Getting started with SAP HANA on IBM Power Systems Virtual Servers
IBM® and SAP continue a collaboration since the early 1970s in multiple areas, including hardware, software, cloud, services, and finance. They are now collaborating to run SAP HANA-based applications on IBM® Power Systems™ Virtual Servers.
Power Systems Virtual Server is a Power Systems enterprise infrastructure as a service (IaaS) offering. Power Systems Virtual Servers are physically located with low-latency connectivity to the IBM Cloud™ Infrastructure. This infrastructure design enables Power Systems Virtual Servers to maintain key enterprise software certification and support as its architecture is identical to certified on-premises infrastructure.
This content provides you with recommendations for the provisioning and installation of the infrastructure to support SAP HANA-based products and subscription on IBM Power Systems Virtual Servers. It does not replace any SAP HANA implementation-related documentation. Its purpose is to help you with infrastructure planning and provisioning so you can begin your SAP installation. The SAP HANA installation does not vary from installations for on-premises environments. Recommendations and guidelines are provided to help you operate your SAP system in the IBM Power Systems Virtual Server environment.
Before you begin
Table 1 contains information that will help you with your implementation.
| Task | Details |
|---|---|
| Read IBM Cloud and SAP content that is related to your implementation | * What is IBM Cloud |
| * Get started with IBM Cloud | |
| * SAP workloads on IBM Cloud | |
| You might also find the following SAP documentation useful: | * How to create an SAP S-user ID Only super administrators or S-users with the required authorization are allowed to create S-user IDs. |
| * SAP HANA Help | |
| * SAP Notes through SAP Support | |
| Sign up for IBM Cloud | Signing up for IBM Cloud |
| Create a public and private SSH key | Use the SSH keys to securely connect to your Power Systems Virtual Server. To create a public and private SSH key, see Adding an SSH key. |
| Access the IBM Cloud console | IBM Cloud console is your graphical gateway to all your infrastructure components-compute, networking, and storage. You need an IBMid and password to access the console. |
| Invite users to your account and manage their access | IBM Identity and Access Management (IAM) service is used to set up your users and grant them access to based on their roles. See Getting started with IAM tutorial and Best practices for organizing resources and assigning access set up your users and grant them system access. |
| Create resource groups | A resource is anything that you can create from the catalog that is managed by and contained within a resource group. For more information, see Creating and managing resource groups. |
Terminology
Before you create a virtual server, you must understand the terminology that is associated with a Power Systems Virtual Server.
IBM Power Systems Virtual Servers versus IBM Cloud® classic infrastructure
Power Systems Virtual Servers are located in the same IBM data centers as the x86-based IBM Cloud servers, which are referred to as IBM Cloud classic infrastructure. In the data centers, the Power Systems Virtual Servers are separated from the rest of the IBM Cloud servers with separate networks and direct-attached storage. The internal networks are fenced but offer connectivity options to IBM Cloud infrastructure or on-premises environments.
Resource versus resource group
A resource in the context of Power Systems Virtual Servers is not a user, it's anything that you can create from the catalog, for example, a Power Systems Virtual Server. A resource group contains multiple resources, for example, a set of servers used strictly for development activities. For more information, see What is a resource?.
Service versus instance
There is difference between a Power Systems Virtual Server service and a Power Systems Virtual Server instance. Think of the Power Systems Virtual Server service as a container for all Power Systems Virtual Server instances at a specific geographic location. The Power Systems Virtual Server service is available from the Resource list in the IBM Cloud® UI. The service can contain multiple Power Systems Virtual Server instances.
For example, you can have two Power Systems Virtual Server services, one in Dallas and another in Washington DC. Each service can contain multiple Power Systems Virtual Server instances. For more information, see Getting started with IBM Cloud Power Systems Virtual Server.
All instances of an SAP system must run in the same service. Multiple systems can be distributed through different services, in which case IT operations must ensure that latency is acceptable for their scenarios.
Preconfigured instance profiles for SAP HANA
An instance profile is a preconfigured combination of a number of CPUs and memory size. The number of supported combinations is restricted. There are instance profiles that are already certified for SAP HANA and are fully supported. Other profiles are currently being certified.
Implementing SAP HANA on Power Systems Virtual Server
Table 2 contains steps to help you get your Power Systems Virtual Server infrastructure quickly built.
| Task | Details |
|---|---|
| Plan your landscape | Use the information in Planning your system landscape to architect, size, and provision your IBM® Power Systems Virtual Server environment to support your SAP HANA workload. |
| Provision your system | Use the steps and information in Provisioning your SAP HANA environment to set up your IBM® Power Systems Virtual Server infrastructure. |
| Manage your environment | Use the information in Managing your SAP HANA environment to perform an initial configuration after provisioning, or to change your IBM® Power Systems Virtual Servers. |
| Install SAP software | You prepare the OS and install SAP software on your IBM® Power Systems Virtual Server infrastructure as if the servers were on-premises. For more information about installing SAP software, see Downloading and installing SAP software and applications for more information. |