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Anuj Joshi Piotr Pietrzak Yankel Schwartz Gereon Vey David Watts
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Redpaper
International Technical Support Organization The Benefits of Running SAP Solutions on IBM System x and BladeCenter September 2007
Note: Before using this information and the product it supports, read the information in Notices on page v.
First Edition (September 2007) This edition applies to products from SAP that run on IBM System x and BladeCenter servers.
Copyright International Business Machines Corporation 2007. All rights reserved. Note to U.S. Government Users Restricted Rights -- Use, duplication or disclosure restricted by GSA ADP Schedule Contract with IBM Corp.
Contents
Notices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .v Trademarks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . vi Preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . vii The team that wrote this Redpaper . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . vii Become a published author . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . viii Comments welcome. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ix Chapter 1. Introduction to SAP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 1.1 The client-server concept . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 1.2 A brief introduction to SAP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 1.3 SAP Portfolio . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 1.3.1 SAP Environment Architecture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 1.4 SAP products . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 1.4.1 Enterprise applications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 1.4.2 SAP business solutions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 1.4.3 Small and midsize enterprise . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 1.4.4 Platforms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 1.5 SAP and IBM System x a key relationship . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 Chapter 2. Sizing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.1 Sizing methodology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.1.1 The SAP Quick Sizer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.1.2 IBM sizing and planning questionnaire for SAP solutions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.1.3 SAP Application Benchmark Performance Standard (SAPS) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.2 Sizing the IBM solution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.2.1 Target CPU utilization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.2.2 Resource categories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.2.3 Steps in the sizing process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.3 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Chapter 3. Hardware and software considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.1 SAP Business Suite hardware implementation strategy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.2 Solution architecture considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.2.1 Scaling up or scaling out . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.2.2 High availability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.3 Choosing the right hardware . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.3.1 32-bit versus 64-bit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.3.2 Servers supported by SAP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.4 Hardware solution samples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.4.1 Configuration for 50 users. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.4.2 Configuration for 250 users. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.4.3 Configuration for 500 users. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.4.4 Configuration clustered with MSCS for 500 users . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.4.5 Configuration for 1000 users. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.4.6 Configuration for 2500 users. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 18 18 18 19 20 20 20 21 21 23 24 24 24 25 26 27 27 31 31 32 33 34 36 40
Chapter 4. IBM System x, BladeCenter, and storage offerings. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43 4.1 IBM X-Architecture: An initiative . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
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4.2 IBM System x and BladeCenter offerings for SAP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.2.1 High-performance scalable servers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.2.2 Rack-mount servers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.2.3 Tower servers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.2.4 IBM BladeCenter solutions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.2.5 High availability options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.3 IBM System Storage solutions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.3.1 SAP customer requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.3.2 IBM System Storage DS family. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.3.3 IBM System Storage N series . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.3.4 IBM System Storage SAN Volume Controller . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.3.5 Value added options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Chapter 5. The IBM advantage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.1 SAP International Competence Centers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.2 The IBM SAP International Competence Center . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.3 IBM Global Business Services . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.4 Insight from IBM - optimal utilization of resources. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.5 SAP NetWeaver BI Accelerator and the IBM solution. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.6 Scalability - multi-node capabilities on x3950 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.7 Snoop Filter - sheer performance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.8 IBM Pass Thru Card . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.9 Active Memory - protection against memory failures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.10 PowerExecutive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.11 SAP with Tivoli integration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.12 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
47 48 51 55 57 62 63 63 64 66 67 67 69 70 70 73 73 74 76 77 78 78 80 81 82
Abbreviations and acronyms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83 Related publications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . IBM Redbooks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Online resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . How to get IBM Redbooks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Help from IBM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85 85 85 86 86
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Notices
This information was developed for products and services offered in the U.S.A. IBM may not offer the products, services, or features discussed in this document in other countries. Consult your local IBM representative for information on the products and services currently available in your area. Any reference to an IBM product, program, or service is not intended to state or imply that only that IBM product, program, or service may be used. Any functionally equivalent product, program, or service that does not infringe any IBM intellectual property right may be used instead. However, it is the user's responsibility to evaluate and verify the operation of any non-IBM product, program, or service. IBM may have patents or pending patent applications covering subject matter described in this document. The furnishing of this document does not give you any license to these patents. You can send license inquiries, in writing, to: IBM Director of Licensing, IBM Corporation, North Castle Drive, Armonk, NY 10504-1785 U.S.A. The following paragraph does not apply to the United Kingdom or any other country where such provisions are inconsistent with local law: INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORPORATION PROVIDES THIS PUBLICATION "AS IS" WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF NON-INFRINGEMENT, MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. Some states do not allow disclaimer of express or implied warranties in certain transactions, therefore, this statement may not apply to you. This information could include technical inaccuracies or typographical errors. Changes are periodically made to the information herein; these changes will be incorporated in new editions of the publication. IBM may make improvements and/or changes in the product(s) and/or the program(s) described in this publication at any time without notice. Any references in this information to non-IBM Web sites are provided for convenience only and do not in any manner serve as an endorsement of those Web sites. The materials at those Web sites are not part of the materials for this IBM product and use of those Web sites is at your own risk. IBM may use or distribute any of the information you supply in any way it believes appropriate without incurring any obligation to you. Information concerning non-IBM products was obtained from the suppliers of those products, their published announcements or other publicly available sources. IBM has not tested those products and cannot confirm the accuracy of performance, compatibility or any other claims related to non-IBM products. Questions on the capabilities of non-IBM products should be addressed to the suppliers of those products. This information contains examples of data and reports used in daily business operations. To illustrate them as completely as possible, the examples include the names of individuals, companies, brands, and products. All of these names are fictitious and any similarity to the names and addresses used by an actual business enterprise is entirely coincidental. COPYRIGHT LICENSE: This information contains sample application programs in source language, which illustrate programming techniques on various operating platforms. You may copy, modify, and distribute these sample programs in any form without payment to IBM, for the purposes of developing, using, marketing or distributing application programs conforming to the application programming interface for the operating platform for which the sample programs are written. These examples have not been thoroughly tested under all conditions. IBM, therefore, cannot guarantee or imply reliability, serviceability, or function of these programs.
Trademarks
The following terms are trademarks of the International Business Machines Corporation in the United States, other countries, or both:
eServer eXtended I/O iSeries xSeries Active Memory AIX BladeCenter Calibrated Vectored Cooling Chipkill Cool Blue DB2 Universal Database DB2 DS4000 DS6000 DS8000 ESCON FlashCopy FICON IBM Lotus Notes Lotus Notes PowerExecutive PowerPC Predictive Failure Analysis Redbooks Redbooks (logo) ServeRAID System i System p System x System z System Storage System Storage DS System Storage Proven Tivoli WebSphere X-Architecture Xcelerated Memory Technology InfiniBand
The following terms are trademarks of other companies: ABAP, SAP xApps, SAP NetWeaver, SAP R/3, SAP, and SAP logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of SAP AG in Germany and in several other countries. Oracle, JD Edwards, PeopleSoft, Siebel, and TopLink are registered trademarks of Oracle Corporation and/or its affiliates. RAID-DP, and the Network Appliance logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Network Appliance, Inc. in the U.S. and other countries. InfiniBand, and the InfiniBand design marks are trademarks and/or service marks of the InfiniBand Trade Association. Java, J2EE, Sun, Sun Java, and all Java-based trademarks are trademarks of Sun Microsystems, Inc. in the United States, other countries, or both. Microsoft, Windows Server, Windows, and the Windows logo are trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States, other countries, or both. Celeron, Intel, Pentium, Xeon, Intel logo, Intel Inside logo, and Intel Centrino logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Intel Corporation or its subsidiaries in the United States, other countries, or both. UNIX is a registered trademark of The Open Group in the United States and other countries. Linux is a trademark of Linus Torvalds in the United States, other countries, or both. Other company, product, or service names may be trademarks or service marks of others.
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Preface
SAP is the maker of one of the worlds most popular inter-enterprise software suites. It provides collaborative business solutions for all types of industries. The companys flagship offering is the SAP Business Suite which includes solutions for enterprise resource planning (ERP), customer relationship management (CRM), product lifecycle management (PLM) and supply chain management (SCM). This IBM Redpaper describes the benefits of running SAP on the IBM System x and IBM BladeCenter platforms. We first introduce the SAP offerings, then we explain the processes involved in correctly sizing an SAP platform and the tools and resources available to make the best decisions. We also review the hardware offerings from IBM both for systems and for storage and networking. and describe suitable hardware solutions. Finally, we discuss the advantages of using IBM high-performance platforms for running SAP solutions. This paper is for SAP Administrators and Technical Solution Architects. It is also for business partners and IBM employees that want to know more about SAP offerings and available IBM solutions for SAP customers.
