Month: February 2021

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Sizer 5.0

Sizer 5.0 is the latest version of Sizer going live on 24 Feb 2021

Whats New?

Three major features in Sizer 5.0 :

1. Multi recommendation

Sizer to now have an option to recommend more than one solution for a given workload, depending on the price range.

2. Sizer Policy

These are the recommended cluster settings based on the deployment environment for the cluster being sized. Sizer strongly recommends to go with the default settings for the chosen environments , however, it allows you to make modifications to adjust to a given requirement.

3. Advanced Cluster settings

These are advanced filters to narrow down the sizings to a more specific solution, providing for greater flexibility and ability o accomodate specific customer requests.

 

Sizer journey to 5.0:

From single workload to multi workload to multi cluster to finally multi recommendation with Sizer 5.0

 

Multi-era  for Sizer: 

 

  • Multiple Workloads
      • Bulk Edits – Ability to update, delete, disable, enable many workloads at once
      • Enable our next move towards Collector-driven sizing where Collector feeds Sizer with 100s of workloads to create the  most precise sizing

 

  • Multiple Clusters
      • Cluster Settings – Ability for each cluster to have its own settings for common characteristics
        • CPU speed, NIC, Max nodes, thresholds, etc
        • This allows each cluster to be optimized for specific workloads
      • Sizer Policy – Apply best practices defined by experts for different environments
        • Settings for Test/Dev, Production or Mission Critical Environments

  • Multiple Recommendations

  • Cluster Settings gives the user control so Automatic Sizing gives desired recommendation
  • Multiple recommendations then allow user to play with the results
    • Cost Optimized, Compute Optimized, Storage Optimized solutions are provided
    • Each can be further tweaked by the user

 

Sizer 5.0 – Multiple Recommendations

 

Toggle between multiple recommendations that fit your cost tolerance

  • Cost Optimized – lowest cost-default option
  • Compute Optimized- most cores within cost tolerance
  • Storage Optimized – most HDD/SSD within cost tolerance

  • Cost Tolerance
  • This is advanced settings in cluster
  • Allows to select a price delta(from the cheapest)
  • Triggers multi recommendation within the price range

 

Sizer 5.0 – Policy

Why..

Different deployment environments might have different needs in terms of availability/resiliency and performance

What..

These are the recommended cluster settings based on the deployment environment. Brings consistency of sizings for a given environment.  

How.. 

Each cluster to have one of below policy

  • Test/Dev, Production, Mission Critical
  • Allowed to edit the policy settings 

Apply your own Sizer Policy for cluster characteristics

  • Maintenance Window requirements
  • Network speed
  • Minimum Compression
  • Other settings

Each cluster can then follow operational policy

  • Test/Dev, Production, Mission Critical
  • You can edit the policy to better meet customer needs

Sizer 5.0 – “Customize” the auto 

  • Tweak the auto recommendation through “Customize” option 
  • Allows incremental increase or decrease of the selected resource
  • Checks for valid /qualified combinations when tweaking( for ex: if tweak violates SSD/HDD rule or balanced memory config, won’t allow 
  • Shows the cost delta for the customized solution
  • Stay on the Solutions page while playing with options.

Sizer 5.0 – Advanced Cluster settings

Minimum CPU frequency:

  • This will ensure the sizing recommends only the processors above the quoted frequency
  • Helpful if customer is keen on certain range of processors for performance reasons 

CVM/node

  • The values here will override the default CVM overhead applied by Sizer -1
  • Allows customer to provision more cores/ram to CVM in case of performance sensitive workloads

Cost Tolerance

  • Allows for a price delta (from the lowest cost)
  • Recommends more than one(default) solution-2
  • Cost optimized :default-lowest cost solution
  • Compute optimized : most core heavy solution in the price range
  • Storage optimized: most capacity heavy solution in the  price range

 

Short demos on Sizer 5.0 features:

Sizer 5.0/5.1 overview:

Multi Recommendation:

Maintainance Window :

Sizer Policy : 

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SAP HANA sizing guidelines

Sizing for SAP HANA  

Introductory video of SAP HANA in the sizer (non-ST VPN connection required).

https://nutanixinc.sharepoint.com/:v:/t/solperf/solperf_library/ETb67HebgR9Kg32r7jxTO3wBdXoHuOCCjvK2oTasctOgIQ?e=z4Epr2

Note:

  • Only use for SAP HANA based applications, not legacy SAP applications which make use of MSSQL, Oracle etc.
  • Multi-node SAP scale-out is not supported (used for larger SAP BW instances)
  • This sizing process does not vary for scale-up between AHV & VMware implementations
  • No spinning disks are used within a Nutanix cluster being used for SAP HANA
  • Any questions, support, or areas not covered – please use the SAP Slack channel

Supported Platforms:

  • Only Dell, HPE, Fujitsu and Lenovo are supported for SAP HANA, not NX.
  • If another OEM is selected, SAP HANA will not be shown as an available workload

 

Defaults

  • RF2 is used (RF3 is under testing, so not selectable in Sizer)
  • Compression is disabled, and not typically of value for SAP HANA
  • Higher default CVM resource is reserved

HANA Inputs

  • NVMe can be added for higher IO loads, such as a high usage SAP S4/HANA
  • Cost/Performance largely drives cpu choice. Ideally an implementation’s potential compute load in SAPS would be known. Please reach out for support in estimating and reviewing such information.

Environments

There would typically be two environments within a Nutanix cluster where production and non-production are mixed. Production rules should be applied both to all production instances, and any other instances that should be treated as production. This might apply to a QAS/Test environment and will typically apply to any DR cluster.

Production:

  • For most SAP applications (e.g., production S4) there is an SAP HANA database, and one or more application server instances. Some uses of SAP HANA do not use an application server, in which case just use a small one in the sizing exercise.
  • In addition to the Application Server instances, and the SAP HANA database, a small VM called the ASCS is often called for. This ASCS would be around 2c/24GB RAM/100GB disk.
  • Generally, production has two or more application server instances. Typically, 2 – 6 cores, with around 24GB/core. Multiple instances for larger loads. Small storage space requirement for os & application image.
  • For a downtime requirement of less than 20 minutes, a pair of SAP HANA instances should be sized.
  • There is no over commit of cpu or memory
  • Servers must have all memory channels filled and balanced, so 6 or 12 DIMMs per cpu. – Sizer auto recommendation enforces this consideration
  • L suffix cpus are required for largest memory instances
  • Available storage for SAP HANA should be around 2.5x to 3x memory (3x is used in Sizer)
  • Production rules – SAP HANA instances are on whole dedicated cpus and so cannot be allocated to the CVM cpu
  • HANA System Relication(HSR) – is exactly a copy of the HANA VM. In Sizer, add another HANA VM if implementing the HSR.

 

Non Production:

 

 

  • QAS/Test landscape tends to match nonPRD for size of instance
  • If an operating system HA cluster is used in production, there is typically at least one such cluster outside of production also – used as a testbed.
  • Each SAP solution would normally have two or three non-production landscapes
  • Solution Manager (SolMan) is often overlooked, and not asked for. It is a required instance in the overall deployment and would be sized in PRD with one SAP HANA instance and an application server instance. Another such pair for QAS/test. No HA clustering would be required.
  • DEV, SBX etc. are usually subsets in memory size.

 

Feb 8, 2021

First release of SAP HANA in the sizer: