An Oracle White Paper
Oracle 2010
The Role of Oracle Solaris in Support of
SAP Enterprise Applications
The Role of Oracle Solaris in Support of SAP Enterprise Applications
Executive Overview............................................................................. 1
Forces Driving a New Platform Design ............................................... 2
Cloud Computing ............................................................................ 3
Virtualization.................................................................................... 3
The Demand for Green IT ............................................................... 5
SAP Business Suite 7 and the
Next Generation of Enterprise Applications .................................... 5
Restructuring in a Difficult Budget Environment.............................. 6
The Power of Oracle Solaris for the
Next-Generation Computing Platform ................................................. 7
The Simplicity of Oracle Solaris ...................................................... 9
Oracle Solaris as a Virtualization Engine .......................................... 12
Virtualization and SAP .................................................................. 12
Oracle Solaris Containers ............................................................. 12
Oracle Solaris and Hypervisors..................................................... 14
Dynamic Domains ......................................................................... 14
SAP Integration Point:
SAP NetWeaver Adaptive Computing Controller .......................... 15
Security, ZFS, Diagnostics, Open Source,
and Other Engineering Advantages of Oracle Solaris .................. 15
Security ......................................................................................... 15
The Enterprise in Control: Binary Compatibility ............................ 15
Data Integrity and Scalability: Oracle Solaris ZFS ........................ 16
Deep Dive into Performance: Oracle Solaris DTrace.................... 17
Open Source Benefits: Engineering Vision ................................... 17
Green Benefits of Oracle Hardware .................................................. 18
Enterprise Computing Tools from Oracle .......................................... 18
Datacenter Management with
Oracle Enterprise Manager Ops Center........................................ 19
Security and Compliance Support................................................. 19
Business Benefits of Running SAP on Oracle Solaris....................... 21
The Role of Oracle Solaris in Support of SAP Enterprise Applications
The Ecosystem Advantage: Best of Both Worlds.......................... 22
Enterprise Support ........................................................................ 22
Help with Migration........................................................................ 22
Ease of Administration .................................................................. 23
Virtualization:
Optimize Resources, Ease Administration, and Go Green ........... 24
High Availability Computing .......................................................... 24
Scalability ...................................................................................... 24
Tunability....................................................................................... 25
Maximum Flexibility....................................................................... 25
Sustainability ................................................................................. 25
Lowering Total Cost of Ownership ................................................ 26
Conclusion ........................................................................................ 27
The Role of Oracle Solaris in Support of SAP Enterprise Applications
Executive Overview
IT executives face a continuous but unpredictable cycle in which newly relevant forces demand
a redesign of the platform and infrastructure for enterprise computing. Past challenges have
been caused by the personal computer, the adoption of enterprise applications, the internet,
Y2K, and the dot-com boom.
The current environment represents the next in a series of challenges that demand a new
structure for the enterprise computing platform. Cloud computing offerings at various levels of
the software stack; the viability of virtualization at scale; new generations of enterprise
software, such as SAP Business Suite 7; and the increasing corporate emphasis on
environmental sustainability are forces sufficient to initiate a new era of platform restructuring.
When these forces are amplified by an economic downturn, the urgency of defining a new
computing platform rises dramatically.
The right design of platform for a particular company involves many concerns, and as a result,
valuable specific advice on the optimal shape of a platform is hard to find. In general, however,
a modern platform must address support for virtualization, environmental sustainability, and
tight integration with enterprise applications. The platform must be flexible to enable quick
changes and align the IT infrastructure with business requirements and processes. The next
generation of computing platforms must also offer lower total cost of ownership (TCO).
This white paper

Surveys the forces driving IT departments to redesign their computing platforms

Examines the key platform design issues

Analyzes how the Oracle Solaris operating system (OS) meets the new requirements
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The Role of Oracle Solaris in Support of SAP Enterprise Applications
Forces Driving a New Platform Design
Any one of the following forces discussed in this section puts pressure on the existing shape of the
platform for enterprise computing:

Cloud computing

Virtualization

Green IT

New enterprise applications

Economic pressures
Taken together, they represent a new set of requirements that will have a dramatic impact. This section
analyzes the forces individually, and then examines how, collectively, they demand a new approach to
deploying IT infrastructure for the enterprise (see Figure 1).
Figure 1. Several forces are driving organizations toward a next-generation computing platform.
2
The Role of Oracle Solaris in Support of SAP Enterprise Applications
Cloud Computing
Cloud computing is having on enterprise computing platforms is similar to the effect that globalization
has had on the shape of the overall enterprise. Software as a service offerings such as Salesforce.com;
platform as a service offerings such as Google App Engine and Force.com; and infrastructure as a
service offerings such as Amazon Web Services, Rackspace, and GoGrid are changing the rules about
what goes where.
Each business must figure out when it makes sense to move applications and infrastructure to the
cloud for lower costs, faster provisioning, and dynamic scalability. The cloud can change the financial
shape of the computing platform by converting the capital expenditures required to build datacenters
into more predictable operational expenses.
The early success of the cloud has been in adopting software as a service applications and supporting
development and test environments. Computationally intensive applications are finding that the cloud
can be an incredibly cost-effective way to perform large amounts of work on short notice, without
needing the long-term investment in massive datacenters with hundreds of computers.
In general, cloud infrastructure is forcing the redefinition of enterprise computing, which is now
thought of as a collection of work units. Each work unit has associated data, application functionality,
and network connectivity. The way that each work unit is processed, whether in the cloud or in
traditional ways, depends on the nature of these other elements.
Modern platforms must be able to easily integrate with the cloud and be constructed in such a way that
is friendly to the future construction of work units. This means that applications that were previously
intended to operate only within a highly secure datacenter might need to communicate with other
services operating in the cloud or be moved to the cloud. To handle this reality, increased support for
security, virtualization, and remote administration will be required.
Virtualization
Cloud computing is essentially a collection of productized, virtualized resources delivered at scale. For
years now, IT departments have used virtualization in many ways, for example, to make workstations
more powerful for sophisticated end users and developers and for rapid creation of test environments.
Although cloud vendors have put virtualization to work in datacenters with tens of thousands of
servers, IT adoption for production has been slower. However, adoption is accelerating as companies
look to virtualization technologies to combat “server sprawl,” increase flexibility, and achieve new
green IT goals.
The Consequences of Server Sprawl
The past 10 years have seen a rapid proliferation of servers at most companies, commonly known as
server sprawl Changing application requirements and cheaper hardware have resulted in a system
landscape that is severely underused (about 2040 percent usage per server). At the same time, they are
overstraining the power and cooling infrastructure of existing datacenters and dealing with severe
budget constraints that force companies to try to make the most of what they have.
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The Role of Oracle Solaris in Support of SAP Enterprise Applications
Server sprawl can have the following consequences:

More OS instances mean higher costs. Administration is more difficult, and whether the
approach is to add staff with expertise in a given platform or retain premium staff with
multiplatform experience, staffing costs can rise uncontrollably.

Diverse hardware platforms are more expensive. Components cannot be switched as easily as
they can be in a standardized environment, and the benefits of economies of scale cannot be
leveraged for acquisition and maintenance support expenses.
Adding another server for every enterprise application need, although a common strategy since the
advent of distributed computing, no longer makes sense. In most cases, neither does maintaining the
status quo.
Increased use of virtualization has been the antidote to server sprawl, enabling the dramatic
consolidation of underused servers. But the price of increasing use of virtualization in this manner is
the need to provision, administrate, and monitor a virtual environment that can be much more
complex than a physical environment. In addition, change management becomes more complex
because virtual assets are more mobile.
More Virtual Than Real
With the increasing adoption of server
The Problem with Obsolete Platforms
virtualization in the x86 server space, it is also
Obsolete platforms present several complications, which can be
mitigated by virtualization:
vital to examine the increasing amount of
system administrator time associated with
tracking both physical machines and virtual

Maintenance support costs rise significantly as both hardware
and software vendors shift to new technologies.

