Backup (RK) of data of IBM SAP HANA by means of IBM Tivoli Storage Manager

What is IBM SAP HANA

SAP HANA - High Performance Analytic Appliance. It is a modern platform for business applications and real-time analytics with in-memory queries.

IBM has prepared a balanced platform for solving problems implemented by SAP using In-memory computing technology. The IBM SAP HANA complex consists of computational blocks that are flexibly scaled and contain GPFS software — a high-performance file system with disk sharing that provides high fault tolerance.

How is SAP HANA backup organized by standard tools?

Backup is used to protect data from errors when working with disks.

SAP HANA backup includes:

• RC for file system (external mounted drives)
• RK containing a replica of data from the ERP, simulation data
• RC is carried out using the “SAP in-memory computing studio” or using SQL scripts via the command line
• For RK configuration files, they are manually copied to another storage device.
• RK log for SAP HANA version 1.0 is not available

Calculation of space on disks for the Republic of Kazakhstan is based on the used RAM for SAP HANA + 10-50% reserve. Only used space will be reserved.
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Consider implementing a backup system for SAP HANA with a volume of 3.5 TB

As shown in Figure 1, the SAP HANA complex in question consists of 8 nodes. There are 7 productive nodes, one of which is allocated as a master node, and the 8th Standby node for implementing the high availability function within a single cluster.

Figure 1 - SAP HANA Cluster



It should be noted that the IBM SAP HANA solution was built using the GPRS cluster, and does not require maintenance and the availability of a disk array for the operation of the complex itself.

The master installs the Tivoli Storage Manager and Tivoli Storage manager for SAN backup client, it is also recommended to install them on the Standby node to eliminate the single point of failure.

At the initial stage, the data is uploaded by means of HANA Data Studio to a file system outside the SAP HANA cluster, the implementation of this feature is described in the SAP documentation.

For the organization of long-term storage of backup and archive copies, we connect a disk system to the IBM SAP HANA complex. As a result, using DataStudio on disk storage we get “flat” files for further copying with Tivoli tools.

The backup client collects data from the disk system and initiates data writing to the tape. To reduce the load from the productive server from the backup process, it is proposed to use the Lan-Free client. For this purpose, FC adapters have been added to the master node and standby cluster node. The IBM Storwize V7000 disk system was proposed as a disk system that can satisfy customer requirements for the volumes of stored data and ensure high access speed.

Solution components:

• Tape library
• Disk System - Storwize V7000
• Backup server
• SAN switches
• Software - Tivoli Storage manager Extended Edition
• Software - Tivoli Storage manager for SAN

Calculation example

Consider a system implementation with the following requirements:

• The size of the productive base - 3.5 TB
• Valid backup window - 5 hours
• Number of daily copies - 1
• Daily copies are kept for 90 days.
• Keep monthly copies for a year.
• RPO - 24 hours
• RTO - 5 hours

Perform a calculation of the amount of data in the planned storage according to the requirements.
The size of the set of files for a single HANA node is 512GB x 1.5 = 750GB (documentation for SAP HANA is a volume increase ratio with RK from 10% to 50%).



We will calculate the tape library with the speed requirements



Total with the initial requirements
The volume of data RK per year for storage on tapes - 617 TB
Number of tapes - 412 LTO5 cartridges
The number of drives in the library is at least 4

Figure 2 - Switching SAP HANA cluster for implementing Lan-Free Backup

1. Network for connecting users to the application (SAP HANA Client Network) - 1 Gb Ethernet - 2 Ports per server
2. Network for organizing a GPFS cluster - 10 Gb Ethernet - 2 Ports per server
3. Network for data replication (SAP Replication) –1 Gb Ethernet 2 Port in each node
4. HANA connectivity network to Storwize - 8GB FC 2 ports per master and standby nodes
5. Network connection to the tape library for 2 FC ports for master and standby nodes
6. Network to manage servers (IMM net) equipment management - 1 Gb Ethernet - 1 Port per server
7. High-speed network for data exchange between SAP HANA nodes at the application level (SAP HANA net) - 10 Gb Ethernet - 2 Ports per server
8. SAP application management net (SAP Appliance Management). 1GB Ethernet monitoring system

Conclusion

The developed solution will allow the company to implement the requirement for storing backup and archival copies of data on tape media, thereby ensuring their long-term and cost-effective storage (in terms of cost for 1TB of stored data), and implementing various data storage policies in accordance with legal and industry requirements .

The proposed system allows you to integrate SAP HANA data into a centralized backup system based on IBM Tivoli Storage manager.

In the version of IBM Tivoli Storage Manager for ERP 6.4 announced support for SAP HANA.