Oracle Database for SAP: News and Announcements

Oracle Exadata Database Machine for SAP

Oracle Exadata Database Machine delivers extreme performance and scalability for all SAP applications, including OLTP (SAP ERP), Business Warehouse (SAP BW), and consolidation of mixed workloads.

Built using Oracle's industry-standard Sun hardware and intelligent database and storage software, the Oracle Exadata Database Machine is a complete, optimized package of software, servers, and storage. Simple and fast to implement, the Oracle Exadata Database Machine is ready to tackle your largest and most important database applications.

For more information, see SAP Note 1590515 and the documents below.

• Oracle Exadata Database Machine for SAP Customers
• Database Consolidation on Oracle Exadata Database Machine
• Glencore Embraces Oracle Exadata as the Technology of the Future
• Oracle Database Machine: The Key to Taking SAP Use to the Next Level
• Using SAP NetWeaver with the Oracle Exadata Database Machine
• Oracle Exadata Start Up Pack for SAP Customers

Oracle Linux for SAP

Oracle Linux is certified by SAP on x86_64 (Intel, AMD) hardware. Both the Red Hat-compatible kernel and the Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel are supported. Oracle Linux can be used as an operating system platform for database server as well as for SAP Application Server installations.

Oracle Linux is a supported OS platform for Oracle Database 11g Release 2. Single-instance and Oracle Real Application Clusters (Oracle RAC) implementations are possible. Oracle Cloud File System can be used as storage platform.

If SAP runs on Oracle Database 11g Release 2, Oracle Linux is also a supported platform for SAP Application Server and SAP applications (Unicode versions only, NetWeaver 7.0x or higher).

For more information, see SAP Notes 1565179, 1567511 (Oracle Linux 5), and 1635808 (Oracle Linux 6). For a list of supported applications see SAP Note 1398634.

Oracle Cloud File System for SAP
As of February 2011, Oracle Automatic Storage Management and Oracle Automatic Storage Management Cluster File System are certified for SAP kernels 6.40_EX2 and higher on all UNIX and Linux platforms.

Oracle Automatic Storage Management (ASM) and Oracle Automatic Storage Management Cluster File System (ACFS) are components of the Oracle Cloud File System. Oracle ASM is designed to manage Oracle Database files. It provides the database administrator with a simple storage management interface that is consistent across all server and storage platforms. Oracle ACFS is an industry standard, general-purpose cluster file system for managing file data that is not stored in an Oracle Database. It offers integrated data services to protect file system data from human error, disk failure and disaster.

Oracle ASM was introduced with Oracle Database 10g. Since then, it has proven to be one of the fastest and most reliable storage platforms for Oracle databases. Oracle Database 11g comes with two major enhancements that are important for running SAP:

• Oracle Cluster Repository and voting files can be stored with Oracle ASM.
• Oracle RDBMS Home can be stored on Oracle ACFS.

This makes Oracle Cloud File System the preferred storage platform for SAP running on Oracle Real Application Clusters (Oracle RAC) as well as for SAP systems running on a single-instance Oracle Database.

For details, see SAP Note 1550133 and the following documents:

• White Paper: SAP on Oracle Automatic Storage Management 11g R2: Configuration Guidelines for UNIX/LINUX
• White Paper: Moving your SAP database to Oracle 11g R2 ASM: A Best Practices Guide