® ®

Oracle SAP

for
T E C H N O L O G Y U P D A T E

N E W
Oracle Database Vault for SAP Customers
D A T A B A S E 11g

Oracle for SAP

is safe, reliable
and scalable
– the Grid enabled
platform

No. 17 Oracle for SAP, April 2008

www.oracle.com/sap
 Oracle for SAP
is safe, reliable and scalable
– the Grid enabled platform

g
CONTENTS 10
D A T A B A S E

1 Editorial
2 Oracle 11g outlook and 10g supported features for SAP
6 Oracle Advanced Security Option (ASO) for SAP
8 Q & A Oracle Database Vault
13 Oracle Database Security
14 Interview – Between Oracle for SAP Technology Update Magazine and Dr. Christian Graf, SAP AG
18 New Oracle Technology Features for SAP customers (Compression, Partitioning, ASO)
23 Oracle Data Guard at Vilene Ltd. Japan
26 Oracle 10g RAC for SAP at HR Group (Reno shoes)
28 Oracle 10g RAC for SAP at Staedtisches Klinikum Munich
30 Oracle RAC for SAP at Gruppo Hera
33 Oracle 10g RAC for SAP at Stadtwerke Munich
36 Oracle 10g RAC for SAP at Cat Logistics Services
40 COOP is benefiting from Oracle Partitioning Option for SAP
42 Winter Corporation: Field Experience with Large-Scale Data Warehousing on Oracle (Colgate Palmolive Company)
45 Certified SAP on RAC Configurations for Windows and Linux
46 DELL-SAP on RAC Promotion
48 Oracle Advanced Customer Services for SAP
52 Mentor Graphics – Technology leader manage financial data and its most important assets – people
55 Oracle 10g RAC World Record: SAP Standard Application Benchmarks
58 SWAROVSKI increases SAP System availability with Oracle Data Guard
60 IOUG – SAP Special Interest Group (SAP SIG)
61 Oracle 10g Datamining Connector 2.1 for SAP BI customers
64 Delta Consulting
65 E2SCorp – Everest Business Solution, Inc
66 UPW Innovative IT-Solutions – Policy Guard Manager – PGM for SAP, Oracle and Operating System
67 IS4IT – SAP on RAC Implementation and IT-Consulting
68 TUSC – Oracle Partner for SAP
69 SAP Press – SAP Database Administration with Oracle
70 California State University, CHICO College of Business – Hosting SAP on Oracle (IOUG SAP SIG)
72 Useful links Oracle Database for SAP customers
73 Imprint
 Oracle for SAP – The #1 Database safe, reliable, scalable, optimized for SAP customers 1

DEAR SAP CUSTOMER,

For almost 20 years Oracle has been the safe, reliable, and scalable database of choice by SAP
customers. The Oracle database is optimized for SAP applications and two thirds of SAP
customers around the world, in every industry, entrust their application deployments on
Oracle databases. Customers are running their SAP applications with Oracle on all major
operating systems including Windows, Linux, and Unix.

Oracle Corporation and SAP AG have an ongoing commitment to our joint customers and
have just extended the long-standing reseller and customer support agreements, which
provide enhanced access to Oracle Database technology and improved customer support.

Today, the Oracle database and the high availability and scalability option Real Application
Clusters (RAC) as well as Oracle Dataguard (DG) are supported and widely adopted by SAP customers.

Oracle is again breaking down the barriers and leading the way in the creation, development, and manufacturing of the
industry’s most advanced database security functionality, like Oracle Advanced Security and Oracle Database Vault.

Last year was a busy year for Oracle/SAP Development as well as for the Oracle/SAP Support and Services team.
Numerous new Oracle features, tools and methodologies have either been developed or integrated into SAP solutions.
In this edition, we describe some of the most important new technologies and the benefits they offer to SAP customers.

One of the biggest challenges today is the rapid growth in database size. In addition to Oracle Database technologies
that have been available for several years like Bitmap Indexing or variable length storage for all data types, now SAP
on Oracle customers can utilize Index Key Compression to save disk space.

Huge amounts of data continue to increase and threaten systems performance. Oracle offers a rich collection of
partitioning strategies to reduce I/O and improve performance. SAP BI customers have known the benefits for many
years. Thanks to tools and a methodology developed by the Oracle/SAP Support and Services team, Oracle Partitioning
is now available for SAP ERP systems as well.

Compliance and security are more important than ever before. Therefore, Oracle Advanced Security, an Oracle Database
Option that allows customers to encrypt data, has been certified with SAP applications and implemented by customers.

Oracle Database Vault, a product that helps customers meet regulatory compliance requirements by enforcing separation
of duty.

Customers are always concerned about manageability. We discuss SAP DBA Cockpit for Oracle; in particular it’s use
of Oracle Automatic Workload Repository (AWR). AWR automatically stores workload and performance statistics,
so administrators and support engineers can analyze and quickly resolve performance issues, even if the root cause
happened hours or days before.

In this edition, you will learn more about these features and selected customer success stories. See more information
at http://oracle.com/sap. We welcome your comments and questions, contact us at: saponoracle_de@oracle.com

Sincerely

Gerhard Kuppler
Senior Director Corporate SAP Account
Oracle Corporation
 2
U P D A T E O N O R A C L E 1 0g D A T A B A S E F U N C T I O N A L I T Y ,
R E A L A P P L I C AT I O N C L U S T E R S A N D O R A C L E 1 1 g
FOR SAP OUTLOOK
INTRODUCTION
Oracle Database 10g is the first database designed for
Enterprise Grid Computing to lower hardware costs
by leveraging low cost components and by greatly
g
10 increasing resource utilization levels, therefore com-
plementing the Advanced Computing Infrastructure
concept of SAP.
D AT A B A S E Oracle Database 10g Release 2 is available to SAP
customer for 24 months now and is rapidly been used
by SAP customers. The following provides a list of
important features available to SAP customers today.
Multiple Oracle Patch (MOPatch) Utility
The Maintenance of single patches for databases on
Unix and Linux platforms can be a time-consuming
and complex job when dealing with many SAP
installations. Also the experience from many support
calls especially in the area of database performance
shows that many databases are not always at a current
patch level. To help database administrators in these
areas a new patch utility MOPatch was developed
to guarentee that an Oracle database for the SAP
application always uses the most current set of patches
certified by SAP. SAP note 1027012 provides more
details on how to use MOPatch.
Index Key Compression
This feature allows B*Tree Indexes to be stored more
efficiently on disk and in main memory which reduces
disk space and improves query performance. Up to
70% of space for indexes can be saved on disk and
query performance may improve by up to 30%.
SAP Note 1109743 provides more details on how
the index compression feature should be used in SAP
environments.
Instant Client
Instant Client allows you to run your applications
without installing the standard Oracle client or
having an ORACLE_HOME. OCI-based applications
like SAP work without modification, while using
significantly less disk space than before.
With the release of new SAP kernels 4.6D_EX2 and
6.40_EX2 the Instant Client is now available for all
SAP versions starting from 4.6C on. Please refer to
SAP Notes 1086956 and 1058988 for more details.
Advanced Security Network Encryption
Oracle Advanced Security Network Encryption pro-
vides an easy-to-deploy and comprehensive solution
for protecting communication to and from the Oracle
Database using both standards based network
encryption, and robust native encryption/integrity
algorithms.
Network Encryption between ABAP and Java Appli-
cation Servers and the Oracle Database is available
for all SAP products based on NW2004s.
Advanced Security Transparent Data Encryption (TDE)
Makes encryption of sensitive data simple by trans-
parently encrypting data when it is written to disk.
Rename Tablespace
You can now rename a tablespace. You no longer
have to create a new tablespace, copy the contents
from the old tablespace, and drop the old tablespace.
This feature makes it easier, for example, to convert a
dictionary-managed tablespace to a locally managed
tablespace, or to add a tablespace to a database that
already contains a tablespace with the same name,
an operation being used in a MCOD environment.
Online Segment Shrink
This feature shrinks segments of tables and indexes
online and in-place that have free space in them,
thereby enhancing efficiency of space utilization.
End-to-End Application Tracing
The feature simplifies the debugging of performance
problems in multi-tier enviroments. It will only be
available for new versions of the SAP software and
not for existing versions.
Online LONG to LOB Migration
In this release tables with LONG and LONG RAW
data, still used by many SAP applications, can now
be migrated online to LOB data from within the
BR*SPACE utility of SAP.

Automatic Optimizer Statistics Collection
This feature automates the collection of optimizer
statistics for objects. Objects with stale or no statistics
are automatically analyzed, so administrators no longer
need to keep track of what does and what does not
need to be analyzed, nor to perform analysis by hand.
Change-Aware Incremental Backup
By using a new type of log file to track blocks that
have changed in the database, RMAN can avoid
scanning the entire datafile during an incremental
backup. Instead, the amount of data scanned is
proportional to the amount of data changed.
Flashback Database
The Flashback Database feature provides a way to
quickly revert entire Oracle database to the state it
was in at a past point in time. It is also possible to bring
a single table back in time. SAP Note 1125923
provides more detail on the usage of this feature
in SAP environments.
Data Pump Export and Import Utilities
The Data Pump Export and Import utilities provide
very high-speed bulk movement of data and metadata
from one database to another. These utilities offer
several significant advantages over the original Export
and Import utilities, including: the ability to com-
pletely restart export and import jobs; the ability to
detach from and reattach to long-running jobs; the
ability to estimate how much space an export job
would consume; support for export and import opera-
tions over the network; and support for fine-grained
object selection, based upon objects and objects types.
This feature will initially not be integrated within the
SAP administration tools.
The new Data Pump Export and Import utilities can
each be run in parallel, resulting in better performance
in loading and unloading data and metadata.
Cross-Platform Transportable Tablespaces
The transportable tablespace feature now enables
tablespaces to be transported across different plat-
forms therefore making a platform migration for a
SAP customer much faster.
Oracle 10g Update for SAP 3
Full Database Begin Backup Command
It is no longer necessary to issue a separate command
to place each tablespace in hot backup mode. You can
now use the ALTER DATABASE statement to place
all tablespaces in backup mode. Also, the BEGIN
BACKUP command now runs faster than before.
NEW FUNCTIONALITY WITH SAP BI 7.0
SAP BW users will benefit most from the new
features describes in this section. These features are
immediately available to all SAP BI customers.
Faster Drop and Truncate Table
These two operations perform substantially faster by
using improved algorithms in accessing the database
buffer cache. In particular small tables, often used by
SAP BW, benefit the most.
In Memory Undo
Block changes by short transactions are now managed
better by the database server resulting in less CPU
cycles.
Improved Scalability for Partitioned Objects
Dropping partitioned tables and indexes is now
substantially faster by using a new algorithm for
identifying the blocks of a partitioned object in the
buffer cache and for cleaning these blocks in the
buffer cache. The SAP BW application benefits the
most, as dropping partitioned objects is a frequently
used operation in SAP BW.
Tests performed using a query on a table with 1,000
partitions show that Oracle 10g’s new strategy of
sharing partitioning metadata results in less SQL
memory usage in the SGA (9.2.0.6: 52KB, 10.2:
11KB) – this means that every single query on this
table will use 5 times less memory.
ODM Connector 2.1
Oracle Data Mining Connector 2.1 leverages all
advanced Data Mining algorithms from Oracle
Database 10g Data Mining Option. Oracle Data
Mining Connector 2.1 is fully integrated with the
Analysis Process Designer providing a secure, scalable
and indatabase analytics engine for both BW 3.5 and
BI 7.0 customers (see page 61).
 4 Oracle 10g Update for SAP
O R A C L E 1 0 g R E A L A P P L I C AT I O N
CLUSTERS (RAC)
Oracle Real Application Clusters (RAC) allows Oracle
Database to run any packaged or custom application,
unchanged across a set of clustered servers. This
provides the highest levels of availability and the
most flexible scalability. To keep costs low, even the
highest end systems can be built out of standardized,
g In addition to the already SAP certified NetApp NFS
10
commodity parts. Oracle 10g RAC provides a foun-
dation for Oracle’s Enterprise Grid Computing
Architecture.
D AT A B A S E Oracle RAC technology enables a low-cost hardware
platform to deliver the highest quality of service that
rivals and exceeds the levels of availability and scala-
bility achieved by the most expensive, mainframe
SMP computers. Oracle 10g RAC is available on all
platforms for SAP versions 4.6C and on.
Integrated Clusterware
Oracle 10g RAC offers a complete clusterware manage-
ment solution as an integral component of Oracle10g
RAC available on all platforms Oracle 10g Database
runs on. This clusterware functionality includes
mechanisms for cluster connectivity, messaging and
locking, cluster control and recovery, and a services
provisioning framework. No 3rd party clusterware
management software need be purchased. Oracle will,
however, continue to support selected 3rd party
clusterware products on specified platforms.
With Oracle 10g Database Release 2, Oracle provides
a High Availability API so that non-Oracle processes
can be put under the control of the high availability
framework within Oracle Clusterware.
SAPCTL
Oracle Clusterware does provide high availability
for SAP resources just as it does for Oracle resources.
Oracle has created an Oracle Clusterware tool, SAP
Control (SAPCTL), to enable you to easily manage
SAP high availability resources. SAPCTL provides
an easy-to-use interface to administer the resources,
scripts, and dependencies of Oracle Clusterware and
SAP high availability components. SAPCTL consoli-
dates the functionality of the Oracle command-line
tools by enabling you to easily manage the SAP
Enqueue Service for ABAP and JAVA, the SAP
Replication Service for ABAP and JAVA, and the
additional virtual IP addresses used by the SAP
Enqueue Service for ABAP and/or JAVA.
With the introduction of SAPCTL no 3rd party soft-
ware is needed to manage and control SAP Enqueue
and Replication Service, from 6.40 based systems of
SAP and upwards (as of today, available only for
Linux and AIX).
Additional Support for EMC Celerra NFS Servers
servers for SAP/RAC deployments on Linux platforms
now SAP customers can use EMC NAS Celerra
systems using NFS.
Single System Image Management
Oracle 10g Enterprise Manager has been significantly
enhanced to enable true single system image mana-
gement of cluster database deployments. Enterprise
Manager’s Cluster Database Page provides a single
view of system status across multiple nodes. It also
enables direct drill down to individual instances when
needed.
A new cluster configuration verification tool and
improvements in the diagnostic tools first introduced
in the Oracle9i Database release help users both
avoid problems and resolve problems more quickly
should they occur.
Data Guard Integration for Disaster Recovery
With Oracle 10g Enterprise Manager, the manage-
ment component of Oracle Data Guard, Data Guard
Broker, is now completely integrated with RAC.
Data Guard disaster recovery environments involving
Oracle RAC databases can now be as easily managed
as those employing single instance databases.
F E AT U R E S T O B E R E L E A S E D
SOON BY SAP
Database Vault
Database Vault provides strong internal controls for
regulartory Compliance and protection against insider
threats. By implementing Database Vault a DBA is
no longer able to see user data. Database Vault will
be available to all SAP customers in the second
half of 2008 with 10.2.0.4 running 700 kernel based
applications of SAP such as ECC 6.0 or BI 7.0.

CONCLUSION
Oracle 10g Database provides the necessary infra-
structure for making the SAP landscape more respon-
sive to the changing business environment. Oracle 10g
Database gives you the flexibility you need to imple-
ment Enterprise Grid Computing, even using low
cost servers and disks. The design of Enterprise Grid
Computing complements the Adaptive Computing
Infrastructure concepts of SAP. Oracle 10g Database
provides the benefit of lowering risks with lower
manageability costs, greater scalability and predicta-
bility and the highest level of availability.
O R A C L E D AT A B A S E 1 1 g F O R S A P
OUTLOOK
Oracle Database Release 11g is currently beeing
tested by SAP.
As with previous certifications SAP will certify Oracle
Database 11g Release 2 with their products. There
are features of Oracle 11g which will greatly benefit
SAP customers. Below you’ll find a list of features
which are currently planned by SAP, once Oracle 11g
is certified by SAP or shortly after:
• Secure Files
Secure Files implements a new architecture for
storing unstructured data and will replace the LOB
datatypes of previous database versions. Secure Files
deliver improved performance and scalability over
LOBs and offers additional functionality to save
disk space.
• Optimizer Enhancements and Statistics Maintenance
The 11g Optimizer provides performance enhance-
ments for complex SAP BI queries and better
recognizes value changes in R/3 SQL statements.
Statistics maintenance especially for partitioned
objects is improved and calculation of statistics is
more accurate and faster compared to previous
database versions.
• Automatic Interval Partitioning
Maintenance of partitioned objects is now fully
automatic as the database server will manage parti-
tions on the fly.
OLTP Table Compression
•
As part of the Advanced Compressed Option table
data may be compressed reducing disk space and
5
D A T A B A S E 11g
improving query performance. In combination
with index key compression and Secure File com-
pression every type of data in the Oracle database
can now be stored in a compressed way.
• Secure File Compression
In addition to relational table data also unstructured
data may be compressed. In the Oracle database.
Secure File compression is part of the Advanced
Compression Option.
• ASM and ASM File System
ASM implements an Oracle volume manager to
manage data efficiently on storage subsystems.
While ASM is intended only for databases the ASM
file system provides the same functionality for
non-database data which is for instance needed to
deploy RAC with SAP.
SAP AG has participated in Oracle Database Beta
Programs for many years. The joint Oracle and SAP
development teams in Walldorf, Germany, have
completed extensive tests of Oracle Database 11g
Release 1 Beta and will continue testing with Oracle
Database 11g Release 2 Beta.
The release strategy of SAP AG for Oracle Database
versions is to certify only the terminal release of a
new database version. This strategy is based on the
overall requests of the SAP customer community to
minimize the number of version upgrades in complex
SAP environments. It has been proven a successful
roll out process with previous terminal release certi-
fications of Oracle Database Versions 8i, 9i and 10g.
Therefore, SAP AG will skip Oracle Database 11g
Release 1 and certify Oracle Database 11g Release 2,
at least 12 months before Oracle Database Release
10g goes into the extended support cycle.
Oracle Database 11g Release 2 will contain various
specific functionality designed and implemented for
the needs of the SAP Application Product Suite.
6

Oracle Database Vault provides strong internal controls for regulatory compliance and
protection against insider threats. Oracle Database Vault not only prevents highly privileged
users from viewing sensitive application data, it also enforces policies on who, when,
where and how applications, databases and data can be accessed. Oracle Database Vault
transparently protects database applications without requiring any changes to the existing
application.

O R A C L E D ATA B A S E VA U LT F O R S A P C E R T I F I C AT I O N

Oracle Database Vault Highly Privileged User Controls

Regulations such as Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX),
IT administrators, database administrators,
Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard
and application administrators fill highly
(PCI), and the Healthcare Insurance Portability
trusted positions within the enterprise.
and Accountability Act (HIPAA) require strong
However, regulatory compliance, outsourcing,
internal controls to protect sensitive information
application consolidation and increasing
such as financial, healthcare and credit cards
concerns over insider threats have resulted in
records from unauthorized access and modifica-
an almost mandatory requirement for strong
tion. Oracle Database Vault provides a power-
controls on access to sensitive application data.
ful and easy-to-use security solution inside the
Oracle Database, enabling enterprises with new
and existing applications to easily comply Realms
with these and future regulations. Insider
threats are an increasing concern for customers Reports
worldwide. The CSI/FBI 2005 Computer
Crime and Security study documented that Multi-Factor
more than 70% of information system data Authorization

losses and attacks have been perpetrated by

insiders, that is, by those authorized at least
some level of access to the system and its data.
Complying with regulations and protecting
against the insider threats requires two pri-
mary enhancements to existing environments:
• Preventive controls to restrict unauthorized
access to sensitive data by highly privileged
users.
• Flexible and adaptable controls over who,
when, where and how applications, data-
bases and data can be accessed. Oracle
Database Vault Realms, Factors, and Rules
(described below) work together inside the
database to restrict access from even the
most powerful users without interfering
with the normal day-to-day database ad-
ministration. These features can be used in
a flexible and adaptable manner to enforce
security requirements, without changing
the existing applications.
Command
Rules
Separation
of Duty
Figure 1: Oracle Database Vault Overview
Retrofitting existing application code with new
access controls can be costly and time con-
suming, and is not an option for many enter-
prises. With Oracle Database Vault Realms,
enterprises can restrict highly privileged users,
even the powerful DBA, from accessing appli-
cation data. Realms are easily defined and can
be placed around an entire application or set of
tables quickly and easily.
 O r a c l e D a t a b a s e Va u l t f o r S A P 7

Flexible and Adaptable SAP ERP Validation in process

Oracle Database Vault Rules and Factors signifi-
cantly tighten application security by limiting
who, when, where and how databases, data and
an applications can be accessed. Multiple factors
such as IP address and authentication method
can be used in a flexible and adaptable manner
to enforce authorization requirements, without
requiring changes to the existing applications.
For example, access to the database could be
restricted to a specific middle tier. Command
rules can be defined for all SQL commands to
provide additional control.
select * from
DBA HR.employees
create user...
HR
HR DBA HR Realm
Oracle has validated Oracle Database Vault
with SAP applications.
Oracle/SAP Development have started
the SAP certification with Database
Vault. For that reason, we would like
to collect the SAP customer names who
are interested in using this product.
Prerequisites are:
• existing production customer with
SAP on Oracle
• installation has to be on Oracle 10.2
• installation has to be on SAP ERP
2005 (no older versions).
If you are are interested in participating
in the SAP pilot program for Database
Vault and the installation meets the re-
quirements, please send us the following
information to
saponoracle_de@oracle.com

Fin • SAP release level customer is

FIN DBA Fin Realm running on
• Oracle release level customer is
running on
Figure 2: Oracle Database Vault Realms, • Operating System
Rules and Factors
SAP/Oracle Development will
contact you shortly.
Separation of Duty

