Vblock™ Solution for SAP Mobility - NDM · VPLEX are presented to users as a contiguous list of...

© 2011 VCE Company, LLC. All rights reserved. 1

VBLOCK™

SOLUTION FOR SAP

MOBILITY

June 2011

WHITE PAPER


Table of Contents Executive Summary ......................................................................................................................... 4

Business Case ............................................................................................................................ 4

Solution ....................................................................................................................................... 4

Key Findings................................................................................................................................ 5

Benefits ....................................................................................................................................... 6

Scope .......................................................................................................................................... 7

Audience ..................................................................................................................................... 7

Terminology................................................................................................................................. 8

Technology Overview ...................................................................................................................... 9

SAP ............................................................................................................................................. 9

VCE Vblock™

Infrastructure Platforms ........................................................................................ 9

VMware vSphere ....................................................................................................................... 11

VMware vMotion ....................................................................................................................... 11

EMC VPLEX .............................................................................................................................. 12

Solution Architecture ..................................................................................................................... 14

Logical Layout ........................................................................................................................... 14

Physical Layout ......................................................................................................................... 14

Test Setup ..................................................................................................................................... 16

Vblock Platform Components .................................................................................................... 17

VPLEX Metro Components ....................................................................................................... 17

SAP Systems ............................................................................................................................ 18

SAP Virtual Machines ............................................................................................................... 19

VMAX Storage........................................................................................................................... 20

Network and SAN Distance Simulators .................................................................................... 20

LoadRunner............................................................................................................................... 20

Validating the Solution ................................................................................................................... 21


Test Objectives.......................................................................................................................... 21

Test Cases ................................................................................................................................ 21

Test System Workloads ............................................................................................................ 22

Test Procedure .......................................................................................................................... 22

Test Results .............................................................................................................................. 27

Test Findings ............................................................................................................................. 28

Conclusion ..................................................................................................................................... 29

Next Steps ..................................................................................................................................... 29

References .................................................................................................................................... 30


Executive Summary

As organizations increasingly rely on the continuity of their datacenter as a strategic part of their business, they

need to be able to move applications and workloads from one geographical location to another. One reason for

such moves is that certain critical applications such as SAP continuously face maintenance interruption and

potential disaster impacts. Traditionally, application and data migration involved moving static resources from one

physical location to another in a labor-intensive, manual process requiring costly service disruptions.

The Vblock™

Solution for SAP Mobility solves this major challenge faced by IT organizations today—how to

transparently and easily share and balance critical business applications such as SAP and data between remote

data centers for maximum business continuity. IT organizations now have new tools to develop automated

processes that simplify and expedite live migration of the data center’s virtual resources, transparently and non-

disruptively in real time.

This white paper provides actual test data and results that demonstrate that, by using VPLEX™

Metro, VMware®

vMotion™

, and the Vblock™

platform, multiple interacting SAP systems can be moved between data centers

without any impact on on-going business processes. Furthermore, the results show non-disruptive migration of

live SAP systems between data centers over distance can be accomplished within a reasonable range of the time

limits in the VPLEX Metro specifications.

Business Case

As organizations increasingly rely on the continuity of their data center as a strategic part of their business, they

need to be able to move applications and workloads from one geographical location to another. Data center

operations for critical applications, such as SAP, continuously face maintenance interruption and potential disaster

impacts in addition to the need to scale resources in response to ever changing business needs. To help

overcome these challenges, enterprises require simplicity in moving applications from one location to another

without any impact to application performance, runtime, or business continuity.

Solution

The VCE® Vblock Solution for SAP Mobility enables IT organizations and service providers to migrate SAP

applications and resources between Vblock™

Infrastructure Platforms both locally and in geographically separated

data centers in an automated, transparent, and non-disruptive way. The solution facilitates:

Consolidation and relocation of SAP applications and data

Workload sharing and balancing

Update, maintenance, and replacement of hardware or software

The Vblock platform, with VPLEX Metro and vMotion, enables enterprises to move live SAP systems, including

virtual servers, from one location to another separated by inter-site Round Trip Time (RTT) of up to five

milliseconds, with no impact on the production environment. VPLEX Metro provides data access from both the

primary and target sites in an active-active mode eliminating the need to move the underlying storage and making

migration dramatically faster. EMC AccessAnywhere™

, distributed cache coherent technology in VPLEX Metro,

enables simultaneous read/write data access. VMware vMotion is transparent to the host and completes a live

migration without compromising end user availability.


