Suse linux enterprise_server_12_x_for_sap_applications_configuration_guide_for_sap_hana_en

PUBLIC
SAP HANA Platform
Document Version: 1.0 – 2017-11-20
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 12.x for SAP
Applications Configuration Guide for SAP HANA
x86_64 and POWER Architectures

Content
1 About this Document. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
2 Prerequisites. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
2.1 Hardware. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5
2.2 Storage. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
2.3 Software. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
2.4 Further information. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
3 Sample Installation of SLES 12 for SAP Applications. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
3.1 Installation on Intel-based Platform (x86_64). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
3.2 Partitioning. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .16
Partitioning Layout for OS root File-System. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Partitioning Layout for SAP HANA Application. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .17
Sample Partition Layout for /, /usr/sap and swap. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
3.3 Setup NTP Service During Installation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .21
3.4 Set Password for the root Account. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
3.5 Software Selection. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
3.6 Create the Partitions for SAP HANA. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
Example Multipath Disk Attachment. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Example Internal Disks. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .35
3.7 Create File Systems. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
3.8 Create Mount Points. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
3.9 Tweak the Default System Settings for SAP HANA. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
4 SAP HANA Installation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .40
5 Installation of Additional Software on SAP HANA Systems. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .41
5.1 High Availability Software. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .41
5.2 SAP LAMA / SAP LVM. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
5.3 Backup Solutions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
6 Automated Installation with AutoYast2. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
7 Tips for Remote Installation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
8 Appendix. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
8.1 Package List. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .44
8.2 Networking Ports. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
8.3 Configure a PXE Server. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
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SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 12.x for SAP Applications Configuration Guide for SAP HANA
Content

8.4 Installation in a Virtual Machine (VMWare). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
Content P U B L I C 3

1 About this Document
This guide serves as a supplement to the existing documentation of SAP and the hardware vendors to provide
specific guidance on how to configure SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications (SLES for SAP
Applications) to be used with SAP HANA. This guide does not replace existing SAP HANA documentation and
sizing guides. Furthermore, it does not replace any SAP HANA hardware vendor documentation.
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About this Document

2 Prerequisites
Before performing the actual installation of SAP HANA, ensure that you have fulfilled the prerequisites listed in
the following sections.
SAP HANA offers two distinct deployment models, a complete pre-installed and pre-configured (so called
“Appliance”) model from the hardware vendors or the tailored data center integration (TDI) where the
customers take responsibility for the construction and validation of their SAP HANA environment but by that
providing a better integration into their IT infrastructures.
This guide does not describe all variants resulting in a valid deployment. It describes the base configurations
along with the minimum requirements. The topics are discussed based on a sample SUSE OS installation for
SAP HANA.
2.1 Hardware
Your hardware platform must be validated for SAP HANA independent, which delivery approach you may use.
For a list of validated Intel hardware platforms, see SAP Certified and Supported SAP HANA Hardware and
SAP HANA TDI - Overview .
For a list of valid partition sizes inside IBM Power Servers, see SAP Certified and Supported SAP HANA
Hardware and SAP Note 2188482 - SAP HANA on IBM Power Systems: Allowed Hardware.
2.2 Storage
The appliance hardware vendors provide storage within their prebuild SAP HANA systems.
If you use the TDI approach, SAP HANA requires an SAP HANA TDI certified storage subsystem. You need to
apply the file system layout / partitioning which is outlined in the SAP HANA Server Installation and Update
Guide and the SAP HANA – Storage Requirements . Also download the storage vendors TDI documentation.
Ensure to pick the right chapters and clearly distinguish between shared file system based installations and
shared disc based installation.
The mount points used for this sample deployment do apply for scale-up deployments or for shared file system
deployments.
For further details and mount points for shared disk deployments the following documentation gives the
required guidance:
● SAP HANA Server Installation and Update Guide
Prerequisites P U B L I C 5

● The hardware vendor’s documentation
● SAP HANA – Storage Requirements
● SAP Note 1900823 – Storage Connector API
Table 1:
Mount Point Description Minimal Size
/ Root FS for OS (including btrfs snap
shots)
60 GiB
/usr/sap System Instances 50 GiB
/hana/shared Installation Path SAP HANA – Storage Requirements
/hana/data Data volume SAP HANA – Storage Requirements
/hana/log Log volume SAP HANA – Storage Requirements
2.3 Software
The following software was used for the sample installation:
● SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications 12 media with a supported Service Pack.
● Required registration key for the SUSE subscriptions to get SUSE maintenance updates.
● SAP HANA media and license to install SAP HANA.
● The minimum version of the SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications software is linked to the
SAP HANA software version. Verify the minimum requirement based on the SAP HANA documentation.
2.4 Further information
You need to have the following information about the host on which you intend to perform the installation:
● IP address of the host
● IP alias for SAP HANA (optional)
● Host name of the host
● Subnet mask
● Domain name
● IP address of the name servers
● Address of a time server (ntp)
● Gateway IP address
● Password for the root user
● SAP master password (<sid>adm password)
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Prerequisites

