Designing and implementing a data protection solution for SAP environments can be challenging. A typical SAP landscape will experience 50 to 60 percent data growth every year. Also, additional SAP applications are deployed occasionally to support business processes. Data growth and additional SAP systems in the landscape affect the backup windows, recovery times, and the underlying infrastructure required for backup and recovery.

Each of an SAP system’s multiple components, including the operating system, SAP application server, database instance, and data files, require different data protection techniques. For example, to protect an SAP application, binary file systems can be protected using a backup agent or storage replication using an open file backup option. In the case of protecting a database, vendors provide APIs or interfaces to a database that can freeze and thaw input and output (I/O) before and after backup for data consistency that works with certified third-party tools and storage technologies. There are also advanced technologies available for continuous (always on) data replication that provide a more granular point in recovery in a very short time and with very little data loss.

SAP non-database file systems contain various files necessary for SAP system operation. These include application binaries or executables, transport files, diagnostic agent scripts, and profiles. The protection of the SAP database also includes protecting the database binaries and configuration files and protecting data stored in the data files.

When you consider that all these components of an SAP system can be deployed on a combination of various infrastructure platforms (including virtual infrastructure platforms), operating systems, and database systems; designing, deploying, and maintaining an optimal data protection solution can be even more challenging.

To design and deploy an optimal SAP data protection solution, you first need to understand the business requirements and then develop a solution integrating technologies and tools. Available tools include those provided by SAP, database systems, infrastructure vendors, and third-party tool vendors.

Understanding the Requirements

Before starting a design of a data protection solution for your SAP application landscape, it is important to analyze and understand the business, technical, and architectural requirements.

Most important aspects of the data protection solution design involve a service level agreement (SLA) with the user community, a recovery point objective (RPO), and a recovery time objective (RTO) for business continuity. The data protection solution is critical to system availability as well as business continuity in case of a disaster. I now discuss the RPO and other technical aspects of data protection.

SLAs

The data protection solution should support the local high-availability solution and should not adversely affect SLAs.

RTOs

An RTO is the time an SAP system can be unavailable without negatively affecting business. An RTO includes data recovery, application recovery, and application testing before system release to customer (i.e., actual recovery time is a subset of RTO). The solution should support recovery time as required for business continuity.

RPOs

An RPO defines acceptable data loss during the recovery of a component. This is a key component of business continuity. The RPO requirements can drive the complexity and cost of the data protection solution. A general rule of thumb is the lower the RTO, the higher the cost and complexity.

Backup Retention Policies

Compliance and internal policies define how long the backed-up data needs to be retained. There also will be policies for the location of data retention (onsite and offsite). These requirements have an impact on the design. Design should address these requirements and should meet RTO and RPO targets.

Data and Backup Volume Growth

The growth in data volume is another key consideration for the design. The data growth can challenge the performance, availability, and cost of maintaining an SAP environment. The data protection solution should be scalable to absorb and ensure data protection and recoverability. More SAP systems added to the SAP landscape also add to backup volume growth.

Application and Infrastructure Components of an SAP System

As mentioned earlier, SAP applications consist of various system components. These components can be deployed on a combination of various infrastructure platforms (physical and virtual infrastructure platforms), operating systems (various flavors of Unix, Windows, and proprietary), and database systems (Oracle, Microsoft SQL, Sybase, DB2). These factors affect the tools and technology that can be used in the design.

Design Considerations

When you are designing an SAP data protection solution it is important to select the right tools and technologies for addressing the above requirements. The following technology and tools considerations are a reference for the design.

SAP Tools for Data Protection

SAP provides a limited set of tools for data protection. SAP-provided tools for backup and recovery are not consistent mechanisms across various database platforms, meaning SAP-provided tools are specific to some database platforms and are not supported on all database platforms.

BRTools by SAP

BRTools, provided by SAP, is a suite of programs and utilities for backup, recovery, and administration for the Oracle database platform. It can also be used for many other Oracle database reorganization tasks. The BRTools suite includes the following key components and functionalities:

