Sizing
Sizing
Helping our Customers Determine Their Hardware Requirements
Sizing means determining hardware requirements such as memory, CPU power, disk space, I/O capacity, and network bandwidth. It is an iterative process to translate business requirements into hardware requirements, and is usually performed early in the project.
The size of the hardware and database is influenced by both business aspects and technological aspects. This means that the number of users using the various application components and the data load they put on the network must be taken into account.
With the help of SAP Standard Application Benchmark results at www.sap.com/benchmark, statements can be made as to CPU consumption and memory consumption of particular software components.
For sizing we have identified three different and independent sizing models. The first two, user-based sizing and throughput-based sizing, have been implemented in the Quick Sizer.
User-based sizing
We defined three types of active users who work with the system to a different degree. Merely counting the users can be done quite easily. The estimation is quite rough as it says very little about the actual throughput these users produce.
Throughput-based sizing
This model is quite thorough because it relies on actual or on actually expected throughput. Assumptions in business terms (e.g. number of order line items per year) need to be cross-checked against the individual installation.
Customer Performance Test
The according tests are done in a customer system with customer data. The disadvantage is that conducting these tests requires considerable time and money. For further information please refer to the white paper Carrying Out Customer Performance Tests.
New sizing trainings for customers and partners
ADM115 and ADM114
You can attend our sizing trainings to learn more about the different sizing methodologies and tools from SAP. The training discusses how to conduct a sizing for SAP S/4HANA. New training dates for the ADM115 (2-days classroom training in Walldorf, Germany) and the ADM114 (1 day virtual training) can be found on the SAP Learning Hub.
Introductory Resources
Sizing Types
Greenfield Sizing
The term “greenfield sizing” is mostly used in the context of sizing of new applications without or with only little experience with SAP software. It refers to the process of finding out what the main load drivers are and attaching some sizing value to them. Very often, this is done in the early phases of a project where actual business processes and required data volumes are not available in detail. For greenfield sizing, standard tools, such as Quick Sizer and sizing guidelines are used.
Quick Sizer calculates memory, CPU, disk, and I/O resources based on throughput and number of concurrently active users.
Complete the following steps:
1. Access the Quick Sizer tool
Use the HANA-based version if you want to size an SAP HANA database (e.g. SAP S/4HANA, SAP S/4HANA Cloud private edition), or the HANA-based Cloud version if you want to conduct an S/4HANA Cloud sizing. The non-HANA-based classic version can be used to size a non-SAP HANA database.
2. Create a sizing project
Input your customer scenario data into Quick Sizer and it will display the results.
3. Check for sample configurations (HANA-based and non-HANA based classic versions)
Find the appropriate hardware configuration(s) on SAP Standard Application Benchmarks or on the Certified and Supported SAP HANA Hardware Directory
For the HANA-based Cloud version: Check if the demand of the application server capacity matches the number of entered FUEs (Full User Equivalents). More information can be found in this blog post.
4. Provide the project name to your hardware vendor, who will then propose an appropriate hardware configuration (HANA-based and non-HANA-based classic versions)
5. If you are unable to find the right sizing for your SAP product in the Quick Sizer tool, consult the sizing guidelines.
Brownfield Sizing
There are different approaches for brownfield sizing, depending on the stage of a solution’s lifecycle. The term brownfield sizing has different meanings. It can be an upgrade-, delta-, re- or migration sizing.
To conduct an upgrade-, delta-, re-sizing you typically measure your current resource consumption (i.e., CPU utilization, table growth, and memory usage) to predict future resource requirements. After analyzing your system, you then add the extra load caused by additional users (re-sizing). If you are conducting a delta sizing, the additional resource requirements for example for S/4HANA embedded analytics can be determined by the Quick Sizer. In that sense, delta sizing is a combination between greenfield and brownfield sizing.
Sizing after go-live
Reference this overview about productive sizing, including re-sizing, delta sizing, and upgrade sizing.
Migration Sizing from a SAP NetWeaver Source System
There are different approaches available, if you want to migrate an existing SAP NetWeaver system from a traditional database to SAP HANA.
The SAP S/4 HANA sizing report (SAP note 1872170) should be used to estimate the hardware requirement if you plan to migrate your SAP NetWeaver-based ECC system to SAP HANA.
If you want to estimate the hardware requirements of an SAP Business Warehouse system after migration to SAP HANA, you should run the BW sizing report (SAP Note 2296290).
If you want to integrate non-BW systems to SAP Datasphere, you should use the non-BW sizing report (SAP Note 3599138)
Expert Sizing
Typically, in an expert sizing, more profound analyses on the results of a tool-based sizing (Quick Sizer, Sizing Reports, etc.) are performed. There are no standard tools available to conduct expert sizing, but there is a large range of possibilities for such additional analyses.
Very often, direct communication with a sizing expert is already enough to clarify open questions, usually through a support ticket. In such a case, customer specific conditions that have an impact on sizing but cannot be captured in automated tools can be considered as part of the sizing procedure, and sizing results can be adapted immediately to reflect these conditions.
In case of very complex sizing tasks (e.g. when multiple products / components are involved in a sizing exercise) a detailed exploration of some core business processes may be required, both on functional and technical level.
Such a detailed exploration could include the following steps:
- Identify the most important queries/apps/scenarios
- Identify, how they will be used, e.g. filter criteria, authorizations
- Run these queries/apps/scenarios on representative test data (quality of test data and quantity of test data). Ideally, on a recent copy of the production data.
- Measure resource consumption (CPU/memory) and response times
- Perform a forecast calculation based on the expected usage of the queries/apps/scenarios
Please refer to this presentation to get more information what expert sizing can include.
At SAP, expert sizing is typically covered by Consulting and / or Support.