One of the most stupid things I've done in my life was to create SAP Note 1651055 (SAP Service Market Place login required) and the script attached to that note. I'm very pleased to say that today I've released a new version of that script, and that it is also the final version. The last one. Terminally. For good. And all eternity. After all, the world was has been going to have been deleted in order to make room for a hyperspace bypass on a Thursday.
The backup script was created as a workaround for missing functionality, when there were no professional backup tools supporting the SAP HANA system. With the not-new-anymore BACKINT interface that has been adopted by all major backup management solutions, the script is in fact not needed anymore except for a few scenarios such as
- HANA systems in a landscape without a good backup solution
- Some people seem to want to use it for scheduling log backup deletion
- Other reasons that may or may not be good.
The new version (version 04) of the script comes with the following major changes:
- There was a change in the syntax in hdbsql which made the listing of log backups fail. The script has been adapted to the new syntax.
- The script configuratoin has been moved to an external configuration file. Through this, the script itself is now system-independent. You can create configuration files for all your HANA systems and simply run the script via ./backup.sh --config-file=<file_name> [other options]
- The script can now make use of HANA's SQL syntax for deleting from the backup catalog: BACKUP CATALOG DELETE ... - for details of that syntax read the admin guide or lars.breddemann's and my book. This is offered in addition to the old functionality.
The new command-line switch -cd (for catalog delete) implicitly invokes the BACKUP CATALOG DELETE command. It has to be paired with an option to specify a data backup ID: either --backup-id=<ID> or -od -cl as for the old option -ll. With -od -cl, the script determines the ID of the oldest data backup that still exists on disk in its original file system location.
The BACKUP CATALOG DELETE command can delete only from the catalog, or also from the file system. This behavior can be customized in the script via an option in the configuraiton file. - We now clean up all temporary files (I think).
- And most importantly: there are three switches cunningly hidden within the script that will stop the script from working unless one explicitly acknowledges that the script is not SAP-supported software; that one may not create SAP support tickets related to the script; and that there will be no further development on the script. If you run into trouble using the script, this scn blog post may be a good location for help. But please do not e-mail me; and please do not create SAP support tickets related to the backup script.
Have a good thanksgiving or - if that doesn't mean anything to you - have fun,
Richard