Oracle Database Vault provides powerful

separation of duty controls and protects the
database from unauthorized changes. Oracle
Database Vault provides three distinct respon-
sibilities out-of-the-box for security admini-
stration, account management, and resource
management. For example, Oracle Database
Vault blocks a DBA with the create user
privilege from creating a new user if the DBA
doesn’t have the proper responsibility. You can
further subdivide the resource administration
responsibility into backup, performance and
patching responsibilities. Optionally, respons-
ibilities can be consolidated.
8
Q & A O R A C L E D ATA B A S E VA U LT
W H AT I S O R A C L E D ATA B A S E VA U LT ?
1. What is Oracle Database Vault?
Oracle Database Vault is a database security option that
you use to protect application data from DBA access,
enforce protection of database structures from unauthorized
change, and set a variety of access controls to implement
dynamic and flexible security requirements. These features
help you to adhere to standards for separation of duties,
regulatory compliance, and internal control. You configure
Oracle Database Vault to manage the security for an in-
dividual Oracle database instance. You can use Oracle
Database Vault on standalone Oracle Database installations
and in Oracle Real Application Clusters (RAC) environ-
ments.
2. Where can I get online information about
Oracle Database Vault?
http://www.oracle.com/technology/software/
products/database_vault/index.html
3. What Oracle software is required to run Oracle
Database Vault?
Oracle Database Vault requires Oracle Database 10g
Enterprise Edition.
4. What is driving security requirements for IT
organizations today?
There are two macro issues driving security requirements
for IT organizations today:
How to protect against the “insider threat” — attack
from within an organization by rogue individuals with
privileges who are thought to be trustworthy, but prove
otherwise and the need to put in place controls to address
the compliance requirements resulting from a deluge of
privacy and corporate governance regulations.
The latter include Sarbanes-Oxley, PCI, HIPAA, Gramm-
Leach Bliley, the Japanese Privacy Act, BASEL II, and
much more.
5. Who are super and privileged users?
Privileged users are users who have been granted powerful
privileges or administrative roles within the database.
Such users are generally administrators, but can be devel-
opers who are given access to the system for application
development, partners who are given such privileges for
application integration, or even an analyst who has access
to database development tools such as Oracle Discoverer.
A super user is the highest level of privileged user, often-
times with SYSDBA access.
6. What else does Oracle Database Vault do?
In addition to that described above, Oracle Database Vault
provides a web based management console that can be used
to configure and manage the offering. Database Vault
provides a dashboard to allow for monitoring of policies
and configuration setup. Finally, Oracle Database Vault
ships over three (3) dozen out-of-the box reports to show
who has access to what, helping to demonstrate proof of
compliance.
7. Is Oracle Database Vault the same as Oracle Audit
Vault?
No. Oracle Audit Vault is a new product from Oracle
focuses on securing and consolidating audit data. Oracle
Database Vault and Oracle Audit Vault are intended to
co-exist in the enterprise to assist customers with security,
compliance, and privacy needs.
8. Does Oracle have partners signed up to support
Oracle Database Vault?
Yes, Oracle has been working closely with a number of
partners. These include global System Integrators (SIs)
with risk management and security practices and
Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) who plan to leverage

Oracle Database Vault to better secure and help address
compliance requirements with their solutions. Examples
of these partners include Protivity and BearingPoint as
well as ArcSight, LogicalApps, Lumigent, Mantas, Tripwire,
Vormetric and SAP.
9. How does Oracle Database Vault help customers
achieve separation of duty?
Oracle Database Vault helps customers achieve separation
of duty by creating different responsibilities to manage
the different aspects of the database environment. Oracle
Database Vault creates responsibilities for managing secu-
rity, managing user accounts, and managing database
resources. Separation of duty helps customers prevent un-
authorized access to business data. Preventing unauthorized
access to business data is a crucial requirement for many
regulations such as SOX, Basel II, HIPAA, Graham-Leach-
Bliley, PCI, and J-SOX (Japan). By creating separation of
duty in the database, Oracle Database Vault helps customers
achieve better internal control on who does what and
when in the database which is also part of the regulatory
compliance requirements.
10. What performance overhead does Oracle Database
Vault incur on the database?
Our TPC-C benchmark testing showed that Database
Vault has a minimal overhead of less than 1%. Customers
should test their custom security settings for performance
and try to make them as simple as possible. Normal data-
base tuning still applies when Database Vault is installed.
11. Does Database Vault require a separate database?
No. Oracle Database Vault is an option to the Oracle
Database Enterprise Edition. It can be enabled on any
Oracle Database Enterprise Edition release 10.2. and
above.
12. Does Oracle Database Vault require Oracle Real
Application Clusters (RAC)?
No. However, you can use Database Vault in Oracle Real
Application Clusters (RAC) environments (tbc by SAP).
Q & A O r a c l e D a t a b a s e Va u l t 9
13. How does Oracle Database Vault enforce these
security mechanisms?
Oracle Database Vault introduces several new concepts:
Realm – A container that serves as a “protection zone”.
The Database Vault administrator can create a Realm and
define the content within the realm. This realm can be
comprised of database objects such a single table, multiple
tables or an entire application, or multiple applications
Command Rules – A collection of rules that you can
create to control how users can execute almost any SQL
statements, including SELECT, ALTER SYSTEM, database
definition language (DDL), and data manipulation language
(DML) statements. Command rules can work with rule sets
to determine whether or not the statement is allowed.
Rule sets use factors such as time of day, IP address, host
name, or any number of identifiable attributes associated
with the user.
For example, a user will only be granted access to certain
data if the command rules states that access to the appli-
cation is restricted to working hours, from an internal IP
address, and/or any other number of configurable parame-
ters. These restrictions can be applied to all system users,
including the most powerful DBAs.
Multi-Factor Authorization – Rule sets that leverage mul-
tiple factors in their decision process. Security administrator‘s
can define rules that are based on specific compliance
requirements or security requirements. For example, limiting
connections to a specific IP or range of IP addresses.
14. How is Oracle Database Vault different from Virtual
Private Database?
Virtual Private Database is a fine-grained solution within
the Database that enables customers to build customized
row level security solutions using PL/SQL. Oracle Database
Vault provides a higher level solution that provides
security for the database and application, by controlling
access of privileged users (DBAs) and implementing
separation of duty inside the database.
15. Do the existing Oracle Database Security Features
co-exist with Oracle Database Vault?
Yes. All security features available with the Oracle Data-
base Enterprise Edition, for example VPD and Secure
Application Roles, work with Oracle Database Vault.
In Addition, other security options, like ASO and OLS,
work with Oracle Database Vault as well.
10
16. Does Oracle Database Vault work with Oracle
Transparent Data Encryption (TDE)?
Yes. Oracle Database Vault works with TDE. Database
Vault Realms, Mutli-Factor Authorization, and Command
Rules provide security controls around access to databases
and applications as well as controlling activity within the
database through separation of duty.
17. Who can grant roles like the DBA role in a Database
protected by Database Vault?
In a Database Vault environment, if a realm protects a
database role, then only the Realm Owner can grant this
role to others. For example the Data Dictionary Realm
protects the DBA role. The SYS user by default is the
owner of the Data Dictionary Realm and can grant the
DBA role to others.
18. Can the Database Vault Administrator (owner)
see data protected by a Realm?
No. The Database Vault owner account can only setup
realms. It cannot see data protected by a realm. It also
cannot add itself to the list of authorized users for any
Realm it creates. This is part of the separation of duty
that Oracle Database Vault enforces.
19. Does Oracle Database Vault allow database
connections using Java?
Yes. Database Vault honors all connection types suppor-
ted by any regular database.
20. How do you move Oracle Database Vault security
Policies from a development system to a production
system?
There are two ways to do this currently:
You can either clone the database that has Database Vault
policies in it, or you can use the Database Vault API to
create your security policies in a development system and
apply the same scripts to the production system when ready.
In the future we are planning to leverage Enterprise
manager Grid Control to move Database Vault security
policies between databases.
21. How do you apply patches in a Database that has
the Oracle Database Vault option enabled?
For each released database patch, there would be a section
describing how to apply it in a Database Vault enabled
Database.
22. Who can create new users in a Database Vault
environment?
In an Oracle Database with the Database Vault option
enabled, a new account management responsibility is
created. Only a user with the account management res-
ponsibility can create new users in a Database Vault envi-
ronment. This helps customers achieve separation of duty.
Separation of duty is good for regulatory compliance.
23. Would Enterprise Manager Grid Control continue to
work on a Database Vault environment?
Yes. It would continue to work. However, the restrictions
that Database Vault put in place would apply to EM Grid
Control administrators as well.
24. Does Oracle Database Vault integrate with Oracle
Label Security (OLS)? Can OLS leverage Oracle
Database Vault Factors?
Oracle Database Vault integrates well with Oracle Label
Security (OLS). Oracle Database Vault factors can provide
an additional dimension in deciding the security clearance
of a user’s session. For example, let us assume a user has
been authorized to access sensitive data. However the
security administrator wants to ensure the user accesses
sensitive data only if he/she is in the office and connected
to the trusted network. A Database Vault factor like
Network Domain can be used to determine the security
clearance of a user’s database session. If the user is coming
from the public Internet, he/she can see only non-sensitive
data. If the user is coming from the trusted network, then
the user is allowed access to sensitive data.
25. How is Database Vault packaged?
Oracle Database Vault is an option for the Oracle Data-
base Enterprise Edition. Oracle Database Vault can be
installed into Oracle Database 10g Release 2 or higher.

26. Are there example business use cases for Database
Vault?
Yes. These are available on OTN at
http://www.oracle.com/technology/deploy/security/
database-security/database-vault
27. Are other Oracle Database Security Options included
in Oracle Database Vault?
Both Oracle Label Security and Oracle Advanced Security
can be used with Oracle Database Vault, but are licensed
separately. Oracle Label Security provides the ability to
turn on security clearances inside the Oracle Database and
enforce multi level security. Oracle Advanced Security
provides encryption of network traffic, strong authentica-
tion and Transparent Data Encryption. Transparent Data
Encryption provides key management and encryption
transparency to applications, protecting personally identi-
fiable information (PII) on disk and backup tape.
28. Can I use Oracle Database Vault to meet Sarbanes-
Oxley requirements?
Oracle Database Vault is designed to help address techni-
cal security requirements found in various regulations,
including Sarbanes-Oxley. Oracle Database Vault provides
strong internal controls inside the database through sepa-
ration of duty and preventing the DBA from viewing
application data.
29. How does Oracle Database Vault help address
customer compliance requirements?
Database Vault can be used by organizations as a preventive
control. In other words, organizations can configure Data-
base Vault to prevent users with super-privileges (DBAs)
from accessing application data.
By instituting a control in this manner, an organization
can demonstrate compliance with specific regulations that
require separation of duties among individuals accessing a
system. Such is a common requirement across a number
of regulations and is specifically called out in Section 404
of Sarbanes-Oxley. Payment Card Industry regulations
such as PCI Requirement 7 calls for restricting access to
cardholder data by business need-to-know. This can be
enforced with Oracle Database Vault help. Additionally,
Oracle Database Vault ships with a set of pre-defined
reports that show who is accessing what data and under
what conditions. These reports offer a means by which to
demonstrate proof of compliance for organizations.
Q & A O r a c l e D a t a b a s e Va u l t 11
30. How does Database Vault address the “insider
threat”?
Database Vault addresses the “insider threat” by enabling
powerful controls on how databases, applications and data
are accessed. In addition, Database Vault enables additional
protections against power users in the database such as
those with super-privileges (DBAs). Database Vault places
restrictions on what data these users can access using a
security feature called a realm. Additionally, Database Vault
provides command rules and multi-factor authorization to
control when, how, and where databases, applications and
data can be accessed.
31. What are internal controls?
Internal controls are mechanisms put in place to enforce
business best practices. They are generally closely associa-
ted with addressing regulatory compliance requirements.
Internal controls can be preventive, detective or corrective
in nature. Preventive controls are designed to discourage
or pre-empt errors or irregularities from occurring. They
are generally thought to be more cost-effective than
detective controls. Oracle Database Vault serves as an auto-
mated preventive control — something highly desirable
by the internal audit function of companies.
32. Is there training available for Oracle Database Vault?
Yes. Oracle University has developed a training class for
Oracle Database Vault. This class is a two-day, instructor-
led class. Customers can enroll in it. For the latest schedule
and location check the Oracle University website at:
http://education.oracle.com and search for Oracle Data-
base Vault.
12
33. Where can I get more information about Oracle
Database Vault?
Visit http://www.oracle.com/goto/databasevault
for white papers, data sheets, and other materials or
contact an Oracle representative near you –
http://www.oracle.com/corporate/contact/index.html
34. Does Oracle Database Vault replace the security
mechanisms?
No. Oracle Database Vault secures the database and
application by adding security protections within the
database kernel, preventing direct access to the application
tables by super-privileged users (DBAs). Oracle Database
Vault complements any application security mechanisms.
35. Does Oracle Database Vault replace the security
mechanisms in applications?
No. Oracle Database Vault secures the database and
application by adding security protections within the
database kernel, preventing direct access to the application
tables by super-privileged users (DBAs). Oracle Database
Vault complements any application security mechanisms.
36. Will Oracle Database Vault undergo a formal security
evaluation?
Oracle Database Vault is now undergoing a formal eva-
luation under the Common Criteria security certification
program.
 Oracle Database Security 13

O R A C L E D ATA B A S E S E C U R I T Y

SAP certification has started

with Database Vault.
14
INTERVIEW
Between Oracle for SAP Technology Update Magazine
Dr. Christian Graf, SAP AG
Development Manager DB Platforms Oracle, OS Platform Unix, Solaris, Tru64.
and Jan Klokkers,
Senior Director, Oracle for SAP Development, Oracle Corporation.
Oracle for SAP Technology Update: Dr. Graf,
Mr. Klokkers, please briefly describe how new
g Oracle Database features and Database Options
D A T A B A S E 11 are adopted, tested and certified by SAP?
Dr. C. Graf: We have to distinguish between
different types of features. Regarding those
different feature types we have a staged certi-
fication approach:
New intrinsic or very basic DB features are
supported initially with the SAP certification
of this new DB release. Examples of those
features are: New Memory Management,
Optimizer, Online Reorganization, Rename
TBLspace, etc.
New more complex Oracle features will be
supported after the required technical integra-
tion has happened on a development level and
further SAP internal testing or one or more
customer pilot projects have been successfully
completed. Examples for this type of features
are: LMTS, ASSM, Automatic Workload
Repository, Fast loader, etc.
New ‚sophisticated‘ Oracle features are only
supported based on successful pilot customer
projects. Examples are: RAC, Oracle Data
Mining, ASO Features, Cross Platforms
Transportable Tablespace, ASM, etc.
The guiding principle is always to ensure a
maximum of quality when a new Oracle fea-
ture reaches the SAP customer base.
The testing and the certification of the first
two types of new Oracle features happens
mainly by first testing them intensively in the
SAP/Oracle platform team. The second step is
to activate those features in the Oracle databa-
ses of the SAP development landscape. If the
complexity of a feature exceeds a certain level
we always run several pilot customer projects
before the feature gets generally released for
the SAP customer base.
Oracle for SAP Technology Update: How is
the collaboration between Oracle and SAP in
terms of certification, e.g. with Oracle 11g?
Dr. C. Graf: In the database area the collabora-
tion between Oracle and SAP is very tight.
We have a joint development team in Rot/-
Germany with developers from both companies
sitting door to door. In this joint development
team the integration and certification of a new
Oracle release, like 11g, is accomplished. The
different tasks are distributed among the team
members of the joint platform team. To do this
most effectively we are leveraging the partly
complementary areas of expertise of the indivi-
dual team members. In addition, with this team
setup we are well connected to all other deve-
lopment teams of both companies. In case of
any issues this ensures fast response and reso-
lution times.
Oracle for SAP Technology Update: When an
Oracle Database support call is received at SAP,
can you please describe the process followed to
resolve the customer problem?
Dr. C. Graf: The standard process for an SAP
customer to open a support call in any area is to
create an OSS message. This message is picked
up by the SAP Primary Support line and, if not
already done by the customer, routed to the

appropriate technical component (queue).
If the appropriate component is not obvious a
first analysis is required to identify it. This
process also applies for Oracle database support
calls. For example, as soon as it is clear that a
call is Oracle related it is sent to the Oracle
queue. Next the Oracle support experts of
SAP try to resolve the issue. Over 90% of the
Oracle related support calls the SAP Primary
support provides the solution. In case this is
not possible the call is forwarded to the Deve-
lopment Support level. On this level we have
support engineers from Oracle working on
solutions. The Oracle support engineers are
directly connected to the general Oracle support
organization. This concept ensures that the
combined Oracle and SAP expertise is available
for our customers in a support situation. Since
the integration of the Oracle database into the
SAP technology is so intertwined, for many
problems it is not enough to tackle them from
a pure Oracle point of view. The best support
result is achieved if the support engineers
understand the SAP specifics of the Oracle
integration into the SAP technology stack.
Therefore, we strongly recommend that all
SAP customers call the SAP support lines
with any SAP related Oracle support issues.
Oracle for SAP Technology Update: A new
utility MOPatch was developed by Oracle
especially for SAP customers to simplify the
patch process. Can you please elaborate the
advantages of this utility and the feedback you
have received so far from the SAP community?
Dr. C. Graf: Oracle provides a patch set which
is a bundle of individual patches on a regular
basis. Between two patch sets it is necessary to
provide individual patches to correct problems.
The maintenance of these individual patches
with OPatch for multiple SAP systems may
become a time-consuming and error-prone task
for the DBA. To simplify the patch maintenance
a one-step utility MOPatch (Multiple Opatch)
was developed. MOPatch provides the DBA
the capability with one single command to
bring the database server to the most current
patch level. MOPatch works for both new
I n t e r v i e w O r a c l e f o r S A P Te c h n o l o g y U p d a t e M a g a z i n e 15
installations of the database software and also
updates to an existing database installation.
MOPatch takes all available patches from the
SAP Service Marketplace and automatically
installs all patches, or a delta of patches to the
database server. MOPatch takes care of unpack-
ing the patches or dealing with patch conflicts.
Oracle for SAP Technology Update: Oracle
has some interesting new database features/-
options, why doesn’t SAP adopt and certify
these new features immediately for use by your
SAP customers?
Dr. C. Graf: New features usually come with
new database versions. Therefore, the use of
new features often requires a database upgrade.
However, when we talk to our customers
directly or via the user groups we get the clear
message that the majority of the customers want
to run upgrades as rarely as possible. Due to
this SAP and Oracle jointly decided years ago
to certify, if possible, only the terminal release
of a new Oracle release for SAP customers. We
did that for Oracle release 9i, 10g and we will
also do it for 11g. Together with an intensive
test and certification program, for every new
release, this leads to the observed delayed availa-
bility of new Oracle features. However, we
clearly believe that the gain in terms of quality
and stability and the reduced number of data-
base upgrades required by far outweighs the
disadvantage. Every new database release sig-
nificantly increases the logistic and the support
effort. We reduce this effort by limiting the
number of parallel supported database releases,
this makes us more agile and more efficient in
the support area, which in turn leads to an
immediate benefit for the customers.
In addition, I would like to mention that we
believe that good quality and a good technical
integration is more important than speed. As a
result of this guiding principle we have a staged
approach for the certification of new features,
as mentioned before. Testing and running
pilot customer projects takes time which leads
to a delayed availability of those features. A
prominent example is Oracle RAC.
16
It took nearly 3 years until we finally had the
g
D A T A B A S E 11 SAP certification on all OS platforms. During
the pilot projects we found several issues in the
different stack levels of a RAC configuration
that needed to be resolved, which took some
time. However, as a result all customer projects
that started after the certification and are in
production today (approx. 50 customers) are
successful and see their expectations met.
That proves that our careful approach is the
right one.
Oracle for SAP Technology Update: Security
is a very important aspect to corporate custo-
mers. Can you please explain which encryption
technologies from Oracle are available to SAP
customers and what the roadmap is to certify
Database Vault?
J. Klokkers: Transparent Data Encryption
(TDE) and Client-Server Network Encryption
are available to SAP customers today running
Oracle 10.2 and SAP Business Suite 2005.
TDE allows customer to encrypt sensitive data
on disk. Database Vault will be available with
Oracle 10.2.0.4 to all SAP customers running
a 7.0 kernel based system (i.e. ECC 6.0 or BI
7.0) in late Q2CY2008. With Database Vault
a DBA is not able to see any SAP user data in
the database providing better compliance with
regulatory rules such as Sarbanes-Oxley.
Oracle for SAP Technology Update: The
amount of data customers are storing is in-
creasing at a dramatic rate and space efficient
storage mechanisms are very critical. Which
advantages does Oracle provide and what can
be expected in the future?
J. Klokkers: In order to provide a space-efficient
database for SAP applications Oracle provides
numerous features.
Oracle is the only database that stores number
and varchar datatypes in variable length and
not in full length. This benefits especially an
SAP BW system, making it very space efficient.
Also, Unicode data is stored in variable length
using the UTF8 format in the database unlike
other databases that always store Unicode data
in full length. Another important technology
to save space on disk and in-memory is Index
Key Compression. This technology not only
reduces space requirements but also improves
query performance as it results in less physical
disk I/O and less logical I/O to the database
buffer cache in main memory. Index Key Com-
pression is available to SAP customers with
Oracle 10.2.
With Oracle 11g advanced compression tech-
niques for tables and Secure Files (LOB) data
is provided. Redo data between primary and
standby databases can be compressed, this will
reduce the bandwidth and time for the trans-
port. These compression techniques are part
of the new Advanced Compression Option in
11g. Once 11g is certified by SAP these com-
pression techniques will be available to SAP
customers.
Oracle for SAP Technology Update: How
important is database performance and how
does this affect overall SAP performance?
Dr. C. Graf: The database performance is the
key for a good overall SAP performance. If the
database performance is bad the whole SAP
system performance is immediately in danger,
affecting all application areas. In other words:
Bad database performance easily leads to a
systemic performance problem that affects the
system in total. So, it is very important that a
database provides the features, tuning capabili-
ties and, extremely important diagnostic fea-
tures that permanently keeps the database at a
good performance level.
Oracle for SAP Technology Update: What
features or functions do you especially like in
the Oracle database?
Dr. C. Graf:
• One of the most positive aspects of the
current Oracle release (10.2) is the area
of diagnostic ability and supportability.
Compared to any other database platform
Oracle version 10.2 offers the most sophisti-
cated options for in depth analysis.

