Benefactors

You could put it this way: An operating system platform is not everything, but without it everything is nothing.

It is simply part of every IT system environment. And of course, the further developments in these platforms are advancing - in many respects.

It has long been responsible for more than simply controlling machine-dependent commands. Thus, of course, also SLES for SAP Applications, developed by Suse at the company's headquarters in Nuremberg, Germany.

SLES 11 SP3 has numerous new features, all of which build on the tried and tested. Many elements have been taken into account, including those from SAP - normal in a co-innovation in and of itself.

However, here too the innovation wheel is turning at an increasing speed.

Hana at a glance

Thus, with SLES 11 SP3 the latest Intel- and AMD-chipsets, such as Intel-Ivy Bridge and AMD Opteron 6000, supported.

The goal here: the realization of further high-performance SAP-S&D benchmarks. And especially with the possibility to map even larger memory volumes.

The focus is clearly on SAP Hana. Further in the SLES-11-SP3-Tornister: an extended SLES-Scale-out support.

Provided here are faster system interconnecting and ways to standardize network convergence.

Specifically, faster system interconnects can now take place: in the Fiber Channel area 8G/16G, in the Ethernet Adapter area 10G/40G.

Furthermore, there is a network file system optimization through Ipv6 support for NFSv3 and NFSv4.

In addition, LVM thin provisioning can be used to achieve better memory utilization with over-commit.

Advanced security

In the area of security, a standard coming from the desktop is moving into SLES for SAP Applications.

The Unified Extensible Firmware Interface, or UEFI for short, describes the central interface between firmware, hardware and operating system. Logically, it sits below the operating system and is the successor of the PC bios.

A component of current UEFI versions is Secure Boot, which restricts booting to previously signed boot loaders and thus prevents malware or other unwanted programs from booting.

Via the UEFI Secure Boot procedure the SAP-user a process for securing and hardening the SLES-for-SAP-Applications systems are given to the hand.

On the subject of system management Yast also become a unique, locally highly integrated management tool for SLES for SAP Applications and provides support for the SAP Software Provisioning Manager.

The goal and benefit here: the simplified provisioning of SAP-systems. The simplicity of the application of Yast including an effective learning curve is designed to reduce training efforts.

As a side note, the Hana-platform for SAP Business One in particular, as it is now possible to install and configure a customized appliance with significantly reduced time. And this in order to ultimately accomplish a "ready-connect-delivery".

Optimized automation

Automation for data center mass deployments can be implemented via AutoYast. With the ZYpp, the currently fastest Open Source Update Stack available.

Zypp controls multiple installed package versions, inducing improved reliability and availability through reduced downtimes. Especially in the SAP-environment is a must.

Things get exciting with automated migrations, usually carried out by the SAP-base. For example from SLES 10 SP4 on SLES 11 SP3 and SLES 11 SP2 on SLES 11 SP3.

The highlight: An "unattended migration" can now be performed with on-board means of SLES be implemented. This massively reduces the SAP-Base Efforts.

If then still the Suse-Manager is used to map a staging process (development, QA, production), it is possible to achieve an even more beneficial level of automation in the area of upgrades/migration.