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Gereon Vey is a member of the IBM System x Team at the IBM SAP International Competence Center (ISICC) in Walldorf, Germany, for the past four years. His activities include the maintenance of sizing guidelines and capacity data for System x servers as well as pre-sales support for IBM worldwide. He answers InfoService requests for System x and BladeCenter. Prior to working at the ISICC, Gereon worked on behalf of IBM with SAP to port SAP to System i. He has worked in the IT industry since 1992 and graduated in Computer Science from the University of Applied Sciences in Worms, Germany, in 1999. David Watts is a Consulting IT Specialist at the IBM ITSO Center in Raleigh. He manages residencies and produces IBM Redbooks publications on hardware and software topics related to IBM System x and BladeCenter servers and associated client platforms. He has authored over 80 books, papers, and technotes. He holds a bachelors degree of Engineering from the University of Queensland (Australia) and has worked for IBM for over 15 years. He is an IBM Certified IT Specialist. Thanks to the following people for their contributions to this project: From the International Technical Support Organization Carolyn Briscoe Linda Robinson Gabrielle Velez Erica Wazewski From IBM Jay Bretzmann Paul Henter Stephen Hudson Timo Krisch Petra Peters Tag Robertson Gert Ruland Michael Siegert From SAP Elise Sivilay
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Comments welcome
Your comments are important to us! We want our papers to be as helpful as possible. Send us your comments about this Redpaper or other Redbooks in one of the following ways: Use the online Contact us review Redbooks form found at: ibm.com/redbooks Send your comments in an email to: redbooks@us.ibm.com Mail your comments to: IBM Corporation, International Technical Support Organization Dept. HYTD Mail Station P099 2455 South Road Poughkeepsie, NY 12601-5400
Preface
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Chapter 1.
Introduction to SAP
This chapter describes SAP as an organization, its core business offerings, and its areas of strength. The topics covered in this chapter are: 1.1, The client-server concept on page 2 1.2, A brief introduction to SAP on page 2 1.3, SAP Portfolio on page 3 1.4, SAP products on page 7 Tip: All URLs starting with service.sap.com need an S-User ID for access. If you do not have this kind of user account, you should request one from the following: https://websmp105.sap-ag.de/~sapidp/002006825000100141192000E/ SAP notes can be accessed using the URL format, where number is the SAP note number you want to access: https://service.sap.com/sap/support/notes/number For example, to access SAP note 171356, use URL: https://service.sap.com/sap/support/notes/171356
The Benefits of Running SAP Solutions on IBM System x and BladeCenter SAP AG 2007. All rights reserved.
SAP enables business process change through its foundation of process best practices. It drives the organization towards process orientation to achieve higher productivity standards and cut down on production and labor costs. SAP offers the following characteristics, which makes it one of the leading ERP applications across the globe: Platform independent Integrates and supports wide range of business solutions Supports multiple clients Flexibility of customizing to meet customer requirements Scalability to grow to unlimited users Resources to extend best practices to entire value chain Offers IT investment protection with programs, such as Safe Passage for customers running other ERP solutions.
The SAP IT practices are identified by SAP as ways to map business requirements to specific IT projects as a means of bringing order to your existing infrastructure. This is described in Table 1-1.
Table 1-1 IT Practices with SAP NetWeaver Activity User productivity enablement Data unification Business information management Business event management End-to-end process integration Custom development Unified life-cycle management Application governance and security management Consolidation Enterprise SOA design and deployment Benefit Help users and groups improve their productivity through enhanced collaboration, optimized knowledge management, and personalized access to critical applications and data. Consolidate, rationalize, synchronize, and manage master data for improved business processes. Increase the viability, reach, and usefulness of structured and unstructured enterprise data. Ensure that business events from multiple systems are distributed to the appropriate decision makers in the context of relevant business processes. Make disparate applications and systems work together consistently to perform business processes. Rapidly create new enterprise-scale applications that drive your companys differential advantage. Automate application management and processes to optimize an applications life cycle. Maintain an appropriate level of security and quality in your intellectual property and information assets. Deploy a consolidated technology platform with the ability to allocate computing power according to changing business needs. Consolidate and standardize your basic processes and leverage existing investments to compose new distinctive business processes.
The Benefits of Running SAP Solutions on IBM System x and BladeCenter SAP AG 2007. All rights reserved.
Central services instance - In this instance, we have the Java central services instance (SCS) or ABAP central services instance (ASCS), these instances forms the basis of communication and synchronization for the Java or ABAP clusters, and also this instance consists of the message server and the enqueue server. Database instance - This instance is a mandatory installation component for the installation of an SAP system Dialog instance - This optional instance is used to add more resources in an SAP System and must be installed in an additional server. (This concept is explained in detail in Chapter 2, Sizing on page 17.) In an SAP environment, we could use a 2-tier (central instance) or a 3-tier landscape (central Instance with one or more dialog instances). Most SAP customers implement a two-tier client-server architecture: The presentation layer provides an interface to the user The application and database layer operates and hosts the business process As mentioned earlier, the Internet capability of SAP allows it to be structured as a multi-tier architecture as shown in Figure 1-2.
Layer 2-tier 3-tier Multi-tier
Presentation
(Java or Windows)
Web Browser
Internet
Database
Figure 1-2 Various software layers of SAP ERP ( SAP AG 2007. All rights reserved.)
These layers can be classified as: Presentation layer This layer provides the user with an SAP Graphical User Interface, commonly referred to as SAPGUI. Because SAP offers an Internet based interface as well, it is important to understand that it is able to achieve minimum bandwidth consumption by using TCP/IP protocol. Application layer The application layer processes the user transactions and performs other function, such as application interface, print server, and database access.
Internet layer In case of a multi-tier architecture, this layer provides the user, a Web interface for browser access to business applications. Database layer The database layer is used for storing the SAP data generated by businesses and the SAP application programs which are used by the database from the SAP application servers at runtime. An organization has the flexibility to choose the database of its choice; some of these are SQL, Oracle, DB2, etc. As shown in Figure 1-2, the two-tier architecture may have a presentation layer and a consolidated hardware server for application and database. A typical three-tier architecture will consist of a presentation hardware, single or multiple application servers for load sharing and scalability, and usually a single database or production server. The multi-tier architecture will deploy a Web-based presentation layer, an Internet server, multiple application servers and a centralized database server. An SAP implementation project is implemented in a phased manner. It requires different type of systems during different phases to execute the project. It typically requires training the users and understanding the customers business process, customizing their SAP application, testing the customized application and then, porting to the production server. The following servers are generally required to execute a project: Development server This server is required to customize the application to meet the business process requirements of the customer. Because the workload on such servers is minimal, a low end hardware server meets the requirement. Test and Quality Assurance (QA) server SAP applications, customized on the development server, are usually tested on this server before moving them to the production environment. A sample database from the prospective customer is used to test the performance of SAP in a production environment. The testing and QA involves the upgrades related to the operating system, database software, hardware or firmware updates, and SAP patches, etc. Because the systems require testing, the sample database is in a real time environment, the hardware requirement is slightly higher than that of a development server. Training server This server is used to provide training to the customers users and is used for testing any customer specific requirements. Because the server is only used to provide training to the users without any load factor, the hardware requirements are generally not large. Application server All programs related to the SAP application are hosted on the SAP application servers. Depending on the workload and scalability factor, there can be multiple application servers or a single application server. Because the application server typically provides a program files access to the users, its hardware requirement can be fulfilled using a moderate configuration. Database or production server The live production database of the customer is handled by the production server. This server handles the highest load factor in a production environment, the requirement is of a high configuration which can be scaled further. Because they are most critical to any business, these servers need to be regularly backed up and have a high level of built-in
The Benefits of Running SAP Solutions on IBM System x and BladeCenter SAP AG 2007. All rights reserved.
redundancy. In case of a large enterprise, it is ideal to have a scalable external storage appliance to store the data to meet the ever growing database requirements. SAP Solution Manager This additional product provides facilities in technical support for distributed systems with functionality that covers all key aspects of solution deployment, operation, and continuous improvement. Different organizations have different requirements. Therefore, considering these requirements, they may plan the architecture that suits them best. SAP sizing tools, described in Chapter 2, Sizing on page 17, help an organization to decide on the architecture they plan to implement. An ideal scenario is to have either a multi-tier infrastructure or at least a three-tier architecture. However, different combinations can be selected that consider various factors, such as future growth, workload factor, and budget. It is quite common to find a single server used for development and testing. Similarly, quite a few environments use a common server for application and database, thereby making it a two-tier environment.
