building blocks (T-shirt sizes) listed in Table 4They meet the SAP defined HANA sizing grid and do not
need to be purchased together with a PureFlex System This allows the integration of existing HANA
systems with a newly deployed PureFlex System at customer site
Building block
Server (MTM)
CPUs Main memory
S+ x3950 X5
(7143-HAx) 2x Intel Xeon
E7-8870 256 GB
M x3950 X5
(7143-HBx) 4x Intel Xeon
E7-8870 512 GB
L
x3950 X5 (7143HBx)
+ x3950 X5
(7143HCx)
8x Intel Xeon E7-8870
1024 GB
XM x3950 X5
(7143-HDx) 4x Intel Xeon
E7-8870 1TB
32x 32GB
XL x3950 X5
(7143-HDx + 7143-HEx)
8x Intel Xeon E7-8870
2TB 64x 32GB
XXL x3950 X5
(7143-HBx + 7143-HCx)
8x Intel Xeon E7-8870
4TB 128x 32GB
Table 4 IBM SAP HANA Appliance building blocks (June 2013)
This list will change pretty frequently as new models and HANA configurations will become supported
Therefore always check the SAP list of supported models in the SAP HANA PAM (requires authorization)
or consult an IBM Techline representative SAP technology and management components as well as
common operational functions like the Tivoli Storage Manager for BackupRestore of ERP and HANA may
be deployed on PureFlex compute nodes and act on both environments
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
22
Figure 9 Architecture of SAP Business Suite on PureFlex and SAP HANA on System x3950 X5 Workload Optimized Solution for SAP HANA
In case of IBM SAP HANA scale-out configurations the Integrated Management Module of x3950 X5
servers and the SAP HANA appliance related network interfaces (like SAP client access HANA Studio
ERP backup and restore HWSW-Admin) will be connected to the PureFlex Device Management and
Client Data network via Ethernet through TOR switches Such a scale-out configuration is deployed with
separate racks
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
23
Figure 10 SAP HANA Appliances with PureFlex Network Topology
Depended on the amount of external network connections single node IBM SAP HANA appliances may
be connected via available ports on integrated switches of the PureFlex chassis The single node SAP
HANA appliance could be deployed in the same rack with IBM PureFlex System
FlexSystem Native Node Support for SAP Business Warehouse Accelerator
The SAP Business Warehouse Accelerator (BWA) was the initial approach to accelerate OLAP workload
with a dedicated appliance attached to a SAP Business Warehouse system SAP BWA follows a ldquoplug amp
playrdquo design easier to implement than SAP HANA and has a longer history Hence SAP BWA still has a
broad installed base among SAP BI customers
SAP BWA has not been this highly optimized for the Intel EX-CPU type This fact allows deploying SAP
BWA appliances on XEON-based FlexSystem nodes running a SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 SP2
operating system
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
24
The ldquoIBM Flex System Solution for SAP NetWeaver Business Warehouse Acceleratorrdquo extends the
established IBM BladeCenter offerings for SAP BWA with scalable FlexSystem configurations comprising
of x240 compute nodes inside the Flex-chassis and externally attached IBM Storage Systems DS3500
This combination meets the SAP BWA appliance criteria while providing an excellent priceperformance
ratio
Table 5 FlexSystem building blocks for IBM SAP Business Warehouse Accelerator Appliances (August 2013)
As with the SAP BWA appliances based on IBM BladeCenter the IBM GPFS filesystem improves overall
IO performance data scalability and resiliency The building blocks have been pre-tested and optimized
to deliver easy integration and quick implementation Order and shipment processes of the pre-built
systems are identical to those of the traditional IBM BWA platforms
Since SAP BWA is an encapsulated appliance it cannot exploit all functionality provided by FSM for full
topology management Passive ndash in the sense of monitoring - functions like inventory system health
hardware service and support are applicable Dedicated BWA-FlexSystem chassis can be attached to
PureFlex systems hosting a SAP BI solution and monitored from there Performing active administrative
functions which may have an impact on the BWA configuration are not allowed however
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
25
SAP on AIX reference landscapes for IBM PureFlex System
1 Minimal system = ERP BW all on POWER nodes
This is the simplest case of deploying
core SAP components in an IBM
PureFlex System System All SAP
modules are supported on POWER and
either an AIX or PowerLinux OS Two
nodes for physical redundancy each with
PowerVM and VIO virtualization are
used
In order to make use of autonomous load
balancing by PowerVM it is
recommended to mix production and
nonproduction SAP instances within a
shared processor pool on each of the
single nodes SAP 2-tier deployments
need to be preferred for smaller systems
Consider packing non- production
systems into WPARs for less LPAR
complexity
2 3-tier SAP ERP with scale-out DB and application-server tier all on POWER nodes
This option combines DB scale-out with
an SAP 3-tier application-server scale
out The advantage of a multinode DB
is a hot-standby high availability
without DB downtime as with classical
cold-standby cluster solutions Also
both the nodes contribute to an
aggregate DB throughput when in
normal operation As such a setup
appears for business-critical scenarios
a hot-standby FSM appliance has also
been configured (planned in 2012)
This in any case ensures that the
overall system monitoring and
adjustment can take place
Figure 11 minimal system
Figure 12 scale-out database
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
26
3 Mixed system = SAP Business Suite core applications TREX and non-SAP applications
This setup makes use of the IBM
PureFlex System heterogeneous
capabilities While several core SAP
Business Suite applications stay on
POWER nodes they are now
complemented by SAP TREX and a
NetWeaver development
environment which are supported
only on an x86 architecture There
are more than these components
there are newer appliances such as
BWA and HANA which mandate
such a setup
Further applications can be
consolidated into the same IBM
PureFlex System chassis as well
4 SAP NetWeaver landscape = SAP Business Suite core applications SAP Enterprise Portal
SAP Process Integration (service bus) and SAP Business Objects
This is a heterogeneous setup with
majority of SAP core systems on AIX
SAP Business Objects XI runs on
larger AIX LPAR for scaling while the
Business Objects end-user oriented
systems are consolidated in virtual
machines hosted on an x86 node
This scenario also outlines the
capability of IBM PureFlex System to
run x86 Linux and PowerLinux
distributions This applies to non-SAP
and many SAP components Inter-
system communication strongly takes
advantage of the internal networking
bandwidth of IBM PureFlex System
Figure 14 SAP Process Integration and SAP Business Objects
Figure 13 complementary components
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
27
5 Mixed system with SAP HANA = SAP Business Suite core applications deployed on
PureFlex nodes plus SAP HANA Appliances (= IBM Systems Solution for SAP Business
Suite and SAP HANA)
This setup makes use of the externalized IBM PureFlex System capabilities in shape of the IBM Systems Solution for SAP Business Suite and SAP HANA
Several core SAP applications are
deployed on internal POWER or x86
nodes and are complemented by an
external SAP HANA environment which is
being built of the x3950 X5 based standard
IBM appliance offering
This enables customers running SAP
HANA always to benefit from newest
certified System x HANA appliances and
operational improvements in that space
while creating administrative synergies
between the SAP HANA and traditional
SAP Business Suite infrastructure
Starting from physical integration today
the FlexSystem Manager will provide
integrated administrative capabilities
The IBM PureFlex system offers an
integrated infrastructure for all SAP
components SAP applications on
PureFlex System compute nodes may
access SAP HANA DB on IBM x3950 X5
servers as well as traditional data bases
(eg IBM DB2) running on PureFlex
System
Figure 15 SAP HANA Integration
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
28
High availability and disaster recovery
The single point of failures (SPOFs) for SAP systems stay untouched by the introduction of IBM PureFlex
System These are the database server and the central services for ABAP and Java including the enqueue
server
These SPOFs occur within each production SAP business component of the landscape that is multiple
clusters (such as ERP CRM SCM and so on) must be implemented
In addition central technical building blocks such as SAP Enterprise Portal (for user access) Process
Integration as Enterprise Service Bus need to be setup resilient
While the high availability and disaster recovery concepts for all these SPOFs are well known in general
they have not been tested in a special IBM PureFlex System environment at time of authoring this paper
As scenario 2 indicates multi-node databases like Oracle RAC are supported on IBM PureFlex System
Landscape monitoring and management
As the SAP landscapes tend to become a heterogeneous aggregation of servers and operating systems
this implies a certain level of complexity for SAP landscape administration Consolidating the SAP
landscape into an IBM PureFlex System with its consistent management capabilities helps to reduce this
complexity
The combination of the IBM PureFlex System and SAP NetWeaver technology offers multiple native
monitoring and administration layers for the complete hardware and software stack These are
Chassis Management Module
Flex System Management
SAP Computing Center Management System (SAP CCMS)
SAP Solution Manager
minus SAP Solution Manager aims at SAP application management and business key
performance indicator (KPI) monitoring but also is a mandatory tool for SAP
release and patch management
SAP NetWeaver Landscape Virtualization Management (LVM)
The IBM PureFlex System FSM and SAP LVM Enterprise are optional components the remaining ones
are part of virtualized base installation
In order to gain maximum efficiency for daily operations it is important to select the most appropriate tools
for specific administrative tasks and organizations In addition consistency and transparency need to be
maintained
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
29
The following table provides a high-level orientation for a selected set of administrator tasks in SAP
ecosystems
CMM FSM SAP LVM SAP CCMS SAP Solution Manager
Chassis topology view and administration
Through CMM
Virtualization metrics Through Flex System
Manager
Virtualization topology and administration
Through Flex System
Manager
OS DB SAP performance
Provisioning of a new virtual server Through Flex System
Manager
Virtual server start stop and live migration
Through Flex System
Manager
SAP service reallocation
SAP system refresh cloning
Alerting Chassis focus Systems focus
Task monitoring
OS DB SAP Base
Business KPIs
Integration to an upper-level enterprise management
Into Flex System
Manager
Into SAP Solution Manager
Table 6 monitoring and management layers
FSM is based on IBM Systems Director and provides comparable functions For POWER nodes FSM is
mandatory for advanced virtualization management As most of these functions are beneficial (if not
mandatory) for SAP (production) systems the FSM appears as an essential component for SAP on IBM
PureFlex environments
As a single point of control FSM provides a web-based interface to manage all aspects of the IBM
PureFlex System hardware components For example an interactive chassis map provides status
overview and serves as an entry point to manage the different resources Setup wizards guide you through
the process of initial setup and maintenance tasks
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
30
Figure 16 FSM chassis map
SAP CCMS is fully functional for IBM PureFlex System It allows monitoring and adjustment of base SAP
application and database settings Also PowerVM-specific metrics such as LPAR and WPAR resources
AME settings and so on can be accesses through the native SAP administrator GUI
IBM PureFlex System integration with SAP NetWeaver Landscape
Virtualization Management
The described cloud solution for SAP landscapes becomes available by a combination of the IBM FSM
capabilities and SAP NetWeaver Landscape Virtualization Management for automation tasks at the
application level
This solution enables common cloud scenarios with the SAP software stack and the underlying
infrastructure It aims to connect application management services with system virtualization and storage
management services It is a management tool for customers who run their SAP systems in their own data
center and want to become more efficient by automating provisioning and cloning tasks
Various scenarios around system copy and system refresh are supported including post-copy automation
Those labor-expensive tasks have been made easy with SAP Landscape Virtualization Management and
IBM PureFlex System
In more detail the following use cases are covered for cloud environments running SAP applications
Cloning of a SAP system (creating an identical copy in a fenced environment)
Creating an initial copy of a SAP system (with changing the SAP system identifier)
Refreshing a test SAP system with the content of a productive system
Automation of system copyrefresh post processing activities
Monitoring and visualization of virtualized SAP landscapes
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
31
SAP Landscape Virtualization Management is in many cases complementary to the inherent IBM PureFlex
System management layers SAP Landscape Virtualization Management enables access to many relevant
IBM PureFlex System and virtualization parameters to the SAP management software and provides IT
self-services to SAP administrators
The available IBM and SAP literature which describes the interaction of IBM Systems Director and SAP
Landscape Virtualization Management also applies to IBM PureFlex System FSM is the enriched IBM
Systems Director specifically optimized and packaged for IBM PureFlex System
IBM Tivoli Storage FlashCopy Manager adds a unique value for SAP landscapes This software enables
application-aware database-consistent online backups which can be used to create the cloned system By
exploiting storage snapshot techniques the backup is taken almost instantaneously
The solution has been developed as modular building blocks This provides a high degree of flexibility and
extensibility The following table shows the products and editions that are used for each scenario
Table 7 Use cases per management layer
Management components
SAP NetWeaver Landscape Virtualization Management 10 integrates with the following IBM
management products
IBM Flex System Manager
FSM is used for virtualization monitoring and management and for the operating system
provisioning scenarios on IBM PureFlex System
IBM Tivoli Storage FlashCopy Manager 3101
Tivoli Storage FlashCopy Manager is required for storage cloning of online SAP systems
System
monitoring
SAP
relocate
AIX
provisioning
SAP
Clone
SAP
Copy
SAP
Refresh
Flex
System
Manager
(not needed) (not needed) (not needed) (not needed)
FlashCopy
Manager
(not needed) (not needed) (not needed)
Storage any NFS GPFS
SVC V7000
or XIV
any SVC V7000
or XIV
SVC V7000
or XIV
SVC V7000
or XIV
SAP LVM Standard
Edition
Standard
Edition
Standard
Edition
Enterprise
Edition
Enterprise
Edition
Enterprise
Edition
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
32
The management products can be installed on a single AIX LPAR within IBM PureFlex System
Alternatively the products might be installed on different servers for example SAP NetWeaver
Landscape Virtualization Management may run on any of the supported SAP platforms
The following graphic shows a high-level view of how SAP Landscape Virtualization Management
integrates with the IBM PureFlex System FSM stack to enable cloud scenarios on this platform
Figure 17 SAP Landscape Virtualization Manager integration with FSM
Managed SAP landscape
The following IBM PureFlex System infrastructure is supported with SAP NetWeaver Landscape
Virtualization Management
IBM POWER nodes
AIX 61 or 71
IBM SAN Volume Controller IBM Storwize V7000 or IBM XIVreg Storage System1
SAP NetWeaver 7x using IBM DB2 for Linux UNIX and Windows Oracle Database or
SAP MaxDB is supported
1 SAN Volume Controller and Storwize V7000 support requires SAP Landscape Virtualization Management SP3
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
33
It is assumed that the storage is attached using single or dual VIOS (IBM PowerVM VIOS) For the
storage-cloning scenario the SAN storage system must be attached in the N_Port ID Virtualization
(NPIV) mode NPIV is a FC adapter (HBA) feature that allows multiple LPARs to share a physical port
The clone is created using the FlashCopy feature of the SAN Volume Controller or the snapshot
feature of the XIV Storage System These methods create a logical copy of the data volumes within
seconds while the SAP source system stays fully operational
Whenever an IBM PureFlex System environment needs to be integrated into an existing enterprise
monitoring and management solution (for example an existing IBM Systems Director hierarchy or the IBM
Tivoli Suite) FSM provides interfaces for seamless upward integration
Furthermore SAP Landscape Virtualization Management can be used to manage SAP landscapes within
and outside of IBM PureFlex System and also across different platforms
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
34
SAP-specific offerings for IBM PureFlex System
This section lists specific offerings for SAP on IBM PureFlex System
Lab services and IBM support
As capacity and capability of a larger IBM PureFlex System installation are comparable to large scale
UNIX or mainframe installations IBM provides hardware and software support beyond the standards of
commodity blade systems
Including three Global Centers of Competence IBM Maintenance and Technical Support Services provide
integrated support on the FSM-based environments when there is not a clear understanding of whether
there is a hardware or a software issue All of this can be backed up with the latest version of IBM
Electronic Service Agent trade which has been enhanced for IBM PureFlex System and proactively monitors
and reports hardware events back to IBM support Even if a client has a comprehensive in-house support
organization this can selectively be enhanced through the addition of specific services within the portfolio
to cover critical areas of weakness or exposure
For complex IBM PureFlex System environments and where mission-critical applications are deployed
(which applies to SAP production systems) premium services are available and cover
Enhanced technical support custom technical support
Microcode support managed technical support
Committed fix services
Availability management hard disk retention
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
35
Summary
This paper provides reference architectures of how heterogeneous SAP landscapes can be consolidated
using IBM PureFlex System While running the core business applications on POWER nodes with AIX as
operating system complementary SAP components are added on x86 nodes IBM PureFlex System
enables a very tight integration of infrastructure components including servers networking and storage
Seamless monitoring and management functions of the infrastructure are provided by the FSM
The integration aspect is taken even further with the integration of the SAP Landscape Virtualization
Manager application with the FSM This enables SAP cloud usage scenarios for SAP systems running on
IBM PureFlex System
For individual questions or to request a briefing about this topic contact the IBM SAP International
Competence Center at isiccdeibmcom
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
36
Resources
These websites provide useful references to supplement the information contained in this paper
IBM Systems on PartnerWorld
ibmcompartnerworldsystems
IBM Redbooks
ibmcomredbooks
IBM cloud computing
ibmcomsolutionssapusenlandingcloud_solutionshtml
IBM Cloud Solutions for SAP clients
ibmcomcloud-computingusen
IBM SmartCloud Entry for AIX on PartnerWorld (requires PartnerWorld login)
ibmcompartnerworldpagestg_com_sys_smartcloud
SAP HANA on workload optimized IBM System x appliances
ibmcomsolutionssaphana
IBM internal SSI-URL with a collection of SAP related PureSystem materials
httpsw3-
03ssoibmcomsalessupportShowDocwssdocid=SGDN258263T70735C63ampnode=brandsB6000|brandsBI5
00|clientsetIA|alliancesT5000|alliancesT5150|channelDR|channelF2F|solutionQ00|solution210ampappname=C
C_SSIGD
select the ldquoCollateralrdquo Tab in ldquoMain Contentrdquo section
Related SAP on PureFlex paper with System x focus ldquoReference Architecture - SAP
Systems on IBM PureSystems based on x86 nodesrdquo
httpw3ibmcomsupporttechdocsatsmastrnsfWebIndexWP102167
httpwwwibmcomsupporttechdocsatsmastrnsfWebIndexWP102167
httpwww-03ibmcompartnerworldpartnerinfosrcatsmastrnsfWebIndexWP102167
Related SAP on PureFlex paper with IBM i focus ldquoEfficiently deploying SAP landscapes
on the IBM PureFlex Systemrdquo
httpw3ibmcomsupporttechdocsatsmastrnsfWebIndexWP102087
httpwwwibmcomsupporttechdocsatsmastrnsfWebIndexWP102087
httpwww-03ibmcompartnerworldpartnerinfosrcatsmastrnsfWebIndexWP102087
Virtualization for SAP on IBM PureSystems with Microsoft Hyper-V
httpwwwibmcomsupporttechdocsatsmastrnsfWebIndexWP102153
IBM Workload Optimized Solution for SAP HANA ndash Quick Start Guide
provides technical overview HW models network requirements for IBM Systems Solution
for SAP HANA appliance
httpdownloadboulderibmcomibmdlpubsystemssupportsystem_x_pdf46w8274pdf
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
37
IBM internal SAP HANA Wiki
httpsw3-connectionsibmcomwikishomelang=en-
uswikiWaef4c0eb0f35_427f_a25e_670e392682b1pageSAP20HANA
FlexSystem with SAP BWA Presentations (click to open link)
Seller
Customer
General IBM Sales Kit ldquoSAP NetWeaver Business Warehouse Accelerator (BWA)rdquo
Implementation Guide for BWA on IBM Flex System x240
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
38
Trademarks and special notices
copy Copyright IBM Corporation 2013
References in this document to IBM products or services do not imply that IBM intends to make them
available in every country
IBM the IBM logo and ibmcom are trademarks or registered trademarks of International Business
Machines Corporation in the United States other countries or both If these and other IBM trademarked
terms are marked on their first occurrence in this information with a trademark symbol (reg or trade) these
symbols indicate US registered or common law trademarks owned by IBM at the time this information
was published Such trademarks may also be registered or common law trademarks in other countries A
current list of IBM trademarks is available on the Web at Copyright and trademark information at
wwwibmcomlegalcopytradeshtml
Java and all Java-based trademarks and logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of Oracle andor
its affiliates
Microsoft Windows Windows NT and the Windows logo are trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the
United States other countries or both
Intel Intel Inside (logos) MMX and Pentium are trademarks of Intel Corporation in the United States
other countries or both
UNIX is a registered trademark of The Open Group in the United States and other countries
Linux is a trademark of Linus Torvalds in the United States other countries or both
Other company product or service names may be trademarks or service marks of others
Information is provided AS IS without warranty of any kind
All customer examples described are presented as illustrations of how those customers have used IBM
products and the results they may have achieved Actual environmental costs and performance
characteristics may vary by customer
Information concerning non-IBM products was obtained from a supplier of these products published
announcement material or other publicly available sources and does not constitute an endorsement of
such products by IBM Sources for non-IBM list prices and performance numbers are taken from publicly
available information including vendor announcements and vendor worldwide homepages IBM has not
tested these products and cannot confirm the accuracy of performance capability or any other claims
related to non-IBM products Questions on the capability of non-IBM products should be addressed to the
supplier of those products
All statements regarding IBM future direction and intent are subject to change or withdrawal without notice
and represent goals and objectives only Contact your local IBM office or IBM authorized reseller for the
full text of the specific Statement of Direction
Some information addresses anticipated future capabilities Such information is not intended as a definitive
statement of a commitment to specific levels of performance function or delivery schedules with respect to
any future products Such commitments are only made in IBM product announcements The information is
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
39
presented here to communicate IBMs current investment and development activities as a good faith effort
to help with our customers future planning
Performance is based on measurements and projections using standard IBM benchmarks in a controlled
environment The actual throughput or performance that any user will experience will vary depending upon
considerations such as the amount of multiprogramming in the users job stream the IO configuration the
storage configuration and the workload processed Therefore no assurance can be given that an
individual user will achieve throughput or performance improvements equivalent to the ratios stated here
Photographs shown are of engineering prototypes Changes may be incorporated in production models
Any references in this information to non-IBM websites are provided for convenience only and do not in
any manner serve as an endorsement of those websites The materials at those websites are not part of
the materials for this IBM product and use of those websites is at your own risk
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
22
Figure 9 Architecture of SAP Business Suite on PureFlex and SAP HANA on System x3950 X5 Workload Optimized Solution for SAP HANA
In case of IBM SAP HANA scale-out configurations the Integrated Management Module of x3950 X5
servers and the SAP HANA appliance related network interfaces (like SAP client access HANA Studio
ERP backup and restore HWSW-Admin) will be connected to the PureFlex Device Management and
Client Data network via Ethernet through TOR switches Such a scale-out configuration is deployed with
separate racks
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
23
Figure 10 SAP HANA Appliances with PureFlex Network Topology
Depended on the amount of external network connections single node IBM SAP HANA appliances may
be connected via available ports on integrated switches of the PureFlex chassis The single node SAP
HANA appliance could be deployed in the same rack with IBM PureFlex System
FlexSystem Native Node Support for SAP Business Warehouse Accelerator
The SAP Business Warehouse Accelerator (BWA) was the initial approach to accelerate OLAP workload
with a dedicated appliance attached to a SAP Business Warehouse system SAP BWA follows a ldquoplug amp
playrdquo design easier to implement than SAP HANA and has a longer history Hence SAP BWA still has a
broad installed base among SAP BI customers
SAP BWA has not been this highly optimized for the Intel EX-CPU type This fact allows deploying SAP
BWA appliances on XEON-based FlexSystem nodes running a SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 SP2
operating system
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
24
The ldquoIBM Flex System Solution for SAP NetWeaver Business Warehouse Acceleratorrdquo extends the
established IBM BladeCenter offerings for SAP BWA with scalable FlexSystem configurations comprising
of x240 compute nodes inside the Flex-chassis and externally attached IBM Storage Systems DS3500
This combination meets the SAP BWA appliance criteria while providing an excellent priceperformance
ratio
Table 5 FlexSystem building blocks for IBM SAP Business Warehouse Accelerator Appliances (August 2013)
As with the SAP BWA appliances based on IBM BladeCenter the IBM GPFS filesystem improves overall
IO performance data scalability and resiliency The building blocks have been pre-tested and optimized
to deliver easy integration and quick implementation Order and shipment processes of the pre-built
systems are identical to those of the traditional IBM BWA platforms
Since SAP BWA is an encapsulated appliance it cannot exploit all functionality provided by FSM for full
topology management Passive ndash in the sense of monitoring - functions like inventory system health
hardware service and support are applicable Dedicated BWA-FlexSystem chassis can be attached to
PureFlex systems hosting a SAP BI solution and monitored from there Performing active administrative
functions which may have an impact on the BWA configuration are not allowed however
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
25
SAP on AIX reference landscapes for IBM PureFlex System
1 Minimal system = ERP BW all on POWER nodes
This is the simplest case of deploying
core SAP components in an IBM
PureFlex System System All SAP
modules are supported on POWER and
either an AIX or PowerLinux OS Two
nodes for physical redundancy each with
PowerVM and VIO virtualization are
used
In order to make use of autonomous load
balancing by PowerVM it is
recommended to mix production and
nonproduction SAP instances within a
shared processor pool on each of the
single nodes SAP 2-tier deployments
need to be preferred for smaller systems
Consider packing non- production
systems into WPARs for less LPAR
complexity
2 3-tier SAP ERP with scale-out DB and application-server tier all on POWER nodes
This option combines DB scale-out with
an SAP 3-tier application-server scale
out The advantage of a multinode DB
is a hot-standby high availability
without DB downtime as with classical
cold-standby cluster solutions Also
both the nodes contribute to an
aggregate DB throughput when in
normal operation As such a setup
appears for business-critical scenarios
a hot-standby FSM appliance has also
been configured (planned in 2012)
This in any case ensures that the
overall system monitoring and
adjustment can take place
Figure 11 minimal system
Figure 12 scale-out database
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
26
3 Mixed system = SAP Business Suite core applications TREX and non-SAP applications
This setup makes use of the IBM
PureFlex System heterogeneous
capabilities While several core SAP
Business Suite applications stay on
POWER nodes they are now
complemented by SAP TREX and a
NetWeaver development
environment which are supported
only on an x86 architecture There
are more than these components
there are newer appliances such as
BWA and HANA which mandate
such a setup
Further applications can be
consolidated into the same IBM
PureFlex System chassis as well
4 SAP NetWeaver landscape = SAP Business Suite core applications SAP Enterprise Portal
SAP Process Integration (service bus) and SAP Business Objects
This is a heterogeneous setup with
majority of SAP core systems on AIX
SAP Business Objects XI runs on
larger AIX LPAR for scaling while the
Business Objects end-user oriented
systems are consolidated in virtual
machines hosted on an x86 node
This scenario also outlines the
capability of IBM PureFlex System to
run x86 Linux and PowerLinux
distributions This applies to non-SAP
and many SAP components Inter-
system communication strongly takes
advantage of the internal networking
bandwidth of IBM PureFlex System
Figure 14 SAP Process Integration and SAP Business Objects
Figure 13 complementary components
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
27
5 Mixed system with SAP HANA = SAP Business Suite core applications deployed on
PureFlex nodes plus SAP HANA Appliances (= IBM Systems Solution for SAP Business
Suite and SAP HANA)
This setup makes use of the externalized IBM PureFlex System capabilities in shape of the IBM Systems Solution for SAP Business Suite and SAP HANA
Several core SAP applications are
deployed on internal POWER or x86
nodes and are complemented by an
external SAP HANA environment which is
being built of the x3950 X5 based standard
IBM appliance offering
This enables customers running SAP
HANA always to benefit from newest
certified System x HANA appliances and
operational improvements in that space
while creating administrative synergies
between the SAP HANA and traditional
SAP Business Suite infrastructure
Starting from physical integration today
the FlexSystem Manager will provide
integrated administrative capabilities
The IBM PureFlex system offers an
integrated infrastructure for all SAP
components SAP applications on
PureFlex System compute nodes may
access SAP HANA DB on IBM x3950 X5
servers as well as traditional data bases
(eg IBM DB2) running on PureFlex
System
Figure 15 SAP HANA Integration
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
28
High availability and disaster recovery
The single point of failures (SPOFs) for SAP systems stay untouched by the introduction of IBM PureFlex
System These are the database server and the central services for ABAP and Java including the enqueue
server
These SPOFs occur within each production SAP business component of the landscape that is multiple
clusters (such as ERP CRM SCM and so on) must be implemented
In addition central technical building blocks such as SAP Enterprise Portal (for user access) Process
Integration as Enterprise Service Bus need to be setup resilient
While the high availability and disaster recovery concepts for all these SPOFs are well known in general
they have not been tested in a special IBM PureFlex System environment at time of authoring this paper
As scenario 2 indicates multi-node databases like Oracle RAC are supported on IBM PureFlex System
Landscape monitoring and management
As the SAP landscapes tend to become a heterogeneous aggregation of servers and operating systems
