Dell PowerProtect Data Manager: SAP HANA

Agent Backup and Recovery

November 2023

H18578.2

White Paper

Abstract
This white paper focuses on protecting a SAP HANA database using
PowerProtect Data Manager.
 Copyright

The information in this publication is provided as is. Dell Inc. makes no representations or warranties of any kind with respect
to the information in this publication, and specifically disclaims implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular
purpose.
Use, copying, and distribution of any software described in this publication requires an applicable software license.
Copyright © 2023 Dell Inc. or its subsidiaries. Published in the USA November 2023 H18578.2.
Dell Inc. believes the information in this document is accurate as of its publication date. The information is subject to change
without notice.

2 Dell PowerProtect Data Manager: SAP HANA Agent Backup and Recovery
[Subject]
 Contents

Contents
Executive summary ........................................................................................................................ 4

Introduction ..................................................................................................................................... 5

Architecture ..................................................................................................................................... 6

Supported Configurations and Platforms ...................................................................................... 9

Installation and Configuration of SAP HANA agent .................................................................... 10

SAP HANA Database Backup....................................................................................................... 14

SAP HANA Parallelism.................................................................................................................. 20

SAP HANA Backup Discovery Process ...................................................................................... 21

SAP HANA Database Recovery .................................................................................................... 22

Cloud Tiering, Replication, and Backup Deletion ...................................................................... 34

Disaster Recovery ......................................................................................................................... 37

References ..................................................................................................................................... 39

Dell PowerProtect Data Manager: SAP HANA Agent Backup and Recovery 3
 Executive summary

Executive summary

Overview Like other business critical applications and data structures within a company’s IT
environment, SAP data is experiencing tremendous growth. This growth is one of the
difficulties facing SAP administrators today. When coupled with shrinking backup windows
due to a worldwide user base expecting a 24/7 highly available database and more
stringent SLAs, finding the time dedicated solely for backup and recovery operations
seems nearly impossible.

Traditionally, large SAP environments have not been a good fit for a client-side
deduplication backup method because of limited backup windows and matching backup
performance required to meet these windows. High CPU requirements on the production
host do not provide the performance required without the trade-off of significant negative
effects to the production-processing load.

Dell PowerProtect Data Manager featuring our new application plug-in for SAP HANA
enables SAP and backup administrators effective, flexible, and efficient backup and
recovery leveraging deduplication. The SAP HANA agent allows an application
administrator to protect and recover the SAP HANA data on the application host.
PowerProtect Data Manager integrates with the SAP HANA agent and enables central
scheduling for SAP HANA backups.

In this white paper, we will review the various features contained in this new client;
components for SAP HANA backup in PowerProtect Data Manager which are simple,
flexible, efficient, and optimized backups for your enterprise-wide SAP HANA deployment.

Audience This white paper is intended for Database Administrators (DBAs) and Backup
Administrators looking to deploy efficient backup solutions for enterprise-wide SAP HANA
business critical implementations. Knowledge of SAP HANA and its overall architecture,
including its integrated backup and recovery tools, terminology, and methods are
required.

Revisions Part number/

Date Description
revision

June 2020 H18578 Initial release

November 2020 H18578.1 Updated for version 19.4

November 2023 H18578.2 Updated for version 19.15

We value your Dell Technologies and the authors of this document welcome your feedback on this
feedback document. Contact the Dell Technologies team by email.

Author: Vinod Kumaresan

Note: For links to other documentation for this topic, see the Data Protection Info Hub.

4 Dell PowerProtect Data Manager: SAP HANA Agent Backup and Recovery
[Subject]
 Introduction

Introduction
PowerProtect Data Manager offers customers the ability to set protection policies, perform
backups and recoveries, and deduplicate workloads. PowerProtect Data Manager
provides a centralized overview of all protected workload data copies, making it easy to
track and enforce SLO compliance for backup and recovery, RPOs, and storage retention
lock. It also discovers copies sent to protection storage, catalogs, and makes protection
copies available for compliance measurement to ensure protection compliance and quality
of service.

PowerProtect Data Manager UI is a simple wizard used for managing an entire protection
life cycle, creating protection life cycle orchestration, automated protection policies, and
Service Level Agreement (SLA) compliance and actionable insights that optimize
efficiency.

This white paper shows how SAP HANA protection can be achieved using Dell
PowerProtect Data Manager with Dell storage systems as the target storage. Use
PowerProtect Data Manager with the application agent to perform the following
operations:

• Automate the configuration of the application agent backup policy and protection
storage settings.
• Create a catalog of backups generated by the application agent and monitor the
catalog data to determine if retention policies are enforced.
• Manage the life cycle of backups run by the application agent. Ensure that backups
are marked for garbage collection based on retention policy rules.
PowerProtect Data Manager does not change the way the application agent works. DBAs
create the backups and perform restores. The SAP HANA agent allows an application
administrator to protect and recover the SAP HANA data on the application host.

PowerProtect Data Manager integrates with the SAP HANA agent and enables central
scheduling for SAP HANA backups. The SAP HANA agent installation is a command-line
process whereby the user installs the required SAP HANA agent and PowerProtect Data
Manager software. PowerProtect Data Manager then sets the PowerProtect DD Series
Appliance Host, storage unit, user, and password. PowerProtect Data Manager supports
the coexistence of the SAP HANA agent and the File System agent on Linux.

Dell PowerProtect Data Manager: SAP HANA Agent Backup and Recovery 5
 Architecture

Architecture
In this section, we will explore some of the components used in the SAP HANA agent
backup solution with PowerProtect Data Manager.

Figure 1. SAP HANA Application Agent Components

SAP HANA SAP HANA architecture is a revolution in columnar database applications. It combines
System the features of in-memory computing and columnar database management system
(DBMS), a duo that tremendously enhances the speed of operation when performing real-
time analysis or running real-time applications. In-memory processing uses the system’s
RAM (main memory) to store data, instead of using disk storage. A columnar DBMS
boosts system performance and speed when working with aggregates, by reading only
the data required to satisfactorily fulfill a query, through effective compression of similar
columnar data. This technology effectively deploys this combination making it one of the
best suited tools for data warehousing applications.

