2018-08-17 2393917

2393917 - SAP HANA on VMware vSphere 6.5 and 6.7 in

production
Version 13 Type SAP Note
Language English Master Language English
Priority Recommendations / Additional Info Category Consulting
Release Status Released for Customer Released On 17.09.2018
Component HAN-DB ( SAP HANA Database )

Please find the original document at https://launchpad.support.sap.com/#/notes/ 2393917

Symptom

You want to install SAP HANA platform in a virtualized environment using VMware vSphere 6.5 or 6.7 virtual
machines

Other Terms

ESXi, VMW, vSphere, virtualized SAP HANA, VMware

Reason and Prerequisites

SAP declares support for VMware vSphere 6.5 and 6.7 for virtual deployments in production scenarios of
SAP HANA on either certified appliances or through SAP HANA tailored data center integration verified
hardware configurations. The SAP HANA start release defined as "SAP HANA 1.0 SPS xx" includes support
for SAP HANA 2.0. Certified Hardware can be found in the Certified and Supported SAP HANA® Hardware
directory [1]

Solution

By issuing this SAP Note, SAP extends support for SAP HANA on VMware vSphere 6.5, providing the
following conditions are met:

SAP HANA start release: SAP HANA 1.0 SPS 12

Single and multiple SAP HANA production virtual machines on a single physical server

CPU Architecture: Intel Broadwell E5 EP - 2-socket / E7 EX 2 & 4 & 8 socket

Intel Skylake processors of TDIv5 Model 2 & 4 & 8 socket

The minimum size of a virtual SAP HANA instance is a half socket (represented by at least 8 physical
cores). The minimum is 128GB of RAM.

The maximum size for Broadwell of a virtual SAP HANA instance is limited CPU-wise by the maximum size
of a virtual machine on VMware vSphere 6.5 and 6.7 release, which is 128 vCPUs on 4 Sockets (4 sockets
on up to 8 socket hardware), and 4TB of RAM. Due to the underlying certified hardware OLAP can only used
with maximum 2TB.

The maximum size for Skylake of a virtual SAP HANA instance is limited CPU-wise by the maximum size of
a virtual machine on VMware vSphere 6.5 and 6.7 release, which is 128 vCPUs on 4 Sockets (4 sockets on
up to 8 socket hardware), and 6TB of RAM. Due to the underlying certified hardware OLAP can only used
with maximum 3TB.

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2018-08-17 2393917

Due to the security vulnerability identified in CVE-2018-3646 VMware strongly advices customers
to review and enable the recommendations indicated in VMware KB 55806. In particular, VMWare
recommends that customers must ensure that after enablement, the maximum number of vCPUs
per VM must be less than or equal to the number of total cores available on the system or the VM
will fail to power on. The number of vCPUs on the VM may need to be reduced if it is to run on
existing hardware. The number of vCPUs should be a factor of two. VMware is providing a tool to
assist customers with the analysis of their VM configuration.

VM Size – full socket

minimum 1 socket / maximum 4 sockets

1-,2-,3- and 4-socket VMs on up to 8-socket server (fully & partly QPI meshed)

• VM Size - half socket (NUMA-node sharing)

half-socket VMs on 2-, 4- and 8-socket server

no odd multiples of 0.5 (half) sockets like 1.5 socket VMs, 2.5 socket VMs etc.

Further remarks for half socket (NUMA-node sharing) Multi-VMs:

For OLAP workload half socket VM’s, customers shall plan an addition of 14% more CPU (SAPS) capacity
per half socket VM in the sizing. This will provide additional headroom for high load situations when two SAP
HANA OLAP VMs share a CPU socket. Full socket VM’s don’t need this additional CPU buffer, as they don’t
share CPU resources with other VM’s.