organization. The SAP ERP solution runs on a number of platforms including Windows servers and databases which we cover in Chapter 3, Hardware and software considerations on page 23. SAP ERP uses the client-server model and provides the ability to store, retrieve, analyze, and process corporate data in many ways for financial analysis, production operation, human resource management, and most other business processes. SAP ERP makes it possible to access the ERP database and applications through Internet access and Web browsers. A sales representative can initiate the workflow for a sales order by filling out an electronic form on a mobile computer (laptop) that will be translated into input for the R/3 system. Other interfaces such as Lotus Notes can also be used. The Web implementation adheres to the Workflow Client API standard of the Workflow Management Coalition (WfMC). SAP ERP is delivered to a customer with selected standard processes turned on, and many other optional processes and features turned off. At the heart of SAP ERP are thousands of tables which control the way the processes are executed. This way it allows an organization to upgrade to any of the full range of SAP solutions thus integrating with customer relationship management, product life cycle management, supply chain management, and supplier chain management. SAP ERP offers four solutions that support the key functional areas of any organization: SAP ERP Financials This application provides a complete financial management solution for a broad range of industries. It integrates accounting, financial reporting, performance management, and corporate governance requirements of an organization. SAP ERP Operations It helps organizations achieve operational excellence in key areas of procurement and logistics execution, product development and manufacturing, sales, and services. SAP ERP Human Capital Management This solution delivers leading edge human management capabilities to an organization that enables it to maximize workforce potential. It automates talent management, workforce process management, and workforce deployment; therefore increasing the efficiency of the human resources available to them. SAP ERP Corporate Services It allows organizations to manage real estate, enterprise assets, project portfolios, corporate travel, environment, health, and global trade services more effectively.
The Benefits of Running SAP Solutions on IBM System x and BladeCenter SAP AG 2007. All rights reserved.
suppliers' processes through a single analytical framework and support for multichannel supplier enablement.
Duet
Duet software enables seamless access to SAP business processes and data via Microsoft Office that interacts with enterprise applications. Duet is the result of a collaboration between SAP and Microsoft, and it is the first joint product created and supported by these two companies.
SAP xApps
The SAP xApps family of composite applications enables business innovation, provides the flexibility to respond quickly and profitably to business change, and maximizes the return on your strategic assets: employees, knowledge, products, business relationships, and IT.
SAP GRC Corporate Sustainability Management Promotes the profile and brand of your enterprise by analyzing and disclosing corporate initiatives to improve global economic, social, and environmental conditions. Risk SAP GRC Risk Management Identifies risk and conducts a risk analysis, response, monitoring, and reporting within a best practice framework. Balances business opportunities with financial, legal, and operational exposure to minimize the market penalties from high-impact events. Compliance SAP GRC Access Control Identifies and prevents access and authorization risks in cross-enterprise IT systems to prevent fraud and reduce the cost of continuous compliance and control. SAP GRC Process Control Optimizes business operations and ensures compliance by centrally monitoring key controls for business processes and cross-enterprise IT systems. SAP GRC Global Trade Services Manages all foreign trade processes with a comprehensive platform to ensure trade compliance, expedited cross-border transactions, and optimum utilization of trade agreements. SAP applications for environmental compliance Aligns business processes with environmental, occupational, and product safety regulations, and with corporate policies to ensure proactive compliance. GRC composite applications by SAP and Cisco Extends control and proactively addresses risk event issues across the extended enterprise network.
Manufacturing
This is a solution for managing manufacturing operations that use Lean and Six Sigma1. This solution integrates manufacturing with other operations, and makes new changes on demand according to customer requirements.
Information workers
This solution is a portfolio of applications, helping people to use unstructured and structured processes, delivering personalized business context through familiar user environments, including Microsoft Office, mobile devices, and the Internet.
1
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lean_Six_Sigma
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The Benefits of Running SAP Solutions on IBM System x and BladeCenter SAP AG 2007. All rights reserved.
Solution extensions
This is cross-solution and cross-industry functionality that complements SAP solution capabilities.
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1.4.4 Platforms
SAP provides a comprehensive range of enterprise software applications and business solutions to empower every aspect of your business operations.
SAP NetWeaver
This platform incorporates business functionality, exposed as ready-to-use enterprise services and process components, through its enterprise services repository. It also provides an integrated platform of composition technologies for business processes, composing applications, and deploying solutions. SAP NetWeaver is an open technology platform that unifies technology components in a single platform, reducing the need for custom integration and ensuring that mission-critical business processes are reliable, secure, and scalable. SAP introduced NetWeaver to enable organizations to integrate their SAP and non-SAP solutions. Because NetWeaver supports both present and future SAP and non-SAP solutions, the platform is the center of a growing ecosystem of applications and services. The objective of describing this tool in this paper is to highlight the importance of this tool in building up the SAP environment. SAP is evolving its solutions into service-oriented business applications based on NetWeaver, allowing SAP applications to integrate with non-SAP applications. For the first time, SAP is offering its platform for third-party development. Many independent software vendors are already building their applications on SAP NetWeaver. Initially launched as an integration and application platform, SAP NetWeaver has evolved to become a composition platform, allowing model-based development to enhance open enterprise services that are delivered by SAP Business Suite applications. In 2006, SAP NetWeaver will be enhanced to extend its use as a business process platform. SAP NetWeaver reduces TCO across an organizations IT landscape, freeing up the resources and enabling a customer to refocus on growth. Its components are integrated in a single platform and come pre configured with applications, thus eliminating the need for many integration projects, reducing complexity, and speeding up implementation. The platform supports IT standardization and consolidation, so that companies can leverage all their existing IT investments, including both SAP and non-SAP systems. NetWeaver is a Web-based, cross-application platform that can be used to develop not only SAP applications but others as well. NetWeaver allows a developer to integrate information and processes from geographically dispersed locations using diverse technologies, including Microsoft .NET, IBM WebSphere and Sun Java technologies. NetWeaver has been tagged as a product that could help spur industry adoption of Web services. Although Web services are often seen as the development model of the future, the implementation rate has not been high, often because of competition and incompatibility among enabling products.
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The Benefits of Running SAP Solutions on IBM System x and BladeCenter SAP AG 2007. All rights reserved.
How can NetWeaver be used to extend existing SAP solutions with custom components? There are several ways: If you are starting from scratch, the Composite Application Framework can support the development of components that are specifically designed to run in the NetWeaver environment. If the custom components have already been deployed in a .NET, J2EE, or WebSphere environment, NetWeaver is designed to support their migration to run in the Web Applications Server.
Components
SAP NetWeaver Application Server - Supports platform-independent Web services, business applications, and standards-based development that enable you to leverage existing technology assets for Web services oriented solutions. SAP NetWeaver Business Intelligence - Enables you to integrate data from across the enterprise and transform it into practical, timely business information to drive sound decision-making. SAP NetWeaver Exchange Infrastructure - Delivers open integration technologies that support process-centric collaboration across the extended value chain. SAP NetWeaver Master Data Management - Ensures cross-system data consistency and helps integrate business processes across the extended value chain. SAP NetWeaver Mobile - Provides a future-proof mobile run-time environment based on open and flexible technology standards and a powerful development environment for building integrated mobile solutions with native or browser-based user interfaces. SAP NetWeaver Portal - Unifies critical information and applications to give users role-based views that span the enterprise, enabling you to take full advantage of your information resources. SAP Auto-ID Infrastructure - Gives you all the capabilities you need to integrate all automated sensing devices - including RFID readers and printers, Blue tooth devices, embedded systems, and bar-code devices.
Tools
Adaptive Computing Controller - Provides a central point of control for assigning computing resources and optimizing their use. SAP Composite Application Framework - Provides a robust environment for the design and use of composite applications that comply with enterprise service-oriented architecture. SAP NetWeaver Developer Studio - Offers a convenient user interface and rich functionality for developing J2EE applications. SAP NetWeaver Visual Composer - Simplifies the creation of portal content and analytic applications, enabling business analysts to build or customize applications using a visual user interface rather than manual coding. SAP Solution Manager - Facilitates technical support for distributed systems with functionality that covers all key aspects of solution deployment, operation, and continuous improvement.
Ecosystem
Members of SAP's highly interactive ecosystem of customers and partners collaborate through a variety of communities and programs, including SAP Developer Network (SDN), Enterprise Services Community, industry value networks (IVNs), and partner solutions
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The Benefits of Running SAP Solutions on IBM System x and BladeCenter SAP AG 2007. All rights reserved.