SAP HANA databases consist of multiple servers, for example, name server, index
server, and preprocessor server. The databases in a SAP HANA system run different
combinations of these servers. The most important server is the index server. It contains
the data stores and the engines for processing the data, and runs in every tenant
database. A SAP HANA system consists of multiple isolated databases and may use one
host or a cluster of several hosts.

A SAP HANA system is identified by a single System ID (SID) and contains one or more
tenant databases and one system database. Databases are identified by an SID and a
database name. From an administration perspective, there is a distinction between tasks

6 Dell PowerProtect Data Manager: SAP HANA Agent Backup and Recovery
[Subject]
 Architecture

performed at system level and those performed at a database level. Database clients,
such as the SAP HANA cockpit, connect to specific databases.

Backint for SAP You can back up and recover a SAP HANA database using an SAP-certified third-party
HANA Interface tool that supports the Backint for SAP HANA interface. This is used to communicate with
a SAP HANA database. It has the following characteristics:

• Each active host in a distributed SAP HANA system may have one or more
volumes to be backed up. When Backint for SAP HANA is used to back up a
database, several communication processes are started, including one for each
volume. Backint-based data backups and log backups can be created in parallel.
• A third-party backup tool reads data to be backed up from named pipes and writes
the data in accordance with the tool configuration. For a third-party backup tool, the
only objects created in the file system are named pipes. Named pipes occupy no
space in the file system

SAP HANA SAP HANA hdbsql is a command-line tool for running commands on SAP HANA
HDBSQL databases. Using SAP HANA hdbsql, you can perform SQL statements and database
procedures, and query information about the database and database objects. SAP HANA
hdbsql is installed with the SAP HANA software. It accesses databases both on your
local computer and on remote computers.

Call SAP HANA hdbsql with the command hdbsql [options] from the following location

/usr/sap/<SID>/HDB<instance>/exe. You can perform individual commands

interactively or noninteractively. It is also possible to import commands from a file and run
them in the background.

Protection The first step in SAP HANA integration with PowerProtect Data Manager is to ensure that
Storage you have a protection storage target configured to store the backup data. You can
accomplish this by adding either a single or multiple PowerProtect DD Series
Appliance(s). You can add the protection storage from PowerProtect Data Manager UI.

PowerProtect DD Series Appliance operating system version 6.1 or later and the
PowerProtect DD Management Console (DDMC). All models of PowerProtect DD Series
Appliance are supported.

DDBMCON PowerProtect Data Manager Agent service interacts with process called ddbmcon, and it
is responsible for interacting with SAP HANA system using hdbsql query.

Dell PowerProtect Data Manager: SAP HANA Agent Backup and Recovery 7
 Architecture

To initiate a SQLite is a C library that provides a lightweight disk-based database that does not require
backup using a a separate server process and allows database access using a nonstandard variant of the
centralized SQL query language. Some applications can use SQLite for internal data storage. It is
protection used in this solution to store information about all types of backups including self-service,
policy, ddbmcon centralized, and automatic log backup for PowerProtect Data Manager, and runs in
issues a hdbsql following sequence:
command for
• Every backup request initiated by sysadmin must go through the backint process.
backup to SAP
This is so backint knows the Saveset_ID and the full path of the file that was
HANA which
written to PowerProtect DD. backint records this information in SQLite on that
triggers backup machine. It is important to note that a single backup job writes several files to
using backint PowerProtect DD so many Saveset_ID are found in a single backup.
process. During Backup_ID is responsible for grouping several Saveset_ID in to one backup job.
the discovery As a result, single backup records several rows in SQL.
process,
ddbmcon • In Multihost system, every machine has its own backint process and SQLite
queries the SAP instance. Every host must store the SQLite on shared location, so that file is
accessible from other hosts.
HANA catalog
and SQLite to
access the list
Brownfield If a customer is using another database application agent and wants to switch to the
of backups for PowerProtect Data Manager SAP HANA agent, they can make some changes in the
Support
recovery configuration files. Subsequently, all backups taken from the SAP HANA agent will be
process and valid and are automatically updated in PowerProtect Data Manager after the discovery
update the process is complete.
PowerProtect
Data Manager. To enable the PowerProtect Data Manager to discover the SAP HANA backups that were
SQLITE performed by the database application agent, you must update a specific configuration file
called brownfield.utl.

Note: In the PowerProtect Data Manager UI, ensure that the assets are visible. In the directory
/opt/dpsapps/dbappagent/saphana/brownfield, rename the
filesap_hana_brownfield_ddbda.utl as brownfield.utl.

PowerProtect • The PowerProtect Data Manager agent service is a REST API-based service that is
Data Manager installed by the application agent on the application host.
agent service • The agent service provides services and APIs for discovery, protection, restore,
instant access, and other related operations.
• PowerProtect Data Manager uses the agent service to provide integrated data
protection for the application assets.
• The PowerProtect Data Manager agent service provides important functionality for
the application agent operations with the PowerProtect Data Manager.
• The agent service is started during the agent installation by the installer. The agent
service runs in the background as a service, and you do not interact with it directly.