Key Findings

VCE has validated the Vblock Solution for SAP Mobility described in this paper. From the tests and

measurements, we draw the following conclusions:

By using VPLEX Metro, vMotion, and Vblock technology, multiple interacting SAP systems can be

moved between data centers without any impact on on-going business processes such as batch jobs,

user transactions, and intersystem connections.

The operation times for moving SAP servers are within reasonable range (a few minutes) of VPLEX

Metro specifications (5 ms over 60 miles). A sharp rise on moving time is observed after a network

delay of ~9 ms.

Figure 1 illustrates the correlation between moving time and network delay for a light SAP workload. Figure 2

illustrates the correlation between moving time and network delay for a medium SAP workload.

Figure 1. Average Moving Time vs. Network Delay (Light SAP Load)


Figure 2. Average Moving Time vs. Network Delay (Medium SAP Load)

Benefits

The automated, transparent, non-disruptive migration of live SAP systems provided by this solution offers the

following major benefits:

Business continuity by seamlessly moving SAP systems to another location with instant access to

applications and data in real-time

Proactive disaster prevention by moving mission-critical SAP systems between geographically

separated data centers

“Follow-the-Sun” application relocation for knowledge workers and “Follow-the-Moon” operations

relocation for global companies for better performance and maintenance

Efficient utilization of the computing resources of multiple data centers by tiering applications according

to their importance


Scope

This paper presents a methodical, structured approach to achieve non-disruptive live migration of SAP

applications and their data from one Vblock platform to another Vblock platform across distance. The steps used

to validate this approach are described in detail.

The specific goals of this paper are to:

Describe the technologies, hardware and software components, and architecture used in the solution

Describe how to successfully migrate live SAP systems from one Vblock platform to another over

distance

Describe the methodology used to validate the solution

Present and explain validation results

Audience

SAP and infrastructure administrators and architects and any technical management responsible for planning or

implementing an SAP migration strategy will benefit from reading this paper. Sales engineers, field consultants,

professional services, and partner engineers may also find the content useful when planning or implementing a

migration strategy for SAP applications on Vblock platforms.


Terminology

The following table contains terms used throughout this document.

Term Definition

EMC AccessAnywhere™

The enabling technology that describes the ability of VPLEX to provide access to information between clusters separated by distance.

Block storage Data structured as blocks. A block is a sequence of bytes or bits having a nominal length (block size). The process of putting data into blocks is called blocking. Blocking is used to facilitate the handling of the data stream by the computer program receiving the data. Blocked data are normally read a whole block at a time. Virtual volumes in VPLEX are presented to users as a contiguous list of blocks.

Cluster Two or more VPLEX directors forming a single fault-tolerant VPLEX cluster.

Director A CPU module that runs GeoSynchrony, the core VPLEX software. There are two directors in each engine, and each has dedicated resources and is capable of functioning independently.

Engine VPLEX enclosure that contains two directors, management modules, and redundant power.

Latency Amount of time it requires to fulfill an I/O request. In this document, latency is measured in terms of Round Trip Time (RTT).

Processing time Amount of time it took an application to process a request and prepare a result set.

Virtual volume A virtual volume looks like a contiguous volume, but can be distributed over two or more storage volumes. Virtual volumes are presented to hosts.

Workload In the context of the SAP Mobility solution, workload is virtual machines and their corresponding SAP applications and data.

Workload federation Dynamically distributing or balancing the workloads as effectively as possible regardless of physical location while optimizing business and operational goals.


Technology Overview

This solution uses the following major hardware and software components and technologies:

SAP

VCE Vblock Infrastructure Platforms

VMware vSphere and VMware vMotion

EMC VPLEX Metro

SAP

SAP ERP Central Component (ECC) 6.0 was used to validate the solution. The SAP ERP application is an

integrated enterprise resource planning (ERP) software that targets business software requirements of midsize

and large organizations in all industries and sectors. It allows for open communication within and between all

company functions.

