Major revision of SAP HANA installation on Azure VMs

msjuergent · msjuergent · commit 5cf837fe8a2c · 2020-03-19T23:46:51.000-07:00
diff --git a/articles/virtual-machines/workloads/sap/hana-get-started.md b/articles/virtual-machines/workloads/sap/hana-get-started.md
@@ -21,7 +21,7 @@ ms.author: juergent
 ---
 # Installation of SAP HANA on Azure virtual machines
 ## Introduction
-This guide helps you to point to the right resources to deploy HANA in Azure virtual machines successfully. This guide is not going to decibe every single step, but is going to point you to documentation resources, so, that you ae able to perform the right steps, and that you are ending with a supported release of SAP HANA on Azure VMs  
+This guide helps you to point to the right resources to deploy HANA in Azure virtual machines successfully. This guide is going to point you to documentation resources that you need to check before installing SAP HANA in an Azure VM. So, that you are able to perform the right steps to end with a supported configuration of SAP HANA in Azure VMs.  
 
 > [!NOTE]
 > This guide describes deployments of SAP HANA into Azure VMs. For information on how to deploy SAP HANA into HANA large instances, see [How to install and configure SAP HANA (Large Instances) on Azure](https://docs.microsoft.com/azure/virtual-machines/workloads/sap/hana-installation).
@@ -35,28 +35,28 @@ This guide also assumes that you're familiar with:
    * Deployment principles and ways to deploy VMs in Azure. See [Azure Virtual Machines deployment for SAP](https://docs.microsoft.com/azure/virtual-machines/workloads/sap/deployment-guide)
    * High availability concepts for SAP HANA as documented in [SAP HANA high availability for Azure virtual machines](https://docs.microsoft.com/azure/virtual-machines/workloads/sap/sap-hana-availability-overview)
 
-## Step by step before deploying anything
-In this section, the different steps are listed that you need to perform before even starting with the installation of SAP HANA in an Azure virtual machine. The order is enumerated and hence should be followed through as enumerated:
+## Step-by-step before deploying
+In this section, the different steps are listed that you need to perform before starting with the installation of SAP HANA in an Azure virtual machine. The order is enumerated and as such should be followed through as enumerated:
 
-1. Since not all thinkable deployment scenarios are supported on Azure, you should check the document [SAP workload on Azure virtual machine supported scenarios](https://docs.microsoft.com/azure/virtual-machines/workloads/sap/sap-planning-supported-configurations) for the scenario you have in mind with your SAP HANA deployment. if the scenario is not listed, you need to assume that it has not been tested and, as a result, is not supported
-2. Assuming that you have a rough idea on your memory requirement for your SAP HANA deployment, you need to find a fitting Azure VM. Since not all the VMs that are certified for SAP NetWeaver as documented in [SAP support note #1928533](https://launchpad.support.sap.com/#/notes/1928533) are SAP HANA certified, the source of truth for SAP HANA certified Azure VMs is the website [SAP HANA hardware directory](https://www.sap.com/dmc/exp/2014-09-02-hana-hardware/enEN/iaas.html#categories=Microsoft%20Azure). The units starting with **S** are [HANA Large Instances](https://docs.microsoft.com/azure/virtual-machines/workloads/sap/hana-overview-architecture) units and not Azure VMs.
-3. Different Azure VM types have different minimum operating system releases for SUESE Linux or Red Hat Linux. On the website [SAP HANA hardware directory](https://www.sap.com/dmc/exp/2014-09-02-hana-hardware/enEN/iaas.html#categories=Microsoft%20Azure) you need to click on an entry in the list of SAP HANA certified units to get detailed data of this unit. Besides the supported HANA workload, the OS releases that are supported with those units for SAP HANA are listed
-4. As of operating system releases, you need to consider certain minimum kernel releases. this are documented in these SAP support notes:
+1. Not all possible deployment scenarios are supported on Azure. Therefore, you should check the document [SAP workload on Azure virtual machine supported scenarios](https://docs.microsoft.com/azure/virtual-machines/workloads/sap/sap-planning-supported-configurations) for the scenario you have in mind with your SAP HANA deployment. If the scenario is not listed, you need to assume that it has not been tested and, as a result, is not supported
+2. Assuming that you have a rough idea on your memory requirement for your SAP HANA deployment, you need to find a fitting Azure VM. Not all the VMs that are certified for SAP NetWeaver, as documented in [SAP support note #1928533](https://launchpad.support.sap.com/#/notes/1928533), are SAP HANA certified. The source of truth for SAP HANA certified Azure VMs is the website [SAP HANA hardware directory](https://www.sap.com/dmc/exp/2014-09-02-hana-hardware/enEN/iaas.html#categories=Microsoft%20Azure). The units starting with **S** are [HANA Large Instances](https://docs.microsoft.com/azure/virtual-machines/workloads/sap/hana-overview-architecture) units and not Azure VMs.
+3. Different Azure VM types have different minimum operating system releases for SUESE Linux or Red Hat Linux. On the website [SAP HANA hardware directory](https://www.sap.com/dmc/exp/2014-09-02-hana-hardware/enEN/iaas.html#categories=Microsoft%20Azure), you need to click on an entry in the list of SAP HANA certified units to get detailed data of this unit. Besides the supported HANA workload, the OS releases that are supported with those units for SAP HANA are listed
+4. As of operating system releases, you need to consider certain minimum kernel releases. These minimum releases are documented in these SAP support notes:
 	- [SAP support note #2814271 SAP HANA Backup fails on Azure with Checksum Error](https://launchpad.support.sap.com/#/notes/2814271)
 	- [SAP support note #2753418 Potential Performance Degradation Due to Timer Fallback](https://launchpad.support.sap.com/#/notes/2753418)
 	- [SAP support note #2791572 Performance Degradation Because of Missing VDSO Support For Hyper-V in Azure](https://launchpad.support.sap.com/#/notes/2791572)
-4. Based on the OS release that is supported for the virtual machine type of choice, you need to check whether your desired SAP HANA release is supported on the OS. Read [SAP support note #2235581](https://launchpad.support.sap.com/#/notes/2235581) for a support matrix of SAP HANA releases with the different Operating System releases.
-5. As you might have a valid combination of Azure VM type, operating system release and SAP HANA release, you need to check in the SAP product Availability matrix whether the SAP product you want to run against your SAP HANA database is supported
+4. Based on the OS release that is supported for the virtual machine type of choice, you need to check whether your desired SAP HANA release is supported with that operating system release. Read [SAP support note #2235581](https://launchpad.support.sap.com/#/notes/2235581) for a support matrix of SAP HANA releases with the different Operating System releases.
+5. As you might have found a valid combination of Azure VM type, operating system release and SAP HANA release, you need to check in the SAP Product Availability Matrix. In the SAP Availability Matrix,  you can find out whether the SAP product you want to run against your SAP HANA database is supported.
 
