Amazon Backint Agent FAQs

Q: What is Amazon Backint Agent for SAP HANA?

A: Amazon Backint Agent for SAP HANA is an SAP certified standalone agent for backing up and restoring SAP HANA databases to and from Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3) using the SAP HANA Backint API. With this solution, you can back up your SAP HANA Database to Amazon S3 and restore it using SAP HANA cockpit, SAP HANA Studio, or SQL commands. Amazon Backint Agent for SAP HANA supports full, incremental, differential, and log backups of SAP HANA databases and catalogs to Amazon S3.

Q: Why should I use Amazon Backint Agent for SAP HANA?

A: Amazon Backint Agent for SAP HANA provides a cost-effective solution to back up SAP HANA databases directly to Amazon S3. Through integration with the SAP HANA Backint API, Amazon Backint Agent for SAP HANA provides a powerful backup and restore capability for mission-critical SAP HANA applications at a low cost.

Q: How much does Amazon Backint Agent for SAP HANA cost?

A: Amazon Backint Agent for SAP HANA is free of charge. You only pay for the underlying Amazon Web Services services used to perform backup and restores. For example, you pay for Amazon S3 storage as well as for GET/PUT requests and data transfer out charges when the S3 bucket is in a different China region than the EC2 instance running SAP HANA.

Q: How does Amazon Backint Agent for SAP HANA work?

A: Amazon Backint Agent for SAP HANA runs on the SAP HANA database server. Once Amazon Backint Agent is configured in SAP HANA, backups and catalogs are transferred from your SAP HANA database to the Amazon Backint Agent. Amazon Backint Agent then stores the backup files in your Amazon S3 bucket based on the information provided in the Amazon Backint Agent for SAP HANA configuration file. During restore, SAP HANA reads the catalog files stored in S3 via Amazon Backint Agent for SAP HANA and based on your selection can initiate an Amazon Backint Agent request to restore required backup files from Amazon S3 into the SAP HANA database server. Once the required files are restored by Amazon Backint Agent, SAP HANA performs the recovery and brings the database back online.

Q: Which SAP HANA version and Operating Systems are supported?

A: Amazon Backint Agent for SAP HANA supports SAP HANA 1.0 SP12, SAP HANA 2.0 and above. Amazon Backint Agent for SAP HANA also supports SUSE Linux Enterprise Server, SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for SAP, and Red Hat Enterprise Linux for SAP operating systems.

Q: How do customers set up Amazon Backint Agent for SAP HANA in their environment?

A: You can install and configure the agent by executing an Amazon published SSM document against the instances where SAP HANA is deployed. You can provide configuration information while running the SSM document.

Q: How is Amazon Backint Agent for SAP HANA different from Amazon Backup?

A: Amazon Backup is a centralized backup service that makes it easy and cost-effective for you to back up your application data across Amazon Web Services services in the Amazon cloud and on premises. Currently Amazon Backup supports backing up Amazon EBS volumes, Amazon RDS databases, DynamoDB tables, EFS file systems and Amazon Storage Gateway volumes. While, all existing per-service backup capabilities remain unchanged, Amazon Backup provides a common way to manage backups across Amazon Web Services services. Amazon Backint Agent for SAP HANA, on the other hand, supports native SAP HANA application level backup by integrating with SAP HANA Backint API. By doing so, Amazon Backint Agent for SAP HANA is able to provide data backup and restore capabilities at the application level thereby protecting your SAP HANA database from disasters, such as user errors, storage volume failures, and database corruption.

Q: How long does Amazon Backint Agent for SAP HANA take to backup and restore?

A: Time to back up and restore an SAP HANA database with Amazon Backint Agent for SAP HANA depends on your specific system configuration, such as EC2 instance type, EBS volume type configuration, and database size. There are three key variables that impact the time taken to back up and restore: the storage throughput of the underlying Amazon EBS volume supporting the SAP HANA database, the network throughput supporting the communication channel with Amazon S3, and the available CPU resources on the instance type. We recommend that you perform various tests to identify the right system configuration that suits your business RTO and RPO needs. Amazon Backint Agent for SAP HANA maximizes the available throughput by parallel processing the backup and restore processes, thereby optimizing the RTO for any given system configuration.

Q: Does Amazon Backint Agent for SAP HANA support back up to S3 with VPC endpoints?

A: Yes, it does.

Q: Does Amazon Backint Agent for SAP HANA support de-duplication?

A: No, currently Amazon Backint Agent for SAP HANA does not support de-duplication. Any backup initiated from SAP HANA admin tools will be backed up to Amazon S3 even if a previous backup with exactly the same data already exists.

Q: Does Amazon Backint Agent for SAP HANA support compression?

A: No, currently Amazon Backint Agent for SAP HANA doesn't support data compression. SAP HANA databases already have a high compression rate.

Q: Where can I see the status of backup and recovery?

A: You can continue to use your existing methods to confirm the status of a backup / restore request. For example, if you are using SAP HANA Studio or SAP HANA Cockpit to monitor the progress of a running backup or the final completion status of a backup / restore request, then you can use the same approach for any backup requests triggered via Amazon Backint Agent for SAP HANA. In case of a failure, you can review the backup logs for errors and take corrective action or reach out to Amazon Web Services support for assistance. For more details, see Amazon Backint Agent for SAP HANA documentation.

Q: How do we control the CPU consumption on Amazon Backint Agent for SAP HANA?

A: Please refer to the Amazon Backint Agent for SAP HANA documentation for more information on performance tuning best practices.

Q: What are the regions where Amazon Backint Agent for SAP HANA is available?

A: Amazon Backint Agent for SAP HANA is available in all commercial regions, including Amazon Web Services China (Beijing) Region, operated by Sinnet, and Amazon Web Services China (Ningxia) Region, operated by NWCD.