Last year, SAP HANA on vSphere 8 gained support for 2-socket ESXi host configurations with 4th Gen Intel® Xeon® Scalable processors (Sapphire Rapids). Recently, VMware and its partners successfully completed SAP HANA validation for 4-socket Sapphire Rapids (SPR). SAP now offers full support for this platform when virtualized with vSphere 8. For further details on the support, refer to SAP support note 3372365 .
The test results achieved with the 4-socket 4th Gen Intel® Xeon® platform with vSphere 8 and SAP HANA were impressive, showcasing notable performance capabilities and memory scalability. These attributes make it feasible to migrate older 8-socket SAP HANA deployments, whether virtualized or not, to this new 4-socket Sapphire Rapids platform with vSphere 8. The ability to deploy SAP OLAP workloads (e.g., BWH) with up to 8 TB of memory as a sizing Class L BW configuration is of particular significance. This facilitates the expansion of memory footprints from previous 8-socket Cascade/Cooper Lake systems, which typically had a 6 TB standard configuration, to 8 TB without the need for special BW SAP sizing, when the underlying host fulfills Class L sizing.
The supported standard VM configurations, based on the SAP-defined appliance with a 60-core, 8 TB configuration, are as follows:
- Smallest VM: 1 CPU socket, 60 cores, 120 vCPUs with up to 2 TB of vRAM
- Largest VM: 4 CPU sockets, 240 cores, 480 vCPUs with up to 8 TB of vRAM
These configurations may vary if smaller core count CPUs or different memory configurations are utilized, necessitating an SAP HANA TDI/workload-based sizing, refer to SAP note 2779240 for more information on TDI/WBS sizing.
For more information, deployment, sizing and operation examples refer to the new SAP HANA on VMware vSphere best practices guide (2024 edition).
Note: SAP has opted not to provide half-socket support for the 4-socket 4th Gen Intel® Xeon® platform due to the higher measured deviations when two SAP HANA VMs get deployed on the same CPU socket and since they are yet not ready to support SNC with >2-socket systems. However, half-socket support is available with the 2-socket 4th Gen Intel® Xeon® Scalable processors and SNC-2, which is the ideal platform for smaller SAP HANA VMs. Refer to the following blog for more information on SNC.
SAP HANA on vSphere validation environment and partners
For the validation of SAP HANA 2.0 on vSphere 8, we used a 4-socket Lenovo ThinkAgile VX850 V3 Certified Node server equipped with Intel® Xeon® Platinum 8490H processors, alongside an external Fibre Channel based Pure FlashArray/X50 storage system. I would like to take this opportunity to express our gratitude to our validation partners. Without their support, conducting these validations at the level we do now would not be possible.
SAP HANA on 4th Gen Intel Xeon (Sapphire Rapids) 4-socket performance snapshot
During the vSphere 8 SAP HANA validation process, in addition to regression tests, we also conduct performance tests. Two of these tests provide insights into how the system performs with OLTP and OLAP-like SAP workloads. These include SAP HANA mixed workload (OLAP and OLTP) test and the publicly available SAP BW Edition for SAP HANA Standard Application Benchmark (BWH). I have previously detailed these tests/benchmarks in my vSphere 8 SAP HANA 2-Socket Sapphire Rapids blog. For more information, please refer to that blog.
SAP HANA 4th Gen Intel Xeon (Sapphire Rapids) 4-socket BW performance:
The standard memory size defined by SAP for 4-socket, 60-core 4th Gen Intel Xeon CPU-based systems is 6 TB. As previously mentioned, we have attained what is known as the BW L-Class sizing for both 6 TB and 8 TB SAP HANA BW VM configurations. Consequently, SAP HANA BW systems with up to 8 TB of memory do not require special sizing when the underlying host fulfills Class L sizing (e.g. a 60-core Intel® Xeon® Platinum 8490H CPU gets used).
Below are the results of our internal SAP-reviewed BW tests. The first table displays a 6 TB configuration with 10.4 billion data records, where we achieved over 7100 QPH in a fully virtualized SAP BW system running on vSphere 8, utilizing a VMXNET3 NIC, which is over 2100 QPH more as required for a L-Class configuration.
The subsequent table presents the same test conducted with an 8 TB memory configuration and 14.3 billion data records, typically denoting an M-Class configuration owing to the higher memory capacity. Remarkably, in this scenario, we attained the L-Class BW sizing category with 5880 QPH, which is double the QPH requirement for M-Class sizing
These results enable you to optimize your configuration by adjusting host memory and selecting the appropriate 4th Gen Intel Xeon CPU variant for your configuration.
When compared to an 8-socket Cascade Lake configuration with 6 TB, the enhanced performance of the 4th Gen Intel Xeon platform becomes evident, demonstrating the ease with which the older 8-socket Intel Cascade / Coper Lake server can be replaced by a 4-socket ESXi host based on 60-core 4th Gen Intel Xeon CPUs.
The following table and figure illustrate the results of internal SAP-reviewed tests conducted on vSphere 8, comparing an Intel Cascade Lake 8220L with 28 cores to a 60-core Intel Sapphire Rapids 8490H CPU.
