Intel Virtual Server certified profiles on VPC infrastructure for SAP HANA

Profiles list

The published names are subject to change.

The following list gives you an overview of the SAP-certified profiles with Virtual Servers for VPC:

Table 1. IBM Cloud Virtual Servers for VPC certified for SAP HANA
Profile	vCPU	Memory (RAM GiB)	SAPS	SAP HANA Processing Type
Memory Optimized
mx2-8x64 mx2d-8x64	8	64	10,280	SAP Business One (**)
mx2-16x128 mx2d-16x128	16	128	20,565	OLTP () SAP Business One (*)
mx2-32x256 mx2d-32x256	32	256	41,130	OLTP () SAP Business One (*)
mx2-48x384 mx2d-48x384	48	384	56,970	OLTP () SAP Business One (*)
Very High Memory Optimized
vx2d-16x224	16	224	17,046	OLTP (*)
vx2d-44x616	44	616	46,875	OLAP/OLTP (*)
vx2d-88x1232	88	1,232	93,750	OLAP/OLTP (*)
vx2d-144x2016	144	2,016	153,410	OLAP/OLTP (*)
vx2d-176x2464	176	2,464	187,500	OLAP/OLTP (*)
Ultra High Memory Optimized
ux2d-8x224	8	224	8,623	OLTP (*)
ux2d-16x448	16	448	17,246	OLTP (*)
ux2d-36x1008	36	1,008	38,803	OLTP (*)
ux2d-48x1344	48	1,344	51,737	OLTP (*)
ux2d-72x2016	72	2,016	77,606	OLTP (*)
ux2d-100x2800	100	2,800	107,785	OLTP (*)
ux2d-200x5600	200	5,600	215,570	OLTP (*)

(*): RHEL 7.6 for SAP Solutions, RHEL 7.9 for SAP Solutions, RHEL 8.1 for SAP Solutions, RHEL 8.2 for SAP Solutions, RHEL 8.4 for SAP Solutions, RHEL 8.6 for SAP Solutions, 8.8 for SAP Solutions, RHEL 9.0 for SAP Solutions, RHEL 9.2 for SAP Solutions
SLES 12 SP4, SLES 12 SP5, SLES 15, SLES 15 SP1, SLES 15 SP2, SLES 15 SP3, SLES 15 SP4, SLES 15 SP5

(**): SLES 12 SP4, SLES 15, SLES 15 SP1, SLES 15 SP2, SLES 15 SP3, SLES 15 SP4

Please, regard the supported operated systems that are mentioned in the footnotes.

For more information, see SAP Note 2927211 - SAP Applications on IBM Cloud Virtual Private Cloud (VPC) Infrastructure environment.

Understanding Virtual Server profile names

With IBM Cloud® Virtual Servers for Virtual Private Cloud, the profile families that are certified for SAP are: Memory Optimized, Very High and Ultra High Memory Optimized.

All the Memory family profiles cater to memory intensive workloads, such as demanding database applications and in-memory analytics workloads, and are especially designed for SAP HANA workloads.

For more information, see chapter x86-64 instance profiles.

The first letter of the profile name indicates the profile family that is mentioned the profile list:

Table 2. IBM Cloud® Virtual Servers for Virtual Private Cloud Profile Families
First letter	Characteristics of the related profile family
m	Memory Optimized family, higher vCPU to memory ratio 1:8
v	Very High Memory Optimized family, very high vCPU to memory ratio 1:14
u	Ultra High Memory Optimized family, ultra high vCPU to memory ratio 1:28

The Virtual Server profile names are contextual and sequential. See the following example:

Table 3. Profile naming for SAP HANA
Profile name	Naming convention component	What it means
mx2-16x128	m	Memory Optimized family
	x	Intel x86_64 CPU Architecture
	2	The generation for the underlying hardware
	d	the optional 'd' in the name indicates that the server is equipped with one or more internal SSD storage devices (*)
	—	spacer
	16	16 vCPU
	x	spacer
	128	128 GiB RAM

(*) Note for Virtual Server Instances using instance storage on SSD: you must not place any SAP workload related data on such instance storage, because data loss may occur in certain situations - see more information here: About instance storage.