● SID and instance for the SAP HANA installation
Prerequisites P U B L I C 7

3 Sample Installation of SLES 12 for SAP
Applications
SUSE Linux comes per default with the YaST2 installation tool. YaST2 can run in a graphical environment as
well in a text based (ncurses) environment.
● For x86_64 hardware:
Download the SUSE® Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications 12 DVD iso image.
● For ppc64le hardware:
○ Download the SUSE® Linux Enterprise Server 12 SP1 DVD iso image
○ Go to the SUSE knowledge base article https:/
/www.suse.com/support/kb/doc?id=7018295
○ Download the migration rpm and follow the instruction in the TID after you installed SLES 12 SP1 on
ppc64le.
○ See also this best-practice: https:/
/www.suse.com/documentation/suse-best-practices/sap-
migration/data/sap-migration.html
3.1 Installation on Intel-based Platform (x86_64)
Boot your machine from the SUSE Linux Enterprise for SAP Applications media. On machines with a traditional
BIOS you will see the graphical boot screen shown below. On machines equipped with UEFI, or POWER
architecture a slightly different boot screen is used. Secure boot on UEFI machines is supported.
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Sample Installation of SLES 12 for SAP Applications

1.
Select Installation on the boot screen, then press Enter. This boots the system and loads the SUSE Linux
Enterprise Server installer.
For more information about the other choices, see the SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications
documentation.
Sample Installation of SLES 12 for SAP Applications P U B L I C 9

2.
The Language and Keyboard Layout are initialized with the language settings you have chosen on the boot
screen. Change them here, if necessary.
Read the License Agreement. It is presented in the language you have chosen on the boot screen. License
Translations are available. You need to accept the agreement by checking I Agree to the License Terms to
install SUSE Linux Enterprise Server. Proceed with Next.
3. After booting into the installation, the installation routine is set up. During this setup, an attempt to
configure at least one network interface with DHCP is made. In case this attempt fails, the Network Settings
dialog launches. Choose a network interface from the list and click Edit to change its settings. Use the tabs
to configure DNS and routing.
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When you are done with the network settings, click Next to proceed or return to the Registration screen.
After at least one network interface has been configured you can register your system at the SUSE
Customer Center (SCC).
4.
Enter the e-mail address associated with your SCC account and the registration code for SUSE Linux
Enterprise Server. A successful registration is a prerequisite for getting product updates and being entitled
to technical support.
This is in addition necessary to get the additional module channels, because they are only delivered online
and are not at the media. Proceed with Next.
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5.
If SUSE Linux Enterprise Server has been successfully registered at the SUSE Customer Center, you are
asked whether to install the latest available online updates during the installation. If choosing Yes, the
system will be installed with the most current packages without having to apply the updates after
installation. Activating this option is recommended.
If you have successfully registered your system in the previous step, a list of available modules and
extensions based on SUSE Linux Enterprise Server is shown.

6.
Add the legacy module to be able to install for example libopenssl-0.9.8. For SLES 12 for SAP Applications
SP1 and SP2 libopenssl-0.9.8 is already contained on the install media.
Other interesting modules you may need, depending on your usage of the system, are:
○ Advanced Systems Management Module (e.g. chef, puppet, cfengine,...)
○ Toolchain Module ( e.g. gcc)
○ If you use SAP HANA in the public clouds, the Public Cloud Module
Press Next and accept the licenses of the respective modules.
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7.
Choose next to proceed with the installation workflow.

