Dell Technologies recommends that you adhere to the following VMware sizing rules and considerations when you run your SAP system on VMware.
- Enable Hyperthreading.
- Disable Power Saving mode.
- Try to size the VM to fit within the NUMA node (non-wide).
- Install VMware Tools and perform the configuration using the VMXNET3 network adapter.
- Spread the virtual disks across all four of the available virtual SCSI controllers to a VM to maximize performance.
- Spread the database files across multiple LUNs and LUN queues to maximize I/O performance.
- Separate database log files and data files into different LUNs to minimize I/O contention.
- Use the Virtual Machine File System (VMFS) where possible to increase operational management efficiency.
- Use “eager zeroed thick” formats for all virtual disks.
- Note that the maximum number of vCPUs in VMware is 128 for a single VM.
- Use vSphere HA for all SAP instances.
- Install Central Services instances (ASCS/SCS) in a stand-alone VM and ensure that the VM is protected with VMware Fault Tolerance, which supports up to four vCPUs.
- Ensure that you use the latest SAP host agent.
For more information, see SAP HANA on VMware vSphere Best Practices and Reference Architecture Guide.
The following figure shows the Dell storage design layout for VMware VMs:
Figure 8. Storage design layout for VMware virtual machines
Note: If you are planning to deploy SAP HANA and SAP HANA-related applications with VMware vSphere, see SAP HANA on VMware vSphere for support and sizing information.