• The evaluation of the data provided by the
Oracle Automatic Workload Repository
(AWR) and the Advanced Session History
(ASH) allows root cause analysis on every
desired level. This is a huge benefit for
example, every time you encounter a perfor-
mance problem or any other error situation.
The SAP and Oracle support lines can act
very effectively based on those features. This
situation is hardly measurable in numbers,
but proven by several statements I received
from our support engineers.
• The scalability and high availability features
provided by Oracle RAC are nearly unique in
the market as of today. Only DB2/OS390
offers something similar.
Oracle for SAP Technology Update: What
features in Oracle 11g are you most interested
in testing and certifying for use by SAP
customers?
J. Klokkers:
- Advanced Compression Option
- SecureFiles
- Automatic Interval Partitioning
- ASM and ASM Filesystem
- Cost Based Optimizer Bind Peeking
Oracle for SAP Technology Update: How
will these 11g features benefit SAP customers
in terms of performance, manageability, scala-
bility, high availability and reliability?
J. Klokkers: It is too early to provide hard
facts on how much improvement Oracle
Database 11g will provide for SAP customers.
But it’s clear that Oracle Database 11g will
provide better performance for applications
such as SAP BI or reduce storage costs
through more compression techniques.
I n t e r v i e w O r a c l e f o r S A P Te c h n o l o g y U p d a t e M a g a z i n e 17
Oracle for SAP Technology Update: Dr. C
Graf, why is there so much time lag between
when Oracle releases a new database version
and the time that SAP certifies that new
release? For example, when Oracle released
version 10.1 of the database, SAP waited to
certify 10.2.
• This is actual a planned and thought out
process for the benefit of our joint custo-
mers. Through our user group participation
our customers made it know to us that they
were not interested in so many upgrades,
which require so much planning, time and
effort. So to satisfy our customer wishes we
decided to only certify the terminal release
of Oracle databases; ie 9.2, 10.2, 11.2.
• This certification strategy keeps the num-
ber of parallel supported Oracle releases
low, which makes the whole logistics and
support processes much easier. Every data-
base release comes on a growing set of ope-
rating systems, releases and processor
types. For every database release we have
patch sets, One off Patches, CPUs etc.
Facing this the logistics around a database
release is a huge effort. The smaller the
number of parallel supported releases, the
more agile we are in regard of e.g. plat-
form and patch provisioning. This finally
leads to a benefit for the customers as well.
Last but not least: I would like to draw your
attention to our SAP on Oracle page in the
SAP Developer Network (SDN) and the SAP
on Oracle Forum. Here you will find informa-
tion and news directly from my development
team, including a presentation by myself the
“SAP on Oracle Development Update” which
contains information about current and up-
coming projects. Here is the link to the cor-
responding web page within the SAP portal:
www.sdn.sap.com/irj/sdn/ora
Oracle for SAP Technology Update:
Thank you for the interview.
18
NEW ORACLE TECHNOLOGY FOR SAP CUSTOMERS
SUMMARY
2007 has been a busy year for Oracle/SAP
Development as well as for the Oracle/SAP
Support and Services team. Numerous new
Oracle features, tools and methodologies have
been developed or integrated into SAP solu-
tions. In this article, we describe some of the
most important new technologies and the
benefits they offer to SAP customers:
• One of the biggest challenges today is the
rapid growth of databases. In addition to
technologies that have been available for
several years, SAP on Oracle customers can
now use Index Key Compression to save disk
space.
• Huge amounts of data are a threat to perfor-
mance as well. Oracle’s rich collection of
partitioning strategies is available to reduce
I/O and improve performance. The benefits
have been known to SAP BI customers for
many years. Thanks to a methodology and
tools developed by the Oracle/SAP Support
and Services team, Oracle Partitioning is now
available for SAP ERP systems as well.
• Compliance and security are more important
than ever before. Therefore, Oracle Advanced
Security, an option that allows customers to
encrypt data, has been certified with SAP
applications and implemented by customers.
Oracle Database Vault, a product that helps
customers meet regulatory compliance re-
quirements by enforcing separation of duty,
has also been integrated in SAP applications.
• Manageability is always an issue. We discuss
SAP’s DBA Cockpit for Oracle, in particular the
use it makes of Oracle’s Automatic Workload
Repository (AWR). AWR automatically stores
workload and performance statistics, so ad-
ministrators or support engineers can analyze
and quickly resolve performance issues, even
if the root cause happened hours or days
before.
Except for Oracle Database Vault, which is
discussed in a separate article (page 6), all
technologies are described in more detail in
the following sections.
D I S C S PA C E S AV I N G S :
COMPRESSION
Compression – What Is It And Why Do
We Need It?
We are witnessing an explosion in data volumes
as the average size of databases triples every
two years. Even though the cost of storage has
been declining, enormous growth in the volume
of data that needs to be retained online makes
storage one of the biggest elements in IT
budgets. In addition, application scalability
and performance must continue to meet the
demands of the business – even as data volumes
continue to grow. Oracle has been working for
many years to help customers cope with these
challenges:
• Implicit Compression: Oracle stores numerical
values more efficiently than other databases.
It supports bitmap indexes, which need
considerably less disk space than traditional
index structures. It uses a Unicode imple-
mentation which stores a plain ASCII cha-
racter in 1 byte (instead of 2 bytes, as is the
case with most databases). Features like
these can be called implicit compression,
as they are installed and used by default, in
the background, without any administrator
intervention. But whenever customers
migrate from other databases to Oracle or
test a migration from Oracle to an other
database, they recognize that because of
these features Oracle needs up to 40% less
disk space than other databases to store a
given amount of data.
• Data Compression: Data compression was
introduced in Oracle9i Release2. An Oracle/-
SAP team that tested the feature as early as
2002 demonstrated up to 70% less disk space
usage at table leveland up to 40% less disk
 N e w O r a c l e Te c h n o l o g y f o r S A P C u s t o m e r s 19

space usage at the database level, and no
negative (but in many cases a positive)
impact on performance. Data compression
has been available for use in SAP BI systems
since 2003.
• Index Key Compression: With data compres-
sion, duplicate values in table rows (data
blocks) are removed. Index key compression
works in a similar manner in that duplicated
values are removed from index entries (index
blocks).
• Advanced Compression: Oracle Database 11g
introduces the Advanced Compression Option
which helps customers significantly reduce
their overall database storage footprint for all
types of data (structured or unstructured)
and all kinds of systems (OLTP or BI).
As Index Key Compression was certified for
use in SAP environments in 2007, it will be
discussed in the next section. For more infor-
mation on Advanced Compression see our
interview with Dr. C. Graf (page 14). For an
overview of Oracle’s compression technologies
and their applicability to different types of
SAP systems see Figure 1.
Both pieces can consist of one column or several
columns (see Figure 2). Every single index block
contains a list that specifies the original key
values for each token used in this block, so de-
compression can be done easily.
Of course, there is no point in compressing all
indexes existing in a given database. Admini-
strators should look for large indexes only. A
tool (PL/SQL package IND_COMP) is available
that helps administrators find good candidates.
This tool also answers the question of which
columns should be part of the prefix and which
ones should be left for the suffix.
Index Key Compression: Advantages
What are the advantages and disadvantages of
key compression?
• Disk space savings: Customer experiences
show that up to 75% less disk space is needed
for a single key compressed index. On aver-
age, the total database size can be reduced
by 30% by using key compression for the
largest indexes.

Index Key Compression: Concepts and Tools

Oracle’s two major index types are B*Tree in-

dexes and bitmap indexes. B*Tree indexes are
the “regular” type frequently used by OLTP
whereas bitmap indexes tend to be used pri-
marily for data warehouses. As bitmap indexes
are already compressed (index key values are Figure 1: Oracle technologies for minimizing disk space requirements
replaced by bitmaps), Index Key Compression
is only available for B*Tree indexes.
Key compression allows repeating values for
columns in a B*Tree index to be replaced with
shorter tokens in the index blocks. To make that
happen, index key compression requires indexes
that consist of two or more columns – a require-
ment that is met by many indexes in SAP sys-
tems. The compression mechanism then looks
at the values of the leading columns of the
index (prefix entry) and replaces repeating values
with shorter tokens. In other words, the com-
pression mechanism breaks down the index key
into a prefix entry (the piece that holds the re-
peating values) and a suffix entry (the piece that
holds the unique or almost unique values). Figure 2: Index Key Kompression.
20
• I/O reduction:Compression reduces physical
disk I/O and logical buffer cache I/O. It also
improves the buffer cache quality.
• CPU consumption: Every compression tech-
nique comes with higher CPU consumption.
However, this is more than compensated for
by a reduction in logical I/O for index blocks
in the database buffer cache.
• Overall database throughput:Customer
experiences have shown a 10%-20% impro-
vement in database throughput for an SAP
system by using index key compression in a
non – CPU–bound environment.
Index Key Compression: Example
Among the candidates for key compression in
SAP ERP systems is GLPCA~1. The base
table, GLPCA, consists of approximately. 100
columns, 5 of which are included in the index.
GLPCA~1 is a somewhat special case, as the
cardinality of the stored values is in many cases
so low that IND_COMP (the tool that helps
with the configuration) suggests including all
5 columns in the prefix. This means that the
complete index entries are compressed.
In one customer’s case, the original size of the
uncompressed index GLPCA~1 was 18GB.
By index key compression it was reduced to
4.5 GB, which represents a compression ratio
of 75%.
PERFORMANCE:
PA R T I T I O N I N G
Conventional wisdom has it that databases sup-
porting data warehouse systems are typically
the largest databases in an enterprise. As one
of the most challenging areas of scalability is
in supporting these large data volumes, data
warehouses generally require the implementa-
tion of one type or several types of partitioning.
However, many SAP customers find that the
database size of their ERP system(s) is equal to
or even greater than the database size of their
BI system(s). SAP BI installs and uses partitio-
ning by default – which gives customers a huge
benefit in terms of manageability, availability,
and query performance. SAP ERP supports
Oracle Partitioning (see SAP Notes 105047,
742243, 722188), but it does not come with a
default setup. As a result, many SAP on Oracle
customers were looking for help.
The main reason for partitioning not being used
by default in ERP systems is the fact that, de-
pending on the modules used, different tables
should be partitioned in different systems.
To overcome this obstacle, the Oracle for SAP
Services and Support team developed a metho-
dology and a set of tools which can be applied
to determine the best candidates and the ap-
propriate partitioning strategies. The service
offering has been available since 2007, and
customers who made use of it found that it
resulted in remarkable improvements.
Partitioning Schemes
Partitioning allows tables, indexes, and index-
organized tables to be subdivided into smaller
pieces, enabling these database objects to be
managed and accessed at a finer level of granu-
larity. Oracle provides a rich variety of parti-
tioning schemes to address every business
requirement.
• Range partitioning maps data to partitions
based on ranges of partition key values that
you establish for each partition. It is the
most common type of partitioning and is
often used with dates. In standard SAP BI
installations on Oracle, PSA and fact tables
are range-partitioned.
complements the functiona-
• List partitioning
lity of range partitioning. Range partitioning
is useful for segmenting a table along a
continuous domain – e.g. time, so that each
partition contains the data for a given range
(week, month) of time values. In contrast,
list partitioning is useful for segmenting a
table along a discrete domain – e.g. locations.
Each partition in a list partitioning scheme
corresponds to a list of discrete values.
• Hash partitioning maps data to partitions
based on a hashing algorithm which Oracle
applies to a partitioning key that you identify.
The hashing algorithm evenly distributes
rows among partitions, giving partitions
approximately the same size.

Partitioning for SAP ERP
Customers implement Oracle Partitioning for
SAP ERP for three main reasons. The first and
obvious reason is the wish to improve perfor-
mance. Some of the performance aspects are:
• Queries need less runtime, because the
amount of data to process is defined by the
number of partitions, which have to be
scanned. On a primary key access this will
be only a single partition. A few customer
examples can be found in Figure 3.
• Query performance is stabilized, because the
number of rows in a single partition is con-
stant.
• DML operations are executed on single
partitions instead of on the whole table.
A second reason is partitioning for manageability.
With partitioning, maintenance operations can
be focused on particular portions of tables:
• Fewer index reorganizations are required,
because delete operations affect only non-
productive partitions.
• The database buffer cache is unloaded, because
fewer table / index blocks need to be read.
• As jobs finish faster, less load is generated
on the system.
• Archiving will be faster, because only smal-
ler partitions of the data must be scanned.
Finally, partitioned database objects provide
partition independence. This characteristic can
be an important part of a high-availability
strategy:
• Indexes can be reorganized on partition level
instead of reorganizing the whole index.
Reorganization does not affect the produc-
tive partitions.
• Single partitions can be reorganized instead
of the whole table.
• Productive partitions (most recents) are not
affected by the archiving process.
• Errors during archiving do not affect the
system.
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COMPLIANCE AND
S E C U R I T Y: A S O
Oracle Advanced Security provides robust
encryption solutions to safeguard sensitive
data and to address regulatory compliance
requirements. It protects your data from
unauthorized disclosure whether in transit
or at rest.
Strong Protection for Sensitive Data:
Transparent Data Encryption
Transparent Data Encryption makes encryp-
tion simple by embedding encryption within
the Oracle Database itself. With a simple, one
time alter table statement, an administrator
can encrypt sensitive data within a table. Most
importantly, SAP applications continue to
work after encryption has been enabled.
Data is automatically encrypted when written
to the database files and redo log files on disk.
Data is automatically decrypted for all data-
base users after they have authenticated them-
selves to the database and passed all additional
authorization checks. These checks include
verifying that the user has the necessary select
and update privileges on the application table.
Existing database backup routines will conti-
nue to work, with the encrypted columns
remaining encrypted in the backup file.
For more information on Transparent Data
Encryption see SAP Note 974876.
Strong Protection for Data in Transit:
Network Encryption
Oracle Advanced Security provides an easy-to-
deploy and comprehensive solution for protec-
ting communication to and from the Oracle
Database using both standards-based network
encryption, and robust native encryption/inte-
grity algorithms. SSL based encryption is avai-
lable for businesses that have deployed Public
Key Infrastructure.
For businesses with no PKI deployment, Oracle
Advanced Security provides native encryption
and data integrity algorithms to protect data
in transit. The Oracle Database can be confi-
22
Figure 3: Benefits of Oracle Partitioning for SAP ERP.
Runtime of batch jobs before (blue) and after (green)
implementation of range partitioning in a real life system.
gured to reject connections from clients with
encryption turned off, or optionally allow
unencrypted connections for deployment flexi-
bility. Configuration of network security is
simplified using the Oracle Network Confi-
guration administration tool, allowing busines-
ses to easily deploy network encryption, as there
are no changes required in the application.
For more information on Network Encryption
see SAP Note 973450.
Strong Protection for Backup Media:
Backup Set Encryption
In recent years, many companies have reported
the theft or loss of backup media. While the
Oracle Database protects data inside the data-
base, once un-encrypted data is copied offline
onto backup media, it is outside the secure
perimeter of the Oracle Database. Entire back-
up sets created with Oracle Recovery Manager
(RMAN) can be encrypted, before data leaves
the database.
M A N A G E A B I L I T Y: A U T O M AT I C
W O R K L O A D R E P O S I T O RY
Oracle: Automatic Workload Repository (AWR)
In Oracle Database 10g, Oracle replaced Stats-
Pack with the Automatic Workload Repository
(AWR). The job of AWR is to collect database
statistics (by default every hour). This data is
maintained for a week and then purged. You
can then run reports against these statistics to
performance tune your database.
The Oracle database uses AWR for problem
detection and analysis as well as for self-tuning.
A number of different statistics are collected
by the AWR including wait events, time
model statistics, active session history statistics,
various system and session level statistics,
object usage statistics and information on the
most resource-intensive SQL statements.
SAP: DBA Cockpit for Oracle
SAP’s DBA Cockpit provides a single point of
access to all database monitoring and admini-
stration functions. Instead of having separate
transactions for the various administration
tasks, for example performance monitoring,
space management and job scheduling, you
can access all these tasks using one central
transaction. Although the well-known transac-
tions like ST04 and, DB02 are still supported,
it is no longer necessary to use them. They
only serve as shortcuts into the DBA Cockpit
in, that it starts up with an appropriate screen.
But DBA Cockpit for Oracle is more than just
a new interface for previously existing transac-
tions. The AWR Reporting section, the brand
new part, consists of reports that are based on
Oracle’s Automatic Workload Repository:
• AWR Report: workload report
• AWR DIFF Report: compares workload
reports (difference report)
• SQL Report: workload SQL report
• ASH Report: active session history report
• ADDM Report: automatic database diagnostic
monitor
This may sound very technical, and indeed it
is. But if you run into a performance problem
or any other error situation, you will immedia-
tely recognize the benefits. The support
engineer who is working on your issue will be
able to solve it faster, because all data he or
she needs is available. So the availability of all
those statistics will translate into less down-
time for your system.
 Oracle Database –
O r a c l e D a t a G u a r d a t Vi l e n e J a p a n
Information is
23

D I S A S T E R R E C O V E R Y E N V I R O N M E N T B U I LT F O R
S E C U R I N G B U S I N E S S C O N T I N U I T Y AT M I N I M U M C O S T
B Y A D O P T I N G O R A C L E D ATA G U A R D

Japan Vilene Company, Ltd. (“Japan Vilene”), a leading nonwoven fabric company in Japan,
implemented SAP products in the enterprise system and Oracle products for its database system in
1997. Recently, at the time of system upgrading, Japan Vilene built a disaster recovery environment by
replacing the previous server with PRIMEQUEST, a key IA server from FUJITSU LIMITED (“FUJITSU”),
and introducing Oracle Data Guard. We interviewed Mr. Mikio Nakamura, the manager in charge of
information system at the Management and Finance Department, and Mr. Tatsuya Sekiguchi, a section
head at the same department, about the series of system building processes.

SAP adopted in the late 1990’s as a mission- in operating load as SQL Server. “Actually,
critical system I see that is what is happening. Now we are
glad that we have adhered to Oracle,” Mr.
Since its establishment in 1960, Japan Vilene Nakamura says.
has been building all their business systems
in-house on its mainframe system. For parts
Priority given to business continuity as a
of their other systems, they used systems from
various affiliated companies. However, in the material manufacturer
latter half of the 1990’s, the need to address Japan Vilene had a medium-term plan that
the potential effects of the Year 2000 problem included upgrading from SAPR/3 4.6C to
on their systems required them to begin con- mySAP ERP 2005. In the wake of this move,
sidering using completely independent systems they also decided to build a remote backup
as well as system migration. “Under such system in order to implement a disaster reco-
circumstances and also driven by the call for very system that had been planned for some
downsizing, the company opted to migrate to time in addition to implementation of a ver-
an open system instead of the previous host sion upgrade from Oracle8i (8.1.7) to Oracle
system.” Looking back, Mr. Nakamura obser- Database 10g Release 2, and the renewal of
ves, “The year 2000 issue positively triggered the IA server.
the move toward system migration.” The
company also made a decision to concurrently
adopt SAP as their business system. They
adopted SAP because it was the most complete
enterprise package software available at the
time that would operate in an open system, he
explains. Although the company has adopted
Oracle Database, it once considered migration
to SQL Server when migrating from UNIX to
Windows. “Compared to SQL Server, we felt
there was greater operational difficulty involved
with Oracle Database. However, eventually, we
decided to continue to use Oracle Database
because we were concerned about the risk
involved in migrating to SQL Server as well
as its low level of reliability,” Mr. Nakamura
observes. According to him, the decision
reflected an outlook that Oracle Database
would provide products that would be as low
24
Mr. Nakamura explains the background of the
decision to build a backup system as follows.
“As a material manufacturer, Japan Vilene has
a mission to ship orders to our customer manu-
facturers in a timely manner. Under these
circumstances, we would face a serious problem
if our enterprise operations experienced a failure
that resulted in suspension of order acceptances
or shipping. For example, in the case our
system breaks down even for one day, the esti-
mated damage that would be incurred would
reach several hundred million yen (million $) in
terms of sales. However, the most threatening
fact is the loss of trust as an enterprise, which
cannot be measured in monetary amounts. For
this reason, they had previously taken steps
such as duplicating the equipment and the
network to ensure the continuity of their busi-
ness operations. Furthermore, backup measures
had been taken by means of tape media and
remote safekeeping of the tape media. Mr.
Sekiguchi explains the reason why they decided
to build a backup system despite such practices.
“Carrying out a backup with tape media was
indeed labor-consuming. From viewpoints of
efficient backup and quick restoration in the
case of a failure, replication seemed reasonable
after all.”
The key factor for adopting PRIMEQUEST
from FUJITSU: Duplication
In the latter half of 2006 when Japan Vilene
began studying a series of tasks for migration
and system buildup, the company examined
several manufacturers with regard to their
ability to upgrade SAP, renew the server and
create a backup system, and the performance
of the server itself. As a result, they selected
FUJITSU to carry out the project. Looking
back, Mr. Nakamura says, “The key factor was
that FUJITSU had rich expertise with SAP
and Oracle products. Another important factor
was that PRIMEQUEST, the IA server they
proposed, satisfied our requirements.” One of
the great features of PRIMEQUEST is the
duplex structure covering everything else
except the CPU, which has been built using
proprietary FUJITSU technology. According
proprietary FUJITSU technology. According
to Mr. Sekiguchi, it is critical to have a
redundancy system for the server itself from
the viewpoint of efficiency and stable system
operation. “Replication can also be achieved
by clustering. However, such system confi-
guration is very complicated and poses a burden
on management. In order to be able to operate
the system with a limited number of personnel,
as is the case with our company, the simpler
the system, the better it is. From this view-
point, it is essential that the server system is
in a duplex configuration in itself.”
Oracle Data Guard was adopted for its
network-friendly features
A backup system can be configured in a variety
of ways, using hardware and/or software solu-
tions. Initially, FUJITSU proposed a system
configuration technique that did not include
the use of Oracle Data Guard. However, in
the course of discussions between Japan
Vilene and FUJITSU, the possibility of using
Oracle Data Guard was raised. “Actually, we
have known about the Standby Database func-
tion that preceded Data Guard. We have even
tested it in-house. At that time, we gave up
the idea of implementing it due to financial
constraints as well as the existence of certain
functional shortcomings. However, as we have
been hearing recently that more and more
companies are using the program, the product
has attracted our attention anew. While Mr.
Sekiguchi was worried about the adoption of
Oracle Data Guard based on the above know-
ledge, his greatest concern was the issue of
the network. “We were building a remote
environment at the Ibaraki Plant. However, at
the plant, only ADSL (the effective transmis-
sion rate: 1 - 2 Mbps) was available due to
constraints specific to the area. Thus, we nee-
ded to consider introduction of a leased line,
depending on the band required. That would
mean a steep rise in running costs as well as
in implementation expenses. However, as dis-
cussions progressed, it became clear that the
band issue could be solved with Oracle Data
Guard.
 O r a c l e D a t a G u a r d a t Vi l e n e J a p a n 25

“The important factor was what volume of
data should be updated at what frequency.”
(Mr. Sekiguchi) So Japan Vilene reviewed the
allowable amount of time that could be con-
sumed for system recovery required at the
company, setting as part of the backup policy
that data must be updated once every hour.
Also, data volume for a file was set to 50 MB
and the transfer amount was assumed to be
5 – 10 files per hourly transfer task for daily
operations. According to a simulation result,
at this level, such system operations should
cause virtually no impact on the network
when viewed as a one-day cycle even though
there would be a possibility of the occurrence
of some network delays during peak hours.
Having a backup system – A virtue in itself
prise.” Given these circumstances, we can
reaffirm “the significance of possessing a back-
up system.” Meanwhile, Mr. Nakamura refers
to cost performance. “Considering safety, we
tend to input excessive amounts of investment.
On the other hand, a backup system itself
does not generate profits. That limits compa-
nies’ capacity to invest just in that. So costs
must be reduced to some extent. Considering
our backup system configuration with Oracle
Data Guard from that viewpoint, no additional
costs are involved as we use the standard fea-
tures, except for the creation of the remote
environment. That means we receive excellent
cost performance. We are deeply satisfied with
the fact that we were able to build a disaster
recovery environment at minimum cost,” he
says.

In February 2007, the implementation scheme

was finalized, and the actual system buildup
process started in June of the same year. After
repeated tests in a virtual environment built in
the main office and the remote environment
built at the Ibaraki Plant, full-scale operation
of the backup system started in February 2008.
In this configuration, Oracle Data Guard is
used as the data transfer technology and
FUJITSU provided the operational mecha-
nism including hourly updating using their
proprietary know-how. At present, this backup
system is operating in a stable state without
adding a load on the network, as was predicted
initially. The efficacy of the implementation
of the backup system cannot be evaluated un-
less a failure actually occurs. The most impor-
tant thing is, however, not to “use” the system
in such a situation. “A competent system is
reliable. However, the important point is that
we “have” this system, rather than we have to
“use” it. The fact that we have a system to
ensure business continuity provides a differen-
tiation factor against our competitors, which
will promote the relationship of mutual trust
between customers and the company. Now
that business operations cannot exist without
a business system, a trend being noted is one
in which “the level of system reliability is
tantamount to perceived reliability as an enter-
 26

“With Oracle 10g and the underlying file system GPFS you no longer need to install a third
server as a quorum node, for example. For Oracle9i we used three host systems, each with
one disk system. For 10g we only needed a third hard disk, what’s known as a tiebreaker,
which controls the situation-dependent load distribution on the servers as a coordination
instance. We still use GPFS as the file system. HACMP is no longer needed.”

