Understand HANA SPS and supported

Operating Systems
HANA Revision Strategy
SAP is shipping regular corrections and updates. Corrections are shipped in the form of Revisions
and Support Packages of the products components. New HANA capabilities are introduced twice
a year in form of SAP HANA Support Package Stacks (SPS). The Datacenter Service Point (DSP) is
based upon the availability of a certain SAP HANA revision, which had been running internally at
SAP for production enterprise applications for at least two weeks before it is officially released.
See SAP Note 2021789 - SAP HANA Revision and Maintenance Strategy for more details

Supported Operating Systems

According to SAP Note 2235581 Supported Operating Systems the following two Linux
distributions can be used with the SAP HANA Platform.
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications (SLES for SAP)
Red Hat Enterprise Linux for SAP HANA (RHEL for SAP HANA)

All information in this document refers to these two products from SUSE and Red Hat only.
Several additional notes applies, when selecting an Operating System release for SAP HANA.
HANA SPS Revision Notes: HANA revision (x) requires a minimum OS release (y) e.g. SAP
Note 2233148 & 2250138 - SLES 11 SP2 minimum for HANA SPS11

Generated by Jive on 2016-05-19+02:00

1

Understand HANA SPS and supported Operating Systems

Hardware that has been certified within the SAP HANA hardware certification program has been
certified for a list of available combinations on a specific operating system version. See SAP Certified
Appliance Hardware for SAP HANA

Only host types released by SAP hardware partners are suitable for using SAP software productively
on Linux ( SAP Note 171356 )

SAP cannot support software from third-party providers (e.g. OS) which is no longer maintained by
the manufacturer (SAP Note 52505)

SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for SAP (SLES for SAP)

With SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for SAP (SLES for SAP) there are major releases 11 & 12 with their
appropriate service packs. Several Service Packs (SP) are available in an SUSE release and it is possible to
stay with a specific SP until its support ends. The general support for a Service pack ends at a defined date.
These general end dates are communicated on SUSE Web pages.

With an RTC (Release To Customer) dates of HANA SPS there are supported SUSE Linux
Enterprise Server for SAP (SLES) versions available which can be combinations for a supported
stack. When a new SAP HANA SPS is released new SLES for SAP versions are available to build a
supported combination:

Generated by Jive on 2016-05-19+02:00

2

Understand HANA SPS and supported Operating Systems

Red Hat Enterprise Linux for SAP HANA (RHEL for SAP HANA)
Starting with SAP HANA Platform SPS 08 Red Hat Enterprise Linux for SAP HANA is supported for SAP
HANA. Red Hat follows an approach with major & minor releases. With Extended Update Support (EUS) for
specific RHEL for SAP HANA releases it is possible to remain on a specific minor release even if there is
already a subsequent minor release available.
You can find more details about Life Cycle on Red Hat Enterprise Linux product web pages. When a new SAP
HANA SPS is released new RHEL for SAP HANA versions are available which can be used as a supported
stack:

Generated by Jive on 2016-05-19+02:00

3

Understand HANA SPS and supported Operating Systems

HANA SPS & OS version timeline

We see a timeline of HANA SPS and available OS releases from SUSE and Red Hat. The next overview and
all earlier timelines shows lifecycles of HANA and SLES/RHEL and not an official support status for HANA
releases.

The marked intersections show those points in time when there is a supported release from the OS vendors at
the RTC date of a new HANA SPS.
Older operating system releases are not longer supported and disappear in the timeline after
SUSEs general support end for SLES for SAP or Red Hats EUS end date and will be
replaced with a new OS version or service pack.

OS Validation
End of Life of an OS

Generated by Jive on 2016-05-19+02:00

4

Understand HANA SPS and supported Operating Systems

The sample on the next picture shows SLES for SAP 11 SP3 that has a general support end date in January
2017. This is a point in time when validation stops for that OS release and upcoming HANA SPS are no more
supported on SLES for SAP 11 SP3.

Sunrise of an OS
If a new OS release is available, SAP is planning to support it with the next upcoming HANA SPS. The
following sample timeline shows SLES for SAP 11 SP4, which was available before HANA SPS11 was
released. Following SPS are also supported on SLES for SAP 11 SP4 since it has not reached its general
support end date yet.

SLES for SAP 11 SP4 was validated and SAP supports this OS version with HANA SPS11.

Generated by Jive on 2016-05-19+02:00

5

Understand HANA SPS and supported Operating Systems

Support Matrix
This validation methodology and the timelines of HANA revisions and OS releases leads to a
Support Matrix which is presented in this sample table:

The corridor shows the combinations of OS releases with HANA SPS which will be supported by SAP.

Generated by Jive on 2016-05-19+02:00

6