1.1.

Introduction to SAP HANA

SAP HANA, short for "High-Performance Analytic Appliance" is an in-memory, columnoriented, relational database management system developed by SAP.

Data now resides in main-memory (RAM) and no longer on a hard disk.

It is a combination of hardware and software made to process massive

real time data using In-Memory computing.

It combines row-based, column-based database technology.

It's best suited for performing real-time analytics on massive data,

and developing & deploying real-time applications.

An in-memory database means all the data is stored in the memory (RAM). No time
wasted in loading the data from hard-disk to RAM or storing the data in hard-disk.
Everything is stored inside memory for all the time, which gives quick access ability to
the CPUs while processing data. The speed advantages offered by this RAM storage
system are further accelerated by the use of multi-core CPUs, and multiple CPUs per
board, and multiple boards per server appliance.

SAP HANA is equipped with Multiengine Query Processing Environment which supports
relational as well as graphical and text data within the same system. It provides features
that support significant processing speed, handle huge data sizes and text mining
capabilities.

Can we just increase the memory of the traditional database (like Oracle)
to 1 TB and get similar performance?
NO. You might have performance gains due to more memory available for your current
Oracle/Microsoft/Teradata database, but HANA is not just a database with bigger RAM. It
is a combination of a lot of hardware and software technologies. The way data is stored
and processed by the In-Memory data base is the true differentiator. Having that data
available in RAM is just the icing on the cake.

Operating System Supported By SAP HANA:

Earlier SUSE Linux Enterprise Server x86-64 (SLES) 11 SP1 was the only Operating
System supported by SAP HANA. From SPS08, Red Hat Enterprise Linux is also
supported.
SAP HANA is developed in C++ language.

Why SAP HANA is fast?

1.2. Revision Strategy of SAP HANA

In this chapter we will explain:

SAP HANA Revision - The difference between Support Package Stack, Support
Packages and Revisions

SAP HANA Release Strategy - SAP HANA product availability and maintenance
strategy

SAP HANA Maintenance Revision - What are SAP HANA Maintenance

Revisions?

SAP HANA Datacenter Service Point - What is the SAP HANA Datacenter
Service Point?

SAP HANA is very dynamic product. Every two weeks, there is a new minor revision of
SAP HANA, and every 6 months there is a newmajor revision (Service Pack). In
addition, SAP HANA SP7 also brings Maintenance Revisions.

You can upgrade from any revision to any newer revision, making
maintenance very straightforward.

Updates are strictly backward compatible. Incompatible changes may be

considered due to legal or security reasons but follow a strict exception approval
process.

Bug fixes and performance improvements come regularly

Every bug every found is included into continuous regression testing

Revisions and Support Packages:

In the context of the SAP HANA platform, corrections are shipped in the form
of Revisions and Support Packages of the products components.

The term Revision refers to packages containing fixes for the SAP HANA core
components (SAP HANA Database, Studio, Clients, AFLs, SDA, and HWCC tool).
There are 4 types of revisions in SAP HANA:

1. SAP HANA Support Package Stack (SPS) - Every half year

Every six month new features and capabilities are introduced in form of SAP
HANA Support Package Stack (SPS). Updates are cumulative and strictly downward
compatible.

2. SAP HANA Support Package (SP) Revisions - Every three month

SAP HANA Support Package (SP) represents the individual software corrections
and updates available for SAP HANA and is released every three month .
HANA SPS 08 was released on May,2014
The revision no is always the double digit starting from the SPS number. For example the
revision number of SPS 07 is 70 or higher; revision number of SPS 08 is 80 or higher.

3. SAP Production System Verified HANA Revisions

SAP Production System Verified HANA Revisions outlines certain revisions which have
been running in production enterprise applications at SAP before they are released to
customers.
These revisions are planned approx. 3 month after release of last SPS and
intended to allow better planning of maintenance windows for production
environments running on SAP HANA.

4. SAP HANA Maintenance Revision Every two weeks

SAP HANA Maintenance Revisions contain only major bug fixes found in key SAP
HANA scenarios.
The availability of maintenance revisions ends with availability of SAP production system
verified revision, approx. 3 month after the release of successor SPS. From this date,
customer must adopt the regular SP revisions to receive further fixes.
Customers can opt to maintain their SAP HANA system with the latest SAP HANA
Revision or to remain temporarily on the SAP HANA Maintenance Revisions stream.

What does SAP HANA Maintenance Revision offer?