• BRBACKUP: Backs up data files, control files, and online redo log files of the database.
• BRRECOVER: Recovers database files and restores profiles and log files
• BRARCHIVE: Backs up offline redo log files
• BRRESTORE: Restores data files, control files, and redo log files
• BRSPACE: Manages the database instance, space, and segments (i.e., tables and indexes)
• BRCONNECT: Performs database administration tasks such as statistics updates, checks database system, adapts next extents, and cleans up logs and DBA tables. Functions as a help tool to monitor the database during a backup.
• BRGUI: Functions as a Java-based GUI, working as the front-end display program for BR*Tools
• BACKINT: BACKINT is an interface program for communicating between the SAP database and external backup and restore tools. BACKINT is generally implemented and sold by the vendor of the external backup and recovery tool, but SAP is responsible for defining BACKINT specifications and guarantees the functionality of BRTools. BACKINT supports Oracle, MaxDB, and HANA databases.
• BACKINT for Oracle: BACKINT for Oracle provides integration for external backup tools to SAP BRTools for backup and recovery of Oracle database and files.
• BACKINT for MaxDB: BACKINT for MaxDB provides integration for external backup tools to the MaxDB Database Manager database tool for backup and recovery of the MaxDB database.
• BACKINT for HANA: BACKINT for SAP HANA provides integration for third-party tools for SAP HANA backup and recovery. The SAP-certified tools with BACKINT for HANA transfer backups via pipe from the SAP HANA database to the third-party backup agent. The backup agent runs on the SAP HANA database server and communicates with the remote third-party backup server.

Third-Party Backup and Restore Tools

Backup and recovery of SAP system components not supported directly by BRTOOLS and BACKINT can be protected using third-party backup tools. These tools can enhance the capabilities of SAP-provided tools as well as provide backup and recovery for SAP platforms not supported by BRTOOLS and BACKINT.

Even though SAP-provided tools have good integration to SAP applications and certain databases, their infrastructure integration capabilities are limited. The third-party backup and recovery tools provide broader and tighter integration to SAP, database infrastructure technologies, and components.

SAP certifies most of these solutions and provides high-level guidelines for implementation. Careful attention is required to select the tools that can integrate with the database technology as well as the infrastructure. If you are selecting a third-party tool for SAP data protection, the following items need to be considered:

• Integration with SAP backup and recovery tools
• Capability for open file backup (i.e., the ability to back up a file that is open or in use by an application)
• Integration with database operations management tools and  "Freeze and Thaw" I/O operations for consistent backup
• Integration with storage subsystem technologies such as mirroring and cloning
• Ability to support granular data recovery through integration with continuous data replication
• Ability to support the above functionalities in physical, virtual, and cloud infrastructures

Continuous (Always On) Data Protection

Various enterprise backup tools and storage vendors provide replication of the data locally and to a remote site for a fast point-in-time recovery with minimum data loss. Various replication technologies exist:

• Software agent-based replication: A replication agent residing in each server monitors I/O through the storage and replicates the recorded changes to remote or local targets. This type of replication consumes resources of the server in which it resides.
• Appliance based: A software or hardware appliance that monitors the I/O of protected servers in a storage subsystem and replicates the recorded changes to remote or local targets. This kind of replication is generally storage subsystem agnostic and does not consume any resources from the server it is protecting.
• Storage hardware based: This is more of a proprietary solution provided by vendors that mostly supports their storage subsystems. These systems provide remote and local data replication and protection but are generally more expensive and complex than appliance-based or software agent-based replication.
• Hypervisor based: A hypervisor-based data replication is a recent development in data replication in virtual infrastructures. The replication capabilities are built or can be deployed into the hypervisor (i.e., a virtual machine monitor). A software appliance monitors I/O of protected servers in a virtual infrastructure and replicates the recorded changes to a remote or local target. This kind of replication also is storage subsystem agnostic and consumes minimal resources from the virtual infrastructure it is protecting.

Data Mirroring or Cloning of Data

Various enterprise storage vendors provide storage-based mirroring or cloning of data for backup. This provides a mechanism to back up SAP systems’ data without using any resources from SAP systems, thus not impacting the performance. (Even though vendors have different meanings when referring to clones, I use the term clone to refer to a full independent copy of data on separate storage.) In this scenario the cloned data is backed up to media from a back-up server using supported SAP or third-party back-up tools. This combined with continuous data protection provides a more complete solution with granular recovery, without affecting the performance or availability of SAP systems.

Data De-duplication Tools

SAP does not provide any data de-duplication technology or tools. De-duplication solutions are generally available from back-up tool vendors as well as independent software providers, and they can be integrated with enterprise backup solutions. Backup with a de-duplication solution addresses the issue of data growth and back-up window concerns by reducing the back-up volume. This accelerates backup and restore tasks and reduces the backup storage and media cost.

Rajeev Menon

Rajeev Menon is vice president, SAP practice, at Wharfedale Technologies Inc. He is primarily responsible for the development and growth of the division. An enterprise technical architect by profession, Rajeev also provides leadership to a talented team of infrastructure architects to design and build complex SAP landscapes based on physical, converged, and cloud infrastructure platforms.

You may contact the author at Rajeev.Menon@wftus.com.

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