HA Solutions for SAP HANA using SAPHanaSR and SAPHanaSR-ScaleOut #
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for SAP applications is the leading Linux platform for SAP HANA, SAP S/4HANA and SAP NetWeaver. Two of the key components of SLES for SAP are SUSE Linux Enterprise High Availability (SLE HA) and resource agents (RAs). SLE HA provides Pacemaker, an open-source cluster framework. The resource agents manage automated failover of SAP HANA system replication, S/4HANA ASCS/ERS, and NetWeaver ASCS/ERS.
This document provides an overview of the High Availability solutions that SUSE supports for
SAP HANA system replication on SLES for SAP 15, using the SAPHanaSR and
SAPHanaSR-ScaleOut resource agents. New solutions will be
added when they become available.
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1 Support statement #
1.1 Supportability definition #
| Category | Definition |
|---|---|
| Mandatory | De facto, must be implemented this way. |
| Supported | Supported, with a published configuration guide. |
| Supported but undocumented | Supported, but a configuration guide is not published. SUSE will accept bug reports and fix code, if needed. |
| Supported with consulting PoC | Support is possible if the consulting PoC proves to be working. |
| Non-supported | Not supported or not applicable. |
| Planned | On the roadmap to be tested and supported. |
| Legacy | Only supported for older release legacy systems. |
1.2 Infrastructure support #
The infrastructure can be on-premises, physical, virtual or in public cloud. The infrastructure must be supported by both SAP and SUSE Linux Enterprise High Availability so that important functions like fencing and virtual IP are supported.
Public cloud deployment usually needs additional documentation focusing on the cloud-specific implementation details. Check the documentation provided by the respective public cloud vendor.
The support details for SUSE's High Availability solutions for SAP and the support process for each public cloud vendor are defined in the following SAP Notes:
| Company | SAP Note |
|---|---|
| SUSE | SAP Note 1763512: Support details for SUSE Linux Enterprise for SAP Applications - HA Solution for SAP NetWeaver and SAP S/4HANA |
| Microsoft Azure | SAP Note 2513384: SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for SAP applications on Azure |
| AWS | SAP Note 1656099: SAP Applications on AWS: Supported DB/OS and AWS EC2 products |
| Google Cloud | SAP Note 2456432: SAP Applications on Google Cloud: Supported Products and GCP VM types |
For more details, see the SUSE knowledgebase article SLES for SAP - How To Engage SAP and SUSE to address Product Issues.
If necessary, all documented SUSE Linux Enterprise High Availability scenarios can run the SAP workload while the High Availability cluster is temporarily disabled.
1.3 Supported SUSE software versions #
This document applies to SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for SAP applications 15.
The general SUSE software lifecycle applies for the described scenarios. See the SUSE lifecycle page for details:
https://www.suse.com/lifecycle/#suse-linux-enterprise-server-for-sap-applications-15
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for SAP applications 12 SP5 is still supported but not covered by this document, as SUSE strongly recommends upgrading to newer OS versions. If you need details about version 12, check the individual guides available at https://documentation.suse.com/sbp/sap-12/.
2 Overview of HA solutions for SAP HANA system replication #
2.1 Overview of SAP HANA system replication #
SAP HANA system replication (HSR) provides the ability to copy and continuously synchronize an SAP HANA database to a secondary location in the same or another data center. SAP HANA system replication is implemented between two different SAP HANA systems with the same number of active nodes. After system replication is set up between the two systems, it replicates all the data from the primary SAP HANA system to the secondary SAP HANA system (initial copy). After this, any logged changes in the primary system are also sent to the secondary system.
If the primary SAP HANA system fails, the system administrator must perform a manual takeover. Takeover can be performed using SAP HANA Cockpit or the command line. Manual failover requires continuous monitoring and could lead to higher recovery time. To automate the failover process, SUSE Linux Enterprise High Availability can be used. Using High Availability for the takeover process helps customers achieve service-level agreements for SAP HANA downtime by enabling faster recovery without any manual intervention.
Multiple SAP HANA High Availability scenarios are supported based on SAP HANA system replication. For variations, contact SUSE to discuss defining a PoC for a scenario that is not mentioned in the documentation.
You can use SAP HANA Fast Restart on RAM-tmpfs and SAP HANA on persistent memory on SLES for SAP 15, if they are transparent to the High Availability cluster.
SAP HANA Native Storage Extension (NSE) is supported in High Availability solutions for automated SAP HANA system replication in both Scale-up and Scale-out. This feature does not change the SAP HANA topology or interfaces to the High Availability cluster. However, unlike SAP HANA NSE, the HANA Extension Nodes do change the topology and are therefore not currently supported by SUSE Linux Enterprise High Availability. Refer to the SAP documentation for details of SAP HANA NSE and its functional restrictions.