Components and replacement parts might not be widely
available.

Heating and cooling costs are much higher, meaning there is
a substantial energy cost for running these older systems.

The likelihood of failure increases with the age of the
platform.
machines (VMs) as they are deployed and
provisioned with workloads. Indeed, the
proliferation of VMs is expected to quickly
outstrip the number of physical server units
shipped worldwide. IDC notes that 2008 was a
record year for physical server unit shipments,
with more than 8 million units shipped
worldwide. Source: IDC
The consolidation that takes place due to virtualization can also serve to replace outmoded equipment.
Flexibility in Application Provisioning and Management
Virtualization provides great flexibility in application provisioning and management. One common
scenario involves underlying physical hardware that is reconfigured to support online applications in
the day and batch processing at night. During the day, the virtual machines (VMs) that power the
online systems can be allocated more CPUs and memory. In addition, several user interface servers can
be started. As the load drops after working hours, the user interface servers can be shut down, and the
CPU and memory can then be allocated to a VM that is running a batch processing application needing
as much computing power as possible during the night.
4
The Role of Oracle Solaris in Support of SAP Enterprise Applications
When the applications are aware that they are running in a virtual environment, as SAP applications are
through the SAP Adaptive Computing Controller, even more advanced administration and
management capabilities can be employed.
But to expand the use of virtualization, there must be a way to manage the virtual environment. Unless
the management and administration are addressed from the very beginning, it is likely that a virtual
mess will replace the physical one.
The Demand for Green IT
The demand for companies to improve their performance along a variety of sustainability measures is
driving the design and implementation of the next generation of computing platform.
Virtualization is associated most directly with green IT, or green computing, because of server
consolidation. Fewer, more energy-efficient servers doing more work means lower costs for air
conditioning and power consumption. This lower energy use also means a smaller carbon footprint,
which counts significantly in most sustainability programs.
Green IT goals can also be achieved by retiring entire datacenters and moving them to cloud-based
resources, which are generally provisioned with lower energy and cooling costs per server or
application instance.
Whatever the mechanisms used to achieve greener IT, it is likely to involve introduction of a new
computing platform.
SAP Business Suite 7 and the Next Generation of Enterprise Applications
Many implementations of enterprise resource planning (ERP), customer relationship management
(CRM), and supply chain management (SCM) applications are so challenging that companies are wary
to upgrade to current versions. To combat this hesitancy, vendors strongly encourage them to upgrade
through various mechanisms, such as by increasing support charges for older versions or by outright
cutting off support for older hardware and software platforms.
SAP typically certifies compatibility with specific hardware, database, and middleware platforms. As the
software version ages, customers might have difficulty keeping up with platforms that are certified and
supported, increasing the risk of failure and performance problems. In some cases, the availability of
platform support becomes an issue as well; for example, SAP recently removed the HP 3000 from its
list of certified platforms. So costly secondary markets might be needed to obtain replacement parts for
older hardware platforms. As you make decisions about your platform, understanding the level of
commitment SAP has to its technology partners is critical.
Customization can dilute or eliminate vendor support. Over time, older applications become more and
more customized to meet changing business requirements. If the customization is extensive, the
applications become more costly to support internally and, subsequently, diminish the value of the
vendor’s support program.
5
The Role of Oracle Solaris in Support of SAP Enterprise Applications
There is an increased burden on internal IT staff to keep the applications in compliance with
regulations; failure can put the company at additional risk of penalties. Especially given the constantly
shifting landscape of global trade and environmental regulations, assurance of compliance is critical.
In the past, the temptation was to maintain the status quo and keep the ERP systems on older
hardware (for the “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” laggards). To address pressing business needs, many
have bought new licenses to other software products such as business intelligence; enterprise
performance management; and governance, risk, and compliance (GRC) software. Generally, this
software runs on a different platform from the database and ERP system, which exacerbates the
platform proliferation problem. And although this software might solve the CEO’s immediate
problem, it doesn’t really solve the problem for the CIOthe datacenter has now become more
complicated, difficult, and expensive to administer.
Why Upgrade Now?
Enterprise software is continually evolving to address the changing needs of business. SAP, for
example, has created SAP Business Suite 7 with TCO issues and the needs of the global business in
mind. Significant enhancements to SAP Business Suite 7 software include

Synchronization of all the applications so that each application—ERP, CRM, SCM— is now on the
same release cycle; updates are integrated and tested together.

Thy software maintenance and support model is achieved with enhancement packages. Version
upgrades will still occur, but only every 5 or 10 years. Software will be upgraded through
enhancement packs: coordinated collections of new functionality that move the product forward
to meet new requirements.

Enterprise service bundles are collections of service-oriented architecture (SOA)enabled Web
services that provide access to data and functionality inside SAP Business Suite 7. These Web
services support distributed computing environments where some parts reside on premise and other
parts reside in the cloud.

Value scenarios in SAP Business Suite 7 are automations of processes that were discovered to help
businesses with specific high-value processes. Value scenarios take advantage of the synchronization
of SAP Business Suite 7 and frequently implement processes that span the traditional boundaries of
ERP, CRM, SCM, and so forth.

SAP Business Suite 7 is a switch framework that eliminates the need for a new installation to acquire
new functionality. Desired features are not installed but turned on, which reduces deployment time
for new features.
Restructuring in a Difficult Budget Environment
Despite budgetary constraints, the imperative for business success is stronger than ever. CEOs need
timely and actionable business information and the ability to change direction very quickly to take
advantage of opportunities as they arise. CEOs need dashboards that show revenues, the sales pipeline,
trend analysis, and timely updates on the key risks.
6
The Role of Oracle Solaris in Support of SAP Enterprise Applications
These urgent demands mean CIOs need a platform that is flexible enough to respond to such requests;
stabile enough to keep enterprise applications running smoothly; and, of course, cost efficient, because
severe budget constraints mean everyone must do more with much less.
Thus far, the following elements of this next-generation platform have been made clear:

Support for cloud computing

Increased use of virtualization

Better performance in green IT and sustainability measures

Maximum use of the latest generation of enterprise software
The combination of these forces leads to a new platform that will be highly virtualized and more
complex. CIOs must have a clear strategy for managing this complexity. The new platform must be
more secure because it will be connected more widely to the cloud and to other datacenters.
Addressing multiple challenges is not new, but the urgent arrival of so many new dynamics at once
means that implementing a computing platform designed to address these problems is critical to
success.
Oracle has developed the Oracle Solaris OS, which is a key component of the next-generation
computing platform:

Oracle Solaris has been designed so that virtualization is integrated into the OS through containers,
logical domains, and dynamic domains.

Oracle Solaris has best-in-class security.

The administration and management capabilities of Oracle Solaris have anticipated the complexity of
the next-generation platform regarding virtualization, identity management, and green IT.

Oracle Solaris comes with ZFS, a file system that provides incredible flexibility to support
virtualization.

Oracle Solaris supports a broad portfolio of energy-efficient hardware.

Oracle Solaris is the most widely supported OS for enterprise applications.

Oracle Solaris is open source, reducing cost and lowering barriers to exit.
The Power of Oracle Solaris for the Next-Generation Computing
Platform
As previously discussed, when you combine legacy hardware and software infrastructure with the
pressure to save money and better use resources through virtualization, the complexity of enterprise
computing will likely increase.
Day-to-day operations of the company depend on selecting a platform that is flexible enough to adapt
to change and offers enterprise grade stability.
7
The Role of Oracle Solaris in Support of SAP Enterprise Applications
IT faces numerous challenges in this environment, including

Maximum asset use. Companies must make the most of what they have in a down economy. The
“rip and replace” strategy is not an option, and investments with multiyear paybacks are generally
not considered.