this implies a certain level of complexity for SAP landscape administration Consolidating the SAP
landscape into an IBM PureFlex System with its consistent management capabilities helps to reduce this
complexity
The combination of the IBM PureFlex System and SAP NetWeaver technology offers multiple native
monitoring and administration layers for the complete hardware and software stack These are
Chassis Management Module
Flex System Management
SAP Computing Center Management System (SAP CCMS)
SAP Solution Manager
minus SAP Solution Manager aims at SAP application management and business key
performance indicator (KPI) monitoring but also is a mandatory tool for SAP
release and patch management
SAP NetWeaver Landscape Virtualization Management (LVM)
The IBM PureFlex System FSM and SAP LVM Enterprise are optional components the remaining ones
are part of virtualized base installation
In order to gain maximum efficiency for daily operations it is important to select the most appropriate tools
for specific administrative tasks and organizations In addition consistency and transparency need to be
maintained
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
29
The following table provides a high-level orientation for a selected set of administrator tasks in SAP
ecosystems
CMM FSM SAP LVM SAP CCMS SAP Solution Manager
Chassis topology view and administration
Through CMM
Virtualization metrics Through Flex System
Manager
Virtualization topology and administration
Through Flex System
Manager
OS DB SAP performance
Provisioning of a new virtual server Through Flex System
Manager
Virtual server start stop and live migration
Through Flex System
Manager
SAP service reallocation
SAP system refresh cloning
Alerting Chassis focus Systems focus
Task monitoring
OS DB SAP Base
Business KPIs
Integration to an upper-level enterprise management
Into Flex System
Manager
Into SAP Solution Manager
Table 6 monitoring and management layers
FSM is based on IBM Systems Director and provides comparable functions For POWER nodes FSM is
mandatory for advanced virtualization management As most of these functions are beneficial (if not
mandatory) for SAP (production) systems the FSM appears as an essential component for SAP on IBM
PureFlex environments
As a single point of control FSM provides a web-based interface to manage all aspects of the IBM
PureFlex System hardware components For example an interactive chassis map provides status
overview and serves as an entry point to manage the different resources Setup wizards guide you through
the process of initial setup and maintenance tasks
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
30
Figure 16 FSM chassis map
SAP CCMS is fully functional for IBM PureFlex System It allows monitoring and adjustment of base SAP
application and database settings Also PowerVM-specific metrics such as LPAR and WPAR resources
AME settings and so on can be accesses through the native SAP administrator GUI
IBM PureFlex System integration with SAP NetWeaver Landscape
Virtualization Management
The described cloud solution for SAP landscapes becomes available by a combination of the IBM FSM
capabilities and SAP NetWeaver Landscape Virtualization Management for automation tasks at the
application level
This solution enables common cloud scenarios with the SAP software stack and the underlying
infrastructure It aims to connect application management services with system virtualization and storage
management services It is a management tool for customers who run their SAP systems in their own data
center and want to become more efficient by automating provisioning and cloning tasks
Various scenarios around system copy and system refresh are supported including post-copy automation
Those labor-expensive tasks have been made easy with SAP Landscape Virtualization Management and
IBM PureFlex System
In more detail the following use cases are covered for cloud environments running SAP applications
Cloning of a SAP system (creating an identical copy in a fenced environment)
Creating an initial copy of a SAP system (with changing the SAP system identifier)
Refreshing a test SAP system with the content of a productive system
Automation of system copyrefresh post processing activities
Monitoring and visualization of virtualized SAP landscapes
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
31
SAP Landscape Virtualization Management is in many cases complementary to the inherent IBM PureFlex
System management layers SAP Landscape Virtualization Management enables access to many relevant
IBM PureFlex System and virtualization parameters to the SAP management software and provides IT
self-services to SAP administrators
The available IBM and SAP literature which describes the interaction of IBM Systems Director and SAP
Landscape Virtualization Management also applies to IBM PureFlex System FSM is the enriched IBM
Systems Director specifically optimized and packaged for IBM PureFlex System
IBM Tivoli Storage FlashCopy Manager adds a unique value for SAP landscapes This software enables
application-aware database-consistent online backups which can be used to create the cloned system By
exploiting storage snapshot techniques the backup is taken almost instantaneously
The solution has been developed as modular building blocks This provides a high degree of flexibility and
extensibility The following table shows the products and editions that are used for each scenario
Table 7 Use cases per management layer
Management components
SAP NetWeaver Landscape Virtualization Management 10 integrates with the following IBM
management products
IBM Flex System Manager
FSM is used for virtualization monitoring and management and for the operating system
provisioning scenarios on IBM PureFlex System
IBM Tivoli Storage FlashCopy Manager 3101
Tivoli Storage FlashCopy Manager is required for storage cloning of online SAP systems
System
monitoring
SAP
relocate
AIX
provisioning
SAP
Clone
SAP
Copy
SAP
Refresh
Flex
System
Manager
(not needed) (not needed) (not needed) (not needed)
FlashCopy
Manager
(not needed) (not needed) (not needed)
Storage any NFS GPFS
SVC V7000
or XIV
any SVC V7000
or XIV
SVC V7000
or XIV
SVC V7000
or XIV
SAP LVM Standard
Edition
Standard
Edition
Standard
Edition
Enterprise
Edition
Enterprise
Edition
Enterprise
Edition
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
32
The management products can be installed on a single AIX LPAR within IBM PureFlex System
Alternatively the products might be installed on different servers for example SAP NetWeaver
Landscape Virtualization Management may run on any of the supported SAP platforms
The following graphic shows a high-level view of how SAP Landscape Virtualization Management
integrates with the IBM PureFlex System FSM stack to enable cloud scenarios on this platform
Figure 17 SAP Landscape Virtualization Manager integration with FSM
Managed SAP landscape
The following IBM PureFlex System infrastructure is supported with SAP NetWeaver Landscape
Virtualization Management
IBM POWER nodes
AIX 61 or 71
IBM SAN Volume Controller IBM Storwize V7000 or IBM XIVreg Storage System1
SAP NetWeaver 7x using IBM DB2 for Linux UNIX and Windows Oracle Database or
SAP MaxDB is supported
1 SAN Volume Controller and Storwize V7000 support requires SAP Landscape Virtualization Management SP3
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
33
It is assumed that the storage is attached using single or dual VIOS (IBM PowerVM VIOS) For the
storage-cloning scenario the SAN storage system must be attached in the N_Port ID Virtualization
(NPIV) mode NPIV is a FC adapter (HBA) feature that allows multiple LPARs to share a physical port
The clone is created using the FlashCopy feature of the SAN Volume Controller or the snapshot
feature of the XIV Storage System These methods create a logical copy of the data volumes within
seconds while the SAP source system stays fully operational
Whenever an IBM PureFlex System environment needs to be integrated into an existing enterprise
monitoring and management solution (for example an existing IBM Systems Director hierarchy or the IBM
Tivoli Suite) FSM provides interfaces for seamless upward integration
Furthermore SAP Landscape Virtualization Management can be used to manage SAP landscapes within
and outside of IBM PureFlex System and also across different platforms
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
34
SAP-specific offerings for IBM PureFlex System
This section lists specific offerings for SAP on IBM PureFlex System
Lab services and IBM support
As capacity and capability of a larger IBM PureFlex System installation are comparable to large scale
UNIX or mainframe installations IBM provides hardware and software support beyond the standards of
commodity blade systems
Including three Global Centers of Competence IBM Maintenance and Technical Support Services provide
integrated support on the FSM-based environments when there is not a clear understanding of whether
there is a hardware or a software issue All of this can be backed up with the latest version of IBM
Electronic Service Agent trade which has been enhanced for IBM PureFlex System and proactively monitors
and reports hardware events back to IBM support Even if a client has a comprehensive in-house support
organization this can selectively be enhanced through the addition of specific services within the portfolio
to cover critical areas of weakness or exposure
For complex IBM PureFlex System environments and where mission-critical applications are deployed
(which applies to SAP production systems) premium services are available and cover
Enhanced technical support custom technical support
Microcode support managed technical support
Committed fix services
Availability management hard disk retention
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
35
Summary
This paper provides reference architectures of how heterogeneous SAP landscapes can be consolidated
using IBM PureFlex System While running the core business applications on POWER nodes with AIX as
operating system complementary SAP components are added on x86 nodes IBM PureFlex System
enables a very tight integration of infrastructure components including servers networking and storage
Seamless monitoring and management functions of the infrastructure are provided by the FSM
The integration aspect is taken even further with the integration of the SAP Landscape Virtualization
Manager application with the FSM This enables SAP cloud usage scenarios for SAP systems running on
IBM PureFlex System
For individual questions or to request a briefing about this topic contact the IBM SAP International
Competence Center at isiccdeibmcom
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
36
Resources
These websites provide useful references to supplement the information contained in this paper
IBM Systems on PartnerWorld
ibmcompartnerworldsystems
IBM Redbooks
ibmcomredbooks
IBM cloud computing
ibmcomsolutionssapusenlandingcloud_solutionshtml
IBM Cloud Solutions for SAP clients
ibmcomcloud-computingusen
IBM SmartCloud Entry for AIX on PartnerWorld (requires PartnerWorld login)
ibmcompartnerworldpagestg_com_sys_smartcloud
SAP HANA on workload optimized IBM System x appliances
ibmcomsolutionssaphana
IBM internal SSI-URL with a collection of SAP related PureSystem materials
httpsw3-
03ssoibmcomsalessupportShowDocwssdocid=SGDN258263T70735C63ampnode=brandsB6000|brandsBI5
00|clientsetIA|alliancesT5000|alliancesT5150|channelDR|channelF2F|solutionQ00|solution210ampappname=C
C_SSIGD
select the ldquoCollateralrdquo Tab in ldquoMain Contentrdquo section
Related SAP on PureFlex paper with System x focus ldquoReference Architecture - SAP
Systems on IBM PureSystems based on x86 nodesrdquo
httpw3ibmcomsupporttechdocsatsmastrnsfWebIndexWP102167
httpwwwibmcomsupporttechdocsatsmastrnsfWebIndexWP102167
httpwww-03ibmcompartnerworldpartnerinfosrcatsmastrnsfWebIndexWP102167
Related SAP on PureFlex paper with IBM i focus ldquoEfficiently deploying SAP landscapes
on the IBM PureFlex Systemrdquo
httpw3ibmcomsupporttechdocsatsmastrnsfWebIndexWP102087
httpwwwibmcomsupporttechdocsatsmastrnsfWebIndexWP102087
httpwww-03ibmcompartnerworldpartnerinfosrcatsmastrnsfWebIndexWP102087
Virtualization for SAP on IBM PureSystems with Microsoft Hyper-V
httpwwwibmcomsupporttechdocsatsmastrnsfWebIndexWP102153
IBM Workload Optimized Solution for SAP HANA ndash Quick Start Guide
provides technical overview HW models network requirements for IBM Systems Solution
for SAP HANA appliance
httpdownloadboulderibmcomibmdlpubsystemssupportsystem_x_pdf46w8274pdf
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
37
IBM internal SAP HANA Wiki
httpsw3-connectionsibmcomwikishomelang=en-
uswikiWaef4c0eb0f35_427f_a25e_670e392682b1pageSAP20HANA
FlexSystem with SAP BWA Presentations (click to open link)
Seller
Customer
General IBM Sales Kit ldquoSAP NetWeaver Business Warehouse Accelerator (BWA)rdquo
Implementation Guide for BWA on IBM Flex System x240
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
38
Trademarks and special notices
copy Copyright IBM Corporation 2013
References in this document to IBM products or services do not imply that IBM intends to make them
available in every country
IBM the IBM logo and ibmcom are trademarks or registered trademarks of International Business
Machines Corporation in the United States other countries or both If these and other IBM trademarked
terms are marked on their first occurrence in this information with a trademark symbol (reg or trade) these
symbols indicate US registered or common law trademarks owned by IBM at the time this information
was published Such trademarks may also be registered or common law trademarks in other countries A
current list of IBM trademarks is available on the Web at Copyright and trademark information at
wwwibmcomlegalcopytradeshtml
Java and all Java-based trademarks and logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of Oracle andor
its affiliates
Microsoft Windows Windows NT and the Windows logo are trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the
United States other countries or both
Intel Intel Inside (logos) MMX and Pentium are trademarks of Intel Corporation in the United States
other countries or both
UNIX is a registered trademark of The Open Group in the United States and other countries
Linux is a trademark of Linus Torvalds in the United States other countries or both
Other company product or service names may be trademarks or service marks of others
Information is provided AS IS without warranty of any kind
All customer examples described are presented as illustrations of how those customers have used IBM
products and the results they may have achieved Actual environmental costs and performance
characteristics may vary by customer
Information concerning non-IBM products was obtained from a supplier of these products published
announcement material or other publicly available sources and does not constitute an endorsement of
such products by IBM Sources for non-IBM list prices and performance numbers are taken from publicly
available information including vendor announcements and vendor worldwide homepages IBM has not
tested these products and cannot confirm the accuracy of performance capability or any other claims
related to non-IBM products Questions on the capability of non-IBM products should be addressed to the
supplier of those products
All statements regarding IBM future direction and intent are subject to change or withdrawal without notice
and represent goals and objectives only Contact your local IBM office or IBM authorized reseller for the
full text of the specific Statement of Direction
Some information addresses anticipated future capabilities Such information is not intended as a definitive
statement of a commitment to specific levels of performance function or delivery schedules with respect to
any future products Such commitments are only made in IBM product announcements The information is
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
39
presented here to communicate IBMs current investment and development activities as a good faith effort
to help with our customers future planning
Performance is based on measurements and projections using standard IBM benchmarks in a controlled
environment The actual throughput or performance that any user will experience will vary depending upon
considerations such as the amount of multiprogramming in the users job stream the IO configuration the
storage configuration and the workload processed Therefore no assurance can be given that an
individual user will achieve throughput or performance improvements equivalent to the ratios stated here
Photographs shown are of engineering prototypes Changes may be incorporated in production models
Any references in this information to non-IBM websites are provided for convenience only and do not in
any manner serve as an endorsement of those websites The materials at those websites are not part of
the materials for this IBM product and use of those websites is at your own risk
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
23
Figure 10 SAP HANA Appliances with PureFlex Network Topology
Depended on the amount of external network connections single node IBM SAP HANA appliances may
be connected via available ports on integrated switches of the PureFlex chassis The single node SAP
HANA appliance could be deployed in the same rack with IBM PureFlex System
FlexSystem Native Node Support for SAP Business Warehouse Accelerator
The SAP Business Warehouse Accelerator (BWA) was the initial approach to accelerate OLAP workload
with a dedicated appliance attached to a SAP Business Warehouse system SAP BWA follows a ldquoplug amp
playrdquo design easier to implement than SAP HANA and has a longer history Hence SAP BWA still has a
broad installed base among SAP BI customers
SAP BWA has not been this highly optimized for the Intel EX-CPU type This fact allows deploying SAP
BWA appliances on XEON-based FlexSystem nodes running a SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 SP2
operating system
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
24
The ldquoIBM Flex System Solution for SAP NetWeaver Business Warehouse Acceleratorrdquo extends the
established IBM BladeCenter offerings for SAP BWA with scalable FlexSystem configurations comprising
of x240 compute nodes inside the Flex-chassis and externally attached IBM Storage Systems DS3500
This combination meets the SAP BWA appliance criteria while providing an excellent priceperformance
ratio
Table 5 FlexSystem building blocks for IBM SAP Business Warehouse Accelerator Appliances (August 2013)
As with the SAP BWA appliances based on IBM BladeCenter the IBM GPFS filesystem improves overall
IO performance data scalability and resiliency The building blocks have been pre-tested and optimized
to deliver easy integration and quick implementation Order and shipment processes of the pre-built
systems are identical to those of the traditional IBM BWA platforms
Since SAP BWA is an encapsulated appliance it cannot exploit all functionality provided by FSM for full
topology management Passive ndash in the sense of monitoring - functions like inventory system health
hardware service and support are applicable Dedicated BWA-FlexSystem chassis can be attached to
PureFlex systems hosting a SAP BI solution and monitored from there Performing active administrative
functions which may have an impact on the BWA configuration are not allowed however
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
25
SAP on AIX reference landscapes for IBM PureFlex System
1 Minimal system = ERP BW all on POWER nodes
This is the simplest case of deploying
core SAP components in an IBM
PureFlex System System All SAP
modules are supported on POWER and
either an AIX or PowerLinux OS Two
nodes for physical redundancy each with
PowerVM and VIO virtualization are
used
In order to make use of autonomous load
balancing by PowerVM it is
recommended to mix production and
nonproduction SAP instances within a
shared processor pool on each of the
single nodes SAP 2-tier deployments
need to be preferred for smaller systems
Consider packing non- production
systems into WPARs for less LPAR
complexity
2 3-tier SAP ERP with scale-out DB and application-server tier all on POWER nodes
This option combines DB scale-out with
an SAP 3-tier application-server scale
out The advantage of a multinode DB
is a hot-standby high availability
without DB downtime as with classical
cold-standby cluster solutions Also
both the nodes contribute to an
aggregate DB throughput when in
normal operation As such a setup
appears for business-critical scenarios
a hot-standby FSM appliance has also
been configured (planned in 2012)
This in any case ensures that the
overall system monitoring and
adjustment can take place
Figure 11 minimal system
Figure 12 scale-out database
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
26
3 Mixed system = SAP Business Suite core applications TREX and non-SAP applications
This setup makes use of the IBM
PureFlex System heterogeneous
capabilities While several core SAP
Business Suite applications stay on
POWER nodes they are now
complemented by SAP TREX and a
NetWeaver development
environment which are supported
only on an x86 architecture There
are more than these components
there are newer appliances such as
BWA and HANA which mandate
such a setup
Further applications can be
consolidated into the same IBM
PureFlex System chassis as well
4 SAP NetWeaver landscape = SAP Business Suite core applications SAP Enterprise Portal
SAP Process Integration (service bus) and SAP Business Objects
This is a heterogeneous setup with
majority of SAP core systems on AIX
SAP Business Objects XI runs on
larger AIX LPAR for scaling while the
Business Objects end-user oriented
systems are consolidated in virtual
machines hosted on an x86 node
This scenario also outlines the
capability of IBM PureFlex System to
run x86 Linux and PowerLinux
distributions This applies to non-SAP
and many SAP components Inter-
system communication strongly takes
advantage of the internal networking
bandwidth of IBM PureFlex System
Figure 14 SAP Process Integration and SAP Business Objects
Figure 13 complementary components
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
27
5 Mixed system with SAP HANA = SAP Business Suite core applications deployed on
PureFlex nodes plus SAP HANA Appliances (= IBM Systems Solution for SAP Business
Suite and SAP HANA)
This setup makes use of the externalized IBM PureFlex System capabilities in shape of the IBM Systems Solution for SAP Business Suite and SAP HANA
Several core SAP applications are
deployed on internal POWER or x86
nodes and are complemented by an
external SAP HANA environment which is
being built of the x3950 X5 based standard
IBM appliance offering
This enables customers running SAP
HANA always to benefit from newest
certified System x HANA appliances and
operational improvements in that space
while creating administrative synergies
between the SAP HANA and traditional
SAP Business Suite infrastructure
Starting from physical integration today
the FlexSystem Manager will provide
integrated administrative capabilities
The IBM PureFlex system offers an
integrated infrastructure for all SAP
components SAP applications on
PureFlex System compute nodes may
access SAP HANA DB on IBM x3950 X5
servers as well as traditional data bases
(eg IBM DB2) running on PureFlex
System
Figure 15 SAP HANA Integration
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
28
High availability and disaster recovery
The single point of failures (SPOFs) for SAP systems stay untouched by the introduction of IBM PureFlex
System These are the database server and the central services for ABAP and Java including the enqueue
server
These SPOFs occur within each production SAP business component of the landscape that is multiple
clusters (such as ERP CRM SCM and so on) must be implemented
In addition central technical building blocks such as SAP Enterprise Portal (for user access) Process
Integration as Enterprise Service Bus need to be setup resilient
While the high availability and disaster recovery concepts for all these SPOFs are well known in general
they have not been tested in a special IBM PureFlex System environment at time of authoring this paper
As scenario 2 indicates multi-node databases like Oracle RAC are supported on IBM PureFlex System
Landscape monitoring and management
As the SAP landscapes tend to become a heterogeneous aggregation of servers and operating systems
this implies a certain level of complexity for SAP landscape administration Consolidating the SAP
landscape into an IBM PureFlex System with its consistent management capabilities helps to reduce this
complexity
The combination of the IBM PureFlex System and SAP NetWeaver technology offers multiple native
monitoring and administration layers for the complete hardware and software stack These are
Chassis Management Module
Flex System Management
SAP Computing Center Management System (SAP CCMS)
SAP Solution Manager
minus SAP Solution Manager aims at SAP application management and business key
performance indicator (KPI) monitoring but also is a mandatory tool for SAP
release and patch management
SAP NetWeaver Landscape Virtualization Management (LVM)
The IBM PureFlex System FSM and SAP LVM Enterprise are optional components the remaining ones
are part of virtualized base installation
In order to gain maximum efficiency for daily operations it is important to select the most appropriate tools
for specific administrative tasks and organizations In addition consistency and transparency need to be
maintained
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
29
The following table provides a high-level orientation for a selected set of administrator tasks in SAP
ecosystems
CMM FSM SAP LVM SAP CCMS SAP Solution Manager
Chassis topology view and administration
Through CMM
Virtualization metrics Through Flex System
Manager
Virtualization topology and administration
Through Flex System
Manager
OS DB SAP performance
Provisioning of a new virtual server Through Flex System
Manager
Virtual server start stop and live migration
Through Flex System
Manager
SAP service reallocation
SAP system refresh cloning
Alerting Chassis focus Systems focus
Task monitoring
OS DB SAP Base
Business KPIs
Integration to an upper-level enterprise management
Into Flex System
Manager
Into SAP Solution Manager
Table 6 monitoring and management layers
FSM is based on IBM Systems Director and provides comparable functions For POWER nodes FSM is
mandatory for advanced virtualization management As most of these functions are beneficial (if not
mandatory) for SAP (production) systems the FSM appears as an essential component for SAP on IBM
PureFlex environments
As a single point of control FSM provides a web-based interface to manage all aspects of the IBM
PureFlex System hardware components For example an interactive chassis map provides status
overview and serves as an entry point to manage the different resources Setup wizards guide you through
the process of initial setup and maintenance tasks
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
30
Figure 16 FSM chassis map
SAP CCMS is fully functional for IBM PureFlex System It allows monitoring and adjustment of base SAP
application and database settings Also PowerVM-specific metrics such as LPAR and WPAR resources
AME settings and so on can be accesses through the native SAP administrator GUI
IBM PureFlex System integration with SAP NetWeaver Landscape
Virtualization Management
The described cloud solution for SAP landscapes becomes available by a combination of the IBM FSM
capabilities and SAP NetWeaver Landscape Virtualization Management for automation tasks at the
application level
This solution enables common cloud scenarios with the SAP software stack and the underlying
infrastructure It aims to connect application management services with system virtualization and storage
management services It is a management tool for customers who run their SAP systems in their own data
center and want to become more efficient by automating provisioning and cloning tasks
Various scenarios around system copy and system refresh are supported including post-copy automation
Those labor-expensive tasks have been made easy with SAP Landscape Virtualization Management and
IBM PureFlex System
In more detail the following use cases are covered for cloud environments running SAP applications
Cloning of a SAP system (creating an identical copy in a fenced environment)
Creating an initial copy of a SAP system (with changing the SAP system identifier)
Refreshing a test SAP system with the content of a productive system
Automation of system copyrefresh post processing activities
Monitoring and visualization of virtualized SAP landscapes
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
31
SAP Landscape Virtualization Management is in many cases complementary to the inherent IBM PureFlex
System management layers SAP Landscape Virtualization Management enables access to many relevant
IBM PureFlex System and virtualization parameters to the SAP management software and provides IT
self-services to SAP administrators
The available IBM and SAP literature which describes the interaction of IBM Systems Director and SAP
Landscape Virtualization Management also applies to IBM PureFlex System FSM is the enriched IBM
Systems Director specifically optimized and packaged for IBM PureFlex System
IBM Tivoli Storage FlashCopy Manager adds a unique value for SAP landscapes This software enables
application-aware database-consistent online backups which can be used to create the cloned system By
exploiting storage snapshot techniques the backup is taken almost instantaneously
The solution has been developed as modular building blocks This provides a high degree of flexibility and
extensibility The following table shows the products and editions that are used for each scenario
Table 7 Use cases per management layer
Management components
SAP NetWeaver Landscape Virtualization Management 10 integrates with the following IBM
management products
IBM Flex System Manager
FSM is used for virtualization monitoring and management and for the operating system
provisioning scenarios on IBM PureFlex System
IBM Tivoli Storage FlashCopy Manager 3101
Tivoli Storage FlashCopy Manager is required for storage cloning of online SAP systems
System
monitoring
SAP
relocate
AIX
provisioning
SAP
Clone
SAP
Copy
SAP
Refresh
Flex
System
Manager
(not needed) (not needed) (not needed) (not needed)
FlashCopy
Manager
(not needed) (not needed) (not needed)
Storage any NFS GPFS
SVC V7000
or XIV
any SVC V7000
or XIV
SVC V7000
or XIV
SVC V7000
or XIV
SAP LVM Standard
Edition
Standard
Edition
Standard
Edition
Enterprise
Edition
Enterprise
Edition
Enterprise
Edition
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
32
The management products can be installed on a single AIX LPAR within IBM PureFlex System
Alternatively the products might be installed on different servers for example SAP NetWeaver
Landscape Virtualization Management may run on any of the supported SAP platforms
The following graphic shows a high-level view of how SAP Landscape Virtualization Management
integrates with the IBM PureFlex System FSM stack to enable cloud scenarios on this platform
Figure 17 SAP Landscape Virtualization Manager integration with FSM
Managed SAP landscape
The following IBM PureFlex System infrastructure is supported with SAP NetWeaver Landscape
Virtualization Management
IBM POWER nodes
AIX 61 or 71
IBM SAN Volume Controller IBM Storwize V7000 or IBM XIVreg Storage System1
SAP NetWeaver 7x using IBM DB2 for Linux UNIX and Windows Oracle Database or
SAP MaxDB is supported
1 SAN Volume Controller and Storwize V7000 support requires SAP Landscape Virtualization Management SP3
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
33
It is assumed that the storage is attached using single or dual VIOS (IBM PowerVM VIOS) For the
storage-cloning scenario the SAN storage system must be attached in the N_Port ID Virtualization
(NPIV) mode NPIV is a FC adapter (HBA) feature that allows multiple LPARs to share a physical port
The clone is created using the FlashCopy feature of the SAN Volume Controller or the snapshot
feature of the XIV Storage System These methods create a logical copy of the data volumes within
seconds while the SAP source system stays fully operational
Whenever an IBM PureFlex System environment needs to be integrated into an existing enterprise
monitoring and management solution (for example an existing IBM Systems Director hierarchy or the IBM
Tivoli Suite) FSM provides interfaces for seamless upward integration
Furthermore SAP Landscape Virtualization Management can be used to manage SAP landscapes within
and outside of IBM PureFlex System and also across different platforms
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
34
SAP-specific offerings for IBM PureFlex System
This section lists specific offerings for SAP on IBM PureFlex System
Lab services and IBM support
As capacity and capability of a larger IBM PureFlex System installation are comparable to large scale
UNIX or mainframe installations IBM provides hardware and software support beyond the standards of
commodity blade systems
Including three Global Centers of Competence IBM Maintenance and Technical Support Services provide
integrated support on the FSM-based environments when there is not a clear understanding of whether
there is a hardware or a software issue All of this can be backed up with the latest version of IBM
Electronic Service Agent trade which has been enhanced for IBM PureFlex System and proactively monitors
and reports hardware events back to IBM support Even if a client has a comprehensive in-house support
organization this can selectively be enhanced through the addition of specific services within the portfolio
to cover critical areas of weakness or exposure
For complex IBM PureFlex System environments and where mission-critical applications are deployed
(which applies to SAP production systems) premium services are available and cover
Enhanced technical support custom technical support
Microcode support managed technical support
Committed fix services
Availability management hard disk retention
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
35
Summary
This paper provides reference architectures of how heterogeneous SAP landscapes can be consolidated
