SAP Operating Systems

What Is an Operating System?

An operating system (OS) is software that enables applications to interface with a computer or server. The OS makes a system’s hardware accessible to an application while providing essential services to applications in the process. OS features include memory management, crash recovery, patch management, security, and clustering capabilities.

What Is an Operating System?

What Are SAP Operating Systems?

Microsoft Windows Server, Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL), SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications (SLES), and UNIX variants (HP-UX, AIX, and Solaris) are common OSes used in SAP environments. IBM iSeries or AS/400 (running OS400) or mainframe (running z/OS) can also be found supporting SAP. However, SAP HANA only runs on the Linux OS, and SAP application development requires a Linux OS or Windows Server.

For SAP customers, an OS is a set of executables and libraries that allow users through various front ends to connect to application servers to submit data to and retrieve data from an SAP database. SAP starts multiple OS-level services and processes, efficiently using a server’s available memory and CPU power. SAP generally only supports 64-bit OS environments.

At the OS level, SAP has eight work process types: dialog, background, synchronous update, asynchronous update, enqueue, message, spool, and gateway. In addition, SAP contains three OS-level profiles: default, start, and instance. Profiles are essentially text files imported into and maintained by the SAP database. The default profile has information common to all SAP instances in an SAP system.

Further Resources for SAPinsiders

What to Expect from the Move to Linux. Companies looking to benefit from SAP HANA need to migrate their OS to a Linux platform before implementing the in-memory database. This article provides advice on tools and training to ease migration.

Linux Eases the Migration Path to SAP S/4HANA. Moving to SAP S/4HANA provides an opportunity for organizations to take advantage of the benefits of Linux. This article argues that Linux ensures a sustainable move to SAP S/4HANA, even for companies that rely on UNIX or Microsoft.

How to Dynamically Load Multiple Files from SAP NetWeaver Application Server (Unix). In this article, Thiagu Bala, Owner of Aster Logic and an SAP-certified consultant, explains how SAP customers can save time and avoid risks by using an ABAP program and process chains to load multiple flat file data into SAP NetWeaver BW using Unix code.

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