Backup Strategy for Production Database

[former_member337858]

Dear All,

We are running our SAP on Windows 2003 R2. Our database is oracle 10g. We are taking online backup of our production database with Offline archive log file on daily basis through TSM.

Please suggest whether this daily online backup strategy (DB backup + offline archive log files backup) is sufficient or we should take once offline backup of our database in a month. What are recommendations of SAP? Please suggest.

Thanks in Advance.

[Former Member]

I would prefer offline backup atleast once in a month to make the recovery scenarios simple

Hi Manoj,

Why it is required if my Online database is happening fine and it is restorable.

Regards,

Nick Loy

[volker_borowski2]

I thought of that question as well

As for "scenarios" I prefer, not to have people knowing that offline backups are available.

I had it more than once, that basis people forced application guys into a restore of an

available offline backup "because it is safer" (which was obviously code for "makes my life easier"

or "I do not know better") and accept loss of work instead of doing a complete recovery.

How bad is that?

But to be honest, I also like to have an offline backup once a cycle.

There had been bugs (SW or HW) in the past that came on with coruption during recovery of logs.

They have been rare, but they have been there.

And I hope, I never ever have to use these, because it would mean loss of work,

which I would only accept, if there is absolutely no other way out.

I had that on a sandbox which had a defective raid controller, writing rubbish into the redo logs.

Since then I like to have a scheduled procedure to restore the production

(online-backup + recovery of at least 100 logs) to a sandbox every now and then

(not once a cycle, but every 3-5 months), to make sure the redos are processable.

Volker

[Former Member]

Volker has a lot of good points as usual. In my opinion there is only one benefit of an offline backup. It does restart SAP and the database which can be a good thing to do once in a while (especially with AS Java involved).

There had been bugs (SW or HW) in the past that came on with coruption during recovery of logs.

This is true, i experienced that too, but that was on oracle 8i AND we were still able to continue with the recovery after we applied the bugfix needed. You simply NEVER want to have corrupt redo logs, they are needed all the time, for example when your database wasn't cleanly shutdown. So a possible redo log corruption isn't a pro for offline backups, it is just something that has to be avoided at all costs.

Redologs can be checked for consistence too and the last advice is the best. Only if you regularly test your restore procedures, you can be sure it works AND you master it when necessary.

So in short to have an offline backup is nice to have, but to have proper online backups including redo logs is a must.

Kind regards, Michael

[Former Member]

I would prefer offline backup atleast once in a month to make the recovery scenarios simple. But it all depends on time taken for the backup, database size etc. If possible I would schedule archive log backup every 3-4 hours but again depends on your recovery requirements and number of redo logs generated/hour.

[Former Member]

A consistent daily Online + Redologs (latest and couple of times) is sufficient in SAP and a recommended one.

No need to perform offline backup, if your Daily online + redolog backup is restorable and recoverable (Perform a test restore).

*If your Org/Client allows you for the downtime, then you can take offline backup (I don't think this will be usable and make sence to take offline backup if you are taking daily online backups).

Regards,

Nick Loy

[Former Member]

Daily online + couple of archivelog backups (Depends on no. of achive logs generated per day and no. of changes in database) should be fine for recovery.

No need to take offline backup if your backups are configured correctly, Before finalizing the backup strategy (If you finalize the above sug) perform couple of restores on you QUA or other system.

Regards,

Nick Loy

[former_member337858]

Hi Nick Loy ,

Thanks for your immediate response.

I have studied some where that SAP recommends a backup cycle of four weeks. The backup cycle must be the same

for database backups and offline redo log backups:

• + Perform a complete online backup each work day.

• + Perform a complete offline backup at least once in the cycle.

Thats why I want to take the opinion of you expert guys.

Thanks!