SAP HANA TDI Deployments on

Dell EMC PowerStore Storage Systems

Storage Configuration Guidelines
March 2021

H18336.1

Validation Guide

Abstract
This validation guide describes storage best practices for SAP HANA in
Tailored Data Center Integration (TDI) deployments on SAP certified
Dell EMC PowerStore enterprise storage systems. The solution
enables customers to use PowerStore for SAP HANA TDI deployments
in a fully supported environment with their existing data center
infrastructures.

Dell Technologies Solutions

 Copyright

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Published in the USA 03/21 Validation Guide H18336.1.
Dell Inc. believes the information in this document is accurate as of its publication date. The information is subject to change
without notice.

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 Contents

Contents
Introduction ..................................................................................................................................... 4

Technology overview ...................................................................................................................... 6

Network design considerations ................................................................................................... 12

PowerStore storage configuration .............................................................................................. 14

SAP HANA host configuration and setup ................................................................................... 21

SAP HANA installation with FC connectivity.............................................................................. 37

SAP HANA installation with NAS/NFS connectivity ................................................................... 39

Post-installation configurations .................................................................................................. 51

Conclusion ..................................................................................................................................... 54

References ..................................................................................................................................... 55

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 Introduction

Introduction

Solution SAP HANA is an in-memory data platform that can be deployed on-premises or in the
overview cloud. Organizations use the SAP HANA platform to analyze large volumes of data and
develop and deploy applications in real time. The Dell EMC PowerStore platform is a
midrange enterprise storage system that is optimized for simplicity across the storage life
cycle. The PowerStore platform is simple to acquire, deploy, manage, and service.

The solution that this guide describes uses SAP HANA in a TDI deployment scenario on
PowerStore enterprise storage systems. These PowerStore storage systems meet the
SAP HANA performance and functional requirements and are certified by SAP; customers
can therefore use PowerStore systems for SAP HANA TDI deployments in a fully
supported environment using their existing data center infrastructures.

The solution configuration recommendations in this guide are based on SAP requirements
for high availability (HA) and on the performance test results that are required to meet
SAP’s key performance indicators (KPIs) for SAP HANA TDI.

Key benefits This Dell EMC solution for SAP HANA TDI deployments on PowerStore storage systems
reduces hardware and operational costs, lowers risks, and increases server and network
vendor flexibility for customers. Customers can:
• Integrate SAP HANA into an existing data center.
• Choose between the following storage protocols and connectivity options for the
SAP HANA nodes:
▪ NAS—Shared file system (NAS/NFS)
▪ SAN—Fibre Channel (FC SAN)
• Use their existing operational processes, skills, and tools, thus avoiding the
significant risks and costs that are associated with operational change.
• Use the performance and scale benefits of PowerStore systems to obtain real-time
insights across the business.
• Expect significant benefits from using NVMe storage class memory (SCM) and
solid-state device (SSD) drives for the SAP HANA persistence by reducing SAP
HANA startup, host autofailover, and backup times.
• Expect storage efficiencies and capacity savings with PowerStore always-on inline
data reductions.
• Transition easily from an appliance-based model to the PowerStore-based TDI
architecture while relying on Dell Technologies Professional Services to minimize
risk.

Document This guide provides the following information:

purpose • Best practices and tips for deploying the SAP HANA database on PowerStore
storage systems

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 Introduction

• Configuration requirements and storage design recommendations for PowerStore

storage systems with SAP HANA
• Network requirements for the FC SAN and NAS/NFS protocols and connectivity
• Steps for configuring PowerStore storage for SAP HANA using PowerStore
Manager for FC SAN and NAS/NFS
• Detailed instructions for accessing PowerStore storage from the SAP HANA nodes

This guide describes SAP HANA TDI deployments in physical environments. If you plan to
use SAP HANA in VMware virtualized environments on VMware vSphere, see SAP HANA
on VMware vSphere.

Audience This guide is intended for system integrators, system or storage administrators,
customers, partners, and Dell Technologies Professional Services personnel who must
configure a PowerStore storage system for a TDI environment for SAP HANA.

Term table
The following table defines abbreviations that are used in this guide:

Term Definition

FC Fibre Channel

iDRAC integrated Dell Remote Access Controller

LACP Link Aggregation Control Protocol

LDAP Lightweight Directory Access Protocol

MLAG Multi-Chassis Link Aggregation

NAS Network-attached storage

NDMP Network Data Management Protocol

NFS Network file system

NIS Network Information Service

SAN Storage area network

We value your Dell Technologies and the authors of this guide welcome your feedback on the solution
feedback and the solution documentation. Contact the Dell Technologies Solutions team by email or
provide your comments by completing our documentation survey.

Authors: Werner Katzenberger, Donagh Keeshan

Contributor: Aighne Kearney

Note: For links to additional documentation for this solution, see the Dell Technologies Solutions
Info Hub for SAP.

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 Technology overview

Technology overview

SAP HANA The SAP HANA system combines SAP software components that are optimized on
deployment proven and certified SAP partner-provided hardware. Two models are available for on-
models premises deployment, as shown in the following figure:

SAP HANA appliance model and TDI model comparison

Appliance model
By default, an SAP HANA appliance includes integrated storage, compute, and network
components. The appliance is certified by SAP, built by an SAP HANA hardware partner,
and shipped to customers with all its software components preinstalled, including
operating systems and SAP HANA software.

Dell Technologies provides preinstalled SAP HANA appliance solutions for a faster time-
to-market and easy integration into an SAP landscape. However, the SAP HANA
appliance model presents the following limitations for customers:
• Limited choice of servers, networks, and storage
• Inability to use existing data center infrastructure and operational processes
• Little control of the critical components in the appliance
• Fixed sizes for SAP HANA server and storage capacities, leading to higher costs
from a capacity shortfall and inability to respond rapidly to unexpected growth
demands

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TDI model
The TDI deployment model enables customers to choose from a broad portfolio of SAP
HANA-certified servers that can be combined with SAP-certified network and storage
components. Different workloads can share the storage and network components to
optimize the total cost of ownership (TCO). Customers can seamlessly integrate SAP
HANA into existing data center operations such as disaster recovery, data protection,
monitoring, and management, reducing the cost, time-to-value, and risk of an overall SAP
HANA adoption. For more information, see the following SAP documents:
• SAP HANA Tailored Data Center Integration – Overview
• SAP HANA Tailored Data Center Integration - Frequently Asked Questions

SAP HANA SAP HANA is an in-memory database, which means the data is kept in the RAM of one or
database more SAP HANA worker hosts (active components that accept and process database
requests).All database operations (reads, inserts, updates, and deletions) are performed
in the main memory of the host. This feature differentiates the SAP HANA database from
traditional databases, where only a part of the data is cached in RAM and the remaining
data resides on disk.

Persistent storage enables you to restore the SAP HANA database to its most recent
committed state in the event of failure. The log captures all changes by database
transactions (redo logs). Data and undo log information are automatically saved to disk at
regular savepoints (the default is five minutes).

Scale-up deployments compared with scale-out deployments

As certified enterprise storage systems for SAP HANA, PowerStore storage systems can
be used for both single-host (scale-up) and multihost (scale-out) systems in TDI
deployments.

In single-host environments, the database must fit into the RAM of a single server. Single-
host environments are preferred for online transaction processing (OLTP)-type workloads
such as S/4HANA and SAP Business Suite on SAP HANA.

In multihost environments, the database tables are distributed across the RAM of multiple
servers. These environments use worker and standby hosts. The worker hosts accept and
process database requests, whereas standby hosts are passive components that have
the database services running but no data in RAM. A standby host waits for a worker host
to fail and then takes over its role, a process known as host autofailover. Because the in-
memory capacity in these deployments can be high, scale-out SAP HANA clusters are
perfectly suited for online analytical processing (OLAP)-type workloads with large
datasets such as SAP Business Warehouse on SAP HANA and BW/4HANA. By default,
SAP supports scale-out deployments of up to 16 worker hosts. If more than 16 worker
hosts are needed, a site-specific SAP certification is required.

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 Technology overview

PowerStore The new Dell EMC PowerStore system is a midrange storage product with a container-
overview based active/active architecture. The PowerStore system supports the latest storage
media such as NVMe SCM, NVMe SSDs, and NVMe NVRAM drives. This system is a
highly available 2U two-node-based appliance that comes with a flexible consumption
model. The PowerStore system can scale out to up to four appliances (eight nodes) in a
cluster and scale up to three expansion enclosures per appliance.

The following figure shows a PowerStore appliance:

PowerStore enclosure

Appliances in the PowerStore series are available in one of the following configurations:
• PowerStore T appliances are storage-centric. These models enable you to
manage and provision block and file storage to external hosts. During the initial
configuration, you can configure an appliance for block-only storage or for
unified (block and file) storage.
In SAP HANA environments, configure the appliance for unified storage even when
block storage is used for the SAP HANA persistence. The SAP HANA shared file
system (/hana/shared) can reside on a PowerStore NFS share.

PowerStore T models are certified for running SAP HANA.

• PowerStore X appliances are application-centric and storage-centric. These
models provide a hypervisor layer in addition to block storage. This additional
capability enables you to deploy and manage virtual machines and applications.