The SAP architecture, which has changed over time, is the technology framework of the SAP system while the

SAP system landscape is the setup or arrangement of the SAP servers. Ideally, in an SAP environment, a three-

system landscape exists. A three-system landscape consists of the Development Server (DEV), Quality

Assurance Server (QAS), and the Production Server (PROD). The configuration in the development system is

moved to the quality assurance system, and finally to the production system.

VCE Vblock™

Infrastructure Platforms

Vblock platforms are enterprise- and service provider-class IT infrastructure units that are pre-engineered, tested,

and validated with pre-defined performance, capacity, and availability service levels. The standardized converged

infrastructure of the Vblock platform is a foundational building block for cloud computing that helps customers to

realize the benefits of applications running in a virtualized environment.

Vblock platforms are characterized by:

Repeatable units of construction based on matched performance, operational characteristics, and

discrete requirements of power, space, and cooling

Repeatable design patterns that facilitate rapid deployment, integration, and scalability

An architecture that can be scaled for the highest efficiencies in virtualization and workload mobility

An extensible management and orchestration model based on industry-standard tools, APIs, and

methods

A design that contains, manages, and mitigates failure scenarios in hardware and software

environments

Note: Refer to the Vblock™

Infrastructure Platform Architecture Overview for detailed information on the Vblock architecture.

EMC VPLEX supports block-based storage only. Table 1 provides an overview of components of the block

storage capable Vblock platforms. The Vblock Solution for SAP Mobility was validated using the Vblock Series

700.


Table 1 Components of Block Storage Capable Vblock Platforms

Category Vblock Series 300 Vblock Series 700

Compute Cisco UCS

B200M2 B250M2 B440M1 B230M1

Cisco UCS

B200M2 B250M2 B440M1 B230M1

Network Cisco Nexus 1000V Cisco Nexus 5000 Series

switches Cisco MDS 9000 Series SAN

switch

Cisco Nexus 1000V Cisco MDS 9000 Series SAN

switch

Storage 300 HX

EMC VNX 7500

300GX

EMC VNX 5700

300FX

EMC VNX 5500

300 EX

EMC VNX 5300

Drive Types

EFD SAS NL-SAS

700MX

EMC Symmetrix VMAX

Drive Types

EFD Fibre Channel SATA

Virtualization VMware vSphere 4 Enterprise Plus Suite

Compute/Networking Management

Cisco UCS Manager/Cisco Fabric Manager

Storage Management EMC Unisphere® EMC Symmetrix Management

Console

Orchestration EMC Ionix Unified Infrastructure Manager (UIM) 2.1

Advanced Management Pod (AMP) (optional)

Security Individual component security tools and protocols

RSA enVision, RSA SecurID® (both optional)


VMware vSphere

VMware vSphere™

is the industry’s most reliable platform for data center virtualization of the IT infrastructure. It

enables the most scalable and efficient use of the x86 server hardware in a robust, highly available environment.

Most notably, vSphere:

Abstracts server processor, memory, storage, and networking resources into multiple VMs.

Partitions physical servers into multiple VMs. Each VM represents a complete system with processors,

memory, networking, storage, and BIOS.

Shares single server resources across multiple VMs and clusters ESX servers for further sharing of

resources.

The VMware software components used to validate the solution are:

VMware vSphere 4.1

VMware vCenter Server 4.1

VMware vMotion

Included with vSphere, VMware vMotion™ is a key enabling technology for creating a dynamic, automated, and

self-optimizing data center. VMware vMotion enables live migration of VMs from one physical server to another

while continuously powered-up. This process takes place without any noticeable effect from the point of view of

the end user. An administrator can take a VM offline for maintenance or upgrading without subjecting the system's

users to downtime.

One of the most significant advantages of live migration is the fact that it facilitates proactive maintenance. If an

imminent failure is suspected, the potential problem can be resolved before disruption of service occurs. Live

migration can also be used for load balancing, in which work is shared among computers in order to optimize the

utilization of available CPU resources.