8 Dell PowerProtect Data Manager: SAP HANA Agent Backup and Recovery
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 Supported Configurations and Platforms

Supported Configurations and Platforms

Following table shows the different topologies supported by PowerProtect Data Manager
for SAP HANA application agent:

Classification Features PowerProtect Data

Manager Support

Single Database Container (SDC) Single node Yes

Single Database Container (SDC) Multi node Yes

Configuration Multiple Database Container (MDC) Single nodes Yes

Multiple Database Container (MDC) Multiple nodes Yes

High Isolation Multiple Database Container (MDC) Yes

SSL Support for SAP HANA SSL Connections No

Full Backup Yes

Incremental Backup Yes

Differential /Cumulative Backup Yes

Backup Snapshot Backup No

Dynamic Filters for Automatic Provisioning and Yes

Scheduling

Data and Log in Separate Storage Units No

Full Backup Recovery Yes

Full + Differential Backup Recovery Yes

Restore
Full + Incremental Backup Recovery Yes

Full + Differential + Incremental Backup Recovery Yes

Centralized Restore using RestAPI Yes

Disaster Recovery Yes

Dell PowerProtect Data Manager: SAP HANA Agent Backup and Recovery 9
 Classification Features PowerProtect Data
Manager Support

System Database Yes

Database Tenant Database Yes

Physical PowerProtect DD Yes

PowerProtect DD Support
PowerProtect DD Virtual Edition (DDVE) Yes

PowerProtect DD Cloud Tier Yes

SLES *86_64 Yes

Platform Support
Red Hat Enterprise Linux *86_64 Yes

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.1 until Red Hat Yes

Linux Versions Enterprise Linux 8.1

SUSE until SLES 15 SP1 Yes

SAP HANA 1.x until 1.0 SP12 Yes

SAP HANA Version
SAP HANA 2.X until 2.0 SP4 Yes

Clone to DD Yes
Cloning
Clone to Cloud Yes

Installation and Configuration of SAP HANA agent

Verify that the environment meets the following requirements:

• Ensure that all clocks on both the SAP HANA host and PowerProtect Data
Manager are time-synced to the local NTP server to ensure discovery of the
backups.
• Ensure that the SAP HANA host and the PowerProtect Data Manager network can
see and resolve each other.
• Ensure that port 7000 is open on the SAP HANA host.

10 Dell PowerProtect Data Manager: SAP HANA Agent Backup and Recovery
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 Installation and Configuration of SAP HANA agent

SAP HANA Follow the steps to install the SAP HANA agent:
agent
Installation 1. Download the SAP HANA agent software package to the SAP host.In the Data
Manager UI.
2. Select Agent Downloads from the System Settings menu.
3. Select the SAP HANA agent download package
(dbappagent1915_linux_x86_64.tar).
4. Download the package in the location you want to install the SAP HANA agent.
5. Extract the installer by running - gunzip * followed by tar -xvf
dbappagent1915_linux_x86_64.tar.
6. Run the installation script: ppdmHanaInstall.sh as the root user.
7. Three installation rpms are installed as part of the installation script.
Enter the PowerProtect Data Manager server IP address:ppdmHanaInstall.sh
--server=<PowerProtect_Data_Manager_server_IP_address>.
8. For upgrade, type: ppdmHanaInstall.sh –upgrade

Integrate the SAP HANA backup program (backint):

• The SAP HANA agent installation places the hdbbackint program in the
/opt/dpsapps/dbappagent/bin directory.
SAP HANA requires the program to be accessible from the
/hana/shared/<SID>/global/hdb/opt directory. You can either copy the
hdbbackint file to that directory or create a symbolic link that points from
/hana/shared/<SID>/global/hdb/opt to the executable file. For example: ln
-s /opt/dpsapps/dbappagent/bin/hdbbackint
/hana/shared/S01/global/hdb/opt/hdbbackint

Note: In a multinode environment, install the SAP HANA agent on every node. Then add and
discover the application host in PowerProtect Data Manager on each node in the SAP HANA
multinode environment.

Dell PowerProtect Data Manager: SAP HANA Agent Backup and Recovery 11
 Installation and Configuration of SAP HANA agent

Configuration Discovery
After you register an application host with PowerProtect Data Manager, you can use the
Asset Sources window to discover an application host and modify the application host
credentials. For application hosts, discovery is required if you want to schedule a backup.

Credentials You must add credentials to the SAP HANA database so that PowerProtect Data
Manager can access the database to create backups. The following points explain the
requirements for credentials:

• Credentials set at the host level supersede the credentials set at the protection
policy level.
• A SAP HANA instance can have one system database SystemDB and multiple
tenant databases. The SystemDB database and each tenant database can have its
own credentials. A tenant database can be backed up with either its own
credentials or the SystemDB credentials. Both the SystemDB database and tenant
databases support two types of credentials:
▪ SAP HANA Database credentials, for which you must specify the database
username and password.
▪ SAP HANA User key credentials, for which you must specify the user key
(created with (hdbuserstore command) and operating system username of
the SAP HANA instance.
• To create credentials, click Add to open the Add Credentials dialog box, where
you can set the authentication type as either Username/Password or User Key and
then specify the credential values. For a tenant database, you can specify the
credentials of either the SystemDB database or the tenant database itself. When
you specify the SystemDB credentials for a tenant database, select the SystemDB
check box; otherwise, clear the SystemDB check box.

12 Dell PowerProtect Data Manager: SAP HANA Agent Backup and Recovery
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 Installation and Configuration of SAP HANA agent

Protection Policy Use the PowerProtect Data Manager UI to add a protection policy to protect the SAP
HANA databases using following instructions:

• For an SAP HANA database, you can select from three types:
▪ To use PowerProtect Data Manager to manage all protection centrally, select
Centralized Protection.
▪ To use SAP HANA to create local backup protection, select Self-Service
Protection. PowerProtect Data Manager creates a protection policy and
manages extra stages.
▪ If there are SAP HANA assets within the protection policy that you plan to
exclude from data protection operations, select Exclusion.
• When you are creating protection policies for SAP HANA multinode databases,
ensure that all nodes in the multinode environment are powered on. Register each
node, one after the other, with an interval of a few minutes between each node.
Otherwise, the protection might fail.
• You cannot add assets from a single SAP HANA host in two or more protection
policies with the same PowerProtect DD Series Appliance. You must add additional
protection policies for a different PowerProtect DD.
• You can add a cloud tier schedule to a protection policy for SAP HANA centralized
and self-service backups to cloud tier. Both SAP HANA centralized and self-service
protection policies support cloud tiering. You can create the cloud tier schedule from
both primary and replication stages. Schedules have a weekly or monthly
recurrence and a retention time of 14 days or more.