using IBM PureFlex System While running the core business applications on POWER nodes with AIX as
operating system complementary SAP components are added on x86 nodes IBM PureFlex System
enables a very tight integration of infrastructure components including servers networking and storage
Seamless monitoring and management functions of the infrastructure are provided by the FSM
The integration aspect is taken even further with the integration of the SAP Landscape Virtualization
Manager application with the FSM This enables SAP cloud usage scenarios for SAP systems running on
IBM PureFlex System
For individual questions or to request a briefing about this topic contact the IBM SAP International
Competence Center at isiccdeibmcom
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
36
Resources
These websites provide useful references to supplement the information contained in this paper
IBM Systems on PartnerWorld
ibmcompartnerworldsystems
IBM Redbooks
ibmcomredbooks
IBM cloud computing
ibmcomsolutionssapusenlandingcloud_solutionshtml
IBM Cloud Solutions for SAP clients
ibmcomcloud-computingusen
IBM SmartCloud Entry for AIX on PartnerWorld (requires PartnerWorld login)
ibmcompartnerworldpagestg_com_sys_smartcloud
SAP HANA on workload optimized IBM System x appliances
ibmcomsolutionssaphana
IBM internal SSI-URL with a collection of SAP related PureSystem materials
httpsw3-
03ssoibmcomsalessupportShowDocwssdocid=SGDN258263T70735C63ampnode=brandsB6000|brandsBI5
00|clientsetIA|alliancesT5000|alliancesT5150|channelDR|channelF2F|solutionQ00|solution210ampappname=C
C_SSIGD
select the ldquoCollateralrdquo Tab in ldquoMain Contentrdquo section
Related SAP on PureFlex paper with System x focus ldquoReference Architecture - SAP
Systems on IBM PureSystems based on x86 nodesrdquo
httpw3ibmcomsupporttechdocsatsmastrnsfWebIndexWP102167
httpwwwibmcomsupporttechdocsatsmastrnsfWebIndexWP102167
httpwww-03ibmcompartnerworldpartnerinfosrcatsmastrnsfWebIndexWP102167
Related SAP on PureFlex paper with IBM i focus ldquoEfficiently deploying SAP landscapes
on the IBM PureFlex Systemrdquo
httpw3ibmcomsupporttechdocsatsmastrnsfWebIndexWP102087
httpwwwibmcomsupporttechdocsatsmastrnsfWebIndexWP102087
httpwww-03ibmcompartnerworldpartnerinfosrcatsmastrnsfWebIndexWP102087
Virtualization for SAP on IBM PureSystems with Microsoft Hyper-V
httpwwwibmcomsupporttechdocsatsmastrnsfWebIndexWP102153
IBM Workload Optimized Solution for SAP HANA ndash Quick Start Guide
provides technical overview HW models network requirements for IBM Systems Solution
for SAP HANA appliance
httpdownloadboulderibmcomibmdlpubsystemssupportsystem_x_pdf46w8274pdf
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
37
IBM internal SAP HANA Wiki
httpsw3-connectionsibmcomwikishomelang=en-
uswikiWaef4c0eb0f35_427f_a25e_670e392682b1pageSAP20HANA
FlexSystem with SAP BWA Presentations (click to open link)
Seller
Customer
General IBM Sales Kit ldquoSAP NetWeaver Business Warehouse Accelerator (BWA)rdquo
Implementation Guide for BWA on IBM Flex System x240
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
38
Trademarks and special notices
copy Copyright IBM Corporation 2013
References in this document to IBM products or services do not imply that IBM intends to make them
available in every country
IBM the IBM logo and ibmcom are trademarks or registered trademarks of International Business
Machines Corporation in the United States other countries or both If these and other IBM trademarked
terms are marked on their first occurrence in this information with a trademark symbol (reg or trade) these
symbols indicate US registered or common law trademarks owned by IBM at the time this information
was published Such trademarks may also be registered or common law trademarks in other countries A
current list of IBM trademarks is available on the Web at Copyright and trademark information at
wwwibmcomlegalcopytradeshtml
Java and all Java-based trademarks and logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of Oracle andor
its affiliates
Microsoft Windows Windows NT and the Windows logo are trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the
United States other countries or both
Intel Intel Inside (logos) MMX and Pentium are trademarks of Intel Corporation in the United States
other countries or both
UNIX is a registered trademark of The Open Group in the United States and other countries
Linux is a trademark of Linus Torvalds in the United States other countries or both
Other company product or service names may be trademarks or service marks of others
Information is provided AS IS without warranty of any kind
All customer examples described are presented as illustrations of how those customers have used IBM
products and the results they may have achieved Actual environmental costs and performance
characteristics may vary by customer
Information concerning non-IBM products was obtained from a supplier of these products published
announcement material or other publicly available sources and does not constitute an endorsement of
such products by IBM Sources for non-IBM list prices and performance numbers are taken from publicly
available information including vendor announcements and vendor worldwide homepages IBM has not
tested these products and cannot confirm the accuracy of performance capability or any other claims
related to non-IBM products Questions on the capability of non-IBM products should be addressed to the
supplier of those products
All statements regarding IBM future direction and intent are subject to change or withdrawal without notice
and represent goals and objectives only Contact your local IBM office or IBM authorized reseller for the
full text of the specific Statement of Direction
Some information addresses anticipated future capabilities Such information is not intended as a definitive
statement of a commitment to specific levels of performance function or delivery schedules with respect to
any future products Such commitments are only made in IBM product announcements The information is
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
39
presented here to communicate IBMs current investment and development activities as a good faith effort
to help with our customers future planning
Performance is based on measurements and projections using standard IBM benchmarks in a controlled
environment The actual throughput or performance that any user will experience will vary depending upon
considerations such as the amount of multiprogramming in the users job stream the IO configuration the
storage configuration and the workload processed Therefore no assurance can be given that an
individual user will achieve throughput or performance improvements equivalent to the ratios stated here
Photographs shown are of engineering prototypes Changes may be incorporated in production models
Any references in this information to non-IBM websites are provided for convenience only and do not in
any manner serve as an endorsement of those websites The materials at those websites are not part of
the materials for this IBM product and use of those websites is at your own risk
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
24
The ldquoIBM Flex System Solution for SAP NetWeaver Business Warehouse Acceleratorrdquo extends the
established IBM BladeCenter offerings for SAP BWA with scalable FlexSystem configurations comprising
of x240 compute nodes inside the Flex-chassis and externally attached IBM Storage Systems DS3500
This combination meets the SAP BWA appliance criteria while providing an excellent priceperformance
ratio
Table 5 FlexSystem building blocks for IBM SAP Business Warehouse Accelerator Appliances (August 2013)
As with the SAP BWA appliances based on IBM BladeCenter the IBM GPFS filesystem improves overall
IO performance data scalability and resiliency The building blocks have been pre-tested and optimized
to deliver easy integration and quick implementation Order and shipment processes of the pre-built
systems are identical to those of the traditional IBM BWA platforms
Since SAP BWA is an encapsulated appliance it cannot exploit all functionality provided by FSM for full
topology management Passive ndash in the sense of monitoring - functions like inventory system health
hardware service and support are applicable Dedicated BWA-FlexSystem chassis can be attached to
PureFlex systems hosting a SAP BI solution and monitored from there Performing active administrative
functions which may have an impact on the BWA configuration are not allowed however
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
25
SAP on AIX reference landscapes for IBM PureFlex System
1 Minimal system = ERP BW all on POWER nodes
This is the simplest case of deploying
core SAP components in an IBM
PureFlex System System All SAP
modules are supported on POWER and
either an AIX or PowerLinux OS Two
nodes for physical redundancy each with
PowerVM and VIO virtualization are
used
In order to make use of autonomous load
balancing by PowerVM it is
recommended to mix production and
nonproduction SAP instances within a
shared processor pool on each of the
single nodes SAP 2-tier deployments
need to be preferred for smaller systems
Consider packing non- production
systems into WPARs for less LPAR
complexity
2 3-tier SAP ERP with scale-out DB and application-server tier all on POWER nodes
This option combines DB scale-out with
an SAP 3-tier application-server scale
out The advantage of a multinode DB
is a hot-standby high availability
without DB downtime as with classical
cold-standby cluster solutions Also
both the nodes contribute to an
aggregate DB throughput when in
normal operation As such a setup
appears for business-critical scenarios
a hot-standby FSM appliance has also
been configured (planned in 2012)
This in any case ensures that the
overall system monitoring and
adjustment can take place
Figure 11 minimal system
Figure 12 scale-out database
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
26
3 Mixed system = SAP Business Suite core applications TREX and non-SAP applications
This setup makes use of the IBM
PureFlex System heterogeneous
capabilities While several core SAP
Business Suite applications stay on
POWER nodes they are now
complemented by SAP TREX and a
NetWeaver development
environment which are supported
only on an x86 architecture There
are more than these components
there are newer appliances such as
BWA and HANA which mandate
such a setup
Further applications can be
consolidated into the same IBM
PureFlex System chassis as well
4 SAP NetWeaver landscape = SAP Business Suite core applications SAP Enterprise Portal
SAP Process Integration (service bus) and SAP Business Objects
This is a heterogeneous setup with
majority of SAP core systems on AIX
SAP Business Objects XI runs on
larger AIX LPAR for scaling while the
Business Objects end-user oriented
systems are consolidated in virtual
machines hosted on an x86 node
This scenario also outlines the
capability of IBM PureFlex System to
run x86 Linux and PowerLinux
distributions This applies to non-SAP
and many SAP components Inter-
system communication strongly takes
advantage of the internal networking
bandwidth of IBM PureFlex System
Figure 14 SAP Process Integration and SAP Business Objects
Figure 13 complementary components
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
27
5 Mixed system with SAP HANA = SAP Business Suite core applications deployed on
PureFlex nodes plus SAP HANA Appliances (= IBM Systems Solution for SAP Business
Suite and SAP HANA)
This setup makes use of the externalized IBM PureFlex System capabilities in shape of the IBM Systems Solution for SAP Business Suite and SAP HANA
Several core SAP applications are
deployed on internal POWER or x86
nodes and are complemented by an
external SAP HANA environment which is
being built of the x3950 X5 based standard
IBM appliance offering
This enables customers running SAP
HANA always to benefit from newest
certified System x HANA appliances and
operational improvements in that space
while creating administrative synergies
between the SAP HANA and traditional
SAP Business Suite infrastructure
Starting from physical integration today
the FlexSystem Manager will provide
integrated administrative capabilities
The IBM PureFlex system offers an
integrated infrastructure for all SAP
components SAP applications on
PureFlex System compute nodes may
access SAP HANA DB on IBM x3950 X5
servers as well as traditional data bases
(eg IBM DB2) running on PureFlex
System
Figure 15 SAP HANA Integration
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
28
High availability and disaster recovery
The single point of failures (SPOFs) for SAP systems stay untouched by the introduction of IBM PureFlex
System These are the database server and the central services for ABAP and Java including the enqueue
server
These SPOFs occur within each production SAP business component of the landscape that is multiple
clusters (such as ERP CRM SCM and so on) must be implemented
In addition central technical building blocks such as SAP Enterprise Portal (for user access) Process
Integration as Enterprise Service Bus need to be setup resilient
While the high availability and disaster recovery concepts for all these SPOFs are well known in general
they have not been tested in a special IBM PureFlex System environment at time of authoring this paper
As scenario 2 indicates multi-node databases like Oracle RAC are supported on IBM PureFlex System
Landscape monitoring and management
As the SAP landscapes tend to become a heterogeneous aggregation of servers and operating systems
this implies a certain level of complexity for SAP landscape administration Consolidating the SAP
landscape into an IBM PureFlex System with its consistent management capabilities helps to reduce this
complexity
The combination of the IBM PureFlex System and SAP NetWeaver technology offers multiple native
monitoring and administration layers for the complete hardware and software stack These are
Chassis Management Module
Flex System Management
SAP Computing Center Management System (SAP CCMS)
SAP Solution Manager
minus SAP Solution Manager aims at SAP application management and business key
performance indicator (KPI) monitoring but also is a mandatory tool for SAP
release and patch management
SAP NetWeaver Landscape Virtualization Management (LVM)
The IBM PureFlex System FSM and SAP LVM Enterprise are optional components the remaining ones
are part of virtualized base installation
In order to gain maximum efficiency for daily operations it is important to select the most appropriate tools
for specific administrative tasks and organizations In addition consistency and transparency need to be
maintained
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
29
The following table provides a high-level orientation for a selected set of administrator tasks in SAP
ecosystems
CMM FSM SAP LVM SAP CCMS SAP Solution Manager
Chassis topology view and administration
Through CMM
Virtualization metrics Through Flex System
Manager
Virtualization topology and administration
Through Flex System
Manager
OS DB SAP performance
Provisioning of a new virtual server Through Flex System
Manager
Virtual server start stop and live migration
Through Flex System
Manager
SAP service reallocation
SAP system refresh cloning
Alerting Chassis focus Systems focus
Task monitoring
OS DB SAP Base
Business KPIs
Integration to an upper-level enterprise management
Into Flex System
Manager
Into SAP Solution Manager
Table 6 monitoring and management layers
FSM is based on IBM Systems Director and provides comparable functions For POWER nodes FSM is
mandatory for advanced virtualization management As most of these functions are beneficial (if not
mandatory) for SAP (production) systems the FSM appears as an essential component for SAP on IBM
PureFlex environments
As a single point of control FSM provides a web-based interface to manage all aspects of the IBM
PureFlex System hardware components For example an interactive chassis map provides status
overview and serves as an entry point to manage the different resources Setup wizards guide you through
the process of initial setup and maintenance tasks
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
30
Figure 16 FSM chassis map
SAP CCMS is fully functional for IBM PureFlex System It allows monitoring and adjustment of base SAP
application and database settings Also PowerVM-specific metrics such as LPAR and WPAR resources
AME settings and so on can be accesses through the native SAP administrator GUI
IBM PureFlex System integration with SAP NetWeaver Landscape
Virtualization Management
The described cloud solution for SAP landscapes becomes available by a combination of the IBM FSM
capabilities and SAP NetWeaver Landscape Virtualization Management for automation tasks at the
application level
This solution enables common cloud scenarios with the SAP software stack and the underlying
infrastructure It aims to connect application management services with system virtualization and storage
management services It is a management tool for customers who run their SAP systems in their own data
center and want to become more efficient by automating provisioning and cloning tasks
Various scenarios around system copy and system refresh are supported including post-copy automation
Those labor-expensive tasks have been made easy with SAP Landscape Virtualization Management and
IBM PureFlex System
In more detail the following use cases are covered for cloud environments running SAP applications
Cloning of a SAP system (creating an identical copy in a fenced environment)
Creating an initial copy of a SAP system (with changing the SAP system identifier)
Refreshing a test SAP system with the content of a productive system
Automation of system copyrefresh post processing activities
Monitoring and visualization of virtualized SAP landscapes
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
31
SAP Landscape Virtualization Management is in many cases complementary to the inherent IBM PureFlex
System management layers SAP Landscape Virtualization Management enables access to many relevant
IBM PureFlex System and virtualization parameters to the SAP management software and provides IT
self-services to SAP administrators
The available IBM and SAP literature which describes the interaction of IBM Systems Director and SAP
Landscape Virtualization Management also applies to IBM PureFlex System FSM is the enriched IBM
Systems Director specifically optimized and packaged for IBM PureFlex System
IBM Tivoli Storage FlashCopy Manager adds a unique value for SAP landscapes This software enables
application-aware database-consistent online backups which can be used to create the cloned system By
exploiting storage snapshot techniques the backup is taken almost instantaneously
The solution has been developed as modular building blocks This provides a high degree of flexibility and
extensibility The following table shows the products and editions that are used for each scenario
Table 7 Use cases per management layer
Management components
SAP NetWeaver Landscape Virtualization Management 10 integrates with the following IBM
management products
IBM Flex System Manager
FSM is used for virtualization monitoring and management and for the operating system
provisioning scenarios on IBM PureFlex System
IBM Tivoli Storage FlashCopy Manager 3101
Tivoli Storage FlashCopy Manager is required for storage cloning of online SAP systems
System
monitoring
SAP
relocate
AIX
provisioning
SAP
Clone
SAP
Copy
SAP
Refresh
Flex
System
Manager
(not needed) (not needed) (not needed) (not needed)
FlashCopy
Manager
(not needed) (not needed) (not needed)
Storage any NFS GPFS
SVC V7000
or XIV
any SVC V7000
or XIV
SVC V7000
or XIV
SVC V7000
or XIV
SAP LVM Standard
Edition
Standard
Edition
Standard
Edition
Enterprise
Edition
Enterprise
Edition
Enterprise
Edition
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
32
The management products can be installed on a single AIX LPAR within IBM PureFlex System
Alternatively the products might be installed on different servers for example SAP NetWeaver
Landscape Virtualization Management may run on any of the supported SAP platforms
The following graphic shows a high-level view of how SAP Landscape Virtualization Management
integrates with the IBM PureFlex System FSM stack to enable cloud scenarios on this platform
Figure 17 SAP Landscape Virtualization Manager integration with FSM
Managed SAP landscape
The following IBM PureFlex System infrastructure is supported with SAP NetWeaver Landscape
Virtualization Management
IBM POWER nodes
AIX 61 or 71
IBM SAN Volume Controller IBM Storwize V7000 or IBM XIVreg Storage System1
SAP NetWeaver 7x using IBM DB2 for Linux UNIX and Windows Oracle Database or
SAP MaxDB is supported
1 SAN Volume Controller and Storwize V7000 support requires SAP Landscape Virtualization Management SP3
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
33
It is assumed that the storage is attached using single or dual VIOS (IBM PowerVM VIOS) For the
storage-cloning scenario the SAN storage system must be attached in the N_Port ID Virtualization
(NPIV) mode NPIV is a FC adapter (HBA) feature that allows multiple LPARs to share a physical port
The clone is created using the FlashCopy feature of the SAN Volume Controller or the snapshot
feature of the XIV Storage System These methods create a logical copy of the data volumes within
seconds while the SAP source system stays fully operational
Whenever an IBM PureFlex System environment needs to be integrated into an existing enterprise
monitoring and management solution (for example an existing IBM Systems Director hierarchy or the IBM
Tivoli Suite) FSM provides interfaces for seamless upward integration
Furthermore SAP Landscape Virtualization Management can be used to manage SAP landscapes within
and outside of IBM PureFlex System and also across different platforms
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
34
SAP-specific offerings for IBM PureFlex System
This section lists specific offerings for SAP on IBM PureFlex System
Lab services and IBM support
As capacity and capability of a larger IBM PureFlex System installation are comparable to large scale
UNIX or mainframe installations IBM provides hardware and software support beyond the standards of
commodity blade systems
Including three Global Centers of Competence IBM Maintenance and Technical Support Services provide
integrated support on the FSM-based environments when there is not a clear understanding of whether
there is a hardware or a software issue All of this can be backed up with the latest version of IBM
Electronic Service Agent trade which has been enhanced for IBM PureFlex System and proactively monitors
and reports hardware events back to IBM support Even if a client has a comprehensive in-house support
organization this can selectively be enhanced through the addition of specific services within the portfolio
to cover critical areas of weakness or exposure
For complex IBM PureFlex System environments and where mission-critical applications are deployed
(which applies to SAP production systems) premium services are available and cover
Enhanced technical support custom technical support
Microcode support managed technical support
Committed fix services
Availability management hard disk retention
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
35
Summary
This paper provides reference architectures of how heterogeneous SAP landscapes can be consolidated
using IBM PureFlex System While running the core business applications on POWER nodes with AIX as
operating system complementary SAP components are added on x86 nodes IBM PureFlex System
enables a very tight integration of infrastructure components including servers networking and storage
Seamless monitoring and management functions of the infrastructure are provided by the FSM
The integration aspect is taken even further with the integration of the SAP Landscape Virtualization
Manager application with the FSM This enables SAP cloud usage scenarios for SAP systems running on
IBM PureFlex System
For individual questions or to request a briefing about this topic contact the IBM SAP International
Competence Center at isiccdeibmcom
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
36
Resources
These websites provide useful references to supplement the information contained in this paper
IBM Systems on PartnerWorld
ibmcompartnerworldsystems
IBM Redbooks
ibmcomredbooks
IBM cloud computing
ibmcomsolutionssapusenlandingcloud_solutionshtml
IBM Cloud Solutions for SAP clients
ibmcomcloud-computingusen
IBM SmartCloud Entry for AIX on PartnerWorld (requires PartnerWorld login)
ibmcompartnerworldpagestg_com_sys_smartcloud
SAP HANA on workload optimized IBM System x appliances
ibmcomsolutionssaphana
IBM internal SSI-URL with a collection of SAP related PureSystem materials
httpsw3-
03ssoibmcomsalessupportShowDocwssdocid=SGDN258263T70735C63ampnode=brandsB6000|brandsBI5
00|clientsetIA|alliancesT5000|alliancesT5150|channelDR|channelF2F|solutionQ00|solution210ampappname=C
C_SSIGD
select the ldquoCollateralrdquo Tab in ldquoMain Contentrdquo section
Related SAP on PureFlex paper with System x focus ldquoReference Architecture - SAP
Systems on IBM PureSystems based on x86 nodesrdquo
httpw3ibmcomsupporttechdocsatsmastrnsfWebIndexWP102167
httpwwwibmcomsupporttechdocsatsmastrnsfWebIndexWP102167
httpwww-03ibmcompartnerworldpartnerinfosrcatsmastrnsfWebIndexWP102167
Related SAP on PureFlex paper with IBM i focus ldquoEfficiently deploying SAP landscapes
on the IBM PureFlex Systemrdquo
httpw3ibmcomsupporttechdocsatsmastrnsfWebIndexWP102087
httpwwwibmcomsupporttechdocsatsmastrnsfWebIndexWP102087
httpwww-03ibmcompartnerworldpartnerinfosrcatsmastrnsfWebIndexWP102087
Virtualization for SAP on IBM PureSystems with Microsoft Hyper-V
httpwwwibmcomsupporttechdocsatsmastrnsfWebIndexWP102153
IBM Workload Optimized Solution for SAP HANA ndash Quick Start Guide
provides technical overview HW models network requirements for IBM Systems Solution
for SAP HANA appliance
httpdownloadboulderibmcomibmdlpubsystemssupportsystem_x_pdf46w8274pdf
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
37
IBM internal SAP HANA Wiki
httpsw3-connectionsibmcomwikishomelang=en-
uswikiWaef4c0eb0f35_427f_a25e_670e392682b1pageSAP20HANA
FlexSystem with SAP BWA Presentations (click to open link)
Seller
Customer
General IBM Sales Kit ldquoSAP NetWeaver Business Warehouse Accelerator (BWA)rdquo
Implementation Guide for BWA on IBM Flex System x240
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
38
Trademarks and special notices
copy Copyright IBM Corporation 2013
References in this document to IBM products or services do not imply that IBM intends to make them
available in every country
IBM the IBM logo and ibmcom are trademarks or registered trademarks of International Business
Machines Corporation in the United States other countries or both If these and other IBM trademarked
terms are marked on their first occurrence in this information with a trademark symbol (reg or trade) these
symbols indicate US registered or common law trademarks owned by IBM at the time this information
was published Such trademarks may also be registered or common law trademarks in other countries A
current list of IBM trademarks is available on the Web at Copyright and trademark information at
wwwibmcomlegalcopytradeshtml
Java and all Java-based trademarks and logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of Oracle andor
its affiliates
Microsoft Windows Windows NT and the Windows logo are trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the
United States other countries or both
Intel Intel Inside (logos) MMX and Pentium are trademarks of Intel Corporation in the United States
other countries or both
UNIX is a registered trademark of The Open Group in the United States and other countries
Linux is a trademark of Linus Torvalds in the United States other countries or both
Other company product or service names may be trademarks or service marks of others
Information is provided AS IS without warranty of any kind
All customer examples described are presented as illustrations of how those customers have used IBM
products and the results they may have achieved Actual environmental costs and performance
characteristics may vary by customer
Information concerning non-IBM products was obtained from a supplier of these products published
announcement material or other publicly available sources and does not constitute an endorsement of
such products by IBM Sources for non-IBM list prices and performance numbers are taken from publicly
available information including vendor announcements and vendor worldwide homepages IBM has not
tested these products and cannot confirm the accuracy of performance capability or any other claims
related to non-IBM products Questions on the capability of non-IBM products should be addressed to the
supplier of those products
All statements regarding IBM future direction and intent are subject to change or withdrawal without notice
and represent goals and objectives only Contact your local IBM office or IBM authorized reseller for the
full text of the specific Statement of Direction
Some information addresses anticipated future capabilities Such information is not intended as a definitive
statement of a commitment to specific levels of performance function or delivery schedules with respect to
any future products Such commitments are only made in IBM product announcements The information is
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
39
presented here to communicate IBMs current investment and development activities as a good faith effort
to help with our customers future planning
Performance is based on measurements and projections using standard IBM benchmarks in a controlled
environment The actual throughput or performance that any user will experience will vary depending upon
considerations such as the amount of multiprogramming in the users job stream the IO configuration the
storage configuration and the workload processed Therefore no assurance can be given that an
individual user will achieve throughput or performance improvements equivalent to the ratios stated here
Photographs shown are of engineering prototypes Changes may be incorporated in production models
Any references in this information to non-IBM websites are provided for convenience only and do not in
any manner serve as an endorsement of those websites The materials at those websites are not part of
the materials for this IBM product and use of those websites is at your own risk
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
25
SAP on AIX reference landscapes for IBM PureFlex System
1 Minimal system = ERP BW all on POWER nodes
This is the simplest case of deploying
core SAP components in an IBM
PureFlex System System All SAP
modules are supported on POWER and
either an AIX or PowerLinux OS Two
nodes for physical redundancy each with
PowerVM and VIO virtualization are
used
In order to make use of autonomous load
balancing by PowerVM it is
recommended to mix production and
nonproduction SAP instances within a
shared processor pool on each of the
single nodes SAP 2-tier deployments
need to be preferred for smaller systems
Consider packing non- production
systems into WPARs for less LPAR
complexity
2 3-tier SAP ERP with scale-out DB and application-server tier all on POWER nodes
This option combines DB scale-out with
an SAP 3-tier application-server scale
out The advantage of a multinode DB
is a hot-standby high availability
without DB downtime as with classical
cold-standby cluster solutions Also
both the nodes contribute to an
aggregate DB throughput when in
normal operation As such a setup
appears for business-critical scenarios
a hot-standby FSM appliance has also
been configured (planned in 2012)
This in any case ensures that the
overall system monitoring and
adjustment can take place
Figure 11 minimal system
Figure 12 scale-out database
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
26
3 Mixed system = SAP Business Suite core applications TREX and non-SAP applications
This setup makes use of the IBM
PureFlex System heterogeneous
capabilities While several core SAP
Business Suite applications stay on
POWER nodes they are now
complemented by SAP TREX and a
NetWeaver development
environment which are supported
only on an x86 architecture There
are more than these components
there are newer appliances such as
BWA and HANA which mandate
such a setup
Further applications can be
consolidated into the same IBM
PureFlex System chassis as well
4 SAP NetWeaver landscape = SAP Business Suite core applications SAP Enterprise Portal
SAP Process Integration (service bus) and SAP Business Objects
This is a heterogeneous setup with
majority of SAP core systems on AIX
SAP Business Objects XI runs on
larger AIX LPAR for scaling while the
Business Objects end-user oriented
systems are consolidated in virtual
machines hosted on an x86 node
This scenario also outlines the
capability of IBM PureFlex System to
run x86 Linux and PowerLinux
distributions This applies to non-SAP
and many SAP components Inter-
system communication strongly takes
advantage of the internal networking
bandwidth of IBM PureFlex System
Figure 14 SAP Process Integration and SAP Business Objects
Figure 13 complementary components
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
27
5 Mixed system with SAP HANA = SAP Business Suite core applications deployed on
PureFlex nodes plus SAP HANA Appliances (= IBM Systems Solution for SAP Business
Suite and SAP HANA)
This setup makes use of the externalized IBM PureFlex System capabilities in shape of the IBM Systems Solution for SAP Business Suite and SAP HANA
Several core SAP applications are
deployed on internal POWER or x86
nodes and are complemented by an
external SAP HANA environment which is
being built of the x3950 X5 based standard
IBM appliance offering
This enables customers running SAP
HANA always to benefit from newest
certified System x HANA appliances and
operational improvements in that space
while creating administrative synergies
between the SAP HANA and traditional
SAP Business Suite infrastructure
Starting from physical integration today
the FlexSystem Manager will provide
integrated administrative capabilities
The IBM PureFlex system offers an
integrated infrastructure for all SAP
components SAP applications on
PureFlex System compute nodes may
access SAP HANA DB on IBM x3950 X5
servers as well as traditional data bases
(eg IBM DB2) running on PureFlex
System
Figure 15 SAP HANA Integration
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
28
High availability and disaster recovery
The single point of failures (SPOFs) for SAP systems stay untouched by the introduction of IBM PureFlex
System These are the database server and the central services for ABAP and Java including the enqueue
server
These SPOFs occur within each production SAP business component of the landscape that is multiple
clusters (such as ERP CRM SCM and so on) must be implemented
In addition central technical building blocks such as SAP Enterprise Portal (for user access) Process
Integration as Enterprise Service Bus need to be setup resilient
While the high availability and disaster recovery concepts for all these SPOFs are well known in general
they have not been tested in a special IBM PureFlex System environment at time of authoring this paper
As scenario 2 indicates multi-node databases like Oracle RAC are supported on IBM PureFlex System
Landscape monitoring and management
As the SAP landscapes tend to become a heterogeneous aggregation of servers and operating systems
this implies a certain level of complexity for SAP landscape administration Consolidating the SAP
landscape into an IBM PureFlex System with its consistent management capabilities helps to reduce this
complexity
The combination of the IBM PureFlex System and SAP NetWeaver technology offers multiple native
monitoring and administration layers for the complete hardware and software stack These are
Chassis Management Module
Flex System Management
SAP Computing Center Management System (SAP CCMS)
SAP Solution Manager
minus SAP Solution Manager aims at SAP application management and business key
performance indicator (KPI) monitoring but also is a mandatory tool for SAP
release and patch management
SAP NetWeaver Landscape Virtualization Management (LVM)
The IBM PureFlex System FSM and SAP LVM Enterprise are optional components the remaining ones
are part of virtualized base installation
In order to gain maximum efficiency for daily operations it is important to select the most appropriate tools
for specific administrative tasks and organizations In addition consistency and transparency need to be
maintained
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
29
The following table provides a high-level orientation for a selected set of administrator tasks in SAP
ecosystems
CMM FSM SAP LVM SAP CCMS SAP Solution Manager
Chassis topology view and administration
Through CMM
Virtualization metrics Through Flex System
Manager
Virtualization topology and administration
Through Flex System
Manager
OS DB SAP performance
Provisioning of a new virtual server Through Flex System
Manager
Virtual server start stop and live migration
Through Flex System
Manager
SAP service reallocation
SAP system refresh cloning
Alerting Chassis focus Systems focus
Task monitoring
OS DB SAP Base
Business KPIs
Integration to an upper-level enterprise management
Into Flex System
Manager
Into SAP Solution Manager
Table 6 monitoring and management layers
FSM is based on IBM Systems Director and provides comparable functions For POWER nodes FSM is
mandatory for advanced virtualization management As most of these functions are beneficial (if not
mandatory) for SAP (production) systems the FSM appears as an essential component for SAP on IBM
PureFlex environments
As a single point of control FSM provides a web-based interface to manage all aspects of the IBM
PureFlex System hardware components For example an interactive chassis map provides status
overview and serves as an entry point to manage the different resources Setup wizards guide you through
the process of initial setup and maintenance tasks
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
30
Figure 16 FSM chassis map
SAP CCMS is fully functional for IBM PureFlex System It allows monitoring and adjustment of base SAP
application and database settings Also PowerVM-specific metrics such as LPAR and WPAR resources
AME settings and so on can be accesses through the native SAP administrator GUI
IBM PureFlex System integration with SAP NetWeaver Landscape
Virtualization Management
The described cloud solution for SAP landscapes becomes available by a combination of the IBM FSM
capabilities and SAP NetWeaver Landscape Virtualization Management for automation tasks at the
application level
This solution enables common cloud scenarios with the SAP software stack and the underlying
infrastructure It aims to connect application management services with system virtualization and storage
management services It is a management tool for customers who run their SAP systems in their own data
center and want to become more efficient by automating provisioning and cloning tasks
Various scenarios around system copy and system refresh are supported including post-copy automation
Those labor-expensive tasks have been made easy with SAP Landscape Virtualization Management and
IBM PureFlex System
In more detail the following use cases are covered for cloud environments running SAP applications
Cloning of a SAP system (creating an identical copy in a fenced environment)
Creating an initial copy of a SAP system (with changing the SAP system identifier)
Refreshing a test SAP system with the content of a productive system
Automation of system copyrefresh post processing activities
Monitoring and visualization of virtualized SAP landscapes
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
31
SAP Landscape Virtualization Management is in many cases complementary to the inherent IBM PureFlex
System management layers SAP Landscape Virtualization Management enables access to many relevant
IBM PureFlex System and virtualization parameters to the SAP management software and provides IT
self-services to SAP administrators
The available IBM and SAP literature which describes the interaction of IBM Systems Director and SAP
Landscape Virtualization Management also applies to IBM PureFlex System FSM is the enriched IBM
Systems Director specifically optimized and packaged for IBM PureFlex System
IBM Tivoli Storage FlashCopy Manager adds a unique value for SAP landscapes This software enables
application-aware database-consistent online backups which can be used to create the cloned system By
exploiting storage snapshot techniques the backup is taken almost instantaneously
The solution has been developed as modular building blocks This provides a high degree of flexibility and
extensibility The following table shows the products and editions that are used for each scenario
Table 7 Use cases per management layer
Management components
SAP NetWeaver Landscape Virtualization Management 10 integrates with the following IBM
management products
IBM Flex System Manager
FSM is used for virtualization monitoring and management and for the operating system
provisioning scenarios on IBM PureFlex System
IBM Tivoli Storage FlashCopy Manager 3101
Tivoli Storage FlashCopy Manager is required for storage cloning of online SAP systems
System
monitoring
SAP
relocate
AIX
provisioning
SAP
Clone
SAP
Copy
SAP
Refresh
Flex
System
Manager
(not needed) (not needed) (not needed) (not needed)
FlashCopy
Manager
(not needed) (not needed) (not needed)
Storage any NFS GPFS
SVC V7000
or XIV
any SVC V7000
or XIV
SVC V7000
or XIV
SVC V7000
or XIV
SAP LVM Standard
Edition
Standard
Edition
Standard
Edition
Enterprise
Edition
Enterprise
Edition
Enterprise
Edition
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
32
The management products can be installed on a single AIX LPAR within IBM PureFlex System
Alternatively the products might be installed on different servers for example SAP NetWeaver
Landscape Virtualization Management may run on any of the supported SAP platforms
The following graphic shows a high-level view of how SAP Landscape Virtualization Management
integrates with the IBM PureFlex System FSM stack to enable cloud scenarios on this platform
Figure 17 SAP Landscape Virtualization Manager integration with FSM
Managed SAP landscape
The following IBM PureFlex System infrastructure is supported with SAP NetWeaver Landscape
Virtualization Management
IBM POWER nodes
AIX 61 or 71
IBM SAN Volume Controller IBM Storwize V7000 or IBM XIVreg Storage System1
SAP NetWeaver 7x using IBM DB2 for Linux UNIX and Windows Oracle Database or
SAP MaxDB is supported
1 SAN Volume Controller and Storwize V7000 support requires SAP Landscape Virtualization Management SP3
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
33
It is assumed that the storage is attached using single or dual VIOS (IBM PowerVM VIOS) For the
storage-cloning scenario the SAN storage system must be attached in the N_Port ID Virtualization
(NPIV) mode NPIV is a FC adapter (HBA) feature that allows multiple LPARs to share a physical port
The clone is created using the FlashCopy feature of the SAN Volume Controller or the snapshot
feature of the XIV Storage System These methods create a logical copy of the data volumes within
seconds while the SAP source system stays fully operational
Whenever an IBM PureFlex System environment needs to be integrated into an existing enterprise
monitoring and management solution (for example an existing IBM Systems Director hierarchy or the IBM
Tivoli Suite) FSM provides interfaces for seamless upward integration
Furthermore SAP Landscape Virtualization Management can be used to manage SAP landscapes within
and outside of IBM PureFlex System and also across different platforms
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
34
SAP-specific offerings for IBM PureFlex System
This section lists specific offerings for SAP on IBM PureFlex System
Lab services and IBM support
As capacity and capability of a larger IBM PureFlex System installation are comparable to large scale
UNIX or mainframe installations IBM provides hardware and software support beyond the standards of
commodity blade systems
Including three Global Centers of Competence IBM Maintenance and Technical Support Services provide
integrated support on the FSM-based environments when there is not a clear understanding of whether
there is a hardware or a software issue All of this can be backed up with the latest version of IBM
Electronic Service Agent trade which has been enhanced for IBM PureFlex System and proactively monitors
and reports hardware events back to IBM support Even if a client has a comprehensive in-house support
organization this can selectively be enhanced through the addition of specific services within the portfolio
to cover critical areas of weakness or exposure
For complex IBM PureFlex System environments and where mission-critical applications are deployed
(which applies to SAP production systems) premium services are available and cover
Enhanced technical support custom technical support
Microcode support managed technical support
Committed fix services
Availability management hard disk retention
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
35
Summary
This paper provides reference architectures of how heterogeneous SAP landscapes can be consolidated
using IBM PureFlex System While running the core business applications on POWER nodes with AIX as
operating system complementary SAP components are added on x86 nodes IBM PureFlex System
enables a very tight integration of infrastructure components including servers networking and storage
Seamless monitoring and management functions of the infrastructure are provided by the FSM
The integration aspect is taken even further with the integration of the SAP Landscape Virtualization
Manager application with the FSM This enables SAP cloud usage scenarios for SAP systems running on
IBM PureFlex System
For individual questions or to request a briefing about this topic contact the IBM SAP International
Competence Center at isiccdeibmcom
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
36
Resources
These websites provide useful references to supplement the information contained in this paper
IBM Systems on PartnerWorld
ibmcompartnerworldsystems
IBM Redbooks
ibmcomredbooks
IBM cloud computing
ibmcomsolutionssapusenlandingcloud_solutionshtml
IBM Cloud Solutions for SAP clients
ibmcomcloud-computingusen
IBM SmartCloud Entry for AIX on PartnerWorld (requires PartnerWorld login)
ibmcompartnerworldpagestg_com_sys_smartcloud
SAP HANA on workload optimized IBM System x appliances
ibmcomsolutionssaphana
IBM internal SSI-URL with a collection of SAP related PureSystem materials
httpsw3-
03ssoibmcomsalessupportShowDocwssdocid=SGDN258263T70735C63ampnode=brandsB6000|brandsBI5
00|clientsetIA|alliancesT5000|alliancesT5150|channelDR|channelF2F|solutionQ00|solution210ampappname=C
C_SSIGD
select the ldquoCollateralrdquo Tab in ldquoMain Contentrdquo section
Related SAP on PureFlex paper with System x focus ldquoReference Architecture - SAP
Systems on IBM PureSystems based on x86 nodesrdquo
httpw3ibmcomsupporttechdocsatsmastrnsfWebIndexWP102167
httpwwwibmcomsupporttechdocsatsmastrnsfWebIndexWP102167
httpwww-03ibmcompartnerworldpartnerinfosrcatsmastrnsfWebIndexWP102167
Related SAP on PureFlex paper with IBM i focus ldquoEfficiently deploying SAP landscapes
on the IBM PureFlex Systemrdquo
httpw3ibmcomsupporttechdocsatsmastrnsfWebIndexWP102087
httpwwwibmcomsupporttechdocsatsmastrnsfWebIndexWP102087
httpwww-03ibmcompartnerworldpartnerinfosrcatsmastrnsfWebIndexWP102087
Virtualization for SAP on IBM PureSystems with Microsoft Hyper-V
httpwwwibmcomsupporttechdocsatsmastrnsfWebIndexWP102153
IBM Workload Optimized Solution for SAP HANA ndash Quick Start Guide
provides technical overview HW models network requirements for IBM Systems Solution
for SAP HANA appliance
httpdownloadboulderibmcomibmdlpubsystemssupportsystem_x_pdf46w8274pdf
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
37
IBM internal SAP HANA Wiki
httpsw3-connectionsibmcomwikishomelang=en-
uswikiWaef4c0eb0f35_427f_a25e_670e392682b1pageSAP20HANA
FlexSystem with SAP BWA Presentations (click to open link)
Seller
Customer
General IBM Sales Kit ldquoSAP NetWeaver Business Warehouse Accelerator (BWA)rdquo
Implementation Guide for BWA on IBM Flex System x240
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
38
Trademarks and special notices
copy Copyright IBM Corporation 2013
References in this document to IBM products or services do not imply that IBM intends to make them
available in every country
IBM the IBM logo and ibmcom are trademarks or registered trademarks of International Business
Machines Corporation in the United States other countries or both If these and other IBM trademarked
terms are marked on their first occurrence in this information with a trademark symbol (reg or trade) these
symbols indicate US registered or common law trademarks owned by IBM at the time this information
was published Such trademarks may also be registered or common law trademarks in other countries A
current list of IBM trademarks is available on the Web at Copyright and trademark information at
wwwibmcomlegalcopytradeshtml
Java and all Java-based trademarks and logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of Oracle andor
its affiliates
Microsoft Windows Windows NT and the Windows logo are trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the
United States other countries or both
Intel Intel Inside (logos) MMX and Pentium are trademarks of Intel Corporation in the United States
other countries or both
UNIX is a registered trademark of The Open Group in the United States and other countries
Linux is a trademark of Linus Torvalds in the United States other countries or both
Other company product or service names may be trademarks or service marks of others
Information is provided AS IS without warranty of any kind
All customer examples described are presented as illustrations of how those customers have used IBM
products and the results they may have achieved Actual environmental costs and performance
characteristics may vary by customer
Information concerning non-IBM products was obtained from a supplier of these products published
announcement material or other publicly available sources and does not constitute an endorsement of
such products by IBM Sources for non-IBM list prices and performance numbers are taken from publicly
available information including vendor announcements and vendor worldwide homepages IBM has not
tested these products and cannot confirm the accuracy of performance capability or any other claims
related to non-IBM products Questions on the capability of non-IBM products should be addressed to the
supplier of those products
All statements regarding IBM future direction and intent are subject to change or withdrawal without notice
and represent goals and objectives only Contact your local IBM office or IBM authorized reseller for the
full text of the specific Statement of Direction
Some information addresses anticipated future capabilities Such information is not intended as a definitive
statement of a commitment to specific levels of performance function or delivery schedules with respect to
any future products Such commitments are only made in IBM product announcements The information is
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
39
presented here to communicate IBMs current investment and development activities as a good faith effort
to help with our customers future planning
Performance is based on measurements and projections using standard IBM benchmarks in a controlled
environment The actual throughput or performance that any user will experience will vary depending upon
considerations such as the amount of multiprogramming in the users job stream the IO configuration the
storage configuration and the workload processed Therefore no assurance can be given that an
individual user will achieve throughput or performance improvements equivalent to the ratios stated here
Photographs shown are of engineering prototypes Changes may be incorporated in production models
Any references in this information to non-IBM websites are provided for convenience only and do not in
any manner serve as an endorsement of those websites The materials at those websites are not part of
the materials for this IBM product and use of those websites is at your own risk
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
26
3 Mixed system = SAP Business Suite core applications TREX and non-SAP applications
This setup makes use of the IBM
PureFlex System heterogeneous
capabilities While several core SAP
Business Suite applications stay on
POWER nodes they are now
complemented by SAP TREX and a
NetWeaver development
environment which are supported
only on an x86 architecture There
are more than these components
there are newer appliances such as
BWA and HANA which mandate
such a setup
Further applications can be
consolidated into the same IBM
PureFlex System chassis as well
4 SAP NetWeaver landscape = SAP Business Suite core applications SAP Enterprise Portal
SAP Process Integration (service bus) and SAP Business Objects
This is a heterogeneous setup with
majority of SAP core systems on AIX
SAP Business Objects XI runs on
larger AIX LPAR for scaling while the
Business Objects end-user oriented
systems are consolidated in virtual
machines hosted on an x86 node
This scenario also outlines the
capability of IBM PureFlex System to
run x86 Linux and PowerLinux
distributions This applies to non-SAP
and many SAP components Inter-
system communication strongly takes
advantage of the internal networking
bandwidth of IBM PureFlex System
Figure 14 SAP Process Integration and SAP Business Objects
Figure 13 complementary components
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
27
5 Mixed system with SAP HANA = SAP Business Suite core applications deployed on
PureFlex nodes plus SAP HANA Appliances (= IBM Systems Solution for SAP Business
Suite and SAP HANA)
This setup makes use of the externalized IBM PureFlex System capabilities in shape of the IBM Systems Solution for SAP Business Suite and SAP HANA
Several core SAP applications are
deployed on internal POWER or x86
nodes and are complemented by an
external SAP HANA environment which is
being built of the x3950 X5 based standard
IBM appliance offering
This enables customers running SAP
HANA always to benefit from newest
certified System x HANA appliances and
operational improvements in that space
while creating administrative synergies
between the SAP HANA and traditional
SAP Business Suite infrastructure
Starting from physical integration today
the FlexSystem Manager will provide
integrated administrative capabilities
The IBM PureFlex system offers an
integrated infrastructure for all SAP
components SAP applications on
PureFlex System compute nodes may
access SAP HANA DB on IBM x3950 X5
servers as well as traditional data bases
(eg IBM DB2) running on PureFlex
System
Figure 15 SAP HANA Integration
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
28
High availability and disaster recovery
The single point of failures (SPOFs) for SAP systems stay untouched by the introduction of IBM PureFlex
System These are the database server and the central services for ABAP and Java including the enqueue
server
These SPOFs occur within each production SAP business component of the landscape that is multiple
clusters (such as ERP CRM SCM and so on) must be implemented
In addition central technical building blocks such as SAP Enterprise Portal (for user access) Process
Integration as Enterprise Service Bus need to be setup resilient
While the high availability and disaster recovery concepts for all these SPOFs are well known in general
they have not been tested in a special IBM PureFlex System environment at time of authoring this paper
As scenario 2 indicates multi-node databases like Oracle RAC are supported on IBM PureFlex System
Landscape monitoring and management
As the SAP landscapes tend to become a heterogeneous aggregation of servers and operating systems
this implies a certain level of complexity for SAP landscape administration Consolidating the SAP
landscape into an IBM PureFlex System with its consistent management capabilities helps to reduce this
complexity
The combination of the IBM PureFlex System and SAP NetWeaver technology offers multiple native
monitoring and administration layers for the complete hardware and software stack These are
Chassis Management Module
Flex System Management
SAP Computing Center Management System (SAP CCMS)
SAP Solution Manager
minus SAP Solution Manager aims at SAP application management and business key
performance indicator (KPI) monitoring but also is a mandatory tool for SAP
release and patch management
SAP NetWeaver Landscape Virtualization Management (LVM)
The IBM PureFlex System FSM and SAP LVM Enterprise are optional components the remaining ones
are part of virtualized base installation
In order to gain maximum efficiency for daily operations it is important to select the most appropriate tools
for specific administrative tasks and organizations In addition consistency and transparency need to be
maintained
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
29
The following table provides a high-level orientation for a selected set of administrator tasks in SAP
ecosystems
CMM FSM SAP LVM SAP CCMS SAP Solution Manager
Chassis topology view and administration
Through CMM
Virtualization metrics Through Flex System
Manager
Virtualization topology and administration
Through Flex System
Manager
OS DB SAP performance
Provisioning of a new virtual server Through Flex System
Manager
Virtual server start stop and live migration
Through Flex System
Manager
SAP service reallocation
SAP system refresh cloning
Alerting Chassis focus Systems focus
Task monitoring
OS DB SAP Base
Business KPIs
Integration to an upper-level enterprise management
Into Flex System
Manager
Into SAP Solution Manager
Table 6 monitoring and management layers
FSM is based on IBM Systems Director and provides comparable functions For POWER nodes FSM is
mandatory for advanced virtualization management As most of these functions are beneficial (if not
mandatory) for SAP (production) systems the FSM appears as an essential component for SAP on IBM
PureFlex environments
As a single point of control FSM provides a web-based interface to manage all aspects of the IBM
PureFlex System hardware components For example an interactive chassis map provides status
overview and serves as an entry point to manage the different resources Setup wizards guide you through
the process of initial setup and maintenance tasks
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
30
Figure 16 FSM chassis map
SAP CCMS is fully functional for IBM PureFlex System It allows monitoring and adjustment of base SAP
application and database settings Also PowerVM-specific metrics such as LPAR and WPAR resources
AME settings and so on can be accesses through the native SAP administrator GUI
IBM PureFlex System integration with SAP NetWeaver Landscape
Virtualization Management
The described cloud solution for SAP landscapes becomes available by a combination of the IBM FSM
capabilities and SAP NetWeaver Landscape Virtualization Management for automation tasks at the
application level
This solution enables common cloud scenarios with the SAP software stack and the underlying
infrastructure It aims to connect application management services with system virtualization and storage
management services It is a management tool for customers who run their SAP systems in their own data
center and want to become more efficient by automating provisioning and cloning tasks
Various scenarios around system copy and system refresh are supported including post-copy automation
Those labor-expensive tasks have been made easy with SAP Landscape Virtualization Management and
IBM PureFlex System
In more detail the following use cases are covered for cloud environments running SAP applications
Cloning of a SAP system (creating an identical copy in a fenced environment)
Creating an initial copy of a SAP system (with changing the SAP system identifier)
Refreshing a test SAP system with the content of a productive system
Automation of system copyrefresh post processing activities
Monitoring and visualization of virtualized SAP landscapes
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
31
SAP Landscape Virtualization Management is in many cases complementary to the inherent IBM PureFlex
System management layers SAP Landscape Virtualization Management enables access to many relevant
IBM PureFlex System and virtualization parameters to the SAP management software and provides IT
self-services to SAP administrators
The available IBM and SAP literature which describes the interaction of IBM Systems Director and SAP
Landscape Virtualization Management also applies to IBM PureFlex System FSM is the enriched IBM
Systems Director specifically optimized and packaged for IBM PureFlex System
IBM Tivoli Storage FlashCopy Manager adds a unique value for SAP landscapes This software enables
application-aware database-consistent online backups which can be used to create the cloned system By
exploiting storage snapshot techniques the backup is taken almost instantaneously
The solution has been developed as modular building blocks This provides a high degree of flexibility and
extensibility The following table shows the products and editions that are used for each scenario
Table 7 Use cases per management layer
Management components
SAP NetWeaver Landscape Virtualization Management 10 integrates with the following IBM
management products
IBM Flex System Manager
FSM is used for virtualization monitoring and management and for the operating system
provisioning scenarios on IBM PureFlex System
IBM Tivoli Storage FlashCopy Manager 3101
Tivoli Storage FlashCopy Manager is required for storage cloning of online SAP systems
System
monitoring
SAP
relocate
AIX
provisioning
SAP
Clone
SAP
Copy
SAP
Refresh
Flex
System
Manager
(not needed) (not needed) (not needed) (not needed)
FlashCopy
Manager
(not needed) (not needed) (not needed)
Storage any NFS GPFS
SVC V7000
or XIV
any SVC V7000
or XIV
SVC V7000
or XIV
SVC V7000
or XIV
SAP LVM Standard
Edition
Standard
Edition
Standard
Edition
Enterprise
Edition
Enterprise
Edition
Enterprise
Edition
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
32
The management products can be installed on a single AIX LPAR within IBM PureFlex System
Alternatively the products might be installed on different servers for example SAP NetWeaver
Landscape Virtualization Management may run on any of the supported SAP platforms
The following graphic shows a high-level view of how SAP Landscape Virtualization Management
integrates with the IBM PureFlex System FSM stack to enable cloud scenarios on this platform
Figure 17 SAP Landscape Virtualization Manager integration with FSM
Managed SAP landscape
The following IBM PureFlex System infrastructure is supported with SAP NetWeaver Landscape
Virtualization Management
IBM POWER nodes
AIX 61 or 71
IBM SAN Volume Controller IBM Storwize V7000 or IBM XIVreg Storage System1
SAP NetWeaver 7x using IBM DB2 for Linux UNIX and Windows Oracle Database or
SAP MaxDB is supported
1 SAN Volume Controller and Storwize V7000 support requires SAP Landscape Virtualization Management SP3
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
33
It is assumed that the storage is attached using single or dual VIOS (IBM PowerVM VIOS) For the
storage-cloning scenario the SAN storage system must be attached in the N_Port ID Virtualization
(NPIV) mode NPIV is a FC adapter (HBA) feature that allows multiple LPARs to share a physical port
The clone is created using the FlashCopy feature of the SAN Volume Controller or the snapshot
feature of the XIV Storage System These methods create a logical copy of the data volumes within
seconds while the SAP source system stays fully operational
Whenever an IBM PureFlex System environment needs to be integrated into an existing enterprise
monitoring and management solution (for example an existing IBM Systems Director hierarchy or the IBM
Tivoli Suite) FSM provides interfaces for seamless upward integration
Furthermore SAP Landscape Virtualization Management can be used to manage SAP landscapes within
and outside of IBM PureFlex System and also across different platforms
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
34
SAP-specific offerings for IBM PureFlex System
This section lists specific offerings for SAP on IBM PureFlex System
Lab services and IBM support
As capacity and capability of a larger IBM PureFlex System installation are comparable to large scale
UNIX or mainframe installations IBM provides hardware and software support beyond the standards of
commodity blade systems
Including three Global Centers of Competence IBM Maintenance and Technical Support Services provide
integrated support on the FSM-based environments when there is not a clear understanding of whether
there is a hardware or a software issue All of this can be backed up with the latest version of IBM
Electronic Service Agent trade which has been enhanced for IBM PureFlex System and proactively monitors
and reports hardware events back to IBM support Even if a client has a comprehensive in-house support
organization this can selectively be enhanced through the addition of specific services within the portfolio
to cover critical areas of weakness or exposure
For complex IBM PureFlex System environments and where mission-critical applications are deployed
(which applies to SAP production systems) premium services are available and cover
Enhanced technical support custom technical support
Microcode support managed technical support
Committed fix services
Availability management hard disk retention
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
35
Summary
This paper provides reference architectures of how heterogeneous SAP landscapes can be consolidated
using IBM PureFlex System While running the core business applications on POWER nodes with AIX as
operating system complementary SAP components are added on x86 nodes IBM PureFlex System
enables a very tight integration of infrastructure components including servers networking and storage
Seamless monitoring and management functions of the infrastructure are provided by the FSM
The integration aspect is taken even further with the integration of the SAP Landscape Virtualization
Manager application with the FSM This enables SAP cloud usage scenarios for SAP systems running on
IBM PureFlex System
For individual questions or to request a briefing about this topic contact the IBM SAP International
Competence Center at isiccdeibmcom
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
36
Resources
These websites provide useful references to supplement the information contained in this paper
IBM Systems on PartnerWorld
ibmcompartnerworldsystems
IBM Redbooks
ibmcomredbooks
IBM cloud computing
ibmcomsolutionssapusenlandingcloud_solutionshtml
IBM Cloud Solutions for SAP clients
ibmcomcloud-computingusen
IBM SmartCloud Entry for AIX on PartnerWorld (requires PartnerWorld login)
ibmcompartnerworldpagestg_com_sys_smartcloud
SAP HANA on workload optimized IBM System x appliances
ibmcomsolutionssaphana
IBM internal SSI-URL with a collection of SAP related PureSystem materials
httpsw3-
03ssoibmcomsalessupportShowDocwssdocid=SGDN258263T70735C63ampnode=brandsB6000|brandsBI5
00|clientsetIA|alliancesT5000|alliancesT5150|channelDR|channelF2F|solutionQ00|solution210ampappname=C
C_SSIGD
select the ldquoCollateralrdquo Tab in ldquoMain Contentrdquo section
Related SAP on PureFlex paper with System x focus ldquoReference Architecture - SAP
Systems on IBM PureSystems based on x86 nodesrdquo
httpw3ibmcomsupporttechdocsatsmastrnsfWebIndexWP102167
httpwwwibmcomsupporttechdocsatsmastrnsfWebIndexWP102167
httpwww-03ibmcompartnerworldpartnerinfosrcatsmastrnsfWebIndexWP102167
Related SAP on PureFlex paper with IBM i focus ldquoEfficiently deploying SAP landscapes
on the IBM PureFlex Systemrdquo
httpw3ibmcomsupporttechdocsatsmastrnsfWebIndexWP102087
httpwwwibmcomsupporttechdocsatsmastrnsfWebIndexWP102087
httpwww-03ibmcompartnerworldpartnerinfosrcatsmastrnsfWebIndexWP102087
Virtualization for SAP on IBM PureSystems with Microsoft Hyper-V
httpwwwibmcomsupporttechdocsatsmastrnsfWebIndexWP102153
IBM Workload Optimized Solution for SAP HANA ndash Quick Start Guide