PowerStore X models are not certified for running SAP HANA.

Each of these appliance configurations is available in different models with varying or

expanding memory and CPU capabilities, as described in Table 1. To expand the
compute and storage capabilities, you can configure up to four appliances into a
PowerStore cluster that acts as a single component for resource management, efficiency,
and availability. You can also add expansion enclosures to each appliance to further
expand storage capabilities.

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PowerStore management tools

The HTML5-based PowerStore Manager UI, as shown in the following figure, is the
primary management tool for PowerStore configuration and administration.

PowerStore Manager UI

The PowerStore system also supports management, configuration, and monitoring using
a command-line interface (PSTCLI) and a REST API. For relevant documentation, see the
PowerStore Info Hub.

PowerStore T Dell Technologies has certified the following PowerStore T models for running SAP
models certified HANA: 1000T, 3000T, 5000T, 7000T, and 9000T. The following table shows high-level
for SAP HANA specifications for these models. For more information, see the PowerStore data and
specification sheet.

Note: SAP HANA certification tests for both FC SAN and NAS/NFS were performed on the 1000T
model with a base enclosure configuration of 2 x NVRAM cache drives, 23 x NVMe SSD drives,
and R5 (8+1) protection. The PowerStore X models are not certified for SAP HANA TDI
production deployments but can be used for nonproduction deployments.

Table 1. PowerStore T storage specifications by model

Specification 1000T 3000T 5000T 7000T 9000T

CPUs per 4 x Intel CPUs, 32 4 x Intel CPUs, 48 4 x Intel CPUs, 64 4 x Intel CPUs, 80 4 x Intel CPUs, 80
appliance cores, 1.8GHz cores, 2.1GHz cores, 2.1GHz cores, 2.4GHz cores, 2.4GHz

System 384 GB 768 GB 1152 GB 1536 GB 2560 GB

cache/Memory

NVRAM drives per appliance 2 4

Maximum number of storage drives per appliance 96

Supported drives NVMe SSD, NVMe Optane SCM SSD, SAS SSD

Embedded ports 4 x 25/10 GbE optical or 4 x 10 GbE Base T

Supported I/O modules (two slots per node) 4 x 32/16 Gb FC

4 x 25/10 GbE optical
4 x 10/ GbE base T

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Specification 1000T 3000T 5000T 7000T 9000T

Supported expansion shelves 2.5-inch 25-drive SAS SSD

SAP HANA scalability on PowerStore systems

PowerStore storage systems are certified for:
• SAN—FC SAN
• NAS—NAS/NFS

SAP HANA FC SAN certification for PowerStore storage

SAP has certified PowerStore storage for SAP HANA for using the FC protocol and the
SAP fcClient storage connector. For information about the host and network requirements
for the FC connectivity protocol, see Network design considerations.

To determine the proper storage system model, number, and type of front-end I/O
modules, and disk configuration for an SAP HANA TDI deployment, you will need the
following information:
• Number of SAP HANA nodes to be deployed on the storage system
• Capacity requirements of the SAP HANA nodes

An SAP HANA node can be either a single (scale-up) SAP HANA server or an SAP HANA
worker node that is part of an SAP HANA multihost cluster. Multiple SAP HANA nodes
can be connected to a PowerStore T storage system up to a recommended maximum
number. For more information, see SAP HANA capacity requirements.

As part of the SAP HANA certification, we performed extensive testing using the SAP
HANA-HWC-ES-1.1 certification scenario to determine the scalability of the PowerStore
product family. The following table shows the number of SAP HANA nodes that are
supported on a specified PowerStore storage system model or cluster. These numbers
represent the recommended maximum number of SAP HANA production nodes that can
be connected to the PowerStore system while still meeting the SAP performance KPIs.

Table 2. SAP HANA FC scalability (supported number of nodes) per appliance and cluster

Model 1000T 3000T 5000T 7000T 9000T

Appliances 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4
per cluster

Number of 6 12 18 24 8 16 24 32 12 24 36 48 14 28 42 56 16 32 48 64
SAP HANA
nodes
supported

The “Appliances per cluster” row in the table shows the number of PowerStore appliances
in the cluster. Each appliance has two active/active storage nodes and each node has two
four-port front-end (FE) I/O modules. A PowerStore cluster can have up to four
appliances.
The second row shows the number of production SAP HANA nodes that can be deployed
on the specified configuration using FC SAN connectivity. SAP HANA standby nodes in a

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scale-out cluster are not counted for scalability because they do not have a storage
persistence.
Achieving these numbers in a customer environment requires:
• FC network with 16 or 32 Gb/s link speed on all components
• Two four-port I/O modules (16 or 32 Gb/s) per PowerStore node

Note: Two I/O modules with 16 FE ports per PowerStore node are required for the
maximum number of SAP HANA nodes. A single I/O module with eight FE ports per
PowerStore node is acceptable for 50 percent of the maximum number.

• 16 dedicated FE ports for SAP HANA, with SAP HANA nodes equally balanced
across the FE ports
• Capacity for the SAP HANA persistence allocated on PowerStore volumes or file
systems with the “Volume Performance Policy” set to high
• Host connections configured as described in SAP HANA host configuration and
setup

SAP HANA NAS certification for PowerStore storage

SAP has certified PowerStore storage for SAP HANA for use with NAS and the NFS
protocol and the Dell EMC custom HA/DR STONITH provider. For more information about
the host and network requirements for the NAS connectivity protocol, see Network design
considerations.

To determine the proper storage system model and the disk configuration for an SAP
HANA TDI deployment, you will need the following information:
• Number of SAP HANA nodes to be deployed on the storage system
• Capacity requirements of the SAP HANA nodes

An SAP HANA node can be either a single (scale-up) SAP HANA server or an SAP HANA
worker node that is part of an SAP HANA multihost cluster.

Multiple SAP HANA nodes can be connected to a PowerStore T storage system up to a

recommended maximum number, as specified in the following table. For more
information, see SAP HANA capacity requirements.

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 Network design considerations

As part of the SAP HANA certification, Dell Technologies performed extensive testing
using the SAP HANA-HWC-ES-1.1 certification scenario to determine the scalability of the
PowerStore product family. The following table shows the recommended maximum
number of SAP HANA production nodes that can be connected to a specified PowerStore
model while still meeting the SAP performance KPIs:

Table 3. SAP HANA NAS scalability (number of production nodes) per appliance.

Appliance Number of SAP HANA nodes

1000T 6

3000T 8

5000T 12

7000T 14

Table 3 shows the number of production SAP HANA nodes that can be deployed on the
specified configuration using NAS/NFS connectivity. SAP HANA standby nodes in a
HANA scale-out cluster are not counted for scalability because they do not have a storage
persistence.

Note: PowerStore appliance clustering for NAS storage is not yet available.

Achieving these numbers in a customer environment requires:

• Storage IP network with 25 Gb/s link speed on all components
• 2 x 25 Gb/s interfaces on the first two ports of the embedded four-port card per
PowerStore node (4 x 25 Gb/s per appliance)
• SAP HANA nodes equally balanced across two NAS servers, one on each
PowerStore node.
• NAS servers configured as described in Creating NAS file systems for the SAP
HANA persistence
• Host connections configured as described in SAP HANA host configuration and
setup

Network design considerations

Introduction SAP HANA production systems in TDI environments must meet the SAP KPIs for storage
performance. These systems also demand HA and redundancy in storage and network
components such as network cards (HBAs), network switches, and storage FE
components. HA and redundant systems protect SAP HANA database operations from
component failure.
The following sections of this guide provide configuration recommendations and best
practices for the networks and storage systems based on the connectivity option that you
choose for the SAP HANA production systems.

Network This section describes the considerations that arise when you connect SAP HANA to
configuration PowerStore storage systems over an FC SAN network or an IP network for NAS/NFS.

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Fibre Channel SAN

The FC SAN network must support 16 Gb/s or 32 Gb/s link speed on all components:
HBAs, SAN ports, and PowerStore FE I/O modules. When SAN switches are connected
using Inter-Switch Links (ISLs), the aggregated bandwidth of the ISLs must be able to
support the aggregated total bandwidth of all the SAP HANA nodes that are using these
ISLs. An SAP HANA node requires the maximum bandwidth of 400 MB/s.

IP network for NAS/NFS

To connect the SAP HANA nodes using NAS/NFS, you need a dedicated storage IP
network that has redundant switches with 25 Gb/s link speed on all components, including
host network interface cards (NICs) and switch ports. Jumbo frames with MTU size 9000
are also required and must be set on all network components. When IP switches are
connected using uplinks, the aggregated bandwidth of the uplinks must be able to support
the aggregated total bandwidth of all the SAP HANA nodes that are using these uplinks.
An SAP HANA node requires the maximum bandwidth of 400 MB/s.

Direct attachments
PowerStore systems support direct attachment of the SAP HANA hosts to the appliance
through FC if the hosts connect to both the PowerStore nodes and have the required
native Linux multipathing software (DM-MPIO). Even though direct-attached FC
connections are supported with PowerStore, Dell Technologies strongly recommends
using switches from production environments to provide HA and redundancy and protect
SAP HANA against any component failures.