Continuous access. Unplanned downtime means lost revenue, whether from the standpoint of
unproductive employees, loss of sales, or decreased confidence from partners and customers.

Agility. The ability to respond quickly to a dynamic business climate is critical. Newer technology is
more flexible and adaptable than older software.

Support. For business-critical enterprise applications, ease of support is a key factor in creating a
solid infrastructure. When there are multiple vendors, support issues can become an exercise in
finger-pointing and miscommunication.

Expectation management. All the business units expect their systems to run according to agreedupon service-level agreements (SLAs). More important, key partners and customers have SLAs that
must be met. The infrastructure must ensure that all SLAs are met, both internally and externally.

Security and compliance. The infrastructure must enable appropriate access to data while
facilitating compliance with data privacy regulations.

Accelerated ROI. The most important of all considerations right now is not only lowering total
costs, but also demonstrating that the company can achieve ROI quickly.
In many ways, the OS is the most important element of the stack.
The OS occupies a critical position, below the applications and above the hardware. Furthermore, as
virtualization becomes more widely used, having a stable and well-integrated OS becomes even more
important. Table 1 highlights how a robust OS can address common IT challenges.
TABLE 1. HOW ORACLE SOLARIS HELPS ADDRESS IT CHALLENGES
IT CHALLENGE
BENEFIT
ROLE OF THE OS IN MEETING CHALLENGE
Maximum
Helps companies make the most of
 Built-in, no-charge virtualization technologies
asset use
what they have
 Supports a wide range of hardware and virtualization
technologies
 Ability to reliably virtualize existing systems where needed
Continuous
Dependable operations; availability
Availability features such as predictive self healing feature in Oracle
access
affects profitability
Solaris and Oracle Solaris Cluster high availability software
Agility
Ability to easily reconfigure
 Easily integrated features such as load balancing and dynamic
systems and databases to respond
to a changing system landscape or
acquisitions
reconfiguration
 Support for Java-based standards that enable the latest in ebusiness
8
The Role of Oracle Solaris in Support of SAP Enterprise Applications
Single source of support available
Robust and intuitive diagnostic tools with clear fault messages to
when needed
help administrators figure out problems on their own
Security and
Avoiding private or proprietary data
 Strong data security and audit trail functionality built in
compliance
leakage or fines from lack of
 Fine-grained access control built into the base OS and integrated
Support
compliance
Low TCO
virtualization technologies such as Oracle Solaris Containers
 Increased revenue
 No license fee and open source
 Frees up money for new
 Maximum uptime
ventures
 Lower energy costs
 Runs on commodity and enterprise hardware
 Application binary compatibility guaranteed
 Tremendous ISV application support
The Simplicity of Oracle Solaris
This subsection examines the benefits of Oracle Solaris in greater detail, considering the enterprise and
especially the SAP context.
The benefits of running SAP applications on Oracle Solaris include the following:

End-to-end support for enterprise applications. The smallest x86 server up to the largest SPARC
server can run Oracle Solaris; no other OS spans such a wide range of hardware architectures and
enterprise independent software vendor (ISV) applications. This simplifies system administration
greatly while providing flexibility in selecting the most cost-effective and appropriate hardware for
the applications in question and their SLAs. High-end multiprocessor, multicore servers with
thousands of threads as well as x86 and x64 servers can run the same OS: Oracle Solaris.

Ease of administration. Running the same OS across as much of the
system landscape as possible streamlines administration.


Choice. Oracle Solaris not only spans all sizes and families of Oracle
servers but IBM, HP, Egenera, and Fujitsu are among the OEMs for
Oracle Solaris.
Hardware Choice
OEMs that install Oracle Solaris
on their hardware: IBM, Fujitsu,
HP, Dell, Toshiba, Egenera,
and others.
Application support. More than 11,000 applications are available on Oracle Solaris, three times
more than available on any other version of UNIX (see Figure 2).
9
The Role of Oracle Solaris in Support of SAP Enterprise Applications
Figure 2. Oracle Solaris provides comprehensive application support across several platforms.
Oracle Solaris not only offers scalability across architectures, choice of hardware, and ease of
administration, but also provides significant value-added features, including the following (see Figure
3):

Virtualization. Oracle Solaris offers SAP-supported virtualization that is not only free but highly
efficient in the form of Oracle Solaris Containers. Containers are extremely flexible and can be
booted faster than any other type of virtualization. Furthermore, there is no separate license fee.
Containers are part of Oracle Solaris itself.

Data integrity, capacity, and management. Oracle Solaris ZFS is widely recognized as the most
advanced and high-performing file system yet developed. It offers capabilities that would normally
require a license from a company such as NetApp or EMCwith Oracle Solaris, there is no
additional cost.

Keeps running when components fail. Oracle Solaris offers dynamic failover and predictive self
healing. If a memory component or disk is about to fail or actually fails, Oracle Solaris keeps
running, enabling suspect or faulty components to be swapped out without downtime—all at no
additional cost.

Strong security. UNIX is considered more secure than Microsoft Windows. Oracle Solaris builds
on UNIX security with Role-Based Access Control (RBAC), an integrated firewall, and out-of-thebox secure settings. Such features typically come at an additional cost, in terms of licenses and
expertise to implement best practiceswith Oracle Solaris, there is no additional cost.

Out-of-the-box integration. Linux and other OSs require the installation of numerous additional
software packages, for example, security components and even applications such as the PostgreSQL
database. These features are preintegrated with Oracle Solaris—no additional cost is required.
10
The Role of Oracle Solaris in Support of SAP Enterprise Applications
Figure 3. Oracle Solaris provides many advantages in its support of the next-generation computing platform.
Is Your Platform Flexible?
Flexibility refers to the ability to manage change in the future, evolving the solution as business needs
change. The impact of flexibility can be relatively high, because changes to the business can be
absorbed quickly and at a relatively low cost, compared to older systems that are inflexible and require
extensive customization. Flexibility is used in several areas:

Quick response. Flexibility allows companies to adapt to changing business conditions and to
reconfigure business processes as relationships with partners and customers change or the global
market changes. How quickly can businesses respond to new requirement today?

Timely information. Do business users have access to improved analytics and reporting tools? Are
such requests always funneled through IT? Flexibility means empowering users to get the
information that they need to make good decisions quickly, with as little IT support as possible.

