Can HANA incremental backups be scripted?

[fionn_keane]

Dear colleagues,

Can HANA incremental backups be scripted?

As per SAP note ‘1642148 - FAQ: SAP HANA Database Backup & Recovery’:

“Are incremental and differential backups available?

Yes. Starting with HANA SPS 10 incremental and differential data backups are available.

It's also possible to combine both kinds of backups in one backup strategy, e.g. an incremental backup can be created based on a complete data backup, a differential or an incremental data backup.”

SAP note ‘1651055 - Scheduling SAP HANA Database Backups in Linux’ leads me to believe that hdbsql (like the following) could be used in a script:

hdbsql -U user_store_key "backup data INCREMENTAL using backint('backup_prefix')"

But, I am not 100% sure that incremental backups can be scripted.

Any help is very much appreciated.

Many thanks,

Fionn

[lbreddemann · Accepted solution]

Hi Fionn

generally speaking, yes, incremental backups can be scripted just as the other backup options can.

Concerning the mentioned SAP note, well, it is written in the note, the documentation PDF and in the script as well: there is no support nor further development happening with this example script.

So, if your customer wants to take the script as a sort of template and create its own script that can do incremental backups, that's definitively possible.

In fact, I'd recommend explaining to that customer, that the challenge with INCREMENTAL backups is not so much creating them, but maintaining the backups that have already been made.

How long should which backup set be retained? Which backup paths have to be supported/guaranteed? When it comes to housekeeping, increm. backups are much more similar to log backups than to full data backups.

Anyhow, to come back to your original question: yes, that's possible.

Cheers, Lars

[fionn_keane · Accepted solution]

Thanks a million Lars