Last month, VMware announced the forthcoming availability of VMware vSphere 7 Update 1 with general availability on October 6. We worked with SAP to support SAP NetWeaver and SAP HANA workloads for vSphere 7.0 U1 based on our vSphere 7.0 validation and support statements and are happy to announce that SAP customers can deploy new systems with vSphere 7.0 U1 or upgrade existing vSphere SAP environments as of today.
Currently, SAP HANA is supported with the maximum size of 6 TB and 256 vCPUs per VM, actual number of vCPUs depends on the used CPU, like 224 vCPUs for Cascade Lake based 4-socket 28 core CPU based servers. For details check out SAP Note 2937606 – SAP HANA on VMware vSphere 7.0 in production. Stay tuned for new support announcements on leveraging vSphere 7.0 U1 new scalability features with SAP HANA
However, VMware also announced unprecedented scalability enhancements with vSphere 7.0 U1 and Monster VMs. Stay tuned for new support announcements on leveraging vSphere 7.0 U1 new scalability features with SAP HANA. A first look of VMware vSphere 7.0 U1 Monster VMs with SAP HANA can get found in this blog.
Besides the Day Zero support for SAP HANA for vSphere 7.0 U1, we are also happy to announce vSAN 7.0 U1 support for SAP HANA HCI in its Core HCI deployment model. This certification means that all SAP HANA HCI partners, offering Intel Cascade Lake vSAN 6.7 U2/U3 based SAP HANA HCI certified solutions, can upgrade their SAP HANA HCI solution to vSphere and vSAN 7.0 U1 now.
Details can get found in SAP Note 2718982 – SAP HANA on VMware vSphere and vSAN. Customers are encouraged to contact their SAP HANA HCI vendor to discuss an upgrade path to vSphere and vSAN 7.0 U1.
Why Upgrade to vSphere 7.0U1 and vSAN U1 for SAP Workloads?
While SAP workloads running on vSphere and vSAN version 6.7x run great today, the upgrade to 7.0 U1 will provide additional benefits, which include:
- New scalability features, see blog for SAP HANA for a first view what’s coming with Monster VMs .
- Better vMotion! Tests with SAP HANA have shown that the new vMotion version in vSphere 7.x has up to 6x less impact on a running SAP HANA workloads and is 2-3 times faster compared to vSphere 6.7U3! More details on our vMotion innovations are here.
- Support of vSAN 7 Update 1 for larger capacity devices and easier maintenance with NVMe hotplug.
- vSAN 7.0 U1 Performance improvements – measurable performance improvements from vSAN 6.7U3 due to CPU optimizations, improved parallelization, faster resynchronizations, and network enhancements.
- Simplified operations with vSphere Lifecycle Manager (vLCM) for vSphere and vSAN hosts. In vSphere 7 Update 1, vLCM will also monitor for desired image compliance continuously and enable simple remediation in the event of any compliance.
- Developer ready infrastructure with full vSphere Tanzu support, which offers the ability to configure an enterprise-grade Kubernetes infrastructure leveraging your existing networking and storage.
- Future proof environment with vSphere 7.0 general support till April 2025 and technical support till April 2027.
Conclusion:
We are happy to enable our SAP customers the option to upgrade their exiting VMware vSphere and vSAN based SAP environment with day zero support for vSphere 7.0U1 with it’s better vMotion support, simplified operations with vSphere Lifecycle Manager and for customers using HCI certified appliances better support for larger drives. This is only the beginning of what is possible for vSphere 7.0 U1 with it’s unprecedented scalability with vSphere’s new Monster VMs that will allow customers to scale their virtualized SAP HANA environments, make sure to check out the first look for more details of what we are working on now!
References:
- What’s New with VMware vSphere 7 Update 1?
- General Availability of vSAN 7 Update 1
- What’s New in vSAN 7 Update 1?
- Blog: vMotion Performance Study
- SAP on VMware – central webpage
- SAP HANA HCI @ SAP WIKI page
- SAP HANA HCI Powered by VMware and Partner Solutions
- VMware @ SAP WIKI pages
