Storage infrastructure for SAP workloads on virtual server instances in IBM Cloud VPC

This document provides guidance on planning storage infrastructure requirements for SAP workloads on virtual server instances (VSIs) 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® Virtual Servers for Virtual Private Cloud in IBM Cloud VPC.

Overview

The storage architecture for Virtual Servers for VPC operates within the IBM Cloud VPC infrastructure. IBM provisions, maintains, and manages the entire storage infrastructure in IBM-operated data centers.

Clients use storage in the form of storage volumes (boot volumes and data volumes) and file storage shares. IBM manages all underlying physical storage hardware.

The storage volumes and file shares provide the following key capabilities:

  • Configurable storage profiles: You can provision volumes across multiple performance tiers based on IOPS requirements.
  • Flexible sizing: You can increase the capacity of a volume after creation without disrupting operations.
  • Encryption: Data is encrypted at rest by using IBM-managed or customer-managed encryption keys.
  • Snapshots and backups: You can create point-in-time snapshots of block storage volumes for data protection.
  • Shareability: File storage shares can be attached to multiple virtual server instances for shared file systems.

Storage types

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

Block storage

Block storage is used for Virtual Servers for VPC and provides a predictable performance based on input/output operations per second (IOPS). It is the primary storage type for operating system boot volumes and additional data volumes.

Boot and data volumes

Boot and data volumes have the following properties:

  • When you create a virtual server instance, a boot volume is automatically created and attached. The default boot volume size is 100 GB with 3,000 IOPS. You can customize the boot volume size and IOPS during provisioning.
  • You can attach up to 12 additional data volumes per virtual server instance, with each volume supporting up to 16,000 IOPS.
  • You can provision each storage volume based on the IOPS that your workload requires, by either using tiered profiles or custom IOPS profiles.
  • Each volume has a storage profile that defines how many I/O operations per second (IOPS) can be started against that volume.
  • The IOPS for the storage profiles can scale according to the size of the volume (tiered profiles), or by custom IOPS allocations.

Create storage volumes for SAP HANA® systems after the deployment of the individual server instance is complete.

The following table shows the supported block storage profiles with corresponding IOPS:

Block storage profiles and IOPS mapping
Profile name IOPS/GB Description
General purpose (3iops-tier) 3 IOPS/GB Suitable for backup volumes and less critical workloads
5iops-tier 5 IOPS/GB Suitable for database data volumes and shared file systems
10iops-tier 10 IOPS/GB Suitable for SAP HANA log and data volumes
Custom 100 to 48,000 IOPS Allows you to specify capacity (10 GB to 16,000 GB) and IOPS independently

For more information, see:

Volume flexibility

The volume flexibility feature includes:

  • You can increase the size of an existing data volume to manage data growth. For more information, see Expanding Block Storage volume capacity.
  • You can increase the IOPS of a volume by changing to a higher-tier profile or adjusting the custom IOPS setting.
  • Volume expansion is performed online without disrupting operations or requiring a reboot.
  • You cannot decrease the size or IOPS of a volume after creation.

For more information, see the following documents:

IBM Cloud Object Storage

IBM Cloud® Object Storage supports the following use cases:

  • Backup, restore, and archive or near-line storage purposes from Virtual 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 VPC, 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 virtual server to IBM Cloud® Object Storage over the private network.

File storage

IBM Cloud® File Storage for VPC provides NFS-based shared file storage that can be accessed by multiple virtual server instances simultaneously. 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.

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 SAP HANA certified instances on Intel-powered virtual servers on VPC Infrastructure. Locate the compute profile applicable to your deployment, and review the tabs in the table for the log file system, data file system, and shared file system configuration. These tabs specify the required quantity of storage volumes, the storage tier, and the corresponding volume sizes for the file systems /hana/log, /hana/data, and /hana/shared.

