Open source: a cornerstone of digitization

The adaptation of new innovative technologies is taking place in ever shorter periods of time. The almost complete penetration of smartphones, for example, both in the consumer sector and in the business environment, has been quite rapid.

However, a look back also reveals the following: Established companies from the telephone and cell phone industry are not among today's players in the smartphone industry.

Well-named companies of yesteryear have been replaced by new ones. The change has really turned the mobile communications market upside down. A disruptive innovation has redefined the rules of the game in the market.

Companies from actually all industries have to deal with digital transformation or digitization in one way or another. What's more, they are required to change. And they are doing so in order to further consolidate or expand what they have already achieved.

Disruptive innovations - such as Hana and S/4 Hana as the "Digital Core" including a new user experience based on Fiori - serve as levers here. The new business suite takes into account both ERP use and the use of big data, analytics, mobile computing, business networks and the Internet of Things (IoT). And all this in on-premise and cloud operation or in hybrid on-premise/cloud form.

Of course, digitization brings with it a whole series of changes - a change in several respects. Digital transformation also places new demands on applications, application development and data center operations, based on the DevOps model.

Here, application development and IT operations are intelligently interwoven as needed to make new applications available quickly. Incidentally, with SAP Core Data Services, Hana and S/4 are moving even closer together, which supports the DevOps idea.

The key point in terms of digitization and IT infrastructure is the need for a dynamic and highly flexible IT infrastructure and components based on the Software Defined Data Center (SDDC).

In minimizing the distance between application and operation, the open source model in particular is gaining in importance through the use of open standards. In the SAP environment, this has been the case for quite some time. As an open source pioneer, Suse supports SAP customers with powerful and innovative software solutions and services.

New infrastructure technologies

With Hana and S/4 Hana, other or new infrastructure technologies are of great concern. Linux plays an even greater role here as an open source operating system platform. Also open source: Hadoop as an important component for Big Data, OpenStack for private cloud server provisioning or Cloud Foundry as a platform for the Hana Cloud Platform as a hub for app development and deployment for S/4 Hana use.

Added to this are cloud provider models such as IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service), PaaS (Platform as a Service) and SaaS (Software as a Service). And practically without exception with software solutions based on open source.

Suse Linux Enterprise Server (SLES) for SAP applications (with the current version 12) has long provided a stable and flexible backbone for SAP use - including the integrated Suse High Availability Extension (HAE) as a field-tested high availability solution including disaster recovery functionality. Incidentally, SLES also provides the open source virtualization solutions KVM and XEN.

Suse SLES has proven itself excellently in the many thousands of SAP Hana and S/4 Hana installations that have now been carried out. As if it were made for SAP use. The cooperation with SAP, or rather with the SAP Linux Lab, has paid off.

And always with the aim of ensuring the best possible Hana operation (on-premise and cloud operation) in the mission-critical environment. SLES is supplemented by Suse OpenStack Cloud for orchestration and Suse Manager for system management.

For Suse, the focus was and is on three requirements for the solutions provided, particularly for SAP Hana use: firstly, to ensure what is known as Towards Zero Downtime in order to significantly minimize downtimes. Secondly, to ensure maximum performance in order to achieve processing and response times in line with requirements.

And to offer simplified operations features that make Hana installations and Hana operations simple, effective and cost-efficient. For many customers, SAP on-premise deployment is on the horizon as they pivot toward Hana and S/4 Hana.

A considerable proportion of R/3 or ERP S/4 Hana conversions thus take place in the company's own data center - despite ever greater cloudization.

Important in this context is that Suse, with its open source operating system platform SLES for SAP applications, is the only Linux platform for Hana and S/4 Hana to support both x86 Intel and IBM Power on Hana servers. And this according to both scale-out and scale-up principles. In addition, Suse SLES is available for SAP Business One on Hana, for which demand is steadily increasing.

Stability anchor Suse Linux

The fulfillment of requirements with regard to a pronounced data center readiness in the SAP Hana on-premise deployment has long been a top priority for Suse and has been put into practice together with the Walldorf-based software group. SAP customers benefit from the stability anchor of Suse in the long term.

What are the key issues in Hana Data Center Readiness? Which topics do IT managers and IT operations experts in particular have to deal with as a matter of priority? And: What concrete features does Suse provide?