Work with partners. Key business partners and even governments are requiring that more business
be conducted electronically. Does your platform support flexible integration technologies such as
SOA, so you can quickly take advantage of new opportunities and meet the challenges of business
network transformation?
11
The Role of Oracle Solaris in Support of SAP Enterprise Applications
In short, flexibility means responsiveness to the needs of the business. Other important platform
characteristicsincluding scalability, stability, and simplicityprovide the underpinning for this
flexibility.
Oracle Solaris as a Virtualization Engine
Unlike most other virtualization solutions on the market, virtualization is built into Oracle Solaris and
into the Oracle hardware platforms. Oracle Solaris is actually designed to support a continuum of
partitioning and virtualization technologies that can address varying levels of flexibility and application
isolation requirements.
Oracle Solaris in Production
Virtualization and SAP
Some 90 percent of the Fortune
Why is virtualization important to enterprise customers, in general, and
SAP customers, in particular?
100 is running Oracle Solaris in
production today.
Consider again how server sprawl occurred. Often, when adding a new enterprise application, the
application was run on a dedicated server. Counting production, test, development, and disaster
recovery servers, companies can easily have four to six servers running a single SAP application. In
fact, the SAP system landscape can comprise 50 servers or more. And because these servers must be
sized for peak use, such as end-of-month processing, they are usually running at as low as 1020
percent of their true capacity the majority of the time.
Furthermore, the AMD Opteron and Nehalem chips show that even what has traditionally been
thought of as commodity hardware has too much power for one server. Running one OS on one CPU
will, by definition, be a thing of the past.
SAP applications are among the best for virtualization because, since the advent of R/3, SAP has
focused on separating applications into logical chunks that lend themselves to virtualization. SAP has
supported virtualization for seven years, and many customers running Oracle Solaris 8 and 9 have been
virtualizing SAP applications for five years or more. It is common for SAP customers to be running
dozens of SAP instances on a single Oracle server.
Oracle’s virtualization solutions have been supported by SAP since 2005, making Oracle the perfect
partner—and Oracle Solaris the perfect platform—for virtualization. The following subsections
explore further how Oracle Solaris virtualization provides bottom-line benefits with minimal new
management and support challenges.
Oracle Solaris Containers
Because Containers are part of the OS itself, they require far less management than other options. The
tools to manage these lightweight VMs are built into the OS itself.
Containers offer extremely efficient and secure virtualization. The host runs one copy of Oracle
Solaris, which is why Containers are so lightweight, compared to other techniques; however, the
integrated Containers essentially cordon off the VM and enable applications to think they are the only
12
The Role of Oracle Solaris in Support of SAP Enterprise Applications
resources running on that particular system. Containers offer particular benefits for SAP customers.
Each application can be run in a separate Container, which improves security and makes
administration easier. Furthermore, resources can be dynamically allocated to Containers and can
actually be moved from one server to another. If an underlying server requires maintenance, the
Container running SAP CRM 7.0, for example, can easily be moved to another system.
With other virtualization technologies, such as VMware, creating a virtual environment requires
installing an entire copy of the OS. Whether it is running on Windows, Linux, AIX, or Oracle Solaris,
they must all be managed through an underlying hypervisor that has overhead. Containers have almost
no overhead (about 2 percent compared to about 20 percent for hypervisors such as VMware and
Microsoft Hyper-V).
Although enterprise virtualization is now becoming widely adopted, Oracle has again been leading the
technology innovation curve. Containers have been used in the enterprise for more than five years,
providing secure and lightweight virtualizationfreeas part of Oracle Solaris.
Flexibility of Containers
Containers can be assigned different amounts of resources, depending on application needs. In
addition, Containers can be

Created almost instantaneously

Cloned so that two Containers have the same application stack

Cloned and housed at different datacenters for disaster recovery

Reconfigured as needed and moved from one system to another should more resources be required

Standardized to streamline operations significantly; for example, one bank improved overall server
usage rates from 20 to 60 percent

Used to separate departmental applications so that security requirements are properly addressed
Containers can be hibernated and dynamically resized during the day to accommodate different peak
loads. Figure 4 shows one example of adjusting the resources in Containers to address these needs.
Figure 4. Resources for Zones can be adjusted for time of day.
Although the terms Zones and Containers are often used synonymously, there are some technical
differences. Once you assign resources (such as CPUs) to a Zone, it becomes a Container.
13
The Role of Oracle Solaris in Support of SAP Enterprise Applications
Oracle Solaris and Hypervisors
Another approach to virtualization is using a hypervisor. A hypervisor is a thin layer of software
between the OS and the VMs. VMware and Hyper-V are examples of hypervisors. Oracle’s VM Server
is open source-based (based on Xen) and runs on Oracle Solaris.
A hypervisor manages all the guest OSs. For each VM, another copy of the OS is running. For this
reason, the overhead for virtualization using a hypervisor runs at approximately 20 percent, compared
to approximately 2 percent for containers.
Oracle VM Server provides some additional unique advantages. For example, running guest OSs under
Oracle Solaris effectively provides them the use of the ZFS file system, which is currently available
only for Oracle Solaris (although there are open source projects in process to bring ZFS to other
UNIX versions such as Mac OS X and Linux).
For SPARC systems, domains provide powerful hypervisor functionality with the ability to run as
many as 128 virtual systems on a single server. This hypervisor is free with Oracle Solaris on SPARC.
Oracle continues to deliver on a holistic, built-in virtualization design for networking, storage, and
application abstraction, raising performance and scale to new highs for the industry. The OpenSolaris
platform delivers key server virtualization technologies in the form of Containers, domains for Oracle’s
Sun chip multithreading (CMT) systems, and the Xen-based hypervisor, to give users a complete
virtualization platform built directly into the OpenSolaris OS.
Dynamic Domains
Oracle Solaris supports a variety of proven approaches to virtualization (see Table 2) so that customers
can optimize their environments to their needs. Another option for virtualization is to partition the
hardware of a large server into several different machines. This type of virtualization is the oldest form
and is also available on mainframes. Such VMs are called dynamic domains and have been available
from Oracle since 1998.
TABLE 2. ORACLE-SUPPORTED VIRTUALIZATION AT A GLANCE
VIRTUALIZATION
EASE OF CREATION
OS SUPPORTED
ADDITIONAL BENEFITS
Easy
Oracle Solaris
Free with Oracle
TECHNOLOGY
Containers
Zones
Solaris
Oracle VM Server
Hypervisor
Medium
Multiple
Can run both 32-bit
and 64-bit guests
VMware
Hypervisor
Medium
Multiple
Licensing fees apply
Hyper-V
Hypervisor
Medium
Multiple
Licensing fees apply
Domains
Hypervisor
Medium
Oracle Solaris
Free on SPARC
Physical grouping of
Advanced
Oracle Solaris
Free on SPARC
Dynamic domains
machine resources into
VMs
14
The Role of Oracle Solaris in Support of SAP Enterprise Applications
SAP Integration Point: SAP NetWeaver Adaptive Computing Controller
The SAP NetWeaver Adaptive Computing Controller (ACC) enables a view of SAP systems running
across the system landscape. Using the SAP NetWeaver ACC, SAP administrators can move
applications from one server to another with minimal downtime (about five minutes). Oracle recently
added support for managing SAP applications running in Containers through the SAP NetWeaver
ACC. Administrators running the SAP NetWeaver ACC can see all SAP applications running on all
supported platforms and move them or reallocate resources to them as needed.
Security, ZFS, Diagnostics, Open Source, and Other Engineering Advantages of
Oracle Solaris
Oracle Solaris is the only OS that runs on the full range of hardware, from laptops to powerful RISC
servers. In addition to its scalability and value-added virtualization capabilities, it offers binary
compatibility, which puts enterprises in control of OS upgrades and ensures that their software will run
on future releases of Oracle Solaris. Features such as Oracle Solaris ZFS and Oracle Solaris DTrace
require additional description to appreciate how they fit into the Oracle Solaris value proposition. This
section covers all of these topics, as well as the benefits of Oracle Solaris as an open source platform.
Security
The design vision behind Oracle Solaris puts enterprise use at the forefront, so security is an inherent
part of every aspect of the OS and its configuration.
Oracle Solaris 10 offers a systemic approach to strong security. Oracle Solaris offers RBAC, which
provides an alternative to the traditional all-powerful UNIX root or superuser. RBAC follows the
security principle of least privilege, ensuring that users have only the privileges that they need and no
more. This is referred to as user and process rights management.
Secure signatures of all Oracle Solaris binaries make it possible for administrators to be confident that
no Trojan horses have been inserted into the operating environment. Each Oracle Solaris binary has a
digital fingerprint that can be verified.
Oracle Solaris 10 is shipped with an integrated IP filter firewall, and its configuration is secure by
default. In other words, network services are turned off, and security rules are enabled from the time
Oracle Solaris is installed.
The Enterprise in Control: Binary Compatibility
Binary compatibility sounds technical, and in some ways it is, but the important takeaway is that if you
ask whether an older application that ran on Oracle Solaris 8 will run on Oracle Solaris 10, the answer
is yes. Factoring in Containers, and that becomes a resounding yes. You can move older applications
running on Oracle Solaris 8 or 9 into a Container on Oracle Solaris 10, and they can still believe that
they are running on a server that uses Oracle Solaris 8 or 9.
This is what binary compatibility really means in practice. When Oracle patches Oracle Solaris, the
company applies the patch retroactively to all versions. For users, this means not having to retest or
15
The Role of Oracle Solaris in Support of SAP Enterprise Applications
recertify applications. It also means that when you want to move to newer or more cost-efficient
hardware, you do not have to wonder if it will work.
This is in striking contrast with most application vendors, who do not guarantee that applications that
ran on earlier versions will run properly on the latest OS release. It is also an advantage of having an
integrated OS. Although Linux requires installation of auxiliary software to get some of the same
capabilities that Oracle Solaris has out of the box, you will have to apply the latest patches to Linux
and to any other components, such as databases. If you are using a database or other software that is
part of Oracle Solaris, those patches are applied retroactively to all included software.
Now consider what binary compatibility does not mean. SPARC and x86, for example, are different
chip architectures. Binary compatibility across these hardware architectures is not possible. What
Oracle provides in this case is source code compatibility. This means that no matter what hardware
platform is in use, Oracle Solaris and applications always look and feel the same.
Datacenters might want to remain on a certain version of an OS. Companies do not need to update the
OS to get the latest fixes for Oracle Solaris, rightly putting the datacenter in control instead of forcing
the datacenter to follow the OS vendor’s lead to maintain their support contract. And with the ability
to run older versions of Oracle Solaris 8 and 9 applications in Containers on Oracle Solaris 10,
administration is even further eased from a datacenter perspective.
Binary compatibility is one of many features that illustrate that Oracle truly understands the needs of
enterprise computing. By allowing enterprises to control their patch level rather than forcing them to
update to a newer OS version to get relevant fixes, Oracle demonstrates its appreciation of the
complexity of running large datacenters.
Data Integrity and Scalability: Oracle Solaris ZFS
Oracle Solaris ZFS provides snapshot capabilities such as those available from NetApp and EMC.
Oracle Solaris also includes a volume manager, which would require a separate license for a product
such as Symantec’s Veritas Volume Manager.
Oracle Solaris ZFS represents a leap forward in file system capabilities. Oracle Solaris ZFS introduces
the concept of pools as a way to manage storage. When you add storage, you add it to the pool; there is
no need to work with storage devices at the device level with Oracle Solaris ZFS. From this pool, you
can then allocate storage to various SAP applications, databases, and other applications.
Oracle Solaris ZFS takes snapshots instantaneously. It offers copy-on-write, a technique through
which you can clone a whole file system instantaneously, and then have Oracle Solaris ZFS record only
the deltas between the two. For example, if you have an SAP production environment and you are
going to do some testing, you can clone your environment instantly and hand it to your test group.
You can create a full replica of the file system using standard OS features instead of getting a license
for a commercial product.
Anyone who has ever lost important files, run out of space on a partition, spent weekends adding new
storage to servers, tried to grow or shrink a file system, or experienced data corruption knows that
16
The Role of Oracle Solaris in Support of SAP Enterprise Applications
there is room for improvement in file systems and volume managers. Oracle Solaris ZFS is designed
from the ground up to deliver a general-purpose file system that spans the desktop to the datacenter.
Oracle Solaris ZFS provides

