SAP on Linux: SUSE Linux Enterprise Server

for SAP Applications 12 SP1

Posted by Hannes Khnemund Feb 26, 2016
What is it?
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications 12 SP1 is based on SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 12
SP1, a versatile server operating system for deploying highly available, enterprise-class IT services in mixed
IT environments with best-of-breed performance and reduced risk. Besides providing an operating system for
SAP HANA to run on, it delivers a vast amount of features which help SAP and their customers to become
more efficient while reducing cost.
And what does this has to do with SAP?
A lot! Its a central part of SAPs Run Simple strategy to help organizations run business
processes faster and easier. Because of SUSEs very close strategic engineering relationship with
SAP, SUSE Linux Enterprise Server was the first operating system to support SAP HANA, and 97%
of implementations are on SUSE Enterprise Linux.

In Service Pack 1 we are updating SLES for SAP Applications in 3 of these key areas:
Starting with business continuity, were now making HA possible for SAP HANA in the Amazon
public cloud. Since SLES for SAP 12 SP1 includes SUSE Linux Enterprise High Availability
Extension 12 SP1, a redesigned HAWK user interface is now available to make it easier to set up
HA for SAP. This release also includes system rollback updates in SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 12
SP1.

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SAP on Linux: SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications 12 SP1

In the area of Security, the SAP HANA firewall is now fully-supported, and theres now full
integration of the system replication process with system HA.

New profiles and better automation are now included so that its even faster and less laborintensive to deploy SAP HANA, NetWeaver or other SAP applications. Customers who want to
deploy applications faster with Linux containers, wont have to get a separate SLES 12 SP1
license. While Docker is not currently supported by SAP, SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for SAP
Applications fully supports Docker and SUSE for other applications in a virtualized environment.
Improvements:
Rollback on service pack upgrade: The Full System Rollback feature gives you better resiliency by allowing
to take snapshots of the system (similar to a System Restore Point on Windows), including the Linux kernel,
and roll back if needed. Now when you upgrade to a new service pack for your SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
for SAP Applications, the full system rollback capability minimizes the risk and allows you to rollback easily.
Simplified operations: Simplification is not only a key theme for SAP products, it is also for SLES for SAP
Applications. System administrators can now automate routine tasks which were executed manually before.
With SLES for SAP Applications 12 SP1 we introduced new OS templates for Kiwi. Kiwi is integral
part of SLES and allows the creation of operating system images based on templates in a matter
of minutes. We now deliver SLES for SAP Applications templates for Kiwi. Such SLES for SAP
Applications images are already fully adjusted and prepared for SAP environments (kernel
parameters, limits) and are ready for deployment in virtual environments like KVM, Xen, VMware
private clouds like SUSE OpenStack Cloud or even the public cloud.
Talking about automation, every SAP administrator knows those Linux kernel and limit settings for different
SAP Applications; SAP HANA needs setting A while SAP NetWeaver needs setting B. The package sapconf
has now been enhanced to i) provide SAP application specific profiles for those parameters, allowing the
administrator to change those settings e.g. between SAP NetWeaver and SAP HANA; ii) furthermore, those
settings can now be changed during runtime (whereas the old sapconf required a reboot). This enhancement
does not come in handy for the Cost-Optimized HA setup only (see previous slide), where one application is
rd

stopped in favor of SAP HANA failing over to the standby node, but also when a corporate policy or 3 party
kernel drivers require certain other parameters to be set. The new modular architecture of sapconf allows
customers adjust the SUSE provided profiles and create their own ones if needed. Also, SUSE supplied update
to those profile based on suggestions from SAP. So no need to watch SAP notes for those changes, SUSE
takes care of that now.
While virtualization and private clouds are becoming more and more attractive for SAP environments, we
seen our own SUSE support organization been overloaded with requests of the following nature. Customers
were installing a virtual machine with SLES for SAP Applications. In order to use this virtual machine as a
golden image for cloning throughout their infrastructure, a cleanup (removing all identity information) was
done manually. This cleanup sometimes deleted files required for updates or supportability of the system.

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SAP on Linux: SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications 12 SP1

SUSE therefore decided to provide such a cleanup script which leaves the system in a fully supported state
afterwards. Furthermore, customers can decide which steps they would like to have executed or not. As long
as no new commands are added, the system will be in a supported state.
Built-in business continuity & Innovation for SAP HANA: SUSE developed the SAP HANA Firewall to
secure and fence off SAP HANA databases in a very easy way. It comes with a wizard which asks you a few
questions doing the magic of creating appropriate iptables rules. Running SAP HANA in a high availability
environment the iptables rules may become complicated to create and maintain otherwise.
Also, SUSE Linux Enterprise for SAP Applications 12 SP1 extends the HA failover automation capabilities
for SAP HANA, including the possibility to run SAP HANA with high availability on the Amazon Web Services
public cloud. In addition, we now ship our newly redesigned, more intuitive user interface (HAWK) for easier
set up of high availability for mission-critical SAP applications. We currently support failover automation for the
following SAP HANA scenarios with SLES for SAP Applications 12 SP1:

Last but not least, a new package has been introduced, ClusterTools2. What does it do? When
setting up a new SAP HANA cluster the final step is an acceptance test means: a dry run, pulling
a cable (or similar) from the production system to find out if the cluster works. It would be a pity
if it fails because of a mis-typed IP address or a forgotten parameter. And here ClusterTools2
kicks in. Among other things it allows to check a cluster configuration for semantic correctness.
By doing so, the chances for a successful dry run will increase dramatically saving time and
resources. Now it is actually fun to pull the plug.

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SAP on Linux: SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications 12 SP1

Summary:
In conclusion, these are the key topics in SLES for SAP Applications 12 SP1:
Reducing downtime for SAP applications and HANA databases
Helping businesses get to market faster with SAP application support
The peace of mind we deliver with our outstanding support jointly with SAP
About the author: Hannes Khnemund is part of the SUSE Product Management Unit responsible for SLES for
SAP Applications among other products.
1111 Views Tags: hana, open_source, sap_hana, sap_netweaver, suse, operating_system, high_availability,
suse_linux_enterprise_server, sles_for_sap, linux_suse_sles, highavailability, sap_linux_lab, hana_hana

Bing Liu in response to J A on page 4

May 19, 2016 6:03 AM
Hello JA,

Regarding to SAP HANA installation, I think you can install HANA on the standard version of SLES.
If you are going to use SLES12 SP1 for SAP Applications, please pay attention about the package sapconf
mentioned in this blog. If OS shows a warning message when sapconf is used, please also check the active
profile of system tuning daemon (tuned).

I hope it is helpful.
Best regards.
Bing Liu
JA
Mar 31, 2016 1:38 AM
Hello Hannes,
In case we dont need those key benefits, can we install the SAP Applicatoins and HANA on the standard
version of SLES? if for example, the SAP application/Hana is only for test purposes (not production).
Best regards,
JA

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