Profiles available on Hourly Consumption Billing

All IBM Cloud Virtual Servers for VPC are available with Hourly Consumption Billing, which includes Suspend Discounts and Sustained Usage Discounts. With Suspend Discounts, storage charges occur only if the server is in Shutdown state. With Sustained Usage Discount, the more a server is used, the less the cost per hour.

Storage specifications

When the virtual server profiles for SAP HANA are initially provisioned, the servers all have one pre-configured volume (vda) attached with the following basic layout:

Table 4. Storage configuration of the default virtual server deployment (boot volume)
File system	Partition	Storage type	Size (GB)	Nr. of IOPS
`/`	`vda1`	Pre-configured boot volume	100	3,000
`/boot`	`vda2`	Pre-configured boot volume	0.25	3,000

IBM® Cloud Block Storage for Virtual Private Cloud

IBM® Cloud Block Storage for Virtual Private Cloud volumes for Virtual Servers can be created based on different volume profiles that provide different levels of IOPS per gigabyte (IOPS/GB). For more information, see IOPS tiers.

You must consider the total IOPS required for your installation and the performance characteristics of your database. One option is to collocate multiple directories into a single large volume with high IOPS, versus isolating directories into individual small volumes with an insufficient number of IOPS for the workload characteristics.

For an overview of all available storage profiles, see VPC Block Storage Profiles.

Storage for SAP HANA - single-node

To fulfill the KPIs defined by SAP HANA, each profile needs different storage volumes that are listed in details in the following sections. These configurations are mandatory storage configurations, not sample storage configurations, because they are the tested and certified storage layouts that comply with SAP HANA Tailored Data Center Integration (TDI) Phase 5. It is highly recommended to stick to these specific specifications.

Customers who want to choose different layouts are advised to follow the SAP HANA TDI Overview and SAP HANA TDI FAQ when they order different storage sizes and types. Then, they must run SAP's performance measurement tool HCMT - see SAP Note 2493172 - SAP HANA Hardware and Cloud Measurement Tools and follow the instructions of the HCMT guide.

For all of the following layouts consider that the volume names might differ - we assume that the naming follows the sequence of ordering the storage, that is, 1st order -> vdd, 2nd order -> vde, and so on. All block storage volumes must be ordered with the predefined profile of 10 IOPS/GB (high performance). One exception might be /hana/shared partition where 5 IOPS/GB (medium performance) are sufficient - but ONLY IF you assigned a dedicated volume for this partition. For all profiles optional: one appropriately sized block storage volume or several equally sized volumes that are gathered to a volume group, with the predefined profile of 5 IOPS/GB (medium performance) attached to the Virtual Server for backups.

SAP's recommended file system layout must be available for SAP HANA deployment.

mx2-* profiles - Storage Layouts

The following table shows the required physical volumes, related volume groups, logical volumes, and their characteristics:

Table 5. Storage layout for mx2-* profiles based virtual servers
Profile	File system	Logical Volume	LV Size (GB)	Volume Group	Physical Volume	PV Size (GB)
`mx2-8x64` and `mx2-16x128` and `mx2-32x256`	`/hana/shared`	`hana_shared_lv`	256	`hana_vg`	`vdd`	500
	`/hana/data`	`hana_data_lv`	256		`vde`	500
	`/hana/log`	`hana_log_lv`	988		`vdf`	500

`mx2-48x384`	`/hana/shared`	`hana_shared_lv`	384	`hana_vg`	`vdd`	500
	`/hana/data`	`hana_data_lv`	616		`vde`	500
					`vdf`	500
	`/hana/log`	`hana_log_lv`	400	`hana_log_vg`	`vdg`	100
					`vdh`	100
					`vdi`	100
					`vdj`	100

mx2-* profiles - Setup Instructions

See the step by step instructions for setting up the assets here. Mind the different volume names.

