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IBM sizing for SAP solutions

Last update 2013-05-13

Content
SAP Sizing Process in General
Rules of Thumb
Landscape Considerations

Content
xxxxx Process in General
SAP Sizing
SAP Rules of Thumb
Landscape Considerations

Content
SAP Sizing Process in General
Terminology
Fundamentals of sizing methodology

What is Sizing ?

to predict the expected workload,

to propose the infrastructure that can cope with the load.

Sizing and its deliveries.

CPU capacity
Main memory
Disk capacity
Network speed

Precise science
Without fail
A mystery
Black magic
...

Sizing is a technical presales effort !

Sizing of SAP Systems

Estimation of the necessary system resources for a new SAP System (CPU
capacity, memory, disk space, network) based on a workload estimation.

Customer
Requirements
Questionnaire

Measurements
iterative

Capacity
Ratings

Load Profile
Estimation

close contact
Customer IBM/BP

Analysis

HW Selection
& Sizing
Customer
Configuration

ISICC
IBM Labor
SAP

Setting the right expectations

SAP Sizing is only an approximation of reality
Throughput sizing only, NO guaranteed response times
Rules of Thumb are only an approximation of SAP Sizing
Please work with IBM Techline to have the actual sizing work done!
Talk the same language your customers do:
SAP Releases
Types of Users
Business scenarios and their mapping to infrastructure

Definitions of SAP user types

Have the same User definitions your customers uses
Named
SAP license only
Logged in

Memory (paging area), but no CPU

Concurrent

CPU, Memory, I/O

High (10 sec), Medium (30 sec), Low (300 sec) transaction rate
n. u. 100% of named users
l. u. 65% of named in users are
c. u. 52% of named users are

logged users
concurrent active users

SAPS

The SAP sizing anchor point: SAPS

S AP
A pplication Benchmark
P erformance
S tandard

2,000 fully processed

100 SAPS

order line items / hour*

SD Benchmark

* 6,000 dialog steps and 2,000 postings or 2,400 SAP transactions

10

SAP Quicksizer normalizes to SAPS

SAP Quicksizer
THE central online sizing tool by SAP
All SAP application loads although not Sales&Distribution
are normalized to SAPS
Two modes:
User based
fast, less accurate
Transaction based sophisticated input, more realistic results
User based targets for 33% dialog utilization +
32% batch load = 65% overall system utilization
Input covers users
Batch load (e.g. reports, printing) is assumed to be a fixed,
incremental portion to it
Transaction based targets for 65% utilization
Input covers dialog and batch load
Requires process knowledge and timing
11

Quicksizer : transaction vs. user based sizing

transaction based

user based
100%

100%

DATA Structure

80%
70%
60%

CPU Variable

35% Buffer

90%

Target
utilization 65%

70%

50%
40%
30%

Quantified Load

80%
DATA Structure

90%

60%

CPU Variable

50%
40%

Non-Quantified Load

30%

20%

20%

10%

10%

0%

0%

Quantified Load

12

Content
SAP Sizing Process in General
RulesRules
of Thumb
for basic Sizing
SAP
of Thumb
Landscape Considerations

13

Content
Rules of Thumb for Basic Sizing
Processor
Memory
Disk & IO
Unicode

14

User Weighting per SAP Quicksizer

The typical load ratio between
SAP production Users is:
Light
Medium
Power

0,1
1
3710

Mostly Power-Users consume

factor 10 vs. Medium. Average
over all assessed modules is
by a factor of 7.
The user weighting has NO
impact on memory footprint

15

Impact of User Load distribution on ECC 6.0 Backend Systems

Lighter

Heavier
Avg.=18 SAPS/user

Avg.=12 SAPS/user

Light

30%

Light

10%

Medium

60%

Medium

70%

Power

10%

Power

20%

Assume 100 Users: the difference is 600 SAPS ~ 1/4th of a todays processor core
In other words: 400 Users would require an additional x86 CPU in this case

16

Todays SAP landscape

ERP (main OLTP load)

BW (main OLAP system)
EP + PI = transient load
additional capacity per user required!
Solution Manager
additional capacity for administration purposes required.

