Starting with SAP HANA on IBM System eX5
Recently I have got a chance to work with SAP HANA on IBM System Scale out system. In general a pleasant experience and great performance.
I found this document very helpful
IBM Techdocs Technote: IBM Systems eX5 Solution for SAP HANA appliance
It explains how to
– how to setup a global_allocation limit so Hana no longer stops after Allocation error (account 16GB for GPFS)
– upgrade appliance to SLES SP2 and SP3 (SP2 is EOL)
– upgrade kernel (you should be at least at version 3.0.101-0.5.1*)
– upgrade GPFS to latest (you should be at least at version 3.5.0-16)
– how to update linux kernel Emulex driver in SLES SP2 (version 4.2.389 is required, you can check with ethtool -u ethX)
– disable CPU C states SAP note 1824819
– enable performance CPU governor
– explains why server restarts itself and what you can do about it (IBM RETAIN tip: H207295)
– perform a system check optimized for Hana
– enable memory patrol scrub so in case there is a memory error server doesn’t restart but information is passed to Hana which can handle it.
– configure your network gear
Even it guides you through the process of installation of Hana appliance from scratch, but you will need IBM DVD 00AK794 SAP HANA FRU Pkg v. 1.6.60-7.
As a bonus there is a section on how to run Hana virtualized on VMware, which parts you need to upgrade HW to a larger T-Shirt, and a lot of information about disaster recovery.
With a new initiative of tailored data center integration this information is a must read.