SAP Discovery System V5, with HANA

[martin_E]

Hi Everyone,

While we wait for our HANA box to arrive, I wanted to get started on developing installation, implementation, configuration and support plans. Three questions;

1) We have looked at the SAP Discovery System V5 (as described in the BI210 SAP HANA: Technical End-to-End-Scenario session at Teched Madrid. Is this available, and if so where do I get it from ?

2) The project manager insists that we can install HANA on any appropriately sized SLES 11 system, but my reading of BI210 SAP HANA: Technical End-to-End-Scenario is that we can virtualise all components except HANA - In other words, I believe we still need a physical HANA appliance to complete the scenario. Is this correct ?

3) Regardless of the HANA appliance, does anyone have (polite) suggestions about what we can do while we wait for the HANA appliance to turn up ?

thanks

[tomas-krojzl · Accepted solution]

Hello,

I will start from the end...

3) Regardless of the HANA appliance, does anyone have (polite) suggestions about what we can do while we wait for the HANA appliance to turn up ?

Well you can...:

1.) get familiar with HANA using SAP HANA Sandbox:

http://www.sdn.sap.com/irj/sdn/in-memory?rid=/webcontent/uuid/c022341c-5ed1-2e10-0b98-9b6a3314dd25

2.) prepare architecture for your scenario (what type of replication will be used, are you going to use BOBJ for reporting or something else, etc.)

3.) assemble the team that will do the installation (you will need linux expert, basis guy, modellers, SQL specialist, data provisioning expert, ...)

4.) educate the team and ask them to study documentation

5.) install all non-HANA components (BOBJ, BO Data Services, SLT system, etc.)

6.) if all is done and you are still waiting you can try to perform some modeling in SAP HANA Sandbox and then export it and later reuse

...there are probably more things you can do while waiting but this is what I just recalled that could be done

Tomas

[tomas-krojzl · Accepted solution]

Hello,

2) The project manager insists that we can install HANA on any appropriately sized SLES 11 system, but my reading of BI210 SAP HANA: Technical End-to-End-Scenario is that we can virtualise all components except HANA - In other words, I believe we still need a physical HANA appliance to complete the scenario. Is this correct ? 

As far as I know you need to have special hardware for SAP HANA (see PAM for supported HW combinations). But according to installation guide there should be only SAP HANA database running on this appliance. In other words in context of SAP HANA - "central system" (which was renamed to "standard installation") is technically distributed setup where SAP HANA is on one server and NetWeaver on another server. NW can then run on any platform (Windows, AIX, Linux, ...) and of course can be virtualized.

Tomas

[tomas-krojzl · Accepted solution]

Hello,

1) We have looked at the SAP Discovery System V5 (as described in the BI210 SAP HANA: Technical End-to-End-Scenario session at Teched Madrid.  Is this available, and if so where do I get it from ?

Never heard about SAP Discovery System V5 until now - I just quickly went through B210 and is seems to be pre-imaged "landscape" that customer can use, correct? This seems to be interesting option for new customers but probably not very useful for existing customers that are already having their own systems probably on different releases...

Did I understood concept of "SAP Discovery System V5" correctly?

Tomas

[Vitaliy-R · Accepted solution]

The original Discover System was built to help companies to quickly deep dive into "discovering" SOA by SAP. Indeed in version 5 it is extended with pre-installed components to quickly "discover" how to work with HANA, by connecting to separately installed HANA database (which indeed has to be delivered by hardware partner on certified configuration, and not just on any SuSE Linux box).

More on Discovery Server: http://www.sdn.sap.com/irj/sdn/discoverysystem

Cheers,

-Vitaliy

[tomas-krojzl · Accepted solution]

Hello,

The original Discover System was built to help companies to quickly deep dive into "discovering" SOA by SAP. Indeed in version 5 it is extended with pre-installed components to quickly "discover" how to work with HANA, by connecting to separately installed HANA database (which indeed has to be delivered by hardware partner on certified configuration, and not just on any SuSE Linux box).

I cannot help myself but this looks more like "test drive" edition then something that can be used in production environment. Best possible use case I can imagine is to quickly board new non-SAP customers (however even here we can discuss if it is good idea to use this rather then build it manually as needed).

Vitaliy can you confirm I understood your point?

Tomas

[Vitaliy-R · Accepted solution]

...
> I cannot help myself but this looks more like "test drive" edition then something that can be used in production environment. Best possible use case I can imagine is to quickly board new non-SAP customers (however even here we can discuss if it is good idea to use this rather then build it manually as needed).
> 
> Vitaliy can you confirm I understood your point?
...

Right, Discovery System was not meant to be used in production landscapes, but just to save time on hardware config, software components installations, users setup, connections between components. Instead you can just deep dive into the discovery of SOA in the past, or capabilities to use HANA in v.5.

[tomas-krojzl · Accepted solution]

Hello Vitaliy,

...understood - thanks for clarification

Tomas

[rajarshi_muhuri · Accepted solution]

HANA can be installed on laptops, desktops , and even as vmware virtual linux boxes running on Windows 7 , with as low as 4GB RM . ofcourse that totally defeats the whole purpose of HANA , but for learning and playing with HANA - ITS GREAT !!!

[Vitaliy-R · Accepted solution]

HANA can be installed on laptops, desktops , and even as vmware virtual linux boxes running on Windows 7 , with as low as 4GB RM . ofcourse that totally defeats the whole purpose of HANA , but for learning and playing with HANA - ITS GREAT !!!

You are right: HANA db can run on non-Linux platforms as well, but I do not think HDB versions for Win OS are available outside SAP. Even more, with SPS3 SAP introduced hardware checks in official HDB installers, so you won't be able to install it on non-certified platforms. -VR

[rajarshi_muhuri · Accepted solution]

I was not aware that SAP had done a windows version of newDB , but ofcourse makes sense as for them its just a matter of recompiling with lil changes on win platform.

As such I keep hearing talks of having ECC on newDB/HANA database , but HANA is only suitable when its doing columnar operations on huge datasets while row manipulations or retrieving rows are very expensive operations. given this premise , i wonder how hana is suitable for transactional system like ECC ?

[rajarshi_muhuri · Accepted solution]

Editing my post on the installation tip: as I dont want SAP to see it but I am sure you guys on this thread can read it in the email .

as such i was writining the wiki for hana installation at

http://wiki.sdn.sap.com/wiki/display/inmemory/SAPHANAInstallation

suse contacted me asking me to add the disclaimer line "free for trial but must be bought for production use"

Edited by: Rajarshi Muhuri on Dec 8, 2011 7:03 AM

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Dear Raj,

Well documented, but unify installer is very easy and removes manual installation headache; SUM and hostagent removes update headache.

BW on HANA also installs but you need at least XX GB.

Thanks & Regards,

Rao

[former_member182277]

Hi All,

1. Register urself on https://www.experiencesaphana.com/

2. Request for the SAP HANA Sandbox

3. Explore it.

4. Get familiar with the HANA

So, that we aware about the system and work on the sytem having good knowledge.

Go throgh this site: http://www.sdn.com/irj/sdn/discoverysystem

Regards,

Neha

[Former Member]

3) Regardless of the HANA appliance, does anyone have (polite) suggestions about what we can do while we wait for the HANA appliance to turn up ?

how about lining up test content to load once your HANA instance is up and running?