VMware vMotion enables:

Hardware maintenance without scheduled downtime

Proactive live migration of VMs away from failing or underperforming ESX servers

Optimization of resources to align with business priorities

Migration of a VM with VMware vMotion preserves the precise execution state, the network identity, and the active

network connections. As a result, there is zero downtime and no disruption to the user.

Combined with Vblock platforms and VPLEX, VMware vMotion enables effective distribution of applications and

their data across multiple virtual hosts over synchronous distances. With virtual storage and virtual servers

working together over distance, the infrastructure can provide load balancing, real-time remote data access, and

improved application protection.


EMC VPLEX

EMC VPLEX is a combination of hardware and software deployed between servers and fibre channel-attached

disk arrays. VPLEX turns a heterogeneous mix of disk arrays into a distributed, federated pool of virtual storage

that can be spread over multiple data centers.

VPLEX uses a unique clustering architecture that allows servers at multiple data centers to have read/write

access to shared block storage devices. The unique characteristics of the VPLEX architecture include:

Scale-out clustering hardware lets you start small and grow big with predictable service levels.

Advanced data caching utilizes large-scale SDRAM cache to improve performance and reduce I/O

latency and array contention.

Distributed cache coherence provides automatic sharing, balancing, and failover of I/O within and

between VPLEX clusters.

A consistent view of one or more LUNs between VPLEX clusters separated either by a few feet within a

data center or by several miles across synchronous distances enables new models of high availability,

workload mobility, and collaboration.

VPLEX Metro

VPLEX Metro provides data mobility, enhanced high availability, and collaboration between two sites within

synchronous distances. VPLEX Metro:

Provides mobility and access across two locations separated by inter-site Round Trip Time (RTT) of up

to 5 ms.

Supports up to two clusters, which can be in the same data center or at different sites within

synchronous distances.

Allows a remote VPLEX Metro cluster to present LUNs without the need for physical storage for those

LUNs at that remote cluster.

Supports synchronous distributed volumes that mirror data between the two clusters using write-through

caching.

VPLEX Clusters

VPLEX provides simultaneous access to storage devices at two sites through creation of VPLEX virtual volumes,

supported on each side by a VPLEX cluster. Each VPLEX cluster is itself highly available, scaling from two up to

eight directors per VPLEX cluster. Each director is supported by independent power supplies, fans, and

interconnects. All VPLEX clusters are built from a standard engine configuration. The engine is responsible for the

federation of the I/O stream. It connects to hosts and storage using Fibre Channel as the data transport.


VPLEX Virtual Volumes

Presented to the hosts, virtual volumes look like a contiguous volume, but can be distributed over two or more

storage volumes. Figure 3 shows virtual volumes provisioned for use and accessible through VPLEX Metro.

Figure 3. VPLEX Virtual Volumes


Solution Architecture

The Vblock Solution for SAP Mobility uses an end-to-end architecture in which workloads can be seamlessly

migrated between the Vblock platforms within and between data centers with zero application downtime. The

following sections describe the logical and physical architecture of the Vblock Solution for SAP Mobility.

Logical Layout

Figure 4 shows the logical architecture of the solution. The figure shows two data centers (Site A and Site B),

each with its own Vblock platform and VPLEX Metro.

VMware vMotion, a component of VMware vSphere, enables the live migration of active VMs from one physical

server to another while VPLEX Metro provides the ESX servers with access to a datastore consisting of virtual

LUNs (read/write) stretched across two Vblock platforms. This federation of data dramatically reduces the time it

takes to move VMs and their corresponding applications and storage. EMC AccessAnywhere technology

integrated with VPLEX Metro provides access to information between clusters separated by distance.

Figure 4. SAP Mobility Solution Architecture

Physical Layout

Figure 5 illustrates the physical layout used in the validation of the solution. The figure shows two data centers,

each with a Vblock Series 700 connected to a VPLEX Metro 4.1.

The two VPLEX Metro appliances are Fibre Channel (FC) connected while the ESX servers are connected to the

same subnet. The IP subnet on which the VM resides must be accessible from both the source and destination

ESX servers. This requirement is critical because a VM retains its IP address when it moves to the destination

ESX server to help ensure that its communication with the outside world (for example, TCP clients) continues

smoothly after the move.