– M AT T H I A S S C H A E F E R ,
Global IT Manager, HR Group

M U LT I P L E R E L E A S E C H A N G E AT T H E H R G R O U P

Successful changeover from 9i RAC to 10g
RAC for SAP application on AIX
Around 1,700 outlets in 20 countries, 6,000
employees and 40 million pairs of shoes hand-
led each year with just-in-time delivery – a few
figures that reveal all too clearly the exacting
Hamm-Reno Group demands made on the IT landscape at Reno
Thaleischweiler-Fröschen Fashion & Shoes GmbH, the retail subsidiary
of the Hamm-Reno Group.
Industries:
Tasked with delivering ‘high availability with
Retail, 1,700 subsidiaries
zero compromise’, the IT team led by Matthias
in 20 countries
Schaefer, Global IT Manager for the HR Group
Sales (worldwide): (Hamm-Reno), decided back in the late 1990s
500 M euros to replace the existing heterogeneous mainframe
setup with an SAP system featuring Oracle 8
Employees: in an HACMP cluster running on AIX. One
of the reasons they chose Oracle, explains
6,000
Matthias Schaefer, was that experience showed
Oracle Products & Services: that key features were and are provided first –
• Oracle Database 10g or exclusively – by Oracle.
• Oracle Real Application
Clusters (RAC) In October 2001 the organization began the
• Oracle Clusterware gradual software transition to SAP modules for
• Oracle Support material management in parallel with the
implementation of a Business Warehouse (BW).
Key Benefits
Within 12 months it had implemented SD
• Improvement of high
(Sales & Distribution) and other material
availability
management modules. The migration to BW
• Cost reduction
• Long-term IT concept to 3.0 with an adapted data structure and parallel
ensure ROI database access was completed in early 2004
• Streamlined DBA productivity and the system became productive.
• State-of-the-art high avail-
ability During the course of 2004 the database was
upgraded to Oracle9i. At the same time the
HACMP cluster was replaced with Oracle RAC
(Real Application Clusters).
Much more than just one project
In spring 2007 a wide-scale release change was
undertaken. In parallel to the introduction of
new IBM hardware, the upgrade from Oracle 9i
to 10g and the changeover to ERP 2005, it
was necessary to convert to Unicode.
Because the previous 4.6C system had used
different code pages, converting to Unicode
was absolutely essential. In the face of ‘expert’
predictions of a dramatic increase or even
doubling of system resources, the reality for
the HR Group was quite different.
“Because of the individual database structures you
have to leave the familiar path and take a ‘hands-
on’ approach at various points. For example, if you
know how to parallelize by splitting extensive tables
– which is by no means a standard step – the
conversion will be a lot faster.”
The reorganization and restructuring of indi-
ces and tables created the ‘space‘ needed in the
tablespaces. The actual measurable growth
turned out to be much less than ten percent.
This was even despite the fact that the team
had to export the entire database with the SAP
installation tools and then reimport it, which
was very time-consuming. The material mana-
gement system alone amounted to almost 850
gigabytes.
But, says Matthias Schaefer, you should never
be mean with the main storage. The SAP
system with several hundred users can quickly
gobble up to 64 GB. If for paging reasons an
instance doesn’t respond fast enough, another

RAC server quickly takes over the task, which
of course takes up main storage capacity and
can impact on system performance. But the
demands made on the main storage by Oracle
are relatively modest.
‘Tiebreak’ saves hardware resources
The conversion was completed in just under
three days on a long weekend around May 1,
2007, thanks in no small part to the help of a
Unicode specialist from SAP.
“With Oracle 10g and the underlying file system
GPFS you no longer need to install a third server as
a quorum node, for example. For Oracle9i we used
three host systems, each with one disk system. For
10g we only needed a third hard disk, what’s
known as a tiebreaker, which controls the situation-
dependent load distribution on the servers as a coor-
dination instance. We still use GPFS as the file
system. HACMP is no longer needed.”
High availability can also be easily assured
with the Oracle Clusterware SAPCTL. In the
SAP environment the Group will eventually
dispense with the HACMP solution for the
stand-alone enqueue server. A test system with
Oracle’s enqueue server and SAP Control
recently won over the experts at the HR
Group and is scheduled to start automating
the transfer of enqueue tables in the produc-
tive system in November 2007 to safeguard
the system.
With AIX 5.2 ML 3 and the power CPUs,
several logical partitions (LPARs) can be set up
on one machine with virtual CPUs, making it
possible to dynamically expand or shrink
resources. Each partition is entitled to a mini-
mum CPU capacity, which is however available
to other partitions if not required.
Never change a running system
“Put simply, the Oracle database is stable and
delivers high performance. So there’s no reason to
experiment,” says graduate computer scientist
Matthias Schaefer, describing the confidence he
has developed over many years in the stability,
performance and innovation of Oracle.
Oracle 10g RAC for SAP at HR Group 27
The parallelization of database queries through
the automatic distribution of tasks to multiple
processors is one of the features that no other
database system can offer in such a technically
mature form.
“It would be fully understandable if users of IBM
hardware with AIX also opted for DB/2. There
are some features – including the Real Application
Clusters (RAC) – that aren’t available there.
We do see approaches that are along the same lines
but for operational, transaction-oriented environ-
ments like SAP R/3 and ERP 2005 these are of
less interest. They’re more suitable for the Business
Warehouse environment, where many users access
data that’s seldom updated.”
Matthias Schaefer,
Another example of Oracle’s technological Global IT Manager,
edge, he believes, is Star Transformation, a HR Group
software technology that enables the user to
‘work rationally with very complex joins’ in
the Business Warehouse environment.
Objectively tested quality
The Hamm-Reno Group, created in 2005 by
Reno and the Hamm Group, founded a mana-
gement company which incorporates the IT
teams of both formerly independent companies.
The data center in Thaleischweiler-Fröschen,
Germany, the location of Reno’s headquarters,
is soon to unify and manage the entire IT
landscape of Reno Fashion & Shoes GmbH,
the retail subsidiary of the Hamm-Reno Group.
The corresponding applications at Hamm’s
head office in Osnabrück will be gradually
integrated into the Reno/SAP landscape.
At the end of this process the company will
have a uniform system for the entire global
holding. The farsightedness of Reno’s IT crew
and the wisdom of their IT strategy certainly
had a considerable influence on this decision.
This internal vote of confidence in the Reno
data center was confirmed by neutral quality
audits carried out by Price Waterhouse
Coopers and experts at SAP Hosting.
28

“The priorities for our new SAP environment were high availability, scalability and flexibility.
With Oracle 10g RAC for SAP, we have implemented a future-oriented SAP operating concept,
delivering several tangible benefits.”

– K A R L H E I N Z B R E I T,
Head of IT Infrastructure and Services,
Staedtisches Klinikum Munich GmbH

STAEDTISCHES KLINIKUM MUNICH: ORACLE 10g

RAC FOR SAP – THE GUARANTEE FOR A NEW
FAILSAFE SAP ENVIRONMENT

The merger of five hospitals to form Staedti-
sches Klinikum Munich GmbH included exten-
sive IT consolidation: The five previous SAP
environments were merged into one. Oracle
10g RAC for SAP is an indispensable corner-
stone in failsafe applications in the company’s
new system landscape.
Staedtische Kliniken Munich Hospital merger – IT consolidation
GmbH
Staedtisches Klinikum Munich GmbH came
about when five hospitals in the state capital
Industry:
Healthcare
of Munich were combined. The new company
includes the facilities in Bogenhausen, Neu-
Workforce: perlach, Harlaching, Schwabing and Thal-
Around 6800 kirchner Strasse. The institute for nursing,
blood donor service and central laundry were
Number of beds: also incorporated. With around 3600 beds, 260
Approx. 3600 day clinic places and 6800 employees, the huge
clinical center is currently the largest provider
Oracle Products & Services: of healthcare services in southern Germany and
• Oracle Database10g Release 2 one of the largest municipal hospital companies
• Oracle 10g RAC for SAP in the country.
• Oracle OCFS
• Oracle Support
It goes without saying that the merger brought
Key Benefits:
with it major IT changes, the main one being
that the new company was to use one large
• Sophisticated high availability
• Distinct scaling possibilities
consolidated central SAP environment in place
• Performance optimization of the five previous ones. As a result a totally
• High investment protection new infrastructure landscape for SAP operations
• Opportunities for increasing had to be set up. “In terms of the architecture
cost efficiency concept, firstly we were able to make full use
of our previous experience with SAP operations.
Secondly we had to take account of a large
number of conditions that arose from the esta-
blishment of the large clinical center.
These two facts produced a catalog of require-
ments in which the priorities were improved
stability, scalability, flexible operations, in-
vestment protection and low operating costs,”
explains Karlheinz Breit, Head of IT Infra-
structure and Services at Staedtisches Klinikum
Munich GmbH. The core application system
used is SAP R/3 IS-H and i.s.h.med (version
4.7.2). The clinic is also using SAP BW (Busi-
ness Intelligence) and HR (Human Resources).
Even brief downtimes are not acceptable
“Improved stability” in SAP applications are
key to Munich’s large clinical center. While
special sub-systems are used in some areas,
such as cardiology, the patient data from these
areas is also incorporated for diagnosis and
findings in the central key SAP component,
i.s.h.med; all patient data and records are pro-
cessed in the same system. “This core applica-
tion must never fail. If operations ceased for
even a couple of hours, the work of the clinic
would be seriously disrupted. Under certain
circumstances, we may even no longer be able
to provide emergency services,” stresses IT
expert Breit.
The central SAP landscape that has been in use
since the start of 2008 allows for stable system
operations at Staedtisches Klinikum Munich
in terms of both hardware and software. The
sophisticated system concept sees the database
server, application server and memory systems
redundant and duplicated at two sites.
 Oracle 10g RAC for SAP at Staedtisches Klinikum Munich 29

The hardware is X86 standard server blades
(BX620) from Fujitsu-Siemens, including
FlexFrame technology. The storage systems
came from Hitachi (HDS 55). The operating
system platform is Linux SLES 10.
The Oracle 10g database is used along with
Oracle RAC for SAP (2 x 2 nodes). As Mr.Breit,
the head of IT infrastructure, explains, “High
availability, but also scalability, is achieved in
an optimum and very distinct way, through a
combination of FlexFrame and Oracle Real
Application Clusters for SAP.”
RAC launched in record time
Should problems arise, technical availability of
the core applications is ensured within two to
three minutes. For example if hardware in data
center 1 fails, data center 2 takes over its tasks.
And if a database node isn’t available, for ex-
ample, others (including the RAC node in data
center 2) take on its functions. In a nutshell
“Oracle RAC guarantees us stable SAP opera-
Fast ROI, a solution fit for the future
The combination of X86 standard hardware in
the form of blades with FlexFrame, Linux and
Oracle RAC for SAP is paying off several times
over for Staedtisches Klinikum Munich. The
new system landscape satisfies all the require-
ments listed at the start. Various old systems
can now be quickly migrated to the new plat-
form. The new system environment will have
no problems coping with the intended change
to SAP ERP (ECC 6.0) and proving itself as a
future-proof solution that can be extended at
any time. “High availability, but
also scalability, is
Despite the redundant system design, the
achieved in an optimum
investment is worth it. Not including the costs
of money transfer, depreciation and staffing and very distinct way,
savings, the return on investment (ROI) is through a combination
around just 15 months. And what makes all the of FlexFrame and Oracle
difference is that the hardware maintenance Real Application
costs have been cut by no less than 94 percent. Clusters for SAP.”
Also with Oracle RAC for SAP, performance is – K A R L H E I N Z B R E I T,

tions,” stresses Breit. noticeably enhanced when compared with the Head of IT Infrastructure and
previous setup. Head of IT infrastructure Services, Staedtisches Klinikum
The important thing for him is that database Karlheinz Breit adds, “All the hospitals are
Munich GmbH
recovery of three to four hours is made obso- telling us that the response times are great.”
lete through the use of Oracle database cluste-
ring technology and that there is no scope for
the high availability to be interrupted. This
ensures that treatment is always recorded in the
SAP system. If this didn’t happen, the com-
pany would suffer real financial consequences.
Furthermore, the 2500 or so concurrent users
(approx. 6000 SAP accounts, mainly working
shifts) are never “aware”, so to speak, of the
system being down.

The IT department at Staedtische Kliniken

Munich introduced Oracle 10g RAC for SAP
in collaboration with its partners Siemens
Medical Solutions/SBS, Fujitsu-Siemens and
the service provider and Oracle partner IS4IT
in a record time of just four weeks. According
to Mr. Breit, “The support we received from
IS4IT and the high quality of Oracle RAC for
SAP were key to us being able to implement the
Oracle solution in such a short time. During
the launch, the Oracle support team didn’t
make a single mistake.”
30

“It’s very important for us that our mission-critical applications run smoothly. With Oracle
Real Application Clusters, we have the assurance we need that these software systems
will remain highly available. Not only that, but the database clustering technology has
helped us achieve major increases in productivity and efficiency.”

– P I E R A FA S O L I ,
Managing Director, and Fabrizio Grisoni,
Systems and Architecture Manager

ORACLE RAC IS THE FIRST CHOICE FOR

BUSINESS CONTINUITY FOR MISSION-CRITICAL
A P P L I C AT I O N S
Gruppo Hera, Bologna
www.gruppohera.it

Industry Since the European utilities industry was Hera views a robust, well-engineered IT
Utility Services
liberalized in the early to mid-‘90s, it has been environment as the key to its past accomplish-
swept by mergers and acquisitions. To this day, ments and future plans. “You see, IT is a
Annual Revenue the European energy sector remains awash with business backbone for our company. All our
Over € 240 million activity. One major player in the expansion first-level enterprise software applications have
€ 2.1 billion (2006) game lies in Italy: Gruppo Hera, a Bologna- to work flawlessly. If they go down – even for
Employees based corporation formed in November 2002 a short time – our company would have a
Approx. 6,000
from 12 local utilities in the Emilia-Romagna serious problem,” explained Managing Director
region (6 provinces total). Its latest acquisition: Piera Fasoli from Famula @on-line S.p.A., who
Oracle Products & Services Meta Modena, in 2006. Hera now has € 2.1 is responsible for Gruppo Hera’s IT activities.
billion in revenues, 6.000 employees and over Systems and Architecture Manager Fabrizio
Oracle Real Application Clusters 2.5 million customers whom it supplies with Grisoni added, “That’s right. We wouldn’t be
9.2.0.7 (on Solaris 9)
Oracle-To-Oracle (O2O) energy, water and waste management services. able to do a lot of things – like issuing
Transition Services Set Currently, the utility company ranks third in customer invoices on time or in the right
Oracle DB Physical Partitioning the Italian market. But that’s about to change. quantities. And that would cut directly into
Oracle Consulting Services
Oracle Support
our revenues.”
For Hera, one technology stood head and
Key Benefits shoulders above the rest in ensuring business
– Implementing Oracle Real continuity and high availability for its first-
Application Clusters to level enterprise applications: Oracle Real
enhance the availability
Application Clusters. Its mission-critical
of the enterprise solutions
SAP R/3 IS-U, SAP BW applications are the industry solution SAP IS-U
– Boosting mission-critical and the business intelligence system SAP BW.
application performance,
especially for the industry
solution R/3 IS-U
– Improving response times
with the IS-U and Oracle DB
Partitioning
– Basis for enhanced system
scalability and flexibility in
resource deployment

“No Other Technology Compares“
With its current IT environment with Oracle
RAC, Hera feels eminently equipped to tackle
the full range of current and future business
challenges. “We’re well equipped for further
corporate growth because our current IT archi-
tecture and applications perfectly meet a wide
variety of requirements. And Oracle RAC is
one of the key elements in this mix,” explained
IT system and architecture expert Fabrizio
Grisoni.
The Hera application environment has evolved
continuously over the years, passing through
three distinct stages. When the company was
founded in 2002, it first deployed SAP R/3
as the enterprise solution, based on Oracle
as the database management system. The solu-
tion consisted of the modules for Financial
Accounting (FI), Controlling (CO), Materials
Management (MM), Sales and Distribution
(SD) and Human Resources (HR). There were
originally 150 users.
The second phase followed two years later to
accommodate the new industry solution, SAP
R/3 IS-U. At the same time, Hera implemented
SAP BW (with SEM in a second phase) on
Sun hardware with the Solaris operating system
platform in a single instance database environ-
ment. To be specific, it used a large Sun com-
puter with 3 Domains as a kind of ‘system in a
system’. The resulting increase in SAP use also
drove up user numbers significantly.
“It was a stable system that essentially did what
we wanted. However, the architecture did have
one Achilles’ heel – if a node failed (active
passive cluster configuration), we could not
protect the continuity of the SAP applications
running on it. It was something we simply
could not and would not accept,” recalled
Hera IT manager Fabrizio Grisoni.
Oracle RAC for SAP at Gruppo Hera 31
31
Hera approached the problem by examining
various ways to ensure high availability. In the
end, they picked a solution based on Oracle
Real Application Clusters. As Grisoni explained,
“No other technology in this class compares
to Oracle RAC in terms of high availability,
performance enhancement, scalability and
flexibility.”
Successful Oracle RAC Implementation “We’re well equipped for
and Tests further corporate growth
because our current IT
The overhaul with Oracle RAC started in the
spring of 2006, when Hera Holding began architecture and applications
meticulously planning the future system en- perfectly meet a wide
vironment in close cooperation with Oracle’s variety of requirements.
Global Technology Center for SAP in Walldorf And Oracle RAC is one of
(Germany) and the Sun support team. This the key elements in this mix.”
was followed by a rapid installation, the setup
of the new environment and rigorous testing. – Fabrizio Grisoni,
Systems and
The project team built an Oracle RAC archi- Architecture Manager,
tecture (Oracle 9.2.0.7) with 2 database in- Famula@on-line S.p.A.,
stances on 2 SunFire 25K hardware systems Gruppo Hera
(two node clusters; Sun Cluster 3.1 with Sun
QFS and Solaris 9). Each of these two connected
nodes holds 3 separate “application Domains”,
each with their own Sun domain and Oracle
database: one SAP IS-U system (Release 4.6C,
IS-U 4.64) and one SAP BW system (3.1).
The SAP application servers were “outsourced”
to Sun Blade 8000 AMD Opteron hardware,
while a new storage architecture was imple-
mented alongside a new SAN system (Hitachi
HDS 9990).
The O2O (Oracle-To-Oracle) Transition
Services Set was used to migrate the 7 TB
database to the new RAC system. Thanks
mainly to O2O, the migration was completed
in only 36 hours. Others keys tool in the
project, on the same Go live, where the “full
reorganization” of the DB on the target SAN,
IS-U logical partitioning with Oracle DB
Physical Partitioning for specific Billing and
Invoicing Table. It split up IS-U tables and
improved database access and performance
during periods of high IS-U use.
32 Oracle RAC for SAP at Gruppo Hera
“No other technology in
this class compares to
Oracle RAC in terms of high
availability, performance
enhancement, scalability
and flexibility.”
– Piera Fasoli,
Managing Director, and
– Fabrizio Grisoni,
Systems and Architecture
Manager,
Famula@on-line S.p.A.,
Gruppo Hera
According to Hera System & Architecture partitioning we’ve doubled that amount, and
manager Grisoni, “The new Oracle RAC en- with the AMD Opteron Application Server we
vironment was implemented without any real can generating more than 250.000 document
difficulties. The comprehensive post-imple- x hour” noted a satisfied Grisoni.
mentation tests were also extremely successful.”
The tests ran through every imaginable scenario With Oracle RAC, Hera has even more room
– from the sudden shut-down of a cluster node to maneuver in terms of system scalability.
or database instance through to a hard disk The new environment already handles its
crash or network failure. approx. 1.500 users effortlessly on line. And
it can be easily expanded if necessary – such
as after the new strategical acquisition of the
Considerable Benefits
Group. Hera simply has to add other applica-
“The implementation of Oracle RAC has really tion server in front of the RAC Domain envi-
paid off for Hera,” said Managing Director ronment.
Fasoli and Architecture Manager Grisoni. They
added, “In our business, it’s very important
Hera is already planning to switch over to
for our mission-critical applications to run
Oracle RAC 10g in the near future. It also
smoothly. With Oracle Real Application
intends to deploy Oracle Dataguard in order
Clusters, we have the assurance we need that
to strengthen its existing disaster recovery
these software systems will remain highly
mechanisms even more.
available. If one node or database instance is
suddenly no longer available – for any reason
at all – the other nodes take over. And the users
hardly notice that there was a system problem
in the first place.”
Oracle’s database clustering technology enables
Hera to achieve major increases in productivity
and efficiency. For example, the utility company
has boosted its processing/invoicing performance
significantly. “Pre-RAC, we were generating
45.000 billing document x hour. “After the
 Oracle 10g RAC for SAP at Stadtwerke Munich 15
33

“Running an Oracle RAC migration was the logical thing to do when upgrading SAP ERP.
The improvements we achieved in terms of costs, availability, performance and scalability
g
were obvious even with Oracle9i RAC for SAP. Oracle 10g RAC for SAP is allowing us to
yet further optimize corporate applications that run on Microsoft Windows.”

— RUDOLF BAYERL
10 D AT A B A S E
Systems Operations Manager, Information and
Process Technology Division, SWM Services GmbH

MUNICH PUBLIC SERVICES: ORACLE 10g RAC

F O R S A P O P T I M I Z E S A P P L I C AT I O N S
T H AT R U N O N M I C R O S O F T W I N D O W S

Major release upgrade and database
migration
The Stadtwerke Munich (SWM), the city of
Munich’s public utility company, is the largest
municipal enterprise in Germany with around
6800 employees and a group revenue of over
€4.2 billion (2006). From the private individ-
ual or medium-sized company through to the
global player, SWM is a partner to all sizes of
customer, supplying them with energy, water
and associated services reliably and cost-effec-
tively. In addition to energy supplies and ser-
vices, the company’s spectrum encompasses the
complete energy and water value-added chain.
SWM is also a municipal service provider offer-
ing high service quality and enhancing leisure
opportunities in the world-famous city on the
Isar with its indoor and outdoor swimming
pools. And with the comprehensive mobility
services provided by MVG (subway, bus and
streetcar), SWM helps the citizens of Munich
to travel in a way that is kind to the city and
the environment. Stadtwerke Munich’s services
to citizens and customers are available round
the clock – 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.
Stadtwerke Munich
Services GmbH
This “all-round service” simply would not
Industry:
work without a sophisticated, well-functioning
IT system. SAP systems play a key role in this Utility/Public Sector
respect, to the extent that Stadtwerke Munich Annual Revenue:
describes them as “critical to success”. The €4.2 billion
company uses SAP ERP (ECC 6.0), including Employees:
the IS-U/CCS solution designed specifically
Around 6,800
for the utility industry, for management of
Oracle Products & Services:
customer and vendor data, billing, procurement
• Oracle Database 10g
handling, maintenance management, and much
Release 2
more besides. SWM has a total of around 4500)
• Oracle 10g RAC for SAP
users. Since the end of the mainframe era the
Clusters (RAC)
preferred medium for SAP use has been the • Oracle OCFS
Microsoft Windows platform in conjunction • Oracle Support
with an Oracle database, though open-source
Key Benefits
platforms such as Linux have figured in the
• Opportunities for cost
considerations for some time now. And the
efficiency optimization
extent of SAP use has been – and still is – con-
• Greater stability
tinuously increasing. The SAP database vol- • Enhanced scaling
ume is growing by around 100 gigabytes per possibilities
month, and currently totals around 4 terabytes. • Enhanced performance
In addition to SAP, SWM has well over 100 • Greater protection of
other applications, most of which operate investment
together on Oracle. Extensive experience has • Efficient database manage-
ment
already been gathered with Oracle9i RAC for
• Sophisticated system
SAP and a large number of improvements
monitoring
have been introduced.

