Hana on AMD Epyc / Zen architecture, anyone?

[Former Member]

Hi

I know that production-Hana systems are supported only on certified Intel platforms. But given the fact that one is not expecting any support, is it technically possible to install it on AMD Epyc or (even better) Ryzen Pro CPUs? It could be run as a VM. The system will be used just for testing.
For example, Hana Express Editions requirements don't say that Intel machine is necessary.

Did anyone test this scenario? If yes, did you experience any problems or limitations?

Regards

M

[lbreddemann · Accepted solution]

Nope, AMD processors are not supported with HANA. HANA makes intensive use of processor-specific command set extensions, both on the Intel and the PowerPC platform, so using a different processor does not work.

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Thank you for your answer. I understand that some analytics processes can't run on AMD because of used CPU-extensions.

The reason for using AMD-based system is that for a specific scenario they might good and inexpensive aternative for the cloud + they might be reused later for other, non-SAP solutions. I'm talking about internal training and tests for pure SAP Basis / Admin tasks like installation. maintaining (upgrades), backup/restore procedures, HA, replication, system copy etc. What do you think?

[lbreddemann · Accepted solution]

Your understanding is not quite right. The processor command extensions are not used just for “special” cases, but instead for the most fundamental data access pattern in HANA.

There is no “slow but compatible with other hardware” mode.

[former_member253637 · Accepted solution]

I had your answer in mind today when I read how Microsoft halted the Meltdown and Spectre patches for AMD devices due to the CPU binary incompatibility. This is where one can catch the difference.

Let it be Intel and PowerPC, forget the virtualisation and platform independence too, ... But the whole approach raises certain wild questions and speculations regarding such low-level dependency of SAP from the hardware.

[mdretkiewicz]

AMD anounce today SAP S/4HANA on AMD EPYC 04:46 🙂

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ECHhuvuiNzs

[Geert_Lienard]

✂️ @AMD's offers @SAP customers Performance & Total Cost of Ownership! - YouTube

[former_member640230]

Well Lisa Su at AMD last night announced Support for S/4 HANA on AMD EPYC.

[bingbing]

i sucessfully installed hana 2.0 on hyper v running amd ryzen 2700x with 45 gb of ram. I also install netweaver 7.50 on sap hana. The app server was also on hyper v , running windows server.