Figure 5. Physical Layout


Test Setup

The following components were configured to set up the test environment:

Vblock Platform Components

VPLEX Metro Components

SAP Systems

SAP Virtual Machines

Storage

Network and SAN Simulation

LoadRunner

Figure 6 depicts the test environment.

Figure 6. Test Setup


Vblock Platform Components

The solution was validated using two Vblock Series 700 platforms, each with the following hardware configuration:

2 X UCS Blade B200-M2, 8 x CPU Cores, 96 GB memory 2 X Cisco MDS 9513 Storage Switch. The SAP Portal and SAP IDES database were configured on one

blade, and the SAP IDES application servers were configured on the other blade. 2 X EMC Symmetrix VMAX

The two Vblock platforms were connected to the same VLAN (VLAN 114). In a real world environment, a unique

VLAN across data centers could be set up using Cisco Overlay Transport Virtualization (OTV) technology.

VPLEX Metro Components

VPLEX configurations are categorized as small, medium, and large based on the number of engines in the

cabinet. The solution was validated using a small VPLEX Metro 4.1 configuration that included the following

components:

A single-engine (two directors) VPLEX cluster

Redundant standby power supplies (SPSs)

16 front-end Fibre Channel (FC) ports

16 back-end FC ports

A management server

The number of VPLEX Metro ports configured depends on the number of LUNs in use and the amount of data

transferred from host to array. Each ESX server in the application cluster was configured identically, with access

to all of the same LUNs. Devices were configured to ensure that only the LUNs to be claimed by VPLEX Metro

were seen.

VPLEX Metro ports are physically wired to available ports on the Vblock platform and do not require changes to

any of the Vblock platform physical components. Ports were configured as follows:

VPLEX front-end and back-end ports were configured on a Cisco MDS 9513 (Vblock SAN) switch using

4-GB FC ports.

- VPLEX front-end FC ports were configured for throughput and redundancy, and zoned to specific

FC ports on the Fabric Interconnects in the Vblock Series 700.

- VPLEX back-end FC ports were configured for throughput and redundancy, and zoned to specific

storage array ports (SPA/ SPB) on the Vblock platform.

VPLEX WAN ports were designed for redundancy and throughput. WAN ports from each director were

connected to the multilayer director switch (MDS) fabric at each simulated location. A two-port inter-

switch link (ISL) was configured on the FC switches, and those connections were passed through a

WAN emulator to introduce latency.

The VMware vMotion WAN traffic is designed for security, redundancy, and throughput.


SAP Systems

To simulate a real customer environment, two interconnected SAP systems were set up: SAP Portal and SAP

IDES (Figure 7). The SAP Portal authenticates users and offers a single point of access to information, enterprise

applications, and services both inside and outside an organization. Both systems were configured to handle up to

500 concurrent users. Table 2 lists specifications for the SAP Portal system. Table 3 lists specifications for the

SAP IDES system.

Figure 7. SAP Systems

Table 2 SAP Portal Specifications

Specification Description

Version NetWeaver 7.0

Database Oracle 10.2.0.4.0

# Server Nodes 2

# App Servers 0

Heap Size 4 GB


Table 3 SAP IDES Specifications

Specification Description

Version ECC IDES 6.0

Database Oracle 10.2.0.4.0

# App Servers 2

# Dialog Processes per App Server 40

# Batch Job Processes per App Server 12

SAP Virtual Machines

Four VMs were created for the SAP databases and application servers. Table 4 lists the SAP virtual machines

migrated during validation of the solution. Figure 8 shows the virtual machines in vCenter vSphere Client.

Table 4 SAP Virtual Machines

VM Name Role OS Number of vCPUs

Memory

SAP_LINUX SAP IDES Database RHET 5.5 64-bit 8 48 GB

SAP_APP1 SAP IDES Application Server RHET 5.5 64-bit 2 16 GB

SAP_APP2 SAP IDES Application Server RHET 5.5 64-bit 2 16 GB

SAP_EP1_DB SAP Portal Database RHET 5.5 64-bit 2 24 GB

Figure 8. SAP VMs in vSphere Client


VMAX Storage

Table 5 shows the three LUNs configured on each VMAX for use by the SAP systems.