8.
Choose Proceed with standard SLES for SAP Applications installation and press Next.
3.2 Partitioning
Independently from the disk space type (attached by a TDI approach, internal Disks, or shared file system) this
section summarizes the requirements for the partition layout.
The reality could be different, depending on your hardware vendor, the SAP HANA installation (scale-up, scale-
out, Host-Auto-Failover, SAP HANA System Replication, ...), SLAs and what you have ordered and configured.
3.2.1 Partitioning Layout for OS root File-System
The partition holding the root filesystem should have at least a size of 60 GB to be able to store snapshots and
log messages for a time period and to include the binaries of SAP applications.
The default file system for the root file system in SLES 12 for SAP Applications is btrfs and should not be
changed to benefit from the minimize downtime approach of SLE12 .
In contrast to SAP Note 1597355 (which is mainly for SAP NetWeaver) you should not dedicate 2x RAM as
swap space, but configure a smaller size for swap space, e.g. 2 GiB.
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3.2.2 Partitioning Layout for SAP HANA Application
For a scale-up SAP HANA single-host system three file systems are required, which are to be reflected in the
partition layout:
● File system for the SAP HANA executables
● File system for the SAP HANA data
● File system for the SAP HANA log
These disks should be backed by enterprise storage. For SAP HANA data and log the file system must meet the
performance KPIs for SAP HANA HWCCT tool (see SAP Note 1943937 ) and must reside on TDI certified
storage systems.
At least 50 GiB must be provided for the /usr/sap location in the system, because this is the place where SAP
HANA and other SAP software that supports SAP HANA will be installed in this sample installation. In scale-out
installations the SAP HANA software will be installed into a shared file system mounted on /hana/shared.
For more information, see Create the Partitions for SAP HANA [page 32] in this guide.
3.2.3 Sample Partition Layout for /, /usr/sap and swap
In this example, we use a separate file system for /usr/sap for the SAP executables. This means we need at
least 112 GiB (60+50+2 GiB) for the OS drive and /usr/sap mount point without SLA considerations such as
mirroring. For SAP HANA data and SAP HANA log separate disks will be used.

1. You are on the screen Installation Mode, choose next and you will see the partitioning screen:
Choose Create Partition Setup:
2. This screen will show you all available devices for the system. In this example, the hard disk is large enough
(160 GiB) so we can simply leave it to YaST2 to do the work for us.
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3. Select the hard disk you want to use for the OS root (here disk1) and choose Next.

Now the following screen will be displayed:
4. Select Next. This will create a LVM volume group “system” where the OS will be installed into.
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3.3 Setup NTP Service During Installation
Select the clock and time zone to use in your system. To manually adjust the time or to configure an NTP server
for time synchronization, choose Other Settings. See Section 6.12, Clock and Time Zone (↑Deployment Guide)
for detailed information. Proceed with Next.

In this example we use the german pool of public NTP-Servers in Germany.
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3.4 Set Password for the root Account
1. Type a password for the system administrator account (called root) and repeat the password under
Confirm Password. You can use the text box Test Keyboard Layout to make sure that all special characters
appear correctly.
For more information, see the Deployment Guide, Chapter Installation with YaST, Section Password for the
System Administrator root (https:/
/www.suse.com/documentation/sles-12/ ).
2. Proceed with Next.
Caution
IMPORTANT: Do Not Forget the root Password!
The user root has the permission to carry out all administrative tasks. Without this password, you cannot
log in to the system as root.
After you have entered the root password here, it cannot be retrieved again.

3.5 Software Selection
1.
On the screen, Installation Settings, you can review and, if necessary, change several proposed installation
settings. Each setting is shown alongside its current configuration. To change parts of the configuration,
click the appropriate headline or other underlined items.
Caution
IMPORTANT: Firewall Configuration
The software firewall of SLES for SAP is enabled by default. However, often, the ports your SAP product
requires to be open are not opened automatically. This means that there may be network issues until
you open the required ports manually.
In addition, you may need also enable the SSH service and port.
Kdump should be disabled, click on Kdump, then select disable, Next returns to the screen Installation
Settings.
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2.
For SAP HANA, we need to change the default software selection. Choose Software.

3.
You see a lot of patterns selected by default which we do not need.
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4.
Deselect all (Right mouse click → All in This List → Do Not install) and select only what we need for SAP
HANA.

5.
Select the patterns Base System, Minimal System and SAP HANA Server Base.
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6.
Proceed with OK.

7.
When you are satisfied with the system configuration, choose Install.
Depending on your software selection, you may need to agree to further license agreements before you are
asked to confirm that you want to start the installation process.
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8.
Caution
WARNING: Deletion of Data
Starting the installation process means that information on the disk you are installing on will fully or
partly be deleted.
In the installation confirmation box, choose Install.

