SAP NetWeaver Using Microsoft SQL Server AlwaysOn Database

© 2015 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public. Page 1 of 54

White Paper

SAP NetWeaver Using Microsoft SQL Server AlwaysOn Database on Cisco UCS


Contents

Executive Summary ............................................................................................ 3 Purpose of This Document ............................................................................... 3 Benefits of the Configuration ............................................................................ 3

Solution Overview............................................................................................... 4 SAP Applications with SQL Server Database on Cisco UCS ........................... 4

Technology Overview ......................................................................................... 5 Cisco Unified Computing System ..................................................................... 5 Cisco Unified Fabric ......................................................................................... 7 Cisco UCS 5108 Blade Server Chassis ........................................................... 8 Cisco UCS 2204XP Fabric Extenders .............................................................. 9 Cisco UCS Blade Servers ................................................................................ 9 Cisco UCS Virtual Interface Card 1340 .......................................................... 10 Cisco UCS Manager ...................................................................................... 12 Cisco Nexus 5548UP Switch ......................................................................... 16 SAP NetWeaver 7.4 ....................................................................................... 17 Microsoft Windows 2012 R2 .......................................................................... 18 Microsoft SQL Server 2014 ............................................................................ 19 SAN Storage .................................................................................................. 21

Design Topology ............................................................................................... 22 Hardware and Software Used in This Solution ............................................... 22 Cisco UCS Networking for LAN and SAN ...................................................... 22

Cisco UCS Configuration ................................................................................. 24 High-Level Steps for Cisco UCS Configuration .............................................. 24 Configure Fabric Interconnects for Blade Discovery ...................................... 24 Configure and Enable Ethernet LAN Uplink Ports .......................................... 25 Configure and Enable FCoE Uplink Ports ...................................................... 25 Configure VLANs ........................................................................................... 25 Configure VSANs ........................................................................................... 26 Set Jumbo Frames in Both Cisco UCS Fabrics ............................................. 27 Configure Ethernet Uplink Port Channels ...................................................... 27 Create Local Disk Configuration Policy (Optional) ......................................... 29 Create Fibre Channel and SAN Boot Policies ................................................ 30 Create and Associate Service Profile with Cisco UCS Blades ....................... 31 Enable Jumbo Frames and Create vPCs on Cisco Nexus 5548UP ............... 32 Configure Cisco UCS Servers and Stateless Computing Using Fibre Channel Boot .............................................................................. 33

Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2 for SAP NetWeaver 7.4 Configuration 35

Microsoft SQL Server 2014 Installation .......................................................... 38 Install the Microsoft SQL Server 2014 Failover Cluster Instance on the Primary Database Server .................................................................... 38 Install the Microsoft SQL Server 2014 Failover Cluster Instance on the Secondary Database Server ............................................................... 40 Verify the Cluster ........................................................................................... 41

SAP NetWeaver 7.4 Installation ....................................................................... 44

Destructive and Hardware Failover Tests ....................................................... 53

Conclusion ........................................................................................................ 53

For More Information ........................................................................................ 54


Executive Summary

This Cisco® reference architecture describes how the Cisco Unified Computing System

™ (Cisco UCS

®) can be

used in conjunction with the SAN to implement SAP applications—in particular, SAP NetWeaver—on the Microsoft

SQL Server 2014 AlwaysOn database. Cisco UCS provides the computing, networking, and storage access

components of the cluster, deployed as a single cohesive system. The result is an implementation that addresses

many of the challenges that system administrators and their IT departments face today, including needs for

simplified deployment and operation models, high performance for SAP applications on SQL Server databases,

and lower total cost of ownership (TCO). This document introduces a solution consisting of Cisco UCS,

NetWeaver, and the SQL Server database and provides instructions for implementing it.

Cisco UCS provides a new model for data center efficiency and agility. Cisco UCS has been designed with the

performance and reliability to power memory-intensive, mission-critical applications and virtualized workloads.

Historically, enterprise SAP systems have run on costly symmetric multiprocessing servers that use a vertical

scaling (or scale-up) model. However, as the cost of 1-to-4-socket x86-architecture servers continues to drop while

their processing power increases, a new model has emerged. NetWeaver uses a horizontal scaling, or scale-out,

model, in which the active-active application servers uses multiple servers, each contributing its processing power

to the SAP application, increasing performance, scalability, and availability. The active-active SAP application

servers balance the workload across the servers and can provide continuous availability in the event of a failure.

One approach used by storage, system, and application administrators to meet the I/O performance needs of

applications is to deploy high-performance drives with faster CPUs. This solution may be appropriate in

environments with a relatively small number of application users and little movement of hot data sets. However, as

the number of application users grows, frequently accessed data sets change constantly, and more computing

power is needed. Systems become increasingly challenged to identify data based on access frequency and

redistribute it to the correct storage media.

As global technology leaders, Cisco and SAP are uniquely positioned to provide high-quality, innovative products

to customers. Together, Cisco and SAP offer differentiated, scalable, highly secure end-to-end solutions. With SAP

Applications on Cisco UCS, you can reduce deployment risks, complexity, and TCO—and transform the way that

people connect, communicate, and collaborate.

Purpose of This Document

This document provides design guidance for implementing SAP Applications on Cisco UCS—in this case, SAP

NetWeaver—Cisco Nexus® Family switches, and external SAN storage. This guidance is designed to help field

engineers and customers make the decisions when creating a SAP application implementation on a SQL Server

database using Cisco UCS. The guidance includes VLAN, virtual network interface card (vNIC), VSAN, virtual host

bus adapter (vHBA), port-channel, and quality-of-service (QoS) requirements and configuration to help ensure

designs with the stability, performance, and resiliency demanded by mission-critical data center deployments.

Benefits of the Configuration

The history of enterprise computing has been marked by compromises between scale and simplicity. As systems

increased in scale, they also increased in complexity. And as complexity increased, so did the expense of

deployment and ongoing management.

Today, more than 70 percent of the IT budget is spent simply maintaining and managing existing infrastructure. IT

organizations must continually increase resources to maintain a growing, complex, and inflexible infrastructure

instead of using those resources to rapidly and effectively respond to business needs.


IT organizations are working with their business counterparts to identify ways to substantially decrease the cost of

ownership while increasing IT business value. Cisco UCS helps address these challenges by streamlining data

center resources, scaling service delivery, and radically reducing the number of devices requiring setup,

management, power and cooling, and cabling.

Cisco UCS can deliver these benefits through:

● Reducing TCO at the platform, site, and organizational levels

● Increasing IT staff productivity and business agility through just-in-time provisioning and mobility support for

both virtualized and nonvirtualized environments

● Enabling scalability through a design for up to 320 discrete servers and thousands of virtual machines in a

single highly available management domain

● Using industry standards supported by a partner ecosystem of innovative, trusted industry leaders

Following are the benefits using SAP applications with SQL Server database on Cisco UCS:

● High availability for the SAP application stack

● High availability for the SQL Server database using AlwaysOn Availability Groups

● Stateless computing and easy deployment

● Prioritization of network bandwidth using QoS policy

● Dedicated HBA for data files, log files, and boot from SAN

Solution Overview

SAP Applications with SQL Server Database on Cisco UCS

The solution described here provides a high-level architecture using Cisco UCS, SAP applications, and Microsoft

technologies. It demonstrates the implementation of SAP applications with a Microsoft SQL server database on

Cisco UCS using block storage.

This solution includes the following infrastructure and software components:

● Cisco Unified Computing System*

● Cisco Nexus 5548UP Switches

● Block storage components

● SAP NetWeaver

● Microsoft SQL Server database

● Microsoft Windows operating system

*Cisco UCS includes all the hardware and software components required for this deployment solution.


Figure 1 shows the architecture and the connectivity layout for this deployment model. The next section describes

the individual components.

Figure 1. Solution Architecture

Technology Overview

This section describes the Cisco UCS components, SAP software, and Microsoft technologies used to validate the

solution.

Cisco Unified Computing System

Cisco UCS is a next-generation solution for blade and rack server computing (Figure 2). The system integrates a

low-latency; lossless 10 Gigabit Ethernet unified network fabric with enterprise-class, x86-architecture servers. The

system is an integrated, scalable, multichassis platform in which all resources participate in a unified management

domain. Cisco UCS accelerates the delivery of new services simply, reliably, and securely through end-to-end

provisioning and migration support for both virtualized and nonvirtualized systems.


Figure 2. Cisco UCS Components

Cisco UCS consists of the following main components:

● Computing: The system is based on an entirely new class of computing system that incorporates rack-

mount and blade servers based on the Intel® Xeon

® processor 2600 v2 series.

◦ Cisco UCS B-Series Blade Servers (http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/products/servers-unified-

computing/ucs-b-series-blade-servers/index.html) increase performance, efficiency, versatility, and

productivity.

◦ Cisco UCS C-Series Rack Servers (http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/products/servers-unified-

computing/ucs-c-series-rack-servers/index.html) deliver unified computing in an industry-standard form

factor to reduce TCO and increase agility.

● Networking: The system is integrated onto a low-latency, lossless, 10-Gbps unified network fabric. This

network foundation consolidates LANs, SANs, and high-performance computing networks, which are

separate networks today. The unified fabric lowers costs by reducing the number of network adapters,

switches, and cables, and by decreasing the power and cooling requirements.

◦ Cisco UCS adapters (http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/products/interfaces-modules/unified-computing-

system-adapters/index.html), with their wire-once architecture, offer a range of options to converge the

fabric, optimize virtualization, and simplify management.

● Virtualization: The system unleashes the full potential of virtualization by enhancing the scalability,

performance, and operational control of virtual environments. Cisco security, policy enforcement, and

diagnostic features are now extended into virtualized environments to better support changing business and

IT requirements.

