SAP Applications on IBM PowerVM

SAP Applications on IBM PowerVM

by Christian Bartels, Elmar Billen, Irene Hopf, James Nugen, Walter Orb, Olaf Rutz
Released October 2011
Publisher(s): IBM Redbooks
ISBN: 9780738436043

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Book description

IBM® invented the virtualization technology starting in the 1960s on the mainframe, and the functionalities evolved and were ported to other platforms and improved the reliability, availability, and serviceability (RAS) features. With virtualization, you achieve better asset utilization, reduced operating costs, and faster responsiveness to changing business demands.

Every technology vendor in the SAP ecosystem understands virtualization as slightly different capabilities on different levels (storage and server hardware, processor, memory, I/O resources or the application, and so on). It is important to understand exactly what functionality is offered and how it supports the client’s business requirements.

In this IBM Redbooks® publication we focus on server virtualization technologies in the IBM Power Systems™ hardware, AIX®, IBM i, and Linux space and what they mean specifically for SAP applications running on this platform.

SAP clients can leverage the technology that the IBM Power Systems platform offers. In this book, we describe the technologies and functions, what they mean, and how they apply to the SAP system landscape.

Table of contents

  1. Front cover
  2. Notices
    1. Trademarks
  3. Preface
    1. The teams who wrote this book
    2. Now you can become a published author, too!
    3. Comments welcome
    4. Stay connected to IBM Redbooks
  4. Summary of changes
    1. October 2011, Second Edition
  5. Chapter 1. From a non-virtualized to a virtualized infrastructure
    1. 1.1 Motivation
      1. 1.1.1 Evolution trends in the SAP landscape
      2. 1.1.2 Motivation for server virtualization
      3. 1.1.3 Beyond the server
    2. 1.2 Examples of virtualization advantages
      1. 1.2.1 Landscape consolidation
      2. 1.2.2 Load shifting
      3. 1.2.3 Processing chain
      4. 1.2.4 Concurrent load prioritization
  6. Chapter 2. PowerVM virtualization technologies
    1. 2.1 Hypervisor
    2. 2.2 Hardware Management Console
    3. 2.3 Integrated Virtualization Manager
    4. 2.4 Systems Director Management Console
    5. 2.5 Systems Director VMControl
    6. 2.6 Dedicated LPARs
    7. 2.7 Live Partition Mobility
    8. 2.8 Dynamic LPAR
    9. 2.9 Micropartitioning and Shared Processor LPARs
    10. 2.10 Shared Dedicated Capacity
    11. 2.11 Multiple Shared-Processor Pools
    12. 2.12 Virtual I/O Server
    13. 2.13 Partition Suspend and Resume
    14. 2.14 N Port ID Virtualization
    15. 2.15 Virtual Tape
    16. 2.16 Virtual SCSI
    17. 2.17 Virtual Ethernet
    18. 2.18 Shared Ethernet Adapter
    19. 2.19 Integrated Virtual Ethernet
    20. 2.20 Active Memory Sharing
    21. 2.21 Active Memory Expansion
    22. 2.22 Workload Partitions
    23. 2.23 Workload Partition Manager
    24. 2.24 Live Application Mobility
    25. 2.25 Simultaneous Multithreading
    26. 2.26 IBM i subsystems
  7. Chapter 3. Best practice implementation example at a customer site
  8. Chapter 4. Hands-on management tasks
    1. 4.1 Ease of moving from dedicated to shared
    2. 4.2 Micropartition design option
    3. 4.3 Assigning implicit capping to LPARs
    4. 4.4 Scheduling dynamic LPAR operations
    5. 4.5 Managing multiple shared processor pools
    6. 4.6 Enable Pool Utilization Authority
    7. 4.7 Activate and modify memory compression
    8. 4.8 Simultaneous Multithreading and compatibility modes
  9. Chapter 5. Virtual I/O Server
    1. 5.1 Motivation
    2. 5.2 Virtual I/O Server: basic usage types
      1. 5.2.1 Using virtual SCSI
      2. 5.2.2 High availability for vSCSI
      3. 5.2.3 Using the virtual network
      4. 5.2.4 High availability for virtual networks
