Add an SAP HANA database host and discover and protect its databases

Before you can protect an SAP HANA database, you must add the host and discover the database. This requires the following:

1. Install the Backup and DR agent on the host

2. Add the host to the management console

3. Onboard the HANA databases from the App Manager

Install the Backup and DR agent on the host

The Backup and DR agent connects the host to the backup/recovery appliance. To install the agent, see Install the Backup and DR agent on a Linux host

Add the host to the management console

Add the host to the management console. When the host is added, edit the host to set the staging disk format using the following steps:

1. Right-click the host and select Edit.

2. On the Edit Host page, select the staging disk format:

   • Block: Block-based staging disks are required for volume-level backups. Volume-level backups are more generally useful than file-based backups. Backup and DR changed-block tracking (CBT) is only available on block-based staging disks, and virtual databases can only be mounted to block-based staging disks.

   • NFS: NFS staging disks permit only traditional file-based backup with Full+Incremental file system backup. Select NFS only if savepoint API (volume-level backup) is not an option in your network.

3. Click Save at the bottom of Edit Host page.

Discover and protect the SAP HANA database application

Note: Use of a third-party backup in between Backup and DR backups is not recommended, because of the following:

• LVM backups fail for any third party backup backint setup

• Recovery is compromised due to break in the recovery chain

• A Full+Incremental backup can get orphan incrementals causing recovery issues.

Note: The SAP HANA basepath_logbackup path should be set only in the SYSTEM DB global.ini file. Don't specify it in each tenant level global.ini file.

Note: You can also protect HANA 1+n and HANA scale-out databases.

Use the following instructions to discover and protect HANA databases:

1. Select Add Application from the management console's App Manager > Applications page.

2. Select SAP HANA in the Add Application wizard.

3. Follow the wizard:

   • Select the database to manage from the Select section.

   • Apply the policy template and the resource profile in the Manage section, you created these in Define policy templates and resource profiles.

4. Click Application Settings in the Configure section.

5. Select the Backup Capture Method from the Application Settings window. The method is based on your needs and the information in Protect the SAP production environment against data loss, errors, and corruption.

In the Application Settings tab, you can change application-specific settings. Be sure to address the following:

• HANA DB user store key: This is the SAP HANA hdbuserstore key for the system database created earlier. This field is mandatory.

• Percentage of reserve space in volume group: This is needed for volume level backup to determine the required amount of temporary free space in LVM volume group for snapshots. The recommended value is 20%.

• Backup capture method:

  • Use volume level backup: Use volume level LVM snapshots with CBT on Linux to a block-based staging disk. This option uses the SAP HANA savepoint API to enable you to create incremental-forever backups. This requires the HANA database data and log volume to be LVM-managed. If you are using NFS protocol staging disks, then you cannot use volume-level backups.

  • Use Full+Incremental backup: This is the traditional file-based backup and recovery. This "file dump" method does not support creation of virtual databases. You can select this for block and for NFS staging disks. This method only supports traditional Backint backup and physical recovery.

    Note: There are two protocols for presenting the backup staging disk to the host—block-based and NFS. For scale-out backint or file-based backup, always use the NFS option for staging disk.

• Retention of production DB logs in hours: This is used to purge the HANA log backup from the basepath_logbackup destination. Based on this setting the last data backup ID is selected—CURRENT_TIMESTAMP minus the number of hours set—and the log is purged older than the data backup ID. Default value is 2 hours. With default values, all logs prior to last data backup are purged.

• Retention of production catalog in days: The retention of HANA catalog metadata in days.

Note: All required properties are marked with a red asterisk. The Apply Backup Plan option at the bottom of the dialog is disabled until all required property values are added, then click Save Changes.

1. Click Save > Next, then click Finish.

2. You can see the database in the App Manager Applications list with a green shield indicating that the backup plan has been applied.

Note: The application cannot be captured until the scheduled job runs according to the hours of operation defined in the backup template. For example, if at 10:00 (UTC) you assign a template that has hours of operation from 02:00 (UTC) to 05:00 (UTC), then the first job cannot start until the appliance has an available job slot at 02:00 (UTC) of the following day. To run a job immediately, perform an on-demand capture.

