Gain cost efficiencies by deploying SAP S4/HANA clusters using Distributed Replicated Block Devices on direct-attached storage with HPE Serviceguard Flex Storage Add-on. Because the solution offers implementation without the shared storage required for typical clustering, the cost savings can be significant.
SAP Business Suite for HANA (S/4HANA) is SAP's ERP platform based on the SAP HANA In-memory database. First released on-premises, S/4HANA, is now also available in the cloud as software as a service (SaaS). You can choose either in 
The challenge
In a typical SAP S/4HANA cluster configuration built for high availability, nodes are connected to a shared storage device on which applications perform I/O operations. In case of a failure of any component, the application is restarted on an adoptive node and I/O operations are resumed by using the shared storage. SAN infrastructures that provide access to disks from multiple servers are required, further increasing the total solution cost.
The solution
In the last two decades, we've seen a significant increase in the capacity of storage drives, whereas the cost of storage per gigabyte has decreased drastically. In additional, a substantial increase in I/O performance is driven by the advent of new technologies such as solid-state drives (SSD), non-volatile memory express (NVMe), and persistent memory (PMem) used as block devices. To use large-capacity and high-performing local storage in high-availability (HA) configuration, several software-based data replication technologies are emerging, which allow replication of data from a given source to one or more destinations.
One example is HPE Serviceguard for Linux, HPE’s leading HA and disaster recovery (DR) clustering solution. Starting from version A.12.80.00, HPE Serviceguard for Linux has been enhanced with the new HPE Serviceguard Flex Storage Add-on 1.0 that provides HA and DR capabilities to applications that use direct-attached storage. The add-on bundles a version of the software-based replicated storage solution replicating the contents of block devices between hosts, called distributed replicated block device (DRBD).
Using HPE Serviceguard Flex Storage Add-on 1.0 in combination with the Serviceguard extension for SAP features of Serviceguard Advanced/Enterprise or Premium, you can configure SAP S/4HANA clusters that use Distributed Replicated Block Devices on Direct-attached storage. SAN infrastructures that provide access to disks from multiple servers are therefore not required in such setups. As these can be implemented without the shared storage required for typical clustering, the cost savings can be significant. The replication software DRBD ensures data availability across nodes with node-local storage.
This SAP-certified solution avoids the need for SAN infrastructure, reduces hardware footprint, and delivers a seamless, powerful, and efficient offering.
HPE Serviceguard Flex Storage Add-on for SAP S/4HANA Cluster
Optionally, the HPE Serviceguard Flex-Storage Add-on can also be used to build an HA NFS service based on DRBD for additional shared SAP NetWeaver directories.
Features and benefits at a glance
Simple
- Simplified, standardized design with minimal components
- Eliminate management complexity of multiple technologies
- Easy Deployment options for quick installation via GUI or CLI
- Combination of NFS and ASCS in single HA entity for simplicity
Reliable
- SAP instance filesystems shared from DAS
- SAP-certified integration with SAP NetWeaver
Flexible
- HA NFS included optionally – external HA NFS service can co-exist
- Works with any deployment – physical, virtual, or hyper converged
- Works with any storage type – node local, PMem, JBOD, DAS, NAS
Efficient
- Eliminate expensive SAN infrastructure
- Realize unified HA and flexibility even without virtualization
- All storage needs for SAP NetWeaver met with local storage
- Maximize value from investments with lower TCO
- Support of Multi-SID consolidation
The current state of the solution
The HPE Serviceguard Flex Storage Add-on 1.0 has been released with HPE Serviceguard edition A.12.80.00. The OS compatibility list is as follows:
- SLES 12 SP3 up to SP5 and SLES 15 SP0 up to SP3
- Red Hat 7.6 up to 7.9 and Red Hat 8.1 up to 8.4
- HPE Serviceguard certified on VMs that run on hypervisor technology
Why HPE Serviceguard Flex Storage Add-on 1.0?
HPE Serviceguard Flex Storage Add-on 1.0 is the industry’s first SAP-certified HA and DR for SAP solution stack with no shared storage. With it, you can avoid the cost of SAN and thereby lower the total solution cost. It’s particularly good fit for deployments outside of large data centers where additional SAN infrastructure is not easily available.
Get going now
The HPE Serviceguard Flex Storage Add-on 1.0 for SAP is available today for Linux x86_64 servers (Intel or AMD 64-bit x86 architecture) supported by SAP. Please contact your HPE representative or HPE Certified Partner should you want to discuss your specific business needs. For more information, please visit: hpe.com/info/linux-serviceguard-docs.
Meet the Around the Storage Block bloggers
Markus is a master product architect, working onsite at SAP headquarters in Germany. For close to a quarter of a century, he had driven the development of value-add software solutions for HPE in various SAP contexts. He also designs the SAP-related feature set for HPE Serviceguard.
Amit has 16 years of experience in the IT industry. Currently, he is a Sr. Specialist/Cloud Developer III with the HPE Solution Engineering Team in the SAP Portfolio Solutions Organization, where the focus in on creating solutions and reference architectures for enterprise use cases around SAP solutions. He is mainly focused on HPE Serviceguard solutions for SAP NetWeaver and SAP HANA technologies.
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