The main focus of Data Center Readiness is on the following topics or areas of work, which are by no means entirely new in Hana and S/4 Hana times, but which have to be handled differently here and there: High Availability, Performance, Virtualization, Operations, Backup and Security with Auditing.

The new Suse technology kGraft in conjunction with Suse HAE as well as in combination with Hana System Replication massively reduce downtime and offer specific as well as distinct high-availability functionality in the SAP data center of the modern era. They support the objective "Towards Zero Downtimes".

The kGraft technology developed by Suse, a live kernel patching technology, enables online updating of security patches without rebooting or waiting for the next scheduled service window. Also worth highlighting are so-called Hana Resource Agents (RA), which are delivered with SLES for SAP Applications 12. These can be used to manage, monitor and control Hana database instances and replications.

Open Source Pioneer

Suse was involved in the Walldorf SAP Linux Lab from the very beginning. The goal at the time was to develop an enterprise Linux on an open source basis for mission-critical SAP use. Looking back at SAP and Linux Lab, the year 2006 was quite significant for Suse.

On the one hand, Suse Linux Enterprise Server (SLES) was preferred for SAP applications as the only OS for using SAP's Business Warehouse Accelerator (BWA). Secondly, SAP decided to use Suse as the development platform for software development. The latter in particular led to Suse becoming the Linux technology leader in the SAP environment.

One year later, XEN, the first virtualization platform released for SAP use, saw the light of day; since version 10, XEN has been integrated into SLES. Important here: The open source solution was integrated into the support framework in accordance with SAP specifications. Also in 2007: The Installation Wizard was developed in conjunction with the so-called Business Fast Start program; for SAP and Suse installations.

Furthermore, SLES was chosen by SAP as the standard for Business By Design and is still the only supported Linux platform. Then Suse's involvement in the then-secret "Project Hana" took place; in 2009. The in-memory project significantly changed SAP's DB strategy, and Suse's exclusivity for Hana extended over a five-year period.

High Availability

The topic of High Availability has been pushed since 2010 in cooperation between Suse and the SAP Linux Lab. Likewise, by the way, the cooperation with Amazon Web Services, namely with SLES availability for AWS. The year 2011 was certainly exciting, when Suse developed the SAP platform optimized for SAP Netweaver and SAP Hana - "One Codebase from SAP Private Cloud to Hana".

One year later, in 2012, Suse celebrated its 20th anniversary in the SAP Partner Port. Also significant at the time: the certification of the reference architecture for HA in the SAP environment based on the co-innovation between SAP and Suse with the Suse HA Extension (HAE).

The availability of Hana and SLES on IBM Power8 Server last year was also strongly supported by Suse through collaboration with SAP and IBM in the SAP Linux Lab. And also brand new: the provision of Hana on Microsoft's Azure cloud platform with Suse SLES for SAP applications as the operating system platform.

Cover HA and DR

As mentioned earlier, for years the Suse High Availability Extension (HAE) already included in SLES for SAP Applications has provided a proven and leading high availability solution to improve business continuity/high availability as well as disaster recovery capabilities for SAP solutions.

The solution was optimized and further developed especially for Hana use and represents a kind of standard for HA and DR in the Hana environment. SAP provides Hana System Replication (SR) mechanisms for HA in particular, which are generally handled and used manually.

The increase in SLAs via automation works with the Suse High Availability Solution (HAE) from SLES for SAP Applications 12 . System replication via a memory preload in a cluster (e.g. 2-node cluster) is generally preferred as a central HA solution for Hana.

The automation of the switchover can be conveniently executed using Suse HAE; for example, in a 2-node cluster with a (second) synchronously running HA system for a Hana on-site system (would then be node one). For a DR scenario, Hana System Replication enables asynchronous replication to another site (for example, another data center), so that this covers the disaster case.

Optimal performance

For some time now, SAP and Suse have been addressing the issue of "optimum performance" in the use of SAP Hana with specific optimization features or solutions. SAP customers benefit from both the Linux extension Page Cache Limit and the installation support tool Hana Pattern.