provides technical overview HW models network requirements for IBM Systems Solution
for SAP HANA appliance
httpdownloadboulderibmcomibmdlpubsystemssupportsystem_x_pdf46w8274pdf
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
37
IBM internal SAP HANA Wiki
httpsw3-connectionsibmcomwikishomelang=en-
uswikiWaef4c0eb0f35_427f_a25e_670e392682b1pageSAP20HANA
FlexSystem with SAP BWA Presentations (click to open link)
Seller
Customer
General IBM Sales Kit ldquoSAP NetWeaver Business Warehouse Accelerator (BWA)rdquo
Implementation Guide for BWA on IBM Flex System x240
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
38
Trademarks and special notices
copy Copyright IBM Corporation 2013
References in this document to IBM products or services do not imply that IBM intends to make them
available in every country
IBM the IBM logo and ibmcom are trademarks or registered trademarks of International Business
Machines Corporation in the United States other countries or both If these and other IBM trademarked
terms are marked on their first occurrence in this information with a trademark symbol (reg or trade) these
symbols indicate US registered or common law trademarks owned by IBM at the time this information
was published Such trademarks may also be registered or common law trademarks in other countries A
current list of IBM trademarks is available on the Web at Copyright and trademark information at
wwwibmcomlegalcopytradeshtml
Java and all Java-based trademarks and logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of Oracle andor
its affiliates
Microsoft Windows Windows NT and the Windows logo are trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the
United States other countries or both
Intel Intel Inside (logos) MMX and Pentium are trademarks of Intel Corporation in the United States
other countries or both
UNIX is a registered trademark of The Open Group in the United States and other countries
Linux is a trademark of Linus Torvalds in the United States other countries or both
Other company product or service names may be trademarks or service marks of others
Information is provided AS IS without warranty of any kind
All customer examples described are presented as illustrations of how those customers have used IBM
products and the results they may have achieved Actual environmental costs and performance
characteristics may vary by customer
Information concerning non-IBM products was obtained from a supplier of these products published
announcement material or other publicly available sources and does not constitute an endorsement of
such products by IBM Sources for non-IBM list prices and performance numbers are taken from publicly
available information including vendor announcements and vendor worldwide homepages IBM has not
tested these products and cannot confirm the accuracy of performance capability or any other claims
related to non-IBM products Questions on the capability of non-IBM products should be addressed to the
supplier of those products
All statements regarding IBM future direction and intent are subject to change or withdrawal without notice
and represent goals and objectives only Contact your local IBM office or IBM authorized reseller for the
full text of the specific Statement of Direction
Some information addresses anticipated future capabilities Such information is not intended as a definitive
statement of a commitment to specific levels of performance function or delivery schedules with respect to
any future products Such commitments are only made in IBM product announcements The information is
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
39
presented here to communicate IBMs current investment and development activities as a good faith effort
to help with our customers future planning
Performance is based on measurements and projections using standard IBM benchmarks in a controlled
environment The actual throughput or performance that any user will experience will vary depending upon
considerations such as the amount of multiprogramming in the users job stream the IO configuration the
storage configuration and the workload processed Therefore no assurance can be given that an
individual user will achieve throughput or performance improvements equivalent to the ratios stated here
Photographs shown are of engineering prototypes Changes may be incorporated in production models
Any references in this information to non-IBM websites are provided for convenience only and do not in
any manner serve as an endorsement of those websites The materials at those websites are not part of
the materials for this IBM product and use of those websites is at your own risk
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
27
5 Mixed system with SAP HANA = SAP Business Suite core applications deployed on
PureFlex nodes plus SAP HANA Appliances (= IBM Systems Solution for SAP Business
Suite and SAP HANA)
This setup makes use of the externalized IBM PureFlex System capabilities in shape of the IBM Systems Solution for SAP Business Suite and SAP HANA
Several core SAP applications are
deployed on internal POWER or x86
nodes and are complemented by an
external SAP HANA environment which is
being built of the x3950 X5 based standard
IBM appliance offering
This enables customers running SAP
HANA always to benefit from newest
certified System x HANA appliances and
operational improvements in that space
while creating administrative synergies
between the SAP HANA and traditional
SAP Business Suite infrastructure
Starting from physical integration today
the FlexSystem Manager will provide
integrated administrative capabilities
The IBM PureFlex system offers an
integrated infrastructure for all SAP
components SAP applications on
PureFlex System compute nodes may
access SAP HANA DB on IBM x3950 X5
servers as well as traditional data bases
(eg IBM DB2) running on PureFlex
System
Figure 15 SAP HANA Integration
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
28
High availability and disaster recovery
The single point of failures (SPOFs) for SAP systems stay untouched by the introduction of IBM PureFlex
System These are the database server and the central services for ABAP and Java including the enqueue
server
These SPOFs occur within each production SAP business component of the landscape that is multiple
clusters (such as ERP CRM SCM and so on) must be implemented
In addition central technical building blocks such as SAP Enterprise Portal (for user access) Process
Integration as Enterprise Service Bus need to be setup resilient
While the high availability and disaster recovery concepts for all these SPOFs are well known in general
they have not been tested in a special IBM PureFlex System environment at time of authoring this paper
As scenario 2 indicates multi-node databases like Oracle RAC are supported on IBM PureFlex System
Landscape monitoring and management
As the SAP landscapes tend to become a heterogeneous aggregation of servers and operating systems
this implies a certain level of complexity for SAP landscape administration Consolidating the SAP
landscape into an IBM PureFlex System with its consistent management capabilities helps to reduce this
complexity
The combination of the IBM PureFlex System and SAP NetWeaver technology offers multiple native
monitoring and administration layers for the complete hardware and software stack These are
Chassis Management Module
Flex System Management
SAP Computing Center Management System (SAP CCMS)
SAP Solution Manager
minus SAP Solution Manager aims at SAP application management and business key
performance indicator (KPI) monitoring but also is a mandatory tool for SAP
release and patch management
SAP NetWeaver Landscape Virtualization Management (LVM)
The IBM PureFlex System FSM and SAP LVM Enterprise are optional components the remaining ones
are part of virtualized base installation
In order to gain maximum efficiency for daily operations it is important to select the most appropriate tools
for specific administrative tasks and organizations In addition consistency and transparency need to be
maintained
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
29
The following table provides a high-level orientation for a selected set of administrator tasks in SAP
ecosystems
CMM FSM SAP LVM SAP CCMS SAP Solution Manager
Chassis topology view and administration
Through CMM
Virtualization metrics Through Flex System
Manager
Virtualization topology and administration
Through Flex System
Manager
OS DB SAP performance
Provisioning of a new virtual server Through Flex System
Manager
Virtual server start stop and live migration
Through Flex System
Manager
SAP service reallocation
SAP system refresh cloning
Alerting Chassis focus Systems focus
Task monitoring
OS DB SAP Base
Business KPIs
Integration to an upper-level enterprise management
Into Flex System
Manager
Into SAP Solution Manager
Table 6 monitoring and management layers
FSM is based on IBM Systems Director and provides comparable functions For POWER nodes FSM is
mandatory for advanced virtualization management As most of these functions are beneficial (if not
mandatory) for SAP (production) systems the FSM appears as an essential component for SAP on IBM
PureFlex environments
As a single point of control FSM provides a web-based interface to manage all aspects of the IBM
PureFlex System hardware components For example an interactive chassis map provides status
overview and serves as an entry point to manage the different resources Setup wizards guide you through
the process of initial setup and maintenance tasks
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
30
Figure 16 FSM chassis map
SAP CCMS is fully functional for IBM PureFlex System It allows monitoring and adjustment of base SAP
application and database settings Also PowerVM-specific metrics such as LPAR and WPAR resources
AME settings and so on can be accesses through the native SAP administrator GUI
IBM PureFlex System integration with SAP NetWeaver Landscape
Virtualization Management
The described cloud solution for SAP landscapes becomes available by a combination of the IBM FSM
capabilities and SAP NetWeaver Landscape Virtualization Management for automation tasks at the
application level
This solution enables common cloud scenarios with the SAP software stack and the underlying
infrastructure It aims to connect application management services with system virtualization and storage
management services It is a management tool for customers who run their SAP systems in their own data
center and want to become more efficient by automating provisioning and cloning tasks
Various scenarios around system copy and system refresh are supported including post-copy automation
Those labor-expensive tasks have been made easy with SAP Landscape Virtualization Management and
IBM PureFlex System
In more detail the following use cases are covered for cloud environments running SAP applications
Cloning of a SAP system (creating an identical copy in a fenced environment)
Creating an initial copy of a SAP system (with changing the SAP system identifier)
Refreshing a test SAP system with the content of a productive system
Automation of system copyrefresh post processing activities
Monitoring and visualization of virtualized SAP landscapes
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
31
SAP Landscape Virtualization Management is in many cases complementary to the inherent IBM PureFlex
System management layers SAP Landscape Virtualization Management enables access to many relevant
IBM PureFlex System and virtualization parameters to the SAP management software and provides IT
self-services to SAP administrators
The available IBM and SAP literature which describes the interaction of IBM Systems Director and SAP
Landscape Virtualization Management also applies to IBM PureFlex System FSM is the enriched IBM
Systems Director specifically optimized and packaged for IBM PureFlex System
IBM Tivoli Storage FlashCopy Manager adds a unique value for SAP landscapes This software enables
application-aware database-consistent online backups which can be used to create the cloned system By
exploiting storage snapshot techniques the backup is taken almost instantaneously
The solution has been developed as modular building blocks This provides a high degree of flexibility and
extensibility The following table shows the products and editions that are used for each scenario
Table 7 Use cases per management layer
Management components
SAP NetWeaver Landscape Virtualization Management 10 integrates with the following IBM
management products
IBM Flex System Manager
FSM is used for virtualization monitoring and management and for the operating system
provisioning scenarios on IBM PureFlex System
IBM Tivoli Storage FlashCopy Manager 3101
Tivoli Storage FlashCopy Manager is required for storage cloning of online SAP systems
System
monitoring
SAP
relocate
AIX
provisioning
SAP
Clone
SAP
Copy
SAP
Refresh
Flex
System
Manager
(not needed) (not needed) (not needed) (not needed)
FlashCopy
Manager
(not needed) (not needed) (not needed)
Storage any NFS GPFS
SVC V7000
or XIV
any SVC V7000
or XIV
SVC V7000
or XIV
SVC V7000
or XIV
SAP LVM Standard
Edition
Standard
Edition
Standard
Edition
Enterprise
Edition
Enterprise
Edition
Enterprise
Edition
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
32
The management products can be installed on a single AIX LPAR within IBM PureFlex System
Alternatively the products might be installed on different servers for example SAP NetWeaver
Landscape Virtualization Management may run on any of the supported SAP platforms
The following graphic shows a high-level view of how SAP Landscape Virtualization Management
integrates with the IBM PureFlex System FSM stack to enable cloud scenarios on this platform
Figure 17 SAP Landscape Virtualization Manager integration with FSM
Managed SAP landscape
The following IBM PureFlex System infrastructure is supported with SAP NetWeaver Landscape
Virtualization Management
IBM POWER nodes
AIX 61 or 71
IBM SAN Volume Controller IBM Storwize V7000 or IBM XIVreg Storage System1
SAP NetWeaver 7x using IBM DB2 for Linux UNIX and Windows Oracle Database or
SAP MaxDB is supported
1 SAN Volume Controller and Storwize V7000 support requires SAP Landscape Virtualization Management SP3
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
33
It is assumed that the storage is attached using single or dual VIOS (IBM PowerVM VIOS) For the
storage-cloning scenario the SAN storage system must be attached in the N_Port ID Virtualization
(NPIV) mode NPIV is a FC adapter (HBA) feature that allows multiple LPARs to share a physical port
The clone is created using the FlashCopy feature of the SAN Volume Controller or the snapshot
feature of the XIV Storage System These methods create a logical copy of the data volumes within
seconds while the SAP source system stays fully operational
Whenever an IBM PureFlex System environment needs to be integrated into an existing enterprise
monitoring and management solution (for example an existing IBM Systems Director hierarchy or the IBM
Tivoli Suite) FSM provides interfaces for seamless upward integration
Furthermore SAP Landscape Virtualization Management can be used to manage SAP landscapes within
and outside of IBM PureFlex System and also across different platforms
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
34
SAP-specific offerings for IBM PureFlex System
This section lists specific offerings for SAP on IBM PureFlex System
Lab services and IBM support
As capacity and capability of a larger IBM PureFlex System installation are comparable to large scale
UNIX or mainframe installations IBM provides hardware and software support beyond the standards of
commodity blade systems
Including three Global Centers of Competence IBM Maintenance and Technical Support Services provide
integrated support on the FSM-based environments when there is not a clear understanding of whether
there is a hardware or a software issue All of this can be backed up with the latest version of IBM
Electronic Service Agent trade which has been enhanced for IBM PureFlex System and proactively monitors
and reports hardware events back to IBM support Even if a client has a comprehensive in-house support
organization this can selectively be enhanced through the addition of specific services within the portfolio
to cover critical areas of weakness or exposure
For complex IBM PureFlex System environments and where mission-critical applications are deployed
(which applies to SAP production systems) premium services are available and cover
Enhanced technical support custom technical support
Microcode support managed technical support
Committed fix services
Availability management hard disk retention
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
35
Summary
This paper provides reference architectures of how heterogeneous SAP landscapes can be consolidated
using IBM PureFlex System While running the core business applications on POWER nodes with AIX as
operating system complementary SAP components are added on x86 nodes IBM PureFlex System
enables a very tight integration of infrastructure components including servers networking and storage
Seamless monitoring and management functions of the infrastructure are provided by the FSM
The integration aspect is taken even further with the integration of the SAP Landscape Virtualization
Manager application with the FSM This enables SAP cloud usage scenarios for SAP systems running on
IBM PureFlex System
For individual questions or to request a briefing about this topic contact the IBM SAP International
Competence Center at isiccdeibmcom
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
36
Resources
These websites provide useful references to supplement the information contained in this paper
IBM Systems on PartnerWorld
ibmcompartnerworldsystems
IBM Redbooks
ibmcomredbooks
IBM cloud computing
ibmcomsolutionssapusenlandingcloud_solutionshtml
IBM Cloud Solutions for SAP clients
ibmcomcloud-computingusen
IBM SmartCloud Entry for AIX on PartnerWorld (requires PartnerWorld login)
ibmcompartnerworldpagestg_com_sys_smartcloud
SAP HANA on workload optimized IBM System x appliances
ibmcomsolutionssaphana
IBM internal SSI-URL with a collection of SAP related PureSystem materials
httpsw3-
03ssoibmcomsalessupportShowDocwssdocid=SGDN258263T70735C63ampnode=brandsB6000|brandsBI5
00|clientsetIA|alliancesT5000|alliancesT5150|channelDR|channelF2F|solutionQ00|solution210ampappname=C
C_SSIGD
select the ldquoCollateralrdquo Tab in ldquoMain Contentrdquo section
Related SAP on PureFlex paper with System x focus ldquoReference Architecture - SAP
Systems on IBM PureSystems based on x86 nodesrdquo
httpw3ibmcomsupporttechdocsatsmastrnsfWebIndexWP102167
httpwwwibmcomsupporttechdocsatsmastrnsfWebIndexWP102167
httpwww-03ibmcompartnerworldpartnerinfosrcatsmastrnsfWebIndexWP102167
Related SAP on PureFlex paper with IBM i focus ldquoEfficiently deploying SAP landscapes
on the IBM PureFlex Systemrdquo
httpw3ibmcomsupporttechdocsatsmastrnsfWebIndexWP102087
httpwwwibmcomsupporttechdocsatsmastrnsfWebIndexWP102087
httpwww-03ibmcompartnerworldpartnerinfosrcatsmastrnsfWebIndexWP102087
Virtualization for SAP on IBM PureSystems with Microsoft Hyper-V
httpwwwibmcomsupporttechdocsatsmastrnsfWebIndexWP102153
IBM Workload Optimized Solution for SAP HANA ndash Quick Start Guide
provides technical overview HW models network requirements for IBM Systems Solution
for SAP HANA appliance
httpdownloadboulderibmcomibmdlpubsystemssupportsystem_x_pdf46w8274pdf
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
37
IBM internal SAP HANA Wiki
httpsw3-connectionsibmcomwikishomelang=en-
uswikiWaef4c0eb0f35_427f_a25e_670e392682b1pageSAP20HANA
FlexSystem with SAP BWA Presentations (click to open link)
Seller
Customer
General IBM Sales Kit ldquoSAP NetWeaver Business Warehouse Accelerator (BWA)rdquo
Implementation Guide for BWA on IBM Flex System x240
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
38
Trademarks and special notices
copy Copyright IBM Corporation 2013
References in this document to IBM products or services do not imply that IBM intends to make them
available in every country
IBM the IBM logo and ibmcom are trademarks or registered trademarks of International Business
Machines Corporation in the United States other countries or both If these and other IBM trademarked
terms are marked on their first occurrence in this information with a trademark symbol (reg or trade) these
symbols indicate US registered or common law trademarks owned by IBM at the time this information
was published Such trademarks may also be registered or common law trademarks in other countries A
current list of IBM trademarks is available on the Web at Copyright and trademark information at
wwwibmcomlegalcopytradeshtml
Java and all Java-based trademarks and logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of Oracle andor
its affiliates
Microsoft Windows Windows NT and the Windows logo are trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the
United States other countries or both
Intel Intel Inside (logos) MMX and Pentium are trademarks of Intel Corporation in the United States
other countries or both
UNIX is a registered trademark of The Open Group in the United States and other countries
Linux is a trademark of Linus Torvalds in the United States other countries or both
Other company product or service names may be trademarks or service marks of others
Information is provided AS IS without warranty of any kind
All customer examples described are presented as illustrations of how those customers have used IBM
products and the results they may have achieved Actual environmental costs and performance
characteristics may vary by customer
Information concerning non-IBM products was obtained from a supplier of these products published
announcement material or other publicly available sources and does not constitute an endorsement of
such products by IBM Sources for non-IBM list prices and performance numbers are taken from publicly
available information including vendor announcements and vendor worldwide homepages IBM has not
tested these products and cannot confirm the accuracy of performance capability or any other claims
related to non-IBM products Questions on the capability of non-IBM products should be addressed to the
supplier of those products
All statements regarding IBM future direction and intent are subject to change or withdrawal without notice
and represent goals and objectives only Contact your local IBM office or IBM authorized reseller for the
full text of the specific Statement of Direction
Some information addresses anticipated future capabilities Such information is not intended as a definitive
statement of a commitment to specific levels of performance function or delivery schedules with respect to
any future products Such commitments are only made in IBM product announcements The information is
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
39
presented here to communicate IBMs current investment and development activities as a good faith effort
to help with our customers future planning
Performance is based on measurements and projections using standard IBM benchmarks in a controlled
environment The actual throughput or performance that any user will experience will vary depending upon
considerations such as the amount of multiprogramming in the users job stream the IO configuration the
storage configuration and the workload processed Therefore no assurance can be given that an
individual user will achieve throughput or performance improvements equivalent to the ratios stated here
Photographs shown are of engineering prototypes Changes may be incorporated in production models
Any references in this information to non-IBM websites are provided for convenience only and do not in
any manner serve as an endorsement of those websites The materials at those websites are not part of
the materials for this IBM product and use of those websites is at your own risk
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
28
High availability and disaster recovery
The single point of failures (SPOFs) for SAP systems stay untouched by the introduction of IBM PureFlex
System These are the database server and the central services for ABAP and Java including the enqueue
server
These SPOFs occur within each production SAP business component of the landscape that is multiple
clusters (such as ERP CRM SCM and so on) must be implemented
In addition central technical building blocks such as SAP Enterprise Portal (for user access) Process
Integration as Enterprise Service Bus need to be setup resilient
While the high availability and disaster recovery concepts for all these SPOFs are well known in general
they have not been tested in a special IBM PureFlex System environment at time of authoring this paper
As scenario 2 indicates multi-node databases like Oracle RAC are supported on IBM PureFlex System
Landscape monitoring and management
As the SAP landscapes tend to become a heterogeneous aggregation of servers and operating systems
this implies a certain level of complexity for SAP landscape administration Consolidating the SAP
landscape into an IBM PureFlex System with its consistent management capabilities helps to reduce this
complexity
The combination of the IBM PureFlex System and SAP NetWeaver technology offers multiple native
monitoring and administration layers for the complete hardware and software stack These are
Chassis Management Module
Flex System Management
SAP Computing Center Management System (SAP CCMS)
SAP Solution Manager
minus SAP Solution Manager aims at SAP application management and business key
performance indicator (KPI) monitoring but also is a mandatory tool for SAP
release and patch management
SAP NetWeaver Landscape Virtualization Management (LVM)
The IBM PureFlex System FSM and SAP LVM Enterprise are optional components the remaining ones
are part of virtualized base installation
In order to gain maximum efficiency for daily operations it is important to select the most appropriate tools
for specific administrative tasks and organizations In addition consistency and transparency need to be
maintained
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
29
The following table provides a high-level orientation for a selected set of administrator tasks in SAP
ecosystems
CMM FSM SAP LVM SAP CCMS SAP Solution Manager
Chassis topology view and administration
Through CMM
Virtualization metrics Through Flex System
Manager
Virtualization topology and administration
Through Flex System
Manager
OS DB SAP performance
Provisioning of a new virtual server Through Flex System
Manager
Virtual server start stop and live migration
Through Flex System
Manager
SAP service reallocation
SAP system refresh cloning
Alerting Chassis focus Systems focus
Task monitoring
OS DB SAP Base
Business KPIs
Integration to an upper-level enterprise management
Into Flex System
Manager
Into SAP Solution Manager
Table 6 monitoring and management layers
FSM is based on IBM Systems Director and provides comparable functions For POWER nodes FSM is
mandatory for advanced virtualization management As most of these functions are beneficial (if not
mandatory) for SAP (production) systems the FSM appears as an essential component for SAP on IBM
PureFlex environments
As a single point of control FSM provides a web-based interface to manage all aspects of the IBM
PureFlex System hardware components For example an interactive chassis map provides status
overview and serves as an entry point to manage the different resources Setup wizards guide you through
the process of initial setup and maintenance tasks
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
30
Figure 16 FSM chassis map
SAP CCMS is fully functional for IBM PureFlex System It allows monitoring and adjustment of base SAP
application and database settings Also PowerVM-specific metrics such as LPAR and WPAR resources
AME settings and so on can be accesses through the native SAP administrator GUI
IBM PureFlex System integration with SAP NetWeaver Landscape
Virtualization Management
The described cloud solution for SAP landscapes becomes available by a combination of the IBM FSM
capabilities and SAP NetWeaver Landscape Virtualization Management for automation tasks at the
application level
This solution enables common cloud scenarios with the SAP software stack and the underlying
infrastructure It aims to connect application management services with system virtualization and storage
management services It is a management tool for customers who run their SAP systems in their own data
center and want to become more efficient by automating provisioning and cloning tasks
Various scenarios around system copy and system refresh are supported including post-copy automation
Those labor-expensive tasks have been made easy with SAP Landscape Virtualization Management and
IBM PureFlex System
In more detail the following use cases are covered for cloud environments running SAP applications
Cloning of a SAP system (creating an identical copy in a fenced environment)
Creating an initial copy of a SAP system (with changing the SAP system identifier)
Refreshing a test SAP system with the content of a productive system
Automation of system copyrefresh post processing activities
Monitoring and visualization of virtualized SAP landscapes
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
31
SAP Landscape Virtualization Management is in many cases complementary to the inherent IBM PureFlex
System management layers SAP Landscape Virtualization Management enables access to many relevant
IBM PureFlex System and virtualization parameters to the SAP management software and provides IT
self-services to SAP administrators
The available IBM and SAP literature which describes the interaction of IBM Systems Director and SAP
Landscape Virtualization Management also applies to IBM PureFlex System FSM is the enriched IBM
Systems Director specifically optimized and packaged for IBM PureFlex System
IBM Tivoli Storage FlashCopy Manager adds a unique value for SAP landscapes This software enables
application-aware database-consistent online backups which can be used to create the cloned system By
exploiting storage snapshot techniques the backup is taken almost instantaneously
The solution has been developed as modular building blocks This provides a high degree of flexibility and
extensibility The following table shows the products and editions that are used for each scenario
Table 7 Use cases per management layer
Management components
SAP NetWeaver Landscape Virtualization Management 10 integrates with the following IBM
management products
IBM Flex System Manager
FSM is used for virtualization monitoring and management and for the operating system
provisioning scenarios on IBM PureFlex System
IBM Tivoli Storage FlashCopy Manager 3101
Tivoli Storage FlashCopy Manager is required for storage cloning of online SAP systems
System
monitoring
SAP
relocate
AIX
provisioning
SAP
Clone
SAP
Copy
SAP
Refresh
Flex
System
Manager
(not needed) (not needed) (not needed) (not needed)
FlashCopy
Manager
(not needed) (not needed) (not needed)
Storage any NFS GPFS
SVC V7000
or XIV
any SVC V7000
or XIV
SVC V7000
or XIV
SVC V7000
or XIV
SAP LVM Standard
Edition
Standard
Edition
Standard
Edition
Enterprise
Edition
Enterprise
Edition
Enterprise
Edition
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
32
The management products can be installed on a single AIX LPAR within IBM PureFlex System
Alternatively the products might be installed on different servers for example SAP NetWeaver
Landscape Virtualization Management may run on any of the supported SAP platforms
The following graphic shows a high-level view of how SAP Landscape Virtualization Management
integrates with the IBM PureFlex System FSM stack to enable cloud scenarios on this platform
Figure 17 SAP Landscape Virtualization Manager integration with FSM
Managed SAP landscape
The following IBM PureFlex System infrastructure is supported with SAP NetWeaver Landscape
Virtualization Management
IBM POWER nodes
AIX 61 or 71
IBM SAN Volume Controller IBM Storwize V7000 or IBM XIVreg Storage System1
SAP NetWeaver 7x using IBM DB2 for Linux UNIX and Windows Oracle Database or
SAP MaxDB is supported
1 SAN Volume Controller and Storwize V7000 support requires SAP Landscape Virtualization Management SP3
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
33
It is assumed that the storage is attached using single or dual VIOS (IBM PowerVM VIOS) For the
storage-cloning scenario the SAN storage system must be attached in the N_Port ID Virtualization
(NPIV) mode NPIV is a FC adapter (HBA) feature that allows multiple LPARs to share a physical port
The clone is created using the FlashCopy feature of the SAN Volume Controller or the snapshot
feature of the XIV Storage System These methods create a logical copy of the data volumes within
seconds while the SAP source system stays fully operational
Whenever an IBM PureFlex System environment needs to be integrated into an existing enterprise
monitoring and management solution (for example an existing IBM Systems Director hierarchy or the IBM
Tivoli Suite) FSM provides interfaces for seamless upward integration
Furthermore SAP Landscape Virtualization Management can be used to manage SAP landscapes within
and outside of IBM PureFlex System and also across different platforms
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
34
SAP-specific offerings for IBM PureFlex System
This section lists specific offerings for SAP on IBM PureFlex System
Lab services and IBM support
As capacity and capability of a larger IBM PureFlex System installation are comparable to large scale
UNIX or mainframe installations IBM provides hardware and software support beyond the standards of
commodity blade systems
Including three Global Centers of Competence IBM Maintenance and Technical Support Services provide
integrated support on the FSM-based environments when there is not a clear understanding of whether
there is a hardware or a software issue All of this can be backed up with the latest version of IBM
Electronic Service Agent trade which has been enhanced for IBM PureFlex System and proactively monitors
and reports hardware events back to IBM support Even if a client has a comprehensive in-house support
organization this can selectively be enhanced through the addition of specific services within the portfolio
