Best method for SAP DR site

[ORPIC-BASIS]

Dear Guru's

We have seven production SAP systems. We are setting up DR site. The solutions are SAP ECC, PI, BI, Solution manager, EP, DMS (max DB) and SCM / Live cache

Our platform is Windows 2008 R2 with Oracle 11.2.03

We are planning with two approaches :

Method 1:

The SAP oracle database is replicated with Oracle standard data guard in Maximum performance mode. The other file systems (SAPMNT,
\usr\sap....etc ) are replicated with double-take software in Async mode.

The Advantage of this method: 1) Oracle DG is supported by SAP Support.  2) Oracle DG takes very less network bandwidth because it just ships the change logs.  3) Only SAP support packs patching is replicated through Oracle DG

    Disadvantage: OS Drives cannot be replicated, because oracle Data Guard is running in recovery mode. Only During OS and Oracle Patching, the DR site also needs to be patched again. Host names needs changes during activation, need to follow system copy guide for host name changes.

Method 2:

The complete system is replicated with Double-take Software. We mean all file systems OS Drives, Oracle File systems, SAPMNT, \USR\SAP...etc
are replicated in Async mode using Double-take Software 

   Advantage:  Full system is replicated with one vendor software. All Os, Oracle, SAP patching are replicated.

Disadvantage: Does SAP supports this method is questioned?. Takes huge network band width.

Question : We need a best method which is supported by SAP AGS. Incase of a DR situation, SAP AGS should not say we cant support because 3rd partly replication is not supported. Anyone using such DR solutions?.. please advise

Thanks Guys....

[Former Member]

Method 1 is commonly used, nohing to add to your observations.

Method 2: I think the key factor here is what happens when things go wrong? The async replication must work correctly with the filesystem and database recovery. If for example the replication works with 4kb blocks and the database does 8kb, then you might end up having a half block written on the DR side. This needs to be prevented by properly configuring the replication.

Ask the vendor about similiar installations (SAP Systems or Oracle databases), if they cannot come up with a bunch of customers, i would not go for it.

Cheers Michael

[former_member188883]

Hi Mohammed,

As per my understanding both the options are good. One of the major differences which I could bring on the table is cost of implementation. Option 2 has higher implementation cost as compared to Option-1.

SAP AGS will not support the 3rd party tool but shall definitely support the issues in DR system which are related to database and SAP application.

For additional check raise an OSS message to be double sure.

Thanks and Regards,

Deepak Kori