3.6 Create the Partitions for SAP HANA
You need to look at the disks and partitions of the SAP HANA itself, where the size of the partitions depends on
the amount of main memory (SAP Sizing) and desired SLAs.
In the SAP HANA Storage Requirements document, you will find the following statements:
● The performance requirements that must be fulfilled by the storage subsystem mainly rely on the scenario
that is driven by the SAP HANA database.
● Storage systems used for SAP HANA must fulfill a certain set of KPIs for minimum data throughput and
maximum latency time. For both the SAP HANA appliance and the SAP HANA Enterprise Storage
certification the fulfillment of those KPIs is checked using the SAP HANA Hardware Configuration Check
Tool (HWCCT). All KPIs must be met for each SAP HANA compute node connected to a given storage
system. Each individual deployment must be revalidated.
Therefore, we cannot provide a detailed setup of a production system within this document, but we will show
the general way and what to do for two scenarios, a multipath example with SAN attached storage and a
scenario with local disks.
To have flexibility to change the size and number of drives these volumes should be created as logical volumes
using the logical volume manager (LVM).
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An LVM volume group organizes the Linux LVM partitions into a logical pool of space. You can carve out logical
volumes from the available space in the group. The Linux LVM partitions in a group can be on the same or
different disks. You can add LVM partitions from the same or different disks to expand the size of the group.
You can use the YaST2 Partitioner to create and manage file systems and RAID devices. For more information,
see Advanced Disk Setup in the SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 12 Deployment Guide for the used service
pack.
Depending on the disk attachment and storage solution (e.g. internal disks or SAN) the preparation involves
different tasks.
In the following sections, multipath and internal disk options are described. The mount point and file system
creation is then again, the same for both. Depending on the server vendor different file systems are eligible to
operate SAP HANA. The example in the following sections is focusing on XFS only, which is the default of
additional partitions to be created.
3.6.1 Example Multipath Disk Attachment
To create an XFS file system in a multipath environment perform the following tasks. Ensure to match sizes,
names etc. to the individual SAP HANA deployment.
Tuning LVM File System settings and Disk Layout for Multipathing
Using XFS with multipathing and LVM striping provides options to optimize the I/O performance. This section
explains how fiber channel connectivity, zoning and multipathing influence the LUN layout planning.
To optimize the usage of all available I/O paths for better performance, we recommend that the logical volumes
of the SAP HANA log, data, and shared file systems should be striped over several LUNs that are a multiple of
the active paths (for example 4 active paths, logical volumes should be striped over a minimum of 4 LUNs).
Note
The minimum number of paths, volumes and disks determined in the sizing process is the absolute
minimum, even if in the following planning process less might be sufficient.
Verify if the storage can provide data redundancy. If you do not plan to implement an LVM Mirror or RAID copy
on a second storage server’s device.
LVM striping is used to optimize the I/O performance to SAP HANA file systems. The following considerations
should be considered:
● When increasing the number of ports, the minimum number of LUNs should be equal or a multiple of the
number of active paths.
● When increasing the number of LUNs, they should be a multiple of the number of active paths.
● The number of lv stripes should match the number of LUNs.
● We recommend a stripe size of 256 K.
● Create the required LUNs on the storage subsystem and map them to the server partition. This also
assumes that the appropriate SAN zoning in the SAN switches has been performed.