● Storage access: The system provides consolidated access to both SAN storage and network-attached

storage (NAS) over the unified fabric. By unifying storage access, Cisco UCS can access storage over

Ethernet (Server Message Block [SMB] 3.0 or Small Computer System Interface over IP [iSCSI]), Fibre

Channel, and Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE). This unified access provides customers with storage

choices and investment protection. In addition, server administrators can preassign storage-access policies

to storage resources, providing simplified storage connectivity and management and leading to increased

productivity.

http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/products/servers-unified-computing/ucs-b-series-blade-servers/index.html

http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/products/servers-unified-computing/ucs-b-series-blade-servers/index.html

http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/products/servers-unified-computing/ucs-c-series-rack-servers/index.html

http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/products/servers-unified-computing/ucs-c-series-rack-servers/index.html

http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/products/interfaces-modules/unified-computing-system-adapters/index.html

http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/products/interfaces-modules/unified-computing-system-adapters/index.html


● Management: The system uniquely integrates all system components to enable the entire solution to be

managed as a single entity by Cisco UCS Manager. Cisco UCS Manager has an intuitive GUI, a command-

line interface (CLI), and a powerful scripting library module for Microsoft PowerShell built on a robust API to

manage all system configuration and operations.

◦ Cisco UCS Manager (http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/products/servers-unified-computing/ucs-

manager/index.html) provides unified, embedded management of all software and hardware components of

Cisco UCS.

Cisco UCS fuses access-layer networking and servers. This high-performance, next-generation server system

provides a data center with a high degree of workload agility and scalability.

Cisco Unified Fabric

The fabric interconnects provide a single point for connectivity and management for the entire system. Typically

deployed as an active-active pair, the system’s fabric interconnects integrate all components into a single, highly

available management domain controlled by Cisco UCS Manager. The fabric interconnects manage all I/O

operations efficiently and securely at a single point, resulting in deterministic I/O latency regardless of the

topological location of the server or virtual machine in the system.

Cisco UCS 6200 Series Fabric Interconnects (http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/products/servers-unified-

computing/ucs-6200-series-fabric-interconnects/index.html) are line-rate, low-latency, lossless, 10-Gbps Ethernet

and FCoE interconnect switches that provide the management and communication backbone for Cisco UCS. They

support the system’s 80-Gbps unified fabric with low-latency, lossless, cut-through switching that supports IP,

storage, and management traffic using a single set of cables. The fabric interconnects provide virtual interfaces

that terminate both physical and virtual connections equivalently, establishing a virtualization-aware environment in

which blade servers, rack servers, and virtual machines are interconnected using the same mechanisms.

The Cisco UCS 6248UP 48-Port Fabric Interconnect is a 1-rack-unit (1RU) interconnect with up to 48 universal

ports that can support 80 Gigabit Ethernet, FCoE, and native Fibre Channel connectivity (Figure 3).

Figure 3. Cisco UCS 6248UP Fabric Interconnect

http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/products/servers-unified-computing/ucs-manager/index.html

http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/products/servers-unified-computing/ucs-manager/index.html

http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/products/servers-unified-computing/ucs-6200-series-fabric-interconnects/index.html

http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/products/servers-unified-computing/ucs-6200-series-fabric-interconnects/index.html


Figure 4 provides an overview of the Cisco UCS fabric interconnects.

Figure 4. UCS 6000 Series Fabric Interconnects

Cisco UCS 5108 Blade Server Chassis

The Cisco UCS 5100 Series Blade Server Chassis (Figure 5) is a crucial building block of Cisco UCS, delivering a

scalable and flexible blade server chassis.

The Cisco UCS 5108 chassis (http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/products/servers-unified-computing/ucs-5100-series-

blade-server-chassis/index.html) is 6RU high and can mount in an industry-standard 19-inch rack. A single chassis

can house up to eight half-width Cisco UCS B-Series Blade Servers and can accommodate both half-width and

full-width blade form factors.

Four single-phase, hot-swappable power supplies are accessible from the front of the chassis. These power

supplies are 92 percent efficient and can be configured to support nonredundant, N+ 1 redundant and grid-

redundant configurations. The rear of the chassis contains eight hot-swappable fans, four power connectors (one

per power supply), and two I/O bays for Cisco UCS 2208XP Fabric Extenders.

A passive midplane provides up to 40 Gbps of I/O bandwidth per server slot and up to 80 Gbps of I/O bandwidth

for two slots. The chassis is capable of supporting future 80 Gigabit Ethernet standards.

Figure 5. Cisco UCS Blade Server Front View and Rear View

SLOT1

SLOT5

SLOT3

SLOT7

SLOT2

SLOT6

SLOT4

SLOT8

!

UCS 5108

OK FAIL OK FAIL OK FAIL OK FAIL

FAN STATUS

FAN STATUS

FAN STATUS

FAN STATUS

FAN STATUS

FAN STATUS

FAN STATUS

FAN STATUS

CHS A56

FAN 1 FAN 5 FAN 2 FAN 6 FAN 3 FAN 7 FAN 4 FAN 8

!

! ResetConsole

UCS B200 M3

! ResetConsole

UCS B200 M3

! ResetConsole

UCS B200 M3

! ResetConsole

UCS B200 M3

! ResetConsole

UCS B200 M3

! ResetConsole

UCS B200 M3

! ResetConsole

UCS B200 M3

! ResetConsole

UCS B200 M3

UCS 2204XP

4

3

2

1

UCS 2204XP

4

3

2

1

Cisco UCS 5108 Front Cisco UCS 5108 Rear

http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/products/servers-unified-computing/ucs-5100-series-blade-server-chassis/index.html

http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/products/servers-unified-computing/ucs-5100-series-blade-server-chassis/index.html


Cisco UCS 2204XP Fabric Extenders

The Cisco UCS 2204XP Fabric Extender (Figure 6) has four 10 Gigabit Ethernet, FCoE-capable, and Enhanced

Small Form-Factor Pluggable (SFP+) ports that connect the blade chassis to the fabric interconnect. Each Cisco

UCS 2204XP has sixteen 10 Gigabit Ethernet ports connected through the midplane to each half-width slot in the

chassis. Typically configured in pairs for redundancy, two fabric extenders provide up to 80 Gbps of I/O to the

chassis.

Figure 6. Cisco UCS 2204XP Fabric Extender

UCS 2

204X

P

4321

Cisco UCS Blade Servers

Cisco UCS offers a variety of x86-based computing options to address the needs of today’s workloads. Based on

the Intel Xeon processor E7 and E5 product families, Cisco UCS B-Series Blade Servers work with virtualized and

nonvirtualized applications to increase:

● Performance

● Energy efficiency

● Flexibility

● Administrator productivity

This SAP application validation used the enterprise-class, Cisco B200 M4 Blade Servers. Figure 7 provides a

summary of the Cisco UCS computing portfolio with these fourth-generation blade servers.

Figure 7. Cisco UCS Compute Portfolio


Cisco UCS Virtual Interface Card 1340

The Cisco UCS Virtual Interface Card (VIC) 1340 (Figure 8) is a 2-port 40-Gbps Ethernet or dual 4-port 10-Gbps

Ethernet, FCoE-capable modular LAN on motherboard (mLOM) designed exclusively for the M4 generation of

Cisco UCS B-Series Blade Servers. When used in combination with an optional port expander, the Cisco UCS VIC

1340 is enabled for two ports of 40-Gbps Ethernet.

The Cisco UCS VIC 1340 enables a policy-based, stateless, agile server infrastructure that can present over 256

PCI Express (PCIe) standards-compliant interfaces to the host, which can be dynamically configured as either

NICs or HBAs. In addition, the VIC supports Cisco Data Center Virtual Machine Fabric Extender (VM-FEX)

technology, which extends the Cisco UCS fabric interconnect ports to virtual machines, simplifying server

virtualization deployment and management.

Figure 8. Cisco Virtual Interface Card

Stateless and Agile Infrastructure

The capability to define, create, and use interfaces on demand provides a stateless and agile server infrastructure.

The personality of the card is determined dynamically at boot time using the service profile associated with the

server. The service profile is used to determine the number of PCIe interfaces, their type (vNIC or vHBA), identity

(MAC address) and World Wide Name (WWN), failover policy, bandwidth, and QoS.

Next-Generation Data Center Features

The hardware classification engine provides support for advanced data center requirements. These include:

● Stateless network offloads for Virtual Extensible LAN (VXLAN) and network virtualization using generic

routing encapsulation (NVGRE)

● Low-latency features of the Cisco user-space NIC (usNIC)

● High-bandwidth protocol remote direct-memory access (RDMA) over converged Ethernet (RoCE)

● Performance-optimization applications such as Virtual Machine Queue (VMQ), Intel Data Plane

Development Kit (DPDK), and Cisco NetFlow


Cisco Wire-Once Model

Cisco UCS is designed with a "wire once, walk away" model (Figure 9) with these features:

● Cabling and network infrastructure support a unified network fabric in which features such as FCoE can be

enabled through Cisco UCS Manager as needed.

● Every element in the hierarchy is programmable and managed by Cisco UCS Manager using a just-in-time

resource provisioning model.

● The manager can configure identity information, including the universally unique identifier (UUID) of servers,

MAC addresses, and WWNs of network adapters.

● It can install consistent sets of firmware throughout the system hierarchy, including each blade's baseboard

management controller (BMC), RAID controller, network adapter firmware, and fabric extender firmware.

● It can configure the operational characteristics of every component in the hierarchy, from the hardware

RAID level of onboard disk drives to uplink port configurations on the Cisco UCS 6200 Series Fabric

Interconnects, and everything in between.

● It can configure the types of I/O interfaces on Cisco UCS VIC adapters. The importance of this capability

cannot be understated: when a server resource is configured with this mezzanine card, the number, type

(HBA or NIC), and identities (WWNs and MAC addresses) of I/O interfaces can be programmed using just-

in-time provisioning. This approach allows a server resource to support a traditional OS and application

software stack with a pair of Ethernet NICs and Fibre Channel HBAs at one moment and then be rebooted

to run a virtualized environment with a combination of up to 128 NICs and HBAs, with NICs connected

directly to virtual machines through hypervisor pass-through technology.