Im
34
Move to Oracle 10g RAC for SAP:
A logical step
g sible to use a 2-node cluster instead of a 3-node
10
D AT A B A S E
“One of the aims of the SAP ERP upgrade was
to reorient our SAP database with Oracle 10g
Release 2. Given the very positive experience
we accumulated with Oracle9i RAC for SAP,
it was also a logical step to implement an
Oracle RAC upgrade alongside the SAP major
release upgrade and the database migration.
In doing so we wanted to stay with the Micro-
soft Windows OS platform,” explains Rudolf
Bayerl, System Operations Manager in the
Information and Process Technology Division
of SWM Services GmbH.
In choosing Oracle RAC 10g, SWM – an SAP
customer for many years – combined invest-
ment protection for its hardware, system stabi-
lity, enhanced performance and extra scope for
high scalability. The company also wanted to
exploit a range of extended functions provided
by Oracle 10g RAC for SAP, such as AWR
(Automatic Workload Repository) tools for
database diagnostics and system management
for the entire database environment.
“As was the case with the implementation of
Oracle9i RAC for SAP, prior to deploying
Oracle 10g RAC for SAP we talked to Oracle,
Microsoft, SAP, EMC and the new hardware
vendor Fujitsu Siemens Computers,” says
Manfred Fischer, Systems Engineer/OCP at
SWM Services GmbH. The RAC upgrade was
implemented as a pilot project.
Because the company was using new, more
powerful hardware (a blade server), it was pos-
cluster.
FlexFrame 3.2B was chosen for central and
dialog instances and an RAC configuration for
the database.
The plan was initially to run Oracle 10g RAC
for SAP together with R/3, and then later with
SAP ERP or ECC 6.0. Oracle 10g RAC for SAP
together with SAP ERP were scheduled to go
into productive operation in early November
2007.
Oracle RAC installation took just one day
Beginning in the spring, the individual pro-
ject phases were implemented one at a time.
Throughout the process the Global Oracle
Technology Center in Walldorf (Germany)
served as preferred contact partner for the
Oracle RAC team at SWM. SWM opted to
set up the Oracle RAC for SAP environment
afresh.
After the system was set up, hardware and
network tests were carried out and the new
Oracle RAC system was installed, including
the new Oracle RAC Clusterware running on
the 10g database version. “This stage took
only a day to complete and went off without a
hitch,” says Fischer. Once this stage was com-
plete Oracle 10g RAC for SAP was extensively
tested. Particular attention was focused on
function tests and the services of the cluster.
When this work was successfully completed
the next step was to transfer the data to the
new database environment. The whole process
took around 10 hours to complete as the data-
base and the Oracle RAC environment were
set up afresh. This was followed by further
system tests (performance tests, OCFS tests,
fail-over tests and others) with Oracle 10g
RAC for SAP, in conjunction with SAP R/3.
“These functionality tests for the complete
environment passed off exactly as we hoped,”
says Fischer. nization to

Oracle RAC for SAP migration a logical move
In July 2007 the productive system was
migrated to 10g Release 2 RAC, still opera-
ting on SAP 4.6C.
This was followed in early November by the
move to the new SAP ERP system, which has
been in productive operation with the Oracle
10.2 database and Oracle 10g Real Applica-
tion Clusters for SAP ever since. “It was only
logical to implement an Oracle RAC migra-
tion together with the SAP ERP upgrade.
Even with Oracle9i RAC for SAP, the improve-
ments in terms of costs, availability, perfor-
mance and scalability were clear to see. With
Oracle 10g RAC for SAP we’ve managed to
optimize the use of business applications on
Microsoft Windows even further,” sums up
Mr. Bayerl, the System Operations Manager.
The new functions provided by Oracle 10g
RAC for SAP ”make us more efficient and
enable us to perform complex diagnostics or
analyses more quickly and easily. As a result
we are in a position to respond more specifi-
cally and appropriately to potential changes
in the system,” says Fischer.
Oracle 10g RAC for SAP at Stadtwerke Munich 35
As he points out, the AWR tools, for example,
allow the user to perform very in-depth analy-
ses – including root cause analyses – with just
a few clicks. “This is a tremendous asset. In a
potential error situation, or if we were experi-
encing performance problems, we can respond
immediately and we know instantly where
we need to act. We can also draw on seamless
documentation of all our performance data,
for whatever purpose we need it.”
SWM’s SAP team are also impressed by the
new features of the SAP database Oracle 10g
on Windows: “Database reorganizations, in
particular, are much more efficient with the
new 10g functions. This alone makes our
workload considerably easier and therefore
improves productivity.”
 36
Cat Logistics
Configuration Details:
SAP Application
SAP Versions: ECC 6.0, SCM 5.0, CRM
5.0, NW2004s, BI 7.0, EP 6.0, XI
Hardware & Operating System:
IBM pSeries/AIX 5.3
SAP servers: Initial setup – 8 (4-way)
pSeries hosting 14 SAP app server
instances, handles up to 4,000 SAPS.
End state – 100+ 4-way pSeries handle
170,000 SAPS
Users: Initial setup – 200 named users,
40 concurrent users. End state – 3500
named users and 20,000 customer users
Transactions: Initial setup – 600K dialog
steps per day * User and Transaction
metrics estimated
Oracle Database
Database: Oracle RAC 10.2.0.2
Hardware & Operation System: IBM
pSeries / AIX 5.3
Stretch cluster: 10 miles (Gb ethernet
over single mode fiber < 1ms latency)
File System: IBM GPFS 2.3 with GPFS
Replication
DB Size: Single DB Totals
Current: 10 Gigabytes to 200 Gigabytes,
growing to 1.2Terabytes
End State: 250 Gigabytes to 3 Terabytes,
growing to 15 to 20 Terabytes
Disk: 60% greater than size of db
CPU: 4 to 6 depending on SAP compo-
nent (AIX virtualization)
Memory: 3 – 8 Gb depending on SAP
component
The following article "SAP – Cat Logistics
Success Story” is a reprint from Cat
Logistics Industry Article, with permission
from Cat Logistics. The original article can
be viewed at:
http://logistics.cat.com/cda/components/
fullArticle?m=115228&x=7&id=394024
Cat Logistics RUNS ORACLE 10g
R E A L A P P L I C AT I O N C L U S T E R S
Cat Logistics went production with SAP® Service and Asset Management in November 2007.
The database server is running AIX 5.3 and the database is Oracle 10g with Real Application
Clusters. The Oracle Cluster spans approximately ten miles utilizing a high-speed dark fiber
connection between the nodes of the RAC cluster. This configuration ensures the high
availability of Cat Logistics SAP applications. The Oracle Global Technology Center and
Oracle Development team in Walldorf Germany in addition to the local Oracle account team
provided key support during the implementation of Oracle RAC.
C AT L O G I S T I C S S E RV I C E S Key Benefits
Taking Service Parts Management to the • 25% to 50% improvement in warehouse
Next Generation with SAP ® Software productivity
• 5% to 10% improvement in fill rates
Summary • 15% to 25% reduction in inventory
• 20% to 30% reduction in IT support costs
When Morton, Ill.–based Caterpillar Logistics
Services, Inc. (Cat Logistics) wanted to move • More time for IT staff to spend on customer
its aftermarket parts operation to a next-gene- service and integration
ration platform, it joined forces with Ford
Solutions and Services
Motor Company and SAP to develop a power- SAP Service and Asset Management
ful service parts management application.
Now part of the SAP® Service and Asset Existing Environment
Management solution, the software is helping • Legacy systems
the company stay on the cutting edge. • SAP software for supply chain management
Key Challenges
and SAP industry specific automotive solu-
tions (functionality now found in the
• Provide continued support for increasingly mySAP™ ERP application)
sophisticated global operations
• Eliminate costly legacy systems Current Environment
• Meet customer expectations for next-genera- Database: Oracle
tion technology Hardware: IBM
Project Objectives
Operating System: IBM AIX
• Move away from in-house software develop- Why SAP Solution?
ment
Long-term stability of SAP as a company – as
• Provide the functionality and power to
well as its industry and supply chain know-
manage complex service parts supply chains
ledge and global perspective and support
• Implement Web-enabled, standard techno-
logy

Cat Logistics
Caterpillar Logistics Services, Inc.’s expertise
is in providing truly integrated logistics solu-
tions, says Krish Srinivasan, manager of strat-
egy and business development at the Morton,
Ill.–based company. “We draw on the intellec-
tual property developed in serving Caterpillar,
our parent company, which has more 80 years
of supply chain experience and one of the
world’s largest and most efficient logistics
operations,” he says. And a few years ago,
with an eye on rapidly evolving information
technology, the company wanted to rethink
the systems that were helping it deliver that
expertise to customers. “We decided that we
should take a look at our technology strategy
going forward – especially in our service parts
business,” says Srinivasan.
Commonly known as Cat Logistics, the com-
pany was formed in 1987 as a wholly owned
subsidiary of Caterpillar Inc. – the world’s
leading manufacturer of construction and
mining equipment, diesel and natural gas
engines, and industrial gas turbines. Today
Cat Logistics provides integrated logistics
solutions global companies in a variety of
industries. It operates more than 105 offices
and facilities in 25 countries on six continents
and serves more than 60 client companies,
including Caterpillar itself.
The aftermarket parts business is key for Cat
Logistics, which manages some 25 million
SKUs annually. To support those vital operati-
ons, the company had been using legacy
systems that it developed and fine-tuned over
the course of several decades to support its
sophisticated, and often complex, supply
chain processes.
“Some of our legacy systems were 10 to 15
years old, and they were getting expensive to
maintain,” explains Srinivasan. In addition, the
company had created variety of customized
versions of service parts management software
to meet the needs of various customers, which
also drove up maintenance costs.
Oracle 10g RAC for SAP at Cat Logistics 37
“To keep upgrading and enhancing those
systems was not an option,” says Srinivasan.
“It was becoming too time-consuming and
difficult.” Instead, Cat Logistics began sear-
ching for a packaged service parts manage- “SAP brought a genuine
ment application. “We took an exhaustive desire to make sure the
look at the solutions that existed in the mar- software not only met
ket and found that were woefully limited in the needs of Cat Logistics,
terms of capabilities, especially compared to
but was also a best-in-
the rich functionality of the systems Cat
class solution for the
Logistics had developed over the years,” says
Srinivasan. “We could see that buying the industry as whole.”
software in the marketplace would be a step
– Kevin Nelson,
backward for us.” Development Manager,
Caterpillar Logistics
Collaborating on a Solution Services, Inc.
To keep its critical service parts business
moving forward, Cat Logistics decided to create
exactly what it wanted. The company joined
forces with Ford Motor Company, which was
also interested in a better service parts mana-
gement solution, and the two began looking
for a development partner. Soon, they decided
work with SAP to develop an end-to-end, "With global available-to-
next-generation service parts management promise functionality,
application – an effort that would eventually for example, we can do a
produce a key portion of the Service and Asset complete network search
Management solution. for parts, across ware-
Cat Logistics decided to work with SAP in houses. That makes it
part because of SAP’s stability as a company possible to service
and in part because of the software vendor’s customer orders more
understanding of supply chain management – quickly and avoid going
and service parts management in particular. back to suppliers to order
“Service parts is one of the core key strengths
additional inventory you
of our business,” says Scott Koval, marketing
don’t need.”
director at Cat Logistics. “We could not ent-
rust this effort to a company that might not – Scott Koval,
be around five years down the road. We wan- Marketing Director,
ted to go with a vendor that the business, that Caterpillar Logistics
had been around for some time, and that was Services, Inc.
going to be around for the long term.”
Cat Logistics was also looking for a partner
that, like Cat Logistics itself, was focused on
the future. “We wanted a company that
understood where the technology was going,”
Srinivasan says. Just as important, Cat
Logistics felt that SAP was committed to
keeping its software on the leading edge.
38
“In a fast-changing business,” Srinivasan says,
“we wanted a partner that was prepared to
apply ongoing research and development to
the product and market needs changed.”
Cat Logistics, Ford, and SAP brought a wide
range of complementary knowledge and expe-
rience to the effort. “Two heads are better than
one, and, in this case, three were better than
two,” says Srinivasan. “This development effort
benefited greatly from the combined expertise
of these three companies.”
"SAP understood the SAP contributed both technology and busin-
needs of various market ess knowledge gained through extensive expe-
sectors and the chal-
rience in the supply chain management arena
in a variety of industries. “Among other
lenges of global business
things,” says Srinivasan, “SAP understood the
– the cross-border issues,
needs of various market sectors and the chal-
import/export regula- lenges of a global business – the cross-border
tions, local tax laws, and issues, import/export regulations, local tax
so forth. It was prepared laws, and so forth. It was prepared to develop
to develop a solution that a solution that could work for many different
could work for many regions of the globe.”
different regions of the
The three companies worked closely together
globe.” under a well-defined governance structure that
spelled out details about roles, responsibilities,
– Krish Srinivasan, and timing in a highly collaborative process.
Manager of Strategy and
“At the team level, people were meeting at
Business Development,
least once a week and more often two or three
Caterpillar Logistics
Services, Inc.
times a week,” says Kevin Nelson, develop-
ment manager at Cat Logistics. “Throughout
the process,” he adds, “SAP brought a genuine
desire to make sure the software not only met
the needs of Cat Logistics, but was also a best-
in-class solution for the industry as a whole.”
Support for the Complex Aftermarket Supply
Chain
The result of these efforts was a powerful ser-
vice parts management application that gives
Cat Logistics fully integrated order manage-
ment, materials management, and warehouse
management capabilities. The SAP software
provides the full range of tools and functions
the company needs to support its sophistica-
ted operations, from planning to fulfillment
and analysis, with real-time execution of logi-
stics processes, including exception monito-
ring and alerts.
The SAP software supports a number of pro-
cesses that are integral to both Cat Logistics
and its customers. "With global available-to
promise functionality, for example, we can do
a complete network search for parts, across
warehouses,” says Koval. “That makes it pos-
sible to service customers more quickly and
avoid going back to suppliers to order addi-
tional inventory you don’t need.”
The software also provides improved support
for large, complex operations. “It lets us ma-
nage situations where, for example, you have
orders coming in from tens of thousands of
customers into a complex warehouse environ-
ment, with orders going to different destina-
tions and potentially being cross-docked or
consolidated after they leave the facility,” says
Nelson. “The intelligence in the routing system
is very effective.”
At the same time, the company’s service parts
management operations now run on a more
flexible, Web-enabled platform that makes it
easy to bring customers onboard and support
them virtually anywhere in the world. “And,”
says Srinivasan, “we now have multilanguage
and multicurrency capabilities that we can use
with global customers. These things will help
us reach out to customers in different regions.”
The Payoff for Cat Logistics – and its
Customers
In the near future, Cat Logistics plans to roll
the SAP Service and Asset Management solu-
tion out to a growing number of customers,
with some 20,000 users expected to be on the
system within three years. Currently, the com-
pany is implementing the software for one of
its most sophisticated clients – its parent
company, Caterpillar. “Caterpillar has placed a
strategic emphasis on its aftermarket supply
chain; it recognizes that significant repeat sales
of its prime products happens because of the
aftermarket support it provides for those pro-
ducts,” says Srinivasan. “For example,” he ex-
plains, “the company has a ‘no-orphan policy’
of supporting products as long as customers
own them – which can be decades – and the
 Oracle 10g RAC for SAP at Cat Logistics 39

aftermarket supply chain achieves same-day Overall the SAP Service and Asset
shipping of parts 99.7% of the time.” Management solution gives Cat Logistics the
Already experience shows that Cat Logistics’ tools it needs to work effectively with its
customers are likely to see clear benefits from customers and help them streamline their
the SAP software. As an example, in facilities aftermarket supply chains. Just as important,
where the company has used the software’s the software provides a technology platform
warehouse management capabilities, produc- that can keep up with an expanding and
tivity in terms of lines shipped has improved rapidly changing business. “Our customers
anywhere from 25% to 50%. “With the inte- like having the confidence of knowing their
grated solution supporting the service parts supply chains are supported by the latest stan-
supply chain,” says Srinivasan, “we will also dard technology,” says Srinivasan. “This is a
see significant benefits in inventory manage- system that we and our customers can grow
ment, with an expected 5% to 10% improve- with in the coming years.”
ment in fill rates and inventory reductions of
15% to 25%, depending on the customer’s
industry.”
Meanwhile the use of standard software and a
reduced need for in-house development should
lower IT support costs 20% to 30% – and
allow Cat Logistics’ in-house IT professionals
to focus on customer service and integration,
rather than ongoing software development.
40

“Oracle Partitioning is an effective lever for enhancing the long-term system stability of
mission-critical SAP applications. It's associated with higher performance, optimizations
in database reorganization, and savings in hardware resources."

– MANUEL HONEGGER,
Head of Development, Member of the Management,
Coop Switzerland

RETAILER COOP IS BENEFITING FROM ORACLE

PA RT I T I O N I N G

Industry:
Commerce/Retail
Turnover:
Over 15,5 billion CHF 2006
Workforce:
Around 45,800
Oracle products & services:
• Oracle Database 10g
• Oracle Partitioning
• Oracle Advanced Customer
Service (ACS) for SAP
Swiss retailer Coop has improved its SAP
system stability thanks to Oracle Partitioning.
The company is now in a position to respond
quickly and effectively to any negative
impacts on SAP system stability.
The Coop Group has one overriding objective
- to become Switzerland’s number one retailer.
And the company is certainly on the right track
to achieving its goal, even despite ongoing
changes in the industry and evolving customer
behavior. The retail giant’s sales have risen
continuously in recent years, reaching around
15.5 billion Swiss francs (CHF) in 2006. The
workforce has also grown to more than 45,800
while the number of stores has mushroomed to
almost 1550. Coop is also involved in a number
of cooperations at international level.
Making sure the huge range of goods and pro-
ducts arrives in stores or markets at the right
time and in the right quantity requires a sophi-
sticated logistics system. But it also depends on
powerful and well-functioning IT. That's where
Coop’s SAP corporate solutions combined with
the Oracle database come in. The retail group
completed the move to SAP ERP and Oracle
10g last year. There are also several SAP BW
systems running on Oracle. The number of
SAP users is around the 4500 mark, and the
size of the Oracle database is currently about
8 TB. The hardware platform is Sun (Solaris)
while the disk subsystems are from Hitachi.
Oracle: Strategic system partner
Manuel Honegger, Head of IT Development
at Coop, explains: “We made a conscious stra-
tegic decision in favor of Oracle.” The high-
profile company also relies on Oracle Advanced
Customer Service for SAP, utilizing a range of
made-to-measure support services.
But that’s not all. As an SAP user Coop decided
to use Oracle Partitioning – and for very good
reasons. “There's no question that the SAP-
Oracle combination works brilliantly. But when
you need to process very large volumes of data
with SAP, the SAP table design quickly reaches
its limits. If you don’t implement optimizati-
ons, you put system stability at risk. This can
result in business processes no longer being
correctly supported by corporate solutions, or in
some cases not supported at all. Oracle Partitio-
ning is an effective lever for enhancing or achie-
ving the long-term system stability of mission-
critical SAP applications,” says Honegger.
Coop handles enormous volumes of data.
Movement data alone accounts for a massive
10 TB. Every week the enterprise moves and
processes five million order items. These are
orders for local stores being transferred to
headquarters and processed there in order to
dispatch goods deliveries. For these processes
Coop needs maximum system performance
and availability from its SAP systems. If any
difficulties arise during this stage, business
continuity is put at risk.

Oracle Partitioning: The winning card
It was when two key problem areas were identi-
fied that Coop’s IT team decided to act to
improve system stability. The first problem
was reduced performance and the second was
that data volumes were growing at an above-
average rate, particularly movement data.
These problems were analyzed from different
perspectives.
A conclusion was soon reached: “We were able
to show that an optimized data archiving con-
cept using Oracle Partitioning would enable
us to improve the situation. Most importantly,
with Oracle Partitioning you can partition
disproportionately large tables. This allowed us
to efficiently split and archive logical structures
in different physical segments, which had a
positive impact on SAP system stability,”
explains Honegger.
In concrete terms the analyses revealed that a
number of tablespaces were five times bigger
than was normal. Some were growing to a
volume of 800 GB, with a few even amoun-
ting to 1000 GB.
Oracle database specialists at the Oracle for SAP
Solution Center in Walldorf worked with Coop
to develop a concept for implementing Oracle
Partitioning with maximum efficiency. In a first
step the team identified which tables were good
candidates for partitioning. The partitioning
criteria were then defined for each table. It was
important that integration into the SAP system
was as seamless as possible to ensure optimum
functioning and keep administration as simple
as possible. This is achieved by linking the
partitioning criterion with the SAP number
range table NRIV. This strategy ensures that
both SAP archiving and the performance-critical
SQL statements are optimally supported.
Finally, tests were carried out to check the
effectiveness of the various measures. “The result
was exactly what we hoped for. Put simply,
after implementing Oracle Partitioning the
system wasn’t big and heavy any more. Oracle
also helped us significantly increase our SAP
system performance,” says Honegger.
COOP is benefiting from Oracle Partitioning for SAP 41
Other focus of optimization
Having achieved all these improvements,
which resulted in optimized data archiving,
it was time to make further use of Oracle
Partitioning. But this time the focus was
different. The aim was now to increase
resource capacities, and in particular to leverage
Oracle Partitioning in such a way as to take
the strain off the disk subsystems to the tune
of around 2 TB. In this project, both tables
and indices were optimized with the aid of
Oracle Partitioning with the specific aim of “ We made a conscious
cutting down on resources. This too was achie-
strategic decision in favor
ved in a team effort between Coop’s IT depart-
of Oracle.”
ment and the Oracle database specialists. At the
end of the day the 2 TB reduction was achieved – Manuel Honegger,
thanks to more efficient means of database Head of Development,
reorganization – all through the use of Oracle Member of the Manage-
Partitioning. ment, Coop Switzerland.
Honegger sums up: “It was Oracle Partitioning
that enabled us to enhance our system stability
in the face of substantial growth in data volu-
mes and therefore avoid potential downtimes.
As an SAP user handling large volumes of data
we benefited from Oracle Partitioning in
several ways. SAP supported and verified our
approach.”
As part of an ongoing optimization process for
system stability there are plans to use Oracle
Partitioning as a kind of proactive early-war-
ning mechanism. Should system stability be
impaired, for any reason, Oracle Partitioning
will be employed to nip the problem in the bud.
42

“Data warehouses have not only grown to be very large in many enterprises:
their growth is accelerating. A data warehouse occupying a terabyte of disk- a rarity
a few years ago– is now quite common. And many enterprises are now planning or
implementing data warehouses occupying ten terabytes of disk or more".

