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Author's profile photo Denys van Kempen
Denys van Kempen
March 14, 2018 7 minute read

C_HANATEC_13 Topics: Backup and Recovery – by the SAP HANA Academy

LATEST UPDATE: December, 2020 =========================================

For the latest information, visit our blog post series about SAP HANA certification:

For the SAP Press Certification Success Guide, see

For the blog post, see

Introduction

This blog is part of a series to help you pass the SAP Certified Technology Associate – SAP HANA 2.0 certification exam, C_HANATEC_13.

For an overview of the exam, see

For the sample questions, see

Topic Areas

There are 10 topic areas and you can expect about 8 questions about each topic.

In this blog, I will discuss the Backup and Recovery topic.

On the SAP Training website for C_HANATEC_13, the exam objective for this topic is stated:

Design a backup and recovery strategy for SAP HANA, 
and understand the backup catalog and the configuration files. 
Explain database copy scenarios.

Note that database copy is explicitly mentioned. Expect questions on this.

Study Material

The study material for this topic is the training

Unit 10 covers the topic Backup and Recovery in 7 lessons (± 90 pages) with the objectives:

  1. Explain backup and recovery
  2. Perform data area backup
  3. Configure a log area backup
  4. Describe additional backup topics
  5. Perform database recovery
  6. Explain backup and recovery using data snapshots
  7. Explain the scenarios for a database copy

You can download the index of the guide with objectives from the SAP Training website (see links above).

These topics are also addressed in the following SAP HANA guide:

What’s New?

The focus will be on the new SAP HANA 2.0 features, so if you are new to this version you might be interested to view the What’s New videos first:

Note that C_HANATEC_13 covers SAP HANA 2.0 SPS 00 only. C_HANATEC_14 will cover SPS 02.

SAP HANA Academy Playlists

 Backup and Recovery

For this topic, make sure that you understand what savepoints are and what happens with the redo log during a database restart. Your mileage may vary but the last time I took the exam, if not mistaken, there were about 4 questions on this.

Also important are the different backup and recovery options, the tools you can use for backup and recovery (including BACKINT), backup for multi-tenant database container systems, and authorizations.

For this, see

The tutorial videos below were recorded in 2014. However, the concepts and configuration options still apply and have not changed much over time.

SAP HANA Academy – Backup and Recovery: Concepts

SAP HANA Academy – Backup and Recovery: Configuration

Data Backup

For this topic, you need to be familiar with the different backup types (full, differential, incremental), the location of backup files (global.ini > persistence > basepath_databackup with default value %DIR_INSTANCE/backup/data except for BACKINT [/usr/sap/<SID>/SYS/global/hdb/backint], and the name of the file <path>/<prefix>_<string=databackup[_differential|incremental]>_<suffix=unique ID>. You need to be able to estimate the size of the backup (from cockpit, studio or M_BACKUP_SIZE_ESTIMATIONS), how to perform a system database and tenant backup, the SQL [backup data using file <file_name>, and how to schedule a backup in cockpit (and enable the scheduler) or the DBA Planning Calendar from DBA Cockpit. Finally, with BACKINT you can stream both backups and recovery for the indexserver (parallel_data_backup_backint_channels (default=1).

The best preparation for this topic, of course, is to get yourself a local copy or hosted version of the free SAP HANA, express edition and practice the different options.

The tutorial videos below show how you make a backup in SAP HANA cockpit and in studio.

SAP HANA Academy – SAP HANA Express: Setup – Backup Database using Cockpit

SAP HANA Academy – SAP HANA Express: Setup – Backup Database using Studio

For more information, see

Log Backup

For this topic, you need to understand the different log modes (normal, overwrite) and how log backup is configured (including the location, timeouts).

For more information, see

Additional Backup Topics

For this topic, you need to familiarize yourself with the catalog (backup, lifecycle management), the backup.log, backup of configuration files and backup scripts.

The tutorial videos below were recorded in 2014. However, the concepts have not changed much over time. For a cockpit view, see above SAP HANA Academy – SAP HANA Express: Setup – Backup Databases

SAP HANA Academy – Backup and Recovery: Backup Catalog

SAP HANA Academy – Backup and Recovery: Scheduling scripts

SAP HANA Academy – Backup and Recovery: Backup Configuration Files

For more information, see

Database Recovery

Another important topic, of course, is how to perform a database recovery using cockpit (including a tenant with MDC) and studio. You need to know the different types, the requirements, the tools to use, how to use hdbbackupcheck and hdbbackupdiag, and recoverSys.py.

