Google Cloud supports several file sharing solutions for SAP on Google Cloud. Which you choose depends on what you are using the file sharing solution for, whether your SAP systems extend across zones or regions, and the performance requirements of your workloads.
Supported file sharing solutions for SAP on Google Cloud
The following table shows the file sharing solutions that Google Cloud supports for SAP systems.
If you are already using one of these file sharing solutions for other purposes and the solutions meets all of the requirements of your SAP workloads, you can use that solution for your SAP systems also.
| File sharing solution | Description |
|---|---|
| Filestore |
Google Cloud high-performance, fully managed file storage. For multi-zonal highly available deployments, we recommend using the Enterprise tier of Filestore (Filestore Enterprise). For information about the Filestore service tiers, see Service tiers. For a quickstart guide to Filestore Basic, see Quickstart using the Console. |
| NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP |
A full-featured, smart storage solution that you deploy and manage yourself on a Compute Engine virtual machine. For more information about NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP, see Overview of Cloud Volumes ONTAP. |
| NetApp Cloud Volumes Service for Google Cloud |
A high-performance, fully managed file storage solution from NetApp that you can deploy from the Google Cloud console. NetApp Cloud Volumes Service offers two service types: CVS and CVS-Performance. For more information, see Service types. For SAP, you need to use NetApp Cloud Volumes Service CVS-Performance (NetApp CVS-Performance) service type, which provides several service levels. For most SAP use cases you need to use the Extreme service level, but, if your use case doesn't require high performance, you can use the Standard or Premium service level. For more information, see Service levels. |
File sharing solutions by SAP use case
The following table lists the most common use cases for file sharing solutions in SAP landscapes and the solutions that support the use cases.
| Use case | Purpose | Recommended solutions |
|---|---|---|
| Interface directory | For use as a general storage location by SAP and other software systems to pass files between servers. |
|
| SAP transport directory | For use as an SAP storage location by SAP systems to hold shared application files in distributed or high-availability deployments, or to transport SAP files and updates between different operational environments. |
|
| Backup directory | For use by SAP or other systems as a centralized storage location for backups. |
|
| SAP HANA scaleout system directory | For use within a single zone by SAP HANA scaleout systems to share binaries and configuration files between the SAP HANA nodes. |
|
Features supported by each file sharing solution
The following table shows the common features that SAP systems require of file sharing solutions and the solutions that support those features.
| Feature | Filestore Basic | Filestore Enterprise | NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP | NetApp CVS-Performance |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Disaster recovery | Manual | Manual | Automated with Snapmirror | Multi-region replication |
| High availability | Zonal service, 99.9% SLA | Multi-zonal service, 99.99% SLA | Multi-zone HA solution; 99.99% SLA for only the Google Cloud infrastructure |
Zonal service, 99.99% SLA |
| Snapshots/Backup | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Managed service | Yes | Yes | No | Yes |
| Protocols | NFSv3 | NFSv3 | NFSv3, NFSv4.1, SMB, iSCSI | NFSv3, NFSv4.1, SMB |
| Regional replication | No | No | With Snapmirror | Yes |
| Regional availability | All regions | All regions | All regions | In regions where NetApp CVS-Performance is available. See the NetApp global map |
| RPO for disaster recovery | Not applicable | Not applicable | As low as 15 minutesNote 1 | As low as 15 minutesNote 1 |
| RTO for disaster recovery | Not applicable | Not applicable | As low as 30 minutesNote 1 | As low as 30 minutesNote 1 |
| Storage, minimum | 1 TB | 1 TB | 100 GB volume with 638 GB system disk | 1 TB |
| Support provider | Google Cloud | Google Cloud | NetApp for NetApp software and Google Cloud for infrastructure | Google Cloud |
| Throughput performance | 100 MB/s R/WNote 2 | 120/100 MB/s R/WNote 2 | Configuration dependent. See the NetApp documentation. | 128 MB/s R/WNote 3 |
Table notes:
- Note 1: The times shown are approximate and depend on a variety of factors, including your system and network configuration, backup intervals, and recovery procedures.
- Note 2: With the Filestore Basic and Enteprise tiers, the volume size affects the storage speed. The R/W throughput that is shown in the table is based on a volume size of 1 TB. For more information, see Filestore service tiers. The performance of Filestore Enterprise scales to 1,200/1,000 MiB/s with a 10 TB volume.
- Note 3: With NetApp CVS-Performance, the volume size affects the storage speed. The R/W throughput that is shown in the table is for the CVS-Performance service type and is based on a volume size of 1 TB.