WinterCorp http://wintercorp.com

by Richard Winter and Rick Burns, April 2007

FIELD EXPERIENCE WITH LARGE-SCALE

D ATA WA R E H O U S I N G O N O R A C L E

Colgate Palmolive Company inventory and process managements, and

The Colgate-Palmolive Company is a world-
wide producer of consumer products that
supply some of the world’s leading brands in
oral care, personal care, household and fabric
care and pet food. It operates in more than
200 countries and generated $11.4 billion
in revenue in 2005. Colgate-Palmolive has
achieved dramatic growth in revenue and
earnings in the past decade through rapid
development and introduction of innovative
new products that meet emerging consumer
preferences.
A key factor in Colgate’s ability to sustain
such rapid business growth has been its
commitment to continuous performance
improvement. Colgate has established key
performance indicators (KPI) globally and
uses these to link forces driving its business
to daily operating activities throughout the
organization. For example, how do sales
projections compare to actuals? Are customers
receiving rebates as promised? Profitability
analysis measures the efficiency of specific
brands and marketing programs. The cor-
porate-wide data warehouse, based on SAP’s
Business Information Warehouse (BW) pro-
duct, is used to report on a broad range of
corporate performance. BW provides a unified
reporting and analysis infrastructure that
integrates sales and distribution information,
financial and personnel data. Divisional mana-
gers, corporate staff, subsidiaries and partners
for supply chain optimization and business
intelligence use BW to keep their finger on
the pulse of the business and look for impro-
vement opportunities.
In 2002, Colgate consolidated multiple data
warehouses into a single warehouse to imple-
ment this unified corporate-wide reporting
and analysis capability. Today, the SAP BW
installation is based on Oracle9i Release 2
running on a 20-processor IBM p595 “Squa-
dron” with 64GB of main memory and 10
Terabytes of IBM storage under AIX 5.2.
The Oracle database contains 4.7 TB of raw
data and has a total size of 8.7 TB. It incorpo-
rates data from many different sources including
SAP R/3, and financial, sales, and manufactu-
ring operational systems.
BW provides a multidimensional capability
through snowflake schemas called InfoCubes.
Colgate’s data warehouse contains 400
InfoCubes ranging in size from one million
to 370 million rows. It also contains over
5341 pre-computed aggregates. InfoCube
and aggregate data is stored in more than
1,800,000 table partitions in the database
resulting in one of the most complex database
structures used worldwide.
 L a r g e - S c a l e D a t a Wa r e h o u s i n g o n O r a c l e a t C o l g a t e P a l m o l i v e 43

One table contains over eight thousand parti-
tions. Overall the BW database contains 69,600
tables containing over 25 billion rows, and
540,000 attributes.
The aggregated data allows business managers
to quickly discover performance metrics such
as daily sales flash, inventory levels and account
performance. Complex ad hoc queries, invol-
ving joins of up to 30 tables, comprise 80%-
90% of the system workload. The BW system
services 10,000 users worldwide, about a
quarter of Colgate-Palmolive’s employees, and
handles 16,000 navigational steps on a typical
day.
Additional performance challenges relate to
the rapidly increasing number of users and the
resulting utilization levels. Colgate is in the
process of upgrading to Oracle 10g and is
evaluating RAC for additional parallelism.
These technology upgrades are expected to
deliver additional performance enhancements,
including more dynamic management of
partitioning and effective partition elimination,
critical to meeting the escalating utilization
demands. Colgate has found Oracle to be fast,
scalable, robust and easy to administer. It is a
key component of Colgate’s IT infrastructure.

The size of Colgate’s BW system presented

Colgate’s IT staff with multiple scalability
challenges. These challenges revolved around
the large number of database partitions and
segments in the warehouse and the extensive
use of drop and create operations on partitio-
ned objects, according to Deighton Weekes,
a Colgate Technical Executive. Colgate under-
took a performance analysis and tuning exer-
cise, helped by collaboration from its system
vendors, which quickly resulted in an overall
performance improvement for the consolidated
BW system of 80%. According to Mr. Weekes,
the use of Oracle locally managed tablespace
and parallel query features, as well as the auto-
matic space management and PGA memory
management features introduced in Oracle9i,
were key factors in achieving this performance
gain.
 Certified SAP on RAC Configurations for Windows and Linux 45

C E R T I F I E D S A P O N R A C C O N F I G U R AT I O N S
FOR WINDOWS AND LINUX
We have separate scenarios for Windows and Linux, see also SAP Note 527843

Windows Linux

Oracle RAC 10.2 on Windows x86, x86_64 and IA64 Oracle RAC 10.2 on Linux x86, x86_64, IA64 and Power
for RHEL4, RHEL5, SLES9 and SLES10
• Only Oracle 10.2.0.2, no 10.2.0.3
• OCFS 10.2.0.2 or higher for database, Oracle software and SAP software • Only Oracle 10.2.0.2, no 10.2.0.3

• Windows 2003 Release 2, Windows 2003 SP1 or SP2 • OCFS2 1.2.3 or higher for database, Oracle software and SAP software

• SAP Enqueue Replication covered by Microsoft Cluster Services • EMC Celerra NFS for database, Oracle software and SAP software
(SAP Central Instance can be co-located with RAC instance)
• NetAppliance NFS for database, Oracle software and SAP software
• iSCSI only supported up to 4 nodes
• SAP Enqueue Replication covered by Oracle Clusterware (2 node
Not supported:
configuration, co-location of SAP Central Instance with RAC Instance)
– crossover cables for interconnect (only Gigabit Ethernet, • SAP Enqueue Replication covered by HP ServiceGuard or Red Hat
minimum two cards) Cluster (minimum 4 nodes are required, SAP central instance cannot
– Infiniband be co-located with RAC instance on same node)
– ASM Not supported:
– raw devices
– iSCSI – Firewire – crossover cables for interconnect (only Gigabit
Ethernet, minimum two cards) – Infiniband – Red Hat GFS
– Veritas CFS, ASM, raw devices
46 DELL-SAP on RAC Promotion

O R A C L E 1 0 g R E A L A P P L I C AT I O N C L U S T E R S
FOR SAP PROMOTIONAL OFFERING FROM DELL

Dell offers a fully scalable solution for your SAP deployment to help simplify operations,
improve utilization and achieve cost-effective scaling. The goal is to meet today’s SAP
needs while preparing the company for the growth and accompanying needs of the future.

What is the Promotional Offering?

• Oracle Database infrastructure exclusively

for SAP application customers
• Targeted to small and medium sized
implementations for Microsoft® Windows®
/Linux customers, sold via Dell channel
• Sold as packaged new systems.
• Available World Wide

Products Included:

• Oracle 10g Database Enterprise Edition

Oracle Real Application Clusters (RAC)
option for SAP supports the transparent
deployment of a single database across a
cluster of hardware servers, providing fault
tolerance from hardware failures or planned
outages.
• Partitioning
• Oracle Real Application Clusters (RAC)
For more information about this special
Oracle for SAP pricing from Dell, contact
your Dell sales representative.

Utilizing RAC with Dell hardware for your DELL

SAP environment provides the final compo-
nent for scalability at every layer in the 1 Dell Way, Round Rock, TX 78682-2222
solution stack. or eMail to: saponoracle_de@oracle.com

Now you have available to you, from Dell

special promotional pricing of Oracle techno-
logy for SAP customers on Dell.
48
ORACLE ADVANCED CUSTOMER SERVICES FOR SAP
g
10 D AT A B A S E
Oracle Database and SAP
More than two thirds of all SAP customers
entrust their data to the Oracle database.
Almost two million registered users at nearly
ten thousand locations have come to expect
the best technology and performance that the
Oracle database brings to the SAP environ-
ment. Its outstanding attributes are a direct
result of multiple years of intensive partner-
ship between SAP and Oracle.
The SAP and Oracle cooperation does not end
with the database technology integration.
Customer support and satisfaction are tangible
day-to-day benefits of this partnership. A key
enabler of this level of customer support is SAP’s
requirement for permanent on-site Oracle Sup-
port staff. This group staffs the Development
Level Support queue and provides immediate
assistance for a wide range of problems from
semi-critical to critical priority 1 “production
down” issues.
The SAP Support and Services group at Oracle
was created to coordinate and staff this focused
customer support team. We are a worldwide
services group providing assistance in all
aspects of SAP operation. Specifically our
mandate covers tasks ranging from manage-
ment of increasing data volumes, performance
optimization, setup of high availability solu-
tions, to data exchange between the SAP
system and other Oracle Databases over a
secure interface.
Oracle’s offering of SAP-specific services focus
on Oracle database expertise as it applies to your
SAP environment. Our services include data-
base centric core technology services as described
above, database and platform migrations, inte-
gration services, and a workshop program for
in-depth technical customer training.
Oracle Services in concert with SAP leverages
over fourteen years of experience in delivering
R/3 solutions founded on the Oracle Database.
This area of service is fully integrated in Oracle’s
Advanced Customer Service (ACS) model. In
addition to Standard Product Support, ACS
offers specific service packages tailored to
customers needs. ACS provides three separate
and distinct packages for your individualized
Oracle/SAP support. Those three are:
• Assisted Service
• Business Critical Assistance
• Solution Support Center
Assisted Services
Assisted Services are support advisory services
for customers who need customized assistance
from Oracle’s SAP engineers. The concept is
to provide Oracle engineers that are skilled
with the SAP application system, tools, proce-
dures and most importantly the Oracle data-
base with SAP.
An Oracle engineer is assigned to the customer
for a predetermined period of time to deliver
agreed upon support services for the efficient
operation and management of Oracle software
for SAP on Oracle.
These support services are geared to optimize
future support processes. Representative services
are listed below:
• Database Design and operations
• Oracle Software configuration for SAP
• Performance Analysis
• High Availability/Backup Concepts
• Oracle RAC enablement for SAP
• Migration Service for SAP R/3
• Oracle to Oracle Migrations (O2O)
• Oracle Workshops for SAP
• Technical Assessments
• Implementation of Partitioning in a
standard SAP ERP system

Database Design and configuration of an
SAP R/3 System
In the beginning of an R/3 project the appli-
cation design and implementation is the focus
of most activities. It is this time that is most
critical for ensuring that the configuration and
design of your database is configured optimally
and flexible enough for meeting your future
needs. Improper or suboptimal configuration
means increased effort in terms of operational
efficiency and management. We therefore
advise you to engage the proper resources
during the initial stage of your R/3 project to
help you prepare and configure the database
with current best practices and your design
goals in mind.
Of course, we also specialize in optimizing and
improving existing database designs.
Performance Analysis
Performance is one of the keys to success in
the introduction and operation of an SAP
system for all SAP customers. Our specially
trained staff not only know the Oracle Data-
base in detail but are also trained extremely
well in the SAP environment. Therefore, our
staff is in a position to analyze any performance
problem and to provide solutions.
These solutions could be, for example, in the
areas of index design, parameter optimization,
ABAP optimization or adaptation of operating
system parameters. Our staff is also of course
able to deal with specific features of individual
SAP solutions. Performance problems in SAP
R/3-BW systems appear in various forms and
therefore the approaches to solution-solving
will vary.
High Availability /Backup Concepts
Unavailability of the SAP system leads to mas-
sive problems for most customers (logistically
and financially). In order to prevent this, every
SAP customer should deal with the subject
“high availability.” In particular customers who
describe their system as mission critical must
look thoroughly at this subject. However, in
this area there are very different approaches,
Oracle Advanced Customer Services for SAP 49
all with advantages and disadvantages (hard-
ware clusters, mirror technologies, standby
databases, RAC, data guard...). We can advise
you on the right strategy for your company
and of course help during implementation of
the chosen solution.
Oracle RAC enablement for SAP
Oracle provides the ‘Real Application Clusters’
(RAC) option. You can use this option to
distribute the database instance on different
servers (nodes). This offers new possibilities
in the area of high availability of an Oracle
database system, and also provides greater
flexibility in the dimensioning of system
resources (scalability). Oracle provides profes-
sional service to assist you with enabling
RAC your SAP environments. These services
include workshops, planning, and implemen-
tation of RAC software.
Migration Services for SAP R/3
A great majority of all SAP R/3 installations
run on an Oracle database. The Oracle SAP
Support and Services group is certified by
SAP for R/3 database migrations and can per-
form migrations for companies who wish to
migrate their SAP R/3 installation from a
non-Oracle Database to Oracle. Professional
service can be provided for migrations of any
SAP database. Many customer systems have
already been successfully migrated by the
Oracle SAP Support and Services group. We
offer you the best migration service you can
get, because we have the experience needed to
handle any problems that may arise from the
database administrator’s perspective. The
Oracle SAP Support and Services group can
also offer customers introductory training in
using the new database.
Oracle to Oracle Migrations (O2O) –
Extremely fast and smooth Database
Migrations for SAP Systems, Heterogeneous
Database Migrations
SAP offers the R3LOAD program for database
migrations. This program has been available
for quite some time, but unfortunately, has
50
just one disadvantage: It is very slow because
initially, the entire source system must be
unloaded. The entire contents of the database
are then stored temporarily in the file system
in the form of flat files, so that it can be reloa-
ded to the target system in a second step. The
transfer speeds achievable with this process are
around 500GB in 24 hours, depending on the
hardware available and the tuning measures
conducted. If you are dependent on this proce-
dure, then for larger systems (> 1TB) down-
times of significantly more than 48 hours must
g already be planned for. In other words: A wee-
10
D AT A B A S E
kend is not long enough. In order to offer our
Oracle customers a significantly faster process,
we have developed together with Hewlett
Packard a service set that can support a transfer
speed of more than 100 to 150GB per hour.
This means systems can now be migrated that
could not be handled previously. The service
set is based on Oracle technologies, which are
deployed consistently to the migration at hand.
It supports migrations of SAP R/3 as well as
BW systems. After the migration is concluded,
the systems migrated using our process are fully
supported by SAP.
Oracle Partitioning for SAP customers
Oracle Partitioning is an option to Oracle Data-
base 10g Enterprise Edition. At a technical
level, Oracle Partitioning allows tables and
indexes within a database to be subdivided
into smaller pieces. Oracle can ‘partition’ a
table by ranges of values, so for example the
data for Jan 1, 2008 through Jan 31, 2008 is in
its own partition. Oracle can also partition a
table by a list of values, so that North American
data is in one partition, while the European
data is in another partition. Partitioning is a
critical feature for managing large databases.
Growth is the basic challenge that partitioning
addresses for large databases, and Oracle Parti-
tioning enables a “divide and conquer” technique
for managing the large tables in the database,
especially as those tables grow. Although your
database may have twice as much data next year
as it does today, your end-users are not going
to tolerate their application running twice as
slow, your database is not going to be given
twice as much time to complete maintenance
and batch processing, and your IT managers
are not going to double your hardware bud-
get. Partitioning is the feature that allows a
database to scale for very large datasets while
maintaining consistent performance, without
an unduly increased need for hardware resour-
ces or administrative efforts.
Oracle Partitioning is embedded tightly into
the core database engine and supported by
Oracle’s administrative tools. From an SAP
application perspective, partitioning is com-
pletely transparent: no changes need to be
made to the application or to the SQL state-
ments in order to use partitioning.
Oracle Services and Support for SAP is happy
to demonstrate for you the benefits of Parti-
tioning. Partitioning for SAP is supported
since SAP Version 4.6C SAP Kernel 6.20 Please
contact us for more information and see further
more the Success Story for Partitioning at
Coop Switzerland in this edition.
Oracle Workshop 10g for SAP R/3
Customers – Oracle 10g and SAP
The Oracle Version 10g Release 2 has been
available to SAP customers since mid 2006.
This release offers significant extensions, as
well as new features in the operation of an
SAP system in various respects. The focus of
this workshop is to make known the aspects
of Oracle 10g, which are necessary for SAP
customers to be familiar with and knowledge-
able about in order to, have an effect on daily
their work.
Within four days of workshops additional
documentation will be provided.
In the following you will find an extract from
the subject areas, which will be discussed
during the workshop:
• New background processes
• Automatic SGA Management
• Tablespaces management
• Segment shrinking
 Oracle Advanced Customer Services for SAP 51

• Enhancements for Automatic PGA tuning - Oracle product Patch Assessments

• Cost Based Optimizer with 10g and SAP
• Creation of Optimizer Statistics – Changes/
Enhancements
• SAP Oracle parameter recommendations
• Extensions to Online Table Reorganizations
(LONG to LOB)
• Incremental RMAN backups
• Undo Management – enhancements
• Flashback
• Resumable space enhancements in 10g
• Extensions regarding Recovery
• Automatic Workload Repository / Active
Session history / Automatic Database
Diagnostic Monitor
• Oracle’s wait interface – enhancements
with 10g
Get to know the fascinating possibilities of
Oracle 10g in the SAP environment.
- Applied research
- Knowledge transfer workshops
- Emergency Support
The benefits of the ACS concept result in
regular customer care by a focused team.
This way there is a close relationship with the
customer and the customer’s systems. In the
same way, the ACS concept focuses particularly
on proactive services with the aim of not
allowing problems to appear, or if necessary,
to react as effectively as possible.
We hope we have aroused your interest in our
service. We would be glad to give you contact
data for our customers upon request.
For further information please contact in
EMEA:
Michael.Weick@oracle.com
and in Americas
acsdirect_us@oracle.com

Business Critical Assistance

This service includes all areas covered by
Technical Assessment, as well as further
critical areas such as:
- Specialized training
- Emergency support
- Global analysis of the system
- 24/7 availability (on arrangement)

Solution Support Center

This is the highest possible level within the
Advanced Customer Service architecture. This
level includes all other levels and the Support
Center also offers the following additional
services:
- Dedicated telephone number (24/7)
for response to Severity 1 issues
- Focused team of support engineers
who may be reached directly via the
dedicated number
- Detailed analyses of the system
- Specific system monitoring (not offered
as standard component any longer)
- Mission critical support
- Production Assessments
52

“One of the biggest benefits of our Hyperion business performance management system is
having information available in near real time. We no longer need to spend hours or days
answering executive managers’ questions. We now literally have information at our finger-
tips and we can immediately provide the answers they need to make informed decisions.”

– JAN-WILLEM BELDMAN,

team lead for analytical applications and

data quality at Mentor Graphics

MENTOR GRAPHICS – HYPERION HELPS

T E C H N O L O G Y L E A D E R M A N A G E F I N A N C I A L D ATA
AND ITS MOST IMPORTANT ASSETS–PEOPLE
Electronic design automation

Summary About Mentor Graphics

Mentor Graphics has relied on Hyperion solu-
tions since 1998, when they first chose
Hyperion Essbase® for global sales reporting.
In the years that followed, the company has
aggressively added to their solution with
Essbase applications for executive reporting in
2001, budgeting and planning in 2002 and
their most recent addition in 2005—a
powerful system for managing worldwide
human resources. Today there are more than
300 users, and the company has a clear vision
to make information even more broadly
available in the coming years.
Mentor Graphics Corporation is a world leader
in electronic hardware and software design
solutions, providing products, consulting
services and award-winning support for the
world’s most successful electronics and semi-
conductor companies. Established in 1981,
the about $700 million company employs
approximately 3,950 people worldwide.
Managing the most important asset
A fast-moving technology leader, Mentor
Graphics firmly believes that people are its
greatest asset.With employees across 28
engineering sites and a global distribution
channel with 48 offices around the world, the
staffing for both the finance and human re-
source (HR) departments. As with its other
data-intensive requirements, Mentor Graphics
turned to Hyperion to quickly meet the
needs of both.

The company’s finance department is primarily

concerned with accurate headcount numbers.
Since most of the company’s divisions and
business units have employees all over the
world, it is particularly important for manage-
ment to have a reliable tool to determine how
many people work for each group at any given
time.