Figure 9. Cisco Wire-Once Model

Cisco UCS Manager

Cisco UCS Manager provides unified, centralized, embedded management of all Cisco UCS software and

hardware components across multiple chassis and thousands of virtual machines. Administrators use the software

to manage the entire Cisco UCS as a single logical entity through an intuitive GUI, a CLI, or an XML API.

The manager resides on a pair of Cisco UCS 6200 Series Fabric Interconnects using a clustered, active-standby

configuration for high availability. The software gives administrators a single interface for performing server

provisioning, device discovery, inventory, configuration, diagnostics, monitoring, fault detection, auditing, and

statistics collection. Cisco UCS Manager service profiles and templates support versatile role- and policy-based

management, and system configuration information can be exported to configuration management databases

(CMDBs) to facilitate processes based on IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL) concepts. Service profiles benefit both

virtualized and nonvirtualized environments and increase the mobility of nonvirtualized servers: for instance, when

moving workloads from server to server or taking a server offline for service or upgrade. Profiles can also be used

in conjunction with virtualization clusters to bring new resources online easily, complementing existing virtual

machine mobility.

The elements managed by Cisco UCS Manager include:

● Cisco UCS Integrated Management Controller (IMC) firmware

● RAID controller firmware and settings

● BIOS firmware and settings, including server UUID and boot order


● Converged network adapter (CNA) firmware and settings, including MAC addresses and WWNs and SAN

boot settings

● Virtual port groups used by virtual machines, using VM-FEX technology

● Interconnect configuration, including uplink and downlink definitions, MAC address and WWN pinning,

VLANs, VSANs, QoS, bandwidth allocations, VM-FEX settings, and EtherChannels to upstream LAN

switches

For more information about Cisco UCS Manager, visit http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/ps10281/index.html.

Cisco UCS Service Profiles

A server’s identity is made up of many properties, such as UUID, boot order, IPMI settings, BIOS firmware version,

BIOS settings, RAID settings, disk scrub settings, number of NICs, NIC speed, NIC firmware, MAC and IP

addresses, number of HBAs, HBA WWNs, HBA firmware, Fibre Channel fabric assignments, QoS settings, VLAN

assignments, and remote keyboard, video, and monitor (KVM) configuration. All these settings need to be

configured to give this server its identity and make it unique, distinguishing it from every other server in your data

center. Some of these parameters are maintained in the hardware of the server itself (BIOS firmware version, BIOS

settings, boot order, Fibre Channel boot settings, etc.); other settings are kept on your network and storage

switches (VLAN assignments, Fibre Channel fabric assignments, QoS settings, ACLs, etc.). This complexity

creates server deployment challenges (Figure 10):

● Long deployment cycles

◦ Coordination among server, storage, and network teams required for every deployment

◦ Need to help ensure correct firmware and settings for hardware components

◦ Need for appropriate LAN and SAN connectivity

● Slow response time to address business needs

◦ Tedious deployment process

◦ Manual, error-prone processes that are difficult to automate

◦ High operating expenses (OpEx), including outages caused by human errors

● Limited OS and application mobility

◦ Storage and network settings tied to physical ports and adapter identities

◦ Static infrastructure that leads to overprovisioning and increases OpEx

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/ps10281/index.html


Figure 10. UCS Service Profile


Cisco UCS uniquely addresses these challenges with the introduction of service profiles that enable integrated,

policy-based infrastructure management. Cisco UCS service profiles contain the settings for nearly all configurable

parameters required to set up a physical server. A set of user-defined policies (rules) allow quick, consistent,

repeatable, and secure deployment of Cisco UCS servers (Figure 11).

Figure 11. Service Profile Infrastructure

Cisco UCS service profiles contain values for a server's property settings, including vNIC settings, MAC addresses,

boot policies, firmware policies, fabric connectivity, external management, and high-availability information. Cisco

UCS abstracts these settings from the physical server to a service profile, and that service profile can then be

deployed to any physical computing hardware within the Cisco UCS domain. Furthermore, service profiles can, at

any time, be migrated from one physical server to another. This logical abstraction of the server personality

eliminates dependency on the hardware type or model and is a result of Cisco’s unified fabric model (rather than

an overlay of software tools on top of the solution).

This innovation is still unique in the industry, despite competitors’ claims to offer similar functions. In most cases,

these vendors rely on several different methods and interfaces to configure the server settings. Furthermore, Cisco

is the only hardware provider to offer a truly unified management platform, with the service profiles and hardware

abstraction capabilities extending to both blade and rack servers.

The main features and benefits of UCS service profiles include the following:

● Service profiles and templates: Service profile templates are stored in the Cisco UCS 6200 Series Fabric

Interconnects for reuse by server, network, and storage administrators. Service profile templates consist of

server requirements and the associated LAN and SAN connectivity. Service profile templates allow different

classes of resources to be defined and applied to a number of resources, each with its own unique identities

assigned from predetermined pools.

Cisco UCS Manager can deploy the service profile on any physical server at any time. When a service

profile is deployed to a server, the manager automatically configures the server, adapters, fabric extenders,


and fabric interconnects to match the configuration specified in the service profile. A service profile template

parameterizes the UIDs that differentiate server instances. This automation of device configuration reduces

the number of manual steps required to configure servers, NICs, HBAs, and LAN and SAN switches.

● Programmatic deployment of server resources: Cisco UCS Manager provides centralized management

capabilities, creates a unified management domain, and serves as the central nervous system of Cisco

UCS. The manager is embedded device management software that manages the system from end to end

as a single logical entity through an intuitive GUI, CLI, or XML API. The manager implements role- and

policy-based management using service profiles and templates. This construct improves IT productivity and

business agility. Now infrastructure can be provisioned in minutes instead of days, shifting IT’s focus from

maintenance to strategic initiatives.

● Dynamic provisioning: Cisco UCS resources are abstract in the sense that their identity, I/O configuration,

MAC addresses and WWNs, firmware versions, BIOS boot order, and network attributes (including QoS

settings, ACLs, pin groups, and threshold policies) all can be programmed using a just-in-time deployment

model. A service profile can be applied to any blade server to provision it with the characteristics required to

support a specific software stack. A service profile allows server and network definitions to move within the

management domain, enabling flexibility in the use of system resources. Service profile templates allow

different classes of resources to be defined and applied to a number of resources, each with its own unique

identities assigned from predetermined pools.

Cisco Nexus 5548UP Switch

The Cisco Nexus 5548UP (Figure 12) is a 1RU 1 and 10 Gigabit Ethernet switch offering up to 960 Gbps of

throughput and scaling up to 48 ports. It offers 32 x 1/10 Gigabit Ethernet fixed SFP+ Ethernet and FCoE or

1/2/4/8-Gbps native Fibre Channel unified ports and three expansion slots. These slots have a combination of

Ethernet, FCoE, and native Fibre Channel ports.

Figure 12. Cisco Nexus 5548UP Switch

The Cisco Nexus 5548UP delivers innovative architectural flexibility, infrastructure simplicity, and business agility,

with support for networking standards. For traditional, virtualized, unified, and high-performance computing (HPC)

environments, it offers numerous IT and business advantages, including:

● Architectural flexibility

◦ Provides unified ports that support traditional Ethernet, Fibre Channel, and FCoE

◦ Synchronizes system clocks with accuracy to less than one microsecond, based on IEEE 1588

◦ Supports secure encryption and authentication between two network devices based on Cisco TrustSec®

security and IEEE 802.1AE

◦ Offers converged fabric extensibility based on emerging standard IEEE 802.1BR, with the Cisco Fabric

Extender Technology (FEX Technology) portfolio, including:

− Cisco Nexus 2000 Series FEX

− Cisco Adapter FEX


− Cisco Data Center VM-FEX

● Infrastructure simplicity

◦ Provides common high-density, high-performance, data center–class, fixed-form-factor platform

◦ Consolidates LAN and SAN storage

◦ Supports any transport over an Ethernet-based fabric, including Layer 2 and Layer 3 traffic

◦ Supports storage traffic, including iSCSI, NAS, Fibre Channel, RDMA over Ethernet (RoE), and

InfiniBand over Ethernet (IBoE)

◦ Reduces the number of management points with FEX Technology

● Business agility

◦ Meets the needs of diverse data center deployments on one platform

◦ Provides rapid migration and transition for traditional and evolving technologies

◦ Offers performance and scalability to meet growing business needs

The Cisco Nexus 5548UP specifications are as follows:

● 1RU 1 and 10 Gigabit Ethernet switch

● 32 fixed unified ports on the base chassis and one expansion slot, for a total of 48 ports

● Expansion-slot support for any of these three modules: unified ports, 1/2/4/8 native Fibre Channel, and

Ethernet or FCoE

● Throughput of up to 960 Gbps

SAP NetWeaver 7.4

NetWeaver is the primary technology computing platform of the software company SAP AG, and the technical

foundation for many SAP applications. It is a solution stack of SAP's technology products. The SAP Web

Application Server (WebAS) is the runtime environment for the SAP applications, and all of the mySAP Business

Suite solutions (SAP Supplier Relationship Management [SRM], Customer Relationship Management [CRM],

Supply Chain Management [SCM], Product Lifecycle Management [PLM], and Enterprise Resource Planning

[ERP]) run on WebAS.

The NetWeaver technology platform provides the shared technology foundation for SAP business applications. The

foundation components that are part of NetWeaver provide infrastructure support for the creation, extension,

deployment, and management of SAP applications across the development lifecycle. The components also enable

the extension of SAP applications into new solution areas through a large partner ecosystem of experienced

developers.

● Reliable and scalable application server infrastructure for industry-leading business applications

● Proven robustness through approximately 100,000 productive installations worldwide

● Design support for team development in Advanced Business Application Programming (ABAP) and Java

programming languages based on open standards

● Lifecycle management and operations functions to reduce the cost of ownership

● Vast ecosystem providing software enhancements and support for best practices


NetWeaver Application Server ABAP is one of the major foundation components of SAP’s technology platform,

powering the vast majority of SAP business applications.