to cover critical areas of weakness or exposure
For complex IBM PureFlex System environments and where mission-critical applications are deployed
(which applies to SAP production systems) premium services are available and cover
Enhanced technical support custom technical support
Microcode support managed technical support
Committed fix services
Availability management hard disk retention
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
35
Summary
This paper provides reference architectures of how heterogeneous SAP landscapes can be consolidated
using IBM PureFlex System While running the core business applications on POWER nodes with AIX as
operating system complementary SAP components are added on x86 nodes IBM PureFlex System
enables a very tight integration of infrastructure components including servers networking and storage
Seamless monitoring and management functions of the infrastructure are provided by the FSM
The integration aspect is taken even further with the integration of the SAP Landscape Virtualization
Manager application with the FSM This enables SAP cloud usage scenarios for SAP systems running on
IBM PureFlex System
For individual questions or to request a briefing about this topic contact the IBM SAP International
Competence Center at isiccdeibmcom
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
36
Resources
These websites provide useful references to supplement the information contained in this paper
IBM Systems on PartnerWorld
ibmcompartnerworldsystems
IBM Redbooks
ibmcomredbooks
IBM cloud computing
ibmcomsolutionssapusenlandingcloud_solutionshtml
IBM Cloud Solutions for SAP clients
ibmcomcloud-computingusen
IBM SmartCloud Entry for AIX on PartnerWorld (requires PartnerWorld login)
ibmcompartnerworldpagestg_com_sys_smartcloud
SAP HANA on workload optimized IBM System x appliances
ibmcomsolutionssaphana
IBM internal SSI-URL with a collection of SAP related PureSystem materials
httpsw3-
03ssoibmcomsalessupportShowDocwssdocid=SGDN258263T70735C63ampnode=brandsB6000|brandsBI5
00|clientsetIA|alliancesT5000|alliancesT5150|channelDR|channelF2F|solutionQ00|solution210ampappname=C
C_SSIGD
select the ldquoCollateralrdquo Tab in ldquoMain Contentrdquo section
Related SAP on PureFlex paper with System x focus ldquoReference Architecture - SAP
Systems on IBM PureSystems based on x86 nodesrdquo
httpw3ibmcomsupporttechdocsatsmastrnsfWebIndexWP102167
httpwwwibmcomsupporttechdocsatsmastrnsfWebIndexWP102167
httpwww-03ibmcompartnerworldpartnerinfosrcatsmastrnsfWebIndexWP102167
Related SAP on PureFlex paper with IBM i focus ldquoEfficiently deploying SAP landscapes
on the IBM PureFlex Systemrdquo
httpw3ibmcomsupporttechdocsatsmastrnsfWebIndexWP102087
httpwwwibmcomsupporttechdocsatsmastrnsfWebIndexWP102087
httpwww-03ibmcompartnerworldpartnerinfosrcatsmastrnsfWebIndexWP102087
Virtualization for SAP on IBM PureSystems with Microsoft Hyper-V
httpwwwibmcomsupporttechdocsatsmastrnsfWebIndexWP102153
IBM Workload Optimized Solution for SAP HANA ndash Quick Start Guide
provides technical overview HW models network requirements for IBM Systems Solution
for SAP HANA appliance
httpdownloadboulderibmcomibmdlpubsystemssupportsystem_x_pdf46w8274pdf
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
37
IBM internal SAP HANA Wiki
httpsw3-connectionsibmcomwikishomelang=en-
uswikiWaef4c0eb0f35_427f_a25e_670e392682b1pageSAP20HANA
FlexSystem with SAP BWA Presentations (click to open link)
Seller
Customer
General IBM Sales Kit ldquoSAP NetWeaver Business Warehouse Accelerator (BWA)rdquo
Implementation Guide for BWA on IBM Flex System x240
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
38
Trademarks and special notices
copy Copyright IBM Corporation 2013
References in this document to IBM products or services do not imply that IBM intends to make them
available in every country
IBM the IBM logo and ibmcom are trademarks or registered trademarks of International Business
Machines Corporation in the United States other countries or both If these and other IBM trademarked
terms are marked on their first occurrence in this information with a trademark symbol (reg or trade) these
symbols indicate US registered or common law trademarks owned by IBM at the time this information
was published Such trademarks may also be registered or common law trademarks in other countries A
current list of IBM trademarks is available on the Web at Copyright and trademark information at
wwwibmcomlegalcopytradeshtml
Java and all Java-based trademarks and logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of Oracle andor
its affiliates
Microsoft Windows Windows NT and the Windows logo are trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the
United States other countries or both
Intel Intel Inside (logos) MMX and Pentium are trademarks of Intel Corporation in the United States
other countries or both
UNIX is a registered trademark of The Open Group in the United States and other countries
Linux is a trademark of Linus Torvalds in the United States other countries or both
Other company product or service names may be trademarks or service marks of others
Information is provided AS IS without warranty of any kind
All customer examples described are presented as illustrations of how those customers have used IBM
products and the results they may have achieved Actual environmental costs and performance
characteristics may vary by customer
Information concerning non-IBM products was obtained from a supplier of these products published
announcement material or other publicly available sources and does not constitute an endorsement of
such products by IBM Sources for non-IBM list prices and performance numbers are taken from publicly
available information including vendor announcements and vendor worldwide homepages IBM has not
tested these products and cannot confirm the accuracy of performance capability or any other claims
related to non-IBM products Questions on the capability of non-IBM products should be addressed to the
supplier of those products
All statements regarding IBM future direction and intent are subject to change or withdrawal without notice
and represent goals and objectives only Contact your local IBM office or IBM authorized reseller for the
full text of the specific Statement of Direction
Some information addresses anticipated future capabilities Such information is not intended as a definitive
statement of a commitment to specific levels of performance function or delivery schedules with respect to
any future products Such commitments are only made in IBM product announcements The information is
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
39
presented here to communicate IBMs current investment and development activities as a good faith effort
to help with our customers future planning
Performance is based on measurements and projections using standard IBM benchmarks in a controlled
environment The actual throughput or performance that any user will experience will vary depending upon
considerations such as the amount of multiprogramming in the users job stream the IO configuration the
storage configuration and the workload processed Therefore no assurance can be given that an
individual user will achieve throughput or performance improvements equivalent to the ratios stated here
Photographs shown are of engineering prototypes Changes may be incorporated in production models
Any references in this information to non-IBM websites are provided for convenience only and do not in
any manner serve as an endorsement of those websites The materials at those websites are not part of
the materials for this IBM product and use of those websites is at your own risk
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
29
The following table provides a high-level orientation for a selected set of administrator tasks in SAP
ecosystems
CMM FSM SAP LVM SAP CCMS SAP Solution Manager
Chassis topology view and administration
Through CMM
Virtualization metrics Through Flex System
Manager
Virtualization topology and administration
Through Flex System
Manager
OS DB SAP performance
Provisioning of a new virtual server Through Flex System
Manager
Virtual server start stop and live migration
Through Flex System
Manager
SAP service reallocation
SAP system refresh cloning
Alerting Chassis focus Systems focus
Task monitoring
OS DB SAP Base
Business KPIs
Integration to an upper-level enterprise management
Into Flex System
Manager
Into SAP Solution Manager
Table 6 monitoring and management layers
FSM is based on IBM Systems Director and provides comparable functions For POWER nodes FSM is
mandatory for advanced virtualization management As most of these functions are beneficial (if not
mandatory) for SAP (production) systems the FSM appears as an essential component for SAP on IBM
PureFlex environments
As a single point of control FSM provides a web-based interface to manage all aspects of the IBM
PureFlex System hardware components For example an interactive chassis map provides status
overview and serves as an entry point to manage the different resources Setup wizards guide you through
the process of initial setup and maintenance tasks
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
30
Figure 16 FSM chassis map
SAP CCMS is fully functional for IBM PureFlex System It allows monitoring and adjustment of base SAP
application and database settings Also PowerVM-specific metrics such as LPAR and WPAR resources
AME settings and so on can be accesses through the native SAP administrator GUI
IBM PureFlex System integration with SAP NetWeaver Landscape
Virtualization Management
The described cloud solution for SAP landscapes becomes available by a combination of the IBM FSM
capabilities and SAP NetWeaver Landscape Virtualization Management for automation tasks at the
application level
This solution enables common cloud scenarios with the SAP software stack and the underlying
infrastructure It aims to connect application management services with system virtualization and storage
management services It is a management tool for customers who run their SAP systems in their own data
center and want to become more efficient by automating provisioning and cloning tasks
Various scenarios around system copy and system refresh are supported including post-copy automation
Those labor-expensive tasks have been made easy with SAP Landscape Virtualization Management and
IBM PureFlex System
In more detail the following use cases are covered for cloud environments running SAP applications
Cloning of a SAP system (creating an identical copy in a fenced environment)
Creating an initial copy of a SAP system (with changing the SAP system identifier)
Refreshing a test SAP system with the content of a productive system
Automation of system copyrefresh post processing activities
Monitoring and visualization of virtualized SAP landscapes
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
31
SAP Landscape Virtualization Management is in many cases complementary to the inherent IBM PureFlex
System management layers SAP Landscape Virtualization Management enables access to many relevant
IBM PureFlex System and virtualization parameters to the SAP management software and provides IT
self-services to SAP administrators
The available IBM and SAP literature which describes the interaction of IBM Systems Director and SAP
Landscape Virtualization Management also applies to IBM PureFlex System FSM is the enriched IBM
Systems Director specifically optimized and packaged for IBM PureFlex System
IBM Tivoli Storage FlashCopy Manager adds a unique value for SAP landscapes This software enables
application-aware database-consistent online backups which can be used to create the cloned system By
exploiting storage snapshot techniques the backup is taken almost instantaneously
The solution has been developed as modular building blocks This provides a high degree of flexibility and
extensibility The following table shows the products and editions that are used for each scenario
Table 7 Use cases per management layer
Management components
SAP NetWeaver Landscape Virtualization Management 10 integrates with the following IBM
management products
IBM Flex System Manager
FSM is used for virtualization monitoring and management and for the operating system
provisioning scenarios on IBM PureFlex System
IBM Tivoli Storage FlashCopy Manager 3101
Tivoli Storage FlashCopy Manager is required for storage cloning of online SAP systems
System
monitoring
SAP
relocate
AIX
provisioning
SAP
Clone
SAP
Copy
SAP
Refresh
Flex
System
Manager
(not needed) (not needed) (not needed) (not needed)
FlashCopy
Manager
(not needed) (not needed) (not needed)
Storage any NFS GPFS
SVC V7000
or XIV
any SVC V7000
or XIV
SVC V7000
or XIV
SVC V7000
or XIV
SAP LVM Standard
Edition
Standard
Edition
Standard
Edition
Enterprise
Edition
Enterprise
Edition
Enterprise
Edition
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
32
The management products can be installed on a single AIX LPAR within IBM PureFlex System
Alternatively the products might be installed on different servers for example SAP NetWeaver
Landscape Virtualization Management may run on any of the supported SAP platforms
The following graphic shows a high-level view of how SAP Landscape Virtualization Management
integrates with the IBM PureFlex System FSM stack to enable cloud scenarios on this platform
Figure 17 SAP Landscape Virtualization Manager integration with FSM
Managed SAP landscape
The following IBM PureFlex System infrastructure is supported with SAP NetWeaver Landscape
Virtualization Management
IBM POWER nodes
AIX 61 or 71
IBM SAN Volume Controller IBM Storwize V7000 or IBM XIVreg Storage System1
SAP NetWeaver 7x using IBM DB2 for Linux UNIX and Windows Oracle Database or
SAP MaxDB is supported
1 SAN Volume Controller and Storwize V7000 support requires SAP Landscape Virtualization Management SP3
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
33
It is assumed that the storage is attached using single or dual VIOS (IBM PowerVM VIOS) For the
storage-cloning scenario the SAN storage system must be attached in the N_Port ID Virtualization
(NPIV) mode NPIV is a FC adapter (HBA) feature that allows multiple LPARs to share a physical port
The clone is created using the FlashCopy feature of the SAN Volume Controller or the snapshot
feature of the XIV Storage System These methods create a logical copy of the data volumes within
seconds while the SAP source system stays fully operational
Whenever an IBM PureFlex System environment needs to be integrated into an existing enterprise
monitoring and management solution (for example an existing IBM Systems Director hierarchy or the IBM
Tivoli Suite) FSM provides interfaces for seamless upward integration
Furthermore SAP Landscape Virtualization Management can be used to manage SAP landscapes within
and outside of IBM PureFlex System and also across different platforms
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
34
SAP-specific offerings for IBM PureFlex System
This section lists specific offerings for SAP on IBM PureFlex System
Lab services and IBM support
As capacity and capability of a larger IBM PureFlex System installation are comparable to large scale
UNIX or mainframe installations IBM provides hardware and software support beyond the standards of
commodity blade systems
Including three Global Centers of Competence IBM Maintenance and Technical Support Services provide
integrated support on the FSM-based environments when there is not a clear understanding of whether
there is a hardware or a software issue All of this can be backed up with the latest version of IBM
Electronic Service Agent trade which has been enhanced for IBM PureFlex System and proactively monitors
and reports hardware events back to IBM support Even if a client has a comprehensive in-house support
organization this can selectively be enhanced through the addition of specific services within the portfolio
to cover critical areas of weakness or exposure
For complex IBM PureFlex System environments and where mission-critical applications are deployed
(which applies to SAP production systems) premium services are available and cover
Enhanced technical support custom technical support
Microcode support managed technical support
Committed fix services
Availability management hard disk retention
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
35
Summary
This paper provides reference architectures of how heterogeneous SAP landscapes can be consolidated
using IBM PureFlex System While running the core business applications on POWER nodes with AIX as
operating system complementary SAP components are added on x86 nodes IBM PureFlex System
enables a very tight integration of infrastructure components including servers networking and storage
Seamless monitoring and management functions of the infrastructure are provided by the FSM
The integration aspect is taken even further with the integration of the SAP Landscape Virtualization
Manager application with the FSM This enables SAP cloud usage scenarios for SAP systems running on
IBM PureFlex System
For individual questions or to request a briefing about this topic contact the IBM SAP International
Competence Center at isiccdeibmcom
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
36
Resources
These websites provide useful references to supplement the information contained in this paper
IBM Systems on PartnerWorld
ibmcompartnerworldsystems
IBM Redbooks
ibmcomredbooks
IBM cloud computing
ibmcomsolutionssapusenlandingcloud_solutionshtml
IBM Cloud Solutions for SAP clients
ibmcomcloud-computingusen
IBM SmartCloud Entry for AIX on PartnerWorld (requires PartnerWorld login)
ibmcompartnerworldpagestg_com_sys_smartcloud
SAP HANA on workload optimized IBM System x appliances
ibmcomsolutionssaphana
IBM internal SSI-URL with a collection of SAP related PureSystem materials
httpsw3-
03ssoibmcomsalessupportShowDocwssdocid=SGDN258263T70735C63ampnode=brandsB6000|brandsBI5
00|clientsetIA|alliancesT5000|alliancesT5150|channelDR|channelF2F|solutionQ00|solution210ampappname=C
C_SSIGD
select the ldquoCollateralrdquo Tab in ldquoMain Contentrdquo section
Related SAP on PureFlex paper with System x focus ldquoReference Architecture - SAP
Systems on IBM PureSystems based on x86 nodesrdquo
httpw3ibmcomsupporttechdocsatsmastrnsfWebIndexWP102167
httpwwwibmcomsupporttechdocsatsmastrnsfWebIndexWP102167
httpwww-03ibmcompartnerworldpartnerinfosrcatsmastrnsfWebIndexWP102167
Related SAP on PureFlex paper with IBM i focus ldquoEfficiently deploying SAP landscapes
on the IBM PureFlex Systemrdquo
httpw3ibmcomsupporttechdocsatsmastrnsfWebIndexWP102087
httpwwwibmcomsupporttechdocsatsmastrnsfWebIndexWP102087
httpwww-03ibmcompartnerworldpartnerinfosrcatsmastrnsfWebIndexWP102087
Virtualization for SAP on IBM PureSystems with Microsoft Hyper-V
httpwwwibmcomsupporttechdocsatsmastrnsfWebIndexWP102153
IBM Workload Optimized Solution for SAP HANA ndash Quick Start Guide
provides technical overview HW models network requirements for IBM Systems Solution
for SAP HANA appliance
httpdownloadboulderibmcomibmdlpubsystemssupportsystem_x_pdf46w8274pdf
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
37
IBM internal SAP HANA Wiki
httpsw3-connectionsibmcomwikishomelang=en-
uswikiWaef4c0eb0f35_427f_a25e_670e392682b1pageSAP20HANA
FlexSystem with SAP BWA Presentations (click to open link)
Seller
Customer
General IBM Sales Kit ldquoSAP NetWeaver Business Warehouse Accelerator (BWA)rdquo
Implementation Guide for BWA on IBM Flex System x240
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
38
Trademarks and special notices
copy Copyright IBM Corporation 2013
References in this document to IBM products or services do not imply that IBM intends to make them
available in every country
IBM the IBM logo and ibmcom are trademarks or registered trademarks of International Business
Machines Corporation in the United States other countries or both If these and other IBM trademarked
terms are marked on their first occurrence in this information with a trademark symbol (reg or trade) these
symbols indicate US registered or common law trademarks owned by IBM at the time this information
was published Such trademarks may also be registered or common law trademarks in other countries A
current list of IBM trademarks is available on the Web at Copyright and trademark information at
wwwibmcomlegalcopytradeshtml
Java and all Java-based trademarks and logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of Oracle andor
its affiliates
Microsoft Windows Windows NT and the Windows logo are trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the
United States other countries or both
Intel Intel Inside (logos) MMX and Pentium are trademarks of Intel Corporation in the United States
other countries or both
UNIX is a registered trademark of The Open Group in the United States and other countries
Linux is a trademark of Linus Torvalds in the United States other countries or both
Other company product or service names may be trademarks or service marks of others
Information is provided AS IS without warranty of any kind
All customer examples described are presented as illustrations of how those customers have used IBM
products and the results they may have achieved Actual environmental costs and performance
characteristics may vary by customer
Information concerning non-IBM products was obtained from a supplier of these products published
announcement material or other publicly available sources and does not constitute an endorsement of
such products by IBM Sources for non-IBM list prices and performance numbers are taken from publicly
available information including vendor announcements and vendor worldwide homepages IBM has not
tested these products and cannot confirm the accuracy of performance capability or any other claims
related to non-IBM products Questions on the capability of non-IBM products should be addressed to the
supplier of those products
All statements regarding IBM future direction and intent are subject to change or withdrawal without notice
and represent goals and objectives only Contact your local IBM office or IBM authorized reseller for the
full text of the specific Statement of Direction
Some information addresses anticipated future capabilities Such information is not intended as a definitive
statement of a commitment to specific levels of performance function or delivery schedules with respect to
any future products Such commitments are only made in IBM product announcements The information is
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
39
presented here to communicate IBMs current investment and development activities as a good faith effort
to help with our customers future planning
Performance is based on measurements and projections using standard IBM benchmarks in a controlled
environment The actual throughput or performance that any user will experience will vary depending upon
considerations such as the amount of multiprogramming in the users job stream the IO configuration the
storage configuration and the workload processed Therefore no assurance can be given that an
individual user will achieve throughput or performance improvements equivalent to the ratios stated here
Photographs shown are of engineering prototypes Changes may be incorporated in production models
Any references in this information to non-IBM websites are provided for convenience only and do not in
any manner serve as an endorsement of those websites The materials at those websites are not part of
the materials for this IBM product and use of those websites is at your own risk
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
30
Figure 16 FSM chassis map
SAP CCMS is fully functional for IBM PureFlex System It allows monitoring and adjustment of base SAP
application and database settings Also PowerVM-specific metrics such as LPAR and WPAR resources
AME settings and so on can be accesses through the native SAP administrator GUI
IBM PureFlex System integration with SAP NetWeaver Landscape
Virtualization Management
The described cloud solution for SAP landscapes becomes available by a combination of the IBM FSM
capabilities and SAP NetWeaver Landscape Virtualization Management for automation tasks at the
application level
This solution enables common cloud scenarios with the SAP software stack and the underlying
infrastructure It aims to connect application management services with system virtualization and storage
management services It is a management tool for customers who run their SAP systems in their own data
center and want to become more efficient by automating provisioning and cloning tasks
Various scenarios around system copy and system refresh are supported including post-copy automation
Those labor-expensive tasks have been made easy with SAP Landscape Virtualization Management and
IBM PureFlex System
In more detail the following use cases are covered for cloud environments running SAP applications
Cloning of a SAP system (creating an identical copy in a fenced environment)
Creating an initial copy of a SAP system (with changing the SAP system identifier)
Refreshing a test SAP system with the content of a productive system
Automation of system copyrefresh post processing activities
Monitoring and visualization of virtualized SAP landscapes
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
31
SAP Landscape Virtualization Management is in many cases complementary to the inherent IBM PureFlex
System management layers SAP Landscape Virtualization Management enables access to many relevant
IBM PureFlex System and virtualization parameters to the SAP management software and provides IT
self-services to SAP administrators
The available IBM and SAP literature which describes the interaction of IBM Systems Director and SAP
Landscape Virtualization Management also applies to IBM PureFlex System FSM is the enriched IBM
Systems Director specifically optimized and packaged for IBM PureFlex System
IBM Tivoli Storage FlashCopy Manager adds a unique value for SAP landscapes This software enables
application-aware database-consistent online backups which can be used to create the cloned system By
exploiting storage snapshot techniques the backup is taken almost instantaneously
The solution has been developed as modular building blocks This provides a high degree of flexibility and
extensibility The following table shows the products and editions that are used for each scenario
Table 7 Use cases per management layer
Management components
SAP NetWeaver Landscape Virtualization Management 10 integrates with the following IBM
management products
IBM Flex System Manager
FSM is used for virtualization monitoring and management and for the operating system
provisioning scenarios on IBM PureFlex System
IBM Tivoli Storage FlashCopy Manager 3101
Tivoli Storage FlashCopy Manager is required for storage cloning of online SAP systems
System
monitoring
SAP
relocate
AIX
provisioning
SAP
Clone
SAP
Copy
SAP
Refresh
Flex
System
Manager
(not needed) (not needed) (not needed) (not needed)
FlashCopy
Manager
(not needed) (not needed) (not needed)
Storage any NFS GPFS
SVC V7000
or XIV
any SVC V7000
or XIV
SVC V7000
or XIV
SVC V7000
or XIV
SAP LVM Standard
Edition
Standard
Edition
Standard
Edition
Enterprise
Edition
Enterprise
Edition
Enterprise
Edition
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
32
The management products can be installed on a single AIX LPAR within IBM PureFlex System
Alternatively the products might be installed on different servers for example SAP NetWeaver
Landscape Virtualization Management may run on any of the supported SAP platforms
The following graphic shows a high-level view of how SAP Landscape Virtualization Management
integrates with the IBM PureFlex System FSM stack to enable cloud scenarios on this platform
Figure 17 SAP Landscape Virtualization Manager integration with FSM
Managed SAP landscape
The following IBM PureFlex System infrastructure is supported with SAP NetWeaver Landscape
Virtualization Management
IBM POWER nodes
AIX 61 or 71
IBM SAN Volume Controller IBM Storwize V7000 or IBM XIVreg Storage System1
SAP NetWeaver 7x using IBM DB2 for Linux UNIX and Windows Oracle Database or
SAP MaxDB is supported
1 SAN Volume Controller and Storwize V7000 support requires SAP Landscape Virtualization Management SP3
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
33
It is assumed that the storage is attached using single or dual VIOS (IBM PowerVM VIOS) For the
storage-cloning scenario the SAN storage system must be attached in the N_Port ID Virtualization
(NPIV) mode NPIV is a FC adapter (HBA) feature that allows multiple LPARs to share a physical port
The clone is created using the FlashCopy feature of the SAN Volume Controller or the snapshot
feature of the XIV Storage System These methods create a logical copy of the data volumes within
seconds while the SAP source system stays fully operational
Whenever an IBM PureFlex System environment needs to be integrated into an existing enterprise
monitoring and management solution (for example an existing IBM Systems Director hierarchy or the IBM
Tivoli Suite) FSM provides interfaces for seamless upward integration
Furthermore SAP Landscape Virtualization Management can be used to manage SAP landscapes within
and outside of IBM PureFlex System and also across different platforms
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
34
SAP-specific offerings for IBM PureFlex System
This section lists specific offerings for SAP on IBM PureFlex System
Lab services and IBM support
As capacity and capability of a larger IBM PureFlex System installation are comparable to large scale
UNIX or mainframe installations IBM provides hardware and software support beyond the standards of
commodity blade systems
Including three Global Centers of Competence IBM Maintenance and Technical Support Services provide
integrated support on the FSM-based environments when there is not a clear understanding of whether
there is a hardware or a software issue All of this can be backed up with the latest version of IBM
Electronic Service Agent trade which has been enhanced for IBM PureFlex System and proactively monitors
and reports hardware events back to IBM support Even if a client has a comprehensive in-house support
organization this can selectively be enhanced through the addition of specific services within the portfolio
to cover critical areas of weakness or exposure
For complex IBM PureFlex System environments and where mission-critical applications are deployed
(which applies to SAP production systems) premium services are available and cover
Enhanced technical support custom technical support
Microcode support managed technical support
Committed fix services
Availability management hard disk retention
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
35
Summary
This paper provides reference architectures of how heterogeneous SAP landscapes can be consolidated
using IBM PureFlex System While running the core business applications on POWER nodes with AIX as
operating system complementary SAP components are added on x86 nodes IBM PureFlex System
enables a very tight integration of infrastructure components including servers networking and storage
Seamless monitoring and management functions of the infrastructure are provided by the FSM
The integration aspect is taken even further with the integration of the SAP Landscape Virtualization
Manager application with the FSM This enables SAP cloud usage scenarios for SAP systems running on
IBM PureFlex System
For individual questions or to request a briefing about this topic contact the IBM SAP International
Competence Center at isiccdeibmcom
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
36
Resources
These websites provide useful references to supplement the information contained in this paper
IBM Systems on PartnerWorld
ibmcompartnerworldsystems
IBM Redbooks
ibmcomredbooks
IBM cloud computing
ibmcomsolutionssapusenlandingcloud_solutionshtml
IBM Cloud Solutions for SAP clients
ibmcomcloud-computingusen
IBM SmartCloud Entry for AIX on PartnerWorld (requires PartnerWorld login)
ibmcompartnerworldpagestg_com_sys_smartcloud
SAP HANA on workload optimized IBM System x appliances
ibmcomsolutionssaphana
IBM internal SSI-URL with a collection of SAP related PureSystem materials
httpsw3-
03ssoibmcomsalessupportShowDocwssdocid=SGDN258263T70735C63ampnode=brandsB6000|brandsBI5
00|clientsetIA|alliancesT5000|alliancesT5150|channelDR|channelF2F|solutionQ00|solution210ampappname=C
C_SSIGD
select the ldquoCollateralrdquo Tab in ldquoMain Contentrdquo section
Related SAP on PureFlex paper with System x focus ldquoReference Architecture - SAP
Systems on IBM PureSystems based on x86 nodesrdquo
httpw3ibmcomsupporttechdocsatsmastrnsfWebIndexWP102167
httpwwwibmcomsupporttechdocsatsmastrnsfWebIndexWP102167
httpwww-03ibmcompartnerworldpartnerinfosrcatsmastrnsfWebIndexWP102167
Related SAP on PureFlex paper with IBM i focus ldquoEfficiently deploying SAP landscapes
on the IBM PureFlex Systemrdquo
httpw3ibmcomsupporttechdocsatsmastrnsfWebIndexWP102087
httpwwwibmcomsupporttechdocsatsmastrnsfWebIndexWP102087
httpwww-03ibmcompartnerworldpartnerinfosrcatsmastrnsfWebIndexWP102087
Virtualization for SAP on IBM PureSystems with Microsoft Hyper-V
httpwwwibmcomsupporttechdocsatsmastrnsfWebIndexWP102153
IBM Workload Optimized Solution for SAP HANA ndash Quick Start Guide
provides technical overview HW models network requirements for IBM Systems Solution
for SAP HANA appliance
httpdownloadboulderibmcomibmdlpubsystemssupportsystem_x_pdf46w8274pdf
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
37
IBM internal SAP HANA Wiki
httpsw3-connectionsibmcomwikishomelang=en-
uswikiWaef4c0eb0f35_427f_a25e_670e392682b1pageSAP20HANA
FlexSystem with SAP BWA Presentations (click to open link)
Seller
Customer
General IBM Sales Kit ldquoSAP NetWeaver Business Warehouse Accelerator (BWA)rdquo
Implementation Guide for BWA on IBM Flex System x240
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
38
Trademarks and special notices
copy Copyright IBM Corporation 2013
References in this document to IBM products or services do not imply that IBM intends to make them
available in every country
IBM the IBM logo and ibmcom are trademarks or registered trademarks of International Business
Machines Corporation in the United States other countries or both If these and other IBM trademarked
