Describes the full, delta backups, incremental, differential, log, and catalog backups methods supported for protecting SAP HANA databases
SAP HANA supports the following backup types:
Full backup
A full backup is a type of data backup that involves copying all data in the SAP HANA database to a backup location. This includes both the data and log volumes, as well as the configuration and system files.
This type of backup is typically used as a baseline backup for recovery, as it is a complete SAP HANA database backup. This might be done as part of a regular backup routine or before making significant changes to the system, such as applying updates or upgrades.
You will typically use the SAP HANA Cockpit, Studio, or HDBSQL to perform a full backup in SAP HANA. The backup process can be automated using scripts or scheduled using the backup scheduler. It is important to set the target as Backint so that your backups are stored at Druva Cloud
Some of the key advantages of full backups are as follows:
Integrity checks at the block level
Integrated into existing data center infrastructure
Backups are immediately available for recovery
Delta backup
Delta backups in SAP HANA contain only the data that has been modified since the previous full data backup or the most recent delta backup.
Delta backups enable the reduction of the backup size compared to full data backups, resulting in faster backup creation times. Additionally, a database recovery using delta backups is usually faster than one using log backups.
With delta backups, only the modified data needs to be recovered, whereas with log backups, each log entry must be processed individually before it is restored. Recovering numerous log backups generally requires more CPU resources than restoring a few delta backups.
Differential backup
A differential backup includes the data that has been modified since the previous full data backup.
Each differential backup contains more data than the previous one, including all changes made since the last full data backup.
If you rely on differential backups for recovery, only two backups are required: one full and one differential backup.
Incremental backup
An incremental backup contains the data modified since the previous full data backup or the most recent delta backup. If the data has not been altered, it is not included in multiple backups, making incremental backups the smallest type.
If you rely on incremental backups for recovery, the following backups are required to recover the database in SAP HANA:
A full data backup that serves as the foundation for the incremental backups
Each incremental backup is created since that full data backup.
Log backup
A log backup is a backup of the transaction log, which contains all the changes made to the database since the last backup. This type of backup ensures that all transactions are captured in the backup and can be used for point-in-time recovery.
Catalog backup
A catalog backup includes metadata about the SAP HANA system, such as database configuration, system information, user information, and privileges.
The catalog backup is crucial for disaster recovery and system replication. It enables the reconstruction of the SAP HANA system's administrative database in case of a system failure or data loss.
It is essential to perform regular catalog backups as it enables the reconstruction of the SAP HANA system's administrative database in case of a system failure or data loss.