Dell PowerProtect Data Manager: SAP HANA Agent Backup and Recovery 13
 SAP HANA Database Backup

Note: For more details on centralized restore of SAP HANA database, see PowerProtect Data
Manager: SAP HANA User Guide

SAP HANA Database Backup

PowerProtect Data Manager can manage and monitor data protection and replication for
SAP HANA assets through integration with the SAP HANA agent. In SAP HANA
environment, there are three backups that needs to be run. Each of these is backed up a
separate backup and it will have a backup_ID (stored in M_BACKUP_CATALOG_FILES).
SAP HANA maintains different catalog SystemDB; every TenantDB will have a separate
catalog file. Items to back up are as follows:

• Data: A data backup includes all the data (System Database, Tenant Database)
required to recover the database to a consistent state. With a data backup, only the
data is backed up and unused space in the database is not backed up. The data
area is backed up in parallel for each of the SAP HANA services. If SAP HANA is
running on multiple hosts, a data backup includes all the service-specific backup
parts for all the hosts.
• Log files: Log backup is triggered by HANA automatically and sent directly to
Protection Storage. User can control the frequency of Log backup. Frequency can
be modified using HANA Studio. This configuration is per database.

14 Dell PowerProtect Data Manager: SAP HANA Agent Backup and Recovery
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 SAP HANA Database Backup

• Catalog: SAP HANA launches two backups in Full backup command which are
performed one after the other. First, a full back up of data, and then a catalog
backup.
• PowerProtect Data Manager creates SAP HANA backups and manages remote

replication copies based on the Protection Policy (PLC). PowerProtect Data

Manager performs the backup and replication operations based on the protection
policy and governed by the SLA. SAP HANA can be backed up through:
▪ Automatic backup by the PowerProtect Data Manager Centralized Protection
policy.
▪ Manual backup by the SAP HANA Studio/SAP HANA command line and
governed by the PowerProtect Data Manager Self-Service Protection policy.
• Types of backup available with PowerProtect Data Manager SAP HANA Agent: Full
data backup, Incremental backup, and Differential backup. The SAP HANA
database server automatically performs periodic backups of the redo logs for a
database. You do not run the log backups with any backup commands as is the
case for database backups.
• SAP HANA 2.0 SPS 00 supports the user-configurable interval mode for log
backups. Interval mode enables the creation of log backups after the service-
specific timeout is reached, instead of when the log segment becomes full. A log
backup can include multiple log segments.
• Interval mode limits the number of log backups in high-transaction databases,
which reduces the impact on the databases. You can configure the interval mode
by setting the following parameter in the SAP HANA global.ini file:
log_backup_interval_mode = service
• SAP HANA 2.0 requires that the backup catalog backups and transaction log
backups be configured separately. In previous SAP HANA releases, the backup
catalog was automatically saved as part of the transaction log backups. Ensure that

Dell PowerProtect Data Manager: SAP HANA Agent Backup and Recovery 15
 SAP HANA Database Backup

both the backup catalog backups and transaction log backups are configured to use
the database application agent through the Backint interface.

• PowerProtect Data Manager automatically creates the two configuration files as

follows, where <SID> is the system ID of the SAP HANA system. These
configuration file pathnames are predetermined and cannot be changed:
▪ User configuration file:
/usr/sap/<SID>/SYS/global/ppdmconfig/<SID>_<database_name>_
data_user.utl
▪ Auto configuration file:
/usr/sap/<SID>/SYS/global/ppdmconfig/<SID>_<database_name>_d
ata_auto.utl

Centralized When PowerProtect Data Manager Administrator creates a protection policy for SAP
Protection HANA databases, the Centralized Protection option enables the PowerProtect Data
Policy Backup Manager to centrally manage the entire life cycle of data protection operations for the SAP
Workflow HANA database except the log backup that is done automatically by SAP HANA.

16 Dell PowerProtect Data Manager: SAP HANA Agent Backup and Recovery
[Subject]
 SAP HANA Database Backup

The data protection attributes are specified when the Centralized Protection policy is
created: Type, Purpose, Assets, Schedule, Retention and SLA. After the protection policy
creation is completed, the Lockbox is automatically created. The backup workflow is as
follows:

1. The backup schedule starts and triggers the Protection Policy. PowerProtect Data
Manager sends a REST API request to PowerProtect Data Manager Agent
Service.
2. PowerProtect Data Manager Agent service triggers the ddbmcon interface and
requests a backup.
3. Ddbmcon generates the hdbsql command-line shell to connect to SAP HANA Data
rea.
4. SAP HANA writes the data to pipe and provides the input file to backint process.
5. Backint process reads the data from this pipe and sends it to ddboost which
transfers te data to PowerProtect DD Series Appliance.
6. Backint gives output file to HANA along with SaveSetID.
a. SAP HANA writes SaveSetID, Source File Name, BackupID to
M_BACKUP_CATALOG_FILEStables.
b. While writing the stream to Protection Storage hdbbackintinsert SavesetPath,
BackupID and TaskIDto SQLite which will be used during the backup
discovery process.
7. When the discovery process runs PowerProtect Data Manager Agent Service will
inform PowerProtect Data Manager ADM agent about the backup status and it will
become visible for recovery in PowerProtect Data Manager UI under assets SAP
HANA agent.

Dell PowerProtect Data Manager: SAP HANA Agent Backup and Recovery 17
 SAP HANA Database Backup

Self-Service To enable Self-Service Protection, when you create the SAP HANA protection policy,
Protection select Self-Service Protection. To perform a self-service or manual backup of an SAP
Policy Backup HANA database, you can run either of the supported SAP HANA tools on the SAP HANA
Workflow database server:

SAP HANA Studio user interface

In SAP HANA Studio, you must specify the database for backup and enable the backup to
use the Backint interface. For Backup Type, you can select one of the three supported
backup types: Complete Data Backup, Differential Backup, Incremental Backup.