● Use the rescan-scsi-bus.sh to scan and detect the new storage LUNs without rebooting the system.
# rescan-scsi-bus.sh
Scanning SCSI subsystem for new devices
Scanning host 0 for SCSI target IDs 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7, all LUNs
[....]
● The multipath -ll command can be used to display the new devices and check the available paths. The
following command shows the sample output for a single LUN of a SAN Volume Controller storage
subsystem using 4 active and 4 passive paths (passive paths are paths with a lower priority and only used
if the corresponding higher priority paths fails, for example if one of the SVC nodes is rebooted):
# multipath -ll 3600507640081811fe8000000000014a4
3600507640081811fe8000000000014a4 dm-0 IBM,2145
size=64G features='0' hwhandler='0' wp=rw
|-+- policy='service-time 0' prio=50 status=active
| |- 2:0:1:0 sdd 8:48 active ready running
| |- 1:0:1:0 sdh 8:112 active ready running
| |- 4:0:1:0 sdg 8:96 active ready running
| `- 3:0:1:0 sdf 8:80 active ready running
`-+- policy='service-time 0' prio=10 status=enabled
|- 2:0:0:0 sdb 8:16 active ready running
|- 3:0:0:0 sdc 8:32 active ready running
|- 4:0:0:0 sde 8:64 active ready running
`- 1:0:0:0 sda 8:0 active ready running
● The next step is to initialize the new volumes for use by LVM:
# pvcreate /dev/mapper/3600507680185000d38000000000004b9
Physical volume "/dev/mapper/3600507680185000d38000000000004b9" successfully
created
● Assuming you have created four active paths to the storage subsystem and you have created four physical
volumes for use with LVM, you can now create a volume group for the SAP HANA log files (make sure that
you use the /dev/mapper/wwid device names (or use an alternative method) and not any other device
names if available):
# vgcreate hn1logvg /dev/mapper/3600507680185000d38000000000004df
/dev/mapper/3600507680185000d38000000000004e0
/dev/mapper/3600507680185000d38000000000004e1
/dev/mapper/3600507680185000d38000000000004e2
Volume group "hn1logvg" successfully created
● Create the physical volumes and volume groups for the other SAP HANA file systems as well. The following
shows a sample configuration for a small test system:
# pvs
PV VG Fmt Attr PSize PFree
/dev/mapper/3600507680185000d38000000000004de hn1sharedvg lvm2 a-- 128,00g 0
/dev/mapper/3600507680185000d38000000000004df hn1logvg lvm2 a-- 16,00g 0
/dev/mapper/3600507680185000d38000000000004e0 hn1logvg lvm2 a-- 16,00g 0
/dev/mapper/3600507680185000d38000000000004e3 hn1datavg lvm2 a-- 64,00g 0
/dev/mapper/3600507680185000d38000000000004e7 hn1bkupvg lvm2 a-- 192,00g 0
/dev/mapper/3600507680185000d380000000000053e_part2 system lvm2 a-- 63,80g
15,80g
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● Next step is to create the striped logical volumes that will be used for the SAP HANA file system. In this
sample, you create a log volume with 64 GB space striped over four disks (-i 4) with a stripe size of 256 K.
Once again make sure that you use the /dev/mapper/wwid designation for the physical volumes.
The LVM uses “-“ to separate the logical volume name from the volume group name. It is best practice to
not use this separator inside names:
# lvcreate -i 4 -I 256 -L 64G hn1logvg -n hn1log
/dev/mapper/3600507680185000d38000000000004df
/dev/mapper/3600507680185000d38000000000004e0
/dev/mapper/3600507680185000d38000000000004e1
/dev/mapper/3600507680185000d38000000000004e1
Logical volume "hn1log" created
● Use lvcreate command to create the other required logical volumes. The following shows the list of
logical volumes on the sample test system:
# lvs
LV VG Attr LSize Pool Origin Data% Move Log Copy%
Convert
hn1bkup hn1bkupvg -wi-ao--- 192,00g
hn1data hn1datavg -wi-ao--- 255,98g
hn1log hn1logvg -wi-ao--- 63,98g
hn1shared hn1sharedvg -wi-ao--- 64,00g
usr_sap hn1sharedvg -wi-ao--- 64,00g
home system -wi-ao--- 16,00g
root system -wi-ao--- 60,00g
swap system -wi-ao--- 2,00g
3.6.2 Example Internal Disks
In the following section the possibilities using the command-line interface are shown. You can also perform
these tasks using YaST2.
Our example with internal disks, should be backed by a RAID 5 array which provides 3 disks to the OS. The
RAID setup depends on the hardware vendor machine type and disk drives been used and should provide
enough spindles to fulfill the SAP HANA requirements.
Check for Empty Devices
Enter the following command:
# lsblk -f
In our example, we have these drives:
/dev/sda 160 GiB
/dev/sdb 300 GiB
/dev/sdc 100 GiB
In this case /dev/sda is used for the OS (as the initial chapter has shown)

Create a Disk Partition
The disks /dev/sdb and /dev/sdc are the free devices for the SAP HANA data volumes and SAP HANA log
volumes.
If you have less than 2 TB free space on the disk, use fdisk:
# fdisk /dev/sdb
If you have 2 TB or more free space, use the command parted and the GPT label:
# parted /dev/sdb
Perform the same tasks for /dev/sdc.
Create the Volume Group
vgcreate creates a new volume group, using the physical devices.
If the physical device was not previously configured for LVM with pvcreate, the device will be initialized with
the same default values used for pvcreate:
# vgcreate vg00 /dev/sdb
Add an additional volume group for the different SAP HANA volumes:
# vgcreate vg01 /dev/sdc
Check the New Volume Groups
Check the new volume groups with help of the following commands:
● The actual physical volumes can be displayed with:
pvs
● Information about volume groups can be displayed with:
vgs
Create Logical Volumes for the SAP HANA Instance According to Your Sizing
lvcreate creates a new logical volume in an existing volume group.
The values used here, are examples. Have a look within the SAP HANA documentation to choose the right
values.
36 P U B L I C