Table 5 Storage Configured

LUN Size File Systems

1 100 GB /usr/sap/<SID>, /sapmnt/<SID>, /<Any_SAP_Application_folder>/

2 600 GB /oracle, /oracle/sapdata*, /oracle/client

3 400 GB VMDK for all virtual machines

Network and SAN Distance Simulators

Two Anue Network Simulators were used to simulate distance: one to simulate network distance and one to

simulate SAN distance. Anue Network Emulators emulate real-world network impairment conditions for the test

and validation of network-based products, applications, and services before deployment. Network delay was

entered separately through the simulator’s Web-based interface.

LoadRunner

HP®

LoadRunner 11 was used to generate the SAP workloads used in validation of the solution. HP LoadRunner

can emulate hundreds or thousands of concurrent users to apply production workloads to application platforms or

environments. LoadRunner stresses an application from end-to-end—applying consistent, measurable, and

repeatable loads. HP LoadRunner supports performance testing for a wide range of application environments and

protocols, including SAP.

The LoadRunner landscape consisted of a Controller and 3 to 6 Load Generators. Business processes

(implemented as scripts) were created with the Virtual User Generator (VuGen), which were then run by the

LoadRunner Controller to execute the load scenario. Different user profiles were created to avoid caching. The

number of users was ramped up until the required load was generated on the SAP system.


Validating the Solution

Common purposes for migrating VMs from a physical server in one data center to a physical server in another

data center include data center relocation, workload balancing, and technology refresh. For example, you may

want to migrate all the VMs running SAP applications to a Vblock platform with more resources in a remote data

center at the end of each quarter to accommodate increased workloads. VPLEX Metro eliminates the need to

migrate the underlying storage so that migration of the VMs is fast with zero downtime.

In validating the Vblock Solution for SAP Mobility, we chose to implement and demonstrate a user request to

move SAP workloads from one data center to another.

Test Objectives

The objectives of the test were to:

Validate the setup and procedure for live, non-disruptive migration of a running application over

synchronous distances between two Vblock platforms in geographically separated data centers utilizing

the Vblock Solution.

Measure and characterize migration time relative to distance between Vblock platforms and the size of

the SAP workload.

Test Cases

Load was measured in terms of CPU usage. System load was considered light when CPU usage was less than 5

percent. System load was considered medium when CPU usage was greater than 40 percent. The SAP virtual

machines VMs were migrated while the SAP systems were fully under load and business processes were being

executed.

Table 6 describes the four test cases executed during validation of the solution.

Table 6 Test Cases

Test Description

1 Live migration of an SAP IDES system (database server and two application servers) with light system load (CPU<5%)

2 Live migration of an SAP IDES system (database server and two application servers) with medium system load (CPU>40%)

3 Live migration of an SAP Portal system (database server) with light system load (CPU<5%)

4 Live migration of an SAP Portal system (database server) with medium system load (CPU>40%)


Test System Workloads

The workloads used in testing the solution were generated with LoadRunner. Table 7 shows the number of users

and the activities in each type of workload.

Table 7 SAP System Load Description

System Number of Users Activities Executed

SAP IDES ~200 SAP Sales and Distribution (SD) users

Interactive SAP GUI transactions

and

SAP Load Generator running as a background job,

compiling ABAP objects

SAP Portal

~150 users Online portal activities

Test Procedure

The Migrate Virtual Machine wizard was used to move each of the four SAP VMs from one data center

(Mobility_Site_A) to the other (Mobility_Site_B).

In the following procedure the SAP database VM (SAP_LINUX) was moved from Mobility_Site_A to

Mobility_Site_B. The steps were repeated for each of the remaining VMs (SAP_EP1_DB, SAP_APP1, and

SAP_APP2).

1. Login to the VMware vSphere Client.

2. In the navigation pane, right-click SAP_LINUX on Mobility_Site_A, and then select Migrate from the menu. The Migrate Virtual Machine wizard appears.


3. Select Change Host. Click Next.

Option Description

Change host Move the virtual machine to another host.

