BACKING UP SAP MAXDB USING NETWORKER Michael Dick Principal Solutions Architect Backup and Recovery Systems Dell EMC [email protected] Updated October 2016 Table of Contents Introduction ..................................................................................................................... 4 History of SAP MaxDB .................................................................................................... 5 Uses Of SAP MaxDB ...................................................................................................... 5 Ways to back up SAP MaxDB ......................................................................................... 6 Using NetWorker to back up SAP MaxDB ....................................................................... 7 Creating the Backup Templates .................................................................................... 11 Configuring SAP MaxDB backups on Linux using NetWorker ....................................... 15 Configuring SAP MaxDB backups on Windows using NetWorker.................................. 17 Configuring multiple backup streams ............................................................................. 18 Backing up SAP MaxDB using NetWorker 8.x and 9.x .................................................. 21 Scheduled backups of SAP MaxDB using NetWorker 8.0 ......................................... 24 Scheduled backups of SAP MaxDB using NetWorker 9.0 ......................................... 27 Restoring SAP MaxDB using NetWorker ....................................................................... 29 Troubleshooting MaxDB backups .................................................................................. 38 Appendix A – Parameter Reference .............................................................................. 39 NSR_HOME .............................................................................................................. 39 NSR_HOST ............................................................................................................... 39 NSR_POOL ............................................................................................................... 39 NSR_EXPIRE ........................................................................................................... 39 2013 EMC Proven Professional Knowledge Sharing 2 NSR_NOTVERBOSE ................................................................................................ 40 NSR_USEOUTPUT ................................................................................................... 40 NSR_IGNOREERROR .............................................................................................. 41 NSR_EBIDTYPE ....................................................................................................... 41 NSR_SAVEINTERVAL .............................................................................................. 41 NSR_BACKUPNAME ................................................................................................ 41 NSR_AVOIDPSSIDBUG ........................................................................................... 42 NSR_AVOIDPSSIDBUG ........................................................................................... 42 NSR_SAVETIMEFORMAT ........................................................................................ 42 NSR_SIZEROUNDUP ............................................................................................... 44 NSR_AVOIDTIMEBUG ............................................................................................. 44 NSR_CLIENT ............................................................................................................ 44 NSR_USECLIENTFOR ............................................................................................. 45 References .................................................................................................................... 46 Biography ...................................................................................................................... 46 Disclaimer: The views, processes or methodologies published in this article are those of the authors. They do not necessarily reflect Dell EMC’s views, processes or methodologies. 2013 EMC Proven Professional Knowledge Sharing 3 Introduction This paper is intended as a guide to backing up SAP MaxDB using Networker 8 and 9. It is not intended to be an introduction or administrative guide to MaxDB or SQL programming. For a detailed discussion of MaxDB administration and tuning please go to maxdb.sap.com 2013 EMC Proven Professional Knowledge Sharing 4 History of SAP MaxDB SAP MaxDB started in 1977 as a research project at the Technical University (TU) in Berlin and was initially named RDS. Between 1977 and 1997, what is now known as SAP MaxDB, underwent many name changes. It was known as Reflex DDB/4 and ADABAS D during the time it was owned by Nixdorf Computer AG (Siemens Nixdorf Information Systems AG and Software AG). In 1993, this research database, now named ADABAS D started shipping with SAP R/3. In 1997, SAP AG took over ADABAS D and renamed it ADABAS D for SAP R/3. In 2003, SAP AG and MySQL joined in a partnership and rebranded the database to MaxDB. In 2007, this reselling agreement was terminated. SAP AG is now managing the development, sales, and support of the SAP MaxDB database system. Uses Of SAP MaxDB What makes SAP MaxDB so interesting is that MaxDB runs fully in memory; only security-related changes require access to the disk drives. This, of course, makes MaxDB very fast. While MaxDB can be used to run complete SAP instances, it is mainly used for LifeCache. LifeCache combines the advantages of main-memory based data retention with a complete operating concept, which includes backup and recovery. 2013 EMC Proven Professional Knowledge Sharing 5 Ways to back up SAP MaxDB There are two primary ways to back up MaxDB; with the internal backup tool and with a third party tool such as NetWorker®. Using the internal tool, we can create a backup on either a file type device (mostly local to the DB server) or a tape device. Both approaches have obvious disadvantages. The disadvantages with the file type device are that it is stored on expensive disk and, in order to have offsite copies, must be backed up again with a backup application. The disadvantage of tape is, besides the known disadvantages of tape, that it creates a backup server out of a database server. Using a third party application will back up MaxDB directly to a backup device, eliminating these disadvantages. The backup server can then clone copies for offsite storage without impacting the database system. The third party tool used in this article is NetWorker (version 8 and version 9) while the MaxDB version referred to is 7.9. The procedures outlined here are only valid for MaxDB versions 7.5 and higher. Figure 1 shows the command and data flow for a MaxDB backup using NetWorker as third party backup tool. dbmcli is calling the database manager MaxDB Database Server with start_backup <template_name> Start backup by calling savepnpc savepnpc is calling dbmcli Database Manager CLI Backup Server MaxDB Kernet DBM Server Backup History Backup Tool Server client sends backup data to Component server Data is send via named Backup Tool Client (NSR pipes to the client site of save) the backuptool Data Store Backup Device Figure 1 2013 EMC Proven Professional Knowledge Sharing 6 Using NetWorker to back up SAP MaxDB While the internal MaxDB backup tool is quite nice, it lacks the ability to schedule full and incremental backups. This is where NetWorker comes into the picture. Log file backups can be automated using the Automatic Log Backup function of SAP MaxDB. Using this function, we can choose to backup log files when the segment is full (default behavior), or backup log files at certain time intervals. These log file backups can then be written to NetWorker through a backup template. Using the automated log backup feature simplifies the taking of log backups. The following section will explain how to set up MaxDB backups to write to EMC NetWorker. It is only a small step to automate the backups, once we are able to write to NetWorker using SAP MaxDB Database Studio or command line. The backup configuration using NetWorker requires that backup environment parameters be set. The default locations for the configuration files differs by operating system and is shown in the configuration section specific to these operating systems. A non-default location for the configuration file can specified by setting the variable NSR_ENV to this location using dbmcli. The command syntax for setting the setting NSR_ENV is dbmcli –d <db_name> -n <server_name> -u <user>,<password> dbm_configset –raw NSR_ENV <absolute_path> The configuration file informs the database manager where NetWorker is located and how to address it. Table 1 shows the variables recognized in the configuration file and a short description. An explanation of each of the variables with their complete syntax can be found in Appendix A. 2013 EMC Proven Professional Knowledge Sharing 7 Variable Description NSR_HOME Absolute path of the directory where the NetWorker binaries are installed. This parameter is mandatory. NSR_HOST NetWorker server host name. This parameter is mandatory. NSR_POOL Pool to save the MaxDB backups. This parameter is mandatory. NSR_EXPIRE This parameter overwrites the expiration on the client with the expiration