Again, the best preparation for this topic is to get yourself a local copy or hosted version of the free SAP HANA, express edition and practice the different restore options.

 

SAP HANA Academy – Backup and Recovery: Restore using SAP HANA Studio

For more information, see

Data Snapshots

You also need to be familiar with data snapshots (previously known as storage snapshots): how to create them and how to use them for recovery.

SAP HANA Academy – Backup and Recovery: Storage Snapshot

For more information, see

Database Copy

Do not skip the last topic for database backup and recovery and make sure you know how to copy a database using either a backup or a data snapshot. In particular for tenant databases, this is made very easy when using SAP HANA cockpit.

For more information, see

References

SAP HANA Academy Playlists

SAP Blogs

SAP Help Portal (Documentation)

SAP Notes

SAP Education

Thank you for watching

The SAP HANA Academy provides technical enablement, implementation and adoption support for customers and partners with 1000’s of free tutorial videos.

For the full library, see SAP HANA Academy Library – by the SAP HANA Academy

For the full list of blogs, see Blog Posts – by the SAP HANA Academy

 

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      5 Comments
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      Author's profile photo Bartosz Jarkowski
      Bartosz Jarkowski

      Hello, thanks for sharing this. It's a great source of information required when preparing for HANA exam!

       

      Author's profile photo Denys van Kempen
      Denys van Kempen
      Blog Post Author

      Thanks, Bartosz,

      I am enjoying your great series on Azure as well!

      Regards,

      Denys / SAP HANA Academy

       

      Author's profile photo Shkelzen Hasanaj
      Shkelzen Hasanaj

      Dear Denys van Kempen,

      I have a question regarding the Points to Note: SAP HANA Backups.

      You refer to SAP HANA SP02, and if we compare it with the SP00 there is some difference regarding SAP HANA Cockpit 2.0 part.

       

      HANA 2.0 SP 02:

      SAP HANA Cockpit

      • SAP HANA cockpit 2.0 can be used to recover SAP HANA using backups created with SAP HANA 1.0.

      • SAP HANA cockpit 2.0 cannot schedule backups for SAP HANA 1.0 databases.

       

      HANA 2.0 SP 00

      SAP HANA Cockpit 2.0

      SAP HANA cockpit 2.0 cannot be used to administer backup and recovery for an SAP HANA 1.0 database. SAP HANA cockpit 2.0 cannot be used to recover SAP HANA using backups created with SAP HANA 1.0.

      SAP HANA cockpit 2.0 cannot be used to administer backup and recovery for SAP HANA multitenant database containers.

      Backup schedules created with SAP HANA cockpit 1.0 are not compatible with SAP HANA cockpit 2.0.

      More information: Schedule Data Backups in Related Information

      SAP HANA cockpit 2.0 cannot be used to copy a database using full data backups only.

       

      Which part shall we take into consideration when it comes to the exam?

      SAP HANA Cockpit is changing faster than HANA in terms of SPS level, as it is actually SPS 6. Which Cockpit SP Level should we refer to when it comes to the exam?

       

      Kindly asking your support in clarifying this.

       

       

       

       

       

       

       

       

      Author's profile photo Denys van Kempen
      Denys van Kempen
      Blog Post Author

      Good question, Shkelzen

      Each exam edition covers a specific SAP HANA release:

      • SAP HANA SPS 00 => C_HANATEC_13
      • SAP HANA SPS 02 => C_HANATEC_14  (release date Q2 2018)
      • SAP HANA SPS 03 => C_HANATEC_15  (release date not yet communicated)

      SAP HANA cockpit SPs are released independently from SAP HANA but the SPS release always match an SP:

      • SAP HANA SPS 00 => SAP HANA cockpit SP 00
      • SAP HANA SPS 02 => SAP HANA cockpit SP 03
      • SAP HANA SPS 03 => SAP HANA cockpit SP 06

       

       

       

       

      Author's profile photo Shkelzen Hasanaj
      Shkelzen Hasanaj

      Thanks for the explanation; I was not aware of this SP match.