SAP HANA Tailored Data Center Integration Frequently Asked Questions Last update: November 30, 2015

www.sap.com

TABLE OF CONTENTS

GENERAL INFORMATION ............................................................................................................................... 4

1. What is SAP HANA tailored data center integration? And what is the difference in comparison to

the existing appliance model?................................................................................................................ 4

2. What is the motivation to introduce SAP HANA tailored data center integration? .......................... 4

3. When will SAP HANA tailored data center integration be available? ................................................. 6

4. What are the major differences between the SAP HANA appliance delivery and SAP HANA

tailored data center integration? ............................................................................................................ 6

5. Is SAP HANA tailored data center integration limited to specific scenarios? .................................. 6

6. Is SAP HANA tailored data center integration for SAP HANA Hosting Partners only?.................... 6

7. Does SAP HANA tailored data center integration allow using compute server hardware from

different vendors for setting up a SAP HANA scale-out solution? .................................................... 6

SAP HANA TAILORED DATA CENTER INTEGRATION WITH ENTERPRISE STORAGE .......................... 7

1. What are the prerequisites of using SAP HANA tailored data center integration with enterprise

storage? .................................................................................................................................................... 7

2. What is SAP’s required concept of storage connection? ................................................................... 7

3. Where can I find information about the configuration of SAP’s Storage Connector? ..................... 7

4. Which storage systems can I use? ........................................................................................................ 7

5. How can I check if my SAP HANA TDI infrastructure fulfills SAP’s KPIs for data throughput and

latency? ..................................................................................................................................................... 7

6. Which version of the HWCCT must I use to check the hardware configuration of my SAP HANA

TDI infrastructure? ................................................................................................................................... 8

7. Where can I find additional information about HWCCT troubleshooting? ........................................ 8

8. How can I interpret the test results of my measures of data throughput and latency? ................... 8

9. Which cases where one or more KPIs are not fulfilled does SAP consider as uncritical or

acceptable? .............................................................................................................................................. 8

10. Can I use Enterprise Storage for SAP HANA systems only if I set up exactly the same

configuration the storage vendor used for the certification? ............................................................. 9

11. How do I know how to configure a certain storage system optimally for SAP HANA? ................... 9

12. Does SAP’s Enterprise Storage certification comprise checking the fulfillment of the KPIs only? 9

13. Where can I find information about storage sizing for SAP HANA TDI environments? ................... 9

14. Why are there different KPIs for SAP HANA appliances and for SAP HANA TDI with Enterprise

Storage? .................................................................................................................................................... 9

15. What if I want to use a storage product which has not been certified yet? ...................................... 9

SAP HANA TAILORED DATA CENTER INTEGRATION – FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

3

16. How can I get a certificate or a similar kind of formal approval for my SAP HANA TDI

infrastructure from SAP? ...................................................................................................................... 10

17. Where can I find the SAP HANA Hardware Configuration Check Tool and its documentation? .. 10

18. Is there any certification of file systems for SAP HANA? ................................................................. 10

19. If I want to use the Storage Replication approach for disaster-tolerant setups, am I bound to

certified solutions mentioned in SAP Note 1755396? ........................................................................ 10

20. Can SAP HANA systems based on Intel Xeon E7 use local disks in TDI deployment model? ..... 10

SAP HANA TAILORED DATA CENTER INTEGRATION WITH ENTERPRISE NETWORK ....................... 11

1. What is the motivation to introduce SAP HANA tailored data center integration with enterprise

network? ................................................................................................................................................. 11

2. Which combinations of network interface cards and switches are supported? ............................. 11

3. How do I know how to set up and configure my network components for SAP HANA? ............... 11

4. Does SAP introduce any certification of network components? ...................................................... 11

5. Does SAP introduce network-related KPIs? ....................................................................................... 11

6. How can I check if my network fulfills SAP’s recommendations for bandwidth? .......................... 11

SAP HANA TAILORED DATA CENTER INTEGRATION WITH INTEL XEON E5 PROCESSORS ............. 12

1. What is the motivation to introduce SAP HANA tailored data center integration with Intel Xeon E5

processors?............................................................................................................................................ 12