2.2 Resource agents for automated SAP HANA system replication #
To provide a streamlined High Availability solution, SUSE is evolving its SAP HANA clustering infrastructure
away from legacy, decade-old code bases. The traditional framework required administrators to
manage two distinct resource agents: SAPHanaSR for scale-up topologies
and SAPHanaSR-ScaleOut for scale-out topologies. This architectural
division is being consolidated into SAPHanaSR-angi (Advanced Next
Generation Interface), a unified, single code base engineered to sustain reliable High Availability for
SAP HANA over the next decade.
This evolution drastically reduces operational complexity by introducing an identical software
package and highly similar configuration models regardless of the underlying scale-up or
scale-out environment. Although the classic resource agents will remain supported for the
entire lifetime of SLES for SAP 15, SAPHanaSR-angi is also
available in SLES for SAP 15 SP4+. This is the recommended choice for all new deployments,
and will completely replace the classic resource agents as the default standard in
SLES for SAP 16.
Along with optimizations like faster takeover capabilities, SAPHanaSR-angi
also supports a live, in-place upgrade from the classic resource agents, without requiring any
SAP HANA downtime.
This document describes the supported scenarios for the SAPHanaSR and
SAPHanaSR-ScaleOut resource agents in existing deployments.
All new deployments should use SAPHanaSR-angi.
| OS release | HANA scale-up | HANA scale-out |
|---|---|---|
| SLES for SAP 16 | SAPHanaSR-angi only | SAPHanaSR-angi only |
| SLES for SAP 15 |
|
|
2.3 Notation formula #
This table shows the notation formula used in the following sections to describe the different configurations for SAP HANA system replication.
| Notation | Definition |
|---|---|
| [ ] | Cluster running |
| { } | Cluster DR passive |
| A B C D | Master nameserver node |
| a b c d | Worker node |
| _ | Standby node |
| x | XSA node |
| => | Sync, syncmem replication |
| -> | Async replication |
| ' | Primary IP address |
| " | Secondary IP address |
2.4 Common configurations for automated SAP HANA system replication #
Below is a summary of the most common configurations. For the complete support matrix for all supported topologies, see Section 3, “Support matrix for automated SAP HANA system replication”.
- Scale-up, performance-optimized, including read-enabled on the secondary site [A => B]
Figure 2: Scale-up, performance-optimized #In the performance-optimized scenario, an SAP HANA RDBMS site A is synchronizing with an SAP HANA RDBMS site B on a second node. As the SAP HANA RDBMS on the second node is configured to preload the tables, the takeover time is typically very short.
Read access can be allowed on the secondary site. To support this read-enabled scenario, a second virtual IP address is added to the cluster and bound to the secondary role of the system replication.
- Scale-up, cost-optimized [A => B, Q]
Figure 3: Scale-up, cost-optimized #In the cost-optimized scenario, the second node is also used for a stand-alone non-replicated SAP HANA RDBMS system (such as QAS or TST). Whenever a takeover is needed, the non-replicated system must be stopped first. As the productive secondary system on this node must be limited in using system resources, the table preload must be switched off. A possible takeover needs more time than in the performance-optimized use case. We recommend running a PoC to determine the SLA before using it in production.
The secondary productive system needs to be running in a reduced memory consumption configuration, so read-enabled must not be used in this scenario. The HA/DR provider script needs to remove the memory restrictions when a takeover occurs, so multi-SID (MCOS) must not be used in this scenario either.
- Scale-up, multi-target (B <= A' ) -> C
Figure 4: Scale-up, multi-target #Multi-target system replication is supported in SAP HANA 2.0 SPS04 or newer. Only the first replication pair (A and B) is managed by the cluster. The main difference between multi-target and multi-tier (chain) replication is that multi-target allows auto-registration for HANA after takeover.
- Scale-out, performance-optimized ['Aaaa => Bbbb]
Figure 5: Scale-out, performance-optimized #Pacemaker manages the automated failover of SAP HANA system replication between two sites of HANA scale-out clusters. An auxiliary third site is needed for the decision-maker node.
3 Support matrix for automated SAP HANA system replication #
The support details are for a high-level overview only. Refer to the official documentation for the full conditions.
For help reading the support details, see Section 2.3, “Notation formula”.