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PowerStore storage configuration

Overview This section provides configuration recommendations for connecting the PowerStore
storage system to SAP HANA nodes.

Module All PowerStore models have the same connectivity options. The following figure shows
connectivity these connectivity options as seen from the rear of the unit:
options

PowerStore T rear view

PowerStore node A is the bottom node, while PowerStore node B is the top node. Each
node has one embedded module (red rectangles) with management and SAS expansion
ports and a four-port Mezzanine card for connections such as NAS or cluster
interconnects. This card can be used for NAS/NFS and the SAP HANA NAS persistence
and shared file system /hana/shared. The system configures all NAS server interfaces
on the first two bonded ports on this four-port card. This configuration cannot be changed.
Because both bonded ports are used for file traffic, link loss on a single port does not
affect connectivity to the NAS server.

Each node has two additional slots for four-port I/O modules (green rectangles). These
slots must be used for SAP HANA client FC connections, which are either 16 Gb/s or 32
Gb/s FC.

PowerStore disk The PowerStore base enclosure can be configured with NVMe SSDs or NVMe storage
storage class memory (SCM) drives for user data. While NVMe SCM drives provide better
performance, the disk capacity of an NVMe SCM-based appliance is limited to the disks in
a base enclosure and cannot be expanded with an expansion enclosure. It is
recommended that all drives within a PowerStore system be the same size to maximize
the usable capacity from each drive. PowerStore systems require between six and 23
NVMe SSD drives in the base enclosure.

PowerStore uses NVMe NVRAM drives to provide persistent storage for cached write
data. PowerStore 1000 and 3000 appliance models have two NVRAM drives per system,
while the PowerStore 5000, 7000, and 9000 models have four NVRAM drives per system.

The following figure shows how the NVRAM drives are configured in the base enclosure.

PowerStore base enclosure with NVMe SCM drives front view

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NVMe SSD-based systems can also be expanded with an expansion enclosure using up
to 25 SAS SSD drives to increase the amount of available storage capacity, as shown in
the following figure:

PowerStore with NVMe SSD and SAS SSD drives

The PowerStore Dynamic Resiliency Engine (DRE) is used to manage the drives in the
system. RAID settings are not user-configurable within the PowerStore system. RAID 5 is
used to protect user data that is stored on the drives based on the number of drives:
• If the PowerStore system is installed with fewer than 10 data drives, the system
configures RAID 5 with a 4+1 stripe width.
• If the PowerStore system is installed with 10 or more data drives, the system
configures RAID 5 with an 8+1 stripe width.

The system does not change the stripe width as more drives are added. Because
RAID 5 8+1 provides greater usable capacity from the same number of drives, we
recommend initially installing a PowerStore system with a minimum of 10 drives.

All drives in the system are automatically used to provide storage capacity. User
configuration of the drives is not necessary and dedicated hot spare drives are not
required. Spare space for a rebuild is automatically distributed across all drives, providing
better resource utilization and enabling a faster rebuild if there is a drive failure.

Data reduction PowerStore systems provide data-reduction capabilities such as zero-detect,

compression, and deduplication. Data reduction is integrated into the PowerStore
architecture and is always active.

All storage resources in PowerStore systems are thin-provisioned and space-efficient,

including snapshots and thin clones. Creation of a snapshot or thin clone requires only a
quick duplication of pointers after which the resources behave as independent storage
resources and do not affect the performance of the source resource.

NAS servers The PowerStore file system uses virtualized file servers that are known as NAS servers. A
NAS server contains the configuration, interfaces, and environmental information that is
used to facilitate access to the file systems. This information includes services such as
DNS, LDAP, NIS, NDMP, anti-virus, and more.

New NAS servers are automatically assigned on a round-robin basis across the available
PowerStore nodes. The preferred node acts as a marker to indicate the node that the
NAS server runs based on this algorithm. After it is provisioned, the preferred node for a

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NAS server never changes. The current node indicates the node on which the NAS server
is running. Changing the current node moves the NAS server to a different node, which
can be used for load-balancing purposes. When a NAS server is moved to a new node, all
file systems on the NAS server are moved along with it.

Volumes and file As a unified storage storage system, the PowerStore system allocates block LUNs
systems (volumes) and file systems on the same storage resources.

Performance policy
All block storage resources in a PowerStore system have a defined performance policy.
By default, this policy is set to medium. The performance policy does not have any impact
on system behavior unless some volumes are set to low performance while other volumes
are set to medium or high performance. During times of system resource contention, the
PowerStore system devotes fewer compute resources to volumes with a low-performance
policy. Reserve the low-performance setting for volumes that have fewer critical
performance needs and use the high-performance setting for all SAP HANA persistence
volumes.

Appliance balance for SAP HANA block storage workloads

PowerStore block storage resources are accessed using ALUA1 optimized/non-optimized
paths between the hosts and the two nodes within the PowerStore appliance. The
PowerStore system automatically chooses one of the nodes for the optimized path when
the volume is mapped to the host. This node affinity feature maintains a balanced
workload across the PowerStore nodes. You can view and modify node assignment by
using the PSTCLI command line. For the SAP HANA persistence (data and log) of a
single SAP HANA server, it is a good practice to keep data and log assigned to alternate
PowerStore nodes.

To view the current node assignment, run the following command:

pstcli -d <IP address> -u <username> -p <password> volume -name <volume

name> show -output nvp | grep "ffin"

The following figure shows an example of the command output:

View node affinity command (example)

To change the node affinity for a volume, run this command:

pstcli -d <IP address> -u <username> -p <password> volume -name <volume
name> set -node_affinity Preferred_Node_A (or Preferred_Node_B)

Appliance balance for SAP HANA file system workloads

For best performance, it is important to balance the file system workload across both the
PowerStore nodes. For the SAP HANA persistence (data and log), it is a good practice to

1
ALUA is an industry standard protocol for identifying optimized paths between a storage system
and a host.

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always use two NAS servers (one on each PowerStore node) and, when creating the file
systems, to distribute them evenly across the two NAS servers.

SAP HANA Every SAP HANA node requires storage devices and capacity for:
capacity • Operating system boot image
requirements
• SAP HANA installation (/hana/shared)
• SAP HANA persistence (data and log)
• Backup
For more information, see SAP HANA Storage Requirements.

Note: The formulas for capacity sizing in SAP HANA Storage Requirements are subject to change
by SAP. Ensure that you review the latest version of that document before you determine your
capacity requirements.

Operating system boot image

When the SAP HANA nodes boot from a volume on PowerStore (boot from SAN), the
required capacity for the operating system must be included in the overall capacity
calculation for the SAP HANA installation. Every SAP HANA node requires approximately
100 GB capacity for the operating system, including space for the /usr/sap/ directory.

When booting from a SAN, follow the best practices that are described in the Dell EMC
Host Connectivity Guide for Linux.

SAP HANA persistence (data and log)

The SAP HANA in-memory database requires disk storage to:
• Maintain the persistence of the in-memory data on disk to prevent a data loss
caused by a power outage. Disk storage must allow a host autofailover, where a
standby SAP HANA host takes over the in-memory data of a failed worker host in
scale-out installations.
• Log information about data changes (redo log).

Every SAP HANA scale-up or scale-out (worker) node requires two disk volumes or file
systems to save the in-memory database on disk (data) and to keep a redo log (log). The
size of these volumes or file systems depends on the anticipated total memory
requirement of the database and the RAM size of the node. To assist with disk sizing
preparation, SAP provides several tools and documents, as described in SAP HANA
Storage Requirements. The latest version of the requirements document (version 2.10)
provides the following formulas to calculate the size of the data volume:
• Option 1: If an application-specific sizing program can be used:
Sizedata = 1.2 x anticipated net disk space for data

where anticipated net disk space is the anticipated total memory requirement of the
database plus an additional 20 percent free space. If the database is distributed
across multiple nodes in a scale-out cluster, divide the anticipated net disk space
by the number of SAP HANA worker nodes in the cluster. For example, if the
anticipated net disk space is 2 TB and the scale-out cluster consists of four worker

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nodes, then every node must be assigned a 616 GB data volume:

(2 TB / 4 = 512 GB x 1.2 = 616 GB).

If the anticipated net disk space is unknown at the time of the storage sizing, it is
recommended to use the RAM size of the node plus 20 percent free space for a
capacity calculation of the datafile system.

• Option 2: If no application-specific sizing program is available, the recommended

size of the data volume of an SAP HANA system is equal to the total memory
required for the system:
Sizedata = 1 x RAM

The size of the log volume depends on the RAM size of the node. SAP HANA
Storage Requirements provides the following formulas to calculate the minimum
size of the log volume:
[systems ≤ 512 GB] Sizeredolog = 1/2 x RAM
[systems > 512 GB] Sizeredolog = (min) 512 GB

SAP HANA installation (/hana/shared/)

Before you install the SAP HANA binary, configuration, and trace files and logs, every
SAP HANA node must have access to a file system that is mounted under the local
/hana/shared/ mount point. In an SAP HANA scale-out cluster, a single shared file
system is required and must be mounted on every node. Most SAP HANA installations
use a Network File System (NFS) for this purpose. PowerStore unified storage systems
can provide this file system with the NAS option.