The Linux extension from Suse with the Page Cache Limiter makes a significant contribution to ensuring consistently high availability and performance with SLES for SAP Applications, even with maximum utilization of CPU and RAM capacities. This makes it possible to control the available capacities of the RAM in such a way that Linux and Hana or Hana-based applications such as S/4 interact optimally - and there is no loss of performance.

Big data/analytics is a core topic in the context of digital transformation. For SAP customers, the focus is on Hana and the open source solution Hadoop. However, not stringently separated, but in a network. And in particular on the basis of the SAP solution and query engine Hana Vora, which offers context analyses for data in enterprise systems and other distributed data sources with in-memory technology.

SAP users who rely on Hana and Hadoop or Hana Vora for Big Data benefit from the Suse Linux operating system platform because SLES supports Hadoop as well as Hana and Hana Vora.

The Hana Patterns provided with Suse SLES 12 for SAP Applications are an installation package including fine-tuning options that can also be used for updates and can be used to achieve performance improvements.

It also ensures simplification and a high level of automation based on best practices and workflows, which consequently also results in increased security for SAP installations.

Simplified installations

In SAP data centers, virtualization (or virtualization solutions) is standard. VMware was the first certified virtualization solution for Hana about two years ago. SLES-VMware integration is a given.

It is important that the focus of VMware High Availability is on the hardware or servers - and not on the Hana services. This means that the server functionality can be monitored or controlled via VMware.

Regarding HA management and HA feature usage of Hana services such as database function protection, failover mechanisms and more, other Hana system elements are responsible.

The "SAP Netweaver High Availability Cluster 730 Certification" is a fundamental linchpin in Hana-HA. This is the first time that SAP has specified a cluster reference architecture that includes clustering guidelines and to which solution providers must adhere.

Suse was involved in the development of this clustering architecture. As the exclusive SAP Hana development partner, Suse and SAP discussed, evaluated, then developed and tested the "Simplified Operations" aspect years ago to simplify Hana operations and make them more efficient. All important and necessary operations issues in mission-critical SAP Hana deployment were taken into account.

A consistent OS

Performance plays a major role in Big Data applications. By working closely with SAP, Suse ensures that both Hana and a Hadoop cluster, as well as the interlocking of Hana and Hadoop in the case of Hana Vora, are trimmed for maximum performance.

And it does so on the basis of Suse SLES for SAP applications, i.e. an end-to-end operating system platform. But that's not all. Much of the use of Big Data applications depends on simple but effective end-to-end infrastructure system management, which Suse fully supports with Suse Manager. According to SAP, Hana Vora uses and extends the data processing framework Apache Spark and thus enables comprehensive, interactive analyses in the open source solution Hadoop.

Here, the central Hana platform is complemented by Hana Vora, which enables new insights by analyzing large volumes of operational and contextual data from enterprise applications, data warehouses, data lakes, and IoT sensors in the network perimeter.

Operations for Hana

As a result, Suse Linux Enterprise Server (SLES) for SAP Applications today provides tools or services from which SAP customers also benefit in many ways: from the installation of Suse Hana systems to setting up High Availability (HA) for Hana system replication, the automated and optimized setting of kernel parameters, the automation of the administration of Linux servers via the Web and the automation of release maintenance for SAP Basis divisions, right through to the reduction of upgrade efforts.

Specifically, a sophisticated installation wizard supports a simplified installation of Suse Hana systems. In addition, the so-called Hana patterns offer fine-tuning options during installation. This type of pattern ensures a high degree of automation based on best practices and workflows. Ultimately, this means increased security for SAP Hana installations, but also for an SAP installation in general.

(Mandatory) parameters, for example, are automatically set correctly and optimal kernel parameters as well.

The High Availability Web Console (HAWK) can also be used as part of Simplified Operations. It simplifies the setup and monitoring of HA based on Hana System Replication (see above).

Also usable is Web Yast, a tool that enables the automation of the administration of Linux servers, as well as Suse Manager, which can also be used to map a staging procedure for SAP Basis (TEST, DEV, PROD).

This means no more, but also no less, than that the automation of release maintenance in SAP Basis is simplified and facilitated. In this context, a reporting engine provides evaluations. They then provide the basis for SAP Basis compliance.

Also significant in the context of Simplified Operations is that Suse offers Extended Service Pack Overlap Support (ESPOS), which extends the supported state of the service pack from 24 to 36 months while reducing upgrade efforts by 33 percent over five years. This is because only two upgrades are required instead of three.

