What is SAP's database strategy?
SAP believes in providing healthy alternate database choices for our customers. Also SAP believes in a strong partner ecosystem. So, SAP will continue its existing multi-vendor database strategy for running SAP applications. We continue to work very closely with our partners including IBM and Microsoft and Oracle to optimize SAP applications with their database products.
Additionally, SAP will continue to invest in its own database technology. We have done this for more than 10 years with MaxDB. Our investments have resulted in a very robust and reliable technology optimized to run every single SAP application. But most importantly MaxDB is designed with one specific goal in mind - Low TCO. We have thousands of MaxDB customer installations and we will continue to deliver innovations and lower TCO to these customers.
Also, we will continue to tightly integrate our database products into some of our applications. We will do this when doing so will reduce the TCO and speed up the delivery of new innovation for our customers. As you know liveCache, which is based on the same technology as MaxDB, has been part of our APO product and has been in production with thousands of installations including many fortune 100 customers. If you look at the latest Business By Design, we have tightly integrated MaxDB and our TREX columnar technology in it.
Will SAP be in the database business?
SAP has always sold MaxDB for SAP applications. Additionally there are many happy customers of MaxDB who use it under non-SAP applications. Also, as before users can continue to download a community edition of MaxDB from the SAP website with free community support.
With the aquisition of Sybase in 2010, SAP has added further database capabilities to its own stack to support its vision of mobile, in-memory and timeless software.
Press release: SAP and Sybase Combine Forces to Unwire the Enterprise
Does the Sybase deal have an impact on MaxDB?
No, please see a comment on genpop.net from board member Vishal Sikka here. Joining Sybase and SAP extends SAP's database technology reach.
What is real about SAP MaxDB and MySQL?
Our customers were able to buy MaxDB directly from SAP for running SAP applications. From October 2003 to August 2007 they were also able to buy the database from MySQL for running non-SAP applications. SAP owned MaxDB development and IP. SAP provided the development support for users of MaxDB under both SAP applications and non-SAP applications where as MySQL provided primary support for non-SAP applications.
What we have announced in September 2007 is that the Sales and support of MaxDB will revert back to SAP. SAP is using the MaxDB database to power the back-end of their new SAP Business ByDesign offering, so they wanted to have direct control over the direction and support of the product under one organization. Additionally, this allows MySQL AB to focus completely on selling/supporting its own flagship open source database.
Since 2008 SAP offers a support package exclusively for SAP customers for their non-SAP applications.
Does the ORACLE SUN deal impact SAP MaxDB?
Oracle's aquisistion of SUN does not impact SAP's activities with SAP MaxDB. Oracle has become owner of the MySQL database - not of SAP MaxDB. SAP MaxDB is owned by SAP since 1997 and was never sold. All intellectual properties are with SAP. Even in the period of cooperation with MySQL AB (2003-2007) no exchange of code took place and no external contributions to SAP MaxDB coding were made.
What is the relationship of SAP MaxDB and SAPDB and open source?
MaxDB versions 7.5 and 7.6.00 are available as an open source product for several years now. These continue to stay in open source. This is maintained and driven by an open source community. We are proud of past SAP contributions to open source and the continued contributions of the community to maintain it. But SAP is not making any more active contributions to it.
Over the last years, we have continued to evolve the SAP MaxDB technology and have made very significant investments and innovations in this technology. These innovations are not in open source. Thus the latest MaxDB product is not open source.
What are benefits of SAP MaxDB?
MaxDB stands as database for OLTP and OLAP usage that offers high reliability, availability, scalability based on a very comprehensive feature set. Easy administration and automatic space management - MaxDB needs no reorganization - makes scheduling of downtimes nearly obsolete. Thus MaxDB, beyond lowest license and maintenance fee, reduces TCO of each of its SAP installations. The system you are just working with right now also runs on MaxDB.
MaxDB today counts more than 6500 customers with around 15000 installations.
What are the license costs for SAP MaxDB?
If your SAP solution will run on MaxDB the current license fee is 5% of the SAP application value (SAV). If MaxDB technology is part of a bundled offering for instance like the NetWeaver Full Use License or as SAP liveCache technology as part of SAP Supply Chain Management it comes without additional license costs.
If you want to run MaxDB for your own or third-party applications you can use the downloads from the SDN download area that are bound to our community license.
Can one buy a license for using SAP MaxDB with non-SAP applications?
SAP customers may order a flat-fee license & support contract for SAP MaxDB use with non-sap applications through their sales reprensentative (adding an appendix to the existing contract). If you are not an SAP customer, MaxDB for non-SAP applications can be used bound to a community license free of charge. There are no further options to buy for using MaxDB with non-SAP applications.
How does the support for SAP MaxDB work?
MaxDB in all its flavors as database and persistency technology within SAP is completely integrated into the SAP support infrastructure from system monitoring through to message solving support. This means a 24x7 coverage through SAP according to the SLA.
How to get support if SAP MaxDB is used with non-SAP applications?
If MaxDB is used together with non-SAP application, the path to get help is to use the MaxDB Forum of the SAP Community Network. Users help each other and our MaxDB staff monitors and assists on a voluntary basis. Additionally, SAP customers may order a flat-fee license & support contract for SAP MaxDB through their sales reprensentative.
How to find SAP MaxDB documentation for a given SAP release?