Calculate the size of the /hana/shared/ file system by using the latest formula in
SAP HANA Storage Requirements. Version 2.10 (February 2017) of the requirements
document uses the following formulas for calculation:
• Single node (scale-up):
Sizeinstallation(single-node) = 1 x RAM but max 1 TB

• Multinode (scale-out):
Sizeinstallation(scale-out) = 1 x RAM_of_worker per four worker nodes

Backup
SAP HANA supports backup to a file system or the use of third-party tools that SAP has
certified. Dell EMC supports data protection strategies for SAP HANA backup using Dell EMC
Data Domain systems and Dell EMC NetWorker software. While an SAP HANA backup to
an NFS file system on a PowerStore all-flash or hybrid storage system is possible, we do not
recommend backing up the SAP HANA database to the storage system where the primary
persistence resides. If you plan to back up SAP HANA to an NFS file system on a different
PowerStore storage system, see SAP HANA Storage Requirements for information about
sizing the backup file system. The capacity requirement depends not only on the data size
and the frequency of change operations in the database, but also on the backup generations
that are kept on disk.

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SAP HANA NSE SAP HANA Native Storage Extension (NSE) is a general-purpose, built-in warm data
store in SAP HANA that lets you manage less-frequently accessed data without fully
loading it into memory. NSE integrates flash-drive based database technology with the
SAP HANA in-memory database for an improved price-performance ratio.

• Hot data is used to store mission-critical data for real-time processing and
analytics. It is retained continuously in SAP HANA memory for fast performance
and is persisted to storage.
• Warm data is primarily used to store mostly read-only data that need not be
accessed frequently. The data need not reside continuously in SAP HANA
memory and can be unloaded to disk. It is still managed as a unified part of the
SAP HANA database, transactionally consistent with hot data, participates in
SAP HANA backup and system replication operations, and is stored in lower
cost stores within SAP HANA.

Note: NSE is subject to certain functional restrictions. For more information, see SAP
Note 2771956: SAP HANA NSE Functional Restrictions with HANA 2.0 SPS 04 and SAP Note
2927591: SAP HANA NSE Functional Restrictions with HANA 2.0 SPS 05 (access requires an
SAP username and password).

The following figure shows the difference between standard SAP HANA in-memory
storage and the storage offered with NSE:

Comparison: standard SAP HANA database with SAP HANA database with NSE

The capacity of a standard SAP HANA database is limited by the amount of main
memory. Using SAP HANA NSE, customers can bypass these limits by storing warm data
on PowerStore storage. Paging operations require a relatively small amount of SAP
HANA memory for the NSE buffer cache because the buffer cache can handle up to eight
times the size of warm data on disk. For example, a 2 TB SAP HANA system without NSE
equates to a 1 TB database in memory. With NSE and the addition of a 500 GB buffer

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cache, you can expand your 1 TB database to a 5 TB database consisting of 1 TB of hot

data, 4 TB of warm data, and a 500 GB buffer cache to page data between memory and
disk. The default buffer cache is set to 10 percent of SAP HANA memory.

While hot data is ‘column loadable’, residing completely in-memory for fast processing
and loaded from disk into SAP HANA memory in columns, with SAP HANA NSE you can
specify certain warm data as ‘page loadable.’ This data is loaded into memory page by
page as required for query processing. Unlike column-loadable data, page-loadable data
does not need to reside completely in memory.

The following figure depicts the SAP HANA database with NSE:

SAP HANA database with NSE

NSE reduces the memory footprint for page-loadable data. The database is partly in
memory and partly on disk, as illustrated in Figure 9. The PowerStore storage system
together with SAP HANA NSE can be used to substantially increase SAP HANA data
capacity and reduce TCO for customers.

NSE is integrated with other SAP HANA functional layers, such as the query optimizer,
query execution engine, column store, and persistence layers. For more information about
SAP HANA NSE and related topics, see SAP HANA Native Storage Extension
Whitepaper.

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SAP HANA host configuration and setup

Host connection When you connect an SAP HANA host to a PowerStore storage system using the FC
and setup using protocol, you must connect two host bus adapter (HBA) ports supporting 16 Gb/s or 32
FC SAN Gb/s link speed to the PowerStore system. Even though it is possible to use a single dual-
port HBA, Dell Technologies highly recommends using two HBAs for HA and redundancy.

Connect and zone each port over the FC SAN network to two FC FE ports per storage
processor on the PowerStore storage system. This setup produces two active and two
standby paths per LUN, as shown in the following figure:

Recommended redundant FC connection

After the HBAs of the SAP HANA server have been zoned to the PowerStore FC FE
ports, use the PowerStore Manager UI to create a host entry in the PowerStore system
and add volumes to the host.
1. From the PowerStore Manager UI, select Compute > Host & Host Groups and
click +ADD HOST.

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The Add Host dialog is displayed, as shown in the following figure:

Adding the SAP HANA host to PowerStore

2. Add the following host details and click Next:

▪ User-friendly name
▪ Host operating system: Linux
▪ Optionally, a server description
The following page is displayed:

Selecting the host protocol

3. Select Fibre Channel as the host protocol type and click Next.
A list of automatically discovered initiators is displayed, as shown in the following
figure:

Selecting host initiators

4. Select the two FC initiators (WWNs) of the SAP HANA host HBAs from the list,
and then click Next.

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A Host Summary page opens, as shown in the following figure:

Host summary page

5. Click ADD HOST to complete the process.

Volume creation and mapping for FC SAN

After the host is created, you can create and add (map) the volumes. Each host requires a
data and a log volume for the SAP HANA persistence.
1. From the PowerStore Manager UI, select Storage > Volumes > + Create.
The Create Volumes page opens, as shown in the following figure:

Creating a volume

2. Provide the following information for the new volume:

▪ Name (or prefix)

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▪ Optionally, a description
▪ Quantity: You can create multiple volumes. When you specify a quantity,
PowerStore automatically adds a number suffix to the volume name.
▪ Required size
▪ Volume performance policy: Select High.

Create volume groups

PowerStore can group volumes together into a volume group. A volume group is useful
for operations that affect multiple volumes simultaneously, for example, when the same
volumes are added (mapped) to multiple hosts.

To create a volume group:

1. On the Create Volumes page, as shown in the following figure, select the hosts
on which to add the new volume and click NEXT.

Mapping a volume to a host

2. Check the host and let PowerStore automatically generate the logical unit number
under which the host discovers the volume. PowerStore selects the next available
number.
3. Click NEXT to access a summary page, as shown in the following figure:

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Create volumes summary page

4. Click CREATE to complete the volume creation.

5. Repeat these steps for all SAP HANA persistence volumes (data and log
volumes).

Using FC SAN volumes on the SAP HANA host

After the SAP HANA data and log volumes have been created using the PowerStore
Manager UI, format them on the SAP HANA host.

Scan LUNs on the host and create file systems

Follow these steps:
1. To scan the new volumes on the SAP HANA host, run the following command:
rescan-scsi-bus.sh

2. To verify that the host can see the new volumes, run:
fdisk -l | grep -B1 -A4 PowerStore

The output should look like this example:

hana01:~ # fdisk -l | grep -B1 -A3 Power

Disk /dev/sdr: 512 GiB, 549755813888 bytes, 1073741824 sectors
Disk model: PowerStore
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 4096 bytes / 4096 bytes
--
Disk /dev/sdq: 1 TiB, 1099511627776 bytes, 2147483648 sectors
Disk model: PowerStore
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes

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I/O size (minimum/optimal): 4096 bytes / 4096 bytes

3. After the new LUNs have been rescanned and are visible to the host, add them to
multipathing. Native Linux multipathing (DM-MPIO) must be enabled on the Linux
host. When multipathing is enabled, the host accesses the block LUNs over
multiple paths, providing redundancy if there is a component failure.
The /etc/multipath.conf file controls multipathing. This file does not exist
by default. Create the file by running the following command:
multipath -t > /etc/multipath.conf

4. Add the following entry to the devices section of /etc/multipath.conf:

device {
vendor "DellEMC"
product "PowerStore"
path_selector "queue-length 0"
path_grouping_policy "group_by_prio"
path_checker "tur"
detect_prio "yes"
failback "immediate"
no_path_retry 3
rr_min_io_rq 1
fast_io_fail_tmo 15
max_sectors_kb 1024
}

Note: Ensure that you refer to the Dell EMC Host Connectivity Guide for Linux for the latest
PowerStore MPIO configuration settings.