vx2d-* profiles - Storage Layouts

The following table shows the required volumes and related volume groups, if necessary, and their characteristics:

Table 6. Storage for vx2* profile based virtual servers
Profile	File system	Logical Volume	LV Size (GB)	Volume Group	Physical Volume	PV Size (GB)
`vx2d-16x224`	`/hana/shared`	`hana_shared_lv`	224	`hana_vg`	`vde`	1,120
	`/hana/data`	`hana_data_lv`	672
	`/hana/log`	`hana_log_lv`	224

`vx2d-44x616`	`/hana/shared`		n/a		`vdd`	616
	`/hana/data`		n/a		`vde`	1,848
	`/hana/log`	`hana_log_lv`	576	`hana_log_vg`	`vdf`	192
					`vdg`	192
					`vdh`	192

`vx2d-88x1232`	`/hana/shared`		n/a		`vdd`	1,232
	`/hana/data`		n/a		`vde`	3,696
	`/hana/log`	`hana_log_lv`	576	`hana_log_vg`	`vdf`	192
					`vdg`	192
					`vdh`	192

`vx2d-144x2016`	`/hana/shared`		n/a		`vdd`	2,016
	`/hana/data`	`hana_data_lv`	4,096	`hana_data_vg`	`vde`	1,024
					`vdf`	1,024
					`vdg`	1,024
					`vdh`	1,024
	`/hana/log`	`hana_log_lv`	576	`hana_log_vg`	`vdi`	192
					`vdj`	192
					`vdk`	192

`vx2d-176x2464`	`/hana/shared`		n/a		`vdd`	2,464
	`/hana/data`	`hana_data_lv`	5,120	`hana_data_vg`	`vde`	1,280
					`vdf`	1,280
					`vdg`	1,280
					`vdh`	1,280
	`/hana/log`	`hana_log_lv`	576	`hana_log_vg`	`vdi`	192
					`vdj`	192
					`vdk`	192

vx2d-* profiles - Setup Instructions

See the step by step instructions for setting up the file systems here. The according volume sizes are captured in the table 6. Read the section Adding Block Storage for VPC to see how to attach the volumes to the HANA server. Some disks are governed by the Linux Logical Volume Manager LVM or lvm2.

For each profile, consider the specified volume sizes in table 6 and always make sure that the correct disks are given for the respective commands. The Linux command fdisk -l shows which disk is to the volume, for example /dev/vde.

vx2d-16x224

Create the volume group for LVM.

[root@vx2d-16x224 ~]# pvcreate /dev/vde
[root@vx2d-16x224 ~]# vgcreate hana_vg /dev/vde

After the volume group is created, three logical volumes are defined on top. These logical volumes reflect the file system size requirements for SAP HANA.

[root@vx2d-16x224 ~]# lvcreate -L 224G -n hana_shared_lv hana_vg
[root@vx2d-16x224 ~]# lvcreate -L 224G -n hana_log_lv hana_vg
[root@vx2d-16x224 ~]# lvcreate -l 100%VG -n hana_data_lv hana_vg

Next, add these entries to /etc/fstab

LABEL=HANA_SHARED /hana/shared xfs defaults,inode64 0 0
LABEL=HANA_LOG /hana/log xfs defaults,swalloc,inode64 0 0
LABEL=HANA_DATA /hana/data xfs defaults,largeio,swalloc,inode64 0 0

Finally, a file system needs to be created on top of each volume group and then mounted:

[root@vx2d-16x224 ~]# mkfs.xfs -L HANA_SHARED /dev/mapper/hana_vg-hana_shared_lv
[root@vx2d-16x224 ~]# mkfs.xfs -L HANA_LOG /dev/mapper/hana_vg-hana_log_lv 
[root@vx2d-16x224 ~]# mkfs.xfs -L HANA_DATA /dev/mapper/hana_vg-hana_data_lv

[root@vx2d-16x224 ~]# mkdir -p /hana/shared
[root@vx2d-16x224 ~]# mkdir -p /hana/log
[root@vx2d-16x224 ~]# mkdir -p /hana/data

[root@vx2d-16x224 ~]# mount -a

vx2d-44x616 and vx2d-88x1232

Create the volume group for LVM. Only /hana/log is assigned to the LVM.