For more information about SAP applications that run on IBM System x and BladeCenter systems, see: http://www.ibm.com/systems/x/solutions/infrastructure/erpcrm/sap.html
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The Benefits of Running SAP Solutions on IBM System x and BladeCenter SAP AG 2007. All rights reserved.
Chapter 2.
Sizing
Sizing is the process by which the performance requirements of the system (for example, response time and throughput) determine the right hardware configuration. In this context, right means able to deliver the expected performance at a minimum cost. This chapter describes: 2.1, Sizing methodology on page 18 2.2, Sizing the IBM solution on page 20
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User-based sizings
The user-based model asks the user to count the number of active users by SAP functional module. SAP considers this model to be limited in its ability to estimate the SAP resource requirements because it does not consider important sizing factors, such as user behavior, peak versus average workload, the amount of batch processing, reporting, and user customization. SAP recommends the user-based sizing model for small businesses only.
Quantity-structure-based sizings
The quantity-structure-based model is more thorough than the user-based model because it considers actual or expected SAP workload throughput. Besides the number of SAP users, this model gathers detailed information about the business processes and objects used, including the number of dialog transactions, workload profiles, peak usage times, retention periods for business objects, and background and reporting processes. SAP recommends the quantity-structure-based model for medium and large businesses. Customers may complete the user-based sizing questions, quantity-structure-based sizing questions, or both. When both models are used, the Quick Sizer provides SAP workload estimates for both models; however, the IBM sizing specialist will develop the IBM hardware recommendation from the two workload-estimates, in concurrence with the customer.
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The Benefits of Running SAP Solutions on IBM System x and BladeCenter SAP AG 2007. All rights reserved.
basis to address them locally. The IBM Sizing and Planning Questionnaire for SAP Solutions can be obtained from the following URL: http://www.ibm.com/erp/sizing The purpose of this questionnaire is to collect information that will be used to estimate the IBM hardware resources required to run the SAP application suite on IBM Systems platforms including System z, System i, System p, System x or mixed environments. The sizing estimate results will include recommendations for CPU, memory, and disk for the server infrastructure. In addition, information from the sizing questionnaire may be used by an IBM sales representative or Business Partner to develop an IBM infrastructure proposal including additional hardware and software, for example, for systems management to support the SAP applications. A sizing estimate is an approximation of the hardware resources required to support an SAP solution or component implementation. It is a pre-sales effort based on information available at a point in time, providing an entry into understanding the customers hardware requirements. Customers actual experiences will vary from the sizing estimate for many reasons, including batch and reporting workloads and custom code. The degree of variability can range from small to very significant. Sizing the hardware requirements for each customers SAP implementation is an iterative process, which may be refined and repeated a number of times. We recommend to check the sizing input data and estimations during the implementation project. It is important to understand that the sizing estimate is a pre-installation effort mainly based on standard assumptions and benchmark performance data; it cannot replace capacity planning for installed systems.
Chapter 2. Sizing
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of considerable field experience expressed as the number of application servers per database server. As the vast majority of customers run database servers with central instance functions (messaging, lock management and spooling) on the database server and the SAP benchmarks are run with these functions offloaded. SAPS ratings relate to an absolute business related workload. So the changing complexity of SAP applications causes the ratings to vary from one release of SAP to the next.
If your CPU sizing exceeds 30000 SAPS or your disk sizing exceeds 1 TB or the I/O value is more than 12000 I/Os per second, please contact IBM or SAP for a detailed sizing. Figure 2-1 shows SAP Quick Sizer referring to these resource categories.
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The Benefits of Running SAP Solutions on IBM System x and BladeCenter SAP AG 2007. All rights reserved.
For a memory recommendation we use IBM hardware and SAP software configuration dependent factors specified in the internal IBM SAP Sizing Guidelines on the following IBM intranet Web page (accessible to IBM personnel only): http://w3-03.ibm.com/sales/support/ShowDoc.wss?docid=KTOS-5PHLFD&infotype=SK&infos ubtype=W0&node=clientset,IA
2.3 Summary
The IBM and SAP sizing methodology is continually reviewed and revised to provide the best possible estimate of the IBM hardware resources required to run SAP. Guidelines for sizing SAP solutions come from a number of sources, including SAP, SAP benchmarks, and customer feedback. Based on this information and your completed sizing questionnaire, IBM will analyze your requirements and recommend an IBM hardware configuration.
Chapter 2. Sizing
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The Benefits of Running SAP Solutions on IBM System x and BladeCenter SAP AG 2007. All rights reserved.
Chapter 3.
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Two-tier system
This type of topology presents a configuration where all components reside on the same machine. It is easy to install and maintain and is therefore appropriate for first-time installations when you want to test and familiarize yourself with the functions of the application 24
The Benefits of Running SAP Solutions on IBM System x and BladeCenter SAP AG 2007. All rights reserved.
server. At this stage, it is easy to determine what kind of topology is needed and to plan the system landscape. Although this topology is easily and cheaply configurable, it has some drawbacks that you must consider. Because all components are located on a single machine, they compete for resources, which affects the performance processes. This configuration can also be enhanced with horizontal scaling. Some of the key advantages of a 2-tier system configuration are: Leverages the power of 64-bit and scalability. Best performance (no overhead for connection to DB, no network traffic, no shadow processes) Easiest to administrate The 2-tier approach is suited for small installations or installations with performance demands not being very dynamic. Large installation (for example, using the System x3950) can leverage the additional performance you can get from this type of installation.
Three-tier system
In contrast to the 2-tier system this topology the application servers run separated from the database server on different machines. By separating the servers onto separate machines, the capacity of a single machine in terms of performance may be lower than in a 2-tier environment. Some of the key advantages of a 3-tier system configuration are: Lower TCA (total cost of acquisition) with big configurations Scales flexibly (scale out) Affordable and flexible high availability concepts Hybrid landscapes possible, for example, System x Blades as Application servers for a rack-optimized System p Database Server Application dependent, some SAP applications require a 3-tier configuration, for example, APO Cover short time load peaks easily by adding application servers temporarily In general, the 3-tier approach is the more flexible, and often the only viable one, especially for large installations.
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Applications or users accessing the failed service experience a short delay but resume normal processing after the switchover. Figure 3-1 shows an example of a switchover setup for SAP.
System Central Services Java SCS ABAP SCS Java SCS ABAP SCS Database instance Dialog instance 1 ABAP Schema Java Schema File File system system
Web Dispatcher
Web Dispatcher
Database instance Dialog n All instance nonSPOF All nonservices: SPOF services: Multiple dialog instances (application servers), without SPOF services ABAP Schema Java Schema
Switchover units
Figure 3-1 Example of a switchover setup for SAP ( SAP AG 2007. All rights reserved.)
You can find more information about high availability with SAP in the paper Technical Infrastructure Guide - SAP NetWeaver 7.0, available from: https://service.sap.com/installNW70 There also is a central SAP note for NetWeaver High Availability capabilities (SAP note 803018).
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The Benefits of Running SAP Solutions on IBM System x and BladeCenter SAP AG 2007. All rights reserved.
Definitions
For the formal SAP hardware certification process, we define some terms: Processors, cores and threads are defined as specified by the TPC CPU working group. The definitions can be found at: http://www.tpc.org Under the CPU working group report from 15.08.2005 as follows: Processor A component that contains one or more cores. The number of processors claimed by the test sponsor must be consistent with the way the product is represented in the test
1 2
For Windows, please consult the SAP product availability matrix at http://service.sap.com/pam. For Linux, please consult SAP note 816097 and SAP notes referenced therein. See https://service.sap.com/pam
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sponsor's marketing collateral, including that which is not related to TPC benchmark results. The reported number of processors must be the number of processors that are enabled for the benchmark. Core Execution unit that is capable of running one or more processor threads. If a hardware unit can run more than one concurrent processor thread without requiring the processor threads to share execution resources, it is more than one core. It may rely on other "assist" units, such as cache, hardware accelerators, and the like - some or all of which may be shared by multiple cores. The reported number of cores must be the number of cores that are enabled for the benchmark. Execution Unit The electronic circuits necessary to implement the semantics of all possible instructions in computer architecture. Processor Thread The hardware necessary to maintain the state of a Software Thread. The reported number of processor threads must be the number of concurrent processor threads that are enabled for the benchmark. Software Thread An instruction sequence that performs operations within an address space and is scheduled by software. A hardware platform is defined: a. By the processor family - determined by the processor manufacturer, for example, Intel, AMD, the instruction set. Mere differences in processor speed or cache size is being considered as the same family. b. By the Chipset or the on-chip controller architecture which includes all components that enable the data transfer between processor, memory and I/O. External I/O such as the storage adaptor or equivalent (Fibre Channel, RAID controller, etc.) and network access are not part of the platform definition. Examples for hardware platforms are: Intel Xeon 7100 series with IBM XA64e chipset Intel Xeon 5300 series with Intel 5000X chipset AMD Opteron 2000/8000 series with Serverworks HS2000 chipset A server family is formed by those servers that share the same hardware platform as defined above. They are considered as one platform and do not depend on the type of physical construction (Blades, Towers, etc.) nor on the number of processors.
