Paper

Components and the integration process
1. Concept integration
2. Deployment and technical integration
into T-Systems' Dynamic Services in-
frastructure.
3. Integration into cloud operation proce-
dures (control panel – start/stop, backup
restore, monitoring and event & incident
management, life cycle management)
4. Platform operation
5. SAP HANA* application operation
(standalone data base, BWoH)
6. Integration service concepts
In-memory technology guarantees to make
full use of CPU power since developers at Intel
have been working closely together with SAP
for some years to optimize the SAP HANA code
for the Xeon processor E7 v2 family. Another
result of this long-standing partnership between
SAP and Intel is the high degree of reliability
through the use of RAS features in SAP HANA.
The memory capacity of Intel Xeon E7 v2 proces-
sors, which are fitted with up to 15 cores, is up
to 1.5 TB per socket. This means that many
companies are able to load their entire cus-
tomer data base into the memory. The result
is a very fast and exhaustive data analysis. Intel®
Integrated I/O and Intel® Data Direct I/O supply
high bandwidths for data transfer. Additional
PCIe* 3.0 interfaces allows for more capacity
to be added for both memory and network
connections. Intel Xeon E7 v2 processors also
integrate Intel RAS functions for increased
reliability, availability and serviceability.
At the same time, the energy-saving function,
Intel® Intelligent Power technology, reduces
energy consumption when the chip is in idle
mode. In practice this means that energy con-
sumption is determined dynamically by the
workload. SAP HANA is thus able to use energy
extremely efficiently. Intel® Streaming SIMD
Extensions (instruction set extensions) for the
Xeon processors (Intel® SSE, Intel® SSE2, Intel®
SSE3, Intel® SSSE3, Intel® SSE4.1 and Intel®
SSE4.2) also contribute towards increased
SAP HANA performance because they accel-
erate decompression and the search through
data records by increasing parallelization.
Deep Integration
Given that SAP validates and certifies SAP
HANA appliances and thus sets defined (per-
formance) requirements for its components
and for configuration, the scope available for
tailoring them to customers' requirements is
limited. The challenge facing Dell was there-
fore to integrate its SAP HANA appliance
seamlessly into the private cloud SAP operat-
ing platform. This deep integration into the IT
infrastructure and IT processes is necessary
to enable T-Systems to offer its customers
attractive conditions for operating AOfSAP in
the private cloud. Consequently, Dell had to
open the SAP HANA appliance to T-System's
specific requirements while ensuring the ap-
pliance's continued compliance with SAP cer-
tification provisions after customization. This
ensures that SAP provides comprehensive
support for the complete solution.
The T-Systems network infrastructure includes
several networks that are physically separated
from one another: customer network, admin
network, backup network, SAP HANA. These
networks entail various different authorization
structures and login processes and have to be
designed redundantly. This raised a number
of key questions: How can the Dell appliance
be integrated into this special network infra-
structure? How can SAP HANA be monitored
in the admin network? How is the customer
granted access to SAP HANA without impairing
performance? How do you create quick access
to storage backup and restore processes?
Dell came up with corresponding answers in
partnership with T-Systems. For example, both
companies replaced active network components
(switches) for the uplink ports that protrude
from the appliance with direct network con-
nections; the network infrastructure for HANA
internal communication remained unaltered.
In this way, the appliance can now be used in
the Dynamic Service infrastructure as an ex-
tremely large node with SAP HANA function-
ality. T-Systems is thus able to fully incorporate
the technical components on the outer edge
of the HANA appliance in its automation, pro-
vision and configuration concepts. VLAN, name
and address space designs can be connected
directly to HANA interfaces.
The appliance also had to be integrated into
ITIL management processes for monitoring,
event and incident management. An important
feature here is that an alert is generated as
soon as problems arise with the software or
hardware (e.g. SAP events or operating system).
The monitoring system is based on OpenMan-
age Essentials* – system administration soft-
ware – from Dell which proactively identifies
potential hardware malfunctions in T-System's
IT environment. This allows the support divi-
sion to replace components before they cease
to function. The customer is not at all aware
of the malfunction. Moreover, participating
companies have implemented an automated
application management methodology. Since
SAP HANA is initially activated here, the appli-
ance is already available as a data base server
before running the application stack.
Through careful planning and integration,
T-Systems has created seamless processes and
is able to design its private cloud operating
processes extremely efficiently around SAP
HANA and SAP applications. This means that
the company leverages all the advantages of
a sophisticated, SAP-certified appliance. Con-
versely, there is no end to the way in which cus-
tomers benefit from high-performance SAP
HANA in-memory technology and the attractive
conditions available through outsourcing SAP
applications.