Since the directory /usr/sap in our example is not shared with the operating system disk and we have enough
disk space here, we create a separate logical volume within the volume group system which was created
through YaST2 during the installation:
# lvcreate -L50G -n lv_usr_sap system
Because we have three drives in our example, we can distribute the volumes SAP HANA data and SAP HANA
log into different volume groups and logical volumes. The SAP HANA shared volume is added to the system
volume group:
# lvcreate -L96G -n lv_hana_shared system
# lvcreate -L288G -n lv_hana_data vg00
# lvcreate -L96G -n lv_hana_log vg01
For more information about sizing SAP HANA, see the SAP HANA Master Guide.
3.7 Create File Systems
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server offers a variety of file systems from which to choose for different workloads. SAP
HANA needs certain criteria (files bigger than 2 GiB, fast file system with large files) so you choose XFS for the
file system.
The idea behind XFS was to create a high-performance 64-bit journaling file system to meet extreme
computing challenges. XFS is very good at manipulating large files and performs well on high-end hardware.
SUSE supports and includes XFS since SLES 8 and the default filesystem for partitions other than root.
More details are discussed in the SUSE Linux Enterprise Server Deployment Guide (Storage administration) .
Many XFS tuning guides are outdated and designed for benchmarks rather than actual workloads. XFS can
determine the underlying geometry, it auto-tunes itself automatically. Linux MD, and most RAID controllers,
provide the proper information.
To create a XFS file system, use the mkfs command. The difference between multipath environments and local
discs is the default path.
● File system for SAP HANA log
○ As local disc, we have typically:
# mkfs -t xfs /dev/vg01/lv_hana_log
○ For the multipath example the command would look as follows:
# mkfs –t xfs /dev/mapper/hn1logvg-hn1log
● File system for SAP HANA data
Create for all logical volumes the file system, for example:
# mkfs –t xfs /dev/vg00/lv_hana_data
● File system for /usr/sap/

Create the file system:
# mkfs –t xfs /dev/system/lv_usr_sap
3.8 Create Mount Points
To use our logical volumes (independent if they were created based on internal discs or on multipath devices),
we need to create mount points within the root file system.
● Create the mount points:
# mkdir -p /hana/{shared,data,log}
# mkdir -p /usr/sap
● Edit /etc/fstab to add the mount commands or append it from the cmd-line to the file.
echo “/dev/system/lv_usr_sap /usr/sap xfs defaults 1 2” >> /etc/fstab
echo “/dev/system/lv_hana_shared /hana/shared xfs defaults 1 2”>> /etc/fstab
echo “/dev/vg00/lv_hana_data /hana/data xfs defaults 1 2” >> /etc/fstab
echo “/dev/vg01/lv_hana_log /hana/log xfs defaults 1 2” >> /etc/fstab
● For the multipath example adapt the names.
● Mount all file systems from /etc/fstab:
# mount -av
3.9 Tweak the Default System Settings for SAP HANA
SAP HANA needs some special configuration settings to use all the performance the hardware offers.
The SUSE default configuration settings are not set for an SAP HANA workload, therefore you need to adapt
some of the settings.
This can be done quite simple with the help of the system utility tuned.
Starting with SLES4SAP12 SP2 we enhanced this with the tool saptune.
To tune a system, first find a tuning profile using saptune:
# saptune solution list
saptune knows the following solution profiles:
● HANA Profile for servers hosting an SAP HANA database.
● MAXDB Profile for servers hosting a MaxDB database.
● NETWEAVER Profile for servers hosting an SAP NetWeaver application.
● S4HANA-APPSERVER Profile for servers hosting an SAP S/4HANA application.
38 P U B L I C

● S4HANA-DBSERVER Profile for servers hosting the SAP HANA database of an SAP S/4HANA installation.
Alternatively, you can tune the computer according to recommendations from specific SAP Notes. A list of
notes that you can tune for is available via:
# saptune note list
To set up saptune with the preconfigured SAP HANA settings, use:
# saptune solution apply HANA
Note
Combining Optimizations:
You can freely combine solutions and notes. Combining multiple optimizations will never create conflicts.
Finally, enable the tuned profile saptune and make sure the tuned daemon is active:
# saptune daemon start
In the background, saptune applies a tuned profile also named saptune that is dynamically customized
according to selected solutions and notes. Using tuned-adm list, you can also see this profile.
The relevant SAP Notes are:
● SAP Note 1984787 – SUSE LINUX Enterprise Server 12: Installation notes
● SAP Note 1056161 – SUSE Priority Support for SAP applications
● SAP Note 1944799 – SAP HANA Guidelines for SLES Operating System Installation
● SAP Note 2235581 – SAP HANA: Supported Operating Systems
● SAP Note 2205917 – SAP HANA DB: Recommended OS settings for SLES 12 / SLES for SAP
Applications 12 SP1 / SP2
● SAP Note 52505 – Support after end of mainstream/extended maintenance
● SAP Note 2055470 – HANA on POWER Planning and Installation Specifics - Central Note