SAP HANA command-line interface (CLI) with the hdbsql command

To perform a database backup, you can run the appropriate hdbsql command. For
example:

hdbsql -U <user_key> "backup data using backint

('/usr/sap/<SID>/SYS/global/hdb/backint/<prefix>')"

• <user_key> is the user store key created with the SAP HANA hdbuserstore tool.
• <SID> is the system ID of the SAP HANA system.
• /usr/sap/<SID>/SYS/global/hdb/backint/ is optional in the hdbsql
command.
• <prefix> is an optional prefix for the backup name. If you specify <prefix>in the
hdbsql command, then the backup name will include the prefix,
<prefix>_databackup_#_#.

18 Dell PowerProtect Data Manager: SAP HANA Agent Backup and Recovery
[Subject]
 SAP HANA Database Backup

The backup workflow in self-service backup is as follows:

1. Backup is started by SAP HANA admin at scheduled timed using either hdbsql
CLI or SAP HANA Studio and request is sent to SAP HANA.
2. SAP HANA writes the data to pipe and give the input file to backint process.
3. The backint process reads the data from this pipe and sends it to ddboost which
transfers the data to PowerProtect DD Series Appliance.
4. The backint gives output file to HANA along with SaveSetID.
a. HANA writes SaveSetID, Source File Name, BackupID to
M_BACKUP_CATALOG_FILES tables.
b. While writing the stream to Protection Storage hdbbackint insert
SavesetPath, BackupID and TaskID to SQLite which will be used during
the backup discovery process.
5. PowerProtect Data Manager sends a request hourly to PowerProtect Data Manager
Agent service to check the backup catalog called discovery process then updates
the catalog information and sets the retention for application agent backup.

Dell PowerProtect Data Manager: SAP HANA Agent Backup and Recovery 19
 SAP HANA Parallelism

SAP HANA Parallelism

The streams usage by the storage unit during an SAP HANA backup varies, depending
on the number and type of parallel operations that are performed at a given time. You can
set the SAP HANA parameter parallel_data_backup_backint_channels to
specify the number of channels to use for the backup.

The SAP HANA agent requires one PowerProtect DD stream for each backed up pipe.
For example, if a SAP HANA scale-out system has 12 running services, then 12 streams
are required to back up the data. Starting with SAP HANA SPS 09, each service can also
back up multiple logs for each backup, as controlled by the database parameter
max_log_backup_group_size.

For a multistream backup with SAP HANA SPS 11 or later, the SAP HANA agent can use
multiple SAP HANA channels to write the backup data for each service. The SAP HANA
agent uses a separate channel to write each stream of data to the PowerProtect DD
system. To specify the number of channels to use for the backup, up to a maximum of 32
channels, you can set the SAP HANA parameter
parallel_data_backup_backint_channels. SAP HANA opens the corresponding
number of pipe files for the backup, and the agent saves each stream as a separate save
set.

For example, if the parallel_data_backup_backint_channels parameter is set to

12 on the SAP HANA database server, then 12 streams are used for the backup, which
produces 12 save sets.

A restore uses the same number of streams as the backup and ignores the
parallel_data_backup_backint_channels parameter setting.

The SAP HANA storage unit typically uses the following number of streams during a
backup and restore:

• If parallelism is set in the hdbbackint configuration file:

− Number of services x parallelism
• If parallelism is not set:
− Number of services x max_log_backup_group_size

Multi-stream To enable multi-stream SAP HANA backups for a centralized protection policy, you can
backups for SAP set the parallelism value in the PowerProtect Data Manager UI. The parallelism value
HANA protection controls the number of parallel streams that the SAP HANA agent uses to write the
policy backup data to DD.

Use the following guidelines to set the parallelism value in the PowerProtect Data
Manager UI:

• Set the parallelism to a value that is equal to or very close to the

parallel_data_backup_backint_channels parameter setting. When the two settings
are equal or almost equal, the SAP HANA agent can take full advantage of the
parallelism provided by SAP HANA.

20 Dell PowerProtect Data Manager: SAP HANA Agent Backup and Recovery
[Subject]
 SAP HANA Backup Discovery Process

• Set the parallelism to a value that is not more than the maximum number of
connections provided by PowerProtect DD.
• Set the parallelism to a value that is at least 3 less than the maximum number of
connections provided by PowerProtect DD. Reserve 3 connections for the log
backups. For example, when PowerProtect DD can provide a maximum of 10
connections, set the parallelism value to 7 (10 minus 3).

Note: To control the number of data pipes provided by SAP HANA, you can set the parameter
parallel_data_backup_backint_channels in SAP HANA Studio.

SAP HANA Backup Discovery Process

Backup discovery gathers data from SQLite and the SAP HANA catalog and uses both for
constructing Backup Discovery output. The following points explain the process:

• SAP HANA catalog has all the info for creating Backup Discovery output, except
the Saveset path. In order to capture the Saveset path, the hdbbackint process
writes the PowerProtect DD path to SQLite. Rows in SQLite and rows in the SAP
HANA catalog can be connected using Saveset timestamp.

• Both rows have a saveset timestamp. SQLite is kept on local disk. In a scale-out
environment, the database can be spread across multiple nodes and during
backup, each node will back up a few streams only. hdbbackint process writes
DD path to local SQLite only.

• During backup discovery agent must send Backup Discovery to every node for
knowing all the stream that makes up one backup. BackupID created by SAP
HANA will identify the backup that may have several streams.

• Each stream is identified using Saveset timestamp. The agent distinguishes

between Self-service and Centralized backup by looking at the TaskID stored in
SQLite table.

• The Backup discovery command needs database credentials for reading the SAP
HANA catalog. PowerProtect Data Manager sends these credentials as part of
Self-service configuration. PowerProtect Data Manager Agent has the credentials
stored in the Lockbox.