 
-## Step by step VM deployment and guest OS considerations
+## Step-by-step VM deployment and guest OS considerations
 In this phase, you need to go through the steps deploying the VM(s) to install HANA and eventually optimize the chosen operating system after the installation.
 
-1. Chose the base image out of the Azure gallery. Unless you want to build your own operating system image for SAP HANA since you know all the different packages that are necessary for a successful SAP HANA installation, it is recommended to use the SUSE and Red Hat images for SAP or SAP HANA. These packages include the necessary packages for a successful HANA installation. Based on your support contract with the operating system provider, you need to choose an image where you bring your own license. Or you chose an image that includes support
-2. If you chose an gust OS image that requires you bringing your on licenses, you need to register the OS image with your subscription, so, that you can download and apply the latest patches. This step is going to require public internet access. Unless you set up your private instance of, for example, an SMT server in Azure.
-3. Decide the network configuration of the VM. You can read more information in the document [SAP HANA infrastructure configurations and operations on Azure](https://docs.microsoft.com/azure/virtual-machines/workloads/sap/hana-vm-operations). Keep in mind that there are no network throughput quotas you can assign to virtual network cards in Azure. As a result, the only purpose of directing traffic through different vNICs is based on security considerations. We trust you to find a supportable compromise between complexity of traffic routing through multiple vNICs and the requirements you need to adhere to from security aspects
-3. Apply the latest patches to the operating system once the VM is deployed and registered either with your own subscription or as the VM has registered with the Azure side subscription in case you chose an image that includes operating system support
-4. Apply the tunes necessary for SAP HANA. These are listed in these SAP support notes:
+1. Chose the base image out of the Azure gallery. If you want to build your own operating system image for SAP HANA you need too know all the different packages that are necessary for a successful SAP HANA installation. Otherwise it is recommended using the SUSE and Red Hat images for SAP or SAP HANA out of the Azure image gallery. These images include the packages necessary for a successful HANA installation. Based on your support contract with the operating system provider, you need to choose an image where you bring your own license. Or you choose an OS image that includes support
+2. If you chose a guest OS image that requires you bringing your on licenses, you need to register the OS image with your subscription, so, that you can download and apply the latest patches. This step is going to require public internet access. Unless you set up your private instance of, for example, an SMT server in Azure.
+3. Decide the network configuration of the VM. You can read more information in the document [SAP HANA infrastructure configurations and operations on Azure](https://docs.microsoft.com/azure/virtual-machines/workloads/sap/hana-vm-operations). Keep in mind that there are no network throughput quotas you can assign to virtual network cards in Azure. As a result, the only purpose of directing traffic through different vNICs is based on security considerations. We trust you to find a supportable compromise between complexity of traffic routing through multiple vNICs and the requirements enforced by security aspects.
+3. Apply the latest patches to the operating system once the VM is deployed and registered. Registered  either with your own subscription. Or in case you chose an image that includes operating system support the VM should have access to the patches already. 
+4. Apply the tunes necessary for SAP HANA. These tunes are listed in these SAP support notes:
 