17

SAP NetWeaver landscape example

For the ECC 6.0 + NetWeaver landscapes we assume the following load
distribution of the production system:
100% of users use ECC 6.0
50% of these concurrently use an Enterprise Portal
30% create messages on PI
10% of them create concurrent workload using BW

18

ECC 6.0 EHP4 / aka BS7 SAPS and concurrent users covered by configurations

The chart depicts the capacity requirements for essential SAP NetWeaver based scenarios
The Mix ECC+NW curve represents the module load mix outlined on previous chart, i.e. 100% concurrent
user in ECC, 50% EP, 30% XI, 10% BI.
The slope in SAPS capacity represents the advantage by dynamic resource sharing by Advanced POWER
virtualization.

19

SAP Sizing CPU Rules of Thumb

Per previous charts, we can conclude :
1 concurrent / active user requires

12 SAPS Backend (ECC)

+ 10 SAPS (EP, PI, BI)

= 22 SAPS
1 named SAP NW user requires

11 SAPS

Now its easy to map this to CPUs and Models

~1500-3020 SAPS/core for ECC 6.0 EHP4 for POWER7 systems
~1000-3000 SAPS/core for ECC 6.0 EHP4 for Intel/AMD based systems

20

Official System Sizing tables

Source: ISICC Sizing Tables for System x

Maintained by
performance team from
IBM Beaverton and
ISICC

IBM Confidential

Updated 24x a year

Published on ISICC
SAP Architecture NotesDB for all platforms
Available for IBM System
x on Partnerworld at
https://
public.dhe.ibm.com/
partnerworld/pub/sap/
pw_system_x_capacity_
tables_2013_03_06.pdf

21

Capacity versus Response Times

SAPS as a sizing metric is a measure for system capacity provided and throughput consumed
SAPS is not a response time indicator
IT Departments and SAP Basis teams are primarily interested in transaction capacity of their
servers
SAP End-Users are primarily interested in a fast response time for their individual transactions.
SAP ERP < 0,5 sec, Analytical Queries ~some seconds
When Server capacity becomes
exhausted, response time turns bad: A desirable overall system utilization rate is 70%-80%

SAP SD-Benchmark characteristic

22

Throughput versus (Single-Thread) Performance

Single-thread performance is important for SAP batch runs and certain transactions
Faster CPUs (GHz) result in faster processing times for a thread (= executable)
But also other processor design points impact its performance e.g.: out-of-order processing,
branch efficiency,

Todays CPUs are multi-threaded: 2 threads x86, 4 threads POWER7

ABAP

Java

ABAP

Best gain, whenever there is a good mix of computation and wait cycles for any of the
concurrent threads
As soon as all concurrent threads are CPU bound, performance of each single thread will
suffer
consequently, multi-threading benefit depends on individual SAP workload mix

23

SAP Sizing Some Memory Rules of Thumb

Memory Recommendations
68 GB per 1000 SAPS (Quick)sizer output
assumes an ABAP:Java mix of 80%:20%
Consequently, server capacity is MEMORY bound

Above values are OK for a single SAP instance on a server/LPAR.

Add a minimum of 2 GB for each instance in case you
consolidate several SAP instances on a single server/partition.
Consider some additional memory for virtualization features
Also consider DIMM upgrade capabilities of the selected box.

24

Variations of SAP memory requirements

25

Virtualization Some Memory Rules of Thumb

Memory is NOT a dynamic resource
as processors are
Ideally size Memory for a Virtual
Machine resp. a Dynamic VM/LPAR
targeting its largest extension.

Allocate some additional memory for

virtualized systems management
through Hypervisors
For Hypervisor itself, e.g. 256MB for
PowerVM
For virtual memory, device slots (adapters)
About 1GB of incremental memory
footprint for smaller systems

Example: Memory Allocation duration from Shared Memory Pool via AMS.

26

Virtual I/O Server Design Basic recommendations

Two Virtual I/O Server partitions are required for production load
resilience against failure or misconfiguration
planned maintenance for VIO server
Use Dedicated Donating In shared pools assign minimum 10% CPU power to the VIO Server
+Clients
Sample Virtual I/O Server partition configuration
1 GB Memory (min=512MB max= 4GB)
Uncapped Micropartitions with Capacity Entitlement = 0,5
2 Virtual CPUs, SMT enabled
30 Virtual Slots
Maximum number of virtual slots has to be defined in LPAR profile and is not dynamic
Hypervisor TCE memory allocation scales with the slot number
Default of 10 for Client partition sufficient in most cases
Attention: Using Slot Nr. 16, means that the Hypervisor reserves 16 Slots

