SAP on VMware vSphere

The information on this page is valid for all SAP applications which agree with the General Support Statement for Virtual Environments (see SAP Note 1492000).

For support information on SAP HANA and SAP HANA-related applications with VMware vSphere, see the page SAP HANA on VMware vSphere.

For any questions regarding the content of this document please send an e-mail via SCN or directly to erieger@vmware.com.

News

• SAP HANA on VMware vSphere 6.0 is now supported for production and non-production use cases. More details are available through SAP HANA on VMware vSphere and SAP Note 1788665
• SAP on Virtual SAN information posted onSAP on VMware Virtual SAN. This document contains relevant information for running SAP applications on VMware Virtual SAN like support status and sizing information.

Support Information

• Microsoft recently released a “Convenience Update” patch for Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1. This update has incompatibility issues with virtual machines running on the VMware vSphere virtualization platform. This incompatibility is confined to one specific configuration scenario – it impacts VMs that use the VMware VMXNet3 virtual network adapter type. For a solution of this issue, check Microsoft KB 3125574.
• Some customers recently reported a performance degradation when running virtualized SAP workload on MS SQL Server after changing to hardware version 11 in vSphere 6. See SAP Note 2293740 for more information if you're running this combination of products.
• vSphere 6.0 SAP support got recently released for all SAP applications which agree with the General Support Statement for Virtual Environments (see SAP Note 1492000). vSphere 6.0 can now get used to virtualize these production and non-production SAP applications running on Windows and Linux OS. For details check out SAP Note 1409608 and 1122388.
• VMware vSphere 5.5 U3 and 6.0: Known Issues
  When operating your SAP software with VMware vSphere, check SAP Notes 2229228 and SAP Note 2237937 for the required patches.
• We have lately seen some issues with VMs freezing intermittently under heavy I/O load. We strongly recommend to read VMware KB 2088157 and to proactively apply the recommended vSphere patch available for your version.

SAP Notes Related to VMware

For a list of SAP Notes that are related to the use of SAP applications on VMware products, see SAP Notes Related to VMware.

For all Windows on VMware vSphere specific notes, see SAP Notes for Windows in Virtual Environments and for a list of SAP Notes related to Linux, see SAP Notes for Linux in Virtual Environments.

• New SAP Note 2266266 on Key Monitoring Metrics for SAP on VMware vSphere (version 5.5 u3 and higher)

Supported SAP Applications

With the General Support Statement for Virtual Environments (SAP Note 1492000), SAP supports almost all its applications on a proven stack of virtualization solution, operating system and database.

Therefore all SAP applications - except the following - are supported on the stack of VMware vSphere, guest OS and database versions listed on this page:

• BWA
• SAP HANA and SAP HANA-related applications (for support, check SAP HANA on VMware vSphere)
• SAP ITS 6.20

Supported Guest Operating Systems by SAP

The table below provides a short overview on supported guest operating systems. For prerequisites and configuration details for support, check SAP Note 1409608 on Windows and SAP Note 171356 on Linux.

For a detailed list of supported guest operating systems on VMware vSphere, please read the Guest OS Compatibility Guide.

Supported Databases

The table below provides a short overview on supported databases. For detailed information on support of your database product, check the relevant SAP Notes listed below.

(*1) only for specified DB, VMware and guest OS versions listed in SAP Note 1130801 and http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/wikis/display/im/DB2+Virtualization+Support
(*2) see SAP Note 1142243

(*3) Restricted Oracle support, only for specified DB, VMware and guest OS versions listed in SAP Note 1173954. For details on Oracle Support and Licensing on VMware, see Video.

(*4) released as of SAP ASE version 15.7; see SAP Note 1706801

(*5) released as of SAP IQ version 15.4, see VMware document SAP Sybase IQ on VMware vSphere

(*6) For support information on SAP HANA and SAP HANA-related applications with VMware vSphere, see the page SAP HANA on VMware vSphere.

Frequently Asked Questions

For a list of frequently asked questions for the operation on SAP applications with VMware vSphere, check Frequently Asked Questions: VMware vSphere.

Getting Started and VMware Documents regarding SAP Products

• SAP VMware Alliance webpage, see SAP Virtualization and VMware: Run SAP Virtual
• For the operation of SAP software with VMware, see VMware documents regarding SAP products
• For high availability with VMware, see High Availability Solutions for SAP on VMware
• For Customer Case Studies with SAP on VMware, see http://www.vmware.com/business-critical-apps/sap-virtualization/customer-success.html.
• For consulting services with VMware, see Assess, Create, and Adopt a Virtualization and Cloud Strategy
• VMware Best Practices Guide updated for vSphere 6: see Updated for vSphere 6 - SAP on VMware Best Practices guide
• Blog: VMware - Business Critical Applications - SAP