4 SAP HANA Installation
This section provides a short overview of the installation of an SAP HANA system.
SAP HANA can be installed in several ways on different architectures. The SAP Server Installation and Update
Guide along with the guides provided by the server vendor reflect these options. Below the installation of a
single-host system is shown.
1. First download the SAP HANA installation media and the SAP archive tool (SAPCAR) from the SAP Service
Marketplace.
2. Create a directory, which should hold the SAP HANA installation media, for example:
# mkdir /install
3. To have SAPCAR within the path to easily execute it, copy the SAP archiver (SAPCAR) to the personal bin
directory of the root user for example:
# cp <path_to_the_downloaded_installer>/SAPCAR_<xxxxxxxxx> ~/bin
4. Extract the SAP HANA installation media into the created /install directory, for example:
# cd /install
# SAPCAR_<xxxxxxxxx> -xvsf <path_to_the_media_archive>/<yyyyy>.sar
5. Based on the SID to be selected for the SAP HANA system, create the needed directories with the SID
name, for example:
mkdir -p /hana/data/<your_SID>
mkdir -p /hana/log/<your_SID>
chmod 777 /hana/data/<your_SID> /hana/log/<your_SID>
6. Change to the directory where the SAP HANA installation media are located to start the installation.
7. Install the SAP HANA system by running the SAP HANA Lifecycle Management tool (hdblcmgui with
graphical interface, hdblcm as command line tool).
40 P U B L I C
SAP HANA Installation

5 Installation of Additional Software on
SAP HANA Systems
This section describes the installation of additional software on SAP HANA systems.
5.1 High Availability Software
As more SAP HANA instances are used in production, cluster vendors have developed together with SAP
cluster solutions for SAP applications to automate the SAP HANA system replication failover.
For information about high availability for SAP HANA, see the guide SAP HANA Introduction to High Availability
for SAP HANA.
As of today, there is no certification of high availability for SAP HANA, the high availability vendor and the
hardware vendor need to support the solution.
5.2 SAP LAMA / SAP LVM
To be able to handle SAP HANA in SAP LAMA or SAP LVM and for most cluster solutions install SAP HANA with
a virtual IP.
5.3 Backup Solutions
SAP HANA provides an API (“Backint for SAP HANA”) via which 3rd party backup tools can be connected.
A list of BACKINT certified solutions can be found on SCN.
Besides BACKINT, SAP HANA allows other mechanisms to be used. They are typically file system or storage
based features such as FlashCopy/snapshot technology or backup tools performing a file system backup of the
relevant data.
Installation of Additional Software on SAP HANA Systems P U B L I C 41

6 Automated Installation with AutoYast2
AutoYaST2 is used to automatically install SUSE Linux Enterprise Server.
Configuration information is stored in an XML configuration file called an AutoYaST profile. The installer reads
the profile and installs the system based on the options given. Using AutoYaST2, multiple systems sharing the
same environment and similar but not necessarily identical hardware and performing similar tasks, can easily
be installed in parallel and quickly. A configuration file, referred to as AutoYaST profile, is created using existing
configuration resources. The profile file can be easily tailored for any specific environment.
The smallest and simplest Autoyast file would be this:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE profile>
<profile xmlns="http://www.suse.com/1.0/yast2ns" xmlns:config="http://
www.suse.com/1.0/configns">
<users config:type="list">
<user>
<encrypted config:type="boolean">false</encrypted>
<user_password>linux</user_password>
<username>root</username>
</user>
</users>
</profile>
In order to create the control file for one or more hosts, a YaST2 module is provided. This system depends on
the existing YaST2 modules which are usually used to configure a host in regular operation mode.
For more information, see the SUSE Linux Enterprise Server Deployment Guide and AutoYast2 description.
42 P U B L I C
Automated Installation with AutoYast2

7 Tips for Remote Installation
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server can be installed in several different ways.
As well as the usual media installation through DVD or USB, you can choose from various network-based
approaches like NFS, FTP, HTTP, CIFS/SMB together with VNC or SSH or even take a completely hands-off
approach (AutoYaST2) to the installation of SUSE Linux Enterprise.
For more information, see the SUSE Linux Enterprise Server Deployment Guide .
Tips for Remote Installation P U B L I C 43

