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Functional Test
Lessons Learned
VERSION 1.2
10 APRIL 2018
As a significant step of the Lenovo digital transformation, Lenovo has developed a long-term plan to
gradually migrate the SAP IT systems from non-SAP HANA databases to SAP HANA. Up to now, Lenovo
has successfully executed BW/APO/BPC/CRM/SRM SUS/GTS HANA migration. SAP ECC is the next
system on the Lenovo HANA adoption roadmap. Currently Lenovo ECC is running on any DB with data size
near 40TB, facing a very large volume and high transaction load.
SAP S/4HANA is the next-generation ERP business suite, a real-time enterprise resource management suite
for digital business built on advanced in-memory platform SAP HANA, delivering massive simplifications
(customer adoption, data model, user experience, decision-making, business processes and models) and
innovations to help businesses Run Simple in the digital economy.
For a large-scale ECC system, a single HANA node (scale up) may not meet the data volume size
requirement with continuous data growth. As designed for maximum scalability as a co-innovation of
application and database, SAP S/4HANA can support HANA Scale out or memory & CPU scaling for a
system exceeding a single HANA appliance size limitation. Therefore, SAP S/4HANA Scale out is an
appropriate option for Lenovo ECC HANA migration.
Before the production ECC migration to S/4HANA can start, Lenovo launched S/4HANA Scale out Cycle 1
Project in cooperation with SAP to verify the technical feasibility, ensure a safe handling of the large data
volumes and transactional load, and test the appropriate infrastructure configuration for SAP HANA.
Intentionally, we do not call this a “proof of concept” but rather Cycle 1 because it is the first step in a
journey towards SAP S/4HANA.
Acknowledgements
Thanks to the following people for their contributions to the project:
Lenovo:
Martin Bachmaier, John Donovan, Taggart Robertson, Miao Hui, Song Fei, Wang Weidong, Qiu Shanlin,
Zhao Yan, Wei Na, Chou Jingzheng, Ma Jun, Jin Xing, Barry Cui, Zhao Dan, Yang Qing, Li Ying
SAP:
Dr. Richard Bremer, Susanne Janssen, Cynthia Wang, Eric Liu, Hongkong Sun, Yongchen Xie, Claude
Cheng, Ruth Tian, Michael Hu, Extra Li
Mellanox:
Mike Montgomery, Crystal Zhang
Table of Contents
Scope
- Business Scenario
- Functional & Technical Requirement
Project Phases
- Project Setup
- Preparation for SAP S/4HANA Conversion
- Technical SAP S/4HANA Conversion (with SUM)
- Post Activities to Complete SAP S/4HANA Conversion
- SAP S/4HANA Scale out Functional and Performance Testing
Technical Architecture
- Hardware requirements
- Lenovo S/4HANA Scale out Cycle 1 Hardware Architecture
- Software Version
Functional Adjustments
- Simplified Data Model in SAP S/4HANA
- Required Solution Adjustments
- Detailed Adjustment Approach
Technical Adjustments
- SAP Release Requirements
- Preparation before S/4HANA Scale out conversion
- Adjustments during S/4HANA Scale out conversion
- Conversion – Main phases of Standard Approach
- S/4HANA Scale Out table distribution
- S/4HANA Scale Out table redistribution after first cycle performance test
- Reference Documentation
Custom Code Adjustments
- Required Adjustments in Custom Code
- Modification Overview
- Modification Steps
Test Result & Analysis
Summary
Storage Hardware:
Lenovo DSS-C (Distributed Storage Solution for Ceph)
Software Defined Storage Solution leveraging SUSE Enterprise Storage using 100*3.84TB SSDs (250 TB All
Flash)
The Lenovo DSS-C used in this environment consists of four x3650 M5 servers with each holding 24x 3.84
TB Enterprise Capacity devices. Two x3550 M5 were used as deployment and gateway servers. The Lenovo
DSS-C exports its storage via Ethernet over two different interfaces, as depicted in Figure ‘Software-defined
storage architecture for SAP HANA.
CephFS for /hana/shared and rbd for /hana/data and /hana/log
The storage configuration can be scaled out through additional x3650 M5 storage servers.
This link contains more information on the storage solution.
Network:
When we ran the SAP HANA Hardware Certification Check Tool (HWCCT) with this HW setup, the results
exceeded the required SAP HANA TDI key performance indicators (KPI) by far.