The ability to expand existing memory from 6 TB to 8 TB is facilitated by the attained BWH L-Class sizing category with this memory configuration.
SAP HANA 4th Gen Intel Xeon (Sapphire Rapids) 4-socket Mixed-Workload performance:
Similar to the 2-socket 4th Gen Intel Xeon platform, the performance gains are notably pronounced when comparing the results of our internal SAP HANA mixed workload tests on the 4-socket 4th Gen Intel Xeon CPUs. This comparison reveals a remarkable 300% increase in performance compared to older 4-socket Broadwell-based servers.
These performance advancements empower customers to either surpass the SAP-standard defined memory sizes for 60-core 4th Gen Intel Xeon CPUs or to opt for smaller variants, such as 32- or 48-core CPUs. However, such decisions necessitate SAP workload-based sizing.
In instances where sizing is not feasible or overly complex, users have the option to select SAP HANA’s predefined standard configuration sizes. These sizes are based on the 60-core 4th Gen Intel Xeon processor CPU version, offering 1.5 TB per CPU socket for OLAP (BW) workloads and, since December last year, 3 TB per CPU socket for OLTP (ERP) type workloads for TDI deployments.
Note: Systems with more than 8 TB of memory, such as 12 TB (3 TB per socket) configurations for 4-socket 4th Gen Intel Xeon CPU-based systems, are currently not supported with SAP HANA on vSphere. This limitation stems from the fact that the largest tested memory configuration on this platform is 8 TB. Support for configurations exceeding 8 TB will be considered after conducting tests with memory capacities greater than 8 TB. Check SAP note 2779240 for updated information on larger memory support with the 4-socket platform.
The table below provides an overview of recently conducted tests involving the same SAP HANA workload and software versions across different CPU generations.
Please note, while the Intel E7-8880v4 tests were conducted on vSphere 7, the differences between vSphere 7 and 8 with this CPU are negligible, as both versions offer the same feature set on an Intel E7-8880v4. See table below for details.
| CPU comparission with vSphere 7 and 8 VMs ruinng a Mixed SAP HANA Workload Test @ Max-Out CPU Utilization | ||
| Configuration | TPH | QPH |
| 4-Socket Intel Broadwell E7-8880 v4 22 Core CPU – VMXNET3 vSphere 7 | 3,723,484 | 6,210 |
| 2-Socket Intel Ice Lake 8380 40 Core CPU – VMXNET3 vSphere 8 | 5,676,112 | 9,487 |
| 8-Socket Intel Cascade Lake 8280L 28 Core CPU – VMXNET3 vSphere 8 | 7,710,063 | 12,855 |
| 2-Socket Intel Sapphire Rapids 8490H 60 Core CPU – VMXNET3 vSphere 8 | 8,229,963 | 13,700 |
| 8-Socket Intel Cooper Lake 8380HL 28 Core CPU – VMXNET3 vSphere 8 | 9,753,984 | 16,251 |
| 4-Socket Intel Sapphire Rapids 8490H 60 Core CPU – VMXNET3 vSphere 8 | 11,389,998 | 19,025 |
The next figures demonstrate a performance increase of 300% when comparing an older 4-socket Broadwell-based server to the latest Intel Sapphire Rapids 8490H CPU. Moreover, when compared to an 8-socket Cooper Lake-based server, the performance increase remains over 16%, and when compared to a Cascade Lake 8-socket server, it reaches over 47% for this S/4HANA mixed-type workload test.
The next figure shows an identical performance gain for QPH with the S/4HANA mixed-type workload test.
Summary
The 4th Gen Intel Xeon platform, coupled with 4-socket vSphere 8 ESXi hosts, delivers exceptional performance for SAP HANA workloads. This empowers customers to seamlessly migrate their existing SAP HANA systems, previously running on outdated server platforms, to a new, modern on-premises server platform with a cloud-like operational model supported by vSphere 8 as part of the VMware Cloud Foundation.
As larger memory sizes (e.g., 12 TB or 16 TB) undergo SAP HANA testing with vSphere 8, like the validated 8 TB configurations used in our tests, these memory sizes will also become feasible (subject to SAP sizing constraints) for this 4-socket TDI platform.
Although half-socket support is not available for >2-socket 4th Gen Intel Xeon ESXi hosts, the platform still offers considerable flexibility and supports the typical growth of SAP HANA databases observed among customers.
For smaller SAP HANA systems, 2-socket 4th Gen Intel Xeon ESXi hosts serve as the optimal platform, offering an effortless migration path for SAP HANA VMs that exceed the capabilities of a 2-socket SPR ESXi host.
What’s Next*?
Our next planned steps involves conducting the SAP HANA BWH Scale-Out benchmark using 4-socket 4th Gen Intel Xeon vSphere 8 ESXi hosts with the SAP defined 6 TB standard memory configuration. Our aim is to achieve SAP HANA BW Scale-Out support for up to 48 TB (8 x 6 TB hosts).
Additionally, we have commenced the SAP HANA validation on 8-socket 4th Gen Intel Xeon vSphere 8 ESXi hosts, configured with 16 TB.
* Neither a commitment nor an obligation exists to fulfill any of the planned next steps.
