Use OVHcloud Backint Agent with several Object Storage buckets

Objective

This guide provides the details of using OVHcloud Backint Agent for SAP HANA with several Object Storage buckets.

OVHcloud Backint Agent for SAP HANA allows you to back up and recover your SAP HANA database on one or many OVHcloud Object Storage buckets.

Using several Object Storage buckets can be useful to:

• separate the data backup named databackup from the log backup named log_backup ;
• store into Object Storage buckets with a different retention policy ;
• use different locations.

OVHcloud Backint Agent for SAP HANA has been certified by SAP, you can find certification information here:

• SAP Certified Solutions Directory
• SAP Note 2031547
• SAP Note 3344150

Requirements

• Access to the OVHcloud Control Panel.
• A Public Cloud project in your OVHcloud account with:
  • Two Object Storage buckets and an Object Storage user with the read and write rights.
• A SAP HANA database installed.
• OVHcloud Backint Agent for SAP HANA installed.

Instructions

Object Storage

The Object Storage bucket versioning must be enabled to ensure the correct operation of OVHcloud Backint Agent. The versioning allows you to keep several versions of a same object in your Object Storage bucket.

With SAP HANA backups, the versioning allows you to trigger several backups with the same name (for example "COMPLETE_DATA_BACKUP") and keeping the capacity to recover a specific version of the backup named "COMPLETE_DATA_BACKUP". If the versioning is not enabled, only the latest version of the backup named "COMPLETE_DATA_BACKUP" can be recovered.

You can check the versioning status of your Object Storage bucket by following these steps:

1. Log in to the OVHcloud Control Panel.
2. Click Public Cloud and select your Public Cloud project. Then click Object Storage.
3. Click on the Object Storage bucket that will host backups of your SAP HANA database.
4. Check the value of the Versioning parameter, it must have the value Enabled. If the value of this parameter is Disabled, click on Enable versioning.

Versioning enabled	Versioning disabled

Configuration

Edit the content of the hdbbackint.cfg file and replace all values between chevrons by your first Object Storage bucket information. Below, an example of its content after edition.

[trace]
default = INFO
destination = outputfile

[ovhcloud]
endpoint_url = https://s3.rbx.io.cloud.ovh.net
bucket = my-sap-hana-bucket-data
region = rbx
access_key = 12345678901234567890123456789012
secret_key = 12345678901234567890123456789012
max_concurrency = 10
multipart_chunksize = 1GB
multipart_threshold = 1GB

The multipart_chunksize and multipart_threshold parameters can be set with values in byte (example: 52428800 equal 50MB), in KB, in GB, or in TB. If the value is set without unit, the default unit is byte.

• The multipart_threshold parameter triggers the upload of an object in multipart.
• The multipart_chunksize parameter sets the size of each part to be uploaded.

The default values for multipart_chunksize and multipart_threshold parameters in the hdbbackint.cfg file offer an optimal performance in many cases, but you can increase or decrease it, depending on your environment.

Create a copy of the hdbbackint.cfg file with another name, for example hdbbackint-log.cfg and replace its values by the details of your second Object Storage bucket.

[trace]
default = INFO
destination = outputfile

[ovhcloud]
endpoint_url = https://s3.rbx.io.cloud.ovh.net
bucket = my-sap-hana-bucket-log
region = rbx
access_key = 12345678901234567890123456789012
secret_key = 12345678901234567890123456789012
max_concurrency = 10
multipart_chunksize = 1GB
multipart_threshold = 1GB

Execute the following SQL commands to update the backup configuration of your SAP HANA database.

Replace in the following SQL commands the <SID> characters by the SID of your SAP HANA database.

ALTER SYSTEM ALTER CONFIGURATION('global.ini','SYSTEM') SET('backup','catalog_backup_parameter_file')='/usr/sap/<SID>/SYS/global/hdb/opt/hdbbackint.cfg' WITH RECONFIGURE;
ALTER SYSTEM ALTER CONFIGURATION('global.ini','SYSTEM') SET('backup','catalog_backup_using_backint')='true' WITH RECONFIGURE;
ALTER SYSTEM ALTER CONFIGURATION('global.ini','SYSTEM') SET('backup','data_backup_parameter_file')='/usr/sap/<SID>/SYS/global/hdb/opt/hdbbackint.cfg' WITH RECONFIGURE;
ALTER SYSTEM ALTER CONFIGURATION('global.ini','SYSTEM') SET('backup','log_backup_parameter_file')='/usr/sap/<SID>/SYS/global/hdb/opt/hdbbackint-log.cfg' WITH RECONFIGURE;
ALTER SYSTEM ALTER CONFIGURATION('global.ini','SYSTEM') SET('backup','log_backup_using_backint')='true' WITH RECONFIGURE;

Backup

To validate the configuration, you can trigger manual backups with the following commands via SSH access:

Replace in the following commands the <SID> characters by the SID of your SAP HANA database and <NI> characters by the instance number of your SAP HANA database.

