Storage infrastructure for SAP workloads on Bare Metal Servers in IBM Cloud VPC

This document provides guidance on planning storage infrastructure requirements for SAP workloads on Bare Metal Servers in IBM Cloud® Virtual Private Cloud.

For SAP workloads hosted on a cloud service provider, the infrastructure as a service (IaaS) layer operates in a similar way to environments used to run SAP workloads in external data centers. SAP systems in a landscape have specific storage requirements to support performance, availability, and data protection.

IBM Cloud® for SAP provides a rich set of capabilities that support these storage requirements and extend the SAP landscape beyond basic system hosting.

The following sections describe IBM Cloud® for SAP portfolio design considerations for storage on IBM Cloud® Bare Metal Servers for Virtual Private Cloud in IBM Cloud VPC.

Overview

The storage architecture for Bare Metal Servers for VPC operates within the IBM Cloud VPC infrastructure. IBM provisions, maintains, and manages the physical bare metal servers in IBM-operated data centers.

Bare Metal Servers for VPC are dedicated physical servers with local storage. Storage is provided through local boot volumes and local data volumes based on Non-Volatile Memory Express (NVMe) U.2 solid-state drives (SSDs). You are responsible for managing all aspects of local storage, including RAID configuration, file system creation, encryption, monitoring, and backup.

The local storage provides the following key capabilities:

  • High-performance NVMe SSDs: You can use NVMe based local storage to achieve low latency and high throughput for demanding SAP workloads.
  • Customer-managed RAID: You can fully manage RAID levels and configurations.
  • Flexible configuration: You can configure file systems and volume layouts to meet specific workload needs.
  • Local data sovereignty: You can ensure that data remains on the physical bare metal server.

Storage for Bare Metal Servers for VPC is unmanaged. You are responsible for encryption and backing up your data.

Storage types

Bare Metal Servers for VPC supports multiple storage types that are designed for different workload requirements, performance characteristics, and use cases.

Local storage

Local storage is the primary storage type for Bare Metal Servers for VPC and provides the highest performance for SAP workloads. All storage is physically attached to the bare metal server.

Boot volume

Boot volumes have the following properties:

  • All profiles include one 0.96 TB SATA M.2 mirrored SSD as the boot disk.
  • Configured as RAID 1 (mirrored) for redundancy.
  • Used for operating system installation.
  • Cannot be detached or resized.
Data volumes (NVMe U.2 SSDs)

Data volumes have the following properties:

  • All profiles provide an additional set of NVMe U.2 SSDs as secondary local storage.
  • NVMe SSDs provide fast and affordable storage to support options such as customer-managed RAID.
  • Presented as Just a Bunch of Disks (JBOD) for customer-managed software-based RAID or striping.
  • Quantity varies by profile (typically 8-16 NVMe devices).
  • You are responsible for RAID configuration, file system creation, and data management.

For more information, see Bare Metal Servers for VPC storage.

IBM Cloud Object Storage

IBM Cloud® Object Storage supports the following use cases:

  • Backup, restore, and archive or near-line storage purposes from Bare Metal Servers for VPC.
  • Long-term retention of audit logs and compliance data.
  • Disaster recovery copies.

IBM Cloud Object Storage buckets are available in different storage classes. For more information, see Cloud Object Storage classes.

To access IBM Cloud® Object Storage from your bare metal server, you can use:

  • Public endpoints over the internet
  • Private endpoints through Virtual Private Endpoints (VPE) for secure, private network access

Communicating with the VPE gives secure access from your bare metal server to IBM Cloud® Object Storage over the private network.

File storage

IBM Cloud® File Storage for VPC is a compatible network-attached storage solution for Bare Metal Servers for VPC that are provisioned after 31 August 2023. This storage type is ideal for shared file systems such as /sapmnt, /usr/sap/trans, and other shared directories in SAP landscapes.

For more information, see About File Storage for VPC.

IBM Cloud® File Storage for VPC offers two types of profiles with different availability characteristics:

File storage profiles
Profile name IOPS/GB Availability Description
dp2 (zonal) 5 IOPS/GB Single zone Data is stored within a single availability zone. Suitable for most SAP application server workloads. Lower cost compared to regional profiles.
rfs (regional) 5 IOPS/GB Multi-zone Data is replicated across multiple availability zones within a region. Provides higher availability and resilience. Suitable for critical shared file systems requiring cross-zone redundancy.

Both the profiles support:

  • Capacity range: 10 GB to 32,000 GB
  • IOPS range: 100 to 96,000 IOPS
  • NFS v4.1 protocol
  • Encryption at rest: Data is encrypted by using IBM-managed or customer-managed encryption keys
  • Mount targets: Mount targets control network access

For more information, see File Storage for VPC profiles.

The following table provides an exemplary overview about file systems on file storage:

File storage
File system Default path Purpose or Scenario Typical size (GB) Description
Software repository /install Staging area for installers, media, kernels Varies (typically 200–1000+) Shared or local; depends on the content to be stored.
Installation path /hana/shared Shared files between hosts in an SAP HANA multi-host system 1000 SAP HANA runtime and client, configuration, and instance files.
SAP core path /usr/sap/<SID> Per-SID instance directories (profiles, kernels, work, logs) 10–20 per AS instance Size scales with the number of application server instances.
SAP Mount /sapmnt/<SID> Files shared between application servers 20–50 Contains shared data, profiles, and executable replication directory.
SAP Transport /usr/sap/trans Central SAP transport directory (cofiles, data, EPS inbox) 50–200+ Shared for all systems; grows with project activity or transport volume.

IBM® Cloud Block Storage for Virtual Private Cloud is not supported for Bare Metal Servers for VPC.

SAP HANA storage guidelines

Storage provisioning for an SAP HANA system must comply with mandatory SAP HANA storage requirements.

Refer to the following resources for more information:

For file system sizes, see SAP HANA Storage Requirements.

Volume layout

To plan storage volumes for SAP HANA, refer to the tables provided in Bare Metal Server certified profiles on VPC infrastructure for SAP HANA. Locate the compute profile applicable to your deployment, and review the Storage tab.

Use the local NVMe set for primary HANA paths, and use operating system native RAID and Logical Volume Manager (LVM) where required:

  • Configure /hana/log and /hana/data using multiple NVMe devices in RAID 10 (or RAID groups striped via LVM) to combine low latency with redundancy.
  • Configure /hana/shared on a single local NVMe file system, use File Storage for VPC (NFS) based on single host or multi host shared requirements.
  • Configure /usr/sap on local NVMe (preferred) or File Storage for VPC. Keep binaries and logs separate from boot.
  • Configure /boot on the mirrored M.2 SSD (RAID 1). Keep OS minimal and stateless where possible.
  • Add additional NVMe volumes for backup or export file systems as needed.

The exact RAID configuration and number of NVMe devices depend on your specific bare metal profile. Always refer to the storage configuration tables in the Bare Metal Server certified profiles documentation for your chosen profile.

SAP application server storage guidelines

SAP application servers have less demanding storage requirements compared to database servers. However, proper storage planning is still important for optimal performance.

Volume layout

To plan storage volumes for the SAP application server, refer to the storage section in SAP application server certified instances on Intel-powered bare metal servers in VPC Infrastructure. Use the SAP application server file system tab to determine the storage tier and the size of the storage volume for the /usr/sap file system.

Configure storage as follows:

  • Configure /usr/sap and local logs on local NVMe for simple, low-latency access.
  • For shared binaries and transports, mount File Storage for VPC (NFS) to provide POSIX-shared paths across application servers such as /sapmnt/<SID> and /usr/sap/trans.

References