5. Restart DM-MPIO after modifying /etc/multipath.conf by running:

systemctl restart multipathd
6. After the block devices are under multipath control, display the devices by
running:
multipath -ll

The following output shows two devices:

368ccf09800dce784009f298f053f1e03 dm-4 DellEMC,PowerStore
size=1.0T features='1 queue_if_no_path' hwhandler='1 alua'
wp=rw
|-+- policy='queue-length 0' prio=50 status=active
| |- 18:0:0:3 sdp 8:240 active ready running
| `- 20:0:1:3 sdgh 131:208 active ready running
`-+- policy='queue-length 0' prio=10 status=enabled
|- 18:0:1:3 sdt 65:48 active ready running
`- 20:0:0:3 sdgd 131:144 active ready running
--
368ccf0980058a0131a024b9cfd171c03 dm-2 DellEMC,PowerStore
size=512G features='1 queue_if_no_path' hwhandler='1 alua'
wp=rw

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|-+- policy='queue-length 0' prio=50 status=active

| |- 18:0:1:1 sds 65:32 active ready running
| `- 20:0:0:1 sdgc 131:128 active ready running
`-+- policy='queue-length 0' prio=10 status=enabled
|- 18:0:0:1 sdo 8:224 active ready running
`- 20:0:1:1 sdgg 131:192 active ready running

When the block devices are under multipath control, you can format them by
using XFS and then mount them as required.

7. To format the block device, run the following (sample) command:

mkfs.xfs /dev/mapper/368ccf09800dce784009f298f053f1e03

8. When installing an SAP HANA single-node instance, automate the mounting of

the SAP HANA persistent devices by adding entries such as the following to the
/etc/fstab file:
/dev/mapper/368ccf09800dce784009f298f053f1e03 /hana/data xfs
rw,relatime,noquota 0 0
/dev/mapper/368ccf0980058a0131a024b9cfd171c03 /hana/log xfs
rw,relatime,noquota 0 0

When you install an SAP HANA multimode scale-out cluster, the SAP HANA
storage connector (fcClient) mounts the devices during SAP HANA startup.

Adjust queue depth for HBAs and LUNs (optional)

The default queue depth settings for HBAs and LUNs work well with SAP HANA devices
in most situations. If you are experiencing performance issues on large block writes with
multiple SAP HANA systems that are connected to your PowerStore system, consider
throttling down the LUN queue depth while leaving the HBA queue depth setting at the
default.
To display the current queue depth values, run the commands for your HBA type:
Emulex HBAs:
cat /sys/class/scsi_host/host20/lpfc_hba_queue_depth
cat /sys/class/scsi_host/host20/lpfc_lun_queue_depth

Determine the host number (in this example, host20) by running the multipath -ll
command, as shown in step 6 of Scan LUNs on the host and create file systems. Linux
assigns a specific number to every connected HBA port. The example uses host18 and
host20.

QLogic HBAs:
cat /sys/module/qla2xxx/parameters/ql2xmaxqdepth

To change the LUN queue depth to a new value:

1. Create or edit the /etc/modprobe.d/lpfc.conf file.

2. Depending on your HBA type, insert one of the following:

Emulex HBAs: options lpfc lpfc_lun_queue_depth=nn

QLogic HBAs: options qla2xxx ql2xmaxqdepth=nn

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setting nn to a numeric value.

3. Rebuild your Linux RAM disk or kernel image by following the instructions in the
Administration Guide for your Linux distribution. For example, for SUSE Linux
Enterprise Server 15, run the following commands and then reboot your system:

cd /boot
sync
dracut -f

Using NAS/NFS for SAP HANA shared directory with FC SAN deployments
In an SAP HANA scale-out cluster, a single shared file system (/hana/shared) is
required and must be mounted on every node. Most SAP HANA installations use a
Network File System (NFS) for this purpose. PowerStore unified storage systems can
provide this file system with the NAS option. To use NAS for the shared file system, see
Creating the SAP HANA shared file system.

Host connection Each SAP HANA host requires a network connection with 25 Gb/s link speed to the
and setup using dedicated storage network switches. For redundancy, the connection must have at least
NAS/NFS two NICs.

With two 25 Gb/s NICs on the SAP HANA hosts, you can optionally configure
active/active interface groups on the SAP HANA hosts to use network bonding (bonds),
where multiple network interfaces are aggregated into a single logical bonded interface.
Hosts that are configured with bonds require MLAG and LACP on the switches. The
following figure shows a sample network topology for eight SAP HANA nodes with two
25 Gb/s NICs, each connected through redundant switches to all four 25 Gb/s IP interface
ports on the PowerStore system:

Storage network connections example for NAS/NFS to eight nodes

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The file systems for the SAP HANA persistence are created on the PowerStore appliance,
as described in Creating NAS file systems for the SAP HANA persistence. Add the
_netdev mount option when mounting NAS devices. This mount option prevents the
system from attempting to mount these file systems until the network has been enabled
on the system.

When you install an SAP HANA system, either as a single-node instance or a multimode
scale-out cluster, you must automate the mounting of the SAP HANA persistent devices
by using /etc/fstab. The mounts must be evenly distributed across the PowerStore IP
address of the NAS servers on both PowerStore nodes within the appliance.

Creating the SAP HANA shared file system

This section is applicable for both FC SAN and NAS/NFS deployments. The SAP HANA
shared file system is used for the SAP HANA binary, trace, and some configuration files.
The shared file system must be mounted under the /hana/shared mount point. In SAP
HANA single node (scale-up) systems, the file system can reside on a block volume using
the XFS file system. For SAP HANA scale-out systems, this file system must be shared
across all scale-out nodes, including worker and standby nodes.

Note: The /hana/shared file system must be shared on all hosts on SAP HANA scale-out
systems in both FC SAN and NAS/NFS deployments.

Create a NAS server

To create a NAS/NFS shared file system on a PowerStore system, follow these steps in
the PowerStore Manager UI. If NAS servers already exist in the UI, skip these steps.
1. Select Storage > NAS Servers and click + Create.
The following page opens:

Creating a NAS server

2. Enter the required details and click NEXT to specify the sharing protocol, as
shown in the following figure:

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Specifying a sharing protocol

3. Choose NFSv3, NFSv4, or both depending on your requirements, and then define
the UNIX directory servers and DNS. Click NEXT to view a summary, as shown in
the following figure:

NAS servers summary page

4. Click CREATE NAS SERVER. For HA and load-balancing, Dell Technologies

highly recommends creating one NAS server on node A and a second NAS
server on node B.

Create a shared file system

To create an SAP HANA shared file system:

1. In the PowerStore Manager UI, select Storage > File Systems and click
+ CREATE.
The Create File System page opens, as shown in the following figure:

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Selecting a NAS server

2. Select a NAS server and click NEXT:

3. Provide the following details for the file system:
▪ Name
▪ (Optional) description
▪ File system size (see SAP HANA capacity requirements for information about
capacity sizing)

The Create a File System Details page opens, as shown in the following figure:

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Creating file system details

4. Click NEXT and then provide an NFS export name and (optionally) a description
for the export, as shown in the following figure:

NFS Export details

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5. Click NEXT to configure access to the file system based on your security
requirements, as shown in the following figure:

Configuring access

6. Click NEXT to provide an optional protection policy. Select CREATE FILE

SYSTEM to complete this step.

Mounting the HANA shared file system on the SAP HANA host
On the SAP HANA host:
1. Create the /hana/shared mount point by running the following command:
mkdir -p /hana/shared

2. Add the following entry to /etc/fstab:

<NAS Server>:/hanashared /hana/shared nfs4
rw,bg,hard,timeo=600,intr,noatime,vers=4.0,rsize=1048576,wsi
ze=1048576,lock,_netdev 0 0

where <NAS Server> is the IP address or hostname of your NAS server on the
PowerStore system.
If you are using NFSv3, adjust the NFS version.

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Creating NAS file systems for the SAP HANA persistence

When creating file systems for the SAP HANA persistence, follow these configuration
guidelines:
1. Create two NAS servers that are dedicated to SAP HANA persistence: one NAS
server on PowerStore node A and a second NAS server on PowerStore node B,
as shown in the following figure. See Create a NAS server for the steps.

Dedicated NAS servers, one on node A and one on node B

2. Create two file systems for every SAP HANA node, one for data and the other for
log. See Create a shared file system for the steps.
3. Distribute the file systems evenly across the two NAS servers.
This step is important for performance and load-balancing. For example, place
data and log for the first SAP HANA node on NAS server A and place data and
log for the second SAP HANA node on NAS server B. Continue to balance
subsequent nodes across the two NAS servers. The following figure shows an
example:

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Data and log volumes balanced across two NAS servers

Mount the SAP HANA file system for data and log
On the SAP HANA hosts, create the mount points by running the following commands,
where x = 1, 2, 3, and so on up to the number of hosts in the scale-out system:
mkdir -p /hana/data/SID/mnt0000x
mkdir -p /hana/data/SID/mnt0000x
chmod -R 777 /hana/data/SID/
chmod -R 777 /hana/log/SID/

Note: For SAP HANA scale-out systems, all the mount points must be created on each host.

Prepare the /etc/fstab file

Add the entries to /etc/fstab:
<NAS Server>:/<filesystem> /hana/shared nfs4
rw,bg,hard,timeo=600,intr,noatime,vers=4.0,rsize=1048576,wsize=104
8576,lock,_netdev 0 0

where <NAS Server> is the IP address or hostname of your NAS server on the
PowerStore system. If you are using NFSv3, adjust the NFS version.
To achieve optimal performance, ensure that the SAP HANA mounts are evenly
distributed across all available PowerStore front-end IP networks of the NAS servers in
the /etc/fstab file. For more information, see Host connection and setup using
NAS/NFS.