# SYSTEMDB Backup
/usr/sap/<SID>/HDB<NI>/exe/hdbsql -u SYSTEM -d SYSTEMDB "BACKUP DATA USING BACKINT ('MANUAL_COMPLETE_BACKUP');"

# TENANTDB Backup
/usr/sap/<SID>/HDB<NI>/exe/hdbsql -u SYSTEM -d SYSTEMDB "BACKUP DATA FOR <SID> USING BACKINT ('MANUAL_COMPLETE_BACKUP');"

You also have the possibility to trigger these backups via the SAP HANA Cockpit. Select Backint in the Destination Type category.

After the execution of these backups, several files named _databackup_ are now present in your first Object Storage bucket, these files correspond to backups of your SAP HANA database via the OVHcloud Backint Agent.

Two files named log_backup_0_0_0_0 and which have DB_<SID> and SYSTEMDB prefixes are also present in your first Object Storage bucket. These files correspond to backups of the SAP HANA backup catalog, allowing you to list backups known by SAP HANA.

In your second Object Storage bucket, some files named log_backup are present and correspond to logs backups.

If these backups have not been done as expected, check the content of the following files to search for errors:

• backint.log
• backup.log

Both files are present in the repository /usr/sap/<SID>/HDB<NI>/<hostname>/trace for the SYSTEMDB backup and in the repository /usr/sap/<SID>/HDB<NI>/<hostname>/trace/DB_<SID> for the TENANTDB backup.

The backint.log file gives you information about the OVHcloud Backint Agent execution. For example, a permission issue with the Object Storage bucket:

2024-02-08 14:10:41.266 backint started:
  command: /usr/sap/HDB/SYS/global/hdb/opt/hdbbackint -f backup -p /usr/sap/HDB/SYS/global/hdb/opt/hdbbackint.cfg -i /var/tmp/hdbbackint_HDB.kwu3jY -o /var/tmp/hdbbackint_HDB.N1KX90 -u HDB -s 1707397841205 -c 2 -l COMPLETE
  pid: 3702
  input:
  #SOFTWAREID "backint 1.04" "HANA HDB server 2.00.071.00.1687900751"
  #PIPE "/usr/sap/HDB/SYS/global/hdb/backint/SYSTEMDB/FULL_BACKUP_databackup_0_1"
2024-02-08 14:10:41.967 backint terminated:
  pid: 3702
  exit code: 1
  output:
  exception:
  exception  1: no.110507  (Backup/Destination/Backint/impl/BackupDestBackint_Executor.cpp:250)
      Backint exited with exit code 1 instead of 0. console output: Bucket information error in hdbbackint.cfg - 403 Forbidden

The backup.log file gives you information about the backup execution through SAP HANA, its progress and its encountered errors.

INFO    BACKUP   state of service: nameserver, <hostname>:30001, volume: 0, BackupExecuteTopologyAndSSFSBackupInProgress
INFO    BACKUP   state of service: nameserver, <hostname>:30001, volume: 0, BackupError
INFO    BACKUP   state of service: nameserver, <hostname>:30001, volume: 1, BackupAbortSavepointInProgress
INFO    BACKUP   state of service: nameserver, <hostname>:30001, volume: 1, BackupAbortSavepointFinished
ERROR   BACKUP   SAVE DATA finished with error: [447] backup could not be completed

You have the possibility to create more Object Storage buckets and apply on it different parameters as the retention policy or the managing object immutability.

In order to target the right Object Storage bucket, OVHcloud Backint Agent needs the corresponding hdbbackint.cfg file during the backup execution.

Scheduling

About the backups scheduling, please refer to our guide Install and use OVHcloud Backint Agent for SAP HANA.

Recovery

About the recovery of your SAP HANA database, please refer to our guide Install and use OVHcloud Backint Agent for SAP HANA.

The steps are the same, even if you use different Object Storage buckets for your DATA and LOG backups.

Go further

To improve the security of your backups, we advise you to set the object immutability.

If you need training or technical assistance to implement our solutions, contact your sales representative or click on this link to get a quote and ask our Professional Services experts for assisting you on your specific use case of your project.

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