terms are marked on their first occurrence in this information with a trademark symbol (reg or trade) these
symbols indicate US registered or common law trademarks owned by IBM at the time this information
was published Such trademarks may also be registered or common law trademarks in other countries A
current list of IBM trademarks is available on the Web at Copyright and trademark information at
wwwibmcomlegalcopytradeshtml
Java and all Java-based trademarks and logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of Oracle andor
its affiliates
Microsoft Windows Windows NT and the Windows logo are trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the
United States other countries or both
Intel Intel Inside (logos) MMX and Pentium are trademarks of Intel Corporation in the United States
other countries or both
UNIX is a registered trademark of The Open Group in the United States and other countries
Linux is a trademark of Linus Torvalds in the United States other countries or both
Other company product or service names may be trademarks or service marks of others
Information is provided AS IS without warranty of any kind
All customer examples described are presented as illustrations of how those customers have used IBM
products and the results they may have achieved Actual environmental costs and performance
characteristics may vary by customer
Information concerning non-IBM products was obtained from a supplier of these products published
announcement material or other publicly available sources and does not constitute an endorsement of
such products by IBM Sources for non-IBM list prices and performance numbers are taken from publicly
available information including vendor announcements and vendor worldwide homepages IBM has not
tested these products and cannot confirm the accuracy of performance capability or any other claims
related to non-IBM products Questions on the capability of non-IBM products should be addressed to the
supplier of those products
All statements regarding IBM future direction and intent are subject to change or withdrawal without notice
and represent goals and objectives only Contact your local IBM office or IBM authorized reseller for the
full text of the specific Statement of Direction
Some information addresses anticipated future capabilities Such information is not intended as a definitive
statement of a commitment to specific levels of performance function or delivery schedules with respect to
any future products Such commitments are only made in IBM product announcements The information is
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
39
presented here to communicate IBMs current investment and development activities as a good faith effort
to help with our customers future planning
Performance is based on measurements and projections using standard IBM benchmarks in a controlled
environment The actual throughput or performance that any user will experience will vary depending upon
considerations such as the amount of multiprogramming in the users job stream the IO configuration the
storage configuration and the workload processed Therefore no assurance can be given that an
individual user will achieve throughput or performance improvements equivalent to the ratios stated here
Photographs shown are of engineering prototypes Changes may be incorporated in production models
Any references in this information to non-IBM websites are provided for convenience only and do not in
any manner serve as an endorsement of those websites The materials at those websites are not part of
the materials for this IBM product and use of those websites is at your own risk
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
31
SAP Landscape Virtualization Management is in many cases complementary to the inherent IBM PureFlex
System management layers SAP Landscape Virtualization Management enables access to many relevant
IBM PureFlex System and virtualization parameters to the SAP management software and provides IT
self-services to SAP administrators
The available IBM and SAP literature which describes the interaction of IBM Systems Director and SAP
Landscape Virtualization Management also applies to IBM PureFlex System FSM is the enriched IBM
Systems Director specifically optimized and packaged for IBM PureFlex System
IBM Tivoli Storage FlashCopy Manager adds a unique value for SAP landscapes This software enables
application-aware database-consistent online backups which can be used to create the cloned system By
exploiting storage snapshot techniques the backup is taken almost instantaneously
The solution has been developed as modular building blocks This provides a high degree of flexibility and
extensibility The following table shows the products and editions that are used for each scenario
Table 7 Use cases per management layer
Management components
SAP NetWeaver Landscape Virtualization Management 10 integrates with the following IBM
management products
IBM Flex System Manager
FSM is used for virtualization monitoring and management and for the operating system
provisioning scenarios on IBM PureFlex System
IBM Tivoli Storage FlashCopy Manager 3101
Tivoli Storage FlashCopy Manager is required for storage cloning of online SAP systems
System
monitoring
SAP
relocate
AIX
provisioning
SAP
Clone
SAP
Copy
SAP
Refresh
Flex
System
Manager
(not needed) (not needed) (not needed) (not needed)
FlashCopy
Manager
(not needed) (not needed) (not needed)
Storage any NFS GPFS
SVC V7000
or XIV
any SVC V7000
or XIV
SVC V7000
or XIV
SVC V7000
or XIV
SAP LVM Standard
Edition
Standard
Edition
Standard
Edition
Enterprise
Edition
Enterprise
Edition
Enterprise
Edition
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
32
The management products can be installed on a single AIX LPAR within IBM PureFlex System
Alternatively the products might be installed on different servers for example SAP NetWeaver
Landscape Virtualization Management may run on any of the supported SAP platforms
The following graphic shows a high-level view of how SAP Landscape Virtualization Management
integrates with the IBM PureFlex System FSM stack to enable cloud scenarios on this platform
Figure 17 SAP Landscape Virtualization Manager integration with FSM
Managed SAP landscape
The following IBM PureFlex System infrastructure is supported with SAP NetWeaver Landscape
Virtualization Management
IBM POWER nodes
AIX 61 or 71
IBM SAN Volume Controller IBM Storwize V7000 or IBM XIVreg Storage System1
SAP NetWeaver 7x using IBM DB2 for Linux UNIX and Windows Oracle Database or
SAP MaxDB is supported
1 SAN Volume Controller and Storwize V7000 support requires SAP Landscape Virtualization Management SP3
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
33
It is assumed that the storage is attached using single or dual VIOS (IBM PowerVM VIOS) For the
storage-cloning scenario the SAN storage system must be attached in the N_Port ID Virtualization
(NPIV) mode NPIV is a FC adapter (HBA) feature that allows multiple LPARs to share a physical port
The clone is created using the FlashCopy feature of the SAN Volume Controller or the snapshot
feature of the XIV Storage System These methods create a logical copy of the data volumes within
seconds while the SAP source system stays fully operational
Whenever an IBM PureFlex System environment needs to be integrated into an existing enterprise
monitoring and management solution (for example an existing IBM Systems Director hierarchy or the IBM
Tivoli Suite) FSM provides interfaces for seamless upward integration
Furthermore SAP Landscape Virtualization Management can be used to manage SAP landscapes within
and outside of IBM PureFlex System and also across different platforms
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
34
SAP-specific offerings for IBM PureFlex System
This section lists specific offerings for SAP on IBM PureFlex System
Lab services and IBM support
As capacity and capability of a larger IBM PureFlex System installation are comparable to large scale
UNIX or mainframe installations IBM provides hardware and software support beyond the standards of
commodity blade systems
Including three Global Centers of Competence IBM Maintenance and Technical Support Services provide
integrated support on the FSM-based environments when there is not a clear understanding of whether
there is a hardware or a software issue All of this can be backed up with the latest version of IBM
Electronic Service Agent trade which has been enhanced for IBM PureFlex System and proactively monitors
and reports hardware events back to IBM support Even if a client has a comprehensive in-house support
organization this can selectively be enhanced through the addition of specific services within the portfolio
to cover critical areas of weakness or exposure
For complex IBM PureFlex System environments and where mission-critical applications are deployed
(which applies to SAP production systems) premium services are available and cover
Enhanced technical support custom technical support
Microcode support managed technical support
Committed fix services
Availability management hard disk retention
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
35
Summary
This paper provides reference architectures of how heterogeneous SAP landscapes can be consolidated
using IBM PureFlex System While running the core business applications on POWER nodes with AIX as
operating system complementary SAP components are added on x86 nodes IBM PureFlex System
enables a very tight integration of infrastructure components including servers networking and storage
Seamless monitoring and management functions of the infrastructure are provided by the FSM
The integration aspect is taken even further with the integration of the SAP Landscape Virtualization
Manager application with the FSM This enables SAP cloud usage scenarios for SAP systems running on
IBM PureFlex System
For individual questions or to request a briefing about this topic contact the IBM SAP International
Competence Center at isiccdeibmcom
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
36
Resources
These websites provide useful references to supplement the information contained in this paper
IBM Systems on PartnerWorld
ibmcompartnerworldsystems
IBM Redbooks
ibmcomredbooks
IBM cloud computing
ibmcomsolutionssapusenlandingcloud_solutionshtml
IBM Cloud Solutions for SAP clients
ibmcomcloud-computingusen
IBM SmartCloud Entry for AIX on PartnerWorld (requires PartnerWorld login)
ibmcompartnerworldpagestg_com_sys_smartcloud
SAP HANA on workload optimized IBM System x appliances
ibmcomsolutionssaphana
IBM internal SSI-URL with a collection of SAP related PureSystem materials
httpsw3-
03ssoibmcomsalessupportShowDocwssdocid=SGDN258263T70735C63ampnode=brandsB6000|brandsBI5
00|clientsetIA|alliancesT5000|alliancesT5150|channelDR|channelF2F|solutionQ00|solution210ampappname=C
C_SSIGD
select the ldquoCollateralrdquo Tab in ldquoMain Contentrdquo section
Related SAP on PureFlex paper with System x focus ldquoReference Architecture - SAP
Systems on IBM PureSystems based on x86 nodesrdquo
httpw3ibmcomsupporttechdocsatsmastrnsfWebIndexWP102167
httpwwwibmcomsupporttechdocsatsmastrnsfWebIndexWP102167
httpwww-03ibmcompartnerworldpartnerinfosrcatsmastrnsfWebIndexWP102167
Related SAP on PureFlex paper with IBM i focus ldquoEfficiently deploying SAP landscapes
on the IBM PureFlex Systemrdquo
httpw3ibmcomsupporttechdocsatsmastrnsfWebIndexWP102087
httpwwwibmcomsupporttechdocsatsmastrnsfWebIndexWP102087
httpwww-03ibmcompartnerworldpartnerinfosrcatsmastrnsfWebIndexWP102087
Virtualization for SAP on IBM PureSystems with Microsoft Hyper-V
httpwwwibmcomsupporttechdocsatsmastrnsfWebIndexWP102153
IBM Workload Optimized Solution for SAP HANA ndash Quick Start Guide
provides technical overview HW models network requirements for IBM Systems Solution
for SAP HANA appliance
httpdownloadboulderibmcomibmdlpubsystemssupportsystem_x_pdf46w8274pdf
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
37
IBM internal SAP HANA Wiki
httpsw3-connectionsibmcomwikishomelang=en-
uswikiWaef4c0eb0f35_427f_a25e_670e392682b1pageSAP20HANA
FlexSystem with SAP BWA Presentations (click to open link)
Seller
Customer
General IBM Sales Kit ldquoSAP NetWeaver Business Warehouse Accelerator (BWA)rdquo
Implementation Guide for BWA on IBM Flex System x240
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
38
Trademarks and special notices
copy Copyright IBM Corporation 2013
References in this document to IBM products or services do not imply that IBM intends to make them
available in every country
IBM the IBM logo and ibmcom are trademarks or registered trademarks of International Business
Machines Corporation in the United States other countries or both If these and other IBM trademarked
terms are marked on their first occurrence in this information with a trademark symbol (reg or trade) these
symbols indicate US registered or common law trademarks owned by IBM at the time this information
was published Such trademarks may also be registered or common law trademarks in other countries A
current list of IBM trademarks is available on the Web at Copyright and trademark information at
wwwibmcomlegalcopytradeshtml
Java and all Java-based trademarks and logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of Oracle andor
its affiliates
Microsoft Windows Windows NT and the Windows logo are trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the
United States other countries or both
Intel Intel Inside (logos) MMX and Pentium are trademarks of Intel Corporation in the United States
other countries or both
UNIX is a registered trademark of The Open Group in the United States and other countries
Linux is a trademark of Linus Torvalds in the United States other countries or both
Other company product or service names may be trademarks or service marks of others
Information is provided AS IS without warranty of any kind
All customer examples described are presented as illustrations of how those customers have used IBM
products and the results they may have achieved Actual environmental costs and performance
characteristics may vary by customer
Information concerning non-IBM products was obtained from a supplier of these products published
announcement material or other publicly available sources and does not constitute an endorsement of
such products by IBM Sources for non-IBM list prices and performance numbers are taken from publicly
available information including vendor announcements and vendor worldwide homepages IBM has not
tested these products and cannot confirm the accuracy of performance capability or any other claims
related to non-IBM products Questions on the capability of non-IBM products should be addressed to the
supplier of those products
All statements regarding IBM future direction and intent are subject to change or withdrawal without notice
and represent goals and objectives only Contact your local IBM office or IBM authorized reseller for the
full text of the specific Statement of Direction
Some information addresses anticipated future capabilities Such information is not intended as a definitive
statement of a commitment to specific levels of performance function or delivery schedules with respect to
any future products Such commitments are only made in IBM product announcements The information is
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
39
presented here to communicate IBMs current investment and development activities as a good faith effort
to help with our customers future planning
Performance is based on measurements and projections using standard IBM benchmarks in a controlled
environment The actual throughput or performance that any user will experience will vary depending upon
considerations such as the amount of multiprogramming in the users job stream the IO configuration the
storage configuration and the workload processed Therefore no assurance can be given that an
individual user will achieve throughput or performance improvements equivalent to the ratios stated here
Photographs shown are of engineering prototypes Changes may be incorporated in production models
Any references in this information to non-IBM websites are provided for convenience only and do not in
any manner serve as an endorsement of those websites The materials at those websites are not part of
the materials for this IBM product and use of those websites is at your own risk
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
32
The management products can be installed on a single AIX LPAR within IBM PureFlex System
Alternatively the products might be installed on different servers for example SAP NetWeaver
Landscape Virtualization Management may run on any of the supported SAP platforms
The following graphic shows a high-level view of how SAP Landscape Virtualization Management
integrates with the IBM PureFlex System FSM stack to enable cloud scenarios on this platform
Figure 17 SAP Landscape Virtualization Manager integration with FSM
Managed SAP landscape
The following IBM PureFlex System infrastructure is supported with SAP NetWeaver Landscape
Virtualization Management
IBM POWER nodes
AIX 61 or 71
IBM SAN Volume Controller IBM Storwize V7000 or IBM XIVreg Storage System1
SAP NetWeaver 7x using IBM DB2 for Linux UNIX and Windows Oracle Database or
SAP MaxDB is supported
1 SAN Volume Controller and Storwize V7000 support requires SAP Landscape Virtualization Management SP3
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
33
It is assumed that the storage is attached using single or dual VIOS (IBM PowerVM VIOS) For the
storage-cloning scenario the SAN storage system must be attached in the N_Port ID Virtualization
(NPIV) mode NPIV is a FC adapter (HBA) feature that allows multiple LPARs to share a physical port
The clone is created using the FlashCopy feature of the SAN Volume Controller or the snapshot
feature of the XIV Storage System These methods create a logical copy of the data volumes within
seconds while the SAP source system stays fully operational
Whenever an IBM PureFlex System environment needs to be integrated into an existing enterprise
monitoring and management solution (for example an existing IBM Systems Director hierarchy or the IBM
Tivoli Suite) FSM provides interfaces for seamless upward integration
Furthermore SAP Landscape Virtualization Management can be used to manage SAP landscapes within
and outside of IBM PureFlex System and also across different platforms
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
34
SAP-specific offerings for IBM PureFlex System
This section lists specific offerings for SAP on IBM PureFlex System
Lab services and IBM support
As capacity and capability of a larger IBM PureFlex System installation are comparable to large scale
UNIX or mainframe installations IBM provides hardware and software support beyond the standards of
commodity blade systems
Including three Global Centers of Competence IBM Maintenance and Technical Support Services provide
integrated support on the FSM-based environments when there is not a clear understanding of whether
there is a hardware or a software issue All of this can be backed up with the latest version of IBM
Electronic Service Agent trade which has been enhanced for IBM PureFlex System and proactively monitors
and reports hardware events back to IBM support Even if a client has a comprehensive in-house support
organization this can selectively be enhanced through the addition of specific services within the portfolio
to cover critical areas of weakness or exposure
For complex IBM PureFlex System environments and where mission-critical applications are deployed
(which applies to SAP production systems) premium services are available and cover
Enhanced technical support custom technical support
Microcode support managed technical support
Committed fix services
Availability management hard disk retention
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
35
Summary
This paper provides reference architectures of how heterogeneous SAP landscapes can be consolidated
using IBM PureFlex System While running the core business applications on POWER nodes with AIX as
operating system complementary SAP components are added on x86 nodes IBM PureFlex System
enables a very tight integration of infrastructure components including servers networking and storage
Seamless monitoring and management functions of the infrastructure are provided by the FSM
The integration aspect is taken even further with the integration of the SAP Landscape Virtualization
Manager application with the FSM This enables SAP cloud usage scenarios for SAP systems running on
IBM PureFlex System
For individual questions or to request a briefing about this topic contact the IBM SAP International
Competence Center at isiccdeibmcom
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
36
Resources
These websites provide useful references to supplement the information contained in this paper
IBM Systems on PartnerWorld
ibmcompartnerworldsystems
IBM Redbooks
ibmcomredbooks
IBM cloud computing
ibmcomsolutionssapusenlandingcloud_solutionshtml
IBM Cloud Solutions for SAP clients
ibmcomcloud-computingusen
IBM SmartCloud Entry for AIX on PartnerWorld (requires PartnerWorld login)
ibmcompartnerworldpagestg_com_sys_smartcloud
SAP HANA on workload optimized IBM System x appliances
ibmcomsolutionssaphana
IBM internal SSI-URL with a collection of SAP related PureSystem materials
httpsw3-
03ssoibmcomsalessupportShowDocwssdocid=SGDN258263T70735C63ampnode=brandsB6000|brandsBI5
00|clientsetIA|alliancesT5000|alliancesT5150|channelDR|channelF2F|solutionQ00|solution210ampappname=C
C_SSIGD
select the ldquoCollateralrdquo Tab in ldquoMain Contentrdquo section
Related SAP on PureFlex paper with System x focus ldquoReference Architecture - SAP
Systems on IBM PureSystems based on x86 nodesrdquo
httpw3ibmcomsupporttechdocsatsmastrnsfWebIndexWP102167
httpwwwibmcomsupporttechdocsatsmastrnsfWebIndexWP102167
httpwww-03ibmcompartnerworldpartnerinfosrcatsmastrnsfWebIndexWP102167
Related SAP on PureFlex paper with IBM i focus ldquoEfficiently deploying SAP landscapes
on the IBM PureFlex Systemrdquo
httpw3ibmcomsupporttechdocsatsmastrnsfWebIndexWP102087
httpwwwibmcomsupporttechdocsatsmastrnsfWebIndexWP102087
httpwww-03ibmcompartnerworldpartnerinfosrcatsmastrnsfWebIndexWP102087
Virtualization for SAP on IBM PureSystems with Microsoft Hyper-V
httpwwwibmcomsupporttechdocsatsmastrnsfWebIndexWP102153
IBM Workload Optimized Solution for SAP HANA ndash Quick Start Guide
provides technical overview HW models network requirements for IBM Systems Solution
for SAP HANA appliance
httpdownloadboulderibmcomibmdlpubsystemssupportsystem_x_pdf46w8274pdf
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
37
IBM internal SAP HANA Wiki
httpsw3-connectionsibmcomwikishomelang=en-
uswikiWaef4c0eb0f35_427f_a25e_670e392682b1pageSAP20HANA
FlexSystem with SAP BWA Presentations (click to open link)
Seller
Customer
General IBM Sales Kit ldquoSAP NetWeaver Business Warehouse Accelerator (BWA)rdquo
Implementation Guide for BWA on IBM Flex System x240
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
38
Trademarks and special notices
copy Copyright IBM Corporation 2013
References in this document to IBM products or services do not imply that IBM intends to make them
available in every country
IBM the IBM logo and ibmcom are trademarks or registered trademarks of International Business
Machines Corporation in the United States other countries or both If these and other IBM trademarked
terms are marked on their first occurrence in this information with a trademark symbol (reg or trade) these
symbols indicate US registered or common law trademarks owned by IBM at the time this information
was published Such trademarks may also be registered or common law trademarks in other countries A
current list of IBM trademarks is available on the Web at Copyright and trademark information at
wwwibmcomlegalcopytradeshtml
Java and all Java-based trademarks and logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of Oracle andor
its affiliates
Microsoft Windows Windows NT and the Windows logo are trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the
United States other countries or both
Intel Intel Inside (logos) MMX and Pentium are trademarks of Intel Corporation in the United States
other countries or both
UNIX is a registered trademark of The Open Group in the United States and other countries
Linux is a trademark of Linus Torvalds in the United States other countries or both
Other company product or service names may be trademarks or service marks of others
Information is provided AS IS without warranty of any kind
All customer examples described are presented as illustrations of how those customers have used IBM
products and the results they may have achieved Actual environmental costs and performance
characteristics may vary by customer
Information concerning non-IBM products was obtained from a supplier of these products published
announcement material or other publicly available sources and does not constitute an endorsement of
such products by IBM Sources for non-IBM list prices and performance numbers are taken from publicly
available information including vendor announcements and vendor worldwide homepages IBM has not
tested these products and cannot confirm the accuracy of performance capability or any other claims
related to non-IBM products Questions on the capability of non-IBM products should be addressed to the
supplier of those products
All statements regarding IBM future direction and intent are subject to change or withdrawal without notice
and represent goals and objectives only Contact your local IBM office or IBM authorized reseller for the
full text of the specific Statement of Direction
Some information addresses anticipated future capabilities Such information is not intended as a definitive
statement of a commitment to specific levels of performance function or delivery schedules with respect to
any future products Such commitments are only made in IBM product announcements The information is
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
39
presented here to communicate IBMs current investment and development activities as a good faith effort
to help with our customers future planning
Performance is based on measurements and projections using standard IBM benchmarks in a controlled
environment The actual throughput or performance that any user will experience will vary depending upon
considerations such as the amount of multiprogramming in the users job stream the IO configuration the
storage configuration and the workload processed Therefore no assurance can be given that an
individual user will achieve throughput or performance improvements equivalent to the ratios stated here
Photographs shown are of engineering prototypes Changes may be incorporated in production models
Any references in this information to non-IBM websites are provided for convenience only and do not in
any manner serve as an endorsement of those websites The materials at those websites are not part of
the materials for this IBM product and use of those websites is at your own risk
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
33
It is assumed that the storage is attached using single or dual VIOS (IBM PowerVM VIOS) For the
storage-cloning scenario the SAN storage system must be attached in the N_Port ID Virtualization
(NPIV) mode NPIV is a FC adapter (HBA) feature that allows multiple LPARs to share a physical port
The clone is created using the FlashCopy feature of the SAN Volume Controller or the snapshot
feature of the XIV Storage System These methods create a logical copy of the data volumes within
seconds while the SAP source system stays fully operational
Whenever an IBM PureFlex System environment needs to be integrated into an existing enterprise
monitoring and management solution (for example an existing IBM Systems Director hierarchy or the IBM
Tivoli Suite) FSM provides interfaces for seamless upward integration
Furthermore SAP Landscape Virtualization Management can be used to manage SAP landscapes within
and outside of IBM PureFlex System and also across different platforms
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
34
SAP-specific offerings for IBM PureFlex System
This section lists specific offerings for SAP on IBM PureFlex System
Lab services and IBM support
As capacity and capability of a larger IBM PureFlex System installation are comparable to large scale
UNIX or mainframe installations IBM provides hardware and software support beyond the standards of
commodity blade systems
Including three Global Centers of Competence IBM Maintenance and Technical Support Services provide
integrated support on the FSM-based environments when there is not a clear understanding of whether
there is a hardware or a software issue All of this can be backed up with the latest version of IBM
Electronic Service Agent trade which has been enhanced for IBM PureFlex System and proactively monitors
and reports hardware events back to IBM support Even if a client has a comprehensive in-house support
organization this can selectively be enhanced through the addition of specific services within the portfolio
to cover critical areas of weakness or exposure
For complex IBM PureFlex System environments and where mission-critical applications are deployed
(which applies to SAP production systems) premium services are available and cover
Enhanced technical support custom technical support
Microcode support managed technical support
Committed fix services
Availability management hard disk retention
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
35
Summary
This paper provides reference architectures of how heterogeneous SAP landscapes can be consolidated
using IBM PureFlex System While running the core business applications on POWER nodes with AIX as
operating system complementary SAP components are added on x86 nodes IBM PureFlex System
enables a very tight integration of infrastructure components including servers networking and storage
Seamless monitoring and management functions of the infrastructure are provided by the FSM
The integration aspect is taken even further with the integration of the SAP Landscape Virtualization
Manager application with the FSM This enables SAP cloud usage scenarios for SAP systems running on
IBM PureFlex System
For individual questions or to request a briefing about this topic contact the IBM SAP International
Competence Center at isiccdeibmcom
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
36
Resources
These websites provide useful references to supplement the information contained in this paper
IBM Systems on PartnerWorld
ibmcompartnerworldsystems
IBM Redbooks
ibmcomredbooks
IBM cloud computing
ibmcomsolutionssapusenlandingcloud_solutionshtml
IBM Cloud Solutions for SAP clients
ibmcomcloud-computingusen
IBM SmartCloud Entry for AIX on PartnerWorld (requires PartnerWorld login)
ibmcompartnerworldpagestg_com_sys_smartcloud
SAP HANA on workload optimized IBM System x appliances
ibmcomsolutionssaphana
IBM internal SSI-URL with a collection of SAP related PureSystem materials
httpsw3-
03ssoibmcomsalessupportShowDocwssdocid=SGDN258263T70735C63ampnode=brandsB6000|brandsBI5
00|clientsetIA|alliancesT5000|alliancesT5150|channelDR|channelF2F|solutionQ00|solution210ampappname=C
C_SSIGD
select the ldquoCollateralrdquo Tab in ldquoMain Contentrdquo section
Related SAP on PureFlex paper with System x focus ldquoReference Architecture - SAP
Systems on IBM PureSystems based on x86 nodesrdquo
httpw3ibmcomsupporttechdocsatsmastrnsfWebIndexWP102167
httpwwwibmcomsupporttechdocsatsmastrnsfWebIndexWP102167
httpwww-03ibmcompartnerworldpartnerinfosrcatsmastrnsfWebIndexWP102167
Related SAP on PureFlex paper with IBM i focus ldquoEfficiently deploying SAP landscapes
on the IBM PureFlex Systemrdquo
httpw3ibmcomsupporttechdocsatsmastrnsfWebIndexWP102087
httpwwwibmcomsupporttechdocsatsmastrnsfWebIndexWP102087
httpwww-03ibmcompartnerworldpartnerinfosrcatsmastrnsfWebIndexWP102087
Virtualization for SAP on IBM PureSystems with Microsoft Hyper-V
httpwwwibmcomsupporttechdocsatsmastrnsfWebIndexWP102153
IBM Workload Optimized Solution for SAP HANA ndash Quick Start Guide
provides technical overview HW models network requirements for IBM Systems Solution
for SAP HANA appliance
httpdownloadboulderibmcomibmdlpubsystemssupportsystem_x_pdf46w8274pdf
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
37
IBM internal SAP HANA Wiki
httpsw3-connectionsibmcomwikishomelang=en-
uswikiWaef4c0eb0f35_427f_a25e_670e392682b1pageSAP20HANA
FlexSystem with SAP BWA Presentations (click to open link)
Seller
Customer
General IBM Sales Kit ldquoSAP NetWeaver Business Warehouse Accelerator (BWA)rdquo
Implementation Guide for BWA on IBM Flex System x240
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
38
Trademarks and special notices
copy Copyright IBM Corporation 2013
References in this document to IBM products or services do not imply that IBM intends to make them
available in every country
IBM the IBM logo and ibmcom are trademarks or registered trademarks of International Business
Machines Corporation in the United States other countries or both If these and other IBM trademarked
terms are marked on their first occurrence in this information with a trademark symbol (reg or trade) these
symbols indicate US registered or common law trademarks owned by IBM at the time this information
was published Such trademarks may also be registered or common law trademarks in other countries A
current list of IBM trademarks is available on the Web at Copyright and trademark information at
wwwibmcomlegalcopytradeshtml
Java and all Java-based trademarks and logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of Oracle andor
its affiliates
Microsoft Windows Windows NT and the Windows logo are trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the
United States other countries or both
Intel Intel Inside (logos) MMX and Pentium are trademarks of Intel Corporation in the United States
other countries or both
UNIX is a registered trademark of The Open Group in the United States and other countries
Linux is a trademark of Linus Torvalds in the United States other countries or both
Other company product or service names may be trademarks or service marks of others
Information is provided AS IS without warranty of any kind
All customer examples described are presented as illustrations of how those customers have used IBM
