The hardware certification process has been established by closely communicating with SAP. All hardware vendors need to certify their hardware platforms for the use of SAP Solutions on MS Windows in order to ensure their customers always receive high quality hardware that is additionally verified by an independent assessor.

Note that SAP supports the operation of certified SAP systems, only. Since 1995, AddOn has successfully performed Microsoft and SAP projects and is an acknowledged partner of Microsoft and SAP. Our Certified Technical Consultants (CTC) are experienced in performing benchmark tests and optimizing SAP solutions to examine the economic efficiency of your enterprise environment. This experience guarantees an intensive, close-to-real-use examination, cost efficiency and quick approval of a hardware platform. The efficient certification process is described as follows:

Note: SAP is publishing the rules and procedures for the SAP Hardware Certification to all SAP technology partners. If the information below conflict with the current rules, the official rules published by SAP will apply!

News: January 1, 2009 marks a date of change for the ERP Benchmarks, most notably the SAP Sales and Distribution (SD) benchmark (2-tier, 3-tier, and SD Parallel). This also affects the SAP hardware certification.
Read the FAQ about these changes

• Only the largest server of a Platform Family has to be certified.
• Smaller servers of the same Platform Family are included in this certification and do not require an own certification, but need to be listed on http://www.saponwin.com with the assignment to the larger certified server.
• New, larger servers than the last certified server, are temporarily certified for the next 6 months after publication. Within these 6 months a certification needs to be performed. Otherwise this new server will be removed from the list of certified servers. Those temporarily certified server will have a yellow colored certificate as indicator for being temporarily certified.

Definitions:

Platform Family:
A Platform Family is specified by a certain CPU of a certain vendor in combination with a certain chipset. A change in one of those two components builds a new Platform Family.

Smaller / Larger Server:
The servers, which are to be certified, are grouped by the Platform Family they belong to and by the amount of CPUs. Always the server with the highest amount of CPUs of a Platform Family has to be certified and automatically includes all servers with less CPUs of the same family. If a vendor is releasing a server with a higher amount of CPUs than the last one, this new one has to be certified within 6 months after release. Within these 6 months it is temporarily certified as described earlier.

Note: Servers, which have a certification since a longer time, are not grouped by a processor families. They are only grouped by processor families since the release of this web page in May 2006. The previously certified servers are still valid!

Technical Certification: All hardware platforms currently offered to the market for SAP Solutions on MS Windows are subject to the process of the Technical Certification. Continuously testing the system guarantees the customer perfect operation of the system even in the event of a new Microsoft Windows platform release or an upgrade of hardware or firmware by the hardware vendor.
In order to enter the market for SAP Solutions on MS Windows, a hardware vendor must get the Technical Certification for the hardware platform offered first. This platform and all platforms a hardware vendor may supply later are subjected to further Technical Certifications until they are no longer offered for SAP Solutions on MS Windows.

The following is part of a certification contract:

1. Conscientious performance of all tests required for the particular kind of certification.
2. A detailed documentation of all tests performed and their results.

According to the Certification Process a hardware platform consists of two different types of components:

1. Critical Components: Changing one of the critical components means to build another platform that must undergo a Technical Certification individually.
• The CPU: This means a change in the Platform Family, model, stepping or speed.
• The Chip Set: A platform is defined by its Chip Set and corresponding Chip Set extensions enabling the data transfer between processor, memory and I/O.
• The Mainboard: This means a change in the Mainboard version.
2. Non-Critical Components: The hardware vendor is obliged to provide a list of all Non-Critical Components of the platform supplied by the hardware vendor for SAP Solutions on MS Windows. The hardware vendor guarantees function and support of the components listed. If any of the Non-Critical Components is replaced the list merely has to be updated by the hardware vendor; no new certification is necessary. Non-Critical Components are:
   • Hard Disks
   • Memory
   • Network Adapter
   • Backup Device
   • Monitor
   • Graphic Adapter
   • Mouse
   • ...