• Backup Discovery fails if there are any errors when discovering records for that
database. This is because, if the agent returns partial data, then retention is
affected.

Dell PowerProtect Data Manager: SAP HANA Agent Backup and Recovery 21
 SAP HANA Database Recovery

Figure 2.

SAP HANA Database Recovery

Centralized With PowerProtect Data Manager you can perform both a centralized and self-service
restores of SAP restore of a SAP HANA database.
HANA databases
The centralized restore functionality in the PowerProtect Data Manager UI allows you to
restore a SAP HANA backup copy, while the asset is part of a PowerProtect Data
Manager policy.

The SAP HANA centralized restore is applicable for both stand-alone database and multi-
node database environments.

With SAP HANA centralized restore functionality, you can restore to:

• Recent state - Restore the database as close as possible to the current time, using
the selected full backup
• Use a specific backup - Restore the database using the selected full backup
• Point in time - Restore the database to the specified point in time if possible, using
the selected full backup
Restoring a full backup copy can be performed either on the original SAP HANA host
location or an alternate host or instance location.

• Restore to Original: Restore and overwrite the original database.

• Restore to Alternate: Restore to an alternate database on either the original host
or an alternate host.
For centralized restores to an alternate host, ensure that the alternate host is a SAP
HANA host that is a discovered asset of PowerProtect Data Manager.

During the centralized restore to an alternate host, if the alternate host is not in the list of
available hosts, ensure that the Microsoft application agent is installed and configured on

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 SAP HANA Database Recovery

the alternate host. The SAP HANA host must be registered to the same PowerProtect
Data Manager server.

The PowerProtect Data Manager applies the following concurrency rules for jobs that are
associated with a single database centralized restore, including any backup, restore, and
manual agent installation jobs that you run on the same host:

• If an asset backup is in progress, the SAP HANA restore against the same asset is
queued.
• If the SAP HANA restore of an asset is in progress, the backup of the same asset is
queued.
You can perform a centralized restore of a full, differential, or cumulative backup of a SAP
HANA stand-alone or multi-node database in the PowerProtect Data Manager UI.

From PowerProtect Data Manager UI, navigate to Restore > Assets and select the SAP
HANA tab. The Restore window displays all the databases that are available for restore.
You can select the check box next to the database and click Restore.

On the Copy Selection page, select the backup copy that you want to restore and click
Next.

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 SAP HANA Database Recovery

On the Location page, select one of the following options and click Next:

• Restore to Original: Restores and overwrites the selected database.

Note: You can restore a stand-alone database to an original database location.

• Restore to Alternate: Restores the selected database to an alternate database on

the original or different SAP HANA database.
To restore to an alternate database, select the alternate database from the database list.

Note:
1.The target SAP HANA host that is considered for the alternate host recovery scenario must be

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 SAP HANA Database Recovery

registered to the same PowerProtect Data Manager server as that of the source SAP HANA host.
2. The SAP HANA instance version that is installed on the target host should be the same or
higher as compared to the source host database.
3. The name of the SAP HANA instance that is installed on source and target systems must be
different to proceed with restore to an alternate location.
4. An SYSTEMDB of the source host must be restored to the SYSTEMDB of the target host.
5. A TENANT DB of the source host can be restored on to any TENANT DB of the same source
system or the target System.

The source or the target asset that has the backup copy must always be protected with a
protection policy to perform a centralized restore of that copy.

On the Configuration page, select any of the following options, and then click Next:

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 SAP HANA Database Recovery

On the Summary page, review the Copy Selection, Location, and Configuration
information to ensure that the restore details are correct and click Restore.

The restore operation starts, select Jobs > Protection Jobs to monitor the restore job.

The following figure shows a successful restore job for SAP HANA database with job
details.

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 SAP HANA Database Recovery

For more details on centralized restore of SAP HANA database, see PowerProtect Data
Manager: SAP HANA User Guide.

Self-Service You can perform database restores directly to the SAP HANA application host by using the
restore of SAP SAP HANA agent.
HANA databases
To perform a restore and recovery of an SAP HANA database, you can run either of the
supported SAP HANA tools on the SAP HANA database server:

• SAP HANA Studio user interface (recommended method)

• SAP HANA command-line interface (CLI) using an SQL command
The following topics provide details about the restore and recovery procedures with these
supported SAP HANA tools. The SAP HANA documentation provides more information
about the SAP HANA restore and recovery tools.

Note: When you restore a SAP HANA backup that was performed by the database
application agent (brownfield recovery) the restore must use the same UTL file that was
originally used for the backup. Before you start the restore, run the SAP HANA Studio
user interface and set data_backup_parameter_file,
log_backup_parameter_file, and catalog_backup_parameter_file to all point
to the UTL file that was used for the backup.

For Greenfield recovery - In SAP Hana client, go to path

/usr/sap/sid/sys/global/ppdmconfig to set the Boolean variable
PPDM_Managed=True inside file sid_dbname_data_user.utl

To recover a SAP HANA database, the database must be shut down. During recovery,
the database cannot be accessed by end users or applications. It may be necessary to
recover the SAP HANA database in the following situations:

• A disk in the data area is unusable.

• A disk in the log area is unusable.

Dell PowerProtect Data Manager: SAP HANA Agent Backup and Recovery 27
 SAP HANA Database Recovery

• Because of a logical error, the database needs to be reset to its state at a point in
time.
• You want to create a copy of the database.
There are several different recovery types:

• Most Recent State: Used for recovering the database to the time as close as
possible to the current time. For this recovery, the data backup and log backup must
be available since last data backup and log area are required to perform the above
type of recovery
• Point in Time: Used for recovering the database to the specific point in time. For
this recovery, the data backup and log backup must be available since last data
backup and log area are required to perform the above type of recovery
• Specific Data Backup: Used for recovering the database to a specified data
backup. Specific data backup is required for the above type of recovery option.
• Specific Log Position: This recovery type is an advanced option that can be used
in exceptional cases where a previous recovery failed.
Performing a Restore using SAP HANA Studio
Follow the steps below for restore:

1. Start SAP HANA Studio.

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 SAP HANA Database Recovery

2. In the recovery user interface, go to the Specify Recovery Type page.

b) Select one of the following types of recovery for the required SID:
− Recover the database to its most recent state—Recovers the database
as close as possible to the current time.
− Recover the database to the following point in time—Recovers the
database to a specific point-in-time.
− Recover the database to a specific data backup—Restores only the
specified data backup.
c) In an exceptional case when a previous recovery has failed, click Advanced and
then select Recover the database to the following log position.
d) Click Next.
1. On the Locate Log Backups page, specify the locations of the log backup files to use
to perform recovery.

