Linux package also provides HA functionality

SAP core infrastructure components such as servers including VMs, storage, database, operating system or networks undoubtedly exhibit a high degree of maturity and fulfill their intended tasks for SAP use on a daily basis.

And yet it can happen that a kind of SOS alarm goes off in corporate IT because business-critical applications such as S/4 either no longer support the business processes as they should or, in the worst-case scenario, no longer support them at all. And this is caused by failures in the SAP infrastructure or components thereof.

Naturally, IT and SAP managers attach great importance to the issue of high availability in order to ensure business continuity.

Essentially, SAP partners offer HA solutions and concepts, or SAP has in fact transferred this complex of topics to partners.

What does HA have to do with Linux? Quite a lot. Because with the availability of Hana on Linux, or rather on Suse Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications (SLES for SAP), Suse provided the so-called High Availability Extension (HAE) including disaster recovery (DR) functionality. By the way, DR functions are also available for the SAP-Any-DB deployment.

Now it is the case that more and more companies that rely on Hana and SLES for SAP Applications are using Suse HAE. Especially because it is a complete HA open source package and can be used free of charge as part of the SLES for SAP subscription. This means that there are no additional expenses for a cluster resource management solution.

Many SAP customers who are switching to Hana or Hana-based applications such as S/4 are replacing previously used HA solutions. As a rule, this is also because HAE as part of SLES for SAP Applications enables them to optimize their previous high-availability deployment and in some cases significantly minimize possible (calculated) downtime.

Incidentally, HAE as part of SLES for SAP Applications is based on the open source solution called Pacemaker (predecessor Heartbeat 2). Suse played a leading role in the development of Pacemaker.

And development efforts are still high. Of importance, moreover: Like the operating system platform Suse Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications, HAE is integrated into the SAP management system (SAP Solution Manager).

Hana System Replication (SR for short) is a core element of the Hana HA concept. As a rule, or to a large extent, it is handled manually.

If SR automation can be used, there are benefits such as a service level agreement increase. Specifically, a German hidden champion was able to reduce system availability from around 45 minutes to less than five minutes.

One contribution to this is the Hana Resource Agents integrated in SLES for SAP Applications, which were developed jointly by Suse and SAP.

On this basis, Hana database instances and replications can be optimally administered and managed. They were first made available with SLES 12 for SAP Applications. They effectively underpin intelligent and simplified cluster configurations.

Bottom line, in summary: The High Availability Extension, which has been delivered together with Suse Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications for years, effectively covers the topic complex of High Availability.

It provides a proven and beneficial high availability solution to improve business continuity/high availability including disaster recovery functionality for SAP solutions.