other hardware components; therefore the vendor vouches for functionality and support of these components. Recommendations from Hardware vendors are to be observed. The certification is valid for all Enterprise Linux versions and releases from the mentioned Linux distributors as long as supported by SAP and the Hardware vendor. SAP requires that the hardware vendors certify at least one system per server family. The certification of a server family must be completed on the largest system; the size of the system is defined by the largest number of processors, cores and threads that are possible in the system. A certification includes all smaller systems. If questions arise then it must be clarified through the Hardware Certification workgroup. One benchmark must be completed to certify a server family. Once the certification exists, new larger family members may be added to the certification without publishing a benchmark immediately. A new benchmark must be completed for the new or larger family member within 6 months of the date the new member was added. When no benchmark is completed for the announced members of the server family then the certification is revoked for all servers larger than the family member with a published benchmark. Note: There are special rules for generic certifications for OEM hardware resellers (for example, reselling Intel white boxes), which we do not include here because they are not applicable for IBM servers. The certification includes a performance indicator for the certified platform. The following must be completed successfully: The tests consist of an SAP SD two-tier, SD three-tier or SD Parallel Standard Application Benchmark. The general SAP Standard Application Benchmark3 rules apply. Specifically, any Windows operating system and any database system that is released for the above SAP release, or will be released in the next 180 days, can be used. Minimum requirement for the 2-tier benchmark is 80% average processor utilization in the high load phase. On a 3-tier benchmark only the database server is certified.
See http://www.sap.com/benchmark
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Table 3-1 Configuration sample suitable for approximately 50 users. Function Production Server Description System x3500, 2way x3500, Intel Xeon QC 1.6GHz/1066MHz, Tower 4 GB Main Memory 2 x IBM 73 GB (RAID1 OS, page file, sap-, db exe) 2 x IBM 73 GB (RAID1 txs logs) 3 x IBM 73 GB (RAID5 sap data) 1 x IBM 73 GB (spare) Remote Supervisor Adapter Redundant Power and Cooling System x3500, 2way x3500, Intel Xeon QC 1.6GHz/1066MHz, Tower 2 GB Main Memory 2 x IBM 73 GB (RAID1 OS, page file, sap-, db exe) 2 x IBM 73 GB (RAID1 txs logs) 2 x IBM 146 GB (RAID1 sap data) Remote Supervisor Adapter Redundant Power and Cooling System x3500, 2way x3500, Intel Xeon QC 1.6GHz/1066MHz, Tower 2 GB Main Memory 2 x IBM 73 GB (RAID1 OS, page file, sap-, db exe) 2 x IBM 73 GB (RAID1 txs logs) 2 x IBM 146 GB (RAID1 sap data) IBM Ultra320 SCSI Controller Remote Supervisor Adapter Redundant Power and Cooling None (storage included in server systems) LTO Gen3 400/800GB SCSI Tape Drive None
QA Server
Development Server
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The Benefits of Running SAP Solutions on IBM System x and BladeCenter SAP AG 2007. All rights reserved.
Function QA Server
Description System x3650, 2way x3650, Intel Xeon QC 1.6GHz/1066MHz 3 GB Main Memory 2 x IBM 73 GB (RAID1 OS, page file) IBM SAS HBA Controller IBM ServeRAID 8k Controller Remote Supervisor Adapter Redundant Power and Cooling System x3650, 2way x3650, Intel Xeon QC 1.6GHz/1066MHz 2 GB Main Memory 2 x IBM 73 GB (RAID1 OS, page file, sap-, db exe) 2 x IBM 73 GB (RAID1 txs logs) 2 x IBM 300 GB (RAID1 sap data) IBM ServeRAID 8k Controller IBM Ultra320 SCSI Controller Remote Supervisor Adapter Redundant Power and Cooling IBM System Storage DS3200 + EXP 3000 PROD 2 x IBM 73 GB (RAID1 sap-, db exe) PROD 2 x IBM 73 GB (RAID1 txs logs) PROD 4 x IBM 73 GB (RAID1 temp db) PROD 6 x IBM 73 GB (RAID5 sap data) QA 2 x IBM 73 GB (RAID1 sap-, db exe) QA 2 x IBM 73 GB (RAID1 txs logs) QA 5 x IBM 73 GB (RAID5 sap data) 1 x IBM 73 GB (online-spare) Storage for development system included in development server.
Development Server
Storage Subsystem
IBM 2U Universal Tape Autoloader (LTO 3 Drive) IBM S2 42U Standard Rack Cabinet, PDUs, console switch, keyboard, monitor
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Function QA Server
Description System x3650, 2way x3650, Intel Xeon QC 1.6GHz/1066MHz 8 GB Main Memory 2 x IBM 73 GB (RAID1 OS, page file) QLogic 4Gb FC HBA Contr. (for redundancy) IBM ServeRAID 8k Controller Remote Supervisor Adapter Redundant Power and Cooling System x3650*, 2way x3650, Intel Xeon QC 1.6GHz/1066MHz 4 GB Main Memory 2 x IBM 73 GB (RAID1 OS, page file) QLogic 4Gb FC HBA Contr. (for redundancy) IBM ServeRAID 8k Controller Remote Supervisor Adapter Redundant Power and Cooling 2x 8 port SAN Switch IBM System Storage DS4700+2x DS4000 EXP810 PROD 2 x IBM 73 GB (RAID1 sap-, db exe) PROD 2 x IBM 73 GB (RAID1 txs logs) PROD 2 x IBM 73 GB (RAID1 temp db) PROD 16 x IBM 73 GB (RAID5 sap data) PROD 1 x IBM 73 GB (online-spare) QA 2 x IBM 73 GB (RAID1 sap-, db exe) QA 2 x IBM 73 GB (RAID1 txs logs) QA 2 x IBM 73 GB (RAID1 temp db) QA 4 x IBM 146 GB (RAID5 sap data) QA 1 x IBM 146 GB (online-spare) DEV 2 x IBM 73 GB (RAID1 sap-, db exe) DEV 2 x IBM 73 GB (RAID1 txs logs) DEV 2 x IBM 73 GB (RAID1 temp db) DEV 3 x IBM 146 GB (RAID5 sap data) DEV 1 x IBM 146 GB (online-spare)
Development Server
Storage Subsystem
IBM System Storage TS3200 Tape Library Ultrium 3 Fibre Tape Drive IBM S2 42U Standard Rack Cabinet, PDUs, console switch, keyboard, monitor
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The Benefits of Running SAP Solutions on IBM System x and BladeCenter SAP AG 2007. All rights reserved.
Table 3-4 Configuration sample suitable for approximately 50 users with clustered production server Function Production Server Cluster Description 2x System x3850, 4way x3850, Intel Xeon DC 3.0GHz/667 MHz 28 GB Main Memory 2 x IBM 73 GB (RAID1 OS, page file) IBM ServeRAID 8i Controller IBM DS4000 4Gbps HBA Contr (for redundancy) Remote Supervisor Adapter Redundant Power and Cooling System x3650, 2way x3650, Intel Xeon QC 1.6GHz/1066MHz 8 GB Main Memory 2 x IBM 73 GB (RAID1 OS, page file) QLogic 4Gb FC HBA Contr. (for redundancy) IBM ServeRAID 8k Controller Remote Supervisor Adapter Redundant Power and Cooling System x3650, 2way x3650, Intel Xeon QC 1.6GHz/1066MHz 4 GB Main Memory 2 x IBM 73 GB (RAID1 OS, page file) QLogic 4Gb FC HBA Contr. (for redundancy) IBM ServeRAID 8k Controller Remote Supervisor Adapter Redundant Power and Cooling 2x 8 port SAN switch IBM System Storage DS4700+2x DS4000 EXP810 PROD 2 x IBM 73 GB (RAID1 sap-, db exe) PROD 2 x IBM 73 GB (RAID1 txs logs) PROD 2 x IBM 73 GB (RAID1 temp db) PROD 16 x IBM 73 GB (RAID5 sap data) PROD 2 x IBM 73 GB (RAID1 Quorum) PROD 1 x IBM 73 GB (online-spare) QA 2 x IBM 73 GB (RAID1 sap-, db exe) QA 2 x IBM 73 GB (RAID1 txs logs) QA 2 x IBM 73 GB (RAID1 temp db) QA 4 x IBM 146 GB (RAID5 sap data) QA 1 x IBM 146 GB (online-spare) DEV 2 x IBM 73 GB (RAID1 sap-, db exe) DEV 2 x IBM 73 GB (RAID1 txs logs) DEV 2 x IBM 73 GB (RAID1 temp db) DEV 3 x IBM 146 GB (RAID5 sap data) DEV 1 x IBM 146 GB (online-spare) Backup System Rack IBM System Storage TS3200 Tape Library Ultrium 3 Fibre Tape Drive IBM S2 42U Standard Rack Cabinet, PDUs, console switch, keyboard, monitor
QA Server
Development Server
Storage Subsystem
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QA Server
Development Server
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The Benefits of Running SAP Solutions on IBM System x and BladeCenter SAP AG 2007. All rights reserved.