Change datastore Move the virtual machine’s configuration file and virtual disks.

Change both host and datastore Move the virtual machine to another host and move its configuration file and virtual disks.

4. Select the destination host on Mobility_Site_B (192.168.50.212). Click Next.

Any compatibility problem appears in the Compatibility panel. Fix the problem, or select another host or

cluster. Possible targets include hosts and fully automated DRS clusters. If you select a non-automated

cluster, you are prompted to select a host within the cluster.


5. Select High Priority for vMotion Priority. Click Next.


Option Description

High Priority vCenter Server reserves resources on both the source and destination hosts to maintain virtual machine availability during the migration. High priority migrations do not proceed if resources are unavailable.

Low Priority vCenter Server does not reserve resources on the source and destination hosts to maintain availability during the migration. Low priority migrations always proceed. However, the virtual machine might become briefly unavailable if host resources are unavailable during the migration.

6. Review the selections, and then click Finish to start the migration.

A task is created that begins the VM migration process. Throughout migration of the VM, VPLEX Metro

transparently maintains communication with and access to the shared datastore for users.


7. Monitor the progress of the migration at the bottom of the screen.

8. Repeat the steps 2 through 7 for the remaining VMs (SAP_EP1_DB, SAP_APP1, and SAP_APP2).


Test Results

The test cases were executed at 1-ms intervals for light SAP workloads and for medium SAP workloads. Load

was categorized as light or medium based on the percentage of CPU utilized by both database and application

servers. A light load was defined as less than 5 percent CPU usage, and a medium load was defined as more

than 40 percent CPU usage. Test results are:

Table 8 shows results for tests conducted on the SAP IDES and SAP Portal systems with a light

(CPU<5%) workload.

Table 9 shows results for tests conducted on the SAP IDES and SAP Portal system with a medium

(CPU>40%) workload.

Table 8 Average Moving Time with Light Load (CPU<5%)

Network Latency

(ms)

Anue Network Delay (ms)

Network Bandwidth= 10

Gb/sec

Avg. vMotion Moving Time (min.)

Avg. Network ping Time Between Sites

(ms)

ECC IDES DBCI

ECC IDES App1/App2

Portal DBCI/Java

Servers

Test Case 1 Test Case 3

0 0 3.61 0.84 1.52 0.30

1 1 3.75 0.94 1.54 1.23

2 2 3.97 1.13 1.52 2,24

3 3 4.13 1.30 1.79 3.24

4 4 4.32 1.33 2.05 4.23

5 5 5.03 1.51 2.42 5.20

6 6 5.31 1.58 2.50 6.24

7 7 5.75 1.75 2.73 7.22

8 8 6.35 1.91 2.91 8.24

9 9 6.70 2.27 3.31 9.23

10 10 9.33 2.43 4.12 10.2

11 11 26.78 4.85 10.62 11.2


Table 9 Average Moving Time with Medium Load (CPU>40%)

Network Latency

(ms)

Anue Network Delay (ms)

Network Bandwidth= 10

Gb/sec

Avg. vMotion Moving Time (min.)

Avg. Network ping Time Between Sites

(ms)

ECC IDES DBCI

ECC IDES App1/App2

Portal DBCI/Java

Servers

Test Case 2 Test Case 4

0 0 3.90 1.68 1.71 0.30

1 1 4.00 1.85 1.78 1.28

2 2 4.27 1.88 1.80 2.30

3 3 4.82 1.98 1.94 3.30

4 4 5.18 2.18 2.23 4.30

5 5 5.50 2.20 2.56 5.30

6 6 6.67 2.45 2.81 6.20

7 7 6.97 2.80 2.97 7.20

8 8 7.45 2.92 3.37 8.20

9 9 7.87 3.00 4.02 9.20

10 10 12.33 5.40 5.24 10.20

11 11 34.08 8.75 12.92 11.20

Test Findings

From the tests and measurements, we draw the following conclusions:

By using VPLEX Metro, vMotion, and Vblock technology, multiple interacting SAP systems can be

moved between data centers without any impact on on-going business processes such as batch jobs,

user transactions, and intersystem connections.