Target system:
- SAP S/4HANA 1610 FPS 02
- SAP S/4HANA Server (incl. component S4CORE 101)
- SAP NetWeaver 7.51 for S/4HANA, on-premise edition
- SAP HANA 2.0 (rev 2.00.011)
- Operating system SLES for SAP Applications 12 SP2. For system stability and performance, the
operating system parameters of SLES for SAP Applications 12 SP2 need to be configured (OS settings
for SLES 12 for SAP Applications 12 refer to SAP Note 2205917)
Storage system:
SLES12 SP2 and SUSE Enterprise Storage version 4 with all updates as of April 2017.
Kernel 4.4.49-92.14-default, Ceph version 10.2.5-239 which is a Jewel release with filestore-based OSDs
(object storage device) was used. 6 OSDs per server. System-wide block-level multi-queueing was enabled.
S/4HANA
Description of Data Model Changes Note
Functionality
Merge of status info into document/item tables (from dedicated table)
Simplified
Simplification of document flow table
Sales Order 2267306
Elimination of indices for sales documents and aggregation on the fly
Management
Elimination of rebate index table VBOX
Simplified New table PRCD_ELEMENTS for storing document conditions, with extended field
2267308
Pricing length of several fields and other changes.
Simplified Material document table MATDOC
Inventory Elimination of aggregates/history tables for stock quantities and aggregation on the fly 2267788
Management Inventory valuation via Material Ledger only (with compatibility views)
New accounting based on new G/L concepts, incl. CO, AA, ML with central Financial
Financials document table ACDOCA across G/L, CO, AA, ML.
Universal All cost elements are G/L accounts.
Journal Elimination of aggregates and indices for financial documents and aggregation on the
fly.
Material Valuation - no exclusive Goods movements without exclusive locking by material 2338387
24
lock by material valuation valuation 2267835
Once the S/4HANA Scale out conversion SUM finished, further functional post activities are required. All
after system conversion actions in the following action lists need to be done in the target S/4HANA Scale out
system.
2> SD
- The following data model simplifications have been implemented for SD area:
Elimination of status tables VBUK/VBUP
Simplification of document flow table VBFA
Field length extension of SD document category
Elimination of redundancies of document index tables
Elimination of rebate index table VBOX
Elimination of LIS tables S066, S067
- Adapt custom code in target system according to the custom code check results and refer to SAP note
2198647 for details.
- Reference SAP Notes: 2267306, 2198647, 2224436, 2229342
3> SD Pricing
- Description:
Business documents within the SAP Business Suite, such as the sales order and the purchase order, are
used to store the pricing result in database table KONV. In SAP S/4HANA, table KONV has been
replaced in its data persistency role by the new table PRCD_ELEMENTS. However, KONV is and can
still be used for data declaration purposes. It still defines the structure of the pricing result within the
application code. The content of KONV is transferred to PRCO_ELEMENTS by the automatic data
migration when moving to SAP S/4HANA.
- Carefully follow the instructions in SAP Note 2188695, 2189301 and 2220005.
- After the technical system conversion, the post-processing report PRC_MIG_POST_PROCESSING
should be run as soon possible to correct the document currency field WAERK of table
PRCD_ELEMENTS.
- Reference SAP Notes: 2267308, 2313318, 2220005
13> PP-MRP-Subcontracting
- Descriptions:
In SAP S/4HANA on-premise edition 1610, the 4.0 logic (separating subcontracting demand and stock
into single subcontracting planning sections and planning uncovered subcontracting demand together
with internal demand in the make-to-stock planning section in ERP) was removed while the 4.5 logic
(Planning separately the demand of every subcontractor by means of subcontracting MRP areas,
available from SAP ERP release 4.5) was simplified. The SAP S/4HANA MRP uses default planning
parameters if MRP-area-specific material master records do not exist. You only have to create an MRP
area for every subcontractor. It is still possible to create MRP area/supplier-specific material master data
if required.
- If have several subcontractors requiring the same component materials and if do not yet use MRP areas to
plan the required components then proceed as follows:
1> Create MRP areas for every subcontractor (can be done before or after upgrade)
2> Run regenerative MRP after the upgrade
- Reference SAP Notes: 2268044
e) Create predefined table groups and write metadata to tables by running the SQL script
TABLE_GROUP_SQLSCRIPT.TXT in 2408419.
f) Run table redistribution. _SYS_RT.TABLE_PLACEMENT and
_SYS_REPO.SCHEMAVERSION privilege required for table distribution.
g) CALL REORG_GENERATE(8, ‘<SCHEMA>.HDB_ESTIMATES’);
h) CALL REORG_EXECUTE(?)
i) Check table distribution result:
SELECT * FROM M_TABLE_LOCATIONS; -- for table distribution
SELECT LOCATION, SUM(ESTIMATED_SIZE)/1024/1024/1024 AS GB_SIZE
FROM (SELECT DISTINCT(TABLE_NAME), LOCATION
FROM M_TABLE_LOCATIONS) A,
“<SCHEMA>”.”HDB_ESTIMATES” B
WHERE A.TABLE_NAME=B.TABLE GROUP BY LOCATION; -- for data size distribution
SELECT * FROM SYS.REORG_OVERVIEW -- for reorg result
SELECT * FROM REORG_STEPS -- for reorg details
j) Continue to run SUM.
