Mount an SAP HANA backup image as a virtual database

Create an instant virtual copy of an SAP HANA database

This page includes information on SAP HANA database virtual copies.

Create an instant virtual copy of an SAP HANA database to any target from a volume-level backup image for data validation

Use this procedure to create an instant virtual clone of a HANA database. The HANA database is recovered to the chosen point in time and the database is up and running and available. This new virtual clone can be used for data validation and logical recovery or object-level recovery.

A new virtual database, also called an application-aware mount, is a fully functional copy of the source database in another location. It consumes no storage until you start writing to the database, when incremental storage is consumed by the changed blocks. The new virtual database can be created with a new HANA SID name.

  1. Click App Manager > Protected Application > Access, from the latest snapshot, choose Mount—not clone or LiveClone, which do different things.
  2. On the Mount page, from Target, choose the target HANA server from the drop-down.

  3. Under Application Options, complete the following:

    • Select Create New Virtual Application.

    • If the source application is protected by a snapshot policy that has enabled database log backups, and logs are available with the image, you can use them to roll forward to a specific point in time by changing these options in the Roll Forward Time section:

      • The date field contains all possible dates that the database can be rolled forward to—through the application of database transaction logs. Select which date you need the database to be rolled forward to.
      • The time field contains a slider showing all possible times on the selected date that the database can be rolled forward to. If you select the latest possible date and then move the slider to the right most position, the restore job applies to all available logs. If you select the earliest possible date and move the slider to the left most position, the restore job applies no logs.
      • You can specify to roll forward using either User Time or Host Time. User Time is relative to the local time of the current user. Host time is relative to the system that hosts the data to be restored.

    • For Target Database SID, provide the target HANA database name. In order to create the virtual copy, the target HANA database must be configured.

    • For SAP DB User Store-Key, provide the hdbuserstore key for the target database—for HANA 2.0: SYSTEMDB.

    • For Mount Location, specify a Mount Point to mount to new target.

    • At Manage New Application, if you want to reprotect the database copy, click and enable Manage New Application.

    • Choose a template and a profile to protect the database.

  4. Click Submit. At this point, the HANA database is recovered to the chosen point in time and the database is up and running and available for data validation. You can go to the Job Monitor to view the progress and details of the job. The mounted image is available in the Active Mounts.

Management of the active mounts

Once you have created a mount, you can track the image from the App Manager > Active Mounts. Ideally, don't leave any image mounted indefinitely. This is because the backup image that the mount was created from cannot expire until all its mounts have been deleted. When you have finished using the mounted image then either:

  • Unmount the image. You can remount it if needed. You can then delete the image later when you are certain it is no longer needed.
  • Unmount and delete the image. This deletes the mounted image, not the backup that the mount is based on.

The Backup and DR Service SAP HANA DBA guide

This page is one in a series of pages specific to protecting and recovering SAP HANA databases with Backup and DR Service. You can find additional information in the following pages: