Novell Expands Linux Availability for SAP
Novell is enhancing its partnership with SAP with an expanded Linux offering for SAP applications.
Josh Dorfman, director of alliance marketing at Novell, told InternetNews.com that the new version of SLES for SAP Applications is based on SLES 11.
“Most importantly, this covers all SAP workloads,” Dorfman said.
Back in September, Novell announced an optimized version of SLES for SAP that was based on SLES 10 service pack 3. SLES 11 debuted in 2009 and was updated in 2010 with a service pack update delivering a new kernel and virtualization capabilities.
SAP and Novell also have a deal in place for the SAP StreamWork collaboration technology.
“Both deals represent an extension of the Novell/SAP joint collaboration to provide SAP customers an optimized and fully supported Linux platform for SAP applications,” Dorfman said.
Dorfman added that SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications supports both virtual and physical instances.
Novell is also improving availability of Linux for SAP with the SUSE Linux Enterprise High Availability extension
“SUSE Linux Enterprise High Availability Extension is an add-on to SUSE Linux Enterprise Server that includes all of the essential cluster technologies you need to implement highly-available Linux clusters, thus enabling the ultra-reliable delivery of mission-critical services,” Dorfman said. “It has been fully validated for SAP applications and is supported by Novell and SAP.”
Dorfman said the SUSE Linux Enterprise High Availability Extension includes the latest version of OCFS2. OCFS2 (Oracle Cluster File System) first debuted in the 2.6.16 Linux kernel in 2006. Dorfman noted that OCFS2 is now a shared-disk, POSIX-compliant generic cluster file system.
“Using OCFS2, you can now cluster a much wider range of applications for higher availability using cluster-aware POSIX locking,” Dorfman said. “You can also resize your clusters and add new nodes on the fly. Cluster-aware applications will also be able to make use of parallel I/O for higher performance.”
Dorfman said the High Availability Extension is included with SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications at no additional cost.
Novell's overall relationship with SAP is a strong one, with over 75 percent of SAP customers that are running on Linux doing so on SUSE Linux Enterprise. In total, Dorfman said that SAP and Novell have more than 3,000 joint customers.
Moving forward, Dorfman said Novell and SAP will continue to innovate on behalf of their joint customers.
“Novell is supporting SAP with in-memory technology through the SAP HANA software project, which runs on SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11,” Dorfman said. “As you can tell from our track record of recent announcements, this is a very active partnership.”
Sean Michael Kerner is a senior editor at InternetNews.com, the news service of Internet.com, the network for technology professionals.
Sean Michael is a writer who focuses on innovation and how science and technology intersect with industry, technology Wordpress, VMware Salesforce, And Application tech. TechCrunch Europas shortlisted her for the best tech journalist award. She enjoys finding stories that open people's eyes. She graduated from the University of California.