Configure storage volumes as follows:

  • Configure multiple block storage volumes with 10 IOPS per GB tier (10iops-tier) for the SAP HANA log file system. The typical total capacity that is required for the SAP HANA log file system is up to 512 GB. Stripe the logical volume for the /hana/log file system across multiple storage volumes to achieve the required throughput.
  • Configure multiple block storage volumes with 10 IOPS per GB tier (10iops-tier) for the SAP HANA data file system. The typical total capacity depends on the memory size. Stripe the logical volume for the /hana/data file system across multiple storage volumes to achieve the required throughput.
  • Configure one block storage volume with 5 IOPS/GB tier (5iops-tier), or File Storage for VPC for the SAP HANA shared file system /hana/shared. Provide a minimum of 3,000 IOPS.
  • Configure one block storage volume for the /usr/sap file system by using 5 IOPS per GB tier (5iops-tier).
  • Add more volumes for a backup or export file system.

The exact number of volumes and their sizes depend on your specific SAP HANA profile. Always refer to the storage configuration tables in the SAP HANA-certified instances documentation for your chosen profile.

IBM Db2 storage guidelines

SAP application server with IBM Db2 requires specific storage configurations to ensure optimal database performance. The storage layout depends on the virtual server instance profile and the expected database size.

Volume layout

For SAP application server with IBM Db2 on a typical mx2-32x256 profile, the recommended storage configuration includes:

  • 1× 500 GB volume: One block storage volume with custom IOPS profile supporting up to 10,000 IOPS for the database data files
  • 1× 2,000 GB volume: One block storage volume with 5 IOPS/GB tier (5iops-tier) providing 10,000 IOPS for database backups and logs

After you attach the data volumes, new virtual disks appear in the virtual server instance. The following table shows a typical storage configuration for IBM Db2:

Sample storage configuration for IBM Db2
File system Volume Storage type IOPS/GB GB IOPS
/ vda1 Pre-configured boot volume N/A 100 GB 3,000
/boot vda2 Pre-configured boot volume N/A 0.25 GB 3,000
/db2 vdd (can vary) Data volume 20 IOPS/GB 500 GB 10,000
backup/log and backup vde (can vary) Data volume 5 IOPS/GB 2,000 GB 10,000

The table shows a basic layout of the file system to support an IBM Db2 installation. Generally, an IBM Db2 installation uses subdirectories that can be segmented into independent volumes.

For example, /db2/<DBSID>, /db2/<DBSID>/log_dir, and several sapdata<n> directories, where the folder log_dir contains the online log files of the database and the sapdata<n> directories contain the data itself.

For more information, see Required File Systems for IBM Db2 for Linux, UNIX, and Windows.

SAP ASE storage guidelines

SAP Adaptive Server Enterprise (ASE), formerly known as Sybase, requires specific storage configurations to ensure optimal database performance. The storage layout depends on the virtual server instance profile and the expected database size.

Volume layout

For SAP application server with SAP ASE, consider the following storage components:

  • Choose the correct virtual server instance profile based on estimated user load, CPU, and RAM requirements. For more information, see Virtual Server profile names.
  • Select an SAP-certified OS image (RHEL, SUSE, or Windows) from the catalog. For more information, see Catalog images on VPC.

For SAP application server systems running on SAP Adaptive Server Enterprise, all database devices must reside on local or block-level storage, in accordance with the SAP installation guides and SAP Note 1748888.

  1. Block storage volumes

    • Recommended for database data files and log files
    • Use 5 IOPS/GB tier (5iops-tier) or 10 IOPS/GB tier (10iops-tier) for data files
    • Use 5 IOPS/GB tier (5iops-tier) for log files
    • Use 3 IOPS/GB tier (general-purpose) for backup volumes

  2. File storage shares

    • Suitable for shared file systems such as /sapmnt and /usr/sap/trans
    • Use dp2 profile (5 IOPS/GB) for most workloads
    • For more information, see About File Storage for VPC.

