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29 Oct 2026Form Number
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Abstract
The Lenovo Solution for SAP HANA on ThinkAgile VX offers businesses the opportunity to reap the efficiencies and cost savings of hyperconverged infrastructure powered by VMware vSAN technology.
By migrating SAP landscapes and SAP HANA workloads from complex, multi-tiered legacy architectures to hyperconverged clusters, customers can enjoy the simplicity, scalability, and cost-savings of hyperconverged infrastructure, which consolidates storage and compute into a single virtual pool. The result is a streamlined data center with reduced overhead and maintenance.
Developed in close collaboration with SAP and VMware, the Lenovo Solution for SAP HANA on ThinkAgile VX provides mission-critical performance, 24/7 availability and ease of scalability.
Introduction
The Lenovo ThinkAgile VX Solution for SAP HANA combines Lenovo V4 server infrastructure with the VMware ESXi hypervisor, vSphere server virtualisation, and vSAN software-defined storage.
It brings compute and storage together in a centrally managed cluster, with vSAN pooling storage resources across hosts and presenting them to the VMs, offering a simpler alternative to traditional multi-tier infrastructure.
SAP HANA workloads are well suited to vSAN in adequately sized, SAP-certified configurations, combining storage performance for database persistence with simplified management and scalable infrastructure.
Organizations can streamline their operations and expand their infrastructure as business requirements evolve.
Figure 1. ThinkAgile VX650 V4 and VX850 V4 for SAP HANA
Business Challenge
The challenge addressed by VMware vSAN for SAP HANA is the inherent complexity and cost associated with traditional three-tier storage architectures. Organizations typically struggle with "over-provisioning" expensive SAN storage to account for future growth, leading to wasted capital and complex procurement cycles.
Growing data volumes and demand for real-time insights can also put pressure on performance and capacity. Fragmented infrastructure and complex lifecycle management can consume IT resources and slow the delivery of new services. The challenge is to establish a scalable, resilient foundation for SAP HANA that simplifies operations, supports evolving workload requirements, and enables predictable investment without compromising availability or increasing migration risk.
Solution
The Lenovo Solution for SAP HANA on ThinkAgile VX650 V4 and VX850 V4* is hyperconverged infrastructure powered by VMware vSAN 9 technology.
The server nodes for this solution are:
- VX650 V4 (2-socket) and VX850 V4 (4-socket) Certified Nodes leveraging industry-leading VMware vSAN 9 virtualization
- Two or four ultra powerful 6th generation (Granite Rapids) Intel Xeon processors with Performance cores (P-cores)
- Factory-integrated, validated, and preconfigured VMware ESXi hypervisor, vSphere server virtualization and vSAN storage virtualization software, included in VMware VVF or VCF version 9
- vSphere Lifecycle Manager (vLCM), for faster deployment, simplified management, efficient patching and updating of software and firmware, and automation of support.
- SAP HANA solution support from Lenovo's SAP experts
- Optional Lenovo Premier Support for 24/7 single point of contact and a seamless customer experience
ThinkAgile VX SAP HANA Nodes
Supported SAP HANA Gen 4 configurations using 2 or 4 sockets
| Model Name | ThinkAgile VX650 V4 | ThinkAgile VX850 V4 * |
| Machine Type/Model | 7DG6CTO4WW | 7DRHCTO1WW |
| Processor | 2x Intel Xeon P-Core processors (6th Gen) | 2x or 4x Intel Xeon P-Core processors (6th Gen) |
| Memory | Up to 4TB (using 128GB TruDDR5 DIMMs) | TBD* |
| Drive Bays | Up to 24x 2.5" SSD drives | |
| vSAN Nodes | 3-64 nodes | |
| Disks allowed (ESA) | 4 – 24 NVMe | |
| Capacity | Any Lenovo Read-Intensive or Mixed-Use SATA/SAS or NVMe SSD (max 24) | |
| Network | Recommended 4x 25GbE or higher | |
| Hypervisors Preloaded and Supported | VMware ESXi/vSAN 9.1 and higher | TBD* |
* Note: SAP HANA certification for ThinkAgile VX850 V4 is pending approval
Use Cases
- Data-intensive industries (e.g. manufacturing, logistics or retail) that require real-time analytics and forecasting on live SAP data.
In this type of use case traditional storage and compute can cause bottlenecks in complex SAP HANA reports.
The solution is to leverage high-density VX650 V4 nodes: Intel Xeon 6 processors for raw compute, up to 4TB of high-speed DDR5 memory for massive in-memory datasets and vSAN ESA (all-NVMe) to eliminate I/O wait times. The outcome will be sub-second response times for massive analytical queries and the ability to run insights directly on the production environment without degrading ERP performance.
- For enterprises with unpredictable growth or those undergoing digital transformation, a "Pay-As-You-Grow" deployment with vSAN nodes can be an optimal fit.
For example migrations from legacy ERP to S/4HANA.
Businesses challenged to accurately predict memory and storage requirements for the next 3–5 years would, in a traditional setup, have to over-provision expensive hardware on day 1 to avoid a disruptive upgrade later.
By deploying a small initial cluster of VX650 V4 or VX850 V4 nodes, additional nodes can be added to the cluster non-disruptively as the SAP HANA database grows or as more users are added. This approach can optimize procurement by only buying what is needed today, while the vSAN-powered HCI architecture ensures that adding capacity does not cause application downtime later.
Conclusion
The Lenovo ThinkAgile VX Solution for SAP HANA enables businesses to accelerate decision-making and gain insights into key trends locked in their data, while simplifying their IT infrastructure and driving costs down. The combination of preloaded easy-to-use VMware virtualization software on powerful, extremely reliable Lenovo hardware provides the ideal infrastructure platform for SAP HANA and other SAP applications.
ThinkAgile single point of contact with world-class Lenovo SAP solution support provides a seamless support experience, with the additional option to add Premier Support for four or five years. And because Lenovo servers hold more than 744 current world records for performance, including records related to SAP HANA, those workloads will finish lightning fast.
For More Information
- Lenovopress Product Guide - ThinkAgile VX650 V4
- Lenovopress Product Guide - ThinkAgile VX850 V4
- SAP Hardware Directory for Lenovo HCI Solutions
- Reference Architecture: SAP Applications using Lenovo ThinkAgile VX Series
- Deployment Ready Solutions for ThinkAgile VX configurations
- SAP WIKI: SAP HANA based Applications on VMware vSAN in VCF (SAP HANA HCI)
Trademarks
Lenovo and the Lenovo logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Lenovo in the United States, other countries, or both. A current list of Lenovo trademarks is available on the Web at https://www.lenovo.com/us/en/legal/copytrade/.
The following terms are trademarks of Lenovo in the United States, other countries, or both:
Lenovo®
ThinkAgile®
The following terms are trademarks of other companies:
Intel®, the Intel logo and Xeon® are trademarks of Intel Corporation or its subsidiaries.
Other company, product, or service names may be trademarks or service marks of others.
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