SAP HANA 2.0 Installation and Administration A Practical Guide

2.1   Available deployment mode and types

2.1.1   Choosing a HANA database deployment

There are two models for installing HANA:

• Appliance model—only certified hardware partners can install HANA components on validated hardware on a specific operating system.
• SAP HANA Tailored Datacenter Integration (TDI)—certified administrators or official SAP HANA hardware partners can install HANA on approved hardware (from the hardware directory).

Once the deployment model has been selected, one of the technical deployment options, such as SCOS, MCOD, or MCOS, can be chosen.

These options can be deployed as a single tenant (scale-up) or multi-tenant (scale-out) setup across one or more hosts.

The chosen underlying server for the HANA database can be a physical server, an IaaS, or a virtualized environment.

2.1.2   Understanding multi-container HANA database mode

The HANA database offers two deployment modes—single container mode and multiple container mode. In other words, SCOS, MCOS, MCOD and similar configurations can only be assigned to one of these two modes on a single host or on multiple hosts.

From HANA 1.0, and all versions prior to HANA 2.0 SP01, the default database mode was single container. However, as of HANA 2.0 SPS01, all the technical deployments mentioned in the previous sections can only be installed in multiple container mode (the default mode), also known as the tenant database mode.

Multiple container mode enables the HANA SID to accommodate more than one tenant database under the control of a SystemDB. Moreover, it does not always necessitate the existence of more than one tenant database. Note that the presence of a SystemDB within a HANA SID inherently implies this mode. As shown in Figure 2.1, multiple container mode always has a SystemDB component, whereas single container mode does not.

Figure 2.1: Multiple container and single container mode

The benefits of multiple container mode include simplification and reduced capital expenditure on hardware. When a company requires additional HANA databases, this mode enables them to host new SIDs as isolated tenant databases on the same hardware, using the same database installation software and sharing some server components (RAM, CPU, etc.).

Conversely, in single container mode, any additional SIDs must be installed with their own database software and server components on the same or different hardware, without reusing components from existing HANA installations.