End-to-end data integrity. All data is protected by 64-bit checksums; data consistency is
maintained at all times.

Ease of administration. Eliminates the need for volume managers; the GUI automates
administrator intent.

Immense data capacity. World’s first 128-bit file system, with 16 billion times the capacity of 32or 64-bit file systems for tremendous scalability.

Huge performance gains. Proven technologies combine to optimize performance.
Deep Dive into Performance: Oracle Solaris DTrace
Oracle Solaris DTrace empowers administrators to answer tough questions about performance that
business users might need immediate answers to. What is happening with performance? This type of
question can be difficult to answer easily. DTrace lets system administrators troubleshoot kernel and
application problems in real time. DTrace can examine any program running on Oracle Solaris. Its
capabilities are so well known that developers who program for other platforms sometimes port their
programs to Oracle Solaris so that they can more easily debug them.
DTrace works by turning on probes scattered throughout the code and the OS. Because DTrace
probes run only when needed, they do not create system overhead. DTrace allows administrators to
see at a fine-grained level what is happening in a kernel process or application running on Oracle
Solaris, quickly pinpointing any problems.
Open Source Benefits: Engineering Vision
A product of Oracle’s comprehensive engineering vision, the Oracle Solaris OS is the most stable and
enterprise-friendly server OS available. OpenSolaris is the innovation platform where Oracle engineers
and open source developers work with leading-edge features. Eventually, a snapshot of OpenSolaris
will become the release candidate for the next version of Oracle Solaris. These two streams allow for
unlimited open innovation while ensuring that Oracle Solaris for the enterprise remains solid.
OpenSolaris can also be deployed in the enterprise when cutting-edge features are needed. Currently,
you can use OpenSolaris in your test and development environment for SAP applications.
The Oracle Solaris ecosystem consists of the Oracle Solaris OS and open source OpenSolaris OS, as
well as the Oracle Studio development tools, which form the core of a large developer community and
a vast portfolio of applications. Free and open, Oracle Solaris is a proven, industry-leading OS with
features designed to save time and money in business-critical operations. Oracle Solaris provides
stability, massive scalability, high performance, and guaranteed forward binary compatibility. Oracle
Solaris releases feature an extended support lifecycle as needed in today’s demanding datacenters.
17
The Role of Oracle Solaris in Support of SAP Enterprise Applications
These two streams enable open innovation while ensuring that Oracle Solaris for the enterprise
remains solid. OpenSolaris can also be deployed in the enterprise when advanced features are needed.
Currently, you can use OpenSolaris in your test and development environment for SAP applications.
Green Benefits of Oracle Hardware
Oracle’s engineering vision includes not only Oracle Solaris but hardware. Although approximately 50
percent of Oracle licenses run on non-Oracle hardware, reasons to consider Oracle platforms include

Optimizing services that require the highest availability, maximum scalability, and I/O
throughput. For applications such as SAP databases or business warehouse systems, Oracle’s Sun
SPARC Enterprise servers are the right choice, providing scalability up to 256 cores, up to 2 TB of
RAM, and up to 288 PCI Express slots in one system. Sun SPARC Enterprise servers provide
redundancy of all active hardware parts and, therefore, automatic system recovery. CPU, memory,
and I/O resources could be added or removed without interrupting running services. Even hardware
maintenance, such as replacing a defective CPU, can be done while the system is running.

Hardware support for encryption. Oracle’s CMT processors (UltraSPARC T2 and T3)
incorporate processing power that optimizes strong encryption. These CPUs are currently the only
ones on the market providing eight cores with eight independent threads each and 64 parallel threads
on one single die. Up to four of these CPUs can be housed in one chassis, making it the only 256way server in four rack units (4U) on the market.

Green servers. Oracle Solaris CoolThreads servers offer five times the performance while
consuming one-fifth of the power of older servers. Even in the x86 area, Oracle servers save energy.
With their intelligent systems design, Oracle x86 servers stay cooler than competitors do and, thus,
provide the same performance and more RAM in half the size. Oracle x86 servers can scale up to
eight AMD CPUs and 512 GB RAM with 4U of height.