27

SAP Sizing Basic I/O Rules of Thumb

2.5 SAPS (DB+App-Serv) generate 1 I/O operation per second
1 concurrent SAP NW user generates ~ 9 I/Os per second
A single 15k rpm disk is capable to support a maximum of 200 I/Os per second
in other words: per 22 concurrent SAP users configure one disk drive
hence, disk configuration is not capacity, but I/O driven
Disk Controller
RAID mechanisms have impact on aggregate I/O rates of storage
subsystem
e.g. RAID 10 increases READ throughput (reads from 2 disks) but WRITE is
reduced
Adapters
SCSI, FC, SATA, NAS, iSCSI
Storage Sizing Guide and SAP Magic Tool available
Links and details in following Tools presentation
28

SAP Sizing DB-centric I/O Rules of Thumb

0.3 DB-Server SAPS generate 1 I/O operation per second
New SAP I/O sizing approach for situations where DB-SAPS
portion is well defined
Previous RoT is considered to result in too high I/O estimates
for newer SAP modules.
Reason: more SAPS are consumed on App-Server side relative
to DB
SAP Quicksizer now explicitly shows SAPS split between the
two instances.

Variation of DB-SAPS : App-SAPS is significant for different

SAP modules
e.g., 1:3 for ERP = OK versus 1:15 for CRM = too high I/O load
for DB-Server
Their number is defined as own DB-Server SAPS requirement in
SAP Quicksizer result section

29

Delta Sizing Guide when moving to Unicode base

Based on parallel benchmarking of Unicode / non-Unicode customer systems
Note: The CPU/RAM figures are measured average numbers and will be different for different transactions

CPU IBM: CPU +20%

l +30%
l depending on
existing scenario
(MDMP, double- byte)

*+5% on DB2 for z/OS because no

conversion between application
server and database is needed

Database size
lUTF-8* : up to +10%
lUTF-16 : +30..60%
* 10% is the observed maximum for
bigger systems (db size > 200 GB).

IBM: +1020%

RAM IBM: RAM +50%

l +50%
l Application Servers
are based on UTF-16
internally

Network Load

(SAP GUI for Windows)

l UTF-8
l almost no change
due to efficient
compression
Source: SAP

30

SAP Upgrade Sizing via Release Deltas

Inital Release

4.5B

4.5B

100

4.6B

4.7 x110 6.40

4.7 x200 640
ECC 5.0
ECC 6.0
ECC 6.0
Unicode
BS 7
BS 7 Unicode

Initial Rel. = 100%

4.7 x110 6.20

4.6B

4.7 x110

4.7 x110

4.7 x200

ECC 5.0

6.20

6.40

6.40

114

127

134

145

151

162

194

173

208

100

111

118

127

132

141

169

151

181

100

106

114

119

127

152

136

163

100

108

112

120

144

128

154

100

104

111

133

119

143

100

107

128

114

137

100

120

107

128

100

89

107

100

120

Target Rel. requirements

ECC 6.0

ECC 6.0

BS 7

Unicode

BS7
Unicode

100

31

Content
SAP Sizing Process in General
Rules of Thumb for basic Sizing
Landscape
Considerations
T-shirt Sizing
for Appliances

32

Landscape Considerations Supporting Systems

How many supporting systems do you plan for a production system?
Development System?
Quality Assurance System?
Sandbox or Training System?
Template Approach for deployment in several countries. This could imply more support
systems.

A common approach is to have at least one DEV and one QA system.

In small installations you might consider to have only one supporting
system, combining DEV, QA and SANDBOX in one system.

33

Landscape Considerations 2-Tier or 3-Tier

2-Tier versus 3-Tier
SAP Applications do have a layered architecture
Database Layer
Application Layer
Presentation Layer
You can combine the Database and Application Layer (2-Tier)
Or you can seperate these two layers on different operating system images (3-Tier)

2-Tier
ease of operations, less SAPS because savings in the communication

3-Tier
saving resources for High Availability (In case you have several application servers, they
are not seen as a single point of failure), more SAPS because of communication overhead.

34

Landscape Considerations - Consolidation

Combining several Applications on one server gives the opportunity to save
resources
Basically you will observe that not all applications will peak at the very same
time.
In case the applications are not up and running you have to determine the
consolidation factor upfront. Realistic factors are between 1.2 and 4
A combination of supporting systems and production systems will give
higher consolidation factors.