[root@vx2d-44x616 ~]# pvcreate /dev/vdf /dev/vdg /dev/vdh
[root@vx2d-44x616 ~]# vgcreate hana_log_vg /dev/vdf /dev/vdg /dev/vdh

After the volume group is created, the logical volume for /hana/log needs to be defined on top. This logical volume reflects the file system size requirement for SAP HANA.
```
[root@vx2d-44x616 ~]# lvcreate -i 3 -I 64 -l 100%VG -n hana_log_lv hana_log_vg
```
Now proceed with the same instructions that are listed in steps 3 and 4 profile vx2d-16x224.

vx2d-144x2016 and vx2d-176x2464

Create the volume group for LVM. /hana/log and /hana/data are assigned to the LVM.

[root@vx2d-144x2016 ~]# pvcreate /dev/vde /dev/vdf /dev/vdg /dev/vdh
[root@vx2d-144x2016 ~]# pvcreate /dev/vdi /dev/vdj /dev/vdk
[root@vx2d-144x2016 ~]# vgcreate hana_data_vg /dev/vde /dev/vdf /dev/vdg /dev/vdh
[root@vx2d-144x2016 ~]# vgcreate hana_log_vg /dev/vdi /dev/vdj /dev/vdk

After the volume group is created, two logical volumes need to be defined on top. These logical volumes reflect the file system size requirements for SAP HANA.

[root@vx2d-144x2016 ~]# lvcreate -i 4 -I 64 -l 100%VG -n hana_data_lv hana_data_vg
[root@vx2d-144x2016 ~]# lvcreate -i 3 -I 64 -l 100%VG -n hana_log_lv hana_log_vg

Now proceed with the same instructions that are listed in steps 3 and 4 profile vx2d-16x224.

ux2d-* profiles - Storage Layouts

The following table shows the required volumes and related volume groups, if necessary, and their characteristics:

Table 7. Storage for ux2* profile based virtual servers
Profile	File system	Logical Volume	LV Size (GB)	Volume Group	Physical Volume	PV Size (GB)
`ux2d-8x224`	`/hana/shared`	`hana_shared_lv`	224	`hana_vg`	`vde`	1,120
	`/hana/data`	`hana_data_lv`	672
	`/hana/log`	`hana_log_lv`	224

`ux2d-16x448`	`/hana/shared`	`hana_shared_lv`	448	`hana_vg`	`vde`	2,240
	`/hana/data`	`hana_data_lv`	1,344
	`/hana/log`	`hana_log_lv`	448

`ux2d-36x1008`	`/hana/shared`		n/a		`vdd`	1,008
	`/hana/data`	`hana_data_lv`	2,016	`hana_data_vg`	`vde`	1,008
					`vdf`	1,008
	`/hana/log`	`hana_log_lv`	576	`hana_log_vg`	`vdg`	192
					`vdh`	192
					`vdi`	192

`ux2d-48x1344`	`/hana/shared`		n/a		`vdd`	1,344
	`/hana/data`	`hana_data_lv`	2,700	`hana_data_vg`	`vde`	1,350
					`vdf`	1,350
	`/hana/log`	`hana_log_lv`	576	`hana_log_vg`	`vdg`	192
					`vdh`	192
					`vdi`	192

`ux2d-72x2016`	`/hana/shared`		n/a		`vdd`	2,016
	`/hana/data`	`hana_data_lv`	4,096	`hana_data_vg`	`vde`	1,024
					`vdf`	1,024
					`vdg`	1,024
					`vdh`	1,024
	`/hana/log`	`hana_log_lv`	576	`hana_log_vg`	`vdi`	192
					`vdj`	192
					`vdk`	192

