Fresh Linux waymark

For most of the SAP community, it was more of a side note in 1999 when SAP announced that SAP R/3 would also run on the Linux operating system in the future. The SAP Linux Lab, a separate unit within SAP's development division, had been founded specifically for the use of R/3 Linux. Initially, Linux was more of a wallflower in the SAP environment:

"Why use a new operating system in conjunction with R/3?"SAP customers had asked themselves. Especially since there had been functioning "SAP operating systems": several Unix derivatives such as IBM AIX or HP-UX, OS/400 or Windows. SAP had also supported an R/3 variant for the combination of HP 3000 machines and the MPE operating system.

"Zoo" domesticated

This kind of "zoo" has been domesticated, as we know. In particular, through increasingly powerful standard processors (instead of proprietary ones) - and through the availability of high-performance and functionally very powerful Linux systems for immensely large mission-critical SAP deployments, pushed by SAP and partners like Suse.

V 15 of Suse Linux Enterprise Server (SLES) for SAP Applications is now available, in the latest version 15 SP2. With Release 15, Suse deployments/transitions of business-critical workloads and applications have been made available in extended form on public cloud environments.

Furthermore, so-called multimodal principles were taken into account for the first time in Major Release 15. The goal here: to operate traditional infrastructures, software-defined infrastructures (SDI), and application-oriented architectures in coexistence on the basis of a uniform code base. In addition, SLES for SAP Applications 15 combines containerized and traditional development environments, including the combination of legacy applications and microservices.

The new version 15 SP2 is available for both on-premises and public cloud use based on a uniform technology consistency. This includes, for example, even greater automation and optimized monitoring in order to further minimize downtimes and recovery times and increase availability for Hana and NetWeaver-based applications. The enterprise operating system for professionally used desktops and servers is designed for the architectures x86_64, ARMv7, ARMv8 as well as IBM Power, IBM Z Systems and the LinuxOne platform.

SLES and Suse Manager

This automation is included in components that can be called from a wide variety of front ends, such as Terraform, YaST or even Suse Manager. Incidentally, Suse Manager is being used increasingly as management software in conjunction with SLES for SAP Applications, especially in the SAP environment.

One focus during the development of SLES for SAP Applications 15 SP2 was on optimized public cloud use. Mechanisms were integrated into the new version to enable even large SAP environments to be quickly installed, configured and put into operation with consistent results at all times. Terraform and Salt were then used for this.

This allows complete S/4 Hana software stacks including high-availability (HA) functionality to be put into action in a short time, ultimately benefiting all S/4 customers in public cloud IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service) or on-premises use. The use of IaaS public cloud services is increasingly being seen by enterprises in the context of S/4 deployment and is fully in line with the trend.