2. Is the usage of Intel Xeon E5 supported for SAP HANA scale-out systems, too? ......................... 12

3. Are 4-socket Intel Xeon E5 servers supported for SAP HANA, too?................................................ 12

4. Is the usage of Intel Xeon E5 servers supported for non-production SAP HANA systems, too? . 12

5. Can SAP HANA systems based on Intel Xeon E5 use external storage in TDI deployment model?

12

6. Can SAP HANA systems based on Intel Xeon E5 use local disks in TDI deployment model? ..... 12

7. How can customers provision SAP HANA systems based on Intel Xeon E5 hardware? .............. 12

8. Does my E5-based system have to fulfill SAP’s KPIs for data throughput and latency? .............. 13

9. Which system sizes are covered by SAP HANA tailored data center integration with E5? .......... 13

10. Which DIMM setup does SAP support for an E5-based system with 2 sockets? ........................... 13

SAP HANA TAILORED DATA CENTER INTEGRATION – FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

4

GENERAL INFORMATION

1. What is SAP HANA tailored data center integration? And what is the difference in comparison to the existing appliance model?

When we started delivering SAP HANA, we used a standardized and highly optimized appliance delivery, offering companies the possibility to choose between 10 hardware suppliers. This approach provides a well-defined hardware specification designed for the performance needs of an in-memory technology solution. This type of delivery is the first choice if you are looking for a preconfigured hardware setup and a prein-stalled software package that can be quickly implemented by your chosen hardware partner. It is fully sup-ported by both the partner and SAP.

This type of delivery of SAP HANA is easy and comfortable, but of course it might introduce some limitations regarding hardware flexibility and may require changes to established IT operation processes. That’s the rea-son we decided to offer an additional approach besides appliance delivery. We call it the SAP HANA tailored data center integration application.

Compared to the SAP HANA appliance delivery, SAP HANA tailored data center integration is a more open and flexible approach to serve your needs regarding the integration of SAP HANA in the data center.

2. What is the motivation to introduce SAP HANA tailored data center integration?

SAP HANA tailored data center integration offers you more openness and freedom of choice to configure the layer for SAP HANA depending on your existing data center layout. This approach helps you to:

Reduce hardware and operational costs by reusing existing hardware components and operation

processes

Mitigate risks and optimize time-to-value by enabling existing IT Management processes for SAP

HANA implementations

Have more flexibility in hardware vendor selection by leveraging the existing ecosystem.

SAP HANA TAILORED DATA CENTER INTEGRATION – FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

5

In short, this approach helps you to stay within your IT budget, shortens implementation cycles, and allows better consumption of hardware innovations to drive the adoption of SAP HANA.

SAP HANA TAILORED DATA CENTER INTEGRATION – FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

6

3. When will SAP HANA tailored data center integration be available? The general availability of SAP HANA tailored data center integration with enterprise storage was an-nounced in November 2013. Before that, it had been tested in a 9-month pilot program with more than 70 customers involved.

The general availability of SAP HANA tailored data center integration with enterprise network was an-nounced in November 2014.

Phase III of SAP HANA tailored data center integration which introduced support for Intel Xeon E5 proces-sors for entry-level SAP HANA systems also started in November 2014.

4. What are the major differences between the SAP HANA appliance delivery and SAP HANA tai-lored data center integration?

Besides being aware of the benefits of SAP HANA tailored data center integration, also keep in mind that the approach requires several tasks and prerequisites.

5. Is SAP HANA tailored data center integration limited to specific scenarios? Regarding support for scenarios, there is no difference between the two deployment approaches SAP HANA appliance and SAP HANA tailored data center integration. However, for SAP HANA scale-out solutions, the number of worker hosts is limited to a maximum of 16 hosts in SAP HANA TDI environments, even if the hardware for the compute servers is certified for scale-out solutions with more than 16 hosts. Customers who wish to set up scale-out solutions with more than 16 worker hosts using the SAP HANA TDI approach must contact the SAP HANA TDI Back Office beforehand.