Description 2x 16 port SAN switch IBM System Storage DS4700 Mod 72 + 4 x DS4000 EXP810 PROD 2 x IBM 73 GB (RAID1 sap-, db exe) PROD 2 x IBM 73 GB (RAID1 txs logs) PROD 2 x IBM 73 GB (RAID1 temp db) PROD 27 x IBM 73 GB (RAID5 sap data) PROD 1 x IBM 73 GB (online-spare) QA 2 x IBM 73 GB (RAID1 sap-, db exe) QA 2 x IBM 73 GB (RAID1 txs logs) QA 2 x IBM 73 GB (RAID1 temp db) QA 12 x IBM 73 GB (RAID5 sap data) QA 1 x IBM 73 GB (online-spare) DEV 2 x IBM 73 GB (RAID1 sap-, db exe) DEV 2 x IBM 73 GB (RAID1 txs logs) DEV 2 x IBM 73 GB (RAID1 temp db) DEV 10 x IBM 73 GB (RAID5 sap data) DEV 1 x IBM 73 GB (online-spare)
IBM System Storage TS3200 Tape Library Ultrium 3 Fibre Tape Drive IBM S2 42U Standard Rack Cabinet, PDUs, console switch, keyboard, monitor
QA Server
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Description System x3650, 2way x3650, Intel Xeon QC 1.6GHz/1066MHz 4 GB Main Memory 2 x IBM 73 GB (RAID1 OS, page file) QLogic 4Gb FC HBA Contr. (for redundancy) IBM ServeRAID 8k Controller Remote Supervisor Adapter Redundant Power and Cooling 2x 16 port SAN switch IBM System Storage DS4700 Mod 72 + 4 x DS4000 EXP810 PROD 2x IBM 73 GB (RAID1 sap-, db exe) PROD 2x IBM 73 GB (RAID1 txs logs) PROD 2x IBM 73 GB (RAID1 temp db) PROD 27x IBM 73 GB (RAID5 sap data) PROD 2x IBM 73 GB (RAID1 Quorum) PROD 1x IBM 73 GB (online-spare) QA 2x IBM 73 GB (RAID1 sap-, db exe) QA 2x IBM 73 GB (RAID1 txs logs) QA 2x IBM 73 GB (RAID1 temp db) QA 12x IBM 73 GB (RAID5 sap data) QA 1x IBM 73 GB (online-spare) DEV 2x IBM 73 GB (RAID1 sap-, db exe) DEV 2x IBM 73 GB (RAID1 txs logs) DEV 2x IBM 73 GB (RAID1 temp db) DEV 10x IBM 73 GB (RAID5 sap data) DEV 1x IBM 73 GB (online-spare)
Storage Subsystem
IBM System Storage TS3200 Tape Library Ultrium 3 Fibre Tape Drive IBM S2 42U Standard Rack Cabinet, PDUs, console switch, keyboard, monitor
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The Benefits of Running SAP Solutions on IBM System x and BladeCenter SAP AG 2007. All rights reserved.
Function QA Server
Description LS41, 2way LS41 AMD Opteron DC 2, 4 GHz/1GHz, 1MBL2 12x 2 GB memory 2x IBM 73.4 GB 1x 4Gb SFF Fibre Channel Expansion card LS21, 2way LS21 AMD Opteron 2, 0 GHz/1GHz, 1MB L2 2 x 512 MB memory 8 x 2 GB memory 2 x IBM 73.4 GB 1 x 4Gb SFF Fibre Channel Expansion card IBM BladeCenter E 1x BladeCenter E Chassis with 2x2000W Power Supplies 2x Nortel Layer 2/3 Copper GbE Switch 2x Brocade 10-port 4 Gb SAN Switch DS4700 Model 72, 70 x 73GB 15k HDD 3573 Ultrium FC Tape Library IBM S2 42U Standard Rack Cabinet, PDUs, console switch, keyboard, monitor
Development Server
BladeCenter Chassis
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Description LS21, 2way LS21 AMD Opteron 2, 0 GHz/1GHz, 1MB L2 2x 512 MB memory 8x 2 GB memory 2x IBM 73.4 GB 1x 4Gb SFF Fibre Channel Expansion card IBM BladeCenter E 1x Chassis with 2x 2000W Power Supplies 2x Nortel Layer 2/3 Copper GbE Switch 2x Brocade 10-port 4 Gb SAN Switch DS4700 Model 72, 70x 73GB 15k HDD 3573 Ultrium FC Tape Library IBM S2 42U Standard Rack Cabinet, PDUs, console switch, keyboard, monitor
BladeCenter Chassis
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The Benefits of Running SAP Solutions on IBM System x and BladeCenter SAP AG 2007. All rights reserved.
Description LS21, 2way LS21 AMD Opteron DC 2, 0 GHz/1GHz, 1MB L2 8x 2GB memory 2x IBM 73.4GB HDD 1x 4Gb SFF Fibre Channel Expansion card IBM BladeCenter E 1x BladeCenter E Chassis with 2x2000W Power Supplies 2x Nortel Layer 2/3 Copper GbE Switch 2x Brocade 10-port 4 Gb SAN Switch Express DS4700, Model 72; 80x 73GB 15k HDD 3573 Ultrium FC Tape Library IBM S2 42U Standard Rack Cabinet, PDUs, console switch, keyboard, monitor
BladeCenter Chassis
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The Benefits of Running SAP Solutions on IBM System x and BladeCenter SAP AG 2007. All rights reserved.
Chapter 4.
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Adaptive performance
IBM designed scale-up x86 servers with the custom X3 Architecture XA-64e chipset. Introduced in 2005, X3 Architecture leverages technology exclusive to IBM and raises the bar for scalable, high-performance application servers with the introduction of IBM X3 Architecture XA-64e chipset. Incorporating this new chipset, the IBM System x3950, x3850, and x3800 have demonstrated unprecedented levels of performance and availability. X3 Architectures performance advantage over the competition, given various typical application server functions, has been demonstrated by recently published record-setting benchmark results, listed in: http://www.ibm.com/servers/eserver/xseries/benchmarks Given a variety of typical application server functions, X3 Architecture offers great improvements in overall system performance through the use of features that are not available on competitors systems. An integrated snoop filter minimizes front-side bus (FSB) congestion and maximizes CPU performance, a key ingredient for higher performance on the new dual front-side bus architecture. The integrated snoop filtering speeds cache coherency and reduces FSB contention. X3 Architecture ensures performance gains due to an overall reduction in FSB traffic with the use of the integrated snoop filter. This reduction results in lower transaction latencies and increases in overall CPU throughput. Lowering FSB traffic becomes critical to overall performance with dual-core 64-bit Intel Xeon processors, because there are now twice as many processors initiating traffic on the FSB. The integrated snoop-filter significantly minimizes this traffic, reduces queuing and overall transaction latencies, and effectively provides greater head-room for dual-core systems. The X3 Architecture snoop filter uses intelligent caching to dramatically reduce system latencies to improve performance. IBM has XceL4v Dynamic Server Cache that provides up to 2 GB of virtual L4 cache in a four-CPU configuration. This is critical for applications, such as SAP, which have high instances of cache hits.