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In a 2+1 SAP HANA scale-out system with SID = NAS, the mount points are included in
the /etc/fstab file on each of the SAP HANA clients including any standby hosts. The
following code extract shows an example:

Example using NFS4 mount parameters

If preferred, use the following example for /etc/fstab with NFSv3 parameters.

Example using NFS3 mount parameters

The operating system command mount –a mounts all the directories from the
PowerStore system. Run this command on each SAP HANA client.

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SAP HANA installation with FC connectivity

Overview This section describes the required settings in the SAP HANA global.ini file for an
SAP HANA scale-out installation on PowerStore systems.

SAP HANA Deploying an SAP HANA multinode scale-out cluster on FC-connected systems requires
storage the SAP HANA storage connector (fcClient or fcClientMpath). The storage
connector connector is responsible for mounting and unmounting the persistence (data and log) to
the SAP HANA worker nodes.

The storage connector also writes SCSI-3 persistent reservations (PRs) to the devices.
The Linux sg_persist or mpathpersist command initiates an operation known as I/O
fencing, which ensures that only one SAP HANA worker host has simultaneous access to
a set of data and log devices.

mpathpersist and fcClientMpath

WIth SAP HANA SP05 Rev 53, SAP released a newer version of the storage connector
fcClientMpath, which uses the command mpathpersist rather than sg_persist.
The main difference is that mpathpersist puts the reservations on the devices,
enabling device paths to be added while the mount process is ongoing, whereas
sg_persist puts the reservations on the device paths when mounting the devices.
Paths cannot be added during the mount process and a remount is necessary.

To use the fcClientMpath connector:

1. Add “reservation_key file” to the default section of the multipath.conf file.

The keys are added during the mount process to /etc/multipath/prkeys.
2. Set ha_provider = hdb_ha.fcClientMpath in the global.ini section.

SAP HANA The storage connector API is controlled in the storage section of the SAP HANA
global.ini file global.ini file, as shown in the following code sample. The storage section of the file
contains entries for the block devices. You can run the multipath –ll command on the
SAP HANA hosts to determine the worldwide identifiers (WWIDs) of the partition entries.

[communication]
listeninterface = .global

[multidb]
mode = multidb
database_isolation = low
singletenant = yes

[persistence]
basepath_datavolumes = /hana/data/ANA
basepath_logvolumes = /hana/log/ANA
use_mountpoints = yes

[storage]

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ha_provider = hdb_ha.fcClient
partition_*_*__prtype = 5
partition_1_data__wwid = 3600601604f804a00a79d565d90f63337
partition_1_log__wwid = 3600601604f804a00f99d565d224bd861
partition_2_data__wwid = 3600601604f804a00a89d565d2fd702d9
partition_2_log__wwid = 3600601604f804a00fa9d565d72e37054
partition_3_data__wwid = 3600601604f804a00a99d565d2e9c1d5b
partition_3_log__wwid = 3600601604f804a00fa9d565d2593cbc1

[trace]
ha_fcclient = info

For more information about the SAP HANA scale-out installation, the storage connector,
and configuring the global.ini file, see the SAP HANA Administration Guide and the
SAP HANA Server Installation and Update Guide on the SAP Help Portal.

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SAP HANA installation with NAS/NFS connectivity

Installing an SAP Installing an SAP HANA scale-out cluster on PowerStore NAS systems involves:
HANA scale-out • Configuring the /etc/fstab file on each SAP HANA client and mounting all
cluster the SAP HANA data, log, and shared directories from the PowerStore NAS
storage to the SAP HANA nodes
• Installing an SAP HANA scale-out instance with the SAP HANA hdblcm
command-line tool by using the NAS storage directories that you previously
created

Prerequisites
The configuration example in this guide assumes that the following basic installation and
configuration operations are complete on the SAP HANA nodes:
• The operating system is installed and configured according to the SAP
recommendations. Our example uses SUSE Linux 15 SP1 for SAP applications.
• The directories to be used for mount points have been created for
/hana/shared and also for the data directories
(/hana/data/SID/mnt0000x) and log directories
(/hana/log/SID/mnt0000x)on each of the SAP HANA nodes with 777
permissions.
• All network settings and bandwidth requirements for internode communications
are configured according to the SAP requirements.
• SSH keys have been exchanged between all SAP HANA nodes.
• System time synchronization has been configured through an NTP server.
• The SAP HANA installation DVD ISO file has been downloaded from the SAP
website and is available on a shared file system.

Note: SAP HANA can be installed only on certified server hardware. A certified SAP HANA expert
must perform the installation.

After all the file systems are mounted, you are ready to install the SAP HANA scale-out
cluster. Our example uses the hdblcm tool to install the SAP HANA 2+1 scale-out cluster.
For more information, see the SAP HANA Studio Installation and Update Guide.

After the SAP HANA installation DVD ISO file has been extracted to a shared software-
repository file system that is mounted on all hosts, begin the installation by running the
following command from the extracted installation folder:
#/SAPShareNew/software/SAP/HANA/hana2_rev2053/SAP_HANA_DATABASE/hd
blcm

SAP HANA Lifecycle Management - SAP HANA Database

2.00.053.00.1605092543
************************************************************
Scanning software locations...
Detected components:

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SAP HANA Database (2.00.053.00.1605092543) in

/SAPShareNew/software/SAP/HANA/hana2_rev2053/SAP_HANA_DATABASE/ser
ver
SAP HANA Database Client (2.7.21.1611351107) in
/SAPShareNew/software/SAP/HANA/hana2_rev2053/SAP_HANA_CLIENT/clien
t

Choose an action
Index | Action | Description
-----------------------------------------------
1 | install | Install new system
2 | extract_components | Extract components
3 | Exit (do nothing) |
Enter selected action index [3]: 1
SAP HANA Database version '2.00.053.00.1605092543' will be
installed.

Select additional components for installation:

Index | Components | Description

----------------------------------------------------------------
-----------------------------
1 | all | All components
2 | server | No additional components
3 | client | Install SAP HANA Database Client version
2.7.21.1611351107

Enter comma-separated list of the selected indices [3]:

Enter Installation Path [/hana/shared]:
Enter Local Host Name [hana01]:
Do you want to add hosts to the system? (y/n) [n]: y
Enter comma-separated host names to add: hana02,hana03
Enter Root User Name [root]:
Collecting information from host 'hana02'...
Collecting information from host 'hana03'...
Information collected from host 'hana03'.
Information collected from host 'hana02'.
Select roles for host 'hana02':

Index | Host Role | Description

----------------------------------------------------------------
---
1 | worker | Database Worker
2 | standby | Database Standby
….
Enter comma-separated list of selected indices [1]: 1
Enter Host Failover Group for host 'hana02' [default]:
Enter Storage Partition Number for host 'hana02' [<<assign
automatically>>]:
Enter Worker Group for host 'hana02' [default]:

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Select roles for host 'hana03':

Index | Host Role | Description
----------------------------------------------------------------
---
1 | worker | Database Worker
2 | standby | Database Standby
….
Enter comma-separated list of selected indices [1]: 2
Enter Host Failover Group for host 'hana03' [default]:
Enter Worker Group for host 'hana03' [default]:
Enter SAP HANA System ID: NAS
Enter Instance Number [00]:
Enter Local Host Worker Group [default]:
Index | System Usage | Description
----------------------------------------------------------------
---------------
1 | production | System is used in a production
environment
2 | test | System is used for testing, not
production
3 | development | System is used for development, not
production
4 | custom | System usage is neither production, test
nor development
Select System Usage / Enter Index [4]:
Enter Location of Data Volumes [/hana/data/NAS]:
Enter Location of Log Volumes [/hana/log/NAS]:
Restrict maximum memory allocation? [n]:
Enter Certificate Host Name For Host 'hana01' [hana01]:
Enter Certificate Host Name For Host 'hana02' [hana02]:
Enter Certificate Host Name For Host 'hana03' [hana03]:
Enter System Administrator (nasadm) Password:
Confirm System Administrator (nasadm) Password:
Enter System Administrator Home Directory [/usr/sap/NAS/home]:
Enter System Administrator Login Shell [/bin/sh]:
Enter System Administrator User ID [1001]:
Enter System Database User (SYSTEM) Password:
Confirm System Database User (SYSTEM) Password:
Restart system after machine reboot? [n]:
……..
Do you want to continue? (y/n): y
Installing components...
Installing SAP HANA Database...
Preparing package …..
Creating System...
Extracting software...
Installing package
Starting SAP HANA Database system...
All server processes started on host 'hana01' (worker).
Importing delivery units...

