Migrate "HANA x86" to "HANA on Power" - DMO?

[Former Member]

Hi,

We like migrate our CRM on HANA x86 based systems to CRM on HANA on Power. Unfortunately the different endian of the technologies makes a backup/restore not possible so a migration is required.

We wanted to use SUM, but the SUM sp14 note states that HANA is the only DB it cannot use as source systems. This should really be an option for this type of migration I believe!

So the only other migration option seems to  be a DB/OS migration (import/export) from the one HANA to the other I guess.  If this can be done then surely DMO should be able to handle this too???

Is there anyone who has done this type of migration or who can give some educated advice?  Perhaps the SUM with DMO will work regardless?

Many thanks in advance,

Adriaan.

[jgleichmann · Accepted solution]

Hi Adriaan,

your statements are correct. HANA can't be used as source for SUM with DMO if target is also HANA. (see 2161397 - Database Migration Option (DMO) of SUM 1.0 SP14 for details)

Currently a backup/restore or sync with SR is not supported for migrating the data from intel to power and vice versa in cause of the differences of the endianess.

SUM with DMO should be used if you want to skip a DB update/upgrade or combine the migration with an upgrade/update of the backend to minimize the effort.

The only working methode is to run the SWPM and do a system copy via r3load.

If you just want to migrate from X86 to Power the SWPM will be the right choice for your intention.

Regards,

Jens

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Thanks for the reply Jens! In the meantime I have successfully done a classic migration with SWPM and a r3load based system copy. It was relatively painless.  Considering that neither the DB or the O/S are changing my understanding is that this is considered a homogenous system copy even if the hardware type is changing. Therefore neither an OS/DB migration check from SAP or a certified OS/DB migration certified consultant is officially required.

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Hello Jens

Are you aware of any option for such a syscopy (X86 to Power) but for the database only? Meaning only HANA db copy without SAP running on that.

Thanks

[jgleichmann · Accepted solution]

Hello Michal,

good question, I have never tried it before. I don't know if the connection methods with r3load work without the default sapschemas and SAP NW tables. You have to try it out by yourself.

Another method is to export the schema in BIN mode. It depends on the size of the DB if this is a workable methode.

With SLES12 both architectures are on little endian and a backup/restore should work.

Regards,

Jens

[petr_solberg · Accepted solution]

Hi Michal and Jens,

the same question just landed on my desk.

We have a BW on HANA and the HANA servers are coming to the end of their lifecycle and need to be replaced with new. Consequently we will need to move the HANA DB only from the old HANA System to the new HANA System.

As we all know, in the old days of DB/CI on the same filesystem, such an exercise would have been a full blown migration, but now that we have the physical abstraction between the BW App Servers and the HANA System Servers, my expectation is that this should be the simplest migration in the world, and we should simply "move" the BW DB from one HANA System to the new HANA System and then point the existing App Servers (SAP Instances) at the new HANA System.

I found this thread because I am currently researching how to do it, and so far I cannot find any guidance from SAP on how to move a HANA DB from one HANA System to another.

What I can find however, and it is documented and supported by SAP, is that if your HANA System is MultiTenancy (MDC) then SAP have fully documented and supported procedures for moving HANA Tenant DB's from one HANA system to another HANA system ( page 149 http://help.sap.com/hana/SAP_HANA_Administration_Guide_en.pdf  ).

This is great, and although we are committed to MDC (as I blogged here ) this particular BW on HANA is the first one that we migrated 4 years ago and is not MDC. There is a very strong argument, that are as are committed to MDC every new HANA that we install should be MDC, and therefore, a possible path is that we MDC enable the existing HANA and MDC enable the new HANA and then do the Tenant move from HANA to HANA according to SAP's procedures.

But for the same of completeness, and to ensure we have research all possibilities and chosen the right one, I would like to confirm whether there is a supported approach for simply migrating a Database from one HANA system to another and then afterwards pointing the existing App Servers at the new HANA ? I will share what I find.

Andy.

@Mods - I can open a new thread for this is you want

[petr_solberg · Accepted solution]

OK found it - HANA System Copy Guide:

http://www.sdn.sap.com/irj/scn/go/portal/prtroot/docs/library/uuid/90530553-b686-3110-498b-e1dab0282...

+ OSS Note 1844468

Andy.

[nicholas_chang · Accepted solution]

Hi Andy,

apart from what you found. You can simply change the hdbuserstore in SAP application server and point it to the new HDB host. And amend the necessary parameter in Default and instance profile.

cheers,

NIcholkss Chang

[Former Member]

To add - IBM will only be supporting little endian on HANA towards end 2016 with SLES12. This should then open up more options for customers migrating between both platforms, especially for very large HANA systems.