Flexibility. Oracle’s Sun Blade 6000 combines CMT and x86 in one single chassis with up to 128way CMT blades (two UltraSPARC T2 CPUs). With up to 256 GB RAM for massive parallel
workloads and up to 24-way Intel Xeonbased blades for compute-intensive workloads these servers
can be mixed in any combination
Enterprise Computing Tools from Oracle
Aside from Oracle Solaris and its server offerings, Oracle has many software offerings that can help
SAP customers, including

Datacenter management. Oracle Enterprise Manager Ops Center provides the ability to manage
multiple datacenters, including discovery of servers and management of a diverse system landscape.

Security and compliance support. Oracle Identity Manager/Waveset is integrated with SAP
BusinessObjects Access Control. Oracle Identity Analytics and OpenSSO can help in ways that are
particularly relevant to secure and compliant management of the entire enterprise landscape.
18
The Role of Oracle Solaris in Support of SAP Enterprise Applications
Datacenter Management with Oracle Enterprise Manager Ops Center
To manage enterprise system landscapes, companies frequently use datacenter management suites from
companies such as CA Technologies. Oracle provides agents for all major vendors in this category.
Oracle Enterprise Manager Ops Center offers an enterprise-grade solution to managing multiple
datacenters and all running systems, both physical and virtual.
Highlights of this offering include

Detailed reporting capabilities, including reports on servers by customer, what OSs are running, what
systems users have logged in to, and what processes they are running or have run

Management of virtual and physical systems

Support for mixed environments, including Oracle Solaris, Red Hat Enterprise Linux, and SUSE
Enterprise Linux Server; Windows supported only on VMs

System discovery and heartbeats for all connected systems

Support for multiple datacenters
Security and Compliance Support
SAP has offerings that address enterprise imperatives related to governance, risk, and compliance
(GRC). Oracle’s offerings help extend that to a diverse system landscape, as well as integrating with the
SAP GRC product line in key areas. Oracle offers a complete stack that helps companies automate
compliance tasks and requirements for every application in the datacenter, whether it’s SAP ERP,
Oracle Solaris, Microsoft Active Directory, or Microsoft Exchange Server, providing segregation of
duties (SoD), automation, compliance and role management workflow, and streamlined audit ability.
Oracle Waveset and Governance, Risk, and Compliance
Oracle Waveset interfaces with SAP BusinessObjects Access Control to provide a fully automated endto-end solution regarding identity management and audit trails. Interfacing with SAP BusinessObjects
Access Control allows SAP customers to leverage the content and definitions in that product. Further,
Oracle Waveset extends automated access control to the entire system landscape, including SAP
applications as well as applications from Oracle’s JD Edwards. Key features include

Streamlined access for auditors. When auditors come in to look at the details of transactions and
system access, they can use either Oracle Waveset or SAP BusinessObjects Access Control to gain
access to all audit information for the entire system landscape through a single user interface.
Without such a solution, auditors would have to be guided through multiple system interfaces.

Support for workflows and approvals. Access isn’t assigned; it’s granted. Oracle Waveset helps
manage the workflows needed to get approvals complete and on record.
Oracle Waveset shows access throughout the system landscapeat both the software and the OS
level. In addition, Oracle Waveset’s Lightweight Directory Access Protocol functionality makes it
possible to manage access to the growing number of virtualized systems through resource maps.
19
The Role of Oracle Solaris in Support of SAP Enterprise Applications
Oracle Identity Analytics
SAP BusinessObjects Access Control can scour SAP systems for SoD violations and help clean up
roles, offering some 450,000 rules that ensure that roles in SAP are clean from a compliance
perspective. But what about roles in the larger system landscape or in other software systems, such as
Oracle or JD Edwards? Oracle Identity Analytics handles the engineering and simplification of roles,
analyzing roles to see where two roles are essentially equal, making secure and compliant management
of thousands of users a straightforward task. Oracle Identity Analytics also provides a complete IT
certification process, so that all activities are monitored and logged for review at any time by anyone.
Furthermore, Oracle Identity Analytics provides real-time access control checks through Web services,
offering flexibility for integration with other identity management solutions that might be in place.
Open Single Sign-On: Managing SAP Access
Single sign-on (SSO) greatly streamlines system administration, but it must be done securely because it
provides a gateway to all the functionality that a user, whether employee, customer, or partner, is
authorized for.
Oracle OpenSSO is an authentication/authorization framework that provides SSO functionality using
federated identity management. Federation technology provides cross-enterprise SSO functionality for
Web servicesbased applications. Oracle OpenSSO provides a secure way to authenticate and
authorize end users through Web services. Web services can run on many different systems and reside
in many different domains, and yet be combined into a single portal interface. Oracle OpenSSO
provides a way to authenticate users once, regardless of where the services themselves are running.
In concert with SAP BusinessObjects Access Control, Oracle Waveset, Oracle Identity Analytics, and
Oracle OpenSSO provide SAP customers with an integrated compliance solution that addresses the
OS level as well as both SAP and non-SAP applications (see Figure 5).
20
The Role of Oracle Solaris in Support of SAP Enterprise Applications
Figure 5. Oracle Waveset, Oracle Identity Analytics, and Oracle Open SSO provide an integrated compliance solution.
Business Benefits of Running SAP on Oracle Solaris
Now that an overview of some of the technical features that make running SAP on Oracle Solaris the
best choice have been presented, it is important to turn to the business benefits that SAP customers
will appreciate. You can think of Oracle as a trusted contractor that takes care of every aspect of
building a house to your specifications, putting its own quality into every system of the house, from the
heating and cooling to the windows to the roof and plumbing. It is possible for enterprises to manage
all this on their own, building the house themselves or supervising a large cadre of subcontractors, but
those who have been through this experience know that a trusted contractor with a strong reputation
for quality can save homeowners many headaches, both during the building process and for years to
come. In addition, the value proposition is such that when you weigh your options, you will be
surprised at the low TCO. This is one of the rare cases where the best solution—the solution that
really solves the problem and addresses all the headaches—is also the most cost effective.
21
The Role of Oracle Solaris in Support of SAP Enterprise Applications
The Ecosystem Advantage: Best of Both Worlds
Oracle combines the strengths of the open source community with its comprehensive engineering
vision, bringing the best of both worlds to customers.
Oracle Solaris is open source, and innovation happens in OpenSolaris, where the open source
community, ISVs, and customers can work with the latest from Oracle and contribute to its
improvement.
At the same time, the needs of the enterprise are well served at every level. As released, Oracle Solaris
is a secure, stable OS, created with a coordinated engineering vision that moves Oracle Solaris, Oracle
software, and Oracle hardware along a single, focused trajectory. In other words, customers benefit
from this singular vision and its sensitivity to the many needs of enterprise computing—scalability,
high availability (HA), and security—while also enjoying all the benefits of open source.
Innovations such as the Oracle Solaris ZFS file system, Containers, and DTrace were born from
Oracle’s comprehensive engineering vision and are now being ported or replicated in some way on
other OSs.
Enterprise Support
One of the many challenges of enterprise computing is that vendors might claim that the problem is
really someone else’s problem. From the network provider to the many ISVs to the hardware vendor
to the OS vendor, finger-pointing is a common problem. Virtualization provided by third parties such
as VMware adds yet another operating environment, creating another layer of complexity when you
encounter problems. Enterprise customers do not need finger-pointing when it comes to support for
mission-critical systems. Oracle has an SAP Solution Center that helps its clients with any SAP-related
problems, offering customers a single source for support and making its engineering expertise available
should the customer have any problems.
Oracle supports Oracle Solaris on every hardware platform on which it runs. Oracle also provides
virtualization (free), so you do not have to call a virtualization vendor. Oracle works with the leading
virtualization vendors and, for SAP customers, has an Oracle Joint Support Center for SAP
Applications, located at the SAP campus in Walldorf, Germany.
If you are having any trouble running SAP applications on Oracle Solaris, you make one phone call to
Oracle and get the support you need.
Help with Migration
Oracle offers several different categories of migration help. First, it can help you determine if Oracle
Solaris is right for you and what kind of TCO you can expect. Second, it can help you migrate SAP
applications to Oracle Solaris.
22
The Role of Oracle Solaris in Support of SAP Enterprise Applications
Help with Migrating to Oracle Solaris
Oracle has a group of service offerings that can help you evaluate a migration as well as migrate from
legacy platforms to Oracle Solaris 10. You can gauge a migration’s ROI before you undertake it or port
a particular homegrown application to Oracle Solaris with help and expertise from Oracle personnel.
Consultation for running Oracle Solaris 8 and 9 applications in Containers on Oracle Solaris 10 is also
available.
Help with SAP Migration
If you are not running on Oracle Solaris right now, you might need to migrate your SAP applications
to Oracle Solaris. SAP migrations fall into two categories: homogeneous system migrations and
heterogeneous system migrations. Homogeneous migrations are straightforward and essentially involve
an archive and restore procedure.
Depending on the changes you are making, you might need a migration consultant. Oracle has SAPcertified migration consultants who can help you make the transition.
The good news is that once you are running on Oracle Solaris, binary compatibility ensures that you
will never face another heterogeneous migration, unless you decide to move to a different database.
Ease of Administration
Oracle Solaris: Superior
A running Oracle Solaris environment is easy to administer. It works,
works right, and works all the time.
Research from Crimson
Support
Consulting compared the cost
and quality of support for Red
If you are new to Oracle Solaris, your administrators might have
experience with other commercial versions of UNIX. In this case, Oracle
offers targeted delta training that quickly brings administrators coming
from other UNIX environments up to speed with Oracle Solaris. Delta
training for moving to Oracle Solaris is available for AIX administrators
and HP-UX administrators. Oracle offers targeted training for migrations
from Windows and Linux.
Administrators will appreciate the
Hat Enterprise Linux to
support for Oracle Solaris.
Cost for Oracle Solaris
support contracts is on
average 16 percent lower
than for Red Hat Enterprise
Linux contracts.
Oracle has almost 18 times
more employees dedicated to
service than Red Hat does.