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Adding 2 additional hosts in parallel

Adding host 'hana03'...
Adding host 'hana02'...
hana02: Adding host 'hana02' to instance '00'...
hana03: Adding host 'hana03' to instance '00'...
hana02: Starting SAP HANA Database...
hana03: Starting SAP HANA Database...
hana03: All server processes started on host 'hana03'
(standby).
hana02: All server processes started on host 'hana02'
(worker).
Installing Resident hdblcm...
Installing SAP HANA Database Client...
….
Registering SAP HANA Database Components on Local Host...
Regenerating SSL certificates...
Deploying SAP Host Agent configurations...
Updating SAP HANA Database Instance Integration on Remote Hosts...
Updating SAP HANA Database instance integration on host
'hana02'...
Updating SAP HANA Database instance integration on host
'hana03'...
Creating Component List...
SAP HANA Database System installed

Implementing This section applies only to multihost SAP HANA scale-out instances on NAS and the
STONITH with host autofailover. On failover, the database on the standby host must have read- and
the HA/DR write-access to the files of the failed active host. If the failed host can still write to these
provider for SAP files, the files might become corrupted. Preventing this corruption is called fencing.
HANA
When you use shared file systems such as PowerStore NAS storage and NFSv3 or
NFSv4, the STONITH method is implemented to achieve proper fencing capabilities and
ensure that locks are always freed.

Note: For multihost SAP HANA scale-out instances and the host auto-failover with NFSv3, the
STONITH (SAP HANA HA/DR provider) implementation is mandatory. With NFSv4, a locking
mechanism based on lease-time is available. The locking mechanism can be used for I/O fencing
and STONITH is not required. However, STONITH can be used to speed up failover and ensure
that locks are always released.

In such a setup, the storage connector API can be used for invoking the STONITH calls.
During failover, the SAP HANA leading host calls the STONITH method of the custom
storage connector with the hostname of the failed host as the input value.

A mapping of hostnames to management network addresses is maintained, which is used

to send a reboot signal to the server through the management network. When the host
restarts, it automatically starts in standby host role. The STONITH example uses the
Intelligent Platform Management Interface (IPMI) in bare-metal deployments with Dell
EMC PowerEdge servers.

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Enable IPMI over LAN

For PowerEdge servers, you must configure IPMI over LAN for iDRAC to enable or
disable IPMI commands over LAN channels to any external systems. If IPMI over LAN is
not configured, external systems cannot communicate with the iDRAC server by using
IPMI commands.

To enable IPMI over LAN:

1. In the iDRAC Settings Utility, select Connectivity.
The iDRAC Settings page opens, as shown in the following figure:

iDRAC Settings page

2. Enable IPMI Over LAN, and then click Apply.

3. Repeat the preceding steps for each host that is used in the SAP HANA scale-out
instance.
The /etc/hosts file maintains a mapping of hostnames to IPMI IP addresses in
STONITH using a standard naming convention:

# #
# IPMI mapping
#
10.230.79.85 hana01-ipmi
10.230.79.86 hana02-ipmi
10.230.79.87 hana03-ipmi
4. Verify that the IPMI tool is working on each SAP HANA host by running the
following command as root:
ipmitool power status –H hana01-ipmi -U root -P xxxx

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If IPMI is working successfully, Chassis Power is on is returned.

5. Set the set-user-ID bit for IPMItool to enable sidadm execution permissions by
running:
chmod u+s /usr/bin/ipmitool

Create a custom HA/DR STONITH provider

To create your own HA/DR provider, perform the following steps and then add the hook
method that you want to use. The example here uses STONITH. For more information,
see the SAP HANA Administration Guide.
1. As sidadm, create a directory for the HA/DR provider. The directory must be
within the /hana/shared storage of the SAP HANA installation but outside the
<SID> directory structure. Our example uses the location
/hana/shared/HANA_Hooks.
2. Copy exe/python_support/hdb_ha_dr/HADRDummy.py from an installed
SAP HANA system to the new location. For example, copy the file and rename it
to: /hana/shared/HANA_Hooks/HA_STONITH_Hook.py
3. Customize the contents of the new file by renaming the Python class to the name
of the HA_STONITH_Hook file. Within the HA_STONITH_Hook.py we also
customized def __init__(), def about, and the STONITH hook def
stonith, as shown in the following code sample:
"""
Sample for a HA/DR hook provider.

When using your own code in here, please copy this file to
location on /hana/shared outside the HANA installation.
This file will be overwritten with each hdbupd call! To configure
your own changed version of this file, please add
to your global.ini lines similar to this:

[ha_dr_provider_<HA_STONITH_Hook>]
provider = <HA_STONITH_Hook>
path = /hana/shared/HANA_Hooks
execution_order = 1

For all hooks, 0 must be returned in case of success.

"""

from hdb_ha_dr.client import HADRBase, Helper

import os, time

class HA_STONITH_Hook(HADRBase):

def __init__(self, *args, **kwargs):

# delegate construction to base class
super(HA_STONITH_Hook, self).__init__(*args, **kwargs)

def about(self):

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return {"provider_company" : "DellEMC",

"provider_name" : "HA_STONITH_Hook", #
provider name = class name
"provider_description" : "Dell EMC IPMI stonith
for HANA",
"provider_version" : "1.0"}

def startup(self, hostname, storage_partition,

system_replication_mode, **kwargs):
self.tracer.debug("enter startup hook; %s" % locals())
self.tracer.debug(self.config.toString())

self.tracer.info("leave startup hook")

return 0

def shutdown(self, hostname, storage_partition,

system_replication_mode, **kwargs):
self.tracer.debug("enter shutdown hook; %s" % locals())
self.tracer.debug(self.config.toString())

self.tracer.info("leave shutdown hook")

return 0

def failover(self, hostname, storage_partition,

system_replication_mode, **kwargs):
self.tracer.debug("enter failover hook; %s" % locals())
self.tracer.debug(self.config.toString())

self.tracer.info("leave failover hook")

return 0

def stonith(self, failingHost, **kwargs):

self.tracer.debug("enter HANA HA stonith hook; %s" %
locals())
self.tracer.debug(self.config.toString())

self.tracer.info( "Stonith - rebooting failing host %s" %

failingHost)
ipmi_host = "%s-ipmi" % failingHost
# default credentails in command example, update credentials
for your environment
power_off = "ipmitool power off -I lanplus -H %s -U root -P
<password>" % ipmi_host
power_status = "ipmitool power status -I lanplus -H %s -U
root -P <password>" % ipmi_host
power_on = "ipmitool power on -I lanplus -H %s -U root -P
calvin" % ipmi_host

#Power off failing host and check power status

(code, output) = Helper._runOsCommand(power_off)

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self.tracer.info(output)
time.sleep(10)
(code, output) = Helper._runOsCommand(power_status)
self.tracer.info(output)
if 'is off' in output:
msg = "Successfully powered off %s" % failingHost
self.tracer.info(msg)
rc = 0
elif 'is on' in output:
msg = "failed to power off %s, will try again" %
failingHost
self.tracer.info(msg)
(code, output) = Helper._runOsCommand(power_off)
self.tracer.info(output)
time.sleep(10)
(code, output) =
Helper._runOsCommand(power_status)
self.tracer.info(output)
if 'is off' in output:
msg = "Successfully powered off %s" %
failingHost
self.tracer.info(msg)
rc = 0
elif 'is on' in output:
msg = "unable to power off %s - Please CHECK" %
failingHost
self.tracer.info(msg)
return 1
#Power back on the failed host
if rc == 0:
(code, output) = Helper._runOsCommand(power_on)
time.sleep(10)
self.tracer.info(output)
(code, output) =
Helper._runOsCommand(power_status)
self.tracer.info(output)
if 'is on' in output:
msg = "successfully powered on %s" %
failingHost
self.tracer.info(msg)
rc = 0
elif 'is off' in output:
msg = "unable to power on %s - will try again to
power on" % failingHost
self.tracer.info(msg)
(code, output) = Helper._runOsCommand(power_on)
self.tracer.info(output)
time.sleep(10)
(code, output) =
Helper._runOsCommand(power_status)

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self.tracer.info(output)
if 'is off' in output:
msg = "unable to power on %s -
Please CHECK" % failingHost
self.tracer.info(msg)
rc = 1
elif 'is on' in output:
msg = "Successfully powered on
%s - Please CHECK" % failingHost
self.tracer.info(msg)
rc = 0
self.tracer.info("leaving HANA HA stonith hook")
return rc

def preTakeover(self, isForce, **kwargs):

"""Pre takeover hook."""
self.tracer.info("%s.preTakeover method called with
isForce=%s" % (self.__class__.__name__, isForce))

if not isForce:
# run pre takeover code
# run pre-check, return != 0 in case of error => will
abort takeover
return 0
else:
# possible force-takeover only code
# usually nothing to do here
return 0

def postTakeover(self, rc, **kwargs):

"""Post takeover hook."""
self.tracer.info("%s.postTakeover method called with
rc=%s" % (self.__class__.__name__, rc))

if rc == 0:
# normal takeover succeeded
return 0
elif rc == 1:
# waiting for force takeover
return 0
elif rc == 2:
# error, something went wrong
return 0

def srConnectionChanged(self, parameters, **kwargs):

self.tracer.debug("enter srConnectionChanged hook; %s" %
locals())

# Access to parameters dictionary

hostname = parameters['hostname']

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port = parameters['port']
volume = parameters['volume']
serviceName = parameters['service_name']
database = parameters['database']
status = parameters['status']
databaseStatus = parameters['database_status']
systemStatus = parameters['system_status']
timestamp = parameters['timestamp']
isInSync = parameters['is_in_sync']
reason = parameters['reason']
siteName = parameters['siteName']

self.tracer.info("leave srConnectionChanged hook")

return 0

def srReadAccessInitialized(self, parameters, **kwargs):

self.tracer.debug("enter srReadAccessInitialized hook; %s"
% locals())

