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Rheid_Schloss

Re: What? You’re using a ProLiant DL560 and an MSA Storage Array for SAP HANA?

underthehooddl560_400x267.png

I feel a little like the night my dad brought home a brand new Firebird.  I was 17 years old and my ride was an old 1972, Orange International Harvester Scout.  As you can imagine, I couldn’t wait to borrow the keys.  However, Dad couldn’t wait to show me what was under the hood. Well I don’t have a new car to show you but I do have some new equipment in the HPE Storage Solutions lab for SAP HANA and when I looked under the hood I thought, I’ve got to show this to somebody!

First let me show you the new HPE ProLiant DL560 Gen10 server.  The ProLiant DL servers I have in the lab are SAP HANA TDI certified Intel based x86 servers.

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 Server configuration in the lab

  • Four Intel Xeon 8180 processors with a total of 112 cores
  • 3TB of RAM (Forty-eight HPE 64 GB SmartMemory LRDIMM)
  • Two SN1200E dual port 16Gb Fibre Channel HBAs
  • Two 530SFP+ dual port 10GbE Network Adapters
  • HPE integrated Lights-Out 5 (iLO 5)
  • Network switch redundancy
  • Multi-path IO to two separate Fibre Channel switch fabrics

The server configuration I have in the lab includes four Intel Xeon 8180 processors supporting 112 cores. They have 3TB of RAM using forty-eight HPE 64 GB SmartMemory LRDIMMs. If you want more RAM, you can scale up to 6TB by installing HPE 128 GB LRDIMMs.

Each server is equipped with two SN1200E dual port 16GB Fibre Channel (FC) HBAs, two 530SFP+ dual port 10GB Network Adapters, and HPE Integrated Lights-Out 5.  All of this provides multi-path IO support to two separate Fibre Channel switch fabrics, network redundancy, and full control remote network management.


That is a lot of IO horsepower under the hood.  To get all of that into a 2U rack enclosure requires some serious design work.  As you can see packing all of that in this server requires two layers of CPUs and memory stacked on top of each other.

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To persist the SAP HANA database, I am using the new HPE MSA 2052 Storage all flash array.  Now, you might be thinking, “Hold it.  I though the MSA is an entry level array for small and medium businesses.”  Well…yes, and it is a great array for that environment; however, I can tell you, the HPE MSA 2052 Storage array is a very versatile storage array.  And it is super-fast.  So fast that is has been SAP HANA TDI certified to support up to 8 SAP HANA nodes. 

msa2052front.jpgStorage configuration in the lab includes:

  • Two active/active controllers
  • Two quad port, multi-purpose 8Gb/16Gb Fibre Channel or 1GbE/10GbE iSCSI interfaces
  • Twenty-Four 1.6 TB SSDs
  • Storage Replication License included at no extra charge

The MSA 2052 has two active/active controllers each configured with a quad port multi-purpose Fibre Channel or iSCSI interfaces.  The multi-purpose ports can be configured as all 8Gb/16Gb FC or all 1GbE/10GbE iSCSI, or a hybrid of 2 ports for FC and 2 ports for iSCSI.  We use volume replication on the MSA to protect the SAP HANA database and that in conjunction with the FC/iSCSI combination is a great configuration for replicating volumes using iSCSI connectivity.

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The MSA array enclosure supports 24 Small Form Factor (SFF) Solid State Drives (SSD) delivering to hosts over 200,000 IOPs.  The configuration in the lab consists of 24 1.6TB SSDs and is configured with all 8 FC ports connected to two separate storage switch fabrics for redundancy.  To support the HPE ProLiant DL 560 Gen10 servers with 6TB of RAM you should consider using the 3.2TB SSDs.

The HPE ProLiant DL560 Gen10 server and HPE MSA 2052 Storage array combination is a great choice for teams looking for a fast and space savvy solution for SAP HANA TDI. The 2U footprint of both devices creates an economical and efficient configuration of 12 DL560 server nodes and 4 MSA arrays in a single rack. That is 72TB of SAP HANA 6TB Scale Out nodes in a single rack.       

So there you have it. A quick look under the hood of the HPE ProLiant DL560 Gen10 and HPE MSA 2052 Storage array working in the HPE Storage Solutions lab for SAP HANA.

In future posts, look for more moments under the hood from the HPE Storage Solutions lab as I share configurations, reference architectures, protection practices, and new discoveries as we work on storage solutions for SAP HANA.

If you’re interested in test driving either of these devices, contact your HPE solutions partner or an HPE Pointnext representative at hpe.com/us/en/services/consulting.html  

#hpeunderthehood

About the Author

Rheid_Schloss

HPE Storage Solutions Engineer specializing in servers, storage, infrastructure design, solution architecture and implementation.

Comments
Wayne Cook

Comparing your new equipment to a Firebird, interesting comparison. Good article, nice picture of you.

 Thanks Wayne!  I've always like looking under the hood of cars and with the new equipment coming into the Storage Solutions Lab, I can't wait to show what's under the hood. The newest system that just rolled into the lab is a Superdome Flex!

great blog and video

Thanks @FannyO - will pass that on to Rheid! (Sorry for not posting your comment sooner - I missed it).