Only provides fixes for major bugs concerning critical

functionality in key SAP HANA scenarios (Business Suite on SAP HANA, BW on

SAP HANA, SAP HANA Data Marts)

Only provides fixes for production systems, or endangered go lives within the next
3 weeks

Only provides fixes for bugs with non-existing workaround

Only provides fixes with minor code dependencies and code changes or impact

What does HANA Maintenance Revision does NOT offer?

No performance improvements, no features, no metadata changes

Anything which prevents an update to a later standard SP revision

SAP HANA Datacenter Service Point

The newly introduced SAP HANA Datacenter Service Point provides SAP HANA
customers with more guidance as to when - and on the basis of which Revision they
should schedule their SAP HANA maintenance stack.

As most customers have to schedule their maintenance window between

quarterly end closings, the SAP HANA Datacenter (DC) Service Point has been
defined to lie between the SAP HANA SPs, i.e. at the end of March and at the end
of September.

As proof of SAPs commitment to the quality of its software, the Revisions

referenced by the DC service point will also run in production enterprise
applications at SAP for at least two weeks before they are officially released, thus
guaranteeing our customers even more predictability in terms of performance and
reliability.

The SAP HANA Datacenter Service Points is a point in time - at the end of March
and at the end of September - intended to allow better planning of SAP stack
maintenance for production environments running on SAP HANA.

Conclusion:

Leveraging the availability of SAP HANA Maintenance Revisions, customers

can opt to either keep an older SAP HANA Support Package Stack (SPS) running for
around three months after the release of a new SPS, or to directly adopt the new SPS

upon release, depending on their individual and unique needs for when to adopt new
features and capabilities of SAP HANA.

Customers can further plan their SAP maintenance stack in accordance with
clearly defined SAP HANA Datacenter Service Points at the end of March and at the
end of September; based on a Revision which has become much more mature, as it has
been available for over three months and has also been running in production enterprise
systems at SAP.

2.1. SAP HANA Lifecycle Management Tools

The SAP HANA Lifecycle Management tools are command line and graphical interface
tools, which can be used to install, update, or configure an SAP HANA system.
Currently the following tools are the most important components of it.

SAP recommends that you use the SAP HANA lifecycle management tool hdblcm and
the SAP HANA lifecycle manager (HLM) as follows:

Use the SAP HANA lifecycle management tool hdblcm to install either individual
or multiple SAP HANA components during server installation

Use the SAP HANA lifecycle manager to customize and update your SAP HANA
system. It also provides links to the SAP HANA application lifecycle manager.

SAP HANA hdblcm and hdblcmgui

Both the hdblcm and hdblcmgui SAP HANA lifecycle management tools can be used to
install SAP HANA in one of the installer modes, and with a combination of parameter
specification methods.
The following Installation methods can be applied:

Interactive scenario with hdblcm / hdblcmgui

Evolution of SAP HANA Installation Tools:

The SAP HANA component installation concept has changed significantly with the fastpaced development of SAP HANA itself. In the early releases, the SAP HANA

components had to be installed individually, which proved to be a time-consuming task.

SAP HANA Unified Installer:

Earlier the SAP HANA unified installer was developed to streamline the installation
process by installing all required components from one call to the installer.

SAP HANA unified installer is declared as deprecated but supported for SPS 07

With SPS 08 the SAP HANA unified installer will be unsupported

With SAP HANA SPS 07, the SAP HANA hdblcm tool was introduced to offer the
efficiency of installing all components at one time, while providing further flexibility to
customize and automate the installation.
As of SAP HANA SPS 08, it is possible to also perform post-installation configurations
tasks, such as renaming the system, adding or removing hosts, and reconfiguring the
system, using hdblcm(gui).

Advantages of hdblcm (gui)

The introduction of hdblcm (gui) offers several advantages:
Component-wise installation: Individual components (SAP HANA: studio, DB, client,
HLM, host agent, AFL, LCApps) can be installed or updated in combination with the
server from a single interface. Likewise, all components can be installed at one time.

Improved configuration file: A plain text configuration file template with parameters set
to their defaults can be generated and edited to be called during installation or update.

Improved interactive installation: Both as a graphical interface, by calling hdblcmgui

from the command line, or as command line installation, with iteratively requested
parameter entry.

Improved batch processing: Installation and update tasks can be called using
command line options or the configuration file, without any additional input required.