Dell PowerProtect Data Manager: SAP HANA Agent Backup and Recovery 29
 SAP HANA Database Recovery

The backup locations for the single database containers and the multitenant database
containers are as follows:

• Single database container- /usr/sap/<SID>/SYS/global/hdb/backint/

• Multitenant database container -
/usr/sap/<SID>/SYS/global/hdb/backint/SYSTEMDB
• Multitenant database container (Tenant database) -
/usr/sap/<SID>/SYS/global/hdb/backint/DB_<tenantDB>

2. On the Select Data Backup page, select the database backup for either restore or
recovery.

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 SAP HANA Database Recovery

To check the availability of a backup, select the backup in the table, and then click Check
Availability. The Available column in the table displays either a green icon if the backup
is available or a red icon if the backup is not available.

3. On the Other Settings page, select the required options, and then click Next.

4. On the Review Recovery Settings page, review the information, and then click Finish.

Dell PowerProtect Data Manager: SAP HANA Agent Backup and Recovery 31
 SAP HANA Database Recovery

5. The recovery progress appears for each service that includes the name server, the index
server, and the statistics server.

6. A confirmation message appears when the recovery completes.

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 SAP HANA Database Recovery

Performing alternate host recovery

To enable an alternate host recovery, copy the required user configuration file and auto
configuration file from the source machine to the destination machine. Modify
configuration files

<SID>_<database_name>_data_user.utl and
<SID>_<database_name>_data_auto.utl.

You must replicate the directory path of the configuration files on the destination machine,
including the same permissions, and then copy the user and auto configuration files from
the source machine to the directory path. For example, if the source instance is SID, then
create the following path on the destination machine:

/usr/sap/SID/SYS/global/ppdmconfig

When the configuration files are in place, the steps for performing the alternate host
recovery are the same as the steps for restoring the database to the same host.

Performing a Restore using the SAP HANA CLI

To perform a recovery of an SAP HANA backup, starting with SAP HANA SPS 07, you can
use an SQL command.

To run the recovery SQL command, you must be logged in to the SAP HANA system as
the operating system user <SID>adm. In a scale-out multinode environment, you must
run the command from the active node.

The recovery command must first include the HDBSettings.sh and recoverSys.py
scripts in that order. The HDBSettings.sh script sets the environment for recovery. The
recoverSys.py script processes the recovery SQL command and performs the
database recovery. The following example command performs a recovery of an SAP
HANA backup:

Dell PowerProtect Data Manager: SAP HANA Agent Backup and Recovery 33
 Cloud Tiering, Replication, and Backup Deletion

./HDBSettings.sh recoverSys.py --command="recover database until

timestamp '2014-02-28 00:00:00' using data
path('/usr/sap/AAA/SYS/global/hdb/backint/') using log
path('/usr/sap/AAA/SYS/global/hdb/backint/') using BACKUP_ID
1593520382350" --wait

You must include the --wait option for proper completion of the recoverSys.py script.

The PowerProtect Data Manager: SAP HANA User Guide provides details about the SQL
command syntax of the recovery command.

To recover a SAP HANA MDC database with the SAP HANA CLI, you must log in to the
SAP HANA SystemDB database and run the required recover command. For example,
run the following command to recover the database application agent backup of an SAP
HANA MDC database:

RECOVER DATABASE FOR DB0 UNTIL TIMESTAMP '2015-08-29 01:25:25'

USING DATA

PATH('/usr/sap/AAA/SYS/global/hdb/backint/DB_DB0/') USING LOG PATH

('/usr/sap/AAA/HDB00/backup/log/DB_DB0') USING BACKUP_ID
1440811502099 CHECK ACCESS USING BACKINT

Restrictions for Recovery:

• A SAP HANA database cannot be recovered to a SAP HANA database with a lower
software version. The SAP HANA database software version used for the recovery
must always be the same version or higher than the SAP HANA database used to
create the backup.
• There can be any number of hosts in the target system, if the number and type of
services is identical in both the source and the target system.
• With SAP HANA multitenant database containers, recovery using snapshots is not
supported yet. Tenant databases can be recovered by the relevant system
database only.

Note: For more details on recovery check, see PowerProtect Data Manager: SAP HANA User
Guide

Cloud Tiering, Replication, and Backup Deletion

Cloud Tiering The PowerProtect Data Manager cloud tier feature works in tandem with the PowerProtect
DD Cloud Tier feature to move PowerProtect Data Manager backups from PowerProtect
DD systems to the cloud. This provides long- term storage of PowerProtect Data Manager
backups by seamlessly and securely tiering data to the cloud.

• From the PowerProtect Data Manager UI, configure Cloud Tier to move PowerProtect
Data Manager backups from PowerProtect DD to the cloud, and perform seamless
recovery of these backups.

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 Cloud Tiering, Replication, and Backup Deletion

• PowerProtect DD cloud storage units must be preconfigured on the PowerProtect DD

system before they are configured for cloud tier in the PowerProtect Data Manager UI.
The PowerProtect DD Operating System Administration Guide provides further
information.

• Both SAP HANA centralized and self-service protection policies support cloud tiering.
You can create the cloud tier schedule from both primary and replication stages.
Schedules have a weekly or monthly recurrence and a retention time of 14 days or
greater.