`ux2d-100x2800`	`/hana/shared`		n/a		`vdd`	2,800
	`/hana/data`	`hana_data_lv`	8,400	`hana_data_vg`	`vde`	2,100
					`vdf`	2,100
					`vdg`	2,100
					`vdh`	2,100
	`/hana/log`	`hana_log_lv`	576	`hana_log_vg`	`vdi`	192
					`vdj`	192
					`vdk`	192

`ux2d-200x5600`	`/hana/shared`		n/a		`vdd`	5,600
	`/hana/data`	`hana_data_lv`	16,800	`hana_data_vg`	`vde`	4,200
					`vdf`	4,200
					`vdg`	4,200
					`vdh`	4,200
	`/hana/log`	`hana_log_lv`	576	`hana_log_vg`	`vdi`	192
					`vdj`	192
					`vdk`	192

ux2d-* profiles - Setup Instructions

See the step by step instructions for setting up the file systems here. The according volume sizes are captured in the table 7. Read the section Adding Block Storage for VPC to see how to attach the volumes to the HANA server. Some disks are governed by the Linux Logical Volume Manager LVM or lvm2.

For each profile, consider the specific volume sizes in table 7 and always make sure that the correct disks are given for the respective commands. The Linux command fdisk -l shows which disk has been mapped to the volume, for example /dev/vde.

ux2d-8x224 and ux2d-16x448

Create the volume group for LVM.

[root@ux2d-8x224 ~]# pvcreate /dev/vde
[root@ux2d-8x224 ~]# vgcreate hana_vg /dev/vde

After the volume group is created, three logical volumes are defined on top. These logical volumes reflect the file system size requirements for SAP HANA.

[root@ux2d-8x224 ~]# lvcreate -L 224G -n hana_shared_lv hana_vg
## or lvcreate -L 448G -n hana_shared_lv hana_vg

[root@ux2d-8x224 ~]# lvcreate -L 224G -n hana_log_lv hana_vg
## or lvcreate -L 448G -n hana_log_lv hana_vg

[root@ux2d-8x224 ~]# lvcreate -l 100%VG -n hana_data_lv hana_vg

Now proceed with the same instructions that are listed in steps 3 and 4 profile vx2d-16x224.

ux2d-36x1008 and ux2d-48x1344

Create the volume groups for LVM. /hana/log and /hana/data are assigned to the LVM.

[root@ux2d-36x1008 ~]# pvcreate /dev/vde /dev/vdf
[root@ux2d-36x1008 ~]# pvcreate /dev/vdg /dev/vdh /dev/vdi
[root@ux2d-36x1008 ~]# vgcreate hana_data_vg /dev/vdg /dev/vdh /dev/vdi
[root@ux2d-36x1008 ~]# vgcreate hana_log_vg /dev/vdg /dev/vdh /dev/vdi

After the volume groups are created, two logical volumes need to be defined on top. These logical volumes reflect the file system size requirements for SAP HANA.

[root@ux2d-36x1008 ~]# lvcreate -i 2 -I 64 -l 100%VG -n hana_data_lv hana_data_vg
[root@ux2d-36x1008 ~]# lvcreate -i 3 -I 64 -l 100%VG -n hana_log_lv hana_log_vg

Now proceed with the same instructions that are listed in steps 3 and 4 profile vx2d-16x224.

ux2d-72x2016, ux2d-100x2800, and ux2d-200x5600

Create the volume groups for LVM. /hana/log and /hana/data are assigned to the LVM.