The product is marketed as a service-oriented application and integration platform. It can be used for custom

development and integration with other applications and systems and is built primarily using the ABAP

programming language, but it also uses the C, C++, and Java Platform Enterprise Edition (Java EE) programming

languages. It can also be extended with, and interoperate with, technologies such as Microsoft .NET, Java EE, and

IBM WebSphere.

Microsoft Windows 2012 R2

Microsoft offers an broad range of solutions, spanning consumer and business technologies and extending from

the data center to the desktop to a variety of other devices and into the cloud. Microsoft gives organizations the

flexibility to use the technology that is right for the business and delivers optimal technology to help people

innovate, compete, and grow.

Windows Server 2012 includes many performance, reliability and scalability enhancements and is now generally

available for productive use with most SAP NetWeaver releases. The SAP Product Availability Matrix (PAM)

contains the latest information. SAP installations, SAP version upgrades, OS and database migrations, and system

copies of most NetWeaver ABAP and Java 7.0 and 7.3 and later products are generally available and supported on

Windows Server 2012.

Windows Server 2012 includes many new features and benefits:

● Built-in Microsoft Windows Hyper-V virtualization: Windows Server 2012 supports virtual machines with

up to 1 terabyte (TB) of RAM, 64 virtual CPUs (vCPUs), live migration, virtual nonuniform memory access

(NUMA), single-root I/O virtualization (SR-IOV) support, vHBA support, Hyper-V Replica, Hyper-V Virtual

Hard Disk (VHDX) format, and many other enhancements.

● Built-in network teaming: Performance and stability is greatly improved compared to the previous vendor-

provided teaming solutions.

● Increased scalability: Windows Server 2012 supports up to 640 logical processors and 4 TB of RAM—

enough for any SAP customer.

● Server core role for hypervisor hosts: This feature eliminates the need for almost all patching on

hypervisor hosts.

● SMB 3.0 transparent application failover: Previously, a failover reset the file handles. SMB 3.0 preserves

the state of the application even during a failover.

● Microsoft Windows Server Failover Clustering (WSFC) enhancement: Up to 64 cluster nodes and

many improvements in WSFC, such as dynamic quorum, allow more complex high-availability and disaster

recovery configurations, including sophisticated geoclustering.

Windows Server 2012 provides a platform for consolidating SAP and non-SAP systems to create a single highly

reliable solution. Hyper-V 3.0 removes the limits on the workloads that can be run in a virtual machine and provides

a path to move applications to cloud platforms.

For more than 20 years, SAP and Microsoft have had a strong partnership with one unified goal: create customer

value. This close collaboration has led to the development of joint solutions, such as Duet Enterprise, and the

continued optimization of Microsoft Windows and SQL Server platforms for SAP. Today, thousands of companies

around the world depend on these SAP and Microsoft solutions to effectively run their businesses. Microsoft has


become the platform of choice for new SAP customers, with about 65,000 SAP installations on Windows Server

and 35,000 SAP installations on SQL Server. This platform choice is part of a long-term trend, with organizations

choosing the Microsoft platform for its reliability in running their workloads.

Microsoft and SAP have partnered to help ensure that the Microsoft platform and SAP solutions work well together

for enterprise applications. The SAP certification of Windows Server and SQL Server is the technical stamp of

approval of the joint effort from Microsoft and SAP. Choosing a Microsoft platform for SAP fulfills a series of

requirements:

● It helps reduce the number of vendors needed to deploy an SAP system.

● It fits smoothly into a homogeneous Microsoft system landscape.

● It reduces skill requirements because the heterogeneous infrastructure can also be managed using a single

management system such as Microsoft System Center.

Microsoft SQL Server 2014

Enterprises that run SAP applications need full-time availability and performance. SQL Server 2014 with AlwaysOn

Availability Groups is an optimal database for mission-critical environments, offering availability and performance at

a low TCO for SAP installations of all sizes. According to the SAP Sales and Distribution (SD) Standard Application

benchmark results for a two-tier Internet configuration, a single server running Windows and SQL Server can

support 25,160 concurrent users with 137,470 SAP Application Performance Standard (SAPS) performance. The

SAP SD three-tier Internet configuration demonstrated that SQL Server can support 93,000 concurrent users.

Microsoft AlwaysOn

AlwaysOn technology combines the high-availability and disaster-recovery functions of SQL Server, which provides

greater flexibility when managing SAP configuration and architecture. AlwaysOn provides one primary server and

four secondary servers, with up to two secondary servers synchronously aligned with the primary server. This

approach can dramatically improve high availability because the system has no single point of failure, and

maintenance can be performed offline during normal work hours without affecting the production of SAP instances.

Microsoft SQL Server In-Memory Optimized Columnstore

One of the most significant features that SQL Server 2014 provides to the NetWeaver application is the

introduction of a modifiable version of SQL Server’s in-memory-optimized columnstore. The integration of this new

function into SAP Business Warehouse vastly extends Business Warehouse workload scenarios, which benefit

from SQL Server’s in-memory optimized columnstore capabilities. Among the most impressive results provided by

SQL Server in-memory optimized columnstore are more efficient storage of data and greater throughput in

scanning massive amounts of data. These advantages are apparent in scenarios in which customers accelerate

existing Business Warehouse workloads dramatically without the need for additional infrastructure investment or

the need to replace older acceleration technology with a simpler and faster configuration of Business Warehouse.

The new modifiable in-memory optimized SQL Server columnstore technology also enables organizations to use a

new Business Warehouse cube format. It is actually the cube format that SAP pioneered with Business Warehouse

running on SAP HANA. Experience with this new cube format demonstrates an additional significant reduction in

query response time compared to the time using the traditional Business Warehouse cube format. The new

Business Warehouse cube format is available with SAP Business Warehouse 7.40 SP8 in conjunction with

Microsoft SQL Server 2014.


Backup Encryption

Especially for public cloud scenarios, customers want backup encryption included as a SQL Server native

capability. SQL Server 2014 introduces this feature. It can be combined with SQL Server’s backup compression.

Backup compression still provides the full compression ratio, and backup encryption encrypts the compressed

backup data.

Backup to URL

SQL Server 2014 allows organizations to perform database, differential, and transaction log backups directly to

Microsoft Azure storage. This feature is most in demand by customers who are running SQL Server in Azure

infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) scenarios. Instead of addressing mounted drives on the server or virtual machine

as the backup destination, you can define the destination as an Azure storage account URL.

New Cardinality Estimation

SQL Server was designed in a very modular way nearly two decades ago. Taking advantage of this modular

design, SQL Server 2014 introduces a new cardinality estimation module. Cardinality estimation plays an important

role in creating a plan to process a query. One of the first, very important steps in creating the plan to process a

query is to estimate the number of rows that the query and different branches within the query will return. This

estimation is based on the index and column statistics. The estimation is important because it can determine the

join order of a query or the join type to be chosen, etc. The function that performs this estimation is called

cardinality estimation. The new cardinality estimation algorithms were introduced to close a few gaps in the old

algorithms.

Deploying SAP software on SQL Server 2014 or performing the SAP post-upgrade step after upgrading to SQL

Server 2014 will set a trace flag that will disable the new cardinality estimation logic and enable the old logic again.

This capability is provided because the new cardinality estimation results in different plans than the old logic did,

which introduces the chance that queries using the new logic will not always end up with a more efficient plan than

queries generated with the old logic. Therefore, the step to test the move to SQL Server 2014 is separate from the

step to test of the new cardinality estimation. SAP supports both the new and the old logic to estimate the

cardinality. You, as the customer, can test and choose the approach that is right for your particular workload.

Lock Priority

Lock priority is a new function that is intended to improve the availability of the SQL Server instance during an

operation task. Lock priority can be used when issuing online data definition language (DDL) statements such as

create index against tables. Despite being mostly online, these tasks could lead to queuing of modifications of a

table, especially in the way that SAP integrates into SQL Server. Lock priority should help avoid such queuing of

modifications when online DDL operations are performed against tables.

Microsoft Azure Integration

Besides being able to direct SQL Server 2014 backups directly against Azure Blob storage, SQL Server 2014

offers the option to place SQL Server data and log files directly onto Azure Blob storage without the definition of

virtual hard disks (VHDs). This method of placing SQL Server data files directly in Azure Blob storage is applicable

when you run SQL Server in an Azure virtual machine (IaaS), and when you want to overcome eventual limitations

of the Azure virtual machine that you chose (limitations of the number of VHDs or I/O operations per second

[IOPS]). In SAP scenarios, the function is not meant to run the SQL Server instance in the on-premises data center

and have the data files of databases deployed in Azure Blob storage in an Azure data center.


AlwaysOn was changed so that you can run a secondary replica of an AlwaysOn Availability Group in Azure. This

function makes it easier to create a disaster recovery site for SAP landscapes: in this case, especially the database

part. Imagine a setup in which you configure a primary replica plus a secondary replica onsite. These two replicas

would synchronize the data in a synchronous manner. What is possible now is that you can create a third replica in

Azure and add that to the AlwaysOn Availability Group of the two replicas that run on the premises. Note, though,

that in most cases the data synchronization between the on-premises replicas and the replica in Azure needs to be

asynchronous.

SAN Storage

The SAN is a high-speed network of storage devices that also connects those storage devices to servers. It

provides block-level storage that can be accessed by the applications running on any networked servers. SAN

storage devices can include tape libraries and disk-based devices such as RAID hardware.

Several different industry groups have developed standards related to SAN technology. One of the most prominent

is the Storage Networking Industry Association (SNIA), which promotes the Storage Management Initiative

Specification (SMI-S) as well as related standards. The Fibre Channel Industry Association (FCIA) also promotes

standards related to SAN and administers the SANmark Qualified Program. Fibre Channel is currently the most

widely used communication protocol for SANs, but it is by no means the only one. Some SANs rely on iSCSI

communication, a mapping of SCSI protocol over TCP/IP. SANs can also use ATA over Ethernet (AoE), Fibre

Channel over Ethernet (FCoE), ESCON over Fibre Channel, HyperSCSI, and some other protocols.