8 Appendix
The appendix provides additional information.
8.1 Package List
Check the recommended package list for SAP HANA.
SAP recommends the installation of the SLES 12 base pattern as the basis to run an SAP HANA system on. To
guarantee optimal performance and the highest stability, SAP appliance hardware, and technology partners
may deliver SAP HANA systems with settings that deviate from that standard. Customers and partners are
advised to document all changes to the standard pattern so that SAP support can more efficiently identify the
root cause of problems.
Required packages, not included in SLES 12 Base System pattern:
● libuuid1
● gtk2 (use the version provided with the operating system distribution)
● java-1_7_0-ibm (use the version provided with the operating system distribution, necessary for the SAP
HANA Studio on the SAP HANA system)
● libicu (use the version provided with the operating system distribution)
● ntp
● sudo
● syslog-ng (use the version provided with the operating system distribution)
● tcsh
● libssh2-1
● expect
● autoyast2-installation
● yast2-ncurses
● bing (a point-to-point bandwidth measurement tool, needed for supportability)
● bonnie (file system benchmark, needed for supportability)
● cairo (vector graphics library, needed for supportability)
● findutils-locate (tool for locating files, needed for supportability)
● graphviz (graph visualization tools, needed for supportability)
● iptraf (TCP/IP network monitor, needed for supportability)
● krb5-client (MIT Kerberos5 implementation-client programs, needed for supportability)
● nfs-client (support utilities for NFS, needed for supportability)
● sensors (hardware health monitoring for Linux, needed for supportability)
● xfsprogs
● libnuma1
● libgcc_s1 (depends on SAP HANA release)
44 P U B L I C
Appendix

● libstdc++6 (depends on SAP HANA release)
● multipath-tools (in case you use multipath)
● libaio
● libopenssl
● glibc
● audit-libs
● cyrus-sasl
● keyutils-libs
● krb5
● libcom_err2
● libevent
● libldap
● libltdl7
● libopenssl0_9_8 (either from SLE 12 Legacy Module or SLES4SAP12 SP1 or later SP)
● pam
● zlib
8.2 Networking Ports
For information about networking ports, see the SAP HANA Security Guide.
8.3 Configure a PXE Server
When using a PXE boot server with AutoYaST you can have a fully automated installation of SUSE Enterprise
Linux.
For more information, see Remote Installation in the SUSE Linux Enterprise Server Deployment Guide .
8.4 Installation in a Virtual Machine (VMWare)
SAP HANA and SUSE Linux Enterprise Server could be used in combination with VMware products.
Have a look at the best practice documents from VMware and the VMware relevant SAP Notes:
● SAP Note 1995460 - Single SAP HANA VM on VMware vSphere in production
● SAP Note 2024433 - Multiple SAP HANA VMs on VMware vSphere in production VMWare Best
Practices on SAP HANA
Appendix P U B L I C 45

● Best Practices and Recommendations for Scale-up Deployments of SAP HANA on VMware vSphere
The following requirements need to be fulfilled:
● The underlying hardware must be certified by SAP's ICC for SAP HANA.
● Do not use memory compression techniques like KSM.
● The maximum memory reserved for the virtual machines should not exceed 90% of the physical memory
of the hypervisor.
● SAP HANA needs the full instruction set of the host CPU(s). Adjust the settings for the VM accordingly.
● For monitoring and system management purposes, VMware Tools must be installed and running as well.
● For performance reasons, the SAP HANA file systems should reside on separate VMDK files.
● For tuning the operating environment, have a look at the above sections in this guide
46 P U B L I C
Appendix

Important Disclaimers and Legal Information
Coding Samples
Any software coding and/or code lines / strings ("Code") included in this documentation are only examples and are not intended to be used in a productive system
environment. The Code is only intended to better explain and visualize the syntax and phrasing rules of certain coding. SAP does not warrant the correctness and
completeness of the Code given herein, and SAP shall not be liable for errors or damages caused by the usage of the Code, unless damages were caused by SAP
intentionally or by SAP's gross negligence.
Gender-Neutral Language
As far as possible, SAP documentation is gender neutral. Depending on the context, the reader is addressed directly with "you", or a gender-neutral noun (such as
"sales person" or "working days") is used. If when referring to members of both sexes, however, the third-person singular cannot be avoided or a gender-neutral noun
does not exist, SAP reserves the right to use the masculine form of the noun and pronoun. This is to ensure that the documentation remains comprehensible.
Internet Hyperlinks
The SAP documentation may contain hyperlinks to the Internet. These hyperlinks are intended to serve as a hint about where to find related information. SAP does not
warrant the availability and correctness of this related information or the ability of this information to serve a particular purpose. SAP shall not be liable for any
damages caused by the use of related information unless damages have been caused by SAP's gross negligence or willful misconduct. All links are categorized for
transparency (see: https:/
/help.sap.com/viewer/disclaimer).
Important Disclaimers and Legal Information P U B L I C 47

go.sap.com/registration/
contact.html
© 2017 SAP SE or an SAP affiliate company. All rights reserved.
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or an SAP affiliate company. The information contained herein may
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