Deploy Google Cloud NetApp Volumes for SAP HANA

This guide describes how to deploy and configure Google Cloud NetApp Volumes to provide storage for an SAP HANA workload that runs on Google Cloud.

The procedure described in this guide deploys NetApp Volumes to replace the block storage that is provisioned for the /hana/data and /hana/log directories of an SAP HANA scale-up workload. If you're running a scale-out workload, then repeat this procedure for all the nodes in your scale-out workload.

Before you begin

Before you deploy NetApp Volumes for SAP HANA, ensure that you complete the following prerequisites:

  • Review the list of Compute Engine machine types and the type of SAP HANA workloads with which SAP has certified the use of NetApp Volumes.

    To view this information, see the table in Certified Compute Engine machine types for SAP HANA.

  • Deploy an SAP HANA workload on Linux on Google Cloud on SAP-certified Compute Engine machine types, with Hyperdisk or Persistent Disk volumes providing block storage for the /hana/data and /hana/log directories.

    To deploy this workload, you can use the Terraform configurations provided by Google Cloud. For more information, see the deployment guide for your scenario in Supported SAP solutions.

  • Review the guidance provided by Google Cloud for using NetApp Volumes with SAP HANA, which is described in the Google Cloud NetApp Volumes section of the SAP HANA planning guide.

Deploy NetApp Volumes

To deploy volumes of NetApp Volumes and use them to provide storage for your SAP HANA workload, complete the following steps:

  1. Create volumes of NetApp Volumes to host the /hana/data and /hana/log directories.

    For information about how to create a NetApp Volumes volume, see Create a volume.

  2. Mount the volumes of NetApp Volumes to a temporary mount point by using the mount command with the following settings:

    mount -t nfs -o rw,bg,hard,timeo=600,vers=NFS_VERSION,rsize=262144,wsize=262144,tcp,nconnect=16,noatime,nodiratime,sec=sys server:path mountpoint
    • Replace NFS_VERSION with the NFS version that you want to use. We recommend that you use NFSv4.1 by setting the value 4.1. You can also use NFSv3 by setting the value 3.
    • For database persistence, we recommend that you set rsize=262144 and wsize=262144. These settings help optimize random I/O latency and prevent head-of-line blocking. For directories such as /hana/shared and /sapmnt, the standard mount value defaults are sufficient.

  3. On the compute instance that runs your SAP HANA workload, stop the SAP HANA database and any related services that are using the Hyperdisk or Persistent Disk volumes that host the /hana/data and /hana/log directories.

  4. Copy the contents of the Hyperdisk or Persistent Disk volumes to the volumes of NetApp Volumes that you created.

  5. Detach the Hyperdisk or Persistent Disk volumes from the compute instance.

    For information about how to detach these disks, follow the instructions described in Detach a non-boot disk from an instance.

  6. Remount the volumes of NetApp Volumes to the permanent mount points by updating the /etc/fstab with the following settings:

    server:path   /mountpoint   nfs   vers=NFS_VERSION,hard,tcp,timeo=600,rsize=262144,wsize=262144,nconnect=16,noatime,nodiratime,sec=sys,_netdev   0 0

    Replace NFS_VERSION with the NFS version that you want to use. We recommend that you use 4.1. You can also use 3.

    For information about how to update the /etc/fstab file, see the nfs page in the Linux file formats manual.

  7. To optimize the performance of your SAP HANA workload, we recommend that you update the fileio category in the SAP HANA global.ini file with the following parameters and values:

    Parameter Value
    async_read_submit on
    async_write_submit_active on
    async_write_submit_blocks all
    max_parallel_io_requests 128
    max_parallel_io_requests[data] 128
    max_parallel_io_requests[log] 128
    num_completion_queues 4
    num_completion_queues[data] 4
    num_completion_queues[log] 4
    num_submit_queues 8
    num_submit_queues[data] 8
    num_submit_queues[log] 8

  8. Save your changes.

  9. Restart the SAP HANA database.

  10. After confirming that everything works as expected, delete the detached Hyperdisk or Persistent Disk volumes. This helps you avoid incurring charges for them.

What's next

  • For information about how to administer and monitor the compute instances that run your SAP HANA workload, see the SAP HANA operations guide.