SAP Minors Program

TEEAM Region
Webex Series

Storage Sizing
for SAP

Cenk Ersoy
Advisory SE
cenk.ersoy@emc.com

Copyright 2014 EMC Corporation. All rights reserved.

SAP Minors Program

SAP Minors Community Page:
https://community.emc.com/community/connect/
presales/presalesminorsprogram/presales-minors-sap

SAP Minors Training Path and Training Modules

are available here:
https://community.emc.com/docs/DOC-31637

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WHAT IS SIZING
Sizing is the process of translating business needs into hardware
requirements
SAP sizing determines max hardware requirements based on sizing
KPIs such as CPU time, disk size/performance, memory size,
network bandwidth
Sizing is an iterative process
Sizing method is usually based on several assumptions (number of
users, documents processed per hour etc) make sure you
document/test your assumptions
Every vendor (or even every specialist at a vendor) may have its
own method of sizing
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SIZING TYPES

Greenfield
Customer is implementing SAP for the first time
Estimate sizing using SAP QuickSizer and SAP Sizing Guidelines
(e.g. http://service.sap.com/quicksizing and
http://www.sap.com/bisizing )
Brownfield or post-go-live
Customer currently running SAP but looking to expand their
hardware capacity , add more users or re-platform
Extrapolate sizing from existing hardware and measured
utilization
Hybrid
Brownfield customer but looking to implement new SAP
components or newer release which will be Greenfield
Mix of approaches to sizing
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ANOTHER VIEW OF SIZING TYPES

TYPE

Recommendation

Initial (Greenfield)

Use the online SAP QuickSizer Tool

usually for budget estimation
( http://service.sap.com/quicksizing )

Resizing (no new functionality but

more users or data)

Get values from current SAP monitors

(DB02, ST06, ST03N etc), OS monitors
(perfmon, kstat etc) and extrapolate

Delta Sizing (new business

functionality)

Combination of QuickSizer and SAP

monitors

Upgrade Sizing (newer release)

Use SAP monitors (DB02, ST06, ST03N

etc) and consult the related OSS Note for
the upgrade

T-Shirt Sizing (new application where

QuickSizer is not available)

Consult SNC, IPC sizing guide or see

http://service.sap.com/sizing

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CAUTION
Do not rely simply on the output of the sizing tool. Factors such as
code customizing, parameter settings, usage behaviour, data
growth rate, data lifecycle policies and in-place datacenter
processes may affect the actual required sizing.
Get the input of business users as well (not just infrastructure
team).
For customer with very extensive code modifications, expert level
SAP sizing may be needed.
Sometime custom questionnaires may be used.

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Usual Suspects - Bottlenecks

SAP ABAP Programming / SQL
SAN / NAS
Missing Index
Performance (Gb/s)
Z-procedures
Count of channels
Database
Distance
Layout count of data
Storage
container...
Frontend channels
Balance between the storage
Cache (Storage system)
components
Resource consumption
Data striping
Drive type and tiering
Host (physical oder virtual)
Layout
Main memory (RAM)
Multiple Striping
Count of channels to the storage
(HBA, NIC, Queue depth)

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What is SAPS
SAP Application Benchmark Performance Standard
It is a hardware-independent unit that describes the performance of a system
configuration in the SAP environment.
SAPs are the number of SD dialog steps using transactions

VA01->VL01N->VA03->VL02N->VA05->VF01
that can be completed in one minute.

Since the benchmark has a built-in think time of 10 seconds between dialog steps,
each user can complete 60/(10+ RT) dialog steps per minute.

100 SAPS = 2,000 fully processed order line items / hour or

= 6,000 dialog steps and 2,000 postings or
= 2,400 SAP transactions
(VA01->VL01N->VA03->VL02N->VA05->VF01) or
~ 20 SD benchmark users @ 2 sec response time
~ 18,35 SD benchmark users @ 1 sec response time
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What is SAPS

SAPS value is a hardware-independent unit of measurement that

equates to SAP OLTP throughput of Sales and Distribution users.

SAPS value is not a pure hardware performance indicator, but

also a software performance indicatormeasuring a Unicode
system yields lower SAPS numbers than a non-Unicode system.

Starting in 2009, SAP SD Standard Application Benchmarks must

have a response time below one second (instead of 2 seconds
before), must be Unicode-based, must use the general ledger
business functionality, must use Enhancement Package 4 for SAP
ERP 6.0, and must use special versions of SAP_APPL and
SAP_BASIS. Because of these changes, the same hardware can
deliver a lower SAPS number in benchmark certificates of 2009
than of 2008.