The following table shows a typical storage configuration for SAP ASE:

Sample storage configuration for SAP ASE
File system Volume Storage type IOPS/GB GB IOPS
/ vda1 Pre-configured boot volume N/A 100 GB 3,000
/boot vda2 Pre-configured boot volume N/A 0.25 GB 3,000
/sybase/<DBSID> vdd (can vary) Data volume 10 IOPS/GB 500 GB 5,000
/sybase/<DBSID>/sapdata_<n> vde (can vary) Data volume 10 IOPS/GB 1,000 GB 10,000
/sybase/<DBSID>/saplog_<n> vdf (can vary) Data volume 5 IOPS/GB 200 GB 1,000
/backup vdg (can vary) Data volume 3 IOPS/GB 2,000 GB 6,000

For more information, see the following documents:

SAP MaxDB storage guidelines

SAP application server with MaxDB is configured as a standard single-host, 2-tier setup, where both the database and the SAP Content Server are deployed on the same virtual machine (VSI).

Volume layout

For SAP application server with SAP MaxDB, consider the following storage components:

  • Choose the correct virtual server instance profile based on estimated user load, CPU, and RAM requirements. For more information, see Virtual Server profile names.
  • Select an SAP-certified OS image (RHEL or SUSE) from the catalog. For more information, see Catalog images on VPC.

For SAP application server systems running on SAP MaxDB, all database file systems must reside on local or block-level storage, in accordance with SAP installation guides and SAP MaxDB best practices.

  1. Block storage volumes

    • Recommended for SAP MaxDB database data files and log files
    • Use 5 IOPS/GB tier (5iops-tier) for database data volumes
    • Use 10 IOPS/GB tier (10iops-tier) for database log volumes
    • Use 3 IOPS/GB tier (general-purpose) for backup volumes
    • Use 5 IOPS/GB tier (5iops-tier) for shared SAP file systems such as /sapmnt
    • Use 3 IOPS/GB tier (general-purpose) for SAP application file systems such as /usr/sap

  2. File storage shares

    • Suitable for shared file systems such as /sapmnt and /usr/sap/trans
    • Use dp2 profile (5 IOPS/GB) for most workloads
    • For more information, see About File Storage for VPC.

For SAP application server with SAP MaxDB on a typical bx2-8x32 profile, the recommended storage configuration includes:

  • 1× 300 GB volume: One block storage volume with 5 IOPS/GB tier (5iops-tier) for SAP MaxDB database files
  • 1× 100 GB volume: One block storage volume with 3 IOPS/GB tier (general-purpose) for database backups
  • 1× 100 GB volume: One block storage volume with 5 IOPS/GB tier (5iops-tier) for SAP application file systems
  • 1× 35 GB volume: One block storage volume for swap space

After you attach the data volumes, new virtual disks appear in the virtual server instance.

The following table shows a typical storage configuration for SAP MaxDB:

Sample storage configuration for SAP MaxDB
File system Volume Storage type IOPS/GB GB IOPS
/ vda1 Pre-configured boot volume N/A 100 GB 3,000
/boot vda3 Pre-configured boot volume N/A 0.5 GB 3,000
/sapmnt vdd Data volume 3 IOPS/GB 50 GB 150
/usr/sap vdi (can vary) Data volume 3 IOPS/GB 50 GB 150
/sapdb/<SID> vde (can vary) Data volume 5 IOPS/GB 300 GB 1,500
/sapdb/<SID>/data vdf (can vary) Data volume 10 IOPS/GB 500-1,000 GB 5,000–10,000
/sapdb/<SID>/log vdg (can vary) Data volume 5-10 IOPS/GB 200-300 GB 1,000–3,000
/maxbackup vdk (can vary) Data volume 3 IOPS/GB 1,000-2,000 GB 3,000–6,000

The table shows a basic layout of the file system to support an SAP MaxDB installation. Generally, an SAP MaxDB installation uses dedicated file systems that can be segmented into independent volumes.

For example, /sapdb/<DBSID>, /sapdb/<DBSID>/data, /sapdb/<DBSID>/log, and /maxbackup, where the /sapdb/<DBSID>/log directory contains the online redo log files of the database and the /sapdb/<DBSID>/data directory contains the database data volumes.

For more information, see the following documents:

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

Configure a block storage volume for the /usr/sap file system by using 5 IOPS/GB tier (5iops-tier) or 3 IOPS/GB tier (general-purpose), or create a directory in the root file system '/' of the boot volume.

For shared file systems, use File Storage for VPC for /sapmnt/<SID> and /usr/sap/trans.

References