Install SAP HANA on Bare Metal with SLES 15 for SAP

Objective

This guide provides instructions for deploying the SLES 15 for SAP image on an OVHcloud dedicated server and preparing it for SAP HANA.

Requirements

• Access to the OVHcloud Control Panel
• An HGR-SAP dedicated server

Instructions

Deployment of the SLES 15 for SAP image

From the OVHcloud Control Panel, you can launch the deployment of the SLES 15 for SAP image provided by OVHcloud. Click the Install button to launch it.

The first step involves providing information about the operating system which you want to install.
  a. In the drop-down menu Type of OS, select ERP.
  b. In the drop-down menu LINUX, select SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP3 for SAP Applications - sles-sap15sp3.

We advise you to do this installation on the target disk array 2 X Disk SSD 480 GB, JBOD.

If you want, you can customise the partition configuration.

If you do not custom the configuration of partitions, you will go to the last step.

You can set a hostname which will be displayed with the command hostname. You have also the possibility to add your SSH key.

Once these last parameters are configured, click Confirm to launch the installation.

Once the SLES 15 for SAP installation is done, you can connect to your dedicated server.

Preparation of file systems

We will use the Logical Volume concept which is offering a lot of advantages within configuration of partitions.

1. Get the name of the disk where you will install your SAP HANA database. The name of the disk should be sda.

To check it, you can launch the command below and you will get this result:

$ lsblk

NAME          MAJ:MIN RM   SIZE RO TYPE  MOUNTPOINT
sda             8:0    0  10.5T  0 disk 
sdb             8:16   0 447.1G  0 disk
├─sdb1          8:17   0   511M  0 part
├─sdb2          8:18   0   256M  0 part
│ └─md2         9:2    0   255M  0 raid1 /boot
├─sdb3          8:19   0     2G  0 part  [SWAP]
├─sdb4          8:20   0 444.4G  0 part
│ └─md4         9:4    0 444.3G  0 raid1
│   └─vg-root 254:0    0 444.3G  0 lvm   /
└─sdb5          8:21   0     2M  0 part
sdc             8:32   0 447.1G  0 disk
├─sdc1          8:33   0   511M  0 part  /boot/efi
├─sdc2          8:34   0   256M  0 part
│ └─md2         9:2    0   255M  0 raid1 /boot
├─sdc3          8:35   0     2G  0 part  [SWAP]
└─sdc4          8:36   0 444.4G  0 part
  └─md4         9:4    0 444.3G  0 raid1
    └─vg-root 254:0    0 444.3G  0 lvm   /

2. Create a physical volume based on the data disks RAID with the following command:

pvcreate /dev/sda

3. Create a virtual group named vg_hana based on the physical volume previously created.

vgcreate vg_hana /dev/sda

4. Create logical volumes which will be the partitions for the operating system.

Each logical volume will be shown as a directory for the SAP HANA installation.

We advise you to follow this table to size your logical volumes.

In each line, replace the character <X> by the size of your logical volume wanted in gigabytes, for example 32.

lvcreate -L<X>G -n lv_usrsap vg_hana
lvcreate -L<X>G -n lv_hanadata vg_hana
lvcreate -L<X>G -n lv_hanalog vg_hana
lvcreate -L<X>G -n lv_hanashared vg_hana
lvcreate -L<X>G -n lv_hanabackup vg_hana

5. Once these logical volumes are created, it is necessary to format them in a format supported by SAP HANA.

In this guide, we use the XFS format. We recommend taking into consideration the SAP Note 2972496 - SAP HANA Filesystem Types to discover all formats supported by SAP HANA.

mkfs.xfs /dev/vg_hana/lv_usrsap
mkfs.xfs /dev/vg_hana/lv_hanadata
mkfs.xfs /dev/vg_hana/lv_hanalog
mkfs.xfs /dev/vg_hana/lv_hanashared
mkfs.xfs /dev/vg_hana/lv_hanabackup

6. Create the directories on which are going to be based the logical volumes.

mkdir -p /hana/data /hana/log /hana/shared /usr/sap /hanabackup

7. To mount the file systems on the operation system, you have to get their UUID to fill the /etc/fstab file.

To get each UUID from logical volumes, you can use these commands:

blkid /dev/vg_hana/lv_usrsap | awk '{print $2}'
blkid /dev/vg_hana/lv_hanadata | awk '{print $2}'
blkid /dev/vg_hana/lv_hanalog | awk '{print $2}'
blkid /dev/vg_hana/lv_hanashared | awk '{print $2}'
blkid /dev/vg_hana/lv_hanabackup | awk '{print $2}'

8. Add this content in the /etc/fstab file, replacing content with previously retrieved values.

UUID=<UUID>       /usr/sap        xfs     noatime,nodiratime,logbsize=256k 0 0
UUID=<UUID>       /hana/data      xfs     noatime,nodiratime,logbsize=256k 0 0
UUID=<UUID>       /hana/log       xfs     noatime,nodiratime,logbsize=256k 0 0
UUID=<UUID>       /hana/shared    xfs     noatime,nodiratime,logbsize=256k 0 0
UUID=<UUID>       /hanabackup     xfs     noatime,nodiratime,logbsize=256k 0 0

9. You can now execute the command mount -a. This command will mount the logical volumes on your operation system. You have to see it in the output of the command df -h with the size previously configured.

Application of parameters with SAPtune

The SAPtune package is available on the SUSE operating system, and allows applying system parameters depending on the SAP role hosted on the server. To discover more about this package, we invite you to read the SUSE page.

1. Install the saptune package.

zypper install -y saptune

2. Depending on your future SAP system, you have two possibilities.

  a. The first choice is HANA for running a SAP HANA database of a SAP NetWeaver system.
  b. The second choice is S4HANA-DBSERVER for running the SAP HANA database of a SAP S/4HANA system.

To set these parameters after choosing your solution, run this following command:

saptune solution apply <HANA|S4HANA-DBSERVER>

3. We recommend enabling the SAPtune service during the startup. At each startup of your server, the SAPtune service will set up the recommended parameters for your operating system.

saptune service enablestart

4. You can check if parameters have been successfully applied with this following command:

saptune solution verify <HANA|S4HANA-DBSERVER>

Your dedicated server is now ready to host a SAP HANA database.

You can proceed to its installation following the official SAP guide.

Go further

How to Configure Your NIC for OVHcloud Link Aggregation in SLES 15

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