Explore high availability and disaster recovery support of Azure for SAP workloads
As per SAP Note #1928533, the following high availability options are applicable to Azure VM-based deployments (depending on the Azure VM guest operating system):
- Window Server: “Microsoft supports Windows Server Failover Cluster in Azure virtual machines with replication for nonshared storage. Whereas SAP doesn't test its applications with replication for nonshared storage, Microsoft guarantees full transparency of this technology for SAP applications. Therefore, you can operate SAP applications following the guidelines on how to set up HA configurations for SAP NetWeaver applications on Azure. In any case of issues, refer directly to Microsoft support.” For more information, see the Microsoft support article Microsoft server software support for Microsoft Azure virtual machines.
- SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications: SUSE and Microsoft support the SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications based cluster for HANA System Replication and SAP NetWeaver ASCS. For more information, see SAP Note #2513384, High availability of SAP HANA on Azure VMs on SUSE Linux Enterprise Server, and High availability for SAP NetWeaver on Azure VMs on SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for SAP applications.
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux HA Add-on: “Red Hat and Microsoft support the Red Hat Enterprise Linux HA Add-On for HANA System Replication and SAP NetWeaver ASCS.” For more information, see SAP Note #2694118, High availability of SAP HANA on Azure VMs on Red Hat Enterprise Linux, and Azure Virtual Machines high availability for SAP NetWeaver on Red Hat Enterprise Linux.
When evaluating high availability and disaster recovery requirements, you should also consider the implications of choosing between 2 tier and 3 tier architecture. In 2-tier configurations, you install the database and NetWeaver components on the same Azure VM to avoid network contention. In 3-tier configurations, database and application components are installed on separate Azure VMs. This choice also has implications regarding sizing, since 2-tier and 3-tier SAPS ratings for a given VM SKU differ.