To set up a simple SAN, you need only three major components: a SAN switch, a storage device, and a server.

You also need cables to connect the various elements together and SAN management software. In most real-world

settings, a SAN will include many different switches, storage devices, and servers, and it will likely also include

routers, bridges, and gateways to extend the SAN over large areas and to connect to other parts of the data center

network. The SAN's topology will depend on its size and the needs of the organization.

The process of deploying a SAN requires several steps. First, you need to design your SAN, taking into account

your current needs and future scalability requirements. Second, you need to select a vendor or vendors to provide

the hardware and software you want as well as any related services. Next, you need to install the necessary

hardware and then install and configure the software for managing your SAN. Deploying a SAN is a complicated

process that often requires specialized knowledge and a great deal of planning, particularly if your SAN is very

large.


Design Topology

This section presents physical and logical high-level design considerations for Cisco UCS networking and

computing with SAN storage for SAP NetWeaver with Microsoft SQL Server 2014 deployments.

Hardware and Software Used in This Solution

Table 1 lists the software and hardware used for the NetWeaver with SQL Server database deployment.

Table 1. Software and Hardware Used for SAP NetWeaver with Microsoft SQL Server Database Deployment

Vendor Name Version or Model Description

Cisco Cisco UCS 6248UP 48-Port Fabric Interconnect

Cisco UCS Manager 2.2(5b) Fabric interconnect

Cisco Cisco UCS 5108 Blade Server Chassis Cisco UCS 5108 Chassis

Cisco Cisco UCS 2204XP Fabric Extender Cisco UCS 2204XP I/O module

Cisco Cisco Nexus 5548UP Switch Cisco NX-OS Software Unified-port switch

Cisco Cisco UCS B200 M4 Blade Server Cisco UCS B200 M4 Half-width blade server (database server)

Cisco Cisco UCS VIC 1340 Cisco UCS VIC 1340 mLOM virtual interface card

SAP SAP NetWeaver SAP NetWeaver 7.4 SAP ERP applications

Microsoft Microsoft Windows Microsoft Windows 2012 R2 Operating system

Microsoft Microsoft SQL Server Microsoft SQL Server 2014 AlwaysOn Database

Cisco UCS Networking for LAN and SAN

This section explains Cisco UCS networking and computing design considerations when deploying SAP

NetWeaver with a Microsoft SQL Server database in a SAN storage deployment. In this design, the Ethernet traffic

for the Microsoft Windows cluster is isolated from the regular management traffic, and the Fibre Channel traffic for

boot-from-SAN operations is isolated from the traffic for the application data network using the same Cisco UCS

infrastructure. This design is achieved by defining logical VSAN and VLAN networks and QoS and by tagging the

vNIC with the appropriate class of service (CoS) to provide better data security.

Table 2 shows the LAN configuration, Table 3 shows the Fibre Channel configuration, and Table 4 shows the

configuration of the virtual port channel (vPC).

Table 2. LAN Configuration

Description Details

VLANs 3 VLANs

1. Public VLAN VLAN 760

2. Private VLAN VLAN 192

3. Cluster VLAN VLAN 191

Table 3. Fibre Channel Configuration

Description Details

VSANs 2 VSANs

4. FI-A VSAN 101

5. FI-B VSAN 102


Table 4. vPC Details

Network vPC ID VLAN ID

Fab-A vPC 33 VLANs 760,192, and 191

Fab-B vPC 34 VLANs 760, 192, and 191

A pair of Cisco UCS 6248UP fabric interconnects carries both Fibre Channel storage traffic and Ethernet network

traffic from the blades with the help of the Cisco Nexus 5548UP Switch. The 10 Gigabit Ethernet network traffic

leaves the Cisco UCS fabrics through the Cisco Nexus 5548UP Switches, and the 8-Gbps Fibre Channel traffic

leaves the Cisco UCS fabric through the Cisco Nexus 5548UP Switches to the SAN storage. Larger enterprises

that adopt virtualization have much higher I/O requirements. To effectively handle the higher I/O requirements,

Fibre Channel boot is a better solution.

The fabric interconnect and the Cisco Nexus 5548UP Switch are clustered with the peer link between them to

provide high availability. Two vPCs are configured to provide public network, private network, and cluster network

paths for the blades to northbound switches. Each vPC has VLANs created for application network data, cluster

network data, and management data paths. For more information about vPC configuration on the Cisco Nexus

5548UP, see http://www.cisco.com/en/US/prod/collateral/switches/ps9441/ps9670/configuration_guide_c07-

543563.html.

Eight links (four per chassis) go to Fabric Interconnect A (ports 1 through 8). Similarly, eight links go to Fabric

Interconnect B. Fabric Interconnect A links are used for the public network and cluster network traffic, and Fabric

Interconnect B links are used for the private network and cluster network traffic.

The advantage of the Cisco VIC over other network adapters is its powerful QoS capabilities. The VIC can provide

fair sharing of bandwidth for all the virtual adapters, and the policy engine that defines the way that bandwidth is

shared on the VIC is conveniently centrally defined by the systemwide Cisco UCS Manager.

Table 5 shows the vNICs and their requirements for this configuration. Note, though, that the number of vNICs is

not limited. You can add more vNICs according to the throughput requirements and the isolation requirements of

the network traffic.

Table 5. VNICs and VLANs

vNIC VLAN Purpose

vNIC1 760 Public network

vNIC2 192 Private network

vNIC3 191 Cluster network

Table 6 shows the vHBAs and their requirements for this configuration.

Table 6. vHBAs and VSANs

vHBA VSAN Purpose

vHBA1 101 Fibre Channel or SAN boot for Fabric A

vHBA2 102 Fibre Channel or SAN boot for Fabric B

vHBA3 101 Database logical unit number (LUN) or cluster shared storage

vHBA4 102 Logical LUN or cluster shared storage

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/prod/collateral/switches/ps9441/ps9670/configuration_guide_c07-543563.html

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/prod/collateral/switches/ps9441/ps9670/configuration_guide_c07-543563.html


Cisco UCS Configuration

This document provides only high-level configuration details. For detailed configuration guidance, follow a Cisco

Validated Design.

High-Level Steps for Cisco UCS Configuration

Here are high-level steps for Cisco UCS configuration:

1. Configure fabric interconnects for chassis and blade discovery

a. Configure global policies

b. Configure server ports

2. Configure LAN and SAN on Cisco UCS Manager

a. Configure and enable Ethernet LAN uplink ports

b. Configure and enable Fibre Channel SAN uplink ports

c. Configure VLANs

d. Configure VSANs

3. Configure the UUID, MAC address, Node World Wide Name (NWWN) pool, and Port World Wide Name

(PWWN) pool

a. Create UUID pool

b. Create IP address pool and MAC address pool

c. Create NWWN pool and PWWN pool

4. Configure vNIC and vHBA template

a. Create vNIC templates

b. Create public vNIC template

c. Create private vNIC template

d. Create storage vNIC template

e. Create HBA templates

5. Configure Ethernet uplink port channels

6. Create server boot policy for SAN boot

Configure Fabric Interconnects for Blade Discovery

Cisco UCS 6248UP Fabric Interconnects are configured for redundancy. They provide resiliency in the event of

failures. You first need is to establish connectivity between the blades and fabric interconnects.

1. Choose Equipment > Fabric Interconnects > Fabric Interconnect A > Fixed Module > Ethernet Ports and select

the ports that are connected to the chassis I/O module.

2. Right-click and choose Configure as Server Port.

3. Repeat same steps for Fabric Interconnect B.

For the configuration described in this document, ports 1 through 8 on Fabric interconnect A were selected and

configured as server ports. Ports 1 through 8 were also selected on Fabric Interconnect B and configured as server

ports.


Configure and Enable Ethernet LAN Uplink Ports


the desired number of ports.

2. Right-click and choose Configure as Uplink Port.

3. Repeat the same steps for Fabric Interconnect B.

For this configuration, ports 31 and 32 on Fabric interconnect A were selected and configured as Ethernet uplink

ports. Ports 31 and 32 were also selected on Fabric Interconnect B and configured as Ethernet uplink ports. You

will use these ports to create port channels later in this document.

Configure and Enable FCoE Uplink Ports


the desired number of ports.

2. Right-click and choose Configure as FCoE Uplink Port.

3. Repeat the same steps on Fabric Interconnect B.

For this configuration, ports 33, 34, 35, and 36 on Fabric interconnect A were selected and configured as Ethernet

uplink ports. Ports 33, 34, 35, and 36 were also selected on Fabric Interconncect B and configured as FCoE uplink

ports.

Configure VLANs

1. In Cisco UCS Manager, choose LAN > LAN Cloud > VLAN.

2. Right-click and choose Create VLANs.

In this solution, you need to create three VLANs: one private network (VLAN 192), one public network (VLAN 760),

and one Windows cluster network (VLAN 191).

Figure 13 shows VLAN 760 created for the public network.

Note: Be sure to create all VLANs as global across both fabric interconnects. This way, VLAN identity is

maintained across the fabric interconnects in the event of vNIC failover.


Figure 13. Creating a VLAN for the Public Network

3. Create VLANs for public, private, and Windows cluster networks as follows:

● VLAN ID 760 for public network interfaces

● VLAN ID 192 for private network interfaces

● VLAN ID 191 for Windows cluster network interfaces

Configure VSANs

1. In Cisco UCS Manager, choose SAN > SAN Cloud > VSANs.

2. Right-click and choose Create VSAN (Figure 14).

In this configuration, VSANs 101 and 102 were created for SAN boot.


Figure 14. Configuring VSANs in Cisco UCS Manager

In this configuration, VSANs were created on both fabrics. For Fabric A, the VSAN ID is 101. For Fabric B, the

VSAN ID is 102.