    3. 5.3 Setting up a VIOS partition
      1. 5.3.1 Defining the VIOS LPAR
      2. 5.3.2 Installing the VIOS
      3. 5.3.3 Creating virtual SCSI Server Adapters
      4. 5.3.4 Gathering information about existing virtual adapters
      5. 5.3.5 Connecting a client LPAR to a virtual SCSI server adapter
      6. 5.3.6 Creating virtual Ethernet adapters
      7. 5.3.7 Connecting a client LPAR to the virtual network
      8. 5.3.8 TCP/IP address for the VIOS
      9. 5.3.9 N_Port ID Virtualization
      10. 5.3.10 VIOS backup
    4. 5.4 VIO Server monitoring
  10. Chapter 6. IBM PowerVM Live Partition Mobility
    1. 6.1 Introduction
    2. 6.2 Prerequisites
    3. 6.3 Performance
    4. 6.4 SAP notes
    5. 6.5 SAP license keys
    6. 6.6 Flexible License mechanism
    7. 6.7 Demo of Live Partition Mobility with running SAP systems
    8. 6.8 POWER6 to POWER7 migrations
  11. Chapter 7. Workload partitions
    1. 7.1 Characteristics of WPARs
    2. 7.2 Types of WPARs
      1. 7.2.1 System WPARs
      2. 7.2.2 Application WPARs
      3. 7.2.3 Versioned WPARs
    3. 7.3 Support of SAP applications running in WPARs
      1. 7.3.1 Supported scenarios
    4. 7.4 Sample installation of SAP NetWeaver 7.0 in a Shared System WPAR
    5. 7.5 Live Application Mobility
  12. Chapter 8. SAP system setup for virtualization
    1. 8.1 SAP Adaptive Computing
      1. 8.1.1 Overview
      2. 8.1.2 Adaptive Computing compliance test
      3. 8.1.3 Technical Implementation
    2. 8.2 SAP instance profile changes
      1. 8.2.1 Dynamic work processes
      2. 8.2.2 Extended memory tuning recommendations for AIX
      3. 8.2.3 Extended memory tuning recommendations for IBM i
    3. 8.3 Virtual Memory tuning in AIX for SAP systems
    4. 8.4 Main storage pools, work process priorities, and workload capping on IBM i
      1. 8.4.1 Separation of main storage pools
      2. 8.4.2 Work process priorities and workload capping
    5. 8.5 Active Memory Expansion for SAP systems
    6. 8.6 Processor utilization metrics
      1. 8.6.1 Introduction
      2. 8.6.2 Test case
      3. 8.6.3 Processor time measurement and SMT
      4. 8.6.4 PURR-based metrics in POWER7
      5. 8.6.5 Processor time in SAP applications
      6. 8.6.6 Side effects of PURR based metrics in Shared Pool environments
  13. Chapter 9. Monitoring
    1. 9.1 Performance Monitoring in AIX
      1. 9.1.1 The vmstat monitoring tool
      2. 9.1.2 The sar monitoring tool
      3. 9.1.3 The mpstat tool
      4. 9.1.4 The lparstat tool
      5. 9.1.5 The topas tool
      6. 9.1.6 The nmon tool
    2. 9.2 Performance monitoring on IBM i
      1. 9.2.1 Ad-hoc Performance Tools on IBM i
      2. 9.2.2 Performance data collection tools on IBM i
      3. 9.2.3 Performance Data Analysis Tools on IBM i
      4. 9.2.4 Enhanced tools for root cause analysis
    3. 9.3 Other monitoring tools
      1. 9.3.1 LPAR2rrd
      2. 9.3.2 Ganglia
      3. 9.3.3 Tivoli Monitoring
    4. 9.4 Monitoring of virtualized SAP systems
      1. 9.4.1 Motivation and challenges
      2. 9.4.2 SAP CCMS operating system monitor
      3. 9.4.3 SAP Monitoring Infrastructure
    5. 9.5 SAP EarlyWatch and SAP GoingLive check services
    6. 9.6 IBM Insight for SAP
      1. 9.6.1 Installing and configuring IBM Insight for SAP
      2. 9.6.2 Data collection
      3. 9.6.3 Report Generation Service
  14. Chapter 10. Support statements by IBM and SAP
    1. 10.1 SAP general support statement
    2. 10.2 AIX
    3. 10.3 IBM i
    4. 10.4 Linux
  15. Related publications
    1. IBM Redbooks
    2. Online resources
    3. How to get IBM Redbooks
    4. Help from IBM
  16. Back cover

Product information

  • Title: SAP Applications on IBM PowerVM
  • Author(s): Christian Bartels, Elmar Billen, Irene Hopf, James Nugen, Walter Orb, Olaf Rutz
  • Release date: October 2011
  • Publisher(s): IBM Redbooks
  • ISBN: 9780738436043