• The restore operations of backups that have been tiered to the cloud are identical to
normal restore operations. The PowerProtect Data Manager recalls a copy of the
backup from the cloud to the local (active) tier of the PowerProtect DD Series
Appliance, and then performs a restore of the backup from the active tier to the client.
The status appears as Cloud. After the restore, the backup copy is removed from
cloud tier, and is stored on the active tier of the PowerProtect DD Series Appliance for
10 days, after which it is deleted.

Replication PowerProtect Data Manager can manage and monitor data protection and replication for
SAP HANA assets through integration with the SAP HANA agent. Replication can be
configured while creating the protection policy for self-service or centralized backup and
retention can be set for replicated data. To enable replication, ensure that you add a
protection storage as the replication location.

Dell PowerProtect Data Manager: SAP HANA Agent Backup and Recovery 35
 Cloud Tiering, Replication, and Backup Deletion

Backup Deletion In addition to deleting backups upon expiration of the retention period, PowerProtect Data
Manager enables you to manually delete backup copies from the PowerProtect DD Series
Appliance.

Starting with PowerProtect Data Manager version 19.6, you can perform a backup copy
deletion that deletes only a specified part of a backup copy chain, without impacting the
ability to restore other backup copies in the chain. When you select a specific backup
copy for deletion, only that backup copy and the backup copies that depend on the
selected backup copy are deleted:

• When you select to delete a full backup copy, any other backup copies in the chain
that depend on the full backup copy are also deleted.
• When you select to delete an incremental backup copy, any incremental backup
copies that depend on the selected incremental backup copy are also deleted. The
whole backup chain is not deleted.
• When you select to delete a differential backup copy, any incremental backup
copies that depend on the selected differential backup copy are also deleted. The
whole backup chain is not deleted.
• When you select to delete a log backup copy, any other log backup copies that
depend on the selected log backup copy are also deleted. The whole backup chain
is not deleted.

Note: You can delete a full backup copy only if an archive log exists and the previous full backup
copy is available. If you delete a full backup of an incomplete chain, you cannot restore the whole
chain until you perform the next full backup. Deletion of the last remaining full backup from
PowerProtect DD does not delete the entry for that backup in the SAP HANA catalog. This
behavior applies to both scheduled deletion and manual deletion operations. Deletion of log
backups might affect a point-in-time restore that depends on those log backups.

• Regarding expired copy deletion for a backup chain, the full backup expires last.
The other incremental, differential, and log backups can be expired and deleted
earlier.

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 Disaster Recovery

Disaster Recovery
For a comprehensive disaster recovery plan, you must ensure that you can reconstruct
the computing environment and all SAP HANA server files associated with maintaining
data on the application host. To prepare for a disaster recovery of the SAP HANA server
host, use the following guidelines:

Maintain accurate and complete records of the network and system configurations. Keep
all the original software media and the following items in a safe location:

• Original operating system media and patches

• Device drivers and device names
• File system configuration
• IP addresses and hostnames
To ensure the recovery of customer-specific settings of the database, back up the SAP
HANA configuration files by following the PowerProtect Data Manager: SAP HANA User
Guide . These files are not backed up during database backups. Ensure that you have a
current full backup of the database and all the redo logs as required for a recovery of the
database to the current time.

Perform the following tasks for a disaster recovery procedure:

1. Set up the SAP HANA database system to the same configuration as when the data
was backed up.
2. Set up the same SAP HANA configuration file for the recovery, as was used to
perform backup.
Set the CLIENT parameter in the SAP HANA configuration file to the hostname of
the host, to which the data was backed up.
3. Re-create the lockbox on the database host.
4. Ensure that all the required database and log backup images are available.
5. To recover the database and redo logs, run SAP HANA Studio.

Note: For more details, see PowerProtect Data Manager: SAP HANA User Guide

Recovering the You can perform self-service restores of application assets by using a file system or
PowerProtect application agent, regardless of the state of the agent service or PowerProtect Data
Data Manager Manager. The information in this section describes how to bring the agent service to an
Agent service operational state to continue if a disaster occurs and the agent service datastore is lost.
from a disaster
The agent service periodically creates a backup of its datastore in the
<agent_service_installation_location>/dbs/v1/backups repository. If the
backups are lost, the agent service can still start. The agent service discovers all the
application systems, assets, and backup copies on the system again, and notifies
PowerProtect Data Manager. Depending on when the failure occurred, the agent service
might not be able to find older backup copies for some asset types. As a result, the

Dell PowerProtect Data Manager: SAP HANA Agent Backup and Recovery 37
 Disaster Recovery

centralized deletion operations might fail when cleaning up the database vendor catalog
or removing older backups that are taken before the asset is added to PowerProtect Data
Manager.

By default, the agent service backs up consistent copies of its datastore files to the local
disk every hour and keeps the copies for 7 days. Each time the agent service backs up
the contents of the datastore, it creates a subdirectory under the
<agent_service_installation_location>/dbs/v1/backups repository. The
subdirectories are named after the time the operation occurred, in the format YYYY-MM-
DD_HHMM-SS_epochTime.

By default, the datastore repository is on the local disk. To ensure that the agent service
datastore and its local backups are not lost, it is recommended that you back up the
datastore through file system backups. You can also change the datastore backup
location to a different location that is not local to the system. To change the datastore
backup location, update the values in the config.yml file.

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 References

References

Dell The Data Protection Info Hub provides expertise to ensure customer success with Dell
Technologies Technologies data protection products.
documentation
Dell.com/support is focused on meeting customer needs with proven services and
support.

PowerProtect Data Manager Info Hub: Product Documents and Information includes links
to the Data Manager user guides:
• PowerProtect Data Manager: SAP HANA User Guide
• PowerProtect Data Manager: Administration and User Guide
Access to these documents depends on your login credentials. If you do not have access
to a document, contact your Dell Technologies representative.

Dell PowerProtect Data Manager: SAP HANA Agent Backup and Recovery 39