Back up HANA 1+n and HANA scale-out databases

This page includes information about protecting HANA 1+n and HANA scale-out.

Protect HANA 1+n

To protect a HANA 1+n replication cluster as a single application, after application discovery the application has the cluster host as sid name_cluster. For example, if sr1 is the HANA instance, then the application name is sr1 and the hostname is sr1_cluster in the App Manager Applications list.

The HANA log backup destination must be shared between two nodes. When failover occurs, the database and log backup automatically fails over to the current primary, and log backups are performed from the current primary, capturing the last logs from the old primary as well as new logs from the new primary. Follow the preparation steps in Prepare your SAP HANA databases for protection.

HANA 1+n is always discovered as cluster application containing all node details in the metadata. It is a good idea to run a force discovery after any changes to cluster node configuration—such as after adding or deleting a node from the cluster. If a node is removed or added after discovery and protection, the configuration does not be updated automatically in Backup and DR metadata, and may cause backup issues.

Note: With the failover of the HANA database from primary to secondary and back, the next database backup is low-splash and takes more time to get the incremental changes.

Prerequisites for protecting SAP HANA 1+n instances and databases

Before protecting SAP HANA instances, ensure the following:

• If hosts have virtual IPs configured, add only the virtual IP and hostname of the host during discovery.
• The Backup and DR agent must be installed on all nodes.
• Ports need to be opened on the hosts to allow communication on port 5106. This requires an ingress firewall rule where the backup/recovery appliance is the source, the host running the agent is the target and the target port is 5106. Also, there is no need to add port 5106 to the default ingress rule created for the appliance, as this specifies the appliance as the target.
• HANA log backup location must be set on shared—NFS.

Note: Activate logical volume manager change block tracking on all the nodes of SAP HANA scale-out cluster by running /opt/act/cbt/bin/cbt_activate.sh on the command line as a root user. Verify that logical volume manager change block tracking is activated by running pgrep cbt—this should return two processes running for change block tracking.

Protect HANA scale-out

Prerequisites for protecting SAP HANA scale-out

Before protecting SAP HANA scale-out, be sure that the following is complete:

• If hosts have virtual IPs configured, add only the virtual IP and the associated hostname of the host during discovery.
• The Backup and DR agent must be installed on all nodes.
• Ports need to be opened on the hosts to allow communication on port 5106. This requires an ingress firewall rule where the backup/recovery appliance is the source, the host running the agent is the target and the target port is 5106. Also, there is no need to add port 5106 to the default ingress rule created for the appliance, as this specifies the appliance as the target.
• For backint file based—Full+Incremental—backup, the HANA log backup location must be set to shared—NFS. See Add the host to the management console.

• For storage snapshot protection

  • Data and log volume are non-shared across all nodes
  • Data and log volumes are logical volume manager managed
  • Ensure mnt000* directories exist on the local mount points to identify the primary and secondary nodes
  Note: The discovered HANA instance shows up under application list with: Application (HANA sid name): Hostname and Friendly path (HANA sid name)_cluster(site id)_(HANA hardware id).

  Follow the setup procedures in Prepare your SAP HANA databases for protection.

Note: Activate logical volume manager change block tracking on all the nodes of SAP HANA scale-out cluster by running /opt/act/cbt/bin/cbt_activate.sh on the command line as a root user. Verify that logical volume manager change block tracking is activated by running pgrep cbt—this should return two processes running for change block tracking.

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:

• Backup and DR for SAP HANA
• Prepare SAP HANA databases for backup
• Add an SAP HANA database host, and discover and protect its databases
• Configure staging disk format and backup method for SAP HANA databases
• Set application details and settings for SAP HANA databases
• Back up a discovered HANA database
• Back up HANA 1+n and HANA scale-out databases
• Restore and recover SAP HANA databases
• Mount an SAP HANA backup image as a standard mount
• Mount an SAP HANA backup image as a virtual database
• Mount and migrate an SAP HANA backup image for instant recovery to any target