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documentation.suse.com / Guide / Planning the Installation
Applies to SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications 12 SP5

2 Planning the Installation

  

Read this chapter carefully, as it helps you plan the installation: It lists requirements and helps you collect data about your system.

2.1 Hardware Requirements

  

This section lists minimum hardware requirements for the installation of SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications. It gives basic guidance on the expected hardware requirements of certain SAP software. For the most up-to-date information about the hardware requirements of SAP software, see the official sizing guidelines at https://service.sap.com/sizing.

CPU

Intel 64

IBM POWER servers with PowerKVM compatibility

Hard Disk

SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications requires at least 45 GB of hard disk space for the system volume. In addition to that, reserve an appropriate amount of hard disk space for the swap partition.

To install an SAP application such as SAP NetWeaver, you need at least 200 GB of free disk space (in addition to the required space for the operating system for the application's /data partition).

To install SAP HANA, you need either:

  • An SAP BusinessOne-certified machine

  • A compatible machine that meets the requirements for SAP HANA TDI (Tailored Datacenter Integration). That is, you need the following amounts of free disk space in addition to the required space for the operating system:

    • 52 GB of free disk space for the partition /usr/sap

    • Space for three partitions for SAP HANA data: /hana/data (same size as RAM), /hana/log (same size as RAM up to a maximum of 512 GB), and /hana/shared (same size as RAM up to a maximum of 1 TB).

For more information about SAP HANA refer to https://help.sap.com/docs/SAP_HANA_PLATFORM (the section Implement › SAP HANA Master Guide › SAP HANA Deployment Options  › On-Premise Deployments).

RAM

The SUSE Linux Enterprise Server operating system itself requires a minimum of 1024 MB of total RAM or a minimum of 512 MB of RAM per CPU core (choose whichever is higher).

Any SAP software you install will require additional RAM.

To install SAP HANA, your machine needs a minimum of 24 GB of RAM.

For more information about configuring hardware for SAP HANA, see SAP Note 1944415: Hardware Configuration Guide and Software Installation Guide for SUSE Linux Enterprise Server with SAP HANA and SAP Business One (https://launchpad.support.sap.com/#/notes/1944415).

For more information about partitioning, see Section 2.7, “Partitioning”.

2.2 Downloading the Installation Image

  

  1. Download the ISO image of SUSE® Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications 12 SP5 DVD 1 (electronic media kit) from https://www.suse.com/products/sles-for-sap/.

  2. Burn the image onto a physical DVD and ensure that it is bootable. Alternatively, use a virtual DVD-ROM device for installation in a virtual machine.

2.3 Offline Migration

  

The migration paths for SUSE Linux Enterprise Server are identical to those for SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications. Find detailed information in the Upgrade Guide at https://documentation.suse.com/sles/html/SLES-all/cha-upgrade-paths.html.

2.4 Installation Methods

  

There are multiple ways of installing SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications:

2.5 Overview of the Installation Workflow

  

The installation workflow of SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications consists of the following steps:

  1. Installation of the operating system (SUSE Linux Enterprise Server). See Section 3.1, “Using the Installation Workflow”.

  2. SAP Installation Wizard, part 1: Copying all required SAP media to the local disk or selecting a shared storage medium to use. See Section 4.3, “Using the SAP Installation Wizard”, in particular Step 1.

  3. SAP Installation Wizard, part 2: Collecting all parameters for the actual installation by querying the user interactively. See Section 4.3, “Using the SAP Installation Wizard”, in particular Step 10.

  4. SAP Installation Wizard, part 3: Running the SAP Installer. See Section 4.3, “Using the SAP Installation Wizard”, in particular Step 13.

Important
Important: Installation of Only SUSE Linux Enterprise Server

You can choose to only install a base SUSE Linux Enterprise Server system. In that case, only the first step of the installation workflow is executed.

This can be necessary when you want to install an Oracle database on a SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications machine. To do so, install the base product SUSE Linux Enterprise Server first, then install the Oracle database and later convert your installation to SLES for SAP. This is necessary because the installer of Oracle databases queries for the existence of the sles-release package (to extract the version). The package is not available for SLES for SAP.

For more information about converting, see Section 3.4, “Converting a SLES Installation to a SLES for SAP Installation”.

Most of these steps do not need to be run immediately after each other, which allows for flexibility in how you install systems. This means that you can prepare a single installation as a first step and then continue from there. For example:

  • Install the operating system (SUSE Linux Enterprise Server) only.

    or

  • Install the operating system (SUSE Linux Enterprise Server), copy SAP media, and collect SAP installation parameters.

Then, create disk images, copy them to other systems, and adjust SAP installation parameters. Finally, finish the installation on each machine individually.

2.6 Required Data for Installing

  
Operating System

The SUSE Linux Enterprise Server installation requires the following data for every physical server:

  • Network configuration parameters, such as host name, domain, IP address, subnet mask, domain searchlist (DNS), IP for name server, IP for gateway

  • Administrator (root) password for the SUSE Linux Enterprise Server installation

SAP Application

The installation of an SAP application generally requires specifying:

  • SAP SID

  • SAP Instance Number

  • A password for the SAP application

Depending on the SAP application you are installing, more parameters may be necessary, such as T-Shirt Sizing or parameters for virtual networking.

SAP HANA Database

The installation of SAP HANA requires specifying:

  • SAP SID

  • SAP Instance Number

  • Whether to enable Multitenant Database Containers (MDC). The multi-tenant support of SAP HANA allows having multiple databases that run as one SAP HANA installation. (To use SAP HANA MDC, you need SAP HANA Life Cycle Manager.)

    For a single-tenant installation, choose No.

    For a multi-tenant instance administrated by one SIDadm user, choose Yes with low isolation.

    For a multi-tenant instance administrated in which each database has its own SIDadm user, choose Yes with high isolation.

  • A password for the SAP HANA database

For more information about installing SAP software, see the SAP documentation at https://help.sap.com and https://support.sap.com.

2.7 Partitioning

  

SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications creates the partitioning table in two stages:

  1. Partitioning for the Operating System (stage 1) (during the installation of the operating system)

  2. Partitioning for the SAP System (stage 2) (during the installation of the SAP product)

2.7.1 Partitioning for the Operating System (stage 1)

  

During the installation of the operating system, partitions for the operating system are created.

A logical volume group (LVG) named /dev/system will be created. This LVG contains two logical volumes (LVs):

  • /dev/system/root: by default 60 GB to account for the operating system and SAP media

  • /dev/system/swap: by default 2 GB, avoid setting a smaller size. See also SAP Note 1984787: SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 12: Installation notes (https://launchpad.support.sap.com/#/notes/1984787).

Additionally, a boot or UEFI partition will be created as necessary.

2.7.2 Partitioning for the SAP System (stage 2)

  

The partitioning for the SAP system can be created by:

This part of the partitioning can only be created after the operating system has been installed. That means the partitions are created either in the installation workflow after the reboot or in the running system.

Depending on the product you are installing and your particular use case, the amount of hard disk space necessary can vary.

For information on partitioning for the SAP system using AutoYaST, see Appendix B, Partitioning for the SAP System Using AutoYaST.