6. Is SAP HANA tailored data center integration for SAP HANA Hosting Partners only? No, SAP HANA tailored data center integration can be used by any SAP HANA customer, no matter whether the intended SAP HANA usage is hosting or not.

7. Does SAP HANA tailored data center integration allow using compute server hardware from different vendors for setting up a SAP HANA scale-out solution?

No, SAP HANA tailored data center integration allows using homogeneous compute server hardware from one hardware partner only. A mix of compute server hardware from different vendors is not supported.

SAP HANA TAILORED DATA CENTER INTEGRATION – FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

7

SAP HANA TAILORED DATA CENTER INTEGRATION WITH ENTERPRISE STORAGE

1. What are the prerequisites of using SAP HANA tailored data center integration with enterprise

storage? The SAP HANA server follows the exact same bill of material as the certified SAP HANA appliance but with-out storage. The availability depends on the support of the SAP HANA hardware partners. Only servers that are part of the list of certified servers available for SAP HANA appliances are supported. Note the following information:

No local disks and no flash cards are required

Additional Fibre Channel adapters for a boot from a storage area network are allowed

SAP HANA TDI does not extend the scope of a given server certification. If a given server has been certified for single-node usage only, it cannot be used in production scale-out SAP HANA systems. Furthermore, for scale-out SAP HANA systems the maximum number of nodes is limited to the number as specified in the certificate

The same is true for the OS that a given certified server can be deployed on: If the certificate includes SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES) only, the server cannot be deployed on Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) and vice versa

All storage devices must have successfully passed the Enterprise Storage certification for SAP HANA. For more information, see SAP HANA Hardware Certification - Enterprise Storage or contact HWC@sap.com. The SAP HANA installation needs to be done by a person who successfully passed the exam “SAP Certi-fied Technology Specialist (Edition 2015) – SAP HANA Installation” (E_HANAINS151). SAP HANA hardware partners and their employees do not need this certificate. However, companies, or their employees, who are sub-contractors of SAP HANA hardware partners must be certified to perform HANA SW installations.

2. What is SAP’s required concept of storage connection?

You can connect the enterprise storage system to the SAP HANA server either as NAS using shared file

systems (like NFS) or using a SAN.

For more details, see our Storage Requirements whitepaper.

3. Where can I find information about the configuration of SAP’s Storage Connector?

SAP provides a ready-to-use implementation of SAP HANA’s Storage Connector API which is called the “Fibre

Channel Storage Connector”. In SAP HANA scale-out systems which use SAN storage, the Fibre Channel

Storage Connector is leveraged during the Host Auto Failover process.

For more details, see our Storage Connector Admin Guide attached as PDF to SAP Note 1900823.

4. Which storage systems can I use? You can only use certified storages listed here. SAP will not support TDI infrastructures with uncertified stor-age for production SAP HANA systems. SAP Support will check if the storage system used in a given SAP HANA TDI infrastructure appears in the list of certified storages (see link above).

5. How can I check if my SAP HANA TDI infrastructure fulfills SAP’s KPIs for data throughput

and latency? For that purpose, SAP provides a supportability tool named “SAP HANA Hardware Configuration Check Tool (HWCCT)”. Customers can use it to measure data throughput and latency times between their SAP HANA computing nodes and their Enterprise Storage system. Find the latest version of the tool in the "Support Packages and Patches" area in the SAP Support Portal:

- For SAP HANA compute servers based on Intel x86 processors: o A - Z Index -> H -> SAP HANA Platform Edition -> SAP HANA PLATFORM EDIT. 1.0 -> En-

try by Component -> HANA config check -> SAP HANA HW CONFIG CHECK 1.0 -> Linux on x86_64 64bit -> select SAR file for download

- For SAP HANA compute servers based on IBM Power processors:

SAP HANA TAILORED DATA CENTER INTEGRATION – FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

8

o A – Z Index -> H -> SAP HANA ON POWER -> SAP HANA ON POWER 1.0 -> Linux on Power 64 bit -> select SAR file for download

The official tool documentation is available as a PDF document attached to SAP Note 1943937. The docu-mentation contains the latest KPIs for data throughput and latency. In addition, that SAP Note provides templates of configuration files for different test scenarios offered by HWCCT. Additionally, SAP Active Global Support offers the HANA Going-Live Check which – among other tests – conducts a data throughput test using the very same “SAP HANA Hardware Configuration Check Tool”.

