Disaster Recovery for SAP ECC 6.0 from an ONLINE backup

[Former Member]

Hi all,

We are testing our backup strategy in the case of a Complete loss of the

system, possibly including hardware.

Our actual strategy is to do an ONLINE Backup each day from monday to

saturday,the database is in archive mode. We never take an OFFLINE backup

of the productive system.

To do the test we have a testing server with similar hardware features as

the Production server.

We are using the SAP Note 96848 - Disaster recovery for SAP R/3 on

ORACLE. If you see the point 2 it explains the following:

2.) Installation of the R/3 System

The installation of SAP software contains the software installation of

the database. The initial SAP database should be created again but the

SAP data should not be loaded.

Install the SAP system with the Oracle-specific system copy method, which

is based on backup/restore. This method is described in the system copy

guide for your Product/Release. Refer to Note 659509 for products that

are based on Web AS.

So you have to install the system with the Oracle-specific system copy

method, which is based on backup/restore described in the system copy guide.

Them we looked at the system copy guide (System Copy for SAP Systems

Based on SAP NetWeaver 2004s SR2 ABAP) on page 27 (4.1.1 Oracle-Specific

Procedure). Where you can see the following prerequisite:

- The Backup must be done OFFLINE.

Questions:

Since we don't have OFFLINE backups of the system only ONLINE backups. That means that in case of Disaster (complete loss of the system, possibly including hardware) we can't restore our system? So is a MUST or MANDATORY to always take an OFFLINE backup of the system a least one a month?

We urgently need to clarify this point. To chance our backup strategy.

Thanks a lot for your help.

Best Regards,

Erick ILarraza

[lakshminarayanan_m · Accepted solution]

Hi,

As per your message concern, No offline backup is not must to take for production system.

If you get downtime , avail that time to take offline backup.

As per the note concern, Restore from online backup is verywell possible to bring our system back.

But keep in mind we have to move the archive logs(redo logs) to other system or central repository. So that only we can recover the system to latest status.

Eg: ( Your prodction system craches by afternoon around 2pm, and you are taken the backup morning 11am. So there is gap between 11 to 2pm (3hrs) . If you moved the arch to other system ie last arch moved at 1.55pm to other system. )

Now you can restore the online back which took at 11am and recover the database by applying the arch log(redo logs) upto 1.55pm.

So my conculsion is online backup itself very safe for restore or recovery.

Regards

MLN

Edited by: Lakshminarayanan M on Oct 24, 2008 6:09 AM

[lakshminarayanan_m]

Hi Erick,

You pls dont confuse with system copy and restore . System copy is differeent then D R.

If your want to know more details abt System copy means then close this message and raise another messsage on system copy.

Regards

MLN/

[former_member204746]

online backup is sufficient.. .as long as you also backup offline redologs genetared during online backup.

is using brbackup, I highly recommend using option online_cons. this makes your online backup self-sufficient because all files you need to recover are in it.

This is what I do and it works great.

[Former Member]

Hi Eric, Lakshminarayanan

I understand that in case of a DB fails, for example if you loss a datafile, or if somebody deletes a table you can use the ONLINE backup.

On the other hand, if you loss ALL your system (all harware, disk, server, C:\,D:\,E:\...Z:\) the only SAP documentation that we found is the SAP Note 96848 - Disaster recovery for SAP R/3 on ORACLE.

This note explain the procedure to restore your system, on point 2 you have to do the following:

2.) Installation of the R/3 System

The installation of SAP software contains the software installation of the database. The initial SAP database should be created again but the SAP data should not be loaded.

Install the SAP system with the Oracle-specific system copy method, which is based on backup/restore. This method is described in the system copy guide for your Product/Release. Refer to Note 659509 for products that are based on Web AS.

Our problem is that the Oracle-specific system copy method has as a pre-requisite that the backup must be OFFLINE. (System Copy for SAP Systems Based on SAP NetWeaver 2004s SR2 ABA / Document version 1.10 - 03.28.2008 / page 21).

I would appreciate some lights on this Procedure, since the SAP Note 96848 doesn't take into account our case: ONLINE backup. Maybe there is another procedure.

Best Regards,

Erick ILarraza

[former_member204746]

you do not have to do a system copy, what you want to do is a restore. This is completely different.

so, as long as you can restore your backup, you don`t really if it's online of offline, as long as you can recover your online backup properly and TESTED this process completely.

[Former Member]

Hi Erick,

In Note 96848, point 6 it says to reset the database to the last online or offline backup. This means online backup is also sufficient for disaster recovery.

For system copy, SAP recommends to use offline database backup as system copy is used to create a test system with changed hostname and system id.

For disaster recovery, as there would be no change on hostname and SID, so online consistent backup can be used.

Also, it is not feasible to take offline backup of production system daily if it is a big and globally used database.

Hope, it clarifies your doubt.

[Former Member]

But in most cases, you are taking this backup to restore when you have an outage. Can an Online backup be restored at a different facility, with different machines, which would have different hostnames and SID?