# Access to parameters dictionary

database = parameters['last_initialized_database']
databasesNoReadAccess =
parameters['databases_without_read_access_initialized']
databasesReadAccess =
parameters['databases_with_read_access_initialized']
timestamp = parameters['timestamp']
allDatabasesInitialized =
parameters['all_databases_initialized']

self.tracer.info("leave srReadAccessInitialized hook")

return 0

def srServiceStateChanged(self, parameters, **kwargs):

self.tracer.debug("enter srServiceStateChanged hook; %s" %
locals())

# Access to parameters dictionary

hostname = parameters['hostname']
service = parameters['service_name']
port = parameters['service_port']
status = parameters['service_status']
previousStatus = parameters['service_previous_status']
timestamp = parameters['timestamp']
daemonStatus = parameters['daemon_status']
databaseId = parameters['database_id']
databaseName = parameters['database_name']
databaseStatus = parameters['database_status']

self.tracer.info("leave srServiceStateChanged hook")

return 0

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def srSecondaryUnregistered(self, parameters, **kwargs):

self.tracer.debug("enter srSecondaryUnregistered hook; %s"
% locals())

# Access to parameters dictionary

siteName = parameters['site_name']
siteId = parameters['site_id']
reason = parameters['reason']

self.tracer.info("leave srSecondaryUnregistered hook")

return 0

Install the HA/DR provider script

You can add, configure, and monitor your custom provider scripts in the SAP HANA
Cockpit.
1. After the HA/DR provider script is created, install the script on an SAP HANA
system by adding an ha_dr_provider_<classname> section with the following
parameters to the global.ini file:
provider: Class name
path: Location of the script
execution_order: Ordering of the HA/DR provider (if there is more than one; this
is a number from 1 through 99)
For example, add the following details to the global.ini file:

[ha_dr_provider_<HA_STONITH_Hook>]
provider = HA_STONITH_Hook
path = /hana/shared/HANA_Hooks
execution_order = 50

2. Using the SAP HANA Cockpit, in your SAP HANA database, select Database
Administration > Manage system configuration. You can add, configure, and
monitor the HA/DR provider information, as shown in the following figure:

SAP HANA Cockpit: ha_dr_provider section in global.ini

Verify the installation of the HA/DR provider script HA_STONITH.Hook.py

All scripts are loaded during the startup phase of the name server. You can monitor the
name server trace file while general information is collected about the ha_dr_provider
and return codes.

Perform host autofailovers to ensure that the failovers work as expected and that
STONITH has been implemented on the failed host. The following figure shows an

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example of output from the name server trace file following a host autofailover and
successful implementation of STONITH:

Ha_dr_provider output from the leading name server trace file

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 Post-installation configurations

Post-installation configuration
File I/O The base layer of SAP HANA provides two file I/O interfaces:
optimization • SimpleFile―Used for small, simple I/O requests on configuration files, traces, and
after the SAP so on. This interface uses lightweight, platform-independent wrappers around
HANA system calls.
installation
• FileFactory & File―Used for huge, complex streams of I/O requests on the data
and log volumes and for backup and recovery. This interface uses synchronous
and asynchronous I/O operations.

You can configure the SAP HANA file I/O layer to optimize file I/O for a specific file system
and storage system.

Note: The Linux XFS file system is used on all Dell EMC storage volumes for the SAP HANA
persistence.

SAP HANA 1.0

After the initial SAP HANA installation is complete, set the parameters by running the SAP
HANA hdbparam command as <sid>adm in the Linux shell:

su - <sid>adm
hdbparam –p # lists current parameter setting
hdbparam –-paramset fileio [LOG].max_parallel_io_requests=128
hdbparam –-paramset fileio [LOG].num_completion_queues=4
hdbparam –-paramset fileio [LOG]. num_submit_queues=8

SAP HANA 2.0

Effective from SAP HANA 2.0, the hdbparam command-line tool has been deprecated.
Instead, the parameters are defined as normal parameters in
global.ini > [fileio]. Using the SQL console in the SAP HANA Cockpit, set the
parameters in the global.ini file by running the following commands:

ALTER SYSTEM ALTER CONFIGURATION ('global.ini', 'SYSTEM') SET

('fileio','max_parallel_io_requests[LOG]') = '128';
ALTER SYSTEM ALTER CONFIGURATION ('global.ini', 'SYSTEM') SET
('fileio','num_completion_queues[LOG]') = '4';
ALTER SYSTEM ALTER CONFIGURATION ('global.ini', 'SYSTEM') SET
('fileio','num_submit_queues[LOG]') = '8' WITH RECONFIGURE

The following figure shows what the fileio section of global.ini looks like in the
Cockpit after the parameters are set:

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SAP HANA parameters in global.ini

All other parameters are set by default during installation. For more information, see SAP
Note 2399079—Elimination of hdbparam in SAP HANA 2 (access requires SAP user
credentials).

Configuring SAP SAP HANA NSE uses the data volume that the main database is using. While no special
HANA NSE configuration steps are necessary for the NSE persistence layer, sizing must consider the
additional capacity for the feature.

When you use the SAP HANA NSE feature, a portion of DRAM is used as a buffer cache
to dynamically load paged data from the persistence (data volume). By default, the size of
this buffer cache is 10 percent of the total main memory of the system. For more
information, see “SAP HANA Buffer Cache” in the SAP HANA Administration Guide.

SAP recommends not exceeding a ratio of 1:8 for the total amount of warm data handled
by SAP HANA NSE and the buffer cache. When using SAP HANA NSE, you can store
data in the warm tier in the following specific granularities:
• Tables
• Columns
• Partitions

Data location handling is built into SAP HANA's Data Definition Language (DDL). Manage
the configuration by using the SAP HANA CLI SQL client hdbsql or the SQL editor in SAP
HANA Studio or SAP HANA Cockpit.

To create a table using SAP HANA NSE (the warm tier), run the following DDL command:

CREATE T_DELL_NSE (id INT, name VARCHAR(100)) PAGE LOADABLE;

To create a specific column in the warm tier, run:

CREATE T_DELL_NSE (id INT PAGE LOADABLE, name VARCHAR(100));

To move an entire existing table to the warm tier, run:

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ALTER TABLE T_DELL_NSE PAGE LOADABLE CASCADE

To move a specific column to the warm tier, run:

ALTER TABLET_DELL_NSE ALTER (name VARCHAR(100) PAGE LOADABLE);

SAP HANA NSE Advisor, which is based on real-time statistics from an existing SAP
HANA database, provides recommendations for which data to move from the hot (in-
memory) tier to the warm tier (SAP HANA NSE). Use the SAP HANA NSE Advisor
information for guidance regarding the amount of data to move to the warm tier on an
existing system.

For more information about SAP HANA NSE, SAP HANA NSE Data Sizing, and related
topics, see the SAP Help Portal.

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 Conclusion

Conclusion

Summary Using SAP HANA in TDI deployments with Dell EMC PowerStore enterprise storage
systems provides many benefits, including reduced hardware and operational costs, lower
risks, and greater hardware vendor flexibility.

You can easily transition to this new architecture and rely on Dell Technologies
Professional Services to minimize risk.

SAP certifies PowerStore storage systems for both the FC SAN and NAS/NFS protocols,
giving the customer the choice of block or file for SAP HANA. You can use these storage
systems for SAP HANA production and nonproduction installations and for single-node
and scale-out systems.

Findings During our tests with SAP HANA on PowerStore storage systems, we observed that:
• SAP HANA production installations on PowerStore meet the SAP HANA
storage performance KPIs when the configuration and scalability rules that are
described in this guide are applied.
• Using PowerStore clusters for block storage with up to four appliances enables
customers to linearly scale the number of FC SAN-connected SAP HANA nodes.
• PowerStore always-on inline data reduction provides significant storage efficiency
and reduces the capacity requirement. Specific savings might vary depending on
use case scenarios.

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 References

References
Dell The following documentation provides additional relevant information. Access to these
Technologies documents depends on your login credentials. If you do not have access to a document,
documentation contact your Dell Technologies representative.
• PowerStore Info Hub
• Solutions Info Hub for SAP
• Dell EMC PowerStore: Best Practices Guide
• Host Connectivity Guide for Linux

SAP HANA Relevant documentation is available at the SAP Help Portal.

documentation Additional resources
• SAP HANA Storage Requirements
• SAP HANA Tailored Data Center Integration – Overview
• SAP HANA Tailored Data Center Integration Frequently Asked Questions

• SAP HANA Native Storage Extension Whitepaper

Note: The following SAP notes are available at the SAP Knowledge Base. Access to the notes
requires an SAP username and password.

• SAP Note 1943937 - Hardware Configuration Check Tool – Central Note

• SAP Note 1969700: SQL statement collection for SAP HANA
• SAP Note 1999930: SAP HANA I/O Analysis
• SAP Note 2399079: Elimination of hdbparam in HANA 2.0

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