Diagnostic capabilities that DTrace offers

Power of managing datacenters with xVM Ops Center,

Ability to dynamically create and adjust Containers as needed

Assurance that binary compatibility offers, meaning that upgrades and patches to the OS are on your
timetable—not the vendor’s.
Oracle offers immediate live
transfer of urgent calls; Red
Hat returns such calls within
one hour.
Oracle Solaris offers ease of patch management, particularly when compared to Linux, where patch
management and control is a much more difficult chore to keep up with. Enterprises benefit from an
OS that can be used with a less frequent patch cycle; Linux requires roughly the same patch frequency
as Windows (monthly at minimum) to remain secure.
23
The Role of Oracle Solaris in Support of SAP Enterprise Applications
Virtualization: Optimize Resources, Ease Administration, and Go Green
Virtualization makes the most of your computing resources. Fewer servers means less energy used
(cost savings) and a smaller carbon footprint—not to mention space savings.
Additionally, the introduction of virtualization allows companies to move toward a standardized, lower
cost environment. Instead of having a heterogeneous landscape of hardware and infrastructure,
companies can now be more like Amazon and Google, putting in place a commodity-based utility
computing foundation that allows them to centralize skills in system administration and standardize
their computing environment.
High Availability Computing
HA is an enterprise requirement for many companies. Most systems require downtime when upgrading
the OS or when components fail. Oracle Solaris incorporates predictive self healing properties that
move bad components offline so that the system can keep running. Additionally, those components
can be replaced without bringing the system down. Companies typically experience a decrease in
downtime of 30 to 40 percent.
The Oracle Solaris ZFS zpool means that storage management is handled automatically. Add storage,
and it becomes available to the pool, like adding money to a nice, healthy bank account.
Oracle Solaris’ reliability, predictive self healing properties, and live update facility have made the OS a
favorite in environments where HA is a requirement.
For environments where even higher availability is needed, Oracle Solaris Cluster software can be used
to improve the availability of SAP components running on Oracle Solaris even further. Oracle Solaris
Cluster uses redundant computers to protect against downtime, eliminating the server as a single point
of failure.
Scalability
Only Oracle Solaris can run on the full range of hardware available. According to SAP’s benchmarks,
as of this writing, Oracle has achieved the largest number of users—some 3,700—running on a twoprocessor Sun Fire X4270 server (Intel based) with SAP’s new two-tier benchmark kit.
Moving up from the Intel platform, Oracle Solaris also achieved the highest number of users on any
platform—approximately 39,100 users on a Sun SPARC Enterprise M9000 server. This is the highest
record result on the two-tier SAP Sales and Distribution Standard Application Benchmark achieved by
any company to date. By comparison, for Linux, the highest number of simultaneous users recorded is
12,500 and for Windows, 10,600.
In other words, from top to bottom, Oracle Solaris 10 has proven to be an excellent choice for
running SAP applications. High-end servers with 64 processors require running Oracle Solaris.
Windows cannot scale this far, taking advantage of only as many as 16 processors; the Linux record is
32 processors.
24
The Role of Oracle Solaris in Support of SAP Enterprise Applications
The choice is clear: companies that want to maximize their scalability options should run SAP
applications on Oracle Solaris. In this way, the full range of hardware, from low-end commodity
hardware to high-end SPARC servers can all run a single OS.
Tunability
Not all SAP applications require the same type of processor. Because of Oracle’s consultative
approach, it can help users make the most effective hardware choice given its patterns of application
usage and minimizing costs. Virtualization enables changes to be made to accommodate shifting load
patterns.
Some applications can effectively take advantage of multiple processors and many threads, whereas
other applications do not make full use of that architecture. For applications such as portals that are
thread intensive, it might make sense to deploy a CMT server. Oracle can help customers choose the
most effective hardware for the system’s needs, allowing customers to run, in one server, blades with
different processors, all running Oracle Solaris 10.
Maximum Flexibility
All migrations need to be checked to see if they make sense, if they will help achieve the perfect CPU
performance-to-cost ratio.
If you are considering running SAP applications on Windows or Linux, take another look at the
environment. Does this move make sense? If the real business driver is to take advantage of
virtualization on commodity hardware, Oracle Solaris might prove a better choice in every way.
SLAs are another important business driver. Moving from an older RISC server or mainframe to an
Intel server might make sense, but if the SLAs demand HA, it might require additional consideration.
With Oracle Solaris, you can even mix blades with different CPUs and price points in a single box—all
in one operating environment. Because of SLAs, a database might need a CMT blade, whereas other
applications might run on lower cost but powerful x86 blades.
Sustainability
Datacenters drain resources—yours and the planet’s. Powering the network consumes 100 billion
kilowatts of electricity and costs around US$7.2 billion every year. More than 40 percent of Fortune
500 IT executives identified power and cooling as major problems in their datacenters. What does
energy-efficient computing really contribute to your business?
Datacenter efficiency needs to be a factor in strategic decision-making. Here are a few data points
about energy efficiency:

Reduced operating expenses help make your business more profitable and allow you to focus IT
resources on adding value to the organization.

Experience deploying energy-efficient solutions helps you respond in a changing regulatory climate.