35

Customer environment exploiting virtualization capabilities on Power5

systems: 4x p570, each with 12 active CPU + 4 CPU CUoD)

36

Intelligent distribution of productive and non-productive instances on

one physical server: e.g. 21 SAP instances on one single p570
SAP-System LPAR
Memory(inG)
CPU-Entitlement
vCPU
ID MinimumDesired Maximum Desired Minimum Maximum desired min
VIO-Server1
2
1
2
4
0,4
0,2
2
2
1
VIO-Server2
3
1
2
4
0,4
0,2
2
2
1
P33
4
4
6
12
0,4
0,2
1,2
2
1
P23
5
4
9
18
0,5
0,3
2
3
1
CS-Test
6
1
2
4
0,1
0,1
0,4
1
1
C03
7
2
6
12
0,3
0,2
0,8
2
1
C17
8
1
2
4
0,2
0,2
0,5
2
1
C21
9
2
3
6
0,2
0,2
0,5
2
1
C07
10
2
6
12
0,4
0,2
0,9
2
1
P07_idle
11
1/4
16
16
0,4
0,1
4
4
1
P31_idle
12
4
6
12
0,4
0,2
0,8
2
1
I03
13
1
2
4
0,1
0,1
0,3
1
1
C04
14
3
8
16
0,1
0,1
0,5
1
1
T98
15
2
8
16
0,1
0,1
0,5
1
1
C91
16
2
6
12
0,1
0,1
0,5
1
1
IDMS-X
17
1
4
8
0,1
0,1
0,5
1
1
A41
18
1
4
8
0,1
0,1
0,5
1
1
K07
19
1
4
8
0,1
0,1
0,5
1
1
IDMSXP2
20
1
4
8
0,2
0,1
0,5
1
1
sideprod
21
4
5
6
0,1
0,1
0,5
1
1
Q04
22
4
8
16
0,1
0,1
0,5
1
1
P04_idle
23
1/4
8
16
0,2
0,1
0,5
2
1
Q72
24
4
20
20
1,6
0,4
2
8
2
SUMMERZ2

141

Production
Qualityassurance
K-Backup (idle LPAR)
Virtual-I/OServer

242

4,7

3,0

19,9

max
4
4
2
8
4
2
2
2
4
8
8
3
5
5
5
5
5
5
5
5
5
5
8

Weighting
uncapped
128
128
64
64
32
32
32
32
32
64
64
32
32
16
32
32
32
16
64
64
32
64
32

44

Development

37

Resource utilization (measured with rrdtool) leading to best-class

value of 60%
Additional CPUs for CUoD
Active CPUs in uncapped SPLPAR pool

38

And IBM has the right proof-points already on the table:

Resource synergies from real customer cases
Reduction of
Server HW
Infrastructure
Admin/Operating
Energy
Consumption

Classical SILO Setup

(based on SAP Quicksizer)

Intelligent Virtualization on
IBM Power Systems

CPUs

Memory

CPUs

Memory

58

450 GB

26

256 GB

75

600 GB

32

300 GB

n/a

n/a

64

512 GB

100

800 GB

32

320 GB

189

1.5 TB

48

672 GB

IT Shop

95

760 GB

60

256 GB

SCM IT

39

Time for questions

SAP Main Products and Solutions

Mail contact: isicc@de.ibm.com

40

Special Notices
Information in this document concerning non-IBM products was obtained from the suppliers of these products or other public sources. Questions on the capabilities of nonIBM products should be addressed to the suppliers of those products.
IBM may have patents or pending patent applications covering subject matter in this document. The furnishing of this document does not give you any license to these
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All statements regarding IBM future direction and intent are subject to change or withdrawal without notice, and represent goals and objectives only. The information
contained in this document has not been submitted to any formal IBM test and is provided "AS IS" with no warranties or guarantees either expressed or implied.
All examples cited or described in this document are presented as illustrations of the manner in which some IBM products can be used and the results that may be
achieved. Actual environmental costs and performance characteristics will vary depending on individual client configurations and conditions.
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may apply. Rates and offerings are subject to change, extension or withdrawal without notice.
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All prices shown are IBM's United States suggested list prices and are subject to change without notice; reseller prices may vary.
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Many of the features described in this document are operating system dependent and may not be available on Linux. For more information, please check:
http://www.ibm.com/systems/p/software/whitepapers/linux_overview.html
Any performance data contained in this document was determined in a controlled environment. Actual results may vary significantly and are dependent on many factors
including system hardware configuration and software design and configuration. Some measurements quoted in this document may have been made on development-level
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estimated through extrapolation. Users of this document should verify the applicable data for their specific environment.

Revised January 19, 2006

41

Special Notices (Cont.)

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Revised June 15, 2006

42