6. Which version of the HWCCT must I use to check the hardware configuration of my SAP

HANA TDI infrastructure? Since the release of SAP HANA TDI in November 2013 several versions of the HWCCT have been pub-lished. If you want to check whether the hardware configuration of your SAP HANA TDI infrastructure meets SAP’s KPIs it is crucial that for your tests you use the same version of the HWCCT which had been used during the certification of the hardware (compute servers and storage system) by the hardware vendor. See SAP Note 1943937 for directions how to determine the right version of the HWCCT to be used for your tests.

7. Where can I find additional information about HWCCT troubleshooting? If you face issues with HWCCT – i.e. if HWCCT does not work as expected based on its documentation con-tained in SAP Note 1943937 – you may want to check the following SAP Notes for support:

- SAP Note 2212741 - HWCCT Troubleshooting Guide - SAP Note 2161344 - HWCCT Patch Note

8. How can I interpret the test results of my measures of data throughput and latency?

Customers must compare the test results of the "SAP HANA Hardware Configuration Check Tool" with SAP’s KPIs for minimal data throughput rates and maximum latency times. Those KPIs are listed in the tool documentation. The block sizes the KPIs refer to cover all typical SAP HANA scenarios. Note:

- Not all KPIs are equally important for each scenario - See the Storage Requirements whitepaper for detailed explanations of how the KPIs impact typical

SAP HANA scenarios

9. Which cases where one or more KPIs are not fulfilled does SAP consider as uncritical or ac-

ceptable? This is always up to the customer to decide if falling below the KPIs is acceptable for his/her daily operation of the SAP HANA system. The customer must decide whether the performance of his/her SAP HANA system is sufficient for his/her needs. The following questions and examples might help for making that decision:

- Is the given SAP HANA system a non-productive system? o The KPIs apply for production systems only. In general, for non-productive systems weaker

performance is acceptable - Which SAP HANA scenarios are run on the given system?

o OLAP scenarios only (e.g. SAP BW-on-HANA): The performance of queries is usually not affected if all required tables have been

loaded into memory Latency times of the log volume and throughput rates for writing the data volume are

mainly relevant when loading data from source systems Throughput rates for reading from the data or the log volume affect the overall sys-

tem restart time (e.g. after applying an SAP HANA revision update) o OLTP scenarios only (e.g. SAP Business-Suite-on-HANA):

Latency times of the log volume affect the duration of every transaction that changes one or more tables in the database

Throughput rates for reading from the data or the log volume affect the overall sys-tem restart time (e.g. after applying an SAP HANA revision update)

o See the Storage Requirements whitepaper for details

SAP HANA TAILORED DATA CENTER INTEGRATION – FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

9

10. Can I use Enterprise Storage for SAP HANA systems only if I set up exactly the same configu-ration the storage vendor used for the certification?

No, customers do not have to use exactly the same configuration, deviations are allowed. Prerequisite for getting SAP’s support for a given SAP HANA TDI infrastructure is that the storage passed SAP’s Enterprise Storage certification. Deviations from the vendor’s configuration may result in not fulfilling one or more of SAP’s KPIs for data throughput and latency. For details on that, customers must contact the storage vendor. In the end, the cus-tomer must decide whether this is acceptable for the intended SAP HANA scenario (see above). SAP Support will return performance-related tickets if the root cause analysis reveals that the throughput rate is too low or the latency time too high. In such cases, SAP Support will ask the customer to contact the stor-age vendor to check the configuration of the storage system.

11. How do I know how to configure a certain storage system optimally for SAP HANA?

All storage vendors must file in an Operational Guide or Best-Practice document in the course of their certifi-cation. Customers must contact the storage vendor for a copy of that document (for legal reasons, SAP is not allowed to hand over this document to customers). From SAP’s point of view, it is not mandatory that customers stick with the vendor’s recommendations de-scribed in that document. As mentioned above, deviations from the vendor’s recommendations may result in not fulfilling one or more of SAP’s KPIs for data throughput and latency.