When it comes to hiring, the finance organi-
zation has discovered over the years that head-
count assumptions are notoriously optimistic.
To ensure accurate data, they need to track
actual hires versus planned hires, and be able
to deeply analyze each separately.
In addition to the finance department’s require-
ments, the HR department needs a simple tool
to understand attrition rates, reasons for leaving
the company, hiring trends, and other critical
HR statistics. They also need to be able to view
and analyze information in a variety of ways—
by geography, division or specialty—so they
can address sophisticated queries like “did we
lose any key technologists this year?” or “how
many sales people do we have in Europe?” To
best understand, analyze and act upon global
staffing needs, Mentor Graphics implemented
a Hyperion Essbase multidimensional cube.
With Hyperion Essbase, almost immediately,
the HR department realized the ability to make
better HR allocation decisions. Some teams, for
example, operate more as service organizations,
with fluctuations occurring as project needs in-
crease and decrease. Essbase allows these groups
to address the need to have 20 people work for
three months on one project and then work for
another group on a completely different project.
“By making more informed staffing decisions,
we are growing top line revenue by allocating
people where the need is greatest, and managing
the bottom line by making sure they are being
deployed optimally at all times,” says Jan-Wil-
lem Beldman, team lead for analytical applica-
tions and data quality at Mentor Graphics.
“One of the biggest benefits of our HR system
is our ability to answer questions in near real
time,” says Beldman. “We no longer need to
spend hours or days answering very specific HR
questions posed by executive managers. Once
very hard and time consuming—with a process
that involved multiple spreadsheets across
departments, geographies and cost centers—we
now literally have this information at our finger-
tips and we can immediately provide the ans-
wers they need to make informed decisions.”
Mentor Graphics 53
A constant source of accurate information
Mentor Graphics counts on Hyperion Essbase
to provide executives with rich, informative
and customized reports that make company-
wide information easy to see and act upon.
Refreshed up to six times a day, the system is
a constant source of accurate information that “Eight years ago, we had
executives can trust, including detailed data limited access to data.
like critical bookings and revenue performance- Today, with Hyperion,
to-plan analyses. The company has increased we have analytic power,
the sophistication of this system over the years, worldwide access to
bringing together SQL dimension builds,
information, true scala-
partitioning and MaxL scripting to ensure
bility and unbreakable
constant accuracy while completely elimina-
ting the need for ongoing maintenance. processes. We make bet-
ter, faster business deci-
sions that directly benefit
“Because the worldwide reporting system is
the bottom line and keep
integrated with our sales, marketing, HR and
finance applications, our executives have the us competitive.”
ability to drill-down into report data for
– Jan-Willem Beldman,
additional information and perform powerful
team lead for analytical
ad hoc analysis,” says Beldman.“They value
applications and data
having the ability to not just see data, but to
quality at Mentor
learn more about the genesis of numbers as
Graphics
needed.”
Transforming the budgeting and planning
process
One of the most dramatic transformations that
Mentor Graphics has undertaken has been the
worldwide budgeting and planning process.
After its initial success with the Hyperion-
based sales reporting system, in 2002 they
began an effort to replace the time-consuming
planning and budgeting process—an annual
event involving more than 1,200 spreadsheets
for each worldwide cost center—with a bot-
tom-up,Web-based solution using Essbase.
“We used to go through an exhaustive process
for budgeting and planning,” recalls Beldman.
“Every group had to tie out their budget, and
when it all came together, it never quite mat-
ched. There were broken formulas, inaccurate
numbers, version control issues, and a lot of
back-and-forth to find where the errors hap-
pened and correct them before they proliferated
throughout the process.”
54
Today, Mentor Graphics plans quarterly instead
of annually, using a bottom-up planning pro-
cess that ensures that data is accurately collected
as each person moves through the process. With
an automated workflow for each cost center,
plans are approved hierarchically—first by
division, then by region and finally by the
company controller. By the time the planning
process is complete, there is a comprehensive
model in place that includes details for each
cost center and rolls all the way up to the top.
“It only took 2.5 people and 4 months to imple-
ment the planning system,” says Beldman, “a
small price to pay for a highly automated ap-
proach that ensures timely, accurate budgets
and reports. It also provides us with the ability
to do ‘what-if ’ scenarios and other sophistica-
ted modeling and analysis.”
Ensuring data consistency and version control
Hyperion Master Data Management (MDM)
is integrated with each of Mentor Graphics’
Essbase applications, allowing them to manage
hierarchical master data across these applicati-
ons, as well as their transactional, reporting
and analytics systems.
Implementing Hyperion MDM has allowed
Mentor Graphics to streamline its change
management process for updating its multiple
systems’ master data in unison. After the ini-
tial roll-out in sales hierarchy management, the
company expanded the technology to its cost
center, statutory and management reporting,
budgeting and forecasting product hierarchies.
“Today, we use Hyperion MDM as the central
server to publish master data across heteroge-
neous systems from our multidimensional
database, SAP, Callidus and Oracle systems,”
Beldman explains. “Hyperion MDM has enab-
led us to achieve consistency of our data and
improve version control of various enterprise
hierarchies.” constantly improving access to
information Hyperion Essbase and Hyperion MDM
provide timely information, speed of analysis
and accuracy of data management that a geo-
graphically dispersed company like Mentor
Graphics needs to remain competitive. To con-
tinue to improve the availability of informa-
tion across the company, Mentor Graphics is
currently exploring the use of dashboards as a
way to bring timely, actionable data directly
to the desktop.
“We have seen incredible results,” says Beld-
man. “Eight years ago, we had limited access
to data. Today we have analytic power, world-
wide access to information, true scalability and
unbreakable processes. Moreover, we have
completely transformed the way we think about
data.We are no longer dealing with a collection
of abstract numbers, but we’re building intel-
ligence around every single aspect of our busi-
ness.We make better, faster business decisions
that directly benefit the bottom line and keep
us competitive.”
For further information please contact:
Jens Kaminski, Senior Technical Manager
jens.kaminski@oracle.com

O R A C L E A C H I E V E S W O R L D R E C O R D R E S U LT
O N T H E S A P® S D - P A R A L L E L S T A N D A R D
A P P L I C AT I O N B E N C H M A R K
Tuesday March 25, 2008
Oracle Database with Oracle Real Application
Clusters on IBM System p 570 with POWER6
Processors Demonstrates Superior Scalability
and Performance.
REDWOOD SHORES, Calif., March 25
/PRNewswire-FirstCall/ – Oracle today anno-
unced a new world-record result on the SAP®
Sales and Distribution- Parallel (SD-Parallel)
Standard Application Benchmark running on
the SAP ERP 6.0 application.(1) With these
results, Oracle Database with Oracle Real
Application Clusters continues to demonstrate
exceptional grid computing capabilities, deli-
vering superior performance, scalability, and
value.
Running IBM AIX 5L(TM) 5.3 on a 5-node
IBM System p(TM) 570 Server cluster, each
with 8 dual-core 4.7 GHz POWER6 proces-
sors, Oracle Database with Oracle Real
Application Clusters achieved 37,040 SAP
SD-Parallel Benchmark users, outperforming
the previous world record of 36,000 SD-
Parallel Benchmark users, held by Oracle on
the same platform configuration. (2) This
world record is the highest ever measured
result on the SAP SD-Parallel Standard
Application Benchmark based on the number
of SAP SD-Parallel Benchmark users.
In addition, Oracle and IBM also delivered
excellent two, three, and four- node results on
the IBM System p(TM) 570 Server cluster,
demonstrating the exceptional scalability of
Oracle Database with Oracle Real Application
Clusters running on highly scalable SMP ser-
vers.(3) When measured from two, three, four
and five-node configurations, as documented
and certified by SAP, Oracle Database with
Oracle Real Application Clusters shows an
SAP Standard Application Benchmarks 55
impressive 93 percent scalability,
achieving 15,520, 22,416, 30,016
and 37,040 SAP SD- Parallel
Benchmark users, respectively,
while providing a high level of
performance and availability.
“These benchmark results are vivid
proof that Oracle Real Application
Clusters delivers unique capabilities
and outstanding value to customers. The stel-
lar SAP benchmark result clearly demonstrates
that Oracle Real Application Clusters provides
near linear scalability as nodes are added to the
cluster, even for highly advanced applications
such as those from SAP,” said Juan Loaiza,
senior vice president, Systems Technology,
Oracle. “Further, Oracle Real Application
Clusters provides availability benefits that
cannot be achieved in single SMP environ-
ments. The combination of linear scalability,
and high availability on leading platforms
such as the IBM System p(TM) 570 Server
cluster provides an outstanding platform for
deployments of SAP solutions.”
About SAP Standard Application Benchmarks
SAP Standard Application Benchmarks were
developed by SAP AG to provide comparative
load analysis of SAP solutions. These results,
as of March 25, 2008, have been certified by
SAP AG. The SAP certification number for the
latest results was not available at press time
and can be found at the following Web page:
http://www.sap.com/benchmark.
About Oracle
Oracle (Nasdaq: ORCL – News) is the world's
largest enterprise software company. For more
information about Oracle, visit our Web site
at http://www.oracle.com.
56
Trademarks
Oracle is a registered trademark of Oracle
Corporation and/or its affiliates. SAP and other
SAP products and services mentioned herein as
well as their respective logos are trademarks or
registered trademarks of SAP AG in Germany
and in several other countries all over the world.
Other names may be trademarks of their res-
pective owners.
1 – The SAP SD-Parallel Standard Application
Benchmark performed on November 26, 2007
by IBM in Beaverton, OR, USA has been certi-
fied with the following data: 37,040 SAP SD-
Parallel Benchmark users, 1.86 seconds average
dialog response time, 3,749,000 fully processed
order line items per hour, 11,247,000 dialog
steps per hour, 187,450 SAPS. Server confi-
guration: IBM System p 570, 8 processors/16
cores/32 threads, POWER6, 4.7 GHz, 128 KB
L1 cache and 4 MB L2 cache per core, 32 MB
L3 cache per processor, 128 GM main memory,
running AIX 5L version 5.3, Oracle 10g Real
Application Clusters and SAP ERP 6.0. The
SAP certification number was not available at
press time and can be found at
http://www.sap.com/benchmark.
2 – The SAP SD-Parallel Standard Application
Benchmark performed on November 6, 2007
by IBM in Beaverton, OR, USA has been cer-
tified with the following data: 36,000 SAP SD-
Parallel Benchmark users, 1.76 seconds average
dialog response time, 3,673,670 fully processed
order line items per hour, 11,021,000 dialog
steps per hour, 183,680 SAPS.
Server configuration: IBM System p 570, 8
processors/16 cores/32 threads, POWER6, 4.7
GHz, 128 KB L1 cache and 4 MB L2 cache per
core, 32 MB L3 cache per processor, 128 GM
main memory, running AIX 5L version 5.3,
Oracle 10g Real Application Clusters and SAP
ERP 6.0.
Certification number: 2007066
(http://www.sap.com/solutions/benchmark/
pdf/Cert6607.pdf)
3– The SAP certification number for the follo-
wing 2, 3 and 4-node results was not available
at press time and can be found at
http://www.sap.com/benchmark.
SAP Standard Application Benchmarks
Four-node Results – The SAP SD-Parallel
Standard Application Benchmark performed
on November 14, 2007 by IBM in Beaverton,
OR, USA has been certified with the following
data: 30,016 SAP SD-Parallel Benchmark users,
1.86 seconds average dialog response time,
3,036,000 fully processed order line items per
hour, 9,018,000 dialog steps per hour,
1151,800 SAPS. Server configuration: IBM
System p 570, 8 processors/16 cores/32 threads,
POWER6, 4.7 GHz, 128 KB L1 cache and
4 MB L2 cache per core, 32 MB L3 cache per
processor, 128 GM main memory, running
AIX 5L version 5.3, Oracle 10g Real Appli-
cation Clusters and SAP ERP 6.0.
Three-node Results – The SAP SD-Parallel
Standard Application Benchmark performed
on November 16, 2007 by IBM in Beaverton,
OR, USA has been certified with the following
data: 22,416 SAP SD-Parallel Benchmark users,
1.94 seconds average dialog response time,
2,252,330 fully processed order line items
per hour, 6,757,000 dialog steps per hour,
112,620 SAPS. Server configuration: IBM
System p 570, 8 processors/16 cores/32
threads, POWER6, 4.7 GHz, 128 KB L1 cache
and 4 MB L2 cache per core, 32 MB L3 cache
per processor, 128 GM main memory, running
AIX 5L version 5.3, Oracle 10g Real Appli-
cation Clusters and SAP ERP 6.0.
Two-node Results – The SAP SD-Parallel
Standard Application Benchmark performed
on November 16, 2007 by IBM in Beaverton,
OR, USA has been certified with the following
data: 15,520 SAP SD-Parallel Benchmark users,
1.94 seconds average dialog response time,
1,559,330 fully processed order line items per
hour, 4,678,000 dialog steps per hour, 77,970
SAPS. Server configuration: IBM System p
570, 8 processors/16 cores/32 threads,
POWER6, 4.7 GHz, 128 KB L1 cache and
4 MB L2 cache per core, 32 MB L3 cache per
processor, 128 GM main memory, running
AIX 5L version 5.3, Oracle 10g Real Appli-
cation Clusters and SAP ERP 6.0.
 58

“The functionality of Oracle Data Guard gives us security and also the peace of mind of knowing
that if a fault arises, we can carry on working with SAP within a defined period of time.”

– HARALD NEUNER
IT IS Data Center Manager at Swarovski

SWAROVSKI INCREASES SAP SYSTEM

AVA I L A B I L I T Y W I T H O R A C L E D ATA G U A R D

Austrian Automotive
Motorcycle and Touring Club
HQ in Vienna
www.oeamtc.at
When it comes to safeguarding SAP ERP
applications, Swarovski, the world’s leading
manufacturer of cut crystals, opts for
Oracle Data Guard. By so doing the com-
pany is increasing its SAP DBMS availabil-
ity and is also in a position to respond
quickly to potential faults. In this interview,
Swarovski’s IT IS Data Center Manager
Harald Neuner tells us more about the
implementation of Oracle Data Guard.
Was there a particular reason why Swarovski
decided to address the issue of stability and
DBMS high availability?
Neuner: Any company that uses SAP needs to
look at the issue of stability. At the end of the
day, non-availability of an ERP system puts
business continuity at risk. Initially we
implemented binary mirroring of our Oracle
database with disk subsystems. But when a
fault actually arose we realized that this meas-
ure wasn’t enough. It didn’t offer adequate
protection. This was the main reason why we
opted to switch from mirroring to a standby
database concept.
What does ‘protection’ or a protection
mechanism mean to you?
Neuner: We realized that physically backing
up a binary DBMS mirror wasn’t enough for
our needs. The sticking point was the exis-
tence of logical errors. Almost every business
that uses SAP utilizes the scope for expansion-
with the powerful SAP development tools.
This involves the latent risk of data being
deleted or accidentally changed through
human error. With Oracle Data Guard we can
employ an effective protection mechanism,
because all transactions in the primary data-
base are automatically and correctly trans-
ferred to the standby database after a delay
of 4 hours. This time delay is a compromise
between the logs created within a defined
time and their integration into a secondary
system, and the physical conversion process.
Why did you opt for Oracle Data Guard?
Neuner: We had, and we continue to have, a
very good experience of the Oracle database in
the SAP environment. So Oracle Data Guard
was simply the logical choice.
How did you go about implementing Oracle
Data Guard?
Neuner: The team at the Oracle for SAP
Technology Center in Walldorf (Germany)
helped us with the implementation of Oracle
Data Guard. Together we defined a project
schedule and then implemented the core tasks
one step at a time. The key to it all was the
configuration of Oracle Data Guard.
Everything worked extremely well. We’ve
always found that drawing on the expertise of
Oracle specialists is well worth it. Above all,
it enabled us to build up valuable database
expertise in-house. We are now in a position
to install Data Guard ourselves.
 Oracle Data Guard for SAP customer Swarovski 59

Were there any noteworthy incidents during

the implementation phase?

Neuner: Everything worked very well indeed.

What is your experience of Oracle Data Guard Oracle: Strategic SAP database
in practice? What benefits has it brought?
Swarovski has been working with SAP R/3
Neuner: Oracle Data Guard increased the SAP
DBMS high availability. The functionality of since 1995. Previously, the world-famous
Data Guard gives us security and also the company based in Wattens, Austria, relied
peace of mind of knowing that if a fault arises, on SAP R/2. About two and a half years ago
we can carry on working with SAP within a
the company switched to Oracle on Unix,
defined period of time. With Oracle Data
Guard we can switch easily to other DB servers abandoning the Windows operating system
and know that it works. We also carry out for its database systems. In Wattens the
annual practice drills for the worst-case sce- company operates two physically separate
nario. And, knock on wood, we’ve never had
data centers. SAP is used as the central
occasion to actually switch to a different host.
system to which all branch offices and
Do you have any further plans in terms of subsidiaries have access. Worldwide, an
Oracle Data Guard?
average of around 2000 users work with
Neuner: After the positive experience we’ve mission-critical ERP applications at
had with Oracle Data Guard, which we’re Swarovski. Oracle (as yet 9i) is used as the
using for our ERP systems, we’re endeavoring
strategic SAP database.
to support more SAP systems with this solu-
tion. We are also about to take a decision as to
the next stage in system stability, and Oracle
RAC is the front runner.

In 1895, Bohemian immigrant and visionary businessman Daniel Swarovski I took up residence in the Tyrolean village of Wattens (Austria) with his
newest invention, a revolutionary machine for the mechanical grinding of crystal gems. This innovation, which would later captivate the international
fashion scene, made Swarovski the world’s leading manufacturer of precision-cut crystals. Today, these crystals can be found in the fashion and jewelry
industry and in the world of lighting, architecture and interior design. The global company, which still has its headquarters in Wattens in the Tyrol and
is now managed by the 4th and 5th generations of the family, does business in over 120 countries. In 2006, with a total of 20,000 employees, Swarovski
generated a turnover of €2.37 billion. Swarovski manufactures and markets crystal components under two brand names, CRYSTALLIZED™ –
Swarovski Elements for fashion and design and STRASS® Swarovski® Crystal for architecture and lighting. While Swarovski crystals have become an
indispensable part of the creations of international designers, the Swarovski jewelry and home decor collections are marketed in all the world’s major
cities through more than 1150 of the company’s own stores and through authorized dealers. One example is the Daniel Swarovski Collection, the
company’s couture line and flagship collection, which faithfully reflects the ideas and visions of the company founder. The Swarovski Crystal Society
currently has almost 400,000 members, enthusiastic collectors of the popular crystal figures, and the Swarovski Crystal Worlds in Wattens have
attracted over 7 million visitors since their opening in 1995. In the Chambers of Wonder at the Crystal Worlds, Swarovski celebrates the mystique of
crystals and presents a fascinating, sparkling dream world that in the space of just a few years has become one of Austria’s most popular visitor
destinations. The company also owns four independent entities: Tyrolit® manufactures grinding tools, Swareflex makes reflector systems for road traffic,
Swarovski Optik produces high-precision optical equipment, and Signity is Swarovski’s brand for unique gemstones.
Illuminating Fashion and Culture, Home and Leisure www.swarovski.com
 60
IOUG SAP SPECIAL INTEREST GROUP (SAP SIG)
Join us at Collaborate 2008
in Denver Colorado, April 13 – 17.
The Independent Oracle User Group (IOUG)
sponsors Special Interest Groups (SIGs) that
are designed to assist members with specific
Oracle products and products that are tightly
integrated with the Oracle products they use.
The goal of the IOUG SIGs is to offer technical
IOUG
information and peer-to-peer collaboration in
order to facilitate the effective implementation
of products.
The SAP SIG provides a forum for open discus-
sion and education on Oracle technology rela-
ted issues associated with SAP running on an
Oracle database.
During the 1998 IOUG conference a group
of about 40 attendees started as a roundtable
to surface issues and solutions to common
problems. The group has grown every year since
and officially became an IOUG SIG in 1999.
IOUG SAP SIG Mission
The mission of the SAP SIG is to provide a
forum for open discussion, education and net-
working to meet the challenges of implemen-
ting, and maintaining Oracle databases with
SAP Applications. The SAP SIG facilitates
raising issues and providing enhancement sug-
gestions to both SAP AG and Oracle develop-
ment teams.
The benefits of SAP SIG membership inclu-
de; Offering open forums for discussion and
networking opportunities among members,
education sessions at Collaborate, periodic
conference calls and web conferences with guest
speakers covering a range of technical topics.
IOUG – SAP Special Interest Group (SAP SIG)
SAP SIG Events
The main events for the SAP SIG are held at
the yearly Collaborate Conference. Each year
there is a business meeting, networking
reception, SAP/Oracle Development Update
with representatives from both SAP and Oracle
including Q&A. Also lunch time meetings
offer informal discussions and formal technical
sessions on various SAP/Oracle issues.
The SAP SIG also sponsors quarterly techno-
logy forums. The forums are one hour dial-in
calls or Web Casts, each forum focuses on a
specific topic of interest to the SIG. This is a
great opportunity to stay in touch with the
Oracle and SAP technical communities.
Web Site
The SAP SIG web site can be accessed from
the IOUG web site at: http://www.ioug.org/
Click the Special Interest Groups Tab, then
followed by SAP SIG in the drop down lists.
Or use the following link:
http://www.ioug.org/networking/sap/sap.cfm
Membership
Membership in the SAP SIG comes with your
IOUG membership.
See details at: http://www.ioug.org/
Join IOUG:
http://www.ioug.org/about/join.cfm
For more information please contact:
Thomas Stickler, IOUG SAP SIG Liaison
Oracle Corporation
thomas.stickler@oracle.com
 ODM Connector 2.1 for SAP BI Customers 61

O R A C L E 1 0 g D ATA M I N I N G C O N N E C T O R 2 . 1
F O R S A P N E T W E AV E R ™ B U S I N E S S I N T E L L I G E N C E

The Oracle Data Mining (ODM) Connector enables users of SAP Business Warehouse 3.5
and SAP NetWeaverTM Business Intelligence 7.0 to mine their SAP data using Oracle 10g
Data Mining within the SAP Data Mining framework. This SAP-certified solution gives users
the powerful and scalable Oracle 10g Data Mining in-database algorithms along with the
Oracle Data Mining graphical interface to extend and complement the SAP analytics offering.

ODM Connector 2.1 The ODM Connector 2.1 allows customers

to make their SAP BW data available to the
With the integration of Oracle 10g Data
powerful Oracle 10g Data Mining and Oracle
Mining and SAP BW 3.5 / NetWeaver BI 7.0,
Data Miner (ODMr) graphical interface and
the ODM Connector provides SAP customers
integrates results with the SAP BW data.
with advanced analytics, embedded in Oracle
Database 10g. Data and business analysts
Because Oracle 10g Data Mining is embedded
benefit from the wide range of state-of-the-art
in Oracle Database, mining results can be
data mining functionality, present in Oracle
accessed through other Oracle tools, including
10g Data Mining to solve a wide variety of
Siebel Answers, OLAP, and BI Publisher.
business problems.
Using Oracle 10g Data Mining, SAP customers
lower their total cost of ownership (TCO) for
Oracle has certified its data mining server
data mining, including analysis, development
with the official BW-DMI 3.5 interface of
and deployment, while being integrated with
SAP AG through the ODM Connector. Inte-
their SAP environment.
gration saves SAP users time and money to
leverage Oracle’s in-database mining capabili-
Mining in the database provides SAP customers
ties.
with increased data security, as data do not
need to leave the Oracle Database environment.
Moreover, in-database mining is scalable using
Oracle’s Real Application Clusters (RAC),
allowing more of the data to be mined.

