Best Practice 13.2 - Select EC2 instances suitable for SAP workloads
AWS works with SAP to ensure that AWS services are suitable to implement and operate SAP software across a wide selection of instance types. Use guidance from the relevant SAP notes and documentation to identify suitable instances. EC2 instance families offer different ratios of CPU and memory, as well as storage and network throughput characteristics suitable for running SAP workloads. Map your requirements to the appropriate instance type using performance metrics, SAPS figures, and compute estimates. Confirm availability of these instances in your selected Region and Availability Zone.
Suggestion 13.2.1 – Follow SAP guidance on supported databases, operating systems, and AWS services
AWS offers services that can be used for the deployment of SAP products. SAP Note:
1656099 - SAP
Applications on AWS: Supported DB/OS and Amazon EC2 products
You can determine the availability of individual instance types within a specific AZ using the AWS CLI to describe instance type offerings.
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AWS Documentation: Amazon EC2 Instance Types for SAP
-
SAP Documentation: SAP NetWeaver benchmarks
Suggestion 13.2.2 – Use hardware metrics and SAPS to guide selection
Each SAP supported Amazon EC2 instance family provides a specific vCPU to memory
ratio. You should evaluate each instance family based on your requirements to understand
the performance profile. The current generation of Amazon EC2 instances (based on AWS Nitro
SAP application servers can use either the general purpose (m*
) or memory
optimized (r*
) instances. Where there is a requirement for a higher vCPU to
memory ratio, consider using compute optimized (c*
) instances. For AnyDB
database servers, memory optimized (r*
) instances are a good fit for the
required core to memory ratio, but additional analysis should be done to validate the
sizing, especially if your deployment is subject to per-CPU licensing. For SAP HANA
databases that run in memory, memory optimized (r*
, x*
,
u*
) are your only options.
Suggestion 13.2.3 – Use SAP HANA hardware directory and memory requirement to select EC2 instances for SAP HANA
AWS has SAP HANA certification for a subset of Amazon EC2 instances to run SAP HANA
workloads. Details of these instances, and the IaaS application types supported (OLAP, OLTP,
SAP Business One, Scale-Out) can be found in Certified and Supported SAP HANA Hardware
Database size and actual working memory usage will determine the memory requirement and instance selection.
For non-production workloads, additional options exist. Refer to the blog:
-
SAP on AWS Blog: Smaller X1e instances for SAP HANA non-production workloads
Suggestion 13.2.4 – Be aware of EC2 instance features and throughput characteristics
Amazon EC2 instances have different features and throughput characteristics which should be evaluated based on your use case, particularly for workloads with high I/O and throughput requirements. These include enhanced networking capabilities through the Elastic Network Adapter (ENA), I/O performance, Amazon EBS optimization, and suitability for placement groups. For a full list of features, see:
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AWS Documentation: General Purpose Instances
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AWS Documentation: Memory Optimized Instances
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AWS Documentation: Compute Optimized Instances