Reference Architecture: SAP Business Suite on SAP HANA on Google Cloud

Overview

This document is for people who are evaluating Google Cloud as a platform for deploying SAP Business Suite on SAP HANA, especially for people in the following kinds of jobs:

  • SAP technical architect
  • Cloud architect
  • SAP basis administrator
  • Enterprise architect

This document also lists issues to consider prior to installation, as well as linking to SAP Notes and other documentation to facilitate deployment.

SAP Business Suite on SAP HANA is a suite of SAP systems, including SAP ECC, running on an SAP HANA database. ECC, or Enterprise Core Component, is an application suite that contains core business functions like finance, logistics, warehouse management, and sales and distribution. ECC was designed to run on various databases, including Sybase ASE, MS SQL Server, Oracle, and now SAP HANA. This document discusses architecture and deployment of SAP Business Suite on the SAP HANA database only.

Google Cloud provides a cost-effective, reliable, secure, and high-performance SAP certified infrastructure for running SAP Business Suite on SAP HANA. For a complete list of supported SAP solutions on Google Cloud, see Certifications for SAP applications on Google Cloud and Certifications for SAP HANA on Google Cloud.

Licensing

If you're an SAP customer, you can use your existing SAP HANA and other SAP application licenses to deploy SAP Business Suite on Google Cloud under a bring-your-own-license (BYOL) model. Google Cloud supports the BYOL model for both production and non-production use cases. Operating system licenses are included in Compute Engine prices; alternatively, you can bring your own OS image and licenses as well.

Sizing

Several sizing options are available based on the implementation type. For greenfield implementations, we recommend using the SAP Quick Sizer tool. For detailed information, see SAP's Sizing page. SAP also provides T-shirt guides for specific solutions and tools for migrating current on-premises solutions to Google Cloud. For example, see Certified and Supported SAP HANA Hardware Directory and SAP Note 2456432 - SAP Applications on Google Cloud: Supported Products and Google Cloud machine types . SAP and Google Cloud use different units to measure IOPS (input/output operations per second); consult your SI (Systems Integrator) partner to convert SAP sizing requirements into appropriately sized Google Cloud infrastructure.

Supported machine types

Google Cloud offers Compute Engine instance types that are certified by SAP to match sizing requirements when you're deploying SAP HANA. For more information about sizing on Google Cloud and the machine types that are supported, see the following pages:

Custom machine types for SAP HANA on Google Cloud are also certified by SAP. You can run SAP HANA instances with fewer than 64 vCPUs as long as you maintain a vCPU/Memory ratio of at least 6.5.

To see the SAPS numbers for the Compute Engine virtual machines that are certified for SAP applications, see SAP Note 2456432 - SAP Applications on Google Cloud: Supported Products and Google Cloud machine types .

SAP provides a certified list of Google Cloud configurations for SAP HANA on its website as well. For more details, see Certified and Supported SAP HANA Hardware Directory.

Disks and file systems for SAP Business Suite on SAP HANA

Google Cloud offers the following storage types:

  • Persistent disks for block storage
    • Standard (pd-standard): efficient and economical block storage backed by standard hard disk drives (HDD) for handling sequential read-write operations, but not optimized to handle high rates of random input-output operations per second (IOPS).
    • SSD (pd-ssd): provides reliable, high-performance block storage backed by solid-state drives (SSD).
    • Balanced (pd-balanced): provides cost-effective and reliable SSD-based block storage.
    • Extreme (pd-extreme): SSD-based, provides higher maximum IOPS and throughput options than pd-ssd for larger Compute Engine machine types. For more information, see Extreme persistent disks.
    • Local SSDs: High-performance local block storage.
  • Cloud Storage buckets: affordable object storage.
  • Filestore instances: fully managed NFS file servers on Google Cloud.

For more information, see Storage Options.

Google Cloud persistent disks are designed for high durability. They store data redundantly to ensure data integrity. Each persistent disk can store up to 64 TB, so you can create large logical volumes without managing arrays of disks. One key feature is that persistent disks are automatically encrypted to protect data.

Upon creation, a Compute Engine instance allocates a single root persistent disk by default that contains the operating system. You can add more storage options to the instance as needed. For SAP implementations, we recommend using persistent disks, because they are designed for high durability and compute instances can access them like physical disks on a local machine.

The following tables describe the Linux directory structures for a typical SAP deployment.

Typical Linux directory structure for a generic SAP ABAP instance

SAP application directory structure Storage type
/sapmntNote Standard persistent disk (HDD)
/usr/sap Standard persistent disk (HDD)

Note: In distributed deployments, /sapmnt can also be mounted as a network file system using an NFS solution, such as Filestore.

