HANA Administration — The Engine Behind the Analytics

SAP HANA has, over time, become the heart of the digital enterprise. It is the central database where transactional data flows in, where static, unstructured data is stored and accessed, and where web, mobile, and IoT (Internet of Things) devices connect for delivering superlative customer experience.

Managing such a vital technology solution is increasingly complex. HANA administrators have a critical role to play across the lifecycle of SAP HANA — from the initial setup for optimal storage and access to regular administration for backups and monitoring to periodic performance tuning to finally, on-demand configuration to meet business needs.

HANA Administration — The Engine Behind the Analytics

SAP HANA has, over time, become the heart of the digital enterprise. It is the central database where transactional data flows in, where static, unstructured data is stored and accessed, and where web, mobile, and IoT (Internet of Things) devices connect for delivering superlative customer experience.

Managing such a vital technology solution is increasingly complex. HANA administrators have a critical role to play across the lifecycle of SAP HANA — from the initial setup for optimal storage and access to regular administration for backups and monitoring to periodic performance tuning to finally, on-demand configuration to meet business needs.

With the rapid application roadmaps of today, including the move to SAP S/4HANA and the development of cloud applications for analytics, there is increased pressure on HANA administrators to “run like a factory,” as SAP calls it. While keeping up with the speed of execution with efficient change management, HANA administrators need to ensure security and performance.

HANA administrators use the HANA Studio to perform the following activities:

• System monitoring
• Load distribution
• Exceptions
• Database monitoring for performance and memory consumption
• Performance monitoring
• Backup and disaster recovery monitoring
• Alerting
• Housekeeping

SAP HANA can be deployed in a variety of approaches. This interview with experts from Protiviti discusses choosing the right SAP HANA deployment option and other best practices with SAP HANA administration.

Multiple databases can be set up in a single SAP HANA system. The SAP HANA system itself can be deployed either on a single system or multiple host systems. HANA administrators can assess the performance needs of their organization to balance the load and enable scalability and decide to deploy on a single or multiple systems.

This SAP HANA guide to performance analysis, optimization, and administration techniques provides a deep dive into advanced SAP HANA administration and master techniques and tools for effective analysis of issues, monitoring the workload, and overall management of SAP HANA systems, including multi-tenant databases.

SAP provides many tools to administer SAP HANA.

1. SAP HANA Cockpit is based on SAP Fiori Launchpad and helps access a long range of HANA applications through a web interface.
2. SAP HANA Studio helps perform system administration and monitoring activities in a distributed environment. Different administrators can be assigned different access privileges to handle various tasks.
3. SAP HANA Lifecycle Manager helps to manage SAP HANA components after installation. You can add/remove hosts or rename using the Lifecycle Manager.
4. SAP Solution Manager helps to integrate your SAP HANA platform with other business solutions.
5. SAP HANA HW Configuration Check helps to check the interoperability of the SAP HANA system with enterprise storage.

Many vendors such as NetApp, AWS, Google Cloud, HPE, and Microsoft Azure bring significant expertise in deploying, monitoring, and administering SAP HANA so that it powers the modern enterprise.