12. Does SAP’s Enterprise Storage certification comprise checking the fulfillment of the KPIs

only? No. In addition to checking the fulfillment of the KPIs for data throughput and latency, storages to be certified for usage in SAP HANA scale-out solutions must prove that they support SAP HANA’s Host Auto Failover function:

- For SAN storage this basically means to support SCSI3 Persistent Reservations to guarantee error-free interaction with the SAP HANA Storage Connector

- For NAS storage the vendor must provide an appropriate implementation of the SAP HANA Storage Connector API for the given file system (e.g. NFSv3 or NFSv4)

o In contrast to SAN, for NAS SAP does not deliver a generic implementation of the Storage Connector API

o SAP provides the vendors of NAS storage with all information required to implement the Storage Connector API

o See the Storage Requirements whitepaper for details

13. Where can I find information about storage sizing for SAP HANA TDI environments? All information on storage sizing is compiled in the “Storage Sizing” section of the Storage Requirements whitepaper.

14. Why are there different KPIs for SAP HANA appliances and for SAP HANA TDI with Enterprise Storage?

SAP considers appliances as the hardware offering providing highest quality and highest performance for SAP HANA systems. In SAP HANA appliances, the hardware components are solely used for the SAP HANA systems running on it; there is no sharing of hardware with other systems. Therefore, SAP’s require-ments for SAP HANA appliances are higher than for SAP HANA TDI infrastructures. This rule applies also in cases where the same storage product is used inside an appliance and as shared storage in SAP HANA TDI infrastructures. Put differently, such storage products must be capable of provid-ing a higher performance inside an appliance than in a TDI setup. On the other hand, in an appliance the storage must cover for the appliance’s computing nodes only. In an SAP HANA TDI infrastructure the number of computing nodes connected to the storage may be higher.

15. What if I want to use a storage product which has not been certified yet?

SAPs Enterprise Storage certification is open for all vendors. To initiate the certification process, storage vendors must contact SAP ICC (see SAP ICC's information page for more details). Usually the customer would ask the vendor to get certified. Should the vendor – for whatever reasons – re-fuse starting the certification process, the customer should consider using an alternative storage product that already passed the certification. SAP will not support the production usage of any SAP HANA TDI infrastructure with uncertified storage.

SAP HANA TAILORED DATA CENTER INTEGRATION – FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

10

16. How can I get a certificate or a similar kind of formal approval for my SAP HANA TDI infra-structure from SAP?

SAP does not offer any formal certification of a given SAP HANA TDI infrastructure. Instead, SAP certifies the following hardware components with SAP HANA Hardware Partners and demands that customers use those for SAP HANA TDI infrastructures:

- Server hardware for SAP HANA computing nodes; available offerings are listed here - Storage products; available offerings are listed here

Furthermore, SAP demands that the installation of the SAP HANA software needs to be done by persons who passed SAP’s certification for SAP HANA installation administrators (see above). Every SAP HANA TDI infrastructure that fulfills these prerequisites is supported by SAP and does not need any additional approval. However, SAP strongly recommends to conduct a HANA Go-Live Check (offered by SAP Active Global Sup-port) prior to going productive with the HANA system.

17. Where can I find the SAP HANA Hardware Configuration Check Tool and its documentation?

Find the latest version of the tool in the "Support Packages and Patches" area in the SAP Support Portal: - For SAP HANA compute servers based on Intel x86 processors:

o A - Z Index -> H -> SAP HANA Platform Edition -> SAP HANA PLATFORM EDIT. 1.0 -> En-try by Component -> HANA config check -> SAP HANA HW CONFIG CHECK 1.0 -> Linux on x86_64 64bit -> select SAR file for download

- For SAP HANA compute servers based on IBM Power processors: A – Z Index -> H -> SAP HANA ON POWER -> SAP HANA ON POWER 1.0 -> Linux on Power 64 bit -> select SAR file for download

The official tool documentation is available as a PDF document attached to SAP Note 1943937. The docu-mentation contains the latest KPIs for data throughput and latency.

18. Is there any certification of file systems for SAP HANA?

No, SAP only supports those file systems that have been validated as part of an SAP HANA appliance certifi-cation. There are no plans to introduce a separate certification process for file systems for SAP HANA.

19. If I want to use the Storage Replication approach for disaster-tolerant setups, am I bound to certified solutions mentioned in SAP Note 1755396?

No, you are not. SAP Note 1755396 refers to SAP HANA appliances only. As described above, for appli-ances, SAP is responsible for supporting the overall SAP HANA solution including the disaster tolerance configuration. With TDI, the responsibility for supporting the certified storage including all its functionality be-ing used in an SAP HANA infrastructure lies with the storage vendor. Therefore, from SAP’s point of view, every certified storage system which offers storage replication functionality can be used in TDI setups.

20. Can SAP HANA systems based on Intel Xeon E7 use local disks in TDI deployment model? Yes, SAP HANA systems based on Intel Xeon E7 can use local disks in the TDI deployment model. Please note that SAP does not provide any guidance or support for the configuration of local disks (e.g. mount op-tions, RAID levels, etc.). SAP expects the vendors of Intel-Xeon-E7-based servers to provide customers with guidance accordingly. As with external storage, SAP strongly recommends testing the data throughput and the latency times between the E7-based server and the local disk(s) using HWCCT to make sure that SAP’s KPIs are met.

SAP HANA TAILORED DATA CENTER INTEGRATION – FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

11

SAP HANA TAILORED DATA CENTER INTEGRATION WITH ENTERPRISE NETWORK

1. What is the motivation to introduce SAP HANA tailored data center integration with enterprise network?

Reusing existing hardware components is the basic idea behind SAP HANA tailored data center integration. SAP HANA tailored data center integration with enterprise network is introduced to allow customers to use their preferred hardware components to set up networks. This approach allows the setup of homogenous network landscapes using the network components of a single vendor only.

2. Which combinations of network interface cards and switches are supported?

Not all combinations of network interface cards and switches work as expected. Therefore, before making the decision for a certain combination, customers must contact the server vendor and inquire which switches are supported for the network interface cards of the given server.

3. How do I know how to set up and configure my network components for SAP HANA?

SAP’s recommendations about the setup of the networks inside and around an SAP HANA system can be found in the Network Requirements whitepaper.

4. Does SAP introduce any certification of network components?

No, SAP does not introduce any certification of network components.

5. Does SAP introduce network-related KPIs? SAP published recommendations for the bandwidth of the network components comprising the intra-node network of SAP HANA scale-out solutions. They are listed in the official documentation of the SAP HANA Hardware Configuration Check Tool. In addition, more recommendations about the setup of the networks inside and around an SAP HANA sys-tem can be found in the Network Requirements whitepaper.

6. How can I check if my network fulfills SAP’s recommendations for bandwidth? Customers can conduct self-managed tests using the network test of the SAP HANA Hardware Configuration Check Tool in order to make sure that the intra-node network of their SAP HANA scale-out solution fulfills the recommended minimum bandwidth requirements. Find the latest version of the tool in the "Support Packages and Patches" area in the SAP Support Portal.

SAP HANA TAILORED DATA CENTER INTEGRATION – FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

12

SAP HANA TAILORED DATA CENTER INTEGRATION WITH INTEL XEON E5 PROCESSORS

1. What is the motivation to introduce SAP HANA tailored data center integration with Intel Xeon E5 processors?

The basic idea is to leverage Intel’s E5 technology for cost-optimized SAP HANA entry-level systems. SAP supports servers ranging from 128 GB to 1.5 TB in size with 2-socket E5 26xx v2/v3 CPUs with minimum 8 cores. This addresses the requests of providing the power of SAP HANA on commodity hardware at the price of ~$10K per server.

