Using SAP with HP Virtualization and Partitioning

ManualsBrandsHP ManualsSoftwareHP nPartitions (nPars) and Partition Manager (parmgr) Software

Introduction ...................................................................................................................................2

Overview of Virtualization and Partitioning Technologies.......................................................................2

Physical Servers..........................................................................................................................2

Hard Partitions – nPars.................................................................................................................3

Virtual Partitions – vPars...............................................................................................................3

Virtual Machines.........................................................................................................................4

Secure Resource Partitions............................................................................................................4

SAP and the mySAP Business Suite....................................................................................................4

SAP Systems for Select mySAP Components.....................................................................................4

mySAP ERP.............................................................................................................................4

mySAP CRM...........................................................................................................................5

mySAP SCM...........................................................................................................................5

Spectrum of the SAP System Landscape...........................................................................................5

Training.................................................................................................................................5

Evaluation..............................................................................................................................5

Development...........................................................................................................................6

Test and Q/A.........................................................................................................................6

Production..............................................................................................................................6

SAP Change and Transport System.............................................................................................6

Matching Computing Technology to SAP Scenarios..............................................................................7

To partition or not to partition........................................................................................................7

Computer Resources: Dedicated vs. Shared.....................................................................................8

Dedicated vs. shared resources..................................................................................................9

Isolation.................................................................................................................................9

Example: Typical System Landscape Approach ..............................................................................12

Deployment: Application Perspective............................................................................................13

Tuning for SAP on HP’s Partitioning Continuum..................................................................................13

For more information.....................................................................................................................14

Summary of content (14 pages)

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Using SAP with HP Virtualization and Partitioning Introduction ................................................................................................................................... 2 Overview of Virtualization and Partitioning Technologies....................................................................... 2 Physical Servers .......................................................................................................................... 2 Hard Partitions – nPars...................
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Introduction Today’s choices in computer systems and hardware consolidation technologies provide a multitude of options when deploying robust business critical software solutions. Given all these choices for deploying various SAP systems, it is not necessarily trivial to match the right partitioning or virtualization technology to a given SAP system. In the following sections, recommendations and heuristics are provided to aid in choosing the right technology for SAP system deployments.
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Figure 1. HP's Partitioning Continuum provides a broad spectrum of solutions for hardware consolidation Hard Partitions – nPars With electrical separation, hard partitions are isolated in hardware from each other, so hardware failures are confined to the partition in which they occur. Applications and operating environments execute in hard partitions that function as if they were separate physical servers.
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Virtual Machines One important approach to hardware sharing is that of providing a layer between the physical hardware and the operating system(s) which virtualizes the hardware components. In doing so, a single hardware component may be associated with multiple virtual hardware components. These virtual hardware components may then be grouped together into a virtual computer system, or virtual machine.
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Modules for procurement and logistics execution, product development and manufacturing, as well as sales and service, are provided in the ERP Operations solution. Operations modules frequently require dedicated computer hardware to deliver acceptable response times for sales and service applications. Production planning processing usually places a significant load on the SAP system.
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Development Customization of the mySAP applications as well as development of new components and functionality rarely has large processing or database requirements. Such systems should, understandably, be isolated from production systems but the use of similar operating systems will aid in deployment. Similar to training systems, load patterns can be very dynamic on development systems over time.
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Matching Computing Technology to SAP Scenarios Given all these choices for deploying various SAP systems, it is not necessarily trivial to match the right partitioning or virtualization technology to a given SAP system. In the following sections, recommendations and heuristics are provided to aid in choosing the right technology for SAP system deployments. In many cases, it may not be necessary to separate your SAP systems at all.
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Computer Resources: Dedicated vs. Shared When considering a given partitioning or virtualization technology for any software deployment, the primary difference is whether the technology shares resources or has dedicated access to them. When an application shares resources then, by its very definition, these resources are divided and distributed to other applications for their use.
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Figure 3. Virtualization Techniques revisited Now let’s revisit the different virtualization techniques in light of these heuristics, and find the typical “sweet spots” for the different types of SAP systems. Dedicated vs. shared resources • Both nPars and vPars are technologies which provide dedicated resources to the application, as long as the administrator or workload management tools do not actively change the resource assignment.
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Figure 4. ”Sweet spots” for production systems With these comparisons in mind, we discuss the various options to deploy production systems: • “Production, no isolation required” represents for multiple production systems that can share one OS. Check the previous chapter “to partition or not to partition”. If you don’t find a good reason to partition among your production systems, this is the sweet spot for your production systems. If you find a reason to partition, go to the next bullet.
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Figure 5. “Sweet spots” for non-production systems Having identified partitioning and virtualization options for production systems, consider the various alternatives for deploying non-production systems: • “Systems not requiring separate OS” represents multiple non-production systems that can share one OS. Check the previous chapter “to partition or not to partition”. If you don’t find a good reason to partition among your non-production systems, this is the sweet spot for your non-production systems.
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Example: Typical System Landscape Approach Building on the heuristics above, an understanding of the spectrum of SAP system deployments, and the various technologies offered by HP’s VSE, a better vision of consolidation opportunities can be established. In reviewing the example of SAP systems illustrated in Figure 2, some conclusions may be drawn.
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Deployment: Application Perspective Generally speaking, deployment of SAP systems on virtualization or partitioning technologies based on the particular application to be used is not recommended. For example, determining that all ERP applications will be deployed on Virtual Partitions doesn’t take into consideration the users – developers, testers, or production – or the historical resource utilization of a given ERP system.
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For more information http://www.hp.com/go/vse http://www.hp.com/go/sap SAP Hardware Solutions, by M. Missbach and U. Hoffman, ISBN 0-13-028084-4 Hardware Consolidation with Integrity Virtual Machines, white paper, http://docs.hp.com Best Practices for Integrity Virtual Machines, white paper, http://docs.hp.com Using HP-UX Workload Manager with SAP, white paper available from Information Library section on http://www.hp.com/go/wlm/ © 2007 Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.