Multi-host system installation from the graphical interface: It is now possible to

install a multi-host SAP HANA system from the graphical interface. Multi-host storage
and grouping options can also be configured.

2.2. SAP HANA Software Components

In the SAP Software Download Center, you have access to the installation media and
components for SAP HANA.
You can find the installation media and components for SAP HANA in the following
locations:

Installation media for an SAP HANA SPS:

SAP Software Download Center -> Installations and Upgrades -> A-Z Index ->
Installations and Upgrades H -> SAP In-Memory (SAP HANA) -> HANA Platform
Edition -> SAP HANA PLATFORM EDITION -> SAP HANA PLATFORM EDIT. 1.0 ->
Installation

Support Packages and Patches for SAP HANA:

SAP Software Download Center -> Support Packages and Patches -> A-Z Index ->
Support Packages and Patches H -> SAP HANA PLATFORM EDITION -> SAP HANA
PLATFORM EDIT. 1.0

SAP HANA Appliance Delivery Vs SAP HANA Tailored Data Center

Integration:
SAP HANA Appliance delivery:
The SAP HANA Appliance Delivery is your first choice if you are looking for a
preconfigured hardware set-up and a preinstalled software package for a fast
implementation done by your chosen hardware partner and fully supported by us.

The SAP HANA appliance delivery is pretty easy and comfortable, but it has some
limitations regarding hardware flexibility and may require changes to established IT
operation processes.
Thats the reason SAP decided to offer an additional approach named SAP HANA
Tailored Data Center Integration to give the flexibility.

SAP HANA Tailored Data Center Integration:

In SAP HANA Tailored Data Center Integration (TDI), the freedom of choice regarding the
SAP HANA hardware landscape is back to customer. Here its possible to reuse existing
enterprise storage and use it for multiple applications besides SAP HANA. That gives the
opportunity to work with the storage solution that is best for customers.

However, with great power comes great responsibility. With TDI approach customer is
self-responsible for the system, beginning from the installation up to run the landscape
with all the different parties.

Differences between Appliance and TDI approach:

2.3 Who Can Install SAP HANA?

The components of SAP HANA can only be installed by

Certified Hardware Partners

Or those holding E_HANAINS131 certification

SAP HANA Certified Hardware Partners:

Currently SAP HANA Hardware partners are:
HP, FUJITSU,CISCO, IBM, HITACHI, NEC and DELL.

You can find all SAP HANA components and respective SAP HANA hardware and
software requirements in theProduct Availability Matrix(PAM).

SAP HANA Installation Certification Exam - E_HANAINS131:

The installation certification exam SAP Certified Technology Specialist (Edition 2013)
SAP HANA Installation (Booking code: E_HANAINS131) is in line with our SAP HANA
tailored data center integration program and enables you to perform the SAP HANA
installation by yourself.

Some facts about the installation certification exam (E_HANAINS131):

Prerequisites: certification is only issued to candidates that have also passed the
certification exam for the SAP Certified Technology Associate SAP HANA (Booking
code: C_HANATEC_1 or C_HANATEC131)

Duration: 90 Minutes

No. of Questions: 40

3.1. SAP HANA Sizing Introduction

What do you mean by Sizing?
Sizing is a standard term in SAP, which means determining the hardware requirements of
an SAP System such as physical memory, CPU power, and I/O capacity.
Determining sizing requirement ensures that customers purchase hardware as per their
business need and also ensures lower cost and reduce TCO.

Sizing in SAP HANA:

The critical factor for SAP HANA implementation is the right sizing of the server based on
the business requirement and this means correct calculation of amount of memory, the
CPU processing power.
SAP HANA sizing consists of Memory sizing for static data, Memory sizing of objects
created during runtime (data load and query execution), Disk Sizing and CPU
Sizing.

For the purpose of successful SAP HANA implementation, SAP has provided various
guidelines and methods to calculate the correct hardware size.
We can use any of the below method:
1. SAP HANA sizing using the QuickSizer tool
2. SAP HANA sizing using the DB specific scripts
3. SAP HANA sizing using the ABAP report

In the later chapters we will study more about the sizing and these methods.

Product Availability Matrix (PAM):

All available SAP certified HANA hardware configurations can be looked up in the HANA
PAM (Product Availability Matrix). In addition SAP also certifies additional configurations
as required by customer scenarios. You should check with your hardware vendors and
SAP Account Executive in case you are interested in any other configuration than listed
in the HANA PAM.
Product Availability Matrix(PAM).