Set Jumbo Frames in Both Cisco UCS Fabrics

To configure jumbo frames and enable quality of service in the Cisco UCS Fabric, follow these steps:

1. In Cisco UCS Manager, click the LAN tab in the navigation pane.

2. Choose LAN > LAN Cloud > QoS System Class.

3. In the right pane, click the General tab.

4. In the Best Effort row, enter 9216 in the box in the MTU column (Figure 15).

5. Click Save Changes.

6. Click OK.

Figure 15. Setting Jumbo Frames

Configure Ethernet Uplink Port Channels

This configuration uses two uplink ports from each fabric interconnect to the Cisco Nexus 5000 Series Switch.

However, you can have more than two uplink ports, depending on your bandwidth requirements. The


recommended approach is to configure one port channel on each fabric interconnect for throughput sharing unless

you have a business reason to create multiple port channels on each fabric interconnect.

1. Choose LAN > LAN Cloud > Fabric A > Port Channels.

2. Right-click and choose Create Port-Channel.

3. Select the desired Ethernet uplink ports configured earlier.

4. Repeat the same steps to create a port channel on Fabric B.

The configuration here configures ports 31 and 32 on Fabric A as port-channel 33, and it configures ports 31 and

32 on Fabric B as port-channel 34 (Figures 16, 17, and 18).

Figure 16. Configuring Port Channels


Figure 17. Fabric A Ethernet Port-Channel Details

Figure 18. Port Channels on Fabric A and Fabric B

Create Local Disk Configuration Policy (Optional)

If the servers in the Cisco UCS environment do not have a local disk, you need to configure a local disk.

To create a local disk configuration policy, follow these steps:

1. In Cisco UCS Manager, click the Servers tab in the navigation pane.

2. Choose Policies > root.

3. Right-click Local Disk Config Policies.

4. Choose Create Local Disk Configuration Policy.

5. Enter SAN-Boot as the local disk configuration policy name.


6. Change the mode to No Local Storage.

7. Click OK to create the local disk configuration policy.

8. Click OK.

Create Fibre Channel and SAN Boot Policies

This procedure applies to a Cisco UCS environment in which the storage FCoE ports are configured in the

following ways:

● Fibre Channel ports 0 and 1 on SAN storage controllers 1 and 2 are connected to Cisco Nexus 5548UP

Switch A.

● Fibre Channel ports 2 and 3 on SAN storage controllers 1 and 2 are connected to Cisco Nexus 5548UP

Switch B.

To create boot policies for the Cisco UCS environment, follow these steps:

9. In Cisco UCS Manager, click the Servers tab in the navigation pane.

10. Choose Policies > root.

11. Right-click Boot Policies.

12. Choose Create Boot Policy.

13. Enter Boot-FC as the name of the boot policy.

14. (Optional) Enter a description for the boot policy.

15. Keep the Reboot on Boot Order Change check box unchecked.

16. Expand the Local Devices drop-down menu and Choose Add CD-ROM.

17. Expand the vHBAs drop-down menu and Choose Add SAN Boot.

18. In the Add SAN Boot dialog box, enter vHBA0 in the vHBA field.

19. Make sure that the Primary radio button is selected as the SAN boot type.

20. Click OK to add the SAN boot initiator.

21. From the vHBA drop-down menu, choose Add SAN Boot Target.

22. Keep 0 as the value for Boot Target LUN.

23. Enter the PWWN for Fibre Channel port 0 on SAN storage controller 1.

24. Keep the Primary radio button selected as the SAN boot target type.

25. Click OK to add the SAN boot target.





30. From the vHBA drop-down menu, choose Add SAN Boot.

31. In the Add SAN Boot dialog box, enter vHBA1 in the vHBA box.

32. Verify that the SAN boot type is set to Secondary, and the Type option is unavailable.

33. Click OK to add the SAN boot initiator.





37. Keep Primary as the SAN boot target type.






43. Click OK, and then click OK again to create the boot policy.

After you create the Fibre Channel boot policies, you can view the boot order in the Cisco UCS Manager GUI. To

view the boot order, navigate to Servers > Policies > Boot Policies. Click Boot Policy Boot-FC to view the boot

order.

Create and Associate Service Profile with Cisco UCS Blades

Service profile templates enable policy-based server management that helps ensure consistent server resource

provisioning suitable to meet predefined workload needs.

Create Service Profile Template

1. In Cisco UCS Manager, choose Servers > Service Profile Templates > root.

2. Right-click root and choose Create Service Profile Template.

3. Enter the template name and select the UUID pool that you created earlier.

4. Select the Update Template radio button. Then click Next to continue.

5. On the Networking page, create one vNIC on each fabric and associate the vNICs with the VLAN policies

created earlier. Select Expert Mode and click Add to add one or more vNICs that the server should use to

connect to the LAN.

6. Create all the required vNICs for Fabrics A and B with appropriate VLANs and adapter policy.

7. After the vNICs are created, you need to create vHBAs. In the Storage page, select Expert Mode, choose the

NWWN pool created earlier, and click Add to create the vHBAs.

In this configuration, four vHBAs were created—vHBA0, vHBA1, vHBA2, and vHBA3—and associated with

appropriate VSANs.

8. This configuration uses the Cisco Nexus 5548UP for zoning, so skip the Zoning section and use the default

vNIC and vHBA placement.

Create Server Boot Policy

1. On the Server Boot Order page, choose the Boot Policy you created in previous section for SAN boot.

2. Click Next.

The rest maintenance and assignment policies were left at their default settings in this configuration. However, the

configuration can vary from site to site, depending on your workloads, best practices, and policies.


Create Service Profiles from Service Profile Templates

1. In Cisco UCS Manager, choose Servers > Service Profile Templates.

2. Right-click and choose Create Service Profiles from Template.

For this configuration, four service profiles were created:

● SAP-APPS-1

● SAP-APPS-2

● SAP-SQL-DB-1

● SAP-SQL-DB-2

Two of the service profiles are used for SAP application servers, and two are used for database servers.

Enable Jumbo Frames and Create vPCs on Cisco Nexus 5548UP

You need to set global configurations and jumbo frames in QoS on both Cisco Nexus 5548UP Switch A and Cisco

Nexus 5548UP Switch B. Follow these steps on both switches:

1. Log in as the admin user.

2. Run the commands shown here.

conf t

spanning-tree port type network default

spanning-tree port type edge bpduguard default

port-channel load-balance ethernet source-dest-port

policy-map type network-qos jumbo

class type network-qos class-default

mtu 9216

exit

class type network-qos class-fcoe

pause no-drop

mtu 2158

exit

exit

system qos

service-policy type network-qos jumbo

exit

copy run start

3. Configure the Cisco Nexus 5548UP for VLANs, VSANs, and vPCs.

When configuring the Cisco Nexus 5548UP with vPCs, be sure that the status for all vPCs is “up” for

connected Ethernet ports by running the commands shown in Figure 19 from the CLI on the Cisco Nexus

5548UP Switch.


Figure 19. Port-Channel Status on Cisco Nexus 5548UP

4. Configure and create Fibre Channel zoning on the Cisco Nexus 5548UP Switches

This configuration uses three separate zones on each switch: for SAN-boot, data-file, and log-file LUNs. This

configuration will isolate these three types of storage traffic. Figure 20 shows an example of zone configuration

for the boot LUN on Cisco Nexus 5548UP Switch A.

Figure 20. Fibre Channel Zone on Cisco Nexus 5548UP

Configure Cisco UCS Servers and Stateless Computing Using Fibre Channel Boot

Booting from the Fibre Channel SAN helps organizations move toward stateless computing, in which there is no

static binding between a physical server and the OS and applications that it is tasked to run. The OS is installed on

a SAN LUN, and boot–from–Fibre Channel policy is applied to the service profile template or the service profile. If

the service profile were to be moved to another server, the PWWN of the HBAs and the boot-from-SAN policy


would move along with it. The new server now takes on the same exact character as the old server, providing the

true unique stateless nature of Cisco UCS blade servers.

Benefits of Boot from Fibre Channel

The main benefits of booting from the network are:

● Reduce server footprint: Boot from Fibre Channel SAN alleviates the need for each server to have its own

direct-attached disk, eliminating internal disks as potential points of failure. Thin diskless servers also take

up less facility space, require less power, and are generally less expensive because they have fewer

hardware components.

● Accelerate disaster and server-failure recovery: All the boot information and production data stored on a

local SAN can be replicated on a SAN at a remote disaster-recovery site. If a disaster destroys server

functions at the primary site, the remote site can take over with little downtime.

Recovery from server failures is simplified in a SAN environment. With the help of snapshots, mirrors of a

failed server can be recovered quickly by booting from the original copy of its image. As a result, boot from

SAN can greatly reduce the time required for server recovery.

● Increase availability: A typical data center is highly redundant, with redundant paths, redundant disks, and

redundant storage controllers. Storing OS images on disks in the SAN supports high availability and

eliminates the potential for mechanical failure of a local disk.

● Accelerate redeployment: Businesses that experience temporary high production workloads can take

advantage of SAN technologies to clone the boot image and distribute the image to multiple servers for

rapid deployment. Such servers may need to be in production for only hours or days and can readily be

removed when the production need has been met. Highly efficient deployment of boot images makes

temporary server use a cost-effective endeavor.

With boot from SAN, the image resides on a SAN LUN, and the server communicates with the SAN through an

HBA. The BIOS of the HBA contains the instructions that enable the server to find the boot disk. All Fibre Channel–

capable converged network adapter (CNA) cards supported on Cisco UCS B-Series Blade Servers support boot

from SAN.

After the power-on self-test (POST), the server hardware component fetches the boot device that is designated as

the boot device in the hardware BIOS settings. After the hardware detects the boot device, it follows the regular

boot process.

Summary of Boot-from-SAN Configuration

At this point, you have completed following steps that are essential for configuring boot from SAN:

● SAN zoning is configured on the Cisco Nexus 5548UP Switches.

● The SAN storage array is configured for boot LUN.

● Cisco UCS boot-from-SAN policy is configured in the service profile.

You are now ready to install the OS. This document does not present the steps to install the OS in a Fibre Channel

boot configuration.


Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2 for SAP NetWeaver 7.4 Configuration

For this solution, four servers are configured: two servers for the SQL Server database (one primary database and

one high-availability database) and two servers for the SAP application. Four Cisco B200 M4 servers are used to

boot from SAN to enable stateless computing should the need arise to replace or swap a server using the unique

capabilities of Cisco UCS service profiles. The OS boot uses the Fibre Channel SAN, and the SQL Server

database and NetWeaver components are configured to use Fibre Channel protocol on SAN storage.

Windows Server 2012 R2 is installed on each server.

Table 7 summarizes the hardware and software configuration details.

Table 7. Host Configuration

Component Details Description

Server 4 Cisco UCS B200 M4 Blade Servers 2 sockets with 15 cores each

Memory 256 GB Physical memory

Static vNIC1 Public access Management and public access; maximum transmission unit (MTU) size 1500

Static vNIC2 Private SAP application; MTU size 9000

Static vNIC3 Windows cluster Windows cluster communication; MTU size 9000

vHBA0 Boot LUN Boot from SAN storage

vHBA1 Boot LUN Boot from SAN storage

vHBA2 Data LUN, log LUN, and shared LUN SAN storage access for data file and log file

vHBA3 Data LUN, log LUN, and shared LUN SAN storage access for data file and log file

Note: The installation of Windows Server 2012 R2 is not covered in this document. This document assumes at

this point that Windows Server 2012 R2 is installed on all four Cisco UCS B200 M4 servers.

1. Configure the IP address for the management network, cluster network, and private network.

2. Configure the virtual IP address for the SAP application using the management network port.

The following example shows the IP address configuration used for the SAP NetWeaver installation.

3. Configure two Windows Servers for the SAP application with Windows cluster (AppCluster), and configure two

Windows Servers for the SQL Server database with Windows cluster (DBCluster).

Table 8 shows the Windows cluster configuration details.

Table 8. Microsoft Windows Cluster Configuration

Cisco UCS Chassis Blade Server Microsoft Windows Cluster Purpose

Chassis 1 Cisco UCS B200 M4 and Windows 2012 R2 AppCluster Application servers

Chassis 2

Chassis 1 Cisco UCS B200 M4 and Windows 2012 R2 DBCluster Database servers

Chassis 2

4. The installation of the SAP system requires the main directories for the system to be created automatically.

However, during the installation procedure, SAPinst prompts you to enter drive letters for the main

components of the system. Distribute components to disks in the system according to your requirements.


Table 9 provides an overview of the main SAP system components and directories and their purposes.

Table 9. SAP System Components and Directory Requirements

Components Directory Structure Description

SAP system ● \usr\sap

● \usr\sap\trans

● SAP kernel and related files

● SAP transport directory

Database management system (DBMS) \Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server SQL Server program files including the master, Microsoft database, and model database files

SAP database data files \<SAPSID>DATA0

\<SAPSID>DATA1

\<SAPSID>DATA2

\<SAPSID>DATA3

\<SAPSID>DATA4

…

\<SAPSID>DATA<n>

Database data files 0 to n

SAP database transaction log \<SAPSID>log<n> Database transactional log files

Temporary database (tempdb) files \Tempdb Tempdb data files

For the installation of the SAP system with Microsoft SQL Server, the central components of the database are the

SQL Server program files, tempdb files, SAP database data files, and SAP database transactional log files.

Table 10 shows the SAN storage array and the LUN requirements for the SAP system.

Table 10. SAN Storage Array and LUN Requirements

SAN Storage and RAID Group RAID Type LUN Purpose

Array 1, RAID group1 RAID 1 Boot1, Boot2, Boot3, and Boot4 Operating system, program files, Microsoft SQL Server, and tempdb

Array 1, RAID group2 RAID 1 sapmnt Shared storage for SAP installation

Array 1, RAID group 3 RAID 1 sapcd SAP binaries

Array 2, RAID group 4 RAID 5 DATALUN1 SAP database data files (primary database server)

Array 2, RAID group 5 RAID 1 LOGLUN1 SAP database log files (primary database server)

Array 3, RAID group 6 RAID 5 DATALUN2 SAP database data files (secondary database server)

Array 3, RAID group 7 RAID 1 LOGLUN2 SAP database log files (secondary database server)

Array 1, RAID group 8 RAID 1 DBClusterLUN Windows Server cluster for databases

Array 1, RAID group 9 RAID 1 APPClusterLUN Windows Server cluster for SAP application servers

Figures 21 and 22 show the Windows cluster configuration for SAP application servers and Microsoft SQL Server

database servers.


Figure 21. Microsoft Windows Cluster for SAP Application Servers

Figure 22. Microsoft Windows Cluster for SQL Server Database


Microsoft SQL Server 2014 Installation

For the configuration validation described here, SQL Server 2014 was installed on both database servers as a new

SQL Server failover cluster installation.

Install the Microsoft SQL Server 2014 Failover Cluster Instance on the Primary Database Server

1. From the mounted SQL Server installation DVD, launch the SQL Server installation wizard.

2. On the Installation page, click the “New SQL Server Failover cluster installation” link to launch the installation

of the SQL Server 2014 failover cluster (Figure 23).

Figure 23. Microsoft Windows SQL Server Installation: Select Failover Cluster Installation

The Install a SQL Server Failover Cluster wizard starts.

3. On the Product Key page, enter the product key and click Next. The configuration here uses the Evaluation

edition.

4. On the License Terms page, read and accept the license terms to install SQL Server. Then click Next.

5. On the Global Rules page, the setup procedure will automatically advance to the next window if no rule errors

are found.

6. The Microsoft Update page will appear next if the Microsoft Update check box is not checked in Control Panel

> All Control Panel Items > Windows Update > Change Settings. Select this check box on the Microsoft

Update page if you want to change the computer settings so that the latest updates are included when you

scan for Windows updates.


7. On the Product Updates page, the latest available SQL Server product updates are displayed. If no product

updates are discovered, SQL Server Setup does not display this page and instead auto-advances to the Install

Setup Files page.

8. On the Install Setup Files page, you can see the progress of the downloading, extraction, and installation of

the setup files. If an update for SQL Server Setup is found and is specified to be included, that update will also

be installed.

9. The Install Failover Cluster Rules page runs the rules that are essential for a successful SQL Server cluster

creation. Confirm that this step displays no errors and verify the warnings. Click Next.

10. On the Setup Role page, select the SQL Server Feature Installation radio button to install SQL Server engine

components. Then click Next.

11. On the Feature Selection page, choose the database engine services and the management tools (Figure 24).

Then click Next.

Figure 24. Microsoft Windows SQL Server Installation: Selecting Features to Install

12. The Feature Rule page displays the rule processing and automatically advances if all the rules succeed.

13. On the Instance Configuration page, specify the SQL Server network name and the instance ID. Then click

Next.

14. On the Cluster Resource Group page, choose the SQL Server cluster resource group name from the list or

create a new resource group. Then click Next.


15. On the Cluster Disk Selection page, choose the shared cluster disks from the list. Select Add Disks to the

Cluster to make these disks part of the cluster. Then click Next.

16. On the Cluster Network Configuration page, provide the public connectivity IP address details for the SQL

Server failover cluster. Then click Next.

17. On the Server Configuration page, specify the service accounts and collation configuration details. Then click

Next.

18. On the Database Engine Configuration page, specify the database engine authentication security mode,

administrators, and data directory details. On the Data Directory tab, make sure that the root directory and the

temporary database directory are set appropriately. Then click Next.

19. Select Feature Configuration Rules to automatically run the feature configuration rules. Verify the output and

click Next.

20. On the Ready to Install page, verify the installation options. Then click Install to start the SQL Server failover

cluster installation (Figure 25).

Figure 25. Microsoft Windows SQL Server Installation: Verifying Selections and Starting Installation

The installation of SQL Server 2014 on primary database server is now complete.

Install the Microsoft SQL Server 2014 Failover Cluster Instance on the Secondary Database Server

1. Start the installation of SQL Server 2014 on the second node of the database cluster. Select the option Add

Node to SQL Server Failover Cluster.


2. Follow the steps in the wizard to complete the installation of SQL Server 2014 on the second node.

Verify the Cluster

You can verify the SQL Server failover cluster instances created on the virtual machines by choosing Failover

Cluster Manager > Cluster > Roles on either of the two database servers hosting the SQL Server instance

(Figure 26).

Figure 26. Figure Verifying the Failover Cluster Instance

AlwaysOn Availability Groups are a central concept in SQL Server 2014. An availability group supports a failover

environment for a discrete set of user databases, known as availability databases, that fail over together. An

availability group supports a set of primary databases and one to eight sets of corresponding secondary

databases. Secondary databases are not backups. Continue to back up your databases and their transaction logs

on a regular basis.

The primary replica makes the primary databases available for read-write connections from clients. Also, a process

known as data synchronization occurs at the database level. The primary replica sends transaction log records for

each primary database to every secondary database. Every secondary replica caches the transaction log records

(hardens the log) and then applies them to its corresponding secondary database. Data synchronization occurs

between the primary database and each connected secondary database, independently of the other databases.

Therefore, a secondary database can be suspended or can fail without affecting other secondary databases, and a

primary database can be suspended or can fail without affecting other primary databases.

Optionally, you can configure one or more secondary replicas to support read-only access to secondary databases,

and you can configure any secondary replica to permit backups on secondary databases.


Deploying AlwaysOn Availability Groups requires a Windows Server Failover Clustering, or WSFC, cluster. Each

availability replica of a given availability group must reside on a different node of the same WSFC cluster. The only

exception is that while being migrated to another WSFC cluster, an availability group can temporarily straddle two

clusters.

A WSFC resource group is created for every availability group that you create. The WSFC cluster monitors this

resource group to evaluate the health of the primary replica. The quorum for AlwaysOn Availability Groups is based

on all nodes in the WSFC cluster regardless of whether a given cluster node hosts any availability replicas. Unlike

with database mirroring, AlwaysOn Availability Groups do not have a witness role.

