Administration
HANA administration keeps the database healthy, available and performant: monitoring, user/security management, backups, performance tuning and capacity management. It is a specialised extension of Basis administration for the HANA platform.
HANA is updated through revisions/support package stacks; administrators plan and apply these (in non-production first), keeping the database supported and secure, coordinated with the SAP application layer.
- The HANA cockpit is the primary web-based administration tool: it shows system status, alerts, memory and performance, and lets…
- Because HANA is in-memory, memory is the critical resource.
- Monitor system health, memory, CPU, disk, services (via the HANA cockpit).
- Watch out: Ignoring memory pressure, the key HANA resource.
What HANA administrators do
- Monitor system health, memory, CPU, disk, services (via the HANA cockpit).
- Manage users, roles and privileges (security).
- Configure and monitor backups and recovery, and system replication (HA/DR).
- Tune performance (memory management, expensive statements, table distribution).
- Manage tenants (in multitenant systems) and apply revisions/patches.
The HANA cockpit
The HANA cockpit is the primary web-based administration tool: it shows system status, alerts, memory and performance, and lets administrators manage backups, users, and configuration. It is the day-to-day home for HANA operations.
Memory management matters most
Because HANA is in-memory, memory is the critical resource. Administrators watch memory usage, manage what is loaded/unloaded, and ensure the system stays within its licensed/physical memory, memory pressure is the characteristic HANA operational concern.
Revisions and patching
HANA is updated through revisions/support package stacks; administrators plan and apply these (in non-production first), keeping the database supported and secure, coordinated with the SAP application layer.
Common pitfalls
- Ignoring memory pressure, the key HANA resource.
- Unmonitored backups/replication.
- Patching production first without testing.