Many companies nowadays still use SAP R/3 for ERP purposes. At the firm I'm working this was also the case. A few months ago the decision was made to migrate to SAP S/4HANA, the latest SAP version equiped with many enhancements and, last but not least, an in-memory database which should mean faster queries and performance!



My job was to provide the technical infrastructure for migration and the SAP S4HANA servers and since it was a hard job for me to find an installation manual for the proper SAP S/4HANA server installation here's my 2 cents.



Requirements:




  • Suitable hardware. Best practices and recommendations can be found here and here

  • SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications license (this link). You'll need at least one 2-socket license per SAP S/4HANA server



Installation steps:



In my situation the SAP S/4HANA servers must be installed on VMware vSphere 6.7 servers, upgraded to the latest version, so the description is based on that.




  • Create a new Virtual Machine with the following specs to start with. At a later stage additional VMware Paravirtual SCSI Controllers and disks will be added for SAP S/4HANA purposes.

    • Guest OS: Linux, SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (x64)

    • CPU: 8 devided over 2 sockets

    • Memory: it depends, in my case it was 256GB

    • SCSI Controller: VMware Paravirtual

    • Disks:

      • 50GB (SCSI 0:0)

      • 30GB (SCSI 0:1)

      • 30GB (SCSI 0:2)



    • Network: VMXNET 3



  • Boot the Virtual Machine and mount the downloaded SUSE Linux Enterprise for SAP Applications image.




  • Select the correct language, keyboard layout and product to install. For a SAP server choose SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications




  • Continue with the license agreement and wait until the registration screen shows.


  • Enter the correct license keys and if neccessary configure the network. If no license is entered not all system roles can be chosen!


  • At the extension and module selection screen you can select addition extensions or modules to install


  • The next screen gives you the ability to select a system role. For SAP choose the top one; SLES for SAP Applications


  • In the the next screens you can configure partitioning, time zone and root password.






  • Especially the partitioning is important since you want to be able to change volumes at a later moment if neccessary, so LVM is a neccessaty. The propesed volumes would be:

    • 50GB for / and /root

    • 30GB for swap

    • 30GB, volumegroup VG_System:

      • 5GB for /usr, logical volume LV_USR

      • 5GB for /var, logical volume LV_VAR

      • 5GB for /tmp, logical volume LV_TMP

      • 5GB for /home, logical volume LV_HOME



    • 60GB, volumegroup VG_USRSAP:

      • 60GB for /usr/sap, logical volume LV_USRSAP



    • 30GB, volumegroup VG_SAPMNT::

      • 30GB for /sapmnt, logical volume LV_SAPMNT



    • 256GB, volumegroup VG_HANA, additional VMware Paravirtual SCSI Controller:

      • 256GB for /hana, logical volume LV_HANA



    • 512GB, volumegroup VG_HANADATA, additional VMware Paravirtual SCSI Controller:

      • 512GB for /hana, logical volume LV_HANADATA



    • 256GB, volumegroup VG_HANALOG, additional VMware Paravirtual SCSI Controller:

      • 256GB for /hana, logical volume LV_HANALOG






  • After the correct settings and configurations, installation will start




After installation of the SUSE OS, finetuning must be done according to the SAP guidelines. Please consult a SAP specialist for the SAP HANA installation and configuration!


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