MaxDB documentation is updated per database version and not per SAP release. The quick way to access the most recent documentation (MaxDB 7.7) is just clicking here.
The documentation published in SAP Help Portal is provided per SAP release and contains the MaxDB documentation corresponding to the minor database version delivered together with this SAP release, thus is at some time outdated. For detailed information on how to locate MaxDB documentation in SAP Help Portal, see Note 767598.
The link in SDN always provides the latest version of the MaxDB documentation corresponding to the latest software version published in SDN. In general, this is a version not yet included in an SAP product and therefore not yet delivered to customers.
How to find courses available on SAP MaxDB and liveCache topics?
First, you may look to our repository maxdb.sap.com. There you find documentation and online training materials on administration and MaxDB internals. Both topics are covered with commented slidesets.
If you are looking for classroom training, please have a look to our university offerings. The following standards are available:
ADM515, Database Administration MaxDB
TEWA60, SAP APO LiveCache Monitoring
UMEW50, MaxDB Empowering Workshop Administration
UMEW60, MaxDB Empowering Workshop Performance Monitoring and Optimization
WB550, MaxDB Internals Workshop
Are there any books available on SAP MaxDB?
Yes. In September 2008 a new book on SAP MaxDB Administration was released (ISBN 978-3-89842-730-2). The English version was launched mid of 2009. For further questions you may contact Galileo Press .
How to download SAP MaxDB from the SAP Community Network?
We provide downloads for MaxDB in the 'Technologies' section of the SAP Communnity Network download area. You can use these downloads for free without any limitation in terms of number of users or database size. The downloads are bound to a community license. Please note that due to warranty aspects these downloads must not be used in conjunction with production SAP systems. Please refer to the SAP Service Marketplace to get the right version for your SAP system.
How does SAP liveCache technology relate to SAP MaxDB?
SAP liveCache technology is an object-based, memory-centric enhancement of MaxDB and was developed to manage complex object networks, e.g. in logistic solutions such as mysap SCM/APO. Large volumes of data must be permanently kept available in memory. liveCache provides data structures and processing methods to achieve highest performance goals. Using SAP liveCache technology APO processes run up to 600 times faster than with standard database logic.
Are there technical FAQs beside this overview FAQ?
Yes there are. Currently these are kept and maintained as Notes within the Service Market Place (SMP login required).
Are there feature descriptions for different SAP MaxDB versions and builds?
We maintain a set of notes that describe changes in MaxDB and liveCache in an aggregated form:
Featurelist for SAP DB 7.3.00(SMP login required)
Featurelist for liveCache 7.4.02(SMP login required)
Featurelist for liveCache/SAP DB 7.4.03\(SMP login required)
Featurelist for liveCache/MaxDB 7.5.00(SMP login required)
Featurelist for liveCache/MaxDB 7.6(SMP login required)
Featurelist for liveCache/MaxDB 7.7(SMP login required)
Featurelist for liveCache/MaxDB 7.8(SMP login required)
Featurelist for Database Manager GUI(SMP login required)
How does SAP MaxDB support UNICODE?
MaxDB currently supports UCS-2, comparable to UTF-16. The move to UTF-8 is planned, but it is a major change in kernel coding and data structures and would take much time. That is why we look for other alternatives like volume compression or effective columnar storing models to reduce the space requirements. For the time being starting with version 7.6.05 we can offer to use a logical character compression from UCS2 or ASCII to UTF-8 for non-key character columns ("UTF-8- Lite"). This allows compact storing of Unicode data. It has to be applied either with ALTER TABLE or by setting a parameter during Unicode Migration as written in respective notes.
The experiences with UNICODE migrations based on MaxDB (UCS-2) today show an increase in space requirements of around 30-40%. Depending on the amount of character data, the UTF-8-Lite approach offers the chance to reduce this total significantly.
Should SAP MaxDB be used on a 32-bit or a 64-bit platform?
On TechEd 2006 SAP has given a strong recommendation to all customers to switch to 64-bit platforms within 2 years. For MaxDB as database in SAP environments we recommend to switch even faster - especially if you run Netweaver04 based applications or newer. MaxDB largely profits from 64-bit architectures especially if large amounts of memory have to be allocated. You'll simply avoid resource problems. Additional information: See note 1013441(SMP login required)
Despite this, MaxDB of course can run with a very small footprint, far below today's standard pc equipment, for programs that do not afford much resources.
Is SAP MaxDB available for IBM z-Series?
The system z platform (zSeries) is positioned as a high availability, high-end platform; by IBM and by SAP. It is a precise bundle of hardware, the operating system z/OS and DB/2 for z/OS as database. These components are most optimally adjusted - targetting highest security and continious operation. Such a strong integration of components would not be feasible with varying components. Even not with zLinux. And customers even pay for this. There is no market for less integrated components at such high pricing. Thus SAP and IBM offer lower price options on other platforms, e.g. System p (AIX) or on Intel architecture (Linux or Windows).
Which external backup tools are supported for MaxDB?
· TSM (IBM/Tivoli)
· NetWorker (Legato)
· NetBackup (Veritas)
· Data Protector or Omniback (HP)
· all backup tools that support 'Backint for Oracle'
· all backup tools that support 'Backint for MaxDB'
Where can I find documentation about external backup tools supported for MaxDB?
The documententation for external backup tools can be found here.
No comments:
Post a Comment