products and the results they may have achieved Actual environmental costs and performance
characteristics may vary by customer
Information concerning non-IBM products was obtained from a supplier of these products published
announcement material or other publicly available sources and does not constitute an endorsement of
such products by IBM Sources for non-IBM list prices and performance numbers are taken from publicly
available information including vendor announcements and vendor worldwide homepages IBM has not
tested these products and cannot confirm the accuracy of performance capability or any other claims
related to non-IBM products Questions on the capability of non-IBM products should be addressed to the
supplier of those products
All statements regarding IBM future direction and intent are subject to change or withdrawal without notice
and represent goals and objectives only Contact your local IBM office or IBM authorized reseller for the
full text of the specific Statement of Direction
Some information addresses anticipated future capabilities Such information is not intended as a definitive
statement of a commitment to specific levels of performance function or delivery schedules with respect to
any future products Such commitments are only made in IBM product announcements The information is
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
39
presented here to communicate IBMs current investment and development activities as a good faith effort
to help with our customers future planning
Performance is based on measurements and projections using standard IBM benchmarks in a controlled
environment The actual throughput or performance that any user will experience will vary depending upon
considerations such as the amount of multiprogramming in the users job stream the IO configuration the
storage configuration and the workload processed Therefore no assurance can be given that an
individual user will achieve throughput or performance improvements equivalent to the ratios stated here
Photographs shown are of engineering prototypes Changes may be incorporated in production models
Any references in this information to non-IBM websites are provided for convenience only and do not in
any manner serve as an endorsement of those websites The materials at those websites are not part of
the materials for this IBM product and use of those websites is at your own risk
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
34
SAP-specific offerings for IBM PureFlex System
This section lists specific offerings for SAP on IBM PureFlex System
Lab services and IBM support
As capacity and capability of a larger IBM PureFlex System installation are comparable to large scale
UNIX or mainframe installations IBM provides hardware and software support beyond the standards of
commodity blade systems
Including three Global Centers of Competence IBM Maintenance and Technical Support Services provide
integrated support on the FSM-based environments when there is not a clear understanding of whether
there is a hardware or a software issue All of this can be backed up with the latest version of IBM
Electronic Service Agent trade which has been enhanced for IBM PureFlex System and proactively monitors
and reports hardware events back to IBM support Even if a client has a comprehensive in-house support
organization this can selectively be enhanced through the addition of specific services within the portfolio
to cover critical areas of weakness or exposure
For complex IBM PureFlex System environments and where mission-critical applications are deployed
(which applies to SAP production systems) premium services are available and cover
Enhanced technical support custom technical support
Microcode support managed technical support
Committed fix services
Availability management hard disk retention
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
35
Summary
This paper provides reference architectures of how heterogeneous SAP landscapes can be consolidated
using IBM PureFlex System While running the core business applications on POWER nodes with AIX as
operating system complementary SAP components are added on x86 nodes IBM PureFlex System
enables a very tight integration of infrastructure components including servers networking and storage
Seamless monitoring and management functions of the infrastructure are provided by the FSM
The integration aspect is taken even further with the integration of the SAP Landscape Virtualization
Manager application with the FSM This enables SAP cloud usage scenarios for SAP systems running on
IBM PureFlex System
For individual questions or to request a briefing about this topic contact the IBM SAP International
Competence Center at isiccdeibmcom
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
36
Resources
These websites provide useful references to supplement the information contained in this paper
IBM Systems on PartnerWorld
ibmcompartnerworldsystems
IBM Redbooks
ibmcomredbooks
IBM cloud computing
ibmcomsolutionssapusenlandingcloud_solutionshtml
IBM Cloud Solutions for SAP clients
ibmcomcloud-computingusen
IBM SmartCloud Entry for AIX on PartnerWorld (requires PartnerWorld login)
ibmcompartnerworldpagestg_com_sys_smartcloud
SAP HANA on workload optimized IBM System x appliances
ibmcomsolutionssaphana
IBM internal SSI-URL with a collection of SAP related PureSystem materials
httpsw3-
03ssoibmcomsalessupportShowDocwssdocid=SGDN258263T70735C63ampnode=brandsB6000|brandsBI5
00|clientsetIA|alliancesT5000|alliancesT5150|channelDR|channelF2F|solutionQ00|solution210ampappname=C
C_SSIGD
select the ldquoCollateralrdquo Tab in ldquoMain Contentrdquo section
Related SAP on PureFlex paper with System x focus ldquoReference Architecture - SAP
Systems on IBM PureSystems based on x86 nodesrdquo
httpw3ibmcomsupporttechdocsatsmastrnsfWebIndexWP102167
httpwwwibmcomsupporttechdocsatsmastrnsfWebIndexWP102167
httpwww-03ibmcompartnerworldpartnerinfosrcatsmastrnsfWebIndexWP102167
Related SAP on PureFlex paper with IBM i focus ldquoEfficiently deploying SAP landscapes
on the IBM PureFlex Systemrdquo
httpw3ibmcomsupporttechdocsatsmastrnsfWebIndexWP102087
httpwwwibmcomsupporttechdocsatsmastrnsfWebIndexWP102087
httpwww-03ibmcompartnerworldpartnerinfosrcatsmastrnsfWebIndexWP102087
Virtualization for SAP on IBM PureSystems with Microsoft Hyper-V
httpwwwibmcomsupporttechdocsatsmastrnsfWebIndexWP102153
IBM Workload Optimized Solution for SAP HANA ndash Quick Start Guide
provides technical overview HW models network requirements for IBM Systems Solution
for SAP HANA appliance
httpdownloadboulderibmcomibmdlpubsystemssupportsystem_x_pdf46w8274pdf
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
37
IBM internal SAP HANA Wiki
httpsw3-connectionsibmcomwikishomelang=en-
uswikiWaef4c0eb0f35_427f_a25e_670e392682b1pageSAP20HANA
FlexSystem with SAP BWA Presentations (click to open link)
Seller
Customer
General IBM Sales Kit ldquoSAP NetWeaver Business Warehouse Accelerator (BWA)rdquo
Implementation Guide for BWA on IBM Flex System x240
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
38
Trademarks and special notices
copy Copyright IBM Corporation 2013
References in this document to IBM products or services do not imply that IBM intends to make them
available in every country
IBM the IBM logo and ibmcom are trademarks or registered trademarks of International Business
Machines Corporation in the United States other countries or both If these and other IBM trademarked
terms are marked on their first occurrence in this information with a trademark symbol (reg or trade) these
symbols indicate US registered or common law trademarks owned by IBM at the time this information
was published Such trademarks may also be registered or common law trademarks in other countries A
current list of IBM trademarks is available on the Web at Copyright and trademark information at
wwwibmcomlegalcopytradeshtml
Java and all Java-based trademarks and logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of Oracle andor
its affiliates
Microsoft Windows Windows NT and the Windows logo are trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the
United States other countries or both
Intel Intel Inside (logos) MMX and Pentium are trademarks of Intel Corporation in the United States
other countries or both
UNIX is a registered trademark of The Open Group in the United States and other countries
Linux is a trademark of Linus Torvalds in the United States other countries or both
Other company product or service names may be trademarks or service marks of others
Information is provided AS IS without warranty of any kind
All customer examples described are presented as illustrations of how those customers have used IBM
products and the results they may have achieved Actual environmental costs and performance
characteristics may vary by customer
Information concerning non-IBM products was obtained from a supplier of these products published
announcement material or other publicly available sources and does not constitute an endorsement of
such products by IBM Sources for non-IBM list prices and performance numbers are taken from publicly
available information including vendor announcements and vendor worldwide homepages IBM has not
tested these products and cannot confirm the accuracy of performance capability or any other claims
related to non-IBM products Questions on the capability of non-IBM products should be addressed to the
supplier of those products
All statements regarding IBM future direction and intent are subject to change or withdrawal without notice
and represent goals and objectives only Contact your local IBM office or IBM authorized reseller for the
full text of the specific Statement of Direction
Some information addresses anticipated future capabilities Such information is not intended as a definitive
statement of a commitment to specific levels of performance function or delivery schedules with respect to
any future products Such commitments are only made in IBM product announcements The information is
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
39
presented here to communicate IBMs current investment and development activities as a good faith effort
to help with our customers future planning
Performance is based on measurements and projections using standard IBM benchmarks in a controlled
environment The actual throughput or performance that any user will experience will vary depending upon
considerations such as the amount of multiprogramming in the users job stream the IO configuration the
storage configuration and the workload processed Therefore no assurance can be given that an
individual user will achieve throughput or performance improvements equivalent to the ratios stated here
Photographs shown are of engineering prototypes Changes may be incorporated in production models
Any references in this information to non-IBM websites are provided for convenience only and do not in
any manner serve as an endorsement of those websites The materials at those websites are not part of
the materials for this IBM product and use of those websites is at your own risk
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
35
Summary
This paper provides reference architectures of how heterogeneous SAP landscapes can be consolidated
using IBM PureFlex System While running the core business applications on POWER nodes with AIX as
operating system complementary SAP components are added on x86 nodes IBM PureFlex System
enables a very tight integration of infrastructure components including servers networking and storage
Seamless monitoring and management functions of the infrastructure are provided by the FSM
The integration aspect is taken even further with the integration of the SAP Landscape Virtualization
Manager application with the FSM This enables SAP cloud usage scenarios for SAP systems running on
IBM PureFlex System
For individual questions or to request a briefing about this topic contact the IBM SAP International
Competence Center at isiccdeibmcom
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
36
Resources
These websites provide useful references to supplement the information contained in this paper
IBM Systems on PartnerWorld
ibmcompartnerworldsystems
IBM Redbooks
ibmcomredbooks
IBM cloud computing
ibmcomsolutionssapusenlandingcloud_solutionshtml
IBM Cloud Solutions for SAP clients
ibmcomcloud-computingusen
IBM SmartCloud Entry for AIX on PartnerWorld (requires PartnerWorld login)
ibmcompartnerworldpagestg_com_sys_smartcloud
SAP HANA on workload optimized IBM System x appliances
ibmcomsolutionssaphana
IBM internal SSI-URL with a collection of SAP related PureSystem materials
httpsw3-
03ssoibmcomsalessupportShowDocwssdocid=SGDN258263T70735C63ampnode=brandsB6000|brandsBI5
00|clientsetIA|alliancesT5000|alliancesT5150|channelDR|channelF2F|solutionQ00|solution210ampappname=C
C_SSIGD
select the ldquoCollateralrdquo Tab in ldquoMain Contentrdquo section
Related SAP on PureFlex paper with System x focus ldquoReference Architecture - SAP
Systems on IBM PureSystems based on x86 nodesrdquo
httpw3ibmcomsupporttechdocsatsmastrnsfWebIndexWP102167
httpwwwibmcomsupporttechdocsatsmastrnsfWebIndexWP102167
httpwww-03ibmcompartnerworldpartnerinfosrcatsmastrnsfWebIndexWP102167
Related SAP on PureFlex paper with IBM i focus ldquoEfficiently deploying SAP landscapes
on the IBM PureFlex Systemrdquo
httpw3ibmcomsupporttechdocsatsmastrnsfWebIndexWP102087
httpwwwibmcomsupporttechdocsatsmastrnsfWebIndexWP102087
httpwww-03ibmcompartnerworldpartnerinfosrcatsmastrnsfWebIndexWP102087
Virtualization for SAP on IBM PureSystems with Microsoft Hyper-V
httpwwwibmcomsupporttechdocsatsmastrnsfWebIndexWP102153
IBM Workload Optimized Solution for SAP HANA ndash Quick Start Guide
provides technical overview HW models network requirements for IBM Systems Solution
for SAP HANA appliance
httpdownloadboulderibmcomibmdlpubsystemssupportsystem_x_pdf46w8274pdf
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
37
IBM internal SAP HANA Wiki
httpsw3-connectionsibmcomwikishomelang=en-
uswikiWaef4c0eb0f35_427f_a25e_670e392682b1pageSAP20HANA
FlexSystem with SAP BWA Presentations (click to open link)
Seller
Customer
General IBM Sales Kit ldquoSAP NetWeaver Business Warehouse Accelerator (BWA)rdquo
Implementation Guide for BWA on IBM Flex System x240
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
38
Trademarks and special notices
copy Copyright IBM Corporation 2013
References in this document to IBM products or services do not imply that IBM intends to make them
available in every country
IBM the IBM logo and ibmcom are trademarks or registered trademarks of International Business
Machines Corporation in the United States other countries or both If these and other IBM trademarked
terms are marked on their first occurrence in this information with a trademark symbol (reg or trade) these
symbols indicate US registered or common law trademarks owned by IBM at the time this information
was published Such trademarks may also be registered or common law trademarks in other countries A
current list of IBM trademarks is available on the Web at Copyright and trademark information at
wwwibmcomlegalcopytradeshtml
Java and all Java-based trademarks and logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of Oracle andor
its affiliates
Microsoft Windows Windows NT and the Windows logo are trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the
United States other countries or both
Intel Intel Inside (logos) MMX and Pentium are trademarks of Intel Corporation in the United States
other countries or both
UNIX is a registered trademark of The Open Group in the United States and other countries
Linux is a trademark of Linus Torvalds in the United States other countries or both
Other company product or service names may be trademarks or service marks of others
Information is provided AS IS without warranty of any kind
All customer examples described are presented as illustrations of how those customers have used IBM
products and the results they may have achieved Actual environmental costs and performance
characteristics may vary by customer
Information concerning non-IBM products was obtained from a supplier of these products published
announcement material or other publicly available sources and does not constitute an endorsement of
such products by IBM Sources for non-IBM list prices and performance numbers are taken from publicly
available information including vendor announcements and vendor worldwide homepages IBM has not
tested these products and cannot confirm the accuracy of performance capability or any other claims
related to non-IBM products Questions on the capability of non-IBM products should be addressed to the
supplier of those products
All statements regarding IBM future direction and intent are subject to change or withdrawal without notice
and represent goals and objectives only Contact your local IBM office or IBM authorized reseller for the
full text of the specific Statement of Direction
Some information addresses anticipated future capabilities Such information is not intended as a definitive
statement of a commitment to specific levels of performance function or delivery schedules with respect to
any future products Such commitments are only made in IBM product announcements The information is
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
39
presented here to communicate IBMs current investment and development activities as a good faith effort
to help with our customers future planning
Performance is based on measurements and projections using standard IBM benchmarks in a controlled
environment The actual throughput or performance that any user will experience will vary depending upon
considerations such as the amount of multiprogramming in the users job stream the IO configuration the
storage configuration and the workload processed Therefore no assurance can be given that an
individual user will achieve throughput or performance improvements equivalent to the ratios stated here
Photographs shown are of engineering prototypes Changes may be incorporated in production models
Any references in this information to non-IBM websites are provided for convenience only and do not in
any manner serve as an endorsement of those websites The materials at those websites are not part of
the materials for this IBM product and use of those websites is at your own risk
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
36
Resources
These websites provide useful references to supplement the information contained in this paper
IBM Systems on PartnerWorld
ibmcompartnerworldsystems
IBM Redbooks
ibmcomredbooks
IBM cloud computing
ibmcomsolutionssapusenlandingcloud_solutionshtml
IBM Cloud Solutions for SAP clients
ibmcomcloud-computingusen
IBM SmartCloud Entry for AIX on PartnerWorld (requires PartnerWorld login)
ibmcompartnerworldpagestg_com_sys_smartcloud
SAP HANA on workload optimized IBM System x appliances
ibmcomsolutionssaphana
IBM internal SSI-URL with a collection of SAP related PureSystem materials
httpsw3-
03ssoibmcomsalessupportShowDocwssdocid=SGDN258263T70735C63ampnode=brandsB6000|brandsBI5
00|clientsetIA|alliancesT5000|alliancesT5150|channelDR|channelF2F|solutionQ00|solution210ampappname=C
C_SSIGD
select the ldquoCollateralrdquo Tab in ldquoMain Contentrdquo section
Related SAP on PureFlex paper with System x focus ldquoReference Architecture - SAP
Systems on IBM PureSystems based on x86 nodesrdquo
httpw3ibmcomsupporttechdocsatsmastrnsfWebIndexWP102167
httpwwwibmcomsupporttechdocsatsmastrnsfWebIndexWP102167
httpwww-03ibmcompartnerworldpartnerinfosrcatsmastrnsfWebIndexWP102167
Related SAP on PureFlex paper with IBM i focus ldquoEfficiently deploying SAP landscapes
on the IBM PureFlex Systemrdquo
httpw3ibmcomsupporttechdocsatsmastrnsfWebIndexWP102087
httpwwwibmcomsupporttechdocsatsmastrnsfWebIndexWP102087
httpwww-03ibmcompartnerworldpartnerinfosrcatsmastrnsfWebIndexWP102087
Virtualization for SAP on IBM PureSystems with Microsoft Hyper-V
httpwwwibmcomsupporttechdocsatsmastrnsfWebIndexWP102153
IBM Workload Optimized Solution for SAP HANA ndash Quick Start Guide
provides technical overview HW models network requirements for IBM Systems Solution
for SAP HANA appliance
httpdownloadboulderibmcomibmdlpubsystemssupportsystem_x_pdf46w8274pdf
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
37
IBM internal SAP HANA Wiki
httpsw3-connectionsibmcomwikishomelang=en-
uswikiWaef4c0eb0f35_427f_a25e_670e392682b1pageSAP20HANA
FlexSystem with SAP BWA Presentations (click to open link)
Seller
Customer
General IBM Sales Kit ldquoSAP NetWeaver Business Warehouse Accelerator (BWA)rdquo
Implementation Guide for BWA on IBM Flex System x240
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
38
Trademarks and special notices
copy Copyright IBM Corporation 2013
References in this document to IBM products or services do not imply that IBM intends to make them
available in every country
IBM the IBM logo and ibmcom are trademarks or registered trademarks of International Business
Machines Corporation in the United States other countries or both If these and other IBM trademarked
terms are marked on their first occurrence in this information with a trademark symbol (reg or trade) these
symbols indicate US registered or common law trademarks owned by IBM at the time this information
was published Such trademarks may also be registered or common law trademarks in other countries A
current list of IBM trademarks is available on the Web at Copyright and trademark information at
wwwibmcomlegalcopytradeshtml
Java and all Java-based trademarks and logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of Oracle andor
its affiliates
Microsoft Windows Windows NT and the Windows logo are trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the
United States other countries or both
Intel Intel Inside (logos) MMX and Pentium are trademarks of Intel Corporation in the United States
other countries or both
UNIX is a registered trademark of The Open Group in the United States and other countries
Linux is a trademark of Linus Torvalds in the United States other countries or both
Other company product or service names may be trademarks or service marks of others
Information is provided AS IS without warranty of any kind
All customer examples described are presented as illustrations of how those customers have used IBM
products and the results they may have achieved Actual environmental costs and performance
characteristics may vary by customer
Information concerning non-IBM products was obtained from a supplier of these products published
announcement material or other publicly available sources and does not constitute an endorsement of
such products by IBM Sources for non-IBM list prices and performance numbers are taken from publicly
available information including vendor announcements and vendor worldwide homepages IBM has not
tested these products and cannot confirm the accuracy of performance capability or any other claims
related to non-IBM products Questions on the capability of non-IBM products should be addressed to the
supplier of those products
All statements regarding IBM future direction and intent are subject to change or withdrawal without notice
and represent goals and objectives only Contact your local IBM office or IBM authorized reseller for the
full text of the specific Statement of Direction
Some information addresses anticipated future capabilities Such information is not intended as a definitive
statement of a commitment to specific levels of performance function or delivery schedules with respect to
any future products Such commitments are only made in IBM product announcements The information is
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
39
presented here to communicate IBMs current investment and development activities as a good faith effort
to help with our customers future planning
Performance is based on measurements and projections using standard IBM benchmarks in a controlled
environment The actual throughput or performance that any user will experience will vary depending upon
considerations such as the amount of multiprogramming in the users job stream the IO configuration the
storage configuration and the workload processed Therefore no assurance can be given that an
individual user will achieve throughput or performance improvements equivalent to the ratios stated here
Photographs shown are of engineering prototypes Changes may be incorporated in production models
Any references in this information to non-IBM websites are provided for convenience only and do not in
any manner serve as an endorsement of those websites The materials at those websites are not part of
the materials for this IBM product and use of those websites is at your own risk
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
37
IBM internal SAP HANA Wiki
httpsw3-connectionsibmcomwikishomelang=en-
uswikiWaef4c0eb0f35_427f_a25e_670e392682b1pageSAP20HANA
FlexSystem with SAP BWA Presentations (click to open link)
Seller
Customer
General IBM Sales Kit ldquoSAP NetWeaver Business Warehouse Accelerator (BWA)rdquo
Implementation Guide for BWA on IBM Flex System x240
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
38
Trademarks and special notices
copy Copyright IBM Corporation 2013
References in this document to IBM products or services do not imply that IBM intends to make them
available in every country
IBM the IBM logo and ibmcom are trademarks or registered trademarks of International Business
Machines Corporation in the United States other countries or both If these and other IBM trademarked
terms are marked on their first occurrence in this information with a trademark symbol (reg or trade) these
symbols indicate US registered or common law trademarks owned by IBM at the time this information
was published Such trademarks may also be registered or common law trademarks in other countries A
current list of IBM trademarks is available on the Web at Copyright and trademark information at
wwwibmcomlegalcopytradeshtml
Java and all Java-based trademarks and logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of Oracle andor
its affiliates
Microsoft Windows Windows NT and the Windows logo are trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the
United States other countries or both
Intel Intel Inside (logos) MMX and Pentium are trademarks of Intel Corporation in the United States
other countries or both
UNIX is a registered trademark of The Open Group in the United States and other countries
Linux is a trademark of Linus Torvalds in the United States other countries or both
Other company product or service names may be trademarks or service marks of others
Information is provided AS IS without warranty of any kind
All customer examples described are presented as illustrations of how those customers have used IBM
products and the results they may have achieved Actual environmental costs and performance
characteristics may vary by customer
Information concerning non-IBM products was obtained from a supplier of these products published
announcement material or other publicly available sources and does not constitute an endorsement of
such products by IBM Sources for non-IBM list prices and performance numbers are taken from publicly
available information including vendor announcements and vendor worldwide homepages IBM has not
tested these products and cannot confirm the accuracy of performance capability or any other claims
related to non-IBM products Questions on the capability of non-IBM products should be addressed to the
supplier of those products
All statements regarding IBM future direction and intent are subject to change or withdrawal without notice
and represent goals and objectives only Contact your local IBM office or IBM authorized reseller for the
full text of the specific Statement of Direction
Some information addresses anticipated future capabilities Such information is not intended as a definitive
statement of a commitment to specific levels of performance function or delivery schedules with respect to
any future products Such commitments are only made in IBM product announcements The information is
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
39
presented here to communicate IBMs current investment and development activities as a good faith effort
to help with our customers future planning
Performance is based on measurements and projections using standard IBM benchmarks in a controlled
environment The actual throughput or performance that any user will experience will vary depending upon
considerations such as the amount of multiprogramming in the users job stream the IO configuration the
storage configuration and the workload processed Therefore no assurance can be given that an
individual user will achieve throughput or performance improvements equivalent to the ratios stated here
Photographs shown are of engineering prototypes Changes may be incorporated in production models
Any references in this information to non-IBM websites are provided for convenience only and do not in
any manner serve as an endorsement of those websites The materials at those websites are not part of
the materials for this IBM product and use of those websites is at your own risk
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
38
Trademarks and special notices
copy Copyright IBM Corporation 2013
References in this document to IBM products or services do not imply that IBM intends to make them
available in every country
IBM the IBM logo and ibmcom are trademarks or registered trademarks of International Business
Machines Corporation in the United States other countries or both If these and other IBM trademarked
terms are marked on their first occurrence in this information with a trademark symbol (reg or trade) these
symbols indicate US registered or common law trademarks owned by IBM at the time this information
was published Such trademarks may also be registered or common law trademarks in other countries A
current list of IBM trademarks is available on the Web at Copyright and trademark information at
wwwibmcomlegalcopytradeshtml
Java and all Java-based trademarks and logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of Oracle andor
its affiliates
Microsoft Windows Windows NT and the Windows logo are trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the
United States other countries or both
Intel Intel Inside (logos) MMX and Pentium are trademarks of Intel Corporation in the United States
other countries or both
UNIX is a registered trademark of The Open Group in the United States and other countries
Linux is a trademark of Linus Torvalds in the United States other countries or both
Other company product or service names may be trademarks or service marks of others
Information is provided AS IS without warranty of any kind
All customer examples described are presented as illustrations of how those customers have used IBM
products and the results they may have achieved Actual environmental costs and performance
characteristics may vary by customer
Information concerning non-IBM products was obtained from a supplier of these products published
announcement material or other publicly available sources and does not constitute an endorsement of
such products by IBM Sources for non-IBM list prices and performance numbers are taken from publicly
available information including vendor announcements and vendor worldwide homepages IBM has not
tested these products and cannot confirm the accuracy of performance capability or any other claims
related to non-IBM products Questions on the capability of non-IBM products should be addressed to the
supplier of those products
All statements regarding IBM future direction and intent are subject to change or withdrawal without notice
and represent goals and objectives only Contact your local IBM office or IBM authorized reseller for the
full text of the specific Statement of Direction
Some information addresses anticipated future capabilities Such information is not intended as a definitive
statement of a commitment to specific levels of performance function or delivery schedules with respect to
any future products Such commitments are only made in IBM product announcements The information is
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
39
presented here to communicate IBMs current investment and development activities as a good faith effort
to help with our customers future planning
Performance is based on measurements and projections using standard IBM benchmarks in a controlled
environment The actual throughput or performance that any user will experience will vary depending upon
considerations such as the amount of multiprogramming in the users job stream the IO configuration the
storage configuration and the workload processed Therefore no assurance can be given that an
individual user will achieve throughput or performance improvements equivalent to the ratios stated here
Photographs shown are of engineering prototypes Changes may be incorporated in production models
Any references in this information to non-IBM websites are provided for convenience only and do not in
any manner serve as an endorsement of those websites The materials at those websites are not part of
the materials for this IBM product and use of those websites is at your own risk
Deploying and operating Entry Cloud for SAP solutions on the IBM PureFlex System
39
presented here to communicate IBMs current investment and development activities as a good faith effort
to help with our customers future planning
Performance is based on measurements and projections using standard IBM benchmarks in a controlled
environment The actual throughput or performance that any user will experience will vary depending upon
considerations such as the amount of multiprogramming in the users job stream the IO configuration the
storage configuration and the workload processed Therefore no assurance can be given that an
individual user will achieve throughput or performance improvements equivalent to the ratios stated here
Photographs shown are of engineering prototypes Changes may be incorporated in production models
Any references in this information to non-IBM websites are provided for convenience only and do not in
any manner serve as an endorsement of those websites The materials at those websites are not part of
the materials for this IBM product and use of those websites is at your own risk