Figure 27 shows an availability group that contains one primary replica and one secondary replica. Up to eight

secondary replicas are supported, including one primary replica and two synchronous-commit secondary replicas.

Figure 27. Availability Group with One Replica

After you install the SQL Server 2014 failover cluster, you can verify the active primary instance and secondary

instance by logging into the SQL Server Management Studio.


Figure 28 shows the status of the SQL Server failover cluster instance.

Figure 28. Microsoft SQL Server 2014 Failover Cluster Instance Status


SAP NetWeaver 7.4 Installation

To validate this configuration, a distributed system was selected for the SAP system installation. SAP instances

can reside on different hosts in a distributed-system SAP installation.

Following are the SAP instance components required in a SAP distributed-system installation:

● Central services instance

● Database instance

● Primary application server instance

● Additional application server instance

This configuration used one server for the central services instance and primary application server instance, two

servers for the database instance (one for the active database and one for the standby database), and one server

for an additional application server instance.

Table 11 shows the use of each server for this validation.

Table 11. Servers and Purpose

Blade Server Type Operating System Purpose for SAP System

Cisco UCS B200 M4 Windows 2012 R2 ● SAP central services instance

● Primary application server instance

Cisco UCS B200 M4 Windows 2012 R2 ● Database instance

Cisco UCS B200 M4 Windows 2012 R2 ● Standby database instance

Cisco UCS B200 M4 Windows 2012 R2 ● Additional application server instance

1. Start the installation of NetWeaver 7.4 on the primary application server.

Follow the SAP guidelines for the NetWeaver installation for the ABAP stack on Windows Server 2012 R2.

The following steps give a high-level overview of the process of installing the SAP application for the ABAP

stack on Windows Server 2012 R2.

a. Download the NetWeaver software from the SAP marketplace and extract the downloaded files using

sapcar. (This configuration used sapcd to store all extracted binaries, such as software provisioning, export,

kernel, and SQL Server database files.)

b. Start the Power Shell command window and change the directory to \sapcd\sw_provisioning on the SAP

primary application server.

c. Start the installation by entering a command like the following example as the root user from SAP

application server 1:

# cd c:\ClusterStorage\sapcd\sw_provisioning

# ./sapinst SAPINST_USE_HOSTNAME=<hostname of application server>


2. Check the prerequisites for the NetWeaver installation on Windows Server 2012 R2 (Figure 29).

Figure 29. Prerequisites Check for SAP NetWeaver Installation


3. Check the prerequisites for the central services instance for ABAP on the primary application server (Figure

30). Then check the prerequisites for all other servers with the respective SAP application services before

performing the actual installation.

Figure 30. Prerequisite Check for Central Services Instance


4. After verifying that Windows Server 2012 R2 meets the prerequisites, start the installation of the ABAP central

services instance (Figure 31).

Figure 31. Installing the Central Services Instance

5. Click Next to continue the installation.

6. Select Custom mode for the installation. This mode allows you to enter all the parameters, and at the end you

can still change any of these parameters on the parameters summary screen.


7. After the installation of the central services instance completes successfully, start the installation of database

Instance on the primary database server (Figure 32).

Figure 32. Installing the Database Instance


8. During the database installation, you will be prompted to provide the database service name and instance

name to populate the database schema for NetWeaver. For this validation, a virtual name was created for SQL

Server 2014 after the SQL Server 2014 installation and during the creation of failover group (Figure 33).

Figure 33. Microsoft SQL Server 2014 Database Instance

During the database instance installation, the ABAP schema will be created and the database will be

populated.


9. After the database instance is successfully installed on the primary database server, start installation of the

primary application server instance on the primary application server (Figure 34).

Figure 34. Installing the Primary Application Server Instance


10. After you successfully install the primary application server instance, start the installation of the additional

application server instance (Figure 35).

Figure 35. Installing the Additional Application Server Instance

This step completes the installation of NetWeaver in a distributed system. This configuration provides high

availability for the application server instance and the database server instance.


11. After you successfully install NetWeaver 7.4, use the SAP management console (sapmmc) to verify the

services running on the application server and database server. Figure 36 shows the processes running on the

SAP application server.

Figure 36. Verifying SAP Services Using the SAP Management Console

This validation verified the SQL Server 2014 failover cluster. Performance on the application server was not

affected during the primary database server instance failover and failback.


Destructive and Hardware Failover Tests

The goal of destructive and hardware failover tests is to verify that the reference architecture can withstand

common failures that occur as a result of unexpected crashes, hardware failures, and human errors. Testing

consisted of many hardware-, software- (process kills), and OS-specific failures that simulate real-world scenarios

under stress conditions. The destructive testing also demonstrated the unique failover capabilities of the Cisco VIC

1340 adapter. Table 12 presents some of these test cases.

Table 12. Destructive and Hardware Failover Testing

Scenario Test Status

Test 1: Chassis 1 and I/O Module 2 Link Failure test

Run the system on full work load.

Disconnect I/O Module 2 from the first chassis and reconnect the links after 5 minutes.

Network traffic from I/O Module 2 will fail over without any disruption to I/O Module 21.

Test 2: Cisco UCS 6248 Fabric A and Fabric B Failure test

Run the system on full load as in Test 1.

Reboot Fabric B, let it rejoin the cluster, and then reboot Fabric A.

Fabric failover did not cause any disruption in network and storage traffic.

Test 3: Cisco Nexus 5548 Switch A and Fabric B Failure test

Run the system on full work load.

Reboot Cisco Nexus 5548UP Switch A, wait for 5 minutes, reconnect the switch, and repeat for Cisco Nexus 5548UP Switch B.

Network and storage traffic was not disrupted.

Conclusion

Cisco UCS is built on leading computing, networking, and infrastructure software components and supports access

to storage. With a Cisco UCS solution, customers can build a secure, integrated, and optimized stack that includes

computing, networking, and storage resources that are sized, configured, and deployed as a fully tested unit

running industry-standard applications such as SAP NetWeaver on a Microsoft SQL Server 2014 database using

block storage.

The following features make the combination of Cisco UCS with block storage so powerful for SAP NetWeaver

running on a SQL Server 2014 database:

● Cisco UCS stateless computing architecture, provided by the Cisco UCS service profiles, allows fast,

nondisruptive workload changes to be implemented simply and transparently across the integrated Cisco

UCS infrastructure and Cisco x86 servers.

● Cisco UCS in combination with a highly scalable SAN external storage platform is an excellent solution for

NetWeaver running on the SQL Server 2014 database’s unique, scalable, and highly available SAN

technology.

● Cisco Unified Fabric, with its focus on secure IP networks as the standard interconnect for server and data

management solutions, provides the underlying support for these features.

● Cisco UCS Manager provides centralized, simplified management of infrastructure resources, including

end-to-end automation.

● The solution prioritizes network throughput and reduced network latency through the use of unique Cisco

UCS QoS and CoS features.

Customers can achieve dramatic cost savings when using Ethernet-based products and can deploy any application

on a scalable, shared IT infrastructure built on Cisco UCS technologies. The solution provides a flexible

infrastructure platform composed of presized computing, networking, and server components. It is designed to

ease your IT transformation and operational challenges with high efficiency and little risk.


For More Information

● Cisco UCS: http://www.cisco.com/en/US/netsol/ns944/index.html

● Cisco Nexus: http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/ps9441/Products_Sub_Category_Home.html

● Cisco Nexus 5000 Series Switches and NX-OS Software configuration guide:

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/switches/datacenter/nexus5000/sw/configuration/guide/cli/CLIConfigurati

onGuide.html

● SAP NetWeaver installation guide: http://help.sap.com/nw74/

● SAP NetWeaver software: http://help.sap.com/nw_platform

● Microsoft SQL Server 2014 for SAP NetWeaver:

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/saponsqlserver/archive/2015/03/11/sql-server-2014-now-released-by-sap-for-sap-

netweaver-7-xx.aspx

● Microsoft SQL Server AlwaysOn: https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff877884.aspx

● SAP NetWeaver configuration parameters for Microsoft SQL Server 2014: https://websmp130.sap-

ag.de/sap%28bD1lbiZjPTAwMQ==%29/bc/bsp/sno/ui_entry/entry.htm?param=69765F6D6F64653D303031

2669765F7361706E6F7465735F6E756D6265723D3139383637373526

● SAP NetWeaver on Microsoft Windows Server:

http://www.sdn.sap.com/irj/scn/go/portal/prtroot/docs/library/uuid/405f3bee-0c69-2a10-7b84-

af7c1cb43ce6?QuickLink=index&overridelayout=true&19825569040023

Printed in USA C11-736212-00 11/15

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/netsol/ns944/index.html

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/ps9441/Products_Sub_Category_Home.html

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/switches/datacenter/nexus5000/sw/configuration/guide/cli/CLIConfigurationGuide.html

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/switches/datacenter/nexus5000/sw/configuration/guide/cli/CLIConfigurationGuide.html

http://help.sap.com/nw74/

http://help.sap.com/nw_platform

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/saponsqlserver/archive/2015/03/11/sql-server-2014-now-released-by-sap-for-sap-netweaver-7-xx.aspx

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/saponsqlserver/archive/2015/03/11/sql-server-2014-now-released-by-sap-for-sap-netweaver-7-xx.aspx

https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff877884.aspx

https://websmp130.sap-ag.de/sap%28bD1lbiZjPTAwMQ==%29/bc/bsp/sno/ui_entry/entry.htm?param=69765F6D6F64653D3030312669765F7361706E6F7465735F6E756D6265723D3139383637373526



http://www.sdn.sap.com/irj/scn/go/portal/prtroot/docs/library/uuid/405f3bee-0c69-2a10-7b84-af7c1cb43ce6?QuickLink=index&overridelayout=true&19825569040023

http://www.sdn.sap.com/irj/scn/go/portal/prtroot/docs/library/uuid/405f3bee-0c69-2a10-7b84-af7c1cb43ce6?QuickLink=index&overridelayout=true&19825569040023

Documents

SAP NetWeaver Using Microsoft SQL Server AlwaysOn Database