SAP Best Practices and Advantages with SQL Server

The advantages of using SAP with SQL Server  include:

•  Improves performance. Enhancements in SQL Serverenable tune-up and auto-administration features on SAP application deployments.
• Supports very large databases. mySAP and R/3 installations running on SQL Server  can accommodate larger and more complex databases. Multi-terabyte (TB) databases and 45,000 tables in a single mySAP database are becoming increasingly more common.
• Offers advanced capabilities as standard features. Customers can take advantage of SQL Server  advanced capabilities such as Database Mirroring, Online Index Create, Database Snapshots, etc.
• Contains comprehensive data management features. These data management features include advanced data mining, integration services, Extraction Transformation and Loading (ETL), BI, high availability, manageability, and security.
• Runs on standard commodity servers and storage. SAP customers have two options for licensing SQL Server . When SQL Server is licensed through Microsoft and is used for more than one application, the database is licensed per processor, not per core, as is common with some competitors. This reduces the cost by a factor of three or greater. When SQL Server is licensed through SAP and is used for one application only, even greater savings can be realized.
• Allows for scalability using standard commodity hardware. SQL Server is highly scalable and can allow for future growth using standard commodity servers and storage. In addition, SQL Server takes advantage of some of the latest hardware architectures. mySAP on SQL Server can now run workload levels on four-processor commodity servers that, only four years ago, would have required a 32-processor server and a one-million dollar investment.
•  Offers the most compelling TCO. SQL Server offers the best TCO for SAP implementations including lower management costs. Meta research concluded that Windows offers two to three times better TCO than other enterprise platforms when used in ERP scenarios.

Top 10 Best Practices for SQL Server Maintenance for SAP:

1. Perform a full database backup daily.
2. Perform transaction log backup Every 10 to 30 minutes.
3. Back up system partition in case of configuration changes.
4. Back up system databases in case of configuration changes.
5. Run DBCC CHECKDB periodically (ideally before the full database backup).
6. Evaluate security patches monthly (and install them if they are necessary).
7. Evaluate update modules of hardware drivers and firmwares and install if necessary.
8. Update statistics on the largest tables weekly or monthly.
9. Rebuild or defrag the most important indexes.
10. Use a health check monitoring tool for performance, availability, and so forth.

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Reference : webgurus, Technet