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CPU 1
CPU 2
CPU 3
CPU 4
IBM XA-64e core chipset Scalability ports Each: 6.4 GBps (x460 and MXE-460 only)
6 GBps
6 GBps
Calgary
6 GBps
Video RSA SL 1 USB 2.0 South bridge EIDE K/M Serial ServeRAID Adaptec SAS Gigabit Ethernet HDD backplane Six PCI-X 2.0 slots: 64-bit 266 MHz 2 3 4 5 6
These industry standard 64-bit Intel Xeon systems provide break through performance and mission critical availability with unparalleled, XpandOnDemand scalability. Light path diagnostics ensures immediate problem identification and isolation. The X3 Architecture family of products use mainframe inspired innovations designed into the IBM XA-64e chipset with XceL4v Server Accelerator Cache. These industry standard 64-bit Intel Xeon systems provide: Significantly improved performance, that is, 35-50% improvement versus previous System x generation Mission critical availability with unparalleled, XpandOnDemand scalability. Investment protection with easy migration path to 64-bit computing. 2-way to 32-way scalability. X3 Architecture provides sophisticated error recovery, with features such as Memory ProteXion. With X3 Architecture being used for Intel based servers, there are also unique features used in the AMD Opteron based IBM System x servers, such as the x3755, that speed up memory access. Due to the way the Opteron processor is designed, when more than four DIMM slots are populated per processor, the speed of all system memory drops from 667 MHz to only 533 MHz. With Xcelerated Memory Technology, all 64 GB of RAM in the x3755 runs at the full 667 MHz, using inexpensive industry-standard DIMMs.
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Another feature to speed up memory access is the IBM Pass Thru Card. Using this feature it is possible to use configurations with an odd number of Opteron CPUs, without performance degradation, enabling you to size your system to meet your needs.
Integrated infrastructure
IBM BladeCenter integrates servers, storage and networking to help you reduce complexity, simplify IT management and reduce costs, through a flexible and highly scalable design. Everything needed for the solution can be housed in a single unit and managed from a single point of control. With the network switches are all housed inside the chassis, every blade, every switch, every management module, every power supply and every fan can be easily managed from one central source and cabling is minimized. IBM has held the leading full-year market share in the blade segment for the years 2003-2006.1 There are four key reasons why customers are selecting IBM over the competition: More efficient power and cooling All devices share common, redundant power supplies and fans optimized for efficiency and reliability Faster I/O throughput and more available ports With the BladeCenter Virtual Fabric Architecture you get the intelligent I/O needed to unleash the power in your processors. Full 10 Gb Ethernet supported by IBM BladeCenter H gives your Applications the bandwidth they need. When using the IBM Multi-Switch Interconnect Module (MSIM) you can have up to 8 or 12 Gigabit Ethernet or Fibre Channel ports per blade, depending on the blade. More flexible virtualization Use the BladeCenter H and Cisco VFrame Solution to provide scalable, policy-based server provisioning to help increasing automation and flexibility in the data center. IBM BladeCenter Address Manager allows for the I/O virtualization of Ethernet and Fibre Channel connections within a system by providing users the option to assign Ethernet and Fibre Channel port addresses used by their server blades via software as an alternative to the addresses that are burned in to the hardware during manufacturing. Better flexibility and investment protection BladeCenter sports the largest ecosystem of any blade vendor, which allows us to offer the widest array of IBM and OEM options to our customers. Because of our compatibility across all BladeCenter chassis, weve delivered a durable infrastructure that protects your investment and gets your new technologies up and running faster.
Modular optimization
IBM X-Architecture system design uses standard parts and then adds practical innovation to create outstanding solutions: Additional DIMM slots give you the flexibility to use lower-capacity/lower-cost DIMMs for many configurations in System x3650. Xcelerated Memory Technology for AMD Opteron based servers. Light path diagnostics, a yet unmatched feature IBM introduced in 1998, is a pop-out/drop-down panel with an LED for each major componentprocessor, memory, HDDs, adapter slots, etc. IBM Xtended I/O technology give you flexibility with a choice of additional I/O slots.
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IBM Advanced Cabling Technology (ACT) is the solution for reducing behind-the-rack KVM cabling.
Proactive management
IBM offers a number of tools to help you tame the complexity of systems management and administration, while managing costs: IBM Director for advanced workgroup management is included with all BladeCenter and most System x servers. IBM Remote Deployment Manager (RDM) supports the deployment, update and retirement of servers, personal computers, workstations and point-of-sale terminals across the computing environment. Predictive Failure Analysis (PFA) support provides up to 48 hours warning that a component is about to fail. It illuminates the appropriate light path diagnostics indicator and optionally can send a message to the system administrator.
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Scale Up
x3950
XA-64e-based Dual Core Xeon 7100
4-way
x3800
XA-64e-based Dual Core Xeon 7100
x3850
XA-64e-based Dual Core Xeon 7100
x3755
AMD Opteron 8000 based Dual Core
LS41 Blade
AMD Opteron Dual Core server
2-way
x3455
x3650
x3655
LS21/HS21 XM Blade
AMD Opteron 2000 Intel Xeon 5300 AMD Opteron 2000 Quad Core or Dual Core based Dual Core based Quad Core based Dual core Intel/AMD based Servers
1-way
x3200 / x3250
Intel Xeon 3200-based Quad Core
) when available
Scale Out
Figure 4-2 System x and BladeCenter offerings for SAP
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Active Memory with Memory ProteXion, memory mirroring, memory hot-swap and hot-add, and ChipKill. Six full-length 64-bit 266 MHz PCI-X 2.0 Active PCI slots. Supports additional chassis x3950 E modular expansion enclosure to form a complex of 32-way processors with 512GB of memory, and 48 PCI-X slots. Integrated Adaptec AIC-9410 serial-attached SCSI (SAS) controller. Support for internal RAID arrays using an optional ServeRAID-8i adapter. ServeRAID-6M is also supported for external SCSI storage, with the EXP400 enclosure. Six internal hot-swap drive bays for internal storage. Integrated Dual-port Broadcom 5704 PCI-X Gigabit Ethernet. Baseboard Management Controller and Remote Supervisor Adapter II SlimLine adapter. Hot-swap fans and power supply. Light path diagnostics to identify any failed components. Supports the IBM Integrated xSeries Adapter for iSeries (IXA) for a direct high-speed link to an iSeries server. Three-year warranty, on-site, nine hours per day, five days per week, with a next business day response. The x3950 is targeted at ERP, large database, e-mail, and e-commerce applications.
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Baseboard Management Controller with Remote Supervisor Adapter II SlimLine adapter standard (RSA II SL optional on some models). Hot-swap fans and power supply. Light path diagnostics to identify any failed components. Supports the IBM Integrated xSeries Adapter for iSeries (IXA) for a direct high-speed link to an iSeries server. Three-year warranty, on-site, nine hours per day, five days per week, with a next business day response. The x3850 is targeted at Enterprise Resource Planning applications like SAP, database, e-mail, and e-commerce applications.
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Table 4-1 Key feature differences of the X3 Architecture Servers System x3950 Processors Installed / max processors Memory standard / max Largest configuration Rack height Tower-to-rack conversion Power supplies Remote Supervisor Adapter II SlimLine Hot-swap disk drive bays Optical media Diskette drive Tape drive bay Intel Xeon 7100 Tulsa series dual-core processors 2/4 2 or 4 / 64 GB per node Eight nodes (32-way) 3U No 2x 1300W supplies, both standard Standard Six (2.5 bays, SAS) 8x DVD-ROM Optional (external USB) No System x3850 Intel Xeon 7100 Tulsa series dual-core processors 1 or 2 / 4 2 or 4 / 64 GB One node (4-way) 3U No 1300W supplies, one to two standard, two maximum Standard (optional on some models) Six (2.5 bays, SAS) 8x DVD-ROM Optional (external USB) No System x3800 Intel Xeon 7100 Tulsa series dual-core processors 1 or 2 / 4 2 or 4 / 64 GB One node (4-way) 7U Yes 775W supplies, two or three standard, three maximum Standard (optional on some models) Six standard, additional six optional (3.5 bays) 16x DVD-ROM Standard (internal) Two half-high 5.25 bays, can be used as a single full-height bay
Note: IBM System x3950 can expand to 32 processor sockets using 8 chassis. IBM System x3800 and x3850 cannot expand beyond the single chassis. Only the x3950 and x3950E support multi-node configurations.
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1 or 4 GB standard memory standard expandable to 128GB (with 4 GB DIMMs), using high-performance PC2-5300 ECC DDR2 DIMMs. Xcelerated Memory Technology, online hot-spare memory, and ChipKill memory support. Four PCI Express and 2 PCI-X slots. Integrated Adaptec AIC-9580W serial-attached SCSI (SAS) controller and support for internal RAID arrays 0, 1 and 10 using the standard ServeRAID 8k-l. Four internal hot-swap drive bays standard for internal storage using 3.5 disk drives. Integrated Dual-port Broadcom 5708C Gigabit Ethernet. Baseboard Management Controller standard, and option for Remote Management Adapter II slimline. Option for hot-swap fans and power supply. Light path diagnostics to identify any failed components. Three-year warranty, on-site, nine hours per day, five days per week, with a next business day response. Targeted at two-way and four-way high performance commercial computing, such as database, e-mail, and e-commerce applications.
