Db2

Introduction

Today’s rapidly changing business generates increasing demands for flexibility and continuous availability of business applications. This paper describes why a solution stack of IBM System x servers, SUSE Linux Enterprise Server optimized for SAP applications, the IBM DB2 pureScale Feature, and SAP applications provides an excellent response to these demands. This paper is targeted at both a technical audience and decision makers who want to understand the benefits that are provided through this best-of-breed solution stack.

SAP solutions on the DB2 pureScale Feature are horizontally scalable on both the SAP NetWeaver Application Server component and the DB2 database server tier. Optimal scaling is supported through specific technologies such as Remote Direct Memory Access (RDMA) capabilities over a high-speed cluster interconnect. The combination of IBM System x servers with SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for SAP applications is an excellent platform, offering the price and performance advantages of modern x86-based systems.

The horizontal scaling of the solution adds redundancy to the system, which on its own increases availability. Integrated DB2 cluster services take care of all servers and ensure continuous availability in the event of failures. During maintenance, you can seamlessly take individual components out of the cluster, ensuring that operations are not affected by the maintenance. The section DB2 pureScale Feature Use cases and Benefits for SAP Applications covers the availability, maintenance, and scalability aspects of this solution in more detail and explains the business value of these aspects based on use cases that are specific to SAP solutions. The performance characteristics are described in the section Performance considerations.