SAP HANA 2.0 SPS 01 – What’s the big deal?
SAP HANA 2.0 SPS 01 – What’s the big deal?
If you are an SAP system administrator like myself, the last thing you would consider exciting is yet another HANA database update – let’s face it, we all perform HANA patching at such a rate that our managers now consider it to be common place.
However, when I read through the release notes, my attention quickly turned towards the following technical improvements which would save my time and add a little safety into my daily routine.
- Mandatory support for Multi-Tenant Database Containers (MDC) – this means the Fiori and S/4HANA databases can co-exist on a single database with improved security and performance. In fact, you can no longer have single container systems from HANA 2.0 as MDC becomes the only operation mode.
- Individual tenants can now be backed up and recovered independently
- Improvements in High Availability and Disaster Recovery with support of continuous access on the second node while the primary is not available
- Encryption of data and log backups
- My absolute favourite, the new HANA Cockpit where I can manage all my HANA databases from one spot.
- Pre-reading
2469025 – How-To: Upgrading to SAP HANA 2.0
2399995 – Hardware requirement for SAP HANA 2.0
2372809 – Guideline for upgrading a SAP HANA 1.0 to SAP HANA 2 system
1948334 – SAP HANA Database Update Paths for SAP HANA Maintenance Revisions
2380229 – SAP HANA Platform 2.0 – Central Note
2426339 – Support for SAP HANA 2 in SAP S/4HANA
1600929 – SAP BW powered by SAP HANA DB: Information
2423367 – Multitenant database containers
2235581 – SAP HANA: Supported Operating Systems
2433764 – SAP HANA cockpit 2.0 SP 02
- Process
Run HDBLCM (SAP HANA DB Lifecycle Management) remembering to check the log file for any errors.
Please make sure you don’t wander away from the screen for any extended period of time, it is very easy to miss an input prompt on such a busy screen. I am looking forward to an improved user interface for the HDBLCM.
Login to HANA studio and re-create the HANA entries using Multi-Tenant option
- Post Processing
Update the HDB client on all SAP Application Servers and configure the backup for the new MDC database.
To round out the exercise, make sure your new HANA 2.0 database is Diagnostic Specific in SAP Solution Manager.
Verify settings and logs in DBACockpit
- Enjoy the HANA Cockpit
You will need to install a separate HANA Express XS engine on a small Virtual Machine. My one runs very well on 16gb RAM.
In conclusion, I can now say that the upgrade process for HANA 2.0 SPS01 for both my S/4HANA 1610 FPS02 and BW/4HANA 1.0 SP4 instances was relatively straightforward. The HANA 2.0 upgrade process has matured considerably compared to earlier versions of HANA. The new SAP HANA Cockpit has made a difference to the way I manage the growing number of HANA instances – and in my opinion, is a most compelling reason to consider your HANA 2.0 upgrade.
Shout out to the SAP HANA Academy team and Tony De Thomasis for the motivation to write this weblog.
Thanks for the effort and information. Good to see you're doing well.
Thanks Kevin. Good to hear from you. Hope you are doing well.
Thanks for the nice and well-prepared blog post. That's the kind of blog post, I'd like to see more often here on SCN: based on personal experience, clearly taking a viewpoint and not skipping the basics of text editing (links correct? check! headlines formatted? sort-of, check! pictures included? check! spellchecker used? check!).
Even though I don't agree with the cheering over the HANA Cockpit (a whole 16GB virtual machine for some pretty graphs and a web UI? You gotta be joking!) it's great to see early adopters liking the direction where development takes the product to,
Lars, thank you for your frank and direct comments. Although it could be perceived as eye-candy only, I am sure that the new HANA Cockpit is only the first taste of what is to come in the HANA Administration space.
Thanks again for your kind feedback, and I look forward to meeting you in person at some point.