This was another great SAP User Group webcast this week.

Source: SAP

Source: SAP

Data tiering introduced to help manage data growth in SAP HANA

Data is rising, increasing costs, additional hardware, additional license volume

Data tiering manages data in cost efficient way

Source: SAP

Native storage extension, a new feature

Source: SAP

Mission critical data is in Hot (main memory tier)

Data not as critical; certain aging aspect, older data becomes less important; not accessed as often, performance not as critical as hot data

Cold data – old, voluminous (data lakes)

Source: SAP

DRAM – main memory for hot data, need performance there for most important data

Persistent memory – like DRAM, available in larger sizes

Warm tier – 3 technologies – dynamic tiering, extension node has been around for a while

Native storage extension is a new feature introduced in April

Cold store – nearline storage for SAP BW been around for a while, before HANA

Hot Store, Persistent Memory

Source: SAP

Developed with Intel

Persistent memory – replaces some DRAM – compared to DRAM it does not lose its data; if shut down database, and restart, persistent memory doesn’t take as long to reload data compared to DRM

Reduce total startup – from 50 minutes to 4 minutes

Increased memory capacity

DRAM – 128GB sizes, some 256 – prices increase; most common is 64GB

Persistent memory is available in larger sizes – 128GB, 256 GB, 512GB; cheaper than DRAM (per TB)

Source: SAP

Also known as non-volatile memory

Two operating modes – memory mode, application does not need to be changed; still need DRAM on server, DRAM acts as cache, address data volume of persistent memory

SAP HANA – app direct mode, take advantage of technology, application will need to be changed

Application will have DRAM available

Direct access enabled file system

Source: SAP

Column store main in persistent memory

Column store delta stored in DRAM

Source: SAP

Size your application to handle workload

This is an example

Different ratios possible

Source: SAP

Impacts on data tiering

Separates storage tier

Can keep more data in HOT with persistent memory

Not a data tiering solution but impacts it

Warm Storage, Native Storage Extension

Source: SAP

Simpler landscape, integrated into server of SAP HANA

SAP HANA Cloud Services – NSE is a strategic role

Plan to make available for any SAP HANA application

Complement to other data tiering solution

Strategic solution is NSE

Source: SAP

Column loadable is default

Declare partitions to page loadable

Access data on NSE will load little as possible

Buffer cache – configurable size, to buffer to pages in main memory

Source: SAP

Define a whole table as page loadable

Can do on partition level (with data aging)

Source: SAP

Another picture

Source: SAP

Sizing and limitations

Soft limits, hope to lift limits soon, hope to before SPS05

Size of buffer cache recommendation is shown above, according to SAP’s experience

Source: SAP

Tools for NSE include HANA Cockpit

Recommendation engine – can activate in HANA database to monitor query patterns executed to help you decide what is warm and partition; first step to automate data tiering in SAP HANA to make things easier

DLM is planned later this year

Warm Store new feature

Source: SAP

Source: SAP

Timestamp support

Source: SAP

Getting started with warm store

NSE is limited to 10TB; plan to extend, plan to come close to what dynamic tiering

Which options to use

Source: SAP

Data Lifecycle Management

Source: SAP

Q&A

Q: Will data aging in Suite on HANA automatically move warm partitions to NSE?

A: Default SPS04

Q: Persistent Memory concept is available in SPS03 or not

A: Yes

Q: Is it Appliance dependent?

A: Yes, some hardware dependencies

The link to the recording is here.