Virtualizing SAP Workloads: Supported Scenarios #
SUSE infrastructure solutions provide validated environments for running traditional and cloud-native SAP workloads on KVM virtualization, covering SAP application servers, databases, SAP HANA and containerized SAP edge workloads on SUSE Rancher Prime and SUSE Virtualization. The result is hardware consolidation, lower costs and near-bare-metal performance, with validated support across all layers. Use this guide to confirm whether your SAP deployment falls within supported boundaries and which SAP notes apply.
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1 Overview #
Virtualization represents a foundational element in modern enterprise architecture. It allows you to consolidate hardware resources, reduce operational costs and simplify lifecycle management. SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for SAP applications provides a highly optimized platform for you to virtualize demanding SAP workloads using Kernel-based Virtual Machine (KVM) technology. By using SUSE KVM, you can run critical databases and application servers on a single high-performance physical server. This optimizes resource usage while maintaining strict security boundaries.
To ensure operational integrity, data safety and alignment with support policies, SAP and SUSE conduct collaborative hypervisor validations. These validation processes ensure that your virtualized SAP systems deliver near bare-metal performance, meeting strict performance criteria and minimizing virtualization latency across CPU, memory, storage and network subsystems. This reference document acts as your architectural guide, mapping out supported scenarios and validation requirements for both traditional and cloud-native deployments.
2 Supported scenarios on SUSE KVM #
SUSE and SAP maintain a joint support commitment for your traditional virtualized SAP deployments. This support framework enables you to host production workloads on SUSE KVM with full confidence, provided your environment conforms to the specific software versions, processor architectures and sizing principles documented by both vendors.
2.1 SAP application servers and non-HANA databases #
SAP fully supports traditional SAP application components, such as ABAP and Java Application Servers (for example, SAP NetWeaver, SAP S/4HANA application layers) for your production deployment on SUSE KVM. This production support is applicable for SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 SP1 or later as the hypervisor. However, SUSE requires SLES for SAP as the hypervisor for SAP workloads.
For relational database management systems (RDBMS) hosting your SAP database instances, production support on SUSE KVM covers most enterprise-grade relational databases. This includes SAP Adaptive Server Enterprise (SAP ASE) and IBM Db2. However, you must respect specific vendor limitations. For example, SAP explicitly does not support Oracle databases for production use on the SUSE KVM platform.
Before deployment, you must consult the general support parameters laid out in the official SAP Notes. For general virtualization support rules, see SAP Note 1492000. For details regarding the SUSE KVM support statements and virtualization agreements, see SAP Note 1522993. This SAP Note also includes instructions on how to set up host monitoring from within the virtual machines, which is a requirement for running virtualized SAP applications.
2.2 SAP HANA #
Due to the high-performance memory-bound nature of SAP HANA, SAP supports KVM virtualization under strict validation boundaries. You must ensure your sizing, hypervisor setup and configuration adhere to validated hardware topologies to maintain support eligibility. Validated configurations support multiple physical layouts, including single-virtual machine (Single-VM) setups, multi-virtual machine (Multi-VM) configurations, High Availability (HA) cluster nodes and live migration configurations.
To assist you in matching your physical processor configurations with validated software versions, SUSE and SAP publish specific validation notes. These notes map particular SLES for SAP service packs and Intel Xeon processor architectures to your validated workloads. The following table summarizes these validated scenarios:
| SLES for SAP version | Processor architecture (Intel) | Reference SAP Note |
|---|---|---|
| SLES for SAP 12 SP2 | Intel Xeon E3, E5 and E7 v3 series (Haswell) | SAP Note 2607144 |
| SLES for SAP 15 SP2 | 1st Generation Intel Xeon Scalable Processors (Skylake) | SAP Note 3120786 |
| SLES for SAP 15 SP4 | 2nd Generation Intel Xeon Scalable Processors (Cascade Lake) | SAP Note 3366235 |
| SLES for SAP 15 SP5 | 4th and 5th Generation Intel Xeon Scalable Processors (Sapphire Rapids and Emerald Rapids) | SAP Note 3538596 |
| SLES for SAP 15 SP7 | 2nd, 4th, 5th and 6th Generation Intel Xeon Scalable Processors (Cascade Lake, Sapphire Rapids, Emerald Rapids* and Granite Rapids*) | SAP Note 3741904 |
* SAP validation on-going, check the respective SAP Note for support status.
For detailed architecture sizing and configuration guidelines, refer to the official SUSE Best Practices Guides for SAP HANA on KVM, available via the SUSE Documentation site. The respective guides are linked in the previous table. SAP Note 3430656 provides a list of all SUSE KVM hypervisors validated for SAP HANA workloads. For all hypervisors supported to virtualize SAP HANA, see SAP Note 1788665.
The guest operating system can be any that is supported both by SUSE as a guest operating system for the specific hypervisor, and by SAP as an operating system for SAP HANA.
Through the introduction of Tailored Datacenter Integration (TDI) Phase 5, SAP began shifting away from established core-to-RAM ratios for SAP HANA appliances toward workload-based sizing. SAP also supports workload-based sizing for your SAP HANA instances virtualized on SUSE KVM. See SAP Note 2779240 for details.
3 Cloud-native SAP workloads #
With the current trend toward cloud-based services, the need arises to connect on-premises systems to these cloud-based services. To support these scenarios, SUSE Rancher for SAP applications provides a complete software stack tailored for hosting your containerized SAP edge workloads, complementing the corresponding SAP cloud counterparts, specifically SAP Edge Integration Cell (EIC) and SAP Digital Manufacturing Edge. You deploy these solutions on lightweight Kubernetes clusters virtualized within hyperconverged infrastructure. SUSE Rancher for SAP applications provides this infrastructure.
3.1 SAP Edge Integration Cell #
SAP Edge Integration Cell (EIC) acts as an on-premises integration runtime, complementing the cloud-based SAP Integration Suite by bringing integration flows close to your on-premises systems. To run EIC in a supported, production-ready and resilient configuration, you must deploy the workload on Rancher Kubernetes Engine 2 (RKE2) clusters managed by SUSE Rancher Prime. You run these clusters inside virtual machines hosted on SUSE Virtualization.
SAP validates Edge Integration Cell on certain Kubernetes platforms. You can find the support matrix in SAP Note 3247839.
You can access SUSE Best Practices Guides for SAP Edge Integration Cell at https://documentation.suse.com/sbp/sap-other.
3.2 SAP Digital Manufacturing Edge #
SAP Digital Manufacturing Edge extends your cloud-based SAP Digital Manufacturing to the shop floor, ensuring continuous manufacturing operations even during cloud disconnections. You can deploy Digital Manufacturing Edge on the same virtualized SUSE Rancher Prime and SUSE Virtualization (Harvester) infrastructure by using virtualized RKE2 clusters running on SUSE Linux Micro 6.0.
You can access SUSE Best Practices Guides for Digital Manufacturing Edge at https://documentation.suse.com/sbp/sap-other.
4 References #
SAP Note 1492000 - General Virtualization Support Statement
SAP Note 1522993 - Virtualization Support on SUSE KVM
SAP Note 1788665 - SAP HANA Support on Virtualized Environments
SAP Note 2779240 - Sizing and SAP HANA TDI Phase 5 Sizing Subelements
SAP Note 3430656 - Hypervisor Validation Statement for SAP HANA on KVM
SAP Note 3247839 - Database Version and Compatibility Guidelines for Edge Integration Cell
SAP Note 3618713 - Restricted Access Configuration and Security Policies for Edge Integration Cell