Backing up SAP HANA with Veeam Backup and Replication

Select Direct attached storage or Network attached storage, depending on your situation.

• Direct attached storage allows you to add a physical or virtual server as storage without NFS or SMB protocols.
• Network attached storage allows you to add a file share via NFS or SMB (CIFS) protocols.

You will be guided through the steps of configuring the connection to the storage space, such as the IP address or the full name (FQDN) of your server, or the path where you want to store your SAP HANA backups.

Find detailed steps in the Veeam Backup and Replication 12 User Guide for different configurations:

• Direct attached storage with Windows
• Direct attached storage with Linux
• Direct attached storage with Linux Hardened
• Network attached storage with SMB (CIFS) Share
• Network attached storage with NFS Share

Your Backup Repository is now visible in the Veeam Backup and Replication console and ready to use with backup configurations.

You can go further in configuring this Backup Repository by setting access permissions for a specific user or a group of users, and by encrypting the backups that will be hosted in this Backup Repository. Find more information on this in the Veeam Backup and Replication 12 User Guide.

If you do not wish to proceed with the creation of a Backup Repository Object Storage, make sure to configure the permissions for that Backup Repository. You can then continue with the chapter Installation of Veeam Plug-in for SAP HANA.

Select Object storage.

Select S3 Compatible.

Give a name to your Object Storage Repository.

Enter the Service point which corresponds to the Object Storage endpoint, as well as the region (in lowercase) of your Object Storage.

Add the credentials of the Object Storage user who has the Administrator role on this Object Storage. This includes the access key and the secret key of the Object Storage user associated with the Object Storage. Find more information about the Object Storage user in this guide.

Indicate the name of the Object Storage bucket where you want to store your SAP HANA backups.

You must also indicate or create a directory in this Object Storage bucket.

Your S3-compatible Backup Repository is now visible in the Veeam Backup and Replication console and can be used by backup configurations.

Give a name to your Scale-out Backup Repository.

Click Add and select your previously created Backup Repository.

Select the desired location policy. We recommend the Data locality policy.

Check Extend scale-out backup repository capacity with object storage, then select the previously created Backup Repository Object Storage.

Check the Copy backups to object storage as soon as they are created option to replicate the backups from the first Backup Repository to the second Backup Repository immediately after their creation. This configuration provides quick protection for your backups.

By default, no access is allowed to this Scale-out Repository.

Select your Scale-out Repository and click Set Access Permissions.

You have the option to allow all user accounts to use this Scale-out Repository or limit it to a defined list. We recommend allowing only the necessary accounts.

On your Object Storage bucket, a hierarchical structure has been generated and configured by Veeam Backup and Replication.

Select Direct attached storage or Network attached storage, depending on your situation.

• Direct attached storage allows you to add a physical or virtual server as storage without NFS or SMB protocols.
• Network attached storage allows you to add a file share via NFS or SMB (CIFS) protocols.

You will be guided through the steps of configuring the connection to the storage space, such as the IP address or the full name (FQDN) of your server, or the path where you want to store your SAP HANA backups.

Find detailed steps in the Veeam Backup and Replication 12 User Guide for different configurations:

• Direct attached storage with Windows
• Direct attached storage with Linux
• Direct attached storage with Linux Hardened
• Network attached storage with SMB (CIFS) Share
• Network attached storage with NFS Share

Your Backup Repository is now visible in the Veeam Backup and Replication console and ready to use with backup configurations.

You can go further in configuring this Backup Repository by setting access permissions for a specific user or a group of users, and by encrypting the backups that will be hosted in this Backup Repository. Find more information on this in the Veeam Backup and Replication 12 User Guide.

Give a name to your Backup Copy job.

Add either the Backup jobs that manage your SAP HANA database backups or the Backup Repository where they are stored.

In this guide, we have chosen to use the Backup job.

Select your second Backup Repository that will host the backup copies.

Review the available settings in the Advanced menu.

Configure the replication slots if desired. By default, a copy is triggered as soon as a backup is made.

Your Backup Copy job is now operational.

Click on Individual computers.

Name your protection group. Then click on Next.

Add the desired SAP HANA databases to this protection group. For example, you can group your production databases.

For security reasons, it is recommended to create a dedicated Linux account for the Veeam connection to your server instead of using the root account.

Configure the protection group scan frequency.

Check Install application plug-ins. Click on Configure, then check SAP HANA.

Click on Next to proceed.

The protection group creation begins, a first scan is launched on the SAP HANA database(s) you previously added, and the Veeam Plug-in for SAP HANA installation along with its dependencies starts.

Give a name to your SAP HANA backup job. Then click on Next.

Select your SAP HANA databases, as well as the associated TENANTs (SYSTEMDB and/or TENANTDB) that you want to manage with this backup job. Then click on Next.

Select the Backup repository where you want to store your SAP HANA backups. You also have the option to manage the retention of backups in this Backup repository. However, retention does not delete backups in the SAP HANA backup catalog.

Click on Advanced... in order to schedule full backups, select the type of incremental or differential backups. In the SAP HANA tab, you have the possibility to configure the number of channels to optimize the speed of SAP HANA backups.

Click on Next to continue.

Configure the OS and SAP HANA database credentials. Then click on Next.

For security reasons, it is recommended to create a Linux user dedicated to connecting Veeam to your server instead of using the root account. The same applies to the account allowing connection to the SAP HANA database, this account only needs backup privileges.

You have the option to manage log backups either by the SAP HANA mechanism or by Veeam. By choosing log backup management via Veeam, you get detailed information about log backups in the Veeam Backup and Replication console.

In this guide, we have chosen to use management via Veeam to present the feature to you.

Click on Next to continue.

Configure the scheduling of the backup job execution. Then click on Apply.

Make sure to check Enable the backup policy when I click Finish to activate the backup job. Click on Finish to complete the configuration of the backup job.

We recommend applying the following settings to your SAP HANA database:

• Apply the catalog_backup_using_backint parameter to true to back up the backup catalog outside of your SAP HANA database.
• Apply the data_backup_buffer_size parameter according to the following method: 512 MB * the number of channels (MAX: 4096 MB)

The Veeam Explorer for SAP HANA application opens and allows you to restore either the SYSTEMDB or the TENANTDB of your SAP HANA database. All restoration modes are available:

• Restoration with the most recent backups.
• Restoration to a specific date and time (Point-in-Time Recovery).
• Restoration to another SAP HANA database.

You will be guided through the restoration steps based on the mode you select.

The restoration of your SAP HANA database is executed. You have the possibility to follow the progress of the restoration via Veeam Explorer for SAP HANA.

Once the restoration is completed successfully, your database is started.