 	- [SAP support note #2694118 - Red Hat Enterprise Linux HA Add-On on Azure](https://launchpad.support.sap.com/#/notes/2694118)
 	- [SAP support note #1984787 - SUSE LINUX Enterprise Server 12: Installation notes](https://launchpad.support.sap.com/#/notes/1984787) 
@@ -68,24 +68,24 @@ In this phase, you need to go through the steps deploying the VM(s) to install H
 	-  [SAP support note #2455582 - Linux: Running SAP applications compiled with GCC 6.x](https://launchpad.support.sap.com/#/notes/0002455582)
 	-  [SAP support note #2382421 - Optimizing the Network Configuration on HANA- and OS-Level](https://launchpad.support.sap.com/#/notes/2382421)
 
-1. Select the Azure storage type for SAP HANA. In this step you need to decide on storage layout for SAP HANA installation. You are going to use either attached Azure disks or native Azure NFS shares. The storage that is supported and combination of different Azure storage that are supported is documented in [SAP HANA Azure virtual machine storage configurations](https://docs.microsoft.com/azure/virtual-machines/workloads/sap/hana-vm-operations-storage). Take the configurations documented as starting point. For non-production systems you might be able to configure smaller. For production purposes, you might need to configure a bit larger.
+1. Select the Azure storage type for SAP HANA. In this step, you need to decide on storage layout for SAP HANA installation. You are going to use either attached Azure disks or native Azure NFS shares. The Azure storage types that or supported and combinations of different Azure storage types that can be used, are documented in [SAP HANA Azure virtual machine storage configurations](https://docs.microsoft.com/azure/virtual-machines/workloads/sap/hana-vm-operations-storage). Take the configurations documented as starting point. For non-production systems, you might be able to configure lower though or IOPS. For production purposes, you might need to configure a bit more throughput and IOPS.
 2. Check whether [Azure Accelerated Networking](https://azure.microsoft.com/blog/maximize-your-vm-s-performance-with-accelerated-networking-now-generally-available-for-both-windows-and-linux/) is enabled on the VM(s) deployed.
 
 > [!NOTE]
 > Not all the commands in the different sap-tune profiles or as described in the notes might run successfully on Azure. Commands that would manipulate the power mode of VMs usually return with an error since the power mode of the underlying Azure host hardware can not be manipulated.
 
 ## Step by step preparations specific to Azure virtual machines
-One of the Azure specifics is the installation of an Azure VM extension that delivers monitoring data for the SAP Host Agent. The details about the installation of this monitoring extension is documented in:
+One of the Azure specifics is the installation of an Azure VM extension that delivers monitoring data for the SAP Host Agent. The details about the installation of this monitoring extension are documented in:
 
 -  [SAP Note 2191498](https://launchpad.support.sap.com/#/notes/2191498/E) discusses SAP enhanced monitoring with Linux VMs on Azure 
 -  [SAP Note 1102124](https://launchpad.support.sap.com/#/notes/1102124/E) discusses information about SAPOSCOL on Linux 
 -  [SAP Note 2178632](https://launchpad.support.sap.com/#/notes/2178632/E) discusses key monitoring metrics for SAP on Microsoft Azure
 -  [Azure Virtual Machines deployment for SAP NetWeaver](https://docs.microsoft.com/azure/virtual-machines/workloads/sap/deployment-guide#d98edcd3-f2a1-49f7-b26a-07448ceb60ca)
 
 ## SAP HANA installation
-With the Azure virtual machines deployed and he operating systems registered and configured, you can install SAP HANA according to the SAP install. As a good start to get to this documentation, start with this SAP website [HANA resources](https://www.sap.com/products/hana/implementation/resources.html)
+With the Azure virtual machines deployed and the operating systems registered and configured, you can install SAP HANA according to the SAP install. As a good start to get to this documentation, start with this SAP website [HANA resources](https://www.sap.com/products/hana/implementation/resources.html)
 
-For SAP HANA scale-out configurations using direct attached disks of Azure Premium Storage or Ultra disk, red the specifics in the document [SAP HANA infrastructure configurations and operations on Azure](https://docs.microsoft.com/azure/virtual-machines/workloads/sap/hana-vm-operations#configuring-azure-infrastructure-for-sap-hana-scale-out)
+For SAP HANA scale-out configurations using direct attached disks of Azure Premium Storage or Ultra disk, read the specifics in the document [SAP HANA infrastructure configurations and operations on Azure](https://docs.microsoft.com/azure/virtual-machines/workloads/sap/hana-vm-operations#configuring-azure-infrastructure-for-sap-hana-scale-out)
 
 
 ## Additional resources for SAP HANA backup
diff --git a/articles/virtual-machines/workloads/sap/sap-deployment-checklist.md b/articles/virtual-machines/workloads/sap/sap-deployment-checklist.md
@@ -180,7 +180,7 @@ We recommend that you set up and validate a full HADR solution and security desi
 1. Performance testing. In SAP, based on SAP tracing and measurements, make these comparisons:
    - Where applicable, compare the top 10 online reports to your current implementation.
    - Where applicable, compare the top 10 batch jobs to your current implementation.
-   - Compare data transfers through interfaces into the SAP system. Focus on interfaces where you know the transfer is now going between different locations, like from on-premises to Azure.
+   - Compare data transfers through interfaces into the SAP system. Focus on interfaces where you know the transfer is going between different locations, like from on-premises to Azure.
 
 
 ## Non-production phase 