The operation times for moving SAP servers are within reasonable range (a few minutes) of VPLEX

Metro specifications (5 ms over 60 miles). A sharp rise on moving time is observed after a network

delay of ~9 ms.


Conclusion

VCE tested and verified an application mobility solution that allows customers to move virtual machine-based SAP

application workloads between data centers without affecting application uptime. The described solution uses

innovative technologies from VCE, VMware, and EMC to meet common challenges that customers face today in

managing business-critical applications—maintaining high availability, lowering costs, and reducing both planned

and unplanned downtime.

The Vblock Solution for SAP Mobility leverages EMC VPLEX Metro and VMware vMotion to move applications

and data between Vblock Infrastructure Platforms in geographically separated data centers quickly, simply, and

non-disruptively. The solution:

Provides a more effective method of managing virtual environments by enabling transparent mobility of

existing applications and infrastructure within and between data centers with no interruption of service.

Enables seamless and non-disruptive disaster recovery.

Allows sharing and balancing of resources within and between data centers using standard tools.

Gives IT administrators the ultimate flexibility while insulating the user base and ensuring they

experience zero downtime and disruption for these critical IT capabilities.

VCE has validated this solution and found that by using VPLEX Metro, vMotion, and Vblock technology, multiple

interacting SAP systems can be moved between data centers without any impact on on-going business

processes. Furthermore, the results show non-disruptive migration of live SAP systems between data centers

over distance can be accomplished within a reasonable range of the time limits in the VPLEX Metro specifications.

Next Steps

To learn more about this and other solutions, contact a VCE representative or visit www.vce.com.

http://www.vce.com/


References

Vblock™ Solution for SAP: Use Case And Performance Results, VCE Solution Brochure, November

2010

Vblock™ Powered Solution for SAP: Simplified Provisioning For Operational Efficiency, VCE White

Paper, May 2010 (P/N h7156)

Vblock™ Solution for SAP: SAP Application And Database Performance In Physical And Virtual

Environments, VCE White Paper, January 2010

Vblock™ Powered Solution For SAP: High Availability for the Private Cloud, May 2010

Vblock™ Infrastructure Platforms: A Technical Overview (http://www.vce.com/solutions/vblock/)

Using VMware Virtualization Platforms with EMC VPLEX—Best Practices Planning, EMC White Paper,

January 2011 (P/N h7118.2)

Workload Resiliency with EMC VPLEX—Best Practices Planning, EMC White Paper, May 2010 (P/N

h7138.1)

EMC VPLEX Architecture and Deployment: Enabling the Journey to the Private Cloud, EMC Techbook,

2010 (P/N h7113.1)

http://www.vce.com/solutions/vblock/


ABOUT VCE

VCE, the Virtual Computing Environment Company formed by Cisco and EMC with investments from VMware and Intel,

accelerates the adoption of converged infrastructure and cloud-based computing models that dramatically reduce the

cost of IT while improving time to market for our customers. VCE, through the Vblock platform, delivers the industry's first

completely integrated IT offering with end-to-end vendor accountability. VCE's prepackaged solutions are available

through an extensive partner network, and cover horizontal applications, vertical industry offerings, and application

development environments, allowing customers to focus on business innovation instead of integrating, validating and

managing IT infrastructure.

For more information, go to www.vce.com.

THE INFORMATION IN THIS PUBLICATION IS PROVIDED "AS IS." VCE MAKES NO REPRESENTATIONS

OR WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND WITH RESPECT TO THE INFORMATION IN THIS PUBLICATION, AND

SPECIFICALLY DISCLAIMS IMPLIED WARRANTIES OR MECHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A

PARTICULAR PURPOSE.

Copyright © 2011 VCE Company, LLC. All rights reserved. Vblock and the VCE logo are registered trademarks or trademarks of VCE Company, LLC. and/or its affiliates in the United States or other countries. All other trademarks used herein are the property of their respective owners.

Vblock™ Solution for SAP Mobility - NDM · VPLEX are presented to users as a contiguous list of...

Documents

Transcript of Vblock™ Solution for SAP Mobility - NDM · VPLEX are presented to users as a contiguous list of...