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MANUFACTURING
Itanium 2 delivers next generation of SAP solution performance & scalability for Windows*
Industry Manufacturing Business Challenge Enhance performance and scalability of SAP R/3 solutions Technology Solution SAP R/3 Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) Enterprise Hardware Platform HP Servers based on Intel Itanium Processor Family SOLUTION ARCHITECTS
Technology
This complete 64-bit solution represents a new generation of software rewritten for 64-bit platforms. This is the convergence of several new technologies designed for each other which now work together as reliably as their 32-bit predecessors:
64-bit software:
Currently, all SAP solutions support 64-bit systems. As demand for these systems has increased, the answer to the demand is the availability of the 64-bit version of Microsoft Windows Advanced Server Limited Edition. The new technology opens up many opportunities for SAP solutions, specifically the simplification of SAP R/3 customization and configuration. By running SAP R/3 on 64-bit systems, customers can expect a high level of reliability, high availability, high performance and lower TCO. Specifically, new solutions, such as mySAP Supply Chain Management (mySAP SCM) with the SAP Advanced Planner and Optimizer (SAP APO) component with liveCache an in-memory database and comprehensive business intelligence solutions, will really benefit from 64-bit support.
SAP R/3 overcomes the limitations of traditional hierarchical and function-oriented structures common in other software. Sales and materials planning, production planning, warehouse management, financial accounting, and human resources management are all integrated into a workflow of business events and processes across departments and functional areas. Employees receive the right information and documents at the right time to their desktops. SAP R/3 spans organizational and geographical boundaries for corporate headquarters, manufacturing plants, sales offices, and subsidiaries all merge for integrated handling of business processes. Targeted at enterprise and high-performance computing, the newly developed Intel Itanium processor family enables a broad choice of platforms and applications for 64-bit servers and workstations at significantly lower costs than proprietary offerings, while providing exceptional performance, scalability and reliability. The Intel Itanium processor family offers the price/performance advantages of industry standard components while providing the degree of scalability and range of architectural features necessary within the high-performance market. The just introduced HP server rx2600 and HP server rx5670 powered by Itanium 2 processors provide a compelling 64-bit platform for SAP solutions on the Windows Server operating system. This provides for larger memory, increased processing power and expanded I/O capacity, providing additional power to SAP applications. Where both 32-bit and 64-bit SAP kernels are available on an operating system platform for a particular component of the mySAP.com e-Business platform, users can now achieve a complete 64-bit solution.
IIS 6 Lock-down setup policy is more secure IIS 6 Kernel mode caching increases overall performance IIS 6 Process handling model improved to further increase
reliability
Clustering reboots managed for non-stop operation 8 node cluster support brings more flexibility and reliability Support for accessing up to 16 Terabytes of virtual memory Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Enterprise Edition 64-bit:
To complement 64-bit Windows, Microsoft is releasing its 64bit version of the industrys de-facto standard SQL Server database. Ease of use remains excellent with a completely consistent
user interface from the previous 32-bit version, but performance, capacity and reliability are all enhanced:
Target Market
This solution can be implemented in almost any business environment, almost regardless of industry manufacturing, retail, distribution, telecom, finance, government, non-profit or any other. The market opportunity for SAP solutions continues to grow in terms of both markets served, as well as in the depth and breadth of the SAP offering. Today the majority of newly installed SAP solutions are on a Windows platform. For global enterprises, SAP R/3 has historically been deployed in heterogeneous three-tier configurations in order to meet the priceperformance and reliability requirements of customers. In these environments, Windows has been the platform of choice on the application tier. From a management perspective, there are two main areas that will benefit from a 64-bit SAP R/3 implementation. The first area is future growth this solution can improve application integration issues, and create a secure growth path within a very short implementation period. The second area is user friendliness: the user community adoption time frame is very small, because there is no change to the look and feel of their usual Office applications. Both of these reasons lower operation costs, increase resource productivity and boost profits. From a system administrators perspective, this solution is preferred, because they already administer Windows 32-bit based platforms and already have most of the necessary skills to administer Windows 64-bit architecture. This solution seamlessly integrates with existing systems. Administration of several different computer architectures and operation systems within one organization will not be needed, and that can have a major impact on total system availability, reliability and security. This solution is most applicable to the installed base of Windows customers who are looking to achieve increased business performance for mission critical SAP R/3 solutions while minimizing the risk to their existing business systems. These customers will especially benefit from the Itanium technology for greater native memory allocation possibilities, improved computational and transaction processing while minimizing disruption to their existing SAP environment. Itanium 2 systems can begin to be used in parallel with existing IA32 systems, easing migration with immediate returns in productivity gains from relatively minor investments and with minimum risk. Customers whose databases have grown rapidly in size will want the larger memory buffers, as well as the performance needed to manage these buffers. A new type of database is also emerging, the in-memory database (IMDB), which takes a more direct approach to the use of large quantities of physical memory by optimizing for main-memory data management rather than disk-based management. Mission critical database applications will also benefit from advanced reliability features in the Intel Itanium processor family that detect errors and minimize the scope of their effects.