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SAPS
value is
closely
related to
CPU
power

Source: SAP AG

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SAP Benchmarks
SAP works closely with hardware vendors and performs
benchmarks on different hardware configurations.

The results are published at

http://www.sap.com/solutions/benchmark/sd2tier.epx

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SAP Benchmark Example

Source: SAP AG
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SAP Sizing Fundamentals

The smallest possible server is usually determined by
the peak load of the largest data base (very
conservative)
SAP recommends a max resource utilization of 65%
Results of QuickSizer defines a system that will run at
65% utilization.
Some real life ratios of database versus App server
power:
1 : 3 for OLTP (at least 25% for DB, 75% for App)
1 : 2 for OLAP (at least 33% for DB, 66% for App)
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SIZING: Key performance indicators

CPU
Processing time
Cost factor number of servers and/or CPUs
Expressed in SAPS (www.sap.com/benchmark)
Rule of Thumb: 1:1 vCPU:pCore

Memory
Cost factor physical memory slots in server, DIMM size
Expressed in MB/GB
Rule of Thumb: No memory over-commitment. Dont forget
to consider consider OS, DB memory requirements
Disk
Needed to store data (SAP repositories - ABAP Code)
Cost factor amount of data, retention period, disk I/O, backup
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Source: SAP AG

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Sizing Core Storage

SAP Sources
SAP Recommendation Process

Alternative Data Sources for SAPS

(if you dont receive SAP Quick Sizer Project)

Oracle AWR Reports + SAP EWA

SAP Early Watch Reports
Customer spreadsheet with SAPS
Pure IOPS
Customer RFP

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SAP QuickSizer Example

Note: SAP OSS ID is required to access Quick Sizer

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SAP QuickSizer
The customer works with a SAP consultant to define their initial
environment within QuickSizer.
QuickSizer has two independent models for sizing: User based and
throughput based
QuickSizer estimates CPU, memory and disk requirements.
Throughput based sizing is better for larger projects but usually
the customer lacks the input data (number of processed orders,
document sizes, online usage behaviour, background jobs etc)
It is better to use DB SAPS values from QuickSizer for storage
sizing

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SAP QuickSizer
The CPU sizing result assumes 65% utilization. It is OS and
hardware independent
Disk size recommendation is based on the sizes of the DB tables in
the DB Data Dictionary in SAP. It is platform independent. Storage
sizing for binaries, images, temp areas and SAPMNT are not
considered in the disk space calculations.
Memory sizing is also hadware independent. Unicode is assumed.

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Source: SAP AG
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Limits of QuickSizer Based Sizing

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Sizing Core Storage

SAP Early Watch Alert and AWR for Oracle

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Sizing Core Storage

SAP Early Watch Alert for SQL

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Sizing Core Storage

Customer Spreadsheet, Pure IOPS, Customer RFP

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Disk: Space & IO Sizing

Data from QuickSizer is database space only
Need to allow for OS, swap, database software, SAP software, etc
Information is in Installation Guides
Estimating IOPS based on SAPS.
IOPS can be estimated from SAPS, using just the Database SAPS
For transactional systems, ECC, CRM, SRM, etc (%70r/30w or %80r/
%20w):
Front End IOPS = 0.6 * Database SAPS
For analytical systems, BW, SEM, etc (%50r/%50w):
Front End IOPS = 0.9 * Database SAPS
**If DB SAPS are not known, General Rule of Thumb recommends use
40%-60% of Total SAPS. On the other hand major Server Vendors (and
some SAP documentation) usually pitch 20%-30%.

There is NO universally accepted method to convert SAPS to IOPS

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Disk: Space & IO Sizing

Some documentation use the following conversion from SAPS (not DBSAPS!)
to IOPS
For transactional systems, ECC, CRM, SRM, etc (%70r/30w or %80r/
%20w):
Front End IOPS = 0.4 * SAPS
For analytical systems, BW, SEM, etc (%50r/%50w):
Front End IOPS = 0.6 * SAPS

There is NO universally accepted method to convert SAPS to IOPS

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Disk: Space & IO Sizing

* ALWAYS DOCUMENT YOUR ASSUMPTIONS
Document where you got your input values (Project No from QuickSizer, MiTrend utilization
reports, PerfMon etc)
SAPS to DBSAPS conversion method
DBSAPS to IOPS conversion method
Overall storage utilization factor (%65)
Read/write ratio for converting front end IOPS to backend IOPS
RAID penalty for converting front-end IOPS to backend IOPS
IO block size
Storage cache hit rate