3.1 Automated SAP HANA system replication in HANA scale-up #
| Configuration | Status | Support details |
|---|---|---|
| HANA performance-optimized, plain setup | Supported (Documentation) | [A' => B] Secondary site is not read-only enabled, so does not accept client's inquiries. |
| HANA performance-optimized, secondary site read-enabled | Supported (Documentation) | [A' => B”] Secondary site is read-enabled and can accept client's read-only inquiries. |
| HANA cost-optimized | Supported (Documentation) | [A' => B, Q”] topology is supported. Q is a QA instance running on the secondary site. |
| HANA multi-tier system replication (replication chain), third site NOT managed by Pacemaker | Supported (Documentation) | [A' => B] -> C topology is supported with conditions: A to B system replication in Pacemaker is supported. B to C system replication is not managed by Pacemaker. |
| HANA multi-target system replication, third site NOT managed by Pacemaker | Supported (Documentation) | [B <= A'] -> C topology is supported with conditions: A to B system replication in Pacemaker is supported. A to C system replication is not managed by Pacemaker. |
| Multi-tenancy or MDC | Supported | This scenario is supported since SAP HANA 1.0 SPS09. The setup and configuration from a cluster point of view is the same for multi-tenancy and single container, so existing documentation can be used. |
| HANA multi-SID performance-optimized in one cluster (MCOS) | Supported but undocumented | - |
| HANA performance-optimized and S/4HANA ENSA2 in one cluster | Supported but undocumented | - |
| HANA performance-optimized cluster and stand-alone application server | Supported but undocumented | - |
3.2 Automated SAP HANA system replication in HANA scale-out #
| Configuration | Status | Support details |
|---|---|---|
| HANA performance-optimized, up to 30 nodes including standby | Supported (Documentation) | Up to 30 HANA nodes including standby nodes. |
| HANA performance-optimized, up to 12 nodes, no standby | Supported (Documentation) | Up to 12 HANA nodes, NO standby nodes. |
| HANA performance-optimized, up to 4 nodes, secondary site read-enabled | Supported (Documentation) | Up to 4 HANA nodes, NO standby nodes. |
| HANA multi-target system replication, third site NOT managed by the cluster | Supported (Documentation) | [B <= A'] -> C topology is supported with conditions: Site A to site B system replication in Pacemaker is supported. Site A to site C system replication is not managed by Pacemaker. |
| HANA multi-tier system replication, third site NOT managed by the cluster | Supported (Documentation) | [A' => B] -> C topology is supported with conditions: A to B system replication in Pacemaker is supported. B to C system replication is not managed by Pacemaker. |
| Performance-optimized, multi-tenancy (MDC) | Supported | Multi-tenancy is available for all the supported scenarios and use cases. This scenario is supported since SAP HANA 1.0 SPS12, and the default installation type for SAP HANA 2.0. The setup and configuration from a cluster point of view is the same for multi-tenancy and single containers because the tenants are managed all together by the Pacemaker cluster. |
4 HANA database HA/DR provider hook scripts #
SUSE provides several hook scripts to enhance the integration between SAP HANA and the
SUSE Linux Enterprise High Availability cluster. This section describes the HA/DR provider hook scripts for the
SAPHanaSR and SAPHanaSR-ScaleOut resource
agents. The SUSE best practice configuration guides explain how to use and configure these hooks.
| Script | Usage |
|---|---|
SAPHanaSR.py SAPHanaSrMultiTarget.py | Mandatory for data integrity in case of cluster sr_takeover |
| susTkOver.py | Protects from data inconsistency caused by manual sr_takeover |
| susChkSrv.py | Avoids downtime caused by local indexserver restart |
| susCostOpt.py | Used in scale-up cost-optimized to handle secondary site in case of cluster sr_takeover |
| HA/DR provider hook script | Scale-up cost-optimized | Scale-up performance-optimized | Scale-out performance-optimized |
|---|---|---|---|
| SAPHanaSR.py | Mandatory | Mandatory | Legacy (mandatory for all versions before SAP HANA 2.0 SPS03) |
| SAPHanaSrMultiTarget.py | - | - | Mandatory |
| susTkOver.py | Supported but undocumented | Not mandatory but recommended | Not mandatory but recommended |
| susChkSrv.py | - | Not mandatory but recommended | Not mandatory but recommended |
| susCostOpt.py | Mandatory | - | - |
5 Documentation and configuration guides #
Refer to the official Web sites for up-to-date documentation and configuration guides:
- SUSE Best Practices
SUSE Best Practices: SAP applications on SUSE Linux Enterprise 15: https://documentation.suse.com/sbp/sap-15/
- Public cloud providers
Microsoft Azure: https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/solutions/sap/#documentation
Google Cloud: https://cloud.google.com/solutions/sap/