SAP HANA production virtual machines as part of a SAP HANA Scale-Out Cluster

CPU Architecture: Intel Broadwell E7 EX 4 socket

• VM Size – full socket

4 sockets on up to 8 socket server (fully and partly QPI meshed)
Up to 1 Master plus 15 worker Nodes are possible. HA-Nodes should be added according to the
cluster-size. FAQ: SAP HANA High Availability [2]

Rules for virtualized SAP HANA on VMware vSphere 6.5 and 6.7

• Each SAP HANA instance / virtual machine is sized according to the existing SAP HANA sizing
guidelines and VMware recommendations.
• SAPs general sizing recommendation is to Scale-Up first.
• CPU and Memory over-commitment must not be used.
• The Time Stamp Counter (TSC) must be synchronized between all sockets/cores.
• Certified OS versions (from SUSE and Redhat) and server combinations as listed on the SAP HANA
hardware directory are supported when virtualized.
• VMware vMotion, VMware Distributed Resource Scheduled (DRS), as well as VMware HA
capabilities can be used to achieve operational performance and availability.
• SAP HANA Tailored Datacenter Integration (TDI) [3] delivery methods are supported for SAP HANA on
VMware vSphere. The hardware must be listed on the SAP HANA hardware directory. The SAP HANA
installation must done by an SAP certified engineer, qualified as "SAP Certified Technology Specialist -
Required exam: C_HANATEC_11 (*) - See [4] SAP Training and Certification Shop The SAP HANA
Installation on SAP HANA certified hardware must be successfully verified with the SAP HANA
hardware configuration check tool [5].
• Configuration and overall setup must comply with the latest version of the SAP HANA on VMware
vSphere [6] and the here linked most recent best practice guide. This includes compliance to the SAP

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2018-08-17 2393917

HANA core-to-memory ratio as reflected in the HANA Hardware Directory and virtualization calculus as
described in the best practice guide as well as priority for SAP HANA production workloads over co-
deployed non-production workloads.
• SAP and VMware will jointly support virtual SAP HANA in production adhering to the SLAs defined in
the customer support contract. If a reported problem is a known SAP HANA issue with a validated fix,
SAP support will recommend the appropriate fix directly to the customer. For all other performance
related issues, the customer will be referred within SAP’s OSS system to VMware for support. VMware
will take ownership and work with SAP HANA HW/OS partner, SAP and the customer to identify the
root cause. SAP support may request that additional details be gathered by the customer or the SAP
HANA HW partner to help with troubleshooting issues. In rare cases – SAP may require VMware to re-
produce the issue on SAP HANA running in a bare metal environment.
• SAP and VMware saw degradation compared in performance on bare metal in average of 10%, and
this is to be expected in virtualized environments. Customers are encouraged to size correct and test
performance before going live.
• To allow for an easier distinction to be made between scenarios which can be considered a good fit
against those scenarios which seem to be less suitable for virtualization, more scenario specific
examples are being worked out and described in the VMware Best Practices Guide.
• SAP HANA VMs can get co-deployed with SAP non-production HANA or any other workload VMs, as
long as the production SAP HANA VMs are not negatively impacted by the co-deployed VMs. In case
of negative impact on SAP HANA, SAP may ask to remove any other workload. No Numa node
sharing between SAP HANA and non HANA allowed.

Additional documentation and knowledge

[1] Certified and Supported SAP HANA® Hardware directory

[2] FAQ: SAP HANA High Availability

[3] SAP HANA Tailored Data Center Integration - Frequently Asked Questions

[4] SAP Training and Certification Shop

[5] SAP Note 1943937 - Hardware Configuration Check Tool - Central Note

[6] SAP HANA on VMware vSphere wiki

[7] SAP HANA on VMware vSphere best practices guide white paper

Software Components

Software Component Release

HDB 1.00 - 1.00

Other Components

Component Description

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2018-08-17 2393917
BC-OP-LNX-ESX Linux on VmWare ESX

This document refers to

SAP Note/KBA Title

2315348 SAP HANA on VMware vSphere 6 in production

2161991 VMware vSphere configuration guidelines

2020657 SAP Business One, version for SAP HANA virtualized

1995460 SAP HANA VM on VMware vSphere 5.5 in production

1788665 SAP HANA Support for virtualized / partitioned (multi-tenant) environments

1492000 General Support Statement for Virtual Environments

1122388 Linux: VMware vSphere configuration guidelines

This document is referenced by

SAP Note/KBA Title

2369910 SAP Software on Linux: General information

2495375 Indexserver Crashes in sse_icc_lib::mgeti_AVX2 After Changing Underlying CPU

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