Improved green credentials help you gain a positive standing with your customers.
25
The Role of Oracle Solaris in Support of SAP Enterprise Applications

Technical measures to save money in the datacenter produces a streamlined IT infrastructure that
can adapt more readily to business imperatives.

A rationalized infrastructure is more manageable, so your IT staff can focus on supporting users and
anticipating and responding to change.

A consolidated IT infrastructure is more secure and available, so your business is less exposed to
risks from data theft or the costs of downtime.
Oracle is not new to green IT; Its Sun Fire T1000 and Sun Fire T2000 servers (superceded by the nextgeneration Sun SPARC servers with CMT technology) were the first servers to ever qualify for a utility
company rebate. The newly introduced Sun UltraSPARC T1 “Niagara” server doubled its processing
power while holding firm on its energy requirements and physical footprint.
But energy efficiency alone cannot bring the benefits of green IT; virtualization must be deployed to
optimize server usage. Server consolidation projects that replace 20 old servers with a single new server
address both of these issues.
Although this white paper focuses on the datacenter, it would be
remiss not to mention the Sun Ray thin desktop client. SAP has
deployed Sun Ray Clients for its training center in Belgium. The 233
workstations that SAP replaced consumed 30 kilowatts of power even
when idle. Sun Ray Clients are not only silent (no fans needed) but
they consume only 17 kilowatts when running at full speed.
Oracle is a founding member of the SAP Green IT Community, which
was launched in April 2009. One key theme for SAP is that
virtualization technologies are increasingly becoming one piece of a
much larger puzzle related to sustainability and green IT. To support
an ongoing dialogue around these topics, SAP, together with Oracle,
Oracle’s customers, and other members of its ecosystem, announced a
new community focused on facilitating green IT collaboration and
solution creation. This effort is part of SAP’s long-term strategic focus
on sustainability, which comprises SAP’s own operations as well as
developing sustainable business process and green IT solutions that
help SAP customers operate in a more sustainable way.
Why Not Linux?
Although Linux and Oracle Solaris
coexist well in the data center, for
enterprise use, the stability,
scalability, and engineering vision
of Oracle Solaris is unsurpassed.
Further, Oracle Solaris’s ability to
run on commodity x86 hardware
makes it a surprising choice for
low-end applications. The best way
to compare Oracle Solaris and
Linux is to evaluate what you get
out of the box without having to
track down additional software,
interoperability, and the relative
cost of managing the platform.
Although Linux may appear
cheaper in year 1, looking at a
three-year cost shows that the
TCO for Linux for enterprise apps
is higher.
The SAP Green IT Community will drive sustainability research and
development initiatives with partners and customers. SAP will
continue to promote innovative optimization technologies such as virtualization, together with Oracle,
to offer relevant services, such as system landscape optimization, that help customers to maximize their
computing resources.
Lowering Total Cost of Ownership
Server consolidation with Oracle Solaris results in substantial reduction in TCO. This kind of
information is always more meaningful if it is specific to your installation, and Oracle has TCO tools
26
The Role of Oracle Solaris in Support of SAP Enterprise Applications
that can help you calculate the cost of your current infrastructure as well as the TCO of a consolidated
infrastructure. Such server consolidations range from replacing 9 servers to as many as 20 servers with
a single server (see Table 3 for sample savings based on real-world configurations).
When TCO comparisons take into account costs for years one through three rather than year one only,
Oracle Solaris wins over other options, such as Linux, that might appear low cost but come with
additional administration and licensing costs. The value-added features of Oracle Solaris coupled with
its cross-hardware compatibility make its TCO very competitive indeed.
A free onsite datacenter assessment is available.
TABLE 3. SAMPLE TCO SAVINGS WITH ORACLE SERVER CONSOLIDATIONS
CURRENT CONFIGURATION
CONSOLIDATED CONFIGURATION
DIFFERENCE
 2 IBM p595 servers
 2 Sun SPARC Enterprise M8000
 23 percent lower operating costs than
 24 CPUs HA requirements
servers
 12 four-core CPUs
 2 Sun B6000 with 12 x64 (four 4-core
current configuration
 35 percent lower investment than
proposed IBM P6 solution
32 GB)
 4 CMT blades (1 T2 8-core 32 GB)
 2 HP Superdome Itanium 2 servers
 2 Sun X4600, 90320 SAPS
 Capacity = 80,000 SAPS
 256 G
2 x EMC CLARiiON CX4-240, Veritas
 2x Sun StorageTek 7410
Volume Manager, Veritas File System
 Oracle Solaris ZFS
 89 percent savings in energy and
cooling
 87 percent savings in hardware
maintenance
 100 percent savings Veritas software
license
 ROI within 6 months
14 HP servers (different types, PA-RISC)
 2 Sun X4600
 2 Sun SPARC M3000 servers
 76 percent savings in energy and
cooling, hardware maintenance not
considered
 ROI within 2 years
Conclusion
When companies find themselves at an inflection point in SAP deployment, needing to squeeze the
most value from existing SAP seats and licenses, server consolidation is an important way forward. In
this context, it makes sense to take a look at Oracle Solaris for the following reasons:

Innovation matters.Oracle’s comprehensive engineering vision continues to bring innovation and
flexibility to the platform while offering unparalleled stability and scalability for enterprise use. The
innovation platform for Oracle Solaris is OpenSolaris; Oracle Solaris as released is enterprise ready,
truly offering customers the best of both worlds—stability and innovation.
27
The Role of Oracle Solaris in Support of SAP Enterprise Applications

Flexibility improves efficiency. Oracle Solaris’ platform compatibility means that it runs on
everything from laptops to high-end servers. Deploy Oracle Solaris on low-cost systems to achieve
high performance and stability.

Virtualization is free. The Oracle Solaris Containers feature is the only virtualization option
currently supported by both Oracle and SAP. Examine case studies regarding Containers for further
details about the enterprise benefits of free virtualization using Containers.

Oracle Solaris is green. Green IT offers sustainability, energy and cost savings, and compliance
with emerging regulations

Robust support for SAP applications. Having a single source for support is critical for enterprise
datacenters. If problems arise, calling Oracle will solve the problem—no finger-pointing. Oracle’s
role as an SAP global technology partner, , the Oracle Solution Center for SAP in Walldorf, and
SAP-certified migration consultants highlight Oracle’s commitment to supporting SAP customers.

Less stress. Some advantages of Oracle Solaris are less easily quantified. Oracle Solaris offers
proven and unparalleled stability. Oracle Solaris’ TCO is low partly because it needs so little
administration, and administering Oracle Solaris is much easier than administering Linux.

Application availability and binary compatibility. Oracle Solaris 10 runs more than 11,000 ISV
applications. As Dr. Nikolai Bezroukov says in his extensive comparison of Oracle Solaris versus
Linux, “With Linux you are generally surprised if a binary package for any complex application
compiled for a previous version of OS works. With Oracle Solaris, you are surprised if it does not
work.” http://www.softpanorama.org/Articles/Linux_vs_Solaris/summing_up.shtml Binary
compatibility means that patches and upgrades are on your timetable—not the vendor’s.

Flexibility and agility. Cutting-edge technology features open the way for changing business
processes and business network transformation. Oracle Solaris ZFS, virtualization, DTrace, network
virtualization, identity management, and many other capabilities make Oracle Solaris the ideal
solution for the changing business landscape.

Compliance and security. Support for and integration with SAP GRC as well as robust security at
the OS-level are important enterprise considerations.

Low TCO. Oracle Solaris, although often thought of in the context of high-end RISC servers, is
actually free and comes integrated with the server.
28
The Role of Oracle Solaris in Support of SAP
Enterprise Applications
October 2010
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