More concurrent sessions allowed Query performance improved Support for in memory database and large data warehouses
EPIC is designed to parallelize the instructions within each clock cycle. This is accomplished using software compilers that decide which instructions can be processed in parallel. SAP R/3 will take advantage of this feature allowing it to process more instructions per clock cycle, therefore improving the performance of the SAP application. The HP rx2600 and HP rx5670 servers are second-generation Itanium servers utilizing the HP developed zx1 chipset to provide substantially better application performance. The rx2600 is a 2-way capable server and the rx5670 is a 4-way capable server. HP Performance Enhancements: The HP zx1, a special hardware enhancement unique to HP Itanium 2 servers, provides better price/performance than competitors due to its low latency, high bandwidth and low cost design. The HP zx1 memory subsystem is also more flexible than any other technology available. When combined, these attributes mean substantially better application performance.
Completely eliminated previous issues with memory allocations above 2-3 GB RAM by increasing allocations to 4 GB RAM
Scalable to a load up greater than existing systems 32-bit and 64-bit databases were combined with one
another for high availability SQL Server
With a total throughput of 141,000 dialog steps per hour, the server system was configured with 16GB of DDR 266 SDRAM memory, 4 Intel Itanium 2 processors at 1GHz, each with 3MB L3 cache. All benchmarks were run with SAP R/3 Release 4.6C. The HP rx5670 server used Microsoft Windows Advanced Server LE v1.2 and the current release of the Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Enterprise Edition 64-bit relational database; tested by HP and Microsoft in Redmond, WA.
Server SD Users Avg Dialog Dialog OS Rspns Time Steps/Hour (sec) 470 1.97 141000 Windows AS LE Windows AS LE Windows 2000 Windows 2000 Tru64 Unix V. 5.1A RDBMS Release Central Server description Memory (MB)
HP Server rx5670
MS SQL Server 4-way Itanium 2, 1 Ghz, 3MB 2000 L3 cache, DDR 266 SDRAM MS SQL Server 4-way SMP, Itanium 800 MHz, 2000 4 MB L3 cache
16384
Compaq ProLiant Model DL590/64 Compaq ProLiant DL580 IBM eServer xSeries Model 440 Compaq AlphaServer ES45
200
1.7
62000
8192
240
1.79
73000
MS SQL Server 4-processors SMP, Pentium III 2560 2000 Xeon 900 MHz, 2 MB L2 cache DB2 UDB 7.2 4-way SMP, Pentium Xeon 1.6 GHz, 1 MB L3 cache 4-way SMP, EV6.8CB 1000 MHz, 8 MB L2 cache 8192
312
1.98
94000
420
1.8
128000
Oracle 8.1.7
16384
This benchmark fully complies with the SAP Benchmark Councils issued benchmark regulations and has been audited and certified by SAP. For details of the certified benchmark according to the SAP Benchmark Council Regulations, please see: www.sap.com/benchmark
Solution Benefits
64-bit SAP solutions make the difference
Large installations of SAP solutions can now benefit from Itaniums 64-bit capability for massive memory addressing. Business applications such as SAP APO liveCache (part of the mySAP SCM solution) can use the large memory space to keep the whole database in resident memory. The combination of Itaniums improved processor performance and increased memory addressing optimizes throughput for intensive mySAP.com applications. With improved response times, end users of SAP solutions will experience significant productivity gains. Other benefits include: increased efficiency in overall system administration as system capacity is expanded; more users given access to the system without expanding hardware resources; and the ability to load more mySAP applications simultaneously. These benefits allow in-box upgrades to extend the life and protect the investment of existing hardware environments. Long-term systems handling is minimized, freeing up time and resources for other, more productive activities. SAP customers that want to move system performance to the next generation, especially those with Sales and Distribution, Production Planning and Materials Management applications, can improve productivity with SAP R/3 running on HPs Itanium 2-based servers.
There is no need for different teams of system administrators for desktop computers, applications, and server platforms allowing for improved resource utilization.