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Disk Sizing Example page 1

In this Greenfield sizing example we will assume that we have the following
SAPS values from the customer (QuickSizer output, custom values etc). Since
this sizing exercise is performance based, capacity needs are not listed here.
SERVER
ERP - ECC
CRM
BW

SAPS
3,00
5,000
4,000

1- First we should convert SAPS to DB SAPS by using

DB SAPS = 0.3 x SAPS

(we could also use 0.4)

SERVER
ERP - ECC
CRM
BW

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Note: Since QuickSizer

calculates with 65%
utilization, some
specialists take %65 of
the SAPS value from
QuickSizer and design
an array with higher
utilization rate.

SAPS
3,000
5,000
4,000

DB
SAPS
900
1,500
1,200

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Disk Sizing Example page 2

2 Now it is time to convert DB SAPS to Front End IO
For transactional systems (OLTP), ECC, CRM, SRM, etc (%70r/30w or
%80r/%20w):
Front End IOPS = 0.6 * Database SAPS
For analytical systems (OLAP), BW, SEM, etc (%50r/%50w):
Front End IOPS = 0.9 * Database SAPS

SERVER
ERP - ECC
CRM
BW

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SAPS
3,000
5,000
4,000

DB
SAPS
900
1,500
1,200

APP
TYPE
OLTP
OLTP
OLAP

Front End
IO
540
900
1,080

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Disk Sizing Example page 3

3 Now it is time to calculate front end read and front end write IOs
For transactional systems, ECC, CRM, SRM, etc
%80 Front End Read / %20 Front End Write
For analytical systems, BW, SEM, etc
%50 Front End Read / %50 Front End Write

SERVER
ERP - ECC
CRM
BW

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SAPS
3,000
5,000
4,000

APP
DB SAPS TYPE
900
OLTP
1,500
OLTP
1,200
OLAP

Front End
IO
540
900
1,080

F/E
F/E Read Write
432
108
720
180
540
540

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Disk Sizing Example page 4

4 It is time to sum up front-end IO for OLTP and OLAP seperately to
determine the IO workload from SAP servers to the storage
SERVER
ERP - ECC
CRM
BW

SAPS
3,000
5,000
4,000

APP
DB SAPS TYPE
900
OLTP
1,500
OLTP
1,200
OLAP

Front End
IO
540
900
1,080

F/E Read
432
720
540

F/E
Write
108
180
540

For OLTP workload, we have 1152 host reads / 288 host writes (small random IO)
For OLAP worload, we have 540 host reads / 540 host writes (large block
sequential IO)

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Disk Sizing Example page 5

5 Now that the host workload profile is determined EMC has several tools to
size the storage array based on worload :
*

Disk Sizer for VNX

Tier Advisor for Symmetrix

Assume a storage array read cache hit rate of 20% - 40% (assume the
larger value is you are proposing FASTCache.

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Disk Sizing Example page 6

If you do not have the storage array sizing tools (Poor Mans Approach J )
Convert OLAP large block IO (128KB) to OLTP small block IO (8KB);
take the front-end IOs write IO and multiply by RAID penalty factor for writes (4
for RAID5 and 2 for RAID1)
add the front end read IOs
the result will give you the backend IO value
finally define a tiered backend architecture with the following IOPS per drive
type:
3000 IO per SSD
180 IO per SAS/FC 15K
140 IO per SAS/FC 10K
60 IO per NLSAS/SATA (I personally do not recommend this tier)
Make sure that the capacity requirements are also met.
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Sizing HANA
HANA is server based in-memory with storage used
as persistence level
Sizing is determined by SAP and the server vendor
CISCO
VCE

Storage is usually sized at 4X the memory

Disk sizing is well documented for both appliance
and TDI models (see the whitepapers)

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LANDSCAPE DESIGN

Sizing & Landscaping are different tasks

Landscaping is about how you logically will

spread out your VMs in the SAP Systems
and Landscape.

Define your VM profiles, socialize with

customer. Ex.
2vCPU/32Gb
4vCPU/64GB
8vCPU/96GB
This can lead you to discussions about HA, DR at the
application level for enqueue(locking), message and DB.
(Be Aware of NUMA impact for virtualized systems)
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THANK YOU

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