Thanks to its involvement in Hana developments and its extensive experience in the field of Linux security, Suse is able to provide a comprehensive security package for Suse Linux Enterprise Server (SLES) for SAP Applications that covers all conceivable security aspects of Hana-Suse deployment.

Security Package for SLES

First, SLES complies with many important security certifications. Second, Suse continuously provides security updates/patches for SLES. And third, Hana-Suse customers have access to a dedicated security guide that describes the specific hardening of the SAP in-memory database in conjunction with SLES.

A "Suse Firewall for Hana" can also be used. It counteracts local network attacks or the opening of certain ports from outside. In addition, mechanisms can be used that show which operating system packages should necessarily be available and which can be dispensed with if necessary.

A brand new enhancement in Suse Linux Enterprise Server for SAP applications is Suse Connect, which was introduced at Sapphire last month. Hana and S/4 Hana customers can use it to access an app store and directly integrate or use Suse partner solutions in their SAP infrastructure environments. SLES also dovetails with partner solutions.

Among the first partner solutions is CanaryCode from Datavard, which is integrated into SLES for SAP Applications 12 via Suse Connect (see also the article "Closely Connected" starting on page 55 in this E3 cover story). Other solutions from Suse partners will follow quickly.

Very often, new cloud provider models virtually give wings to digital transformation. IaaS, PaaS and SaaS have long been in vogue. Obtaining and using resources from the cloud creates freedom, flexibility, faster availability of applications and digital services, and cost savings.

Cloudization is also steadily increasing in the SAP environment. SAP customers are relying heavily on hybrid cloud environments (combination of private and public cloud). Hana and S/4 Hana are also available as cloud solutions; in addition to SAP solutions from SuccessFactors, Ariba or Fieldglass.

Cloudization in the SAP environment

There is also the Hana Cloud Platform (HCP) and the Hana Enterprise Cloud (HEC). As with Hana and S/4 Hana, Suse was involved in SAP developments for HCP and HEC and pushed these together with the Walldorf-based software group.

With HCP, SAP's own PaaS cloud solution including in-memory technology, (web) applications and solutions can be developed and deployed or delivered easily, cost-effectively and quickly. As is well known, PaaS as a cloud service is based on IaaS. Both in terms of IaaS and PaaS, SAP relies on open source or open standards. Specifically, OpenStack and Cloud Foundry.

OpenStack and Cloud Foundry

Like the OpenStack Foundation, the Cloud Foundry Foundation is a free project supported by numerous well-known companies (currently 55) across manufacturers as a non-profit organization, for example SAP and Suse.

As the first Linux distributor ever, Suse has been a member of the OpenStack Foundation since 2012 and introduced the first enterprise OpenStack solution, Suse Cloud, in the same year. Suse has been a Cloud Foundry Foundation member since 2015. The Foundation produces concrete software with Cloud Foundry and the Cloud Foundry components, in accordance with open source development principles. The OpenStack counterpart also certifies the various PaaS solutions of Cloud Foundry members.

Above all, this ensures that cloud platforms are compatible and consistent with each other on the basis of a uniform and open standard. In view of the cooperation between Suse and SAP here: the provision of an OpenStack Cloud Provider Interface (CPI).

The main goal here is to use a CPI to simplify or automate communication between Cloud Foundry and the underlying OpenStack infrastructure. This makes it easier to test application apps and immediately roll them out and deploy them in private or public clouds.

Cloud environments and digitization

Using an open source OpenStack-based IaaS cloud (private or on-premise cloud) for SAP applications can achieve numerous benefits - up to and including the fact that SAP solutions can be rolled out efficiently and cost-effectively. In the course of digitalization, services or applications can thus be provided quickly and flexibly.

Here, the three Suse open source solutions SLES for SAP applications (for SAP Classic, Hana and S/4 Hana), Suse OpenStack Cloud and Suse Manager work together in an ideal way.

In particular, by reducing complexity, minimizing costs or providing reliable and innovative services. The three open-source building blocks meet all modern requirements for data center readiness with distinctive functionality that is optimized for the needs of SAP customers in the cloud environment and geared to the digitization needs of today and tomorrow.