2. Is the usage of Intel Xeon E5 supported for SAP HANA scale-out systems, too? No, the usage of Intel Xeon E5 is restricted to single-node SAP HANA systems (scale-up). The memory range offered by E5-based entry-level systems can be covered using the scale-up approach. In general, SAP recommends preferring scale-up over scale-out whenever possible – see tip #3 in this blog about cost-opti-mizing SAP HANA infrastructures.

3. Are 4-socket Intel Xeon E5 servers supported for SAP HANA, too? No, the usage of Intel Xeon E5 is restricted to 2-socket servers.

4. Is the usage of Intel Xeon E5 servers supported for non-production SAP HANA systems, too? Yes, 2-socket Intel Xeon E5 servers can be used for non-production SAP HANA systems, too.

5. Can SAP HANA systems based on Intel Xeon E5 use external storage in TDI deployment model?

SAP HANA E5 systems can either include built-in storage or they can be used with an external storage from a certified storage vendor in TDI deployment model, scale-up scenario.

6. Can SAP HANA systems based on Intel Xeon E5 use local disks in TDI deployment model? Yes, SAP HANA systems based on Intel Xeon E5 can use local disks in the TDI deployment model. Please note that SAP does not provide any guidance or support for the configuration of local disks (e.g. mount op-tions, RAID levels, etc.). SAP expects the vendors of E5-based servers to provide customers with guidance accordingly. As with external storage, SAP strongly recommends testing the data throughput and the latency times between the E5-based server and the local disk(s) using HWCCT to make sure that SAP’s KPIs are met.

7. How can customers provision SAP HANA systems based on Intel Xeon E5 hardware?

SAP HANA systems based on Intel Xeon E5 do not follow the same certification process that's used for SAP HANA systems based on Intel Xeon E7. Customers can follow a new, simplified, 3-step process to provision supported Intel Xeon E5 hardware as described below:

SAP HANA TAILORED DATA CENTER INTEGRATION – FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

13

For a complete, up-to-date list of supported SAP HANA E5 entry-level systems, see http://global.sap.com/community/ebook/2014-09-02-hana-hardware/enEN/entry-level-systems.html.

8. Does my E5-based system have to fulfill SAP’s KPIs for data throughput and latency? Yes, as with E7-based production systems, production E5-based systems must fulfill SAP’s KPIs for data throughput and latency, regardless if such systems use internal or external storage.

9. Which system sizes are covered by SAP HANA tailored data center integration with E5?

The smallest size for production E5-based systems is 128 GB; the maximum size is 1.5 TB.

10. Which DIMM setup does SAP support for an E5-based system with 2 sockets? SAP requires a homogenous symmetric assembly of DIMMs and a maximum utilization of all DDR memory channels per processor.

© 2015 SAP SE or an SAP affiliate company. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or for any purpose without the express permission of SAP SE or an SAP affiliate company. SAP and other SAP products and services mentioned herein as well as their respective logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of SAP SE (or an SAP affiliate company) in Germany and other countries. Please see http://www.sap.com/corporate-en/legal/copyright/index.epx#trademark for additional trademark information and notices. Some software products marketed by SAP SE and its distributors contain proprietary software components of other software vendors. National product specifications may vary. These materials are provided by SAP SE or an SAP affiliate company for informational purposes only, without representation or warranty of any kind, and SAP SE or its affiliated companies shall not be liable for errors or omissions with respect to the materials. The only warranties for SAP SE or SAP affiliate company products and services are those that are set forth in the express warranty statements accompanying such products and services, if any. Nothing herein should be construed as constituting an additional warranty. In particular, SAP SE or its affiliated companies have no obligation to pursue any course of business outlined in this document or any related presentation, or to develop or release any functionality mentioned therein. This document, or any related presentation, and SAP SE’s or its affiliated companies’ strategy and possible future developments, products, and/or platform directions and functionality are all subject to change and may be changed by SAP SE or its affiliated companies at any time for any reason without notice. The information in this document is not a commitment, promise, or legal obligation to deliver any material, code, or functional-ity. All forward-looking statements are subject to various risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from expectations. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of their dates, and they should not be relied upon in making purchasing decisions.