10 g
D AT A B A S E
62

SAP BW Analysis Process Designer

Oracle Data Miner


Technical Specification
Data Preparation and Analysis
• BW- and ODMr-provided analysis and
manual transformations.
• ODMr-provided Automated data prepara-
tions as part of model build, test, and apply
(scoring).
In-Database Mining
• All model build and apply operations occur
within the Oracle 10g Database.
• Default settings for all Oracle 10g data
mining operations. Ability to override and
specify settings.
Attribute Importance
• Identify attributes as important for predicting
a target attribute using Minimum Description
Length algorithm.
Classification
• Predict binary or multi-class outcomes with
supporting probability and assess model quality
using Confusion matrix, Lift, Receiver Operator
Characteristics.
• Decision Tree Algorithm – a popular algorithm
for providing human interpretable rules with fast
scoring.
• Support Vector Machine (SVM) Algorithm – a
state-of-the-art algorithm recognized as superior
to neural networks. Excellent for wide and sparse
data.
• Naïve Bayes Algorithm – makes predictions
using Bayes’ Theorem, which derives the pro-
bability of a prediction from the underlying
evidence, as observed in the data.
• Adaptive Bayes Networks Algorithm –
builds models based on counts observed from
data, supporting three modes of operation:
pruned Naïve Bayes, single-tree, or boosted
multi-tree. In the single-tree mode, ABN
provides model transparency with human inter-
pretable rules.
ODM Connector 2.1 for SAP BI customers 63
Regression
• Predict continuous numerical outcomes with
supporting confidence and assess model quality
using error statistics and scatter plots. Uses SVM
algorithm.
Association Rules
• A Priori Algorithm – find the occurrence and
likelihood of co-occurring events, e.g., Q, R,
and S are associated with Z, 452 times, with
78% confidence.
• Finds rules with support greater than a mini-
mum support and confidence greater than a
minimum confidence.
• Filtered rules retrieval
Clustering
• Enhanced k-Means Algorithm – this hierarchical,
distance-based k-means algorithm partitions the
data into a predetermined number of clusters.
• Orthogonal Clustering (O-Cluster) Algorithm –
creates a hierarchical, grid-based clustering model.
O-Cluster supports both numerical and categorical
attributes. It is particularly good in high dimen-
sional space.
Feature Extraction
• Non-Negative Matrix Factorization (NMF)
Algorithm – a state-of-the-art algorithm that
generates new attributes using linear combinations
of the original attributes. Supports attribute
reduction and data understanding.
Anomaly Detection
• One-Class Support Vector Machine Algorithm
– normally, classification requires knowledge of all
target classes. A version of SVM, new in 10g
Release 2, can build a profile of one class and
when applied, flag cases that are somehow diffe-
rent from that profile (that is, “abnormal” or
“suspicious”). This allows for the detection of rare
cases that are not necessarily related to each other.
Platform Requirements
Oracle 10g R2 Data Mining runs in Oracle
10g R2 Database on all supported platforms.
SAP BW 3.5 SP05 including SAP J2EE
Application Server 6.40, or SAP NetWeaver
BI 7.0 including SAP J2EE Application Server
7.00 are required.
64 Delta Consulting
D E LTA C O N S U LT I N G
Delta Consulting, Inc. is an SAP-focused consultancy offering extensive SAP consulting
services and Software Components for it’s SAP Customer Base. Delta has a strong
commitment to providing innovative and practical solutions that combine real-world
business expertise and products designed to extend and enhance the value and performance
of a customer’s SAP investment.
Our consulting services utilizes an extensive
database of senior consultants which average
over 9 years of SAP specific experience that
spans all SAP solutions and business services
that address the functional, technical and
Delta
infrastructure requirements of an SAP solution.
For additional
In addition, through our extensive Partner
information regarding
Delta Consulting,
network we can provide worldwide deployment
please visit our website capabilities in the development area.
at www.go-delta.com
or contact As a certified SAP Services Partner for over
Jack Tomb, 10 years and a member of the Oracle Preferred
Partner at Partner Program (OPP), Delta Consulting is
610-558-1730.
pleased to announce its selection by Oracle
to extend its agreement to provide consulting
services for Oracle Real Application Clusters
(RAC). Using SAP with Oracle RAC offers a
unique solution for SAP customers, already
running Oracle by providing them with a
total solution that provides high availability
and scalability. Our team includes highly
skilled and experienced Oracle DBA’s who are
trained and certified in SAP basis administra-
tion.
Oracle 10g RAC is the highly scalable and
reliable database cluster for mission critical
SAP solutions. Our commitment and focus
on this technology enables Delta Consulting
to bring the best practices for migrating an
existing SAP R/3 4.6D installation from a
single instance Oracle database to a multiple
instance Oracle RAC cluster database confi-
guration.
Services to be provided by Delta Consulting
include:
• RAC Implementations
• Database Migrations
• Tuning and Performance Optimization
• System Healthchecks
• Backup/Recovery and Hot Standby Solutions
Over two-thirds of SAP customers run their
applications on Oracle. With SAP’s endorse-
ment and certification of Oracle 10g RAC,
the motivation to implement RAC include:
• Higher Availability
– New Requirements
– Maintenance window negotiation
– More and more work places rely on
SAP R/3
• More Flexibility
– Dynamical growth by adding servers
– Better re-use of equipment
• Cost Savings
– Buy cheaper servers (scale out)
– Reduce maintenance costs
Realize Real ROI…the Rewards of Innovation.
Let Delta Consulting provide your organization
with the infrastructure services required to
power your SAP environment.
Delta Consulting, Inc.
5 Christy Drive, Suite 109
Chadds Ford, PA 19317
eMail: info@go-delta.com
Tel.: 610-558-1730
 E2SCorp – Everest Business Solution, Inc 65

E2SCORP (EVEREST BUSINESS SOLUTIONS, INC)

BUSINESS PROFILE

• Oracle Database Administration

• Upgrade expertise with Oracle RAC (9i, 10g)
E2SCorp delivers flexible and custom built • SAP Basis Administration
IT services and solutions to customers glo- • SAP Netweaver Administration
bally. We constantly explore, develop and • SAP R/3 administration with DB2, Oracle E2SCorp
adapt new ways to do this. We understand 9.2 & SAP DB 7.4 Everest Business Solutions
that one size most often does not fit all. It • SAP Unicode migration experts Inc.
is our constant endeavour to find the best • Oracle & SAP certified consultants 459 Herndon Parkway
and most practical solutions to address our • Oracle RAC subject matter experts
customers’ unique business needs. Our ser-
vices encompass a wide range of platforms Our key software development centre is located
and industry segments backed by a highly at Herndon, Virginia.
skilled and experienced work force.
We have global Offshore Development Centers
Our eminent customers include Fortune (ODCs) at Bangalore and Hyderabad, in India.
1000 companies like IBM, Northrop Our offshore infrastructure provides our custo-
Grumman, Lockheed Martin, CACI, mers the benefits of:
Verizon Wireless, Verizon Business, Sprint - Cost Savings
Nextel, NASD, Blue Cross Blue Shield, - Secure premises
Siemens etc. - Secure connectivity
- Restoration, replication & business continuity
We are an Oracle Partner and Reseller and - Maximum utilization of the time zones
in the near future we hope to be an authori- - Dedicated Program/Project Managers,
zed SAP Technical services partner. Technical Lead Developers and Quality
Assurance personnel
Our services include turnkey software deve- System and Database Administrators
-
lopment, product development, consulting, - Resource availability to cover clients’ business
testing, application maintenance and sup- hours
port.
For more information contact:
We offer onsite and offshore services as well Everest Business Solutions, Inc
as a blend of both. Our flexible blended 459 Herndon Parkway, Suite 10,
delivery models are tailored to meet our cli- Herndon, VA 20170
ents’ requirements. Sowmiya J Narayanan
snarayanan@e2scorp.com
Our employees and consultants are profi- (O) + 1 703-673-7301
cient with Oracle/SAP applications and are (M) + 1 301-325-9407
based in India and in the US. Our Oracle
and SAP experience includes:
• Oracle iLearning
• Oracle BI Discover
• Oracle upgrade 9i to 10g
• Database migrations from DB2, MS SQL
66 U P W I n n o v a t i v e I T- S o l u t i o n s
P O L I C Y G U A R D M A N A G E R – P G M F O R S A P,
O R A C L E A N D O P E R AT I N G S Y S T E M
UPW Innovative IT-Solutions –
secure solutions for professional business
The growing complexity of enterprise systems
and the increasing requirements of the govern-
mental agencies for them are requesting intel-
ligent security providing solutions.
A central monitoring and documentation
system for regulatory demands accordingly
UPW GOBS, SOX, EURO-SOX, J-SOX and 8th EU
Innovative IT-Solutions Directive is the insurance policy for CIOs and
GmbH
CFOs who are personal responsible by these
regulations.
Lilienthalstrasse 11,
D– 64625 Bensheim PGM offers the fundament to reestablish a
traceable and secure configuration of your
E-mail: info@upw.de
http://www.upw.de ERP System on database, operating system
Tel. +49-6251 - 5828-0 and application level.
Fax: +49-6251 - 5828-28
The central repository permanently stores the
status of your systems including all security
relevant information. It also supports your
ITIL processes like configuration and change
management. Different product environments
are treated uniformly.
PGM is the right solution for all responsible
managers who want to accomplish a considera-
ble enhanced security.
The advantages of PGM are versatile for all
managers effected by SOX and other legislatio-
nal laws:
CIO
- Can enhanced the maturity level of their
change and configuration management and
can benefit from an automated security
reporting
Chief Security Officer
- The security policies are documented,
administrated and monitored in a central
system
Revisor Auditor
- Can compare present sytems with the
security policies.
Sourcing Partner and Retained Organisation
- All parties concerned with a sourcing project
can define and verify the Security SLAs
Manager of Operation and Administrators
- Are relieved from permanent manual activities
and can concentrate on more valuable tasks
UPW Innovative IT-Solutions Ltd was founded
in 1997.
The idea behind: data always is the kernel of
any system. The symbiosis of operation system,
database and application is the heartbeat of any
company. Since our early days we are working
in the environment of high availibilty systems.
Our customers are financial institutes, the
German stock exchange, retailer and govern-
mental organisations. As an Oracle partner we
have extensive Oracle knowhow. Our chief
engineer was more than 10 years responsible
for security, planning and operating in an
enterprise running SAP on Oracle database.
 IS4IT – IT Consulting 67

PEOPLE, KNOWLEDGE, PROJECTS, AND IS4IT =

4 SUCCESS FACTORS TO HELP YOU GET AHEAD!

The main task of IS4IT, as a manufacturer-

independent IT-consulting firm, is solving our
clients’ technical problems through the appli- IS4IT GmbH
cation of our IT-specialists’ expertise.

We provide IT services individually-tailored to

your specific requirements. With the help of Contact:
around 85 consultants across Germany, we
provide a full range of services, from analysis, Michael Jilg
conception, and planning, to final implemen- Area Manager
tation to the production process. IS4IT GmbH
Gruenwalder Weg 28b
SAP Basis and SAP Infrastructure have success- 82041 Oberhaching/Germany
fully been our main focus for many years. Tel: +49 89 638 98 48 22
From the very beginning, our activities have e-mail: michael.jilg@is4it.de
included solving problems of server- and
storage virtualization, as well as HA cluster.

In addition to handling such projects, we also

provide our customers with SAP technical
maintenance in accordance with Service Level
Agreements.
68 TUSC – Oracle Partner for SAP

“The expertise and depth of TUSC allows us to focus on strategic projects…”

– M A R S H A D U V D E VA N I
Manager
Database Administration IFF

INDUSTRY LEADER CHOOSES TUSC

REMOTE DBA
About TUSC

TUSC is an Oracle Advantage Challenge Solution Results

Partner providing expert-level
integrated solutions to
Global 2000 customers since
1988. TUSC supports SAP
clients running on the Oracle
database through our Remote
DBA organization. We have
supported SAP running on
Oracle for many years with
our Remote DBA service while
also helping SAP clients
in performance tuning and
other DBA tasks through our
Database Administration
group. TUSC provides a
comprehensive set of con-
sulting services in the areas
of strategy, architecture,
implementation, support
and training.
Get information about TUSC
at www.tusc.com
or send an email to:
NIEMIECR@Tusc.com
Phone +1 630-960-2909
An acquisition and IFF chose TUSC Remote
turnover caused a DBA to monitor its
dramatic increase in data- Oracle environments and
base administration mentor its Oracle DBA.
and monitoring needs.
IFF is a leading creator and manufacturer of
flavors and fragrances used in a wide variety of
consumer products – from fine fragrances and
toiletries, to soaps, detergents and other house-
hold products, to beverages and food products.
IFF is dedicated to The Pursuit of Excellence in
every area of its business, using knowledge, crea-
tivity, innovation and technology to continually
provide customers with the highest quality
products and service and superior consumer
understanding.
IFF has sales, manufacturing and creative facili-
ties in 34 countries worldwide and annual sales
exceeding $1.9 billion. In 2000, IFF acquired
Bush Boake Allen, formerly the industry’s 7th
biggest player. To manage its Oracle systems
environment, IFF relies on TUSC Remote DBA.
IFF maintains over
40 databases in
7 countries with one
full-time DBA.
“IFF has over 40 Oracle databases, including
a large ERP implementation,” stated Marsha
Duvdevani, Manager, Database Administration.
With systems in the United States, Australia,
South Africa, India, Sweden, Turkey and Singa-
pore, 24/7 monitoring, performance tuning and
emergency support is essential.
The four-year partnership with TUSC began
when IFF acquired Bush Boake Allen, a for-
mer competitor and TUSC client. Duvdevani
explained, “One of our DBAs knew of TUSC
and we needed additional Oracle expertise,
so it made sense to add our databases to the
TUSC contract. TUSC enabled a smooth
transition of incorporating support of the newly
acquired system and by mentoring our DBA.”
IFF has come to depend on Remote DBA and
Managed Services, and benefits from TUSC’s
technical knowledge and expertise. “We benefit
from our TUSC DBA’s experience with count-
less other systems,” Duvdevani said. Through
a web portal, which includes system reports
and documentation on all work performed, “We
know that our systems are being maintained,”
Duvdevani continued, “The expertise and depth
of TUSC allows us to focus on strategic pro-
jects, not system maintenance, knowledge gaps
and turnover.”

S A P D ATA B A S E A D M I N I S T R AT I O N W I T H O R A C L E
André Faustmann, Michael Höding, Gunnar Klein,
Ronny Zimmermann
Oracle is one of the most significant, DB plat-
forms available for SAP systems – so why hasn’t
someone written a book on how to configure
the interaction? Well, here it is: With this
in-depth reference book, administrators get
much needed background knowledge, as well
as complete details on architectural and
software/logistics issues, in addition to step-
by-step instructions for all of the most
important administration tasks. Every aspect
of system landscape planning and mainten-
ance is covered, helping administrators hone
their problem solving skills. Bonus chapters
deal with Java, SAP NetWeaver BI, and the
highly complex issues of Backup, Recovery,
and Restoration.
What this book covers:
- Interaction of SAP and Oracle
- Planning and expanding the system
landscape
- System life-cycle: Installation, system
maintenance, upgrades
- Performance: Analysis of hardware,
operating system, database, SAP system,
SQL instructions and much more
- Backup, recovery and restore: Data backup
methods, BR*Tools, Oracle Recovery
Manager, backup strategies
- Oracle and SAP NetWeaver BI
SAP Press – SAP Database Administration with Oracle 69
SAP PRESS
818 p., 2008,
bound, with reference card
€89.95,
ISBN 978-1-59229-120-5
Immediate delivery
available
• Provides guidance on
administration and back-
ground knowledge
• Helpful advice for planning
the system landscape,
performance optimization
and monitoring
• Includes chapters devoted
to backup, recovery and
Press comments: restore, Java and SAP
NetWeaver BI
IT & Production (09/2007).
The publication on the interaction of SAP and
Oracle DBMS (Database Management System)
provides administrators with basic knowledge
about the SAP system and database, looks at
architecture and software logistics issues and
explains administration tasks in SAP landsca-
pes. It combines background knowledge with
practical guidance, helping the reader to
address specific administration problems.
For example, it contains advice on improving
the performance of the system operation and
improving availability and data security.
The book is equally suitable for administra-
tors who want to upgrade a legacy SAP
installation and Oracle experts who wish to
use their know-how in conjunction with SAP.
70

“When it comes to technical challenges and opportunities, CSU Chico is the go-to school for the
Alliances program in the Americas – many of our new initiatives are begun at and deployed
from Chico. Chico’s NetWeaver/Oracle DB footprint is a model program.”

– AMELIA MAURIZIO,

Executive Director, Global University Alliances Program

C A L I F O R N I A S T A T E U N I V E R S I T Y, C H I C O
COLLEGE OF BUSINESS – HOSTING
SAP ON ORACLE

In 1996, SAP America selected the California
State University, Chico College of Business as
its first North American partner in the SAP
University Alliance Program (SAP UAP).
This program is designed to provide university
faculty members throughout the world with
the tools and resources they need to incorporate
SAP in their curriculum. This allows a business
process focus to the students’ coursework and
allows faculty to use ERP technology in order
to teach students how to integrate business
processes and think strategically.
CSU Chico has an active industry advisory
board that was excited about graduates who
have some SAP technical skills so Hewlett
Packard donated the first computer to Chico.
The choice for the database was easy – Chico
was already using Oracle in all of the database
classes taught in the MIS (Management
Information Systems) program and there was
a desire on the part of the faculty to have best
of breed for both the Database and ERP.
The fact that many of the industry partners
also used SAP on Oracle did not go un-noticed.
Since 1996, the SAP UAP has grown to include
almost 800 campuses across the globe, provi-
ding professional development opportunities to
faculty and supporting the development of
course materials that are shared among member
campuses. The SAP UAP also provides hosting
services to member institutions, eliminating
the need for costly investments in hardware
and personnel.
In 2000, CSU Chico’s University Competency
Center (UCC), the team in the COB who
provide system support to the faculty, officially
became a hosting center for University Alliance
schools. In 2003, the UCC switched their
operating system basis from HP-UX to SUSE
Enterprise Linux and has remained on that
platform since.
The UCC has used Oracle as its database of
choice since the beginning, starting with ver-
sion 7.3 and currently on 10.2. Oracle was
selected for many reasons. Since the College of
Business is a member of the Oracle Academic
Initiative and since Oracle is the industry leader
in database technology, it is used extensively
in the curriculum. Thus, all of the students are
familiar with Oracle. Further, Oracle’s scalability
and reliability made it a natural for hosting the
multiple SAP instances that the UCC supports.
Gene Edinger, the head of the UCC, credits
Oracle and its tools, particularly OEM, with
helping the UCC achieve 100% planned uptime
for the past 3 years, and with helping to detect
and alleviate database problems in a proactive
manner.
When CSU, Chico began hosting, Chico’s UCC
was one of 7 hosting sites in North America
but in January 2007 SAP streamlined their
hosting foot print by concentrating resources
in a few centers world-wide and reduced
the number of world sites from over 20 to 5.
Chico and the University of Wisconsin,
Milwaukee became the mega-hosting sites
for SAP in the Americas.
 California State University-CHICO hosting SAP on Oracle 71

Chico went from hosting about 50 universi-
ties to over 100 during 2007. The hosted
universities are located in the United States,
Canada, South America and India. The UCC
has also hosted collaborative academic projects
between universities in the United States,
Holland, Germany and Canada.
Approximately 30,000 students and faculty
log onto SAP through a Chico server each
year. Our databases contain over 32 terabytes,
while the hosting center has 100 terabytes
available on 3 storage area networks.
This statement is confirmed by a study
published in the Journal of Information
Systems Education by Chico faculty that
found students who complete even one of the
SAP intensive classes in configuration or Basis
are offered somewhere between $5K and
$10K per year more than their non-SAP “Market Power of ERP
counter-parts*. Education – An Investiga-
tive Analysis”.
By:
James Sager,
James Mensching,

While most of the schools using the servers at Gail Corbitt

Chico are doing transactions in SAP applicati- and

ons, primarily ECC 6.0 and BW, some of the James Connolly,
schools currently being hosted are in the rese- Journal of Information
arch space for SAP. Carnegie Mellon, MIT, Systems Education,
and others recently began using the Chico ser- v. 17, n.2, pp. 151-161
vers and expertise of the faculty in how SAP
supports business processes. This has raised
the profile of Chico from that of primarily a
teaching facility to one that can also support
research. For example, Oracle Corporation
funded a research project in 2006-07 that
provided a proof of concept for running SAP
Applications on Oracle RAC using Linux.
Sun and NetApps provided the hardware nee-
ded for the project and students used the pro-
ject to fulfill course credit in an independent
study project. In Fall 2007 the RAC team
presented their findings and results at Oracle
Open World.

Perhaps the distinguishing characteristic of

the Chico UCC is that the entire operation is
run using only 1.5 system’s staff with the
remaining work all performed by student
help. The students complete the only hands-
on Basis Administration class offered by an
academic alliances school before working part
time for the UCC. We have even had a few
students pass the SAP Basis certification exam
in SAP/Oracle. According to Ray Boykin, the
Associate Dean for the College, “we know we
add value to the students through the UCC.
The students with the technical background
in SAP Basis and Oracle can go to work for
companies with day one productivity.”
72 Useful links Oracle Database for SAP customers

Oracle Global Technology Center for SAP
http://www.oracle.com/sap
Customer Success Stories, SAP on Oracle
http://www.oracle.com/newsletters/sap/archive.html
Events
http://www.oracle.com/newsletters/sap/events.html
Oracle Support and Services for SAP customers
http://www.oracle.com/newsletters/sap/service.html
Oracle for SAP
http://www.sdn.sap.com/irj/sdn/ora
http://service.sap.com/dbaora-BC-DB-ORA-RAC
http://service/sap/com-PAM

Some OSS Notes Oracle and SAP

1021844 Extension of Oracle 9.2 maintenance until July 31, 2008
105047 + 742243 + 722188 Partitioning and Oracle Functionality supported by SAP
156548 Supported database and operating system releases for SAP Kernel version 4.6x
23875 Supported database and operating system releases for SAP Kernel version 3.1I^
407314 Supported database and operating system releases for SAP Web Application Server 6.x
524816 Enqueue Service for RAC SAP-Enqueue-Service
527843 Oracle RAC support in the SAP environment
527843 10g and RAC for more details
527843 Oracle RAC support in the SAP environment
5740897 Licensing
581312 Licensing
581320 FAQ Oracle RAC for SAP
592393 FAQ Oracle
1125923 + 966117 + 966073 Flashback Database
598678 Oracle9i: New functions (composite SAP Note)
669902 Oracle9i: Setting the national character set to UTF8 (This note is valid also for Oracle 10g)
701235 Compressed Data Segments
705608 SAP RAC specific monitors
720886 Oracle Database 10g: Integration into the SAP environment
740897 Info about the Oracle license scope; required Oracle options
819655 Add. info.: Upgrade to SAP NW 2004s ABAP ORACLE
819829 Oracle Database 10g: Instant Client 10.x on Unix
819830 Oracle Database 10g: Additional Information on upgrade:UNIX
820062 Oracle Database 10g: Patch sets/patches for 10.1.0
828268 Oracle Database 10g: New functions
830576 Parameter recommendations for Oracle 10g
830982 HW fine tuning for SAP on RAC environment
836517 Oracle database 10g: Preparation for SAP-upgrade
838725 Oracle database 10g: New database statistics
841728 Oracle Database 10g: Software installation wizzard 10.2.0
85838 Supported database and operating system releases for SAP Kernel versions 4.5x and 4.0x
871096 Oracle Database 10g: Patch sets/patches for 10.2.0
885167 Add. info.: Upgrade to SAP NW 2004s Java ORACLE
921594 Inst. SAP NetWeaver2004s SR1 - UNIX: Oracle
925871 'Customer Care Support' for Oracle 9.2
932722 Upgrade to Oracle 10.2 during a database copy
940794 Releasing Oracle 10.2 versions for older SAP versions
940811 Oracle Database 10g: Migration from 32-bits to 64-bits
973450 Advanced Security (Network Encryption)
974876 Advanced Security (Transparent Data Encryption)
998004 Update the Oracle Instant Client on Windows
990955 Oracle Datamining Connector 2.1 for SAP
1027012 Details about MOPatching
1109743 Index Compression
1086956 + 1058988 Instant Client
 Imprint 73

Oracle Corporation

World Headquarters
500 Oracle Parkway
Redwood Shores,
CA 94065
U.S.A.

Published by
Oracle Corporation,
Oracle for SAP Global
Technology Center

Albrecht Haug
albrecht.haug@oracle.com
Altrottstr. 31
69190 Walldorf, Germany
Tel. ++49 (0) 6227-8398 - 0
Fax ++49 (0) 6227-8398 - 199
E-mail:
saponoracle_de@oracle.comX
Internet:
http://www.oracle.com/sap
http://www.sap.com/
partner/index.htm
Oracle, JD Edwards, PeopleSoft, and Siebel are registered trademarks of Oracle Corporation and/or its affiliates. SAP, SAP NetWeaver, R/3 and all
other SAP product and service names mentioned herein as well as their respective logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of SAP AG in
Germany and in several other countries all over the world. Other names may be trademarks of their respective owners. This document is provided
for information purposes only, and the contents here of are subject to change without notice. This document is not warranted to be error-free, nor
is it subject to any other warranties or conditions, whether expressed orally or implied in law, including implied warranties and conditions of
merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. We specifically disclaim any liability with respect to this document, and no contractual obligations
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This document is provided for informational purpose only and the information herein is subject to change without notice. Please report any errors
herein to Oracle (saponoracle_de@oracle.com). Oracle Corporation does not provide any warranties covering and specifically disclaims any liability
in connection with this document. Copyright © 2008 Oracle. All Rights Reserved. Published in the U.S.A.