First round landscape reorg is based on table created according to the SAP note 2408419, landscape reorg will
based on the size of each table to ensure installation and migration can be done successfully. After that step,
we still observed cross node joins and we did not see the best performance.
-
- Principle of SAP S/4HANA Scale out Table Distribution
6.6 SAP S/4HANA Scale Out table redistribution after first cycle performance test
After the first cycle performance test, we perform the S/4HANA scale out table redistribution and replication
to eliminate cross-node join according to SQL plan cache of the performance test.
The steps for performing HANA scale out table redistribution are:
After table regrouping, within selected scenarios, we saw no more cross node joins.
After the final performance test, we save the table grouping and distribution as reference for future production
migration.
Customizing, Personalization and Enhancements are features to implement changes on the SAP standard
getting the full support of SAP tools. Modifications and Custom Development are changes in the SAP
standard with minimal SAP tool support. This minimal tool support leads to higher costs for maintenance and
may be a deterrent for technological changes.
-
- Data Volume before and after
We observed HANA Node02 to be higher utilized than the other nodes. The detailed data from the SAP
HANA node to the filesystem on DSS-C is as follows:
a. Average read I/O: 80 MB/s, max read 2.63 GB/s
b. Average write I/O: 22 MB/s, max write 840 MB/s
c. CPU utilization: max 80%
d. Memory high watermark during the test cycles 2.9 TB
Since this was a functional test rather than a stress test, the system performance data only indicates the
resource usage, not the system capability. In a project step “cycle 2” the real workload has to be tested and
investigated on a larger scale.
We can gain a lot of performance on the DSS-C storage nodes by enabling the newly introduced multi-
queueing feature of the Linux SCSI subsystem. This was especially beneficial since SSDs support a highly
parallel access and can sustain higher random IO than spinning disks (for NVMe-based environments this
tuning will not be required because the Linux NVMe subsystem has inherent support for parallel I/O to be
able to drive all 64K I/O queues that NVMe devices offer by design).
The enablement of jumbo frames is essential to achieve close-to-wire speed throughput. The setup used an
OS-level frame size of 9000 bytes across both, the 40 Gbit/s and 100 Gbit/s networks. Depending on the
switch, jumbo frames need to be enabled manually there as well. Additional network performance was gained
through several network-related sysctl tunings and pinning of the Mellanox driver threads onto the right CPU
cores to ensure efficient handling of network interrupts. To validate a proper behavior of each subsystem,
several performance benchmarks were executed that stressed each component separately (iperf for
networking, fio on block devices and file system level, stream for memory performance).
The shared file system used by HANA to store binaries, log, traces, and so on, should not be used for
additional elements outside of production scope. Not storing extra files in this very same CephFS directory
reduces the performance requirements towards this shared directory, which in turn is beneficial for the overall
system performance. We recommend instead to create a separate, additional storage pool that would host
another CephFS shared file systems. This additional file system can then be managed according to its own
rules and requirements. It clearly separates HANA production data from other elements.
With the updates to SUSE Enterprise Storage version 5, which is based on the Ceph Luminous release, SUSE
provides several new features that exploit the underlying hardware even better. The bluestore feature is a key
element for Ceph internal metadata handling and brings improvements, especially for flash-based
environments, of up to and more than 100% (as seen in the Lenovo lab). All new Lenovo DSS-C
implementations require SES v5.0 and are tuned for optimal performance with the minimum amount of
storage devices in order to provide TCO values that are better than those of legacy storage infrastructures.
The result of the project is promising. The database size was reduced from 38 TB to 8.5 TB. The runtime for
the transactional business processes ran mostly faster or at the same speed than before. A few transactions are
running slower. The runtime for ¾ of analytical reports was better on S/4HANA the other ¼ still has
challenges.
With the next hardware generation on the horizon and SAP loosening the strict binding of the memory to core
ratio for SAP HANA even a smaller cluster with –for example- 2 nodes with 8 CPU sockets each and 12 TB
of main memory could provide an even easier setup and better potential of distributing the data and achieve
better performance.
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