[root@ux2d-72x2016 ~]# pvcreate /dev/vde /dev/vdf /dev/vdg /dev/vdh
[root@ux2d-72x2016 ~]# pvcreate /dev/vdi /dev/vdj /dev/vdk
[root@ux2d-72x2016 ~]# vgcreate hana_data_vg /dev/vde /dev/vdf /dev/vdg /dev/vdh
[root@ux2d-72x2016 ~]# vgcreate hana_log_vg /dev/vdi /dev/vdj /dev/vdk

After the volume groups are created, two logical volumes need to be defined on top. These logical volumes reflect the file system size requirements for SAP HANA.

[root@ux2d-72x2016 ~]# lvcreate -i 4 -I 64 -l 100%VG -n hana_data_lv hana_data_vg
[root@ux2d-72x2016 ~]# lvcreate -i 3 -I 64 -l 100%VG -n hana_log_lv hana_log_vg

Now proceed with the same instructions that are listed in steps 3 and 4 profile vx2d-16x224.

Storage for SAP HANA - multi-node

In an SAP HANA scale-out (multi-node) configuration, storage needs to be accessible from different nodes at the same time, and needs to be able to failover from one node to the other.

Thus, for SAP HANA scale-out configurations, file shares need to be deployed, and local block storage is out of scope for the SAP HANA installation. Those file shares require so-called mount targets to be created to allow access to the file shares from dedicated subnets. IBM Cloud recommends using the primary subnet for storage access because routes will not require any changes to access the storage servers for the file shares, if the mount target is defined on this subnet. Two additional subnets are required for SAP HANA inter-node (internal) communication, and for client access.

SAP HANA in scale-out configuration requires a shared volume for its /hana/shared file system, and a /hana/log and /hana/data volume for each node. Follow the mount option recommendation by NetApp for setting up your target OS' fstab. See the following sample for an SAP HANA system of system ID 'BHB':

/hana/shared

fsf-tok0551b-fz.adn.networklayer.com:/903586db_f968_4bf7_bbd5_0926fb7a26ce /hana/shared/BHB nfs      sec=sys,rw,vers=4,minorversion=1,hard,timeo=600,rsize=65536,wsize=65536,intr,noatime,lock 0 0

/hana/data

fsf-tok0551a-fz.adn.networklayer.com:/2b33d3df_9081_47c2_910a_a29356716d51/BHB/mnt00001 /hana/data/BHB/mnt00001 nfs sec=sys,rw,vers=4,minorversion=1,hard,timeo=600,rsize=65536,wsize=65536,intr,noatime,lock 0 0
fsf-tok0551b-fz.adn.networklayer.com:/ec39996c_346a_4815_a74f_4048382e6ecc/BHB/mnt00002   /hana/data/BHB/mnt00002 nfs sec=sys,rw,vers=4,minorversion=1,hard,timeo=600,rsize=65536,wsize=65536,intr,noatime,lock 0 0

/hana/log

fsf-tok0551b-fz.adn.networklayer.com:/7bdee46e_b95f_4ff7_89b8_5273e8f9199d/BHB/mnt00001  /hana/log/BHB/mnt00001 nfs sec=sys,rw,vers=4,minorversion=1,hard,timeo=600,rsize=65536,wsize=65536,intr,noatime,lock 0 0 
fsf-tok0551b-fz.adn.networklayer.com:/2bca0419_3aef_40ca_b38f_8b9717c93905/BHB/mnt00002  /hana/log/BHB/mnt00002 nfs sec=sys,rw,vers=4,minorversion=1,hard,timeo=600,rsize=65536,wsize=65536,intr,noatime,lock 0 0

You cannot follow NetApp's recommendation regarding rsize and wsize option, these parameters are limited to 65536 by the file share implementation.

To fulfill SAP's requirements about storage layout and through-put and latency KPIs, see details here: Persistent Data Storage in the SAP HANA Database). In any case, they must comply with the TDI performance KPIs (see SAP Note 2613646) verified by SAP HANA Hardware and Cloud Measurement Tools and also ensure SAP's support for it. IBM Cloud recommends 10 IOPS per GB or Custom profile file shares for meeting SAP's KPIs.