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Baseboard Management Controller standard. Three-year warranty, on-site, nine hours per day, five days per week, with a next business day response. It is an ideal two-way configurations as a web interface server or as a training server.
When available
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Choice of processorIntel Xeon (quad-core and dual-core), Intel Pentium D (dual-core) or Intel Celeron. Up to 8GB maximum memory 667 MHz via 4 DIMM slots. Flexible storage optionssimple-swap or hot-swap, SATA or SAS hard disk drives, 2.5" or 3.5" (SAS). Flexible hard disk drive choices to optimize for capacity or performance. Integrated base management controller with easy upgrade to more robust systems management via the Remote Supervisor Adapter II SlimLine. Integrated RAID support for enhanced data protection (model dependent). Small depth and Calibrated Vectored Cooling help keep internal components cool and maintain system health.
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Currently only quad-core Intel Xeon supported for SAP applications on Windows
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Integrated RAID support for enhanced data protection (model dependent). Industry-standard hardware systems management with IPMI 1.5-compliant mini BMC. Support for new and existing I/O slots provides high performance. Save systems management time and money with IBM Director, Alert Standard Format 2.0, Remote Deployment Manager and optional Remote Supervisor Adapter II. Integrated RAID support for enhanced data protection (model dependent). Industry-standard hardware systems management with IPMI 1.5-compliant mini BMC.
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Blade Servers
All IBM BladeCenter chassis allows you to choose from different 2-processor and 4-processor offerings featuring high performance Intel Xeon Processors or AMD Opteron processors. The blade server family includes the following servers.
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Can accomodate a Fibre Channel, Myrinet, and InfiniBand card for various connectivity solutions. The LS41 is a high computing server suitable for compute-intensive database server and mail applications in an enterprise.
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Ethernet Modules
IBM BladeCenter supports high availability products to ensure round the clock availability of the mission critical servers through a choice of networking products. It offers varied choices of Ethernet switches to meet your local area networking environment requirements: Cisco Intelligent GIgabit Ethernet Switch Module This is a 4-port copper switch and supports high availability networks through support of advanced STP protocols and trunk failover functionality. It is capable of delivering high throughput with support of multicast protocols such as IGMP snooping. Cisco IOS, CiscoWorks, and cluster management systems ensure easy management of the network. This switch supports network security through RADIUS, TACACS+ 802.1x and similar protocols. Cisco Fiber Intelligent Gigabit Switch Module This switch has SFP based ports for fiber connectivity to your network. It supports similar features as supported by the Cisco Systems Intelligent Gigabit Ethernet switch defined above. Nortel 10 Gigabit Uplink Ethernet Switch Module The Nortel Switch provides three 10G uplink connections at line speed to ensure maximum bandwidth to the network. It supports industry standard security protocols such as ACLs, advanced traffic management, dynamic routing with RIP, OSPF, BGP and VRRP networking protocols.
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Nortel Layer 2/3 Copper Gigabit Ethernet Switch Module The Nortel Layer 2/3 switch featured here offers six copper based Ethernet ports and delivers complete layer 2 and 3 functionality. It supports routing, filtering and traffic queuing and provides upgrade patch to full layer 4-7 services. Nortel Layer 2/3 Fiber Gigabit Ethernet Switch Module This Nortel Layer 2/3 switch offers six fiber uplinking protocols and supports the same features as the Nortel Layer 2/3 Copper Gigabit Ethernet Switch featured above. Nortel Layer 2-7 Copper Gigabit Ethernet Switch Module This switch from Nortel supports Layer 2-7 switching thereby offering high performance and availability. It is well suited for processing the high demands of bandwidth intensive applications and offers high level of network security and application and server load balancing. Server Connectivity Module This low cost module is designed to meet the needs of the small and medium customers that are looking at easy of installation, configuration and management. It is ideally suited for environments where a separation is desired between the server and networking domains.
InfiniBand Modules
InfiniBand is a high performance, switched fabric interconnect standard for servers. The technology is deployed worldwide in server clusters ranging from 2 nodes to thousands of nodes. InfiniBand implementations are prominent in server clusters where high-bandwidth and low latency are key requirements. In addition to Server clusters, InfiniBand unifies the
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compute, communication and storage fabric in a data center. IBM offers InfiniBand capabilities on the IBM BladeCenter H. It has the following modules to support InfiniBand: Cisco 4x Infiniband switch It provides 14 ports of 10 Gbps server connectivity to blade servers installed in the blade chassis and provides 8-ports from the Blade Center chassis. The Cisco switch delivers high performance, low latency switching required to enable BladeCenter server systems to form high-performance clusters. It supports interfaces such as MPI, IPoIB, and SDP. The switch integrates with Ciscos server fabric virtualization software - Vframe. Cisco InfiniBand Switch This switch allows scale-out-data centers by interconnecting blade servers and chassis together, with InfiniBand as the interconnect between these. It enables the consolidation of LAN and SAN connectivity for an entire data cluster to a centralized location. It ensures virtualization and sharing of I/O and storage resources across an entire BladeCenter or pool of BladeCenters for cost savings and high availability. Note: InfiniBand switching modules are supported only on the BladeCenter H. IBM BladeCenter E and BladeCenter T do not support InfiniBand solutions.
A whitepaper on how to implement a highly available environment using Symantecs Veritas Storage Foundation HA with Veritas Cluster Server software, published by the IBM SAP International Competence Center (ISICC), is available through IBM TechDocs at the following URL: http://www.ibm.com/support/techdocs/atsmastr.nsf/WebIndex/WP100970
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Above all, SAP customers need storage solutions that maximize performance while keeping implementation and maintenance costs down. At the storage infrastructure level, SAP and IBM work together in two ways: first, through established interpretability programs, and second, through jointly developed SAP-specific service offerings. IBM is an SAP Global Services Partner, Global Technology Partner, and Global Hosting Partner. Many of the IBM storage solutions have been certified with SAP, including: IBM System Storage DS8000, DS6000, DS4700, DS3400 or DS3200 Server SAN Volume Controller IBM Linear Tape-Open (LTO) IBM Tivoli Storage Manager IBM Tivoli Access Manager IBM Tivoli Identity Manager Tivoli Workload Scheduler for Applications IBM DB2 Universal Database IBM DB2 CommonStore In addition, the IBM System Storage Proven Program is an interpretability initiative through which IBM provides a portfolio of pre-tested products and solutions from third-party vendors. For SAP customers, designated tested products, such as SAP ERP, help eliminate guesswork and reduce the risk of implementing new technologies. The potential results for customers include low integration costs and fast solution deployment. Numerous SAP solutions have been tested with IBM storage solutions, including the full SAP Business Suite, as well as applications such as SAP ERP and SAP Advanced Planning and Optimization and SAP. For a current list of tested products, see: http://www.storage.ibm.com/proven
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Attractive total cost of ownership (TCO) Unlike many other vendors, IBM does not impose onetime charges for many essential features, including basic configuration management and multi-path host I/O drivers. A selection of 10K and 15K RPM disks of different capacities helps optimize system price/performance and price/capacity. And a high-performance RAID-5 configuration option allows customers to achieve cost and scalability benefits of RAID-5 that are not possible with conventional mirroring designs. For SANs, each Fibre Channel port can be shared by multiple heterogeneous hosts and Host Bus Adapter (HBA) cards, potentially reducing the number of ports needed.
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Storage Manager (TSM) assists with backups, archiving, data recovery, and cloning. With TSM for Enterprise Resource Planning you can improve the availability of your SAP database servers and reduce your administration workload with automated data protection designed for SAP environments. For more information about IBM Tivoli Storage Manager for Enterprise Resource Planning see: http://www.ibm.com/software/tivoli/products/storage-mgr-erp/ TSM for Advanced Copy Services integrates Flash-Copy backup into SAP, providing backup within seconds. Currently being only available for AIX only it is planned to be supported for Windows and Linux within 2007 and thus may be available by the time of your reading. You can find more information about TSM for Advanced Copy Services, including availability, from: http://www.ibm.com/software/tivoli/products/storage-mgr-advanced-copy-services/
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Chapter 5.
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Customer Care
Technology Supervision