Typical Linux directory structure for SAP HANA

SAP HANA directory structure Storage type
/usr/sap SSD-based persistent disk
/hana/data SSD-based persistent disk
/hana/log SSD-based persistent disk
/hana/sharedNote SSD-based persistent disk
/hanabackupNote Standard persistent disk (HDD)

Note: In distributed deployments, /hana/shared and /hanabackup can also be mounted as a network file system using an NFS solution, such as Filestore.

Create all the directories for SAP HANA and SAP Business Suite instances by following the processes described in Google Cloud deployment guides. We recommend using a Deployment Manager template to deploy a supported and certified instance. For the SAP NetWeaver deployment guides, see All SAP NetWeaver Guides. For SAP HANA deployment, see the SAP HANA Deployment Guide.

Deployment

SAP Business Suite on SAP HANA consists of the following technical components:

Application layer:

  • ASCS—ABAP SAP Central Services. Contains the following components:
    • Message server (MS): Acts as a communication channel between application servers. Also handles load distribution.
    • Enqueue server (ES): Controls the lock mechanism.
  • PAS—Primary application server.
    • The first or only application server for the SAP system.
  • AAS—Additional application server.
    • Usually deployed for application level load balancing. You can install multiple AAS to achieve higher availability from an application layer perspective as well. If one of the application servers goes down, all user sessions connected to that application server are terminated, but users can log in again to the other associated AAS in the environment.
  • WD—Web Dispatcher (optional).
    • Intelligent software load balancer that distributes HTTP and HTTPS requests, based on application type, to PAS and AAS.

Database layer:

  • SAP HANA

Deployment models

You can deploy SAP Business Suite on SAP HANA on Google Cloud in either of two models: centralized deployment or distributed deployment.

Centralized deployment

In a centralized deployment, you can install SAP Business Suite and the database on the same Compute Engine instance. We recommend this approach for non-production environments such as sandbox and development environments.

The following diagram shows a reference architecture for SAP Business Suite on SAP HANA in a centralized deployment model. Note that SAP ASCS, PAS, and HANA are all installed on the same instance.

SAP ASCS, PAS, and HANA are installed on a single VM

Distributed deployment

In a distributed deployment, you can install the SAP Business Suite applications and the SAP HANA database on different Compute Engine instances. We recommend this approach for production environments or environments that require a lot of compute power to handle heavy transaction load. Each of the SAP application layer components described earlier (in "Deployment") can be independently installed on different instances.

Also, optionally, you can install one or more additional application servers (AAS), depending on your business requirements.

The following diagram shows a reference architecture for SAP Business Suite on SAP HANA in a distributed deployment model.

SAP Business Suite, PAS, and ASCS are installed on one VM, SAP HANA
is installed on another VM

SAP Business Suite and the SAP HANA database are installed on different Compute Engine instances. The database must be installed using the deployment method certified by Google Cloud. For details on installing an SAP HANA database for SAP HANA Scale-up or SAP HANA Scale-out, see the SAP HANA Deployment Guide. Currently, SAP Business Suite on SAP HANA is supported only in a Scale-up model.

High availability and disaster recovery

High availability (HA) and disaster recovery (DR) are sets of techniques, engineering practices, and design principles to enable business continuity in the event of failures. These approaches work by eliminating single points of failure and providing the ability to rapidly resume operations after a system or component outage with minimal business disruption. Fault recovery is the process of recovering and resuming operations after an outage due to a failed component.

For example, here are some HA and DR tools:

High availability

To ensure high availability for SAP Business Suite on SAP HANA, consider the following components:

  • SAP HANA database (HDB)
  • ABAP Central Services (ASCS)
  • Primary application server (PAS)

SAP HANA database: We recommend the SAP HANA system replication (HSR) solution for achieving database high availability. In this scenario, system replication is configured between the primary and secondary node and data is replicated from the primary to the secondary persistent disk. For more details, see Configuring SAP HANA System Replication in the SAP HANA Administration Guide, which is available in the SAP Help Portal.

In the SAP HANA system replication scenario, failover is not automated by default. You can implement failover using operating system level clustering, which is designed to manage component failures. Clustering involves the use of multiple servers, storage devices, and interconnections to form a single highly available system. For more details about configuring HA for SAP HANA, see the SAP HANA high-availability planning guide.

ABAP Central Services: ASCS consists of a message server (MS) and an enqueue server (ES). The message server acts as a communication channel between the application servers and handles the load distribution, while the enqueue server controls the lock mechanism. We recommend that you use a clustering solution to achieve high availability on ASCS. To implement HA, install ABAP Central Services (ASCS) and enqueue replication service (ERS) on primary and secondary nodes. When the primary node goes down, message and enqueue (MS/ES) services automatically fail over to the secondary node. When the primary node becomes available again, you can automatically or manually fail over to the original primary node. For more details, see the SUSE setup guide for a SAP ASCS high availability cluster.

