Tux Meets SAP

Welcome to an exploration of SAP, in particular SAP HANA 2.0, through the eyes of an Enterprise Linux Engineer. In case you’re wondering, Tux is the Linux mascot.

What Does Enterprise Linux Mean?

When I refer to myself as having Enterprise Linux experience, I mean that not only have I been at this a long time (15 years), but I also manage a substantial (100-500) Linux host population in a corporate data center setting. Linux is not just something I tried out on a laptop or that I just run on 2 or 3 systems. For more than 15 years, I’ve tackled complex challenges to deploy mission-critical applications across a variety of Linux environments.

Is This Newsletter About Linux or SAP?

I think it is both, but (full disclosure) I am not an SAP BASIS administrator. Yes, I know what, say, the SM51 T-code does, and I know what the Diagnostic Agent is, but I’m a Linux systems engineer learning the SAP world. While I won’t be tackling SAP administration problems, I can address how to make sure your External Interfaces work well and show you how to build a reliable SLES for SAP environment for your SAP HANA 2.0 migration.

What Technologies Will You Address?

I’m going to touch on a lot of technologies, although my main focus will be how best to leverage the tools of Linux to support SAP on Linux, and how the complex world of SAP interacts with a typical Linux OS.

In terms of products, I’ll be touching on many, including:

  • SuSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES) v15 including SLES for SAP

  • SLES High Availability Extension

    • pacemaker

    • corosync

    • totem

  • SuSE Manager 3.2 and 4.0

  • SALT

  • SAP HANA 2.0

  • SAP NetWeaver

  • IBM PowerVM

  • IBM Power9 / ppc64le

  • VMware vSphere

Why Are You Writing?

In the 2+ years I’ve been working in an SAP environment, a common refrain I’ve heard from BASIS administrators is that SAP does not document very well. I confess that my own experiences bear that out. It’s been over a year since SLES for SAP v15 went GA, but there is a lack of good official sources of information about the nuts and bolts of deploying SAP solutions on the new SLES for SAP. I’ve learned a lot, and I’m willing to share.

Obligatory Disclaimer

This newsletter is my own creation, independent of my employer. Specifically, my employer does not sponsor, endorse, fund, manage, approve or support this newsletter. My employer is not affiliated with this newletter, and has no role in its content or management.

So, please join me, and sign up for my newsletter

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An exploration of SAP through the eyes of an Enterprise Linux Engineer

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An Enterprise Linux Engineer bringing his skills to SAP HANA environments