The various mySAP applications that make up the mySAP.com e-Business platform map onto an organizations business processes. All applications are closely integrated with each other for providing users immediate access to shared data, realtime management of online information, and the ability to dynamically respond to shifts in the business. SAP R/3 as part of the mySAP.com e-Business platform has the ability to completely integrate all of the functions of a business, organization, utility or manufacturer. The following diagram provides a good example of the integration of the business process in the Sales and Distribution (SD) application of SAP R/3 as an example.
User experience
Familiar Look and Feel
SAP R/3 has different user interfaces for users, operators and administrators. In each case the user interface is optimized for ease of use through years of evolution from customer feedback. The user interface allows for optimal access to all of the functions, and can be customized for any specific implementation. As customers implement newer versions of SAP R/3, the interfaces remain identical. When upgrading to the 64-bit version of SAP R/3 there are no user interface changes anywhere in the system.
During the Sales and Distribution business function, an order enters into sales support, and as the order is processed through the system, it crosses a number of other business processes until it is invoiced. Once invoiced, the Financial Accounting (FI) application takes over to help ensure proper payment and distribution of revenue to the appropriate locations. Also shown is how the SD application triggers the Materials Management (MM) application, which manages warehouses and helps ensure that proper levels of inventory are maintained.
Windows 64-bit desktop, SQL Server 64-bit and SAP solution management consoles look exactly the same as in the 32-bit version. This enables administrators to seamlessly switch to a new platform quickly and easily. The SQL Server Enterprise Manager Console 64-bit offers all the functionality available in SQL Server 2000, meaning that the integration of a Standby Database on 32-bit SQL Server will not cause any procedural or functional changes. Standby Database Functions are an integral part of all Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Enterprise Edition 64-bit and are compatible from todays versions down to SQL Server 6.5.
Software Architecture
Software overview
The R/3 architecture is based on a software-oriented multi-tier client/server principle. This architecture supports both centralized configurations and highly distributed systems with numerous dedicated servers. The application system provides presentation services, application services and database services. These services are supplemented by several special services, for example, communication and printing. The main application services could be tailored in different ways, but we consider two approaches: central R/3 configuration and client/server R/3 configuration. The terms are classified as: Central System Database and Application Services running on one single computer Client/Server System Database services are running on a dedicated computer. Middle-tier application services run on one or several servers. The end-user presentation is always on separated front-end computers, such as a PC or workstation. The large scale and scope of high transaction throughput of many LOB (Line Of Business) applications such as SAP R/3, underlies the applications ability to benefit from the large memory support and transaction processing performance of architecture such as Itanium. Itaniums instruction pipelining and large register set also allow for more efficient processing of structured integer data. Shared Memory Requirement With 64-bit technology, more real memory can be used while low-level memory operations are accelerated, resulting in improved performance. Also, the speed of memory mapped disk accesses, caching, and swapping increases with 64-bit technology. With the availability of larger memory, a bigger percentage of the database can be cached in main memory, providing greater performance over a 32-bit server running SAP R/3 applications.
System Architecture
SAP systems need to be prepared for greater capacity and future growth.
The scenario outlined here, and similar to the VTG Customer Scenario, shows how to immediately add capacity to an existing environment, improve performance and prepare for almost unlimited future expansion. Designing for the Future: The HP Intel Solution Center or any system integrator can perform system tests and benchmarks to clearly understand performance expectations and capacity sizing needs. Systems are identified that will reduce maintenance, improve performance and consolidate existing servers.
The high density and high capacity of the HP rx2600 and rx5670 servers allow for the consolidation of SAP application servers, reducing the total number of servers. Many SAP solution-based landscapes can be significant in the proliferation of servers. The reduction of physical servers will reduce system management overhead and allow for better management of assets. It will also decrease the floor space required to support the SAP solution environment providing savings in facilities management. This will reduce the total cost of ownership by reducing overhead costs.
Existing Network
The customers existing network might be running out of capacity, responding slowly or not able to add more users. Management is limited and the ability to expand could be restricted by physical space, power consumption, cooling requirements, and the ability to manage the system as the environment grows larger.
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Copyright 2002 HP Invent. All Rights Reserved. SAP, R/3, the SAP logo, mySAP.com, mySAP and all other SAP product and service names mentioned herein are trademarks or registered trademarks of SAP AG in Germany and several other countries. Intel, the Intel and Intel Inside logos, Pentium and Xeon are trademarks or registered trademarks of the Intel Corporation or its subsidiaries in the United States and other countries. Copyright 2002 Intel Corporation. All Rights Reserved. *Other names and brands may be claimed as the property of others. Information regarding third party products is provided solely for educational purposes. Intel is not responsible for the performance or support of third party products and does not make any representations or warranties whatsoever regarding quality, reliability, functionality, or compatibility of these devices or products. II