The following diagram shows an architecture for implementing HA for ASCS.

One VM hosts active ASCS and inactive ERS. Another VM hosts inactive ASCS
and active ERS. The VM pair and the ERS pair each have their own VIP

Primary application server: You can achieve high availability for the primary application server by installing additional application servers (AAS). You can install multiple AAS to achieve higher availability. If one of the application servers goes down, all user sessions connected to that application server are terminated, but users can log in to the other application servers. Google Cloud provides a live migration feature that could be used for PAS HA. For more information, see Live Migration.

Disaster recovery

To recover an SAP Business Suite on SAP HANA system from a disaster, use the following methods:

  • SAP HANA system replication
  • SAP HANA backup

SAP HANA system replication

For DR scenarios, we recommend that you have the standby system in a different region than the primary system and use asynchronous replication.

Choose an SAP HANA system replication option that best fits your business requirements for recovery point objectives (RPO) and that fits your cost/benefit preferences.

The following diagram shows the flow of replication. Specifically:

  1. Virtual IP (VIP) is configured to point only to the active (read/write) node.
  2. In this scenario, Node 1 plays the primary role. When a failover is triggered, Node 2 takes over and acts as the primary node, with the virtual IP moving to Node 2.

An SAP HANA HA cluster is in one Google Cloud region. Asynchronous replication keeps a
single HANA system in another region current

Backup and recovery

Make backups of your application server and database on a regular schedule so that you can recover in case of a system crash, data corruption, or other problems.

Backups

You have a number of options for backing up your SAP HANA data on Google Cloud, including:

  • Backing up directly to Cloud Storage using the SAP-certified Cloud Storage Backint agent for SAP HANA (Backint agent).
  • Backing up to a persistent disk and then uploading the backups to Cloud Storage.
  • Taking snapshots of the entire disk that contains the /hanabackup directory by using the Compute Engine snapshot function.

The Cloud Storage Backint agent for SAP HANA

You can install the Cloud Storage Backint agent for SAP HANA (Backint agent, which simplifies backup storage. The Backint agent integrates with the native SAP HANA backup and recovery functions so you can backup directly to, and recover from, Cloud Storage without needing persistent disk storage for your backups. For more information, see the SAP HANA Operations Guide.

For information about the SAP certification of the Cloud Storage Backint agent for SAP HANA, see SAP Note 2031547. The following diagram shows the flow of backups when you use the Backint agent.

Diagram shows SAP HANA with the Backint agent backing up directly to
Cloud Storage

Backing up to persistent disks

You can use the native SAP HANA backup and recovery function to store backups on Compute Engine persistent disks. You can use a Cloud Storage bucket for longer-term storage of the backups.

During normal operation, SAP HANA automatically saves data from memory to disk at regular save points. Additionally, all data changes are captured in redo log entries. A redo log entry is written to disk after each committed database transaction. You can back up the redo logs to longer term storage at regular intervals.

From SAP HANA 2.0 onwards, you must use SAP HANA cockpit to back up SAP HANA.

The following diagram shows the flow of the backup feature for SAP HANA.

Backups are created on persistent disk and then stored in Cloud Storage

Backing up persistent disks by using snapshots

Another option you can add to your backup strategy is to take snapshots of entire disks by using the persistent-disk snapshot feature of Compute Engine. For example, you can take scheduled snapshots of your backup directory disk for use in disaster recovery scenarios. To ensure application consistency, take snapshots when no changes are being made to the target volume. Snapshots occur on the block level.

After the first snapshot, each subsequent snapshot is incremental and stores only incremental block changes, as shown in the following diagram.

A full snapshot is taken of SAP HANA data and of application data. Subsequent
snapshots are incremental.

Recovery

The recovery tools in SAP HANA can recover to the latest point in time or a specific point in time, and you can use these tools to restore to a new system or create a copy of the database. Unlike backups, which you can run while the database is operational, you can use recovery tools only while the database is shut down. Recovery options are listed below; choose an appropriate one for your situation.

  • Restore to the most recent state, using any of the following resources:
    • Full backup or snapshot.
    • Redo log entries that are still available.
  • Restore to a point in time in the past.
  • Restore to a specified full backup.

Important pre-deployment SAP Notes

Before beginning to deploy your SAP systems on Google Cloud, read the SAP Notes in the following list that are relevant to your planned configuration. Before proceeding with any SAP product implementation, always check the SAP Marketplace for updated product installation guides and notes.