Max DB daily online complete backup

[Former Member]

Hi there,

I know how to do online backup in oracle daily using brbackup but I dont know much about MaxDB. Please let me know how can I backup the compele database daily and can schedule it as well.

Thanks

Shafquat

[lbreddemann · Accepted solution]

Hi there,

although it looks like you don't like to use the SDN search tool (upper right corner of the page), do yourself a favor and type in "mind the gap backup" there and check the BLOG results.

I wrote these once to make it easier for people like you to add MaxDB DBA experience to their CV.

Apart from that the documentation (http://maxdb.sap.com/documentation) has LOTS of information on backup, restore, recovery and the CCMS scheduling (DB13, DBACockpit).

regards,

Lars

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Thanks for the reply and thanks for referring me the links. I checked all of them but I dont see any option to schedule a daily backup in MaxDB using some scripts. I see how to do it through DB13 but I dont want to do it this way. I have done it for Oracle and its just a command you have to execute and schedule that batch file. Can we have some other option other than DB13.

Thanks

Shafquat

[lbreddemann · Accepted solution]

the search tool! Use the search tool!

It's really easy to create a batch file for scheduling.

It's just a single command.

And it's in the documentation!

You may also check this one:

http://wiki.sdn.sap.com/wiki/display/MaxDB/HowTo-SAPMaxDBbackupwithDatabaseManagerCLI

But honestly: maybe you should reconsider your abilities.

Not being able to read the documentation does not go well together with creating custom coding for important things like taking backups!

regards

Lars

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Thanks for the advise but recosider your response too from the very beginning. You may encounter many people like me and do you insult them the same way? Everybody in SAP is in learning phase and need help like me.

[lbreddemann · Accepted solution]

> Thanks for the advise but recosider your response too from the very beginning. You may encounter many people like me and do you insult them the same way? Everybody in SAP is in learning phase and need help like me.

Don't feel insulted. Really - don't!

My point is: databases in SAP systems are very important.

Failing with things like backups may result in a financial disaster for your company.

One of the kind of disasters we (and the whole SAP DB support) cannot get you out afterwards.

On the other hand it's easy to get all required and important documentation nowadays.

It's available for free and you can try and test out everything on your workstation pc before using it on your server.

So, yes, I do think that everybody that wants to work in this area should really know the documentation and be able to get the necessary information himself.

That's why I point it out every time I see people asking questions that can be easily answered with what the search box provides.

Besides that it's part of the Rules of engagement of this forum that community members try to help themselves first.

Still you got hints right to the point for your request - so no reason to complain or to be insulted.

regards,

Lars

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Its not a complain. I do appreciate your help and you are definitely a great help to SAP community. Yes you pointed me in right direction and now I did one backup through GUI and through command line as well.

This is not production system. Still making plans for future about disaster recovery. SO I am planning and testing it out and documenting it for the company.

The next thing I would like to ask is if I configure the complete backup and define a medium I cna do the the backup. But next time if I use the same medium the backup is overwritten. So this means that I have to use the parallel medium and have to add 7 sets there so that I can take 7 backups. Is this the right approach to get 7 days rotation of the backup set. BRBACKUP uses a different name everytime it executes and remembers it but I dont see anyting like it here. I need to take 7 days backup and then I can overwrite it. I have created a group in the meduim and when I execute the backup it says illegal number of output devices. Still researching on this issue.

Any ideas... Again I do appreciate your help.

Thanks

Shafquat

[lbreddemann · Accepted solution]

> The next thing I would like to ask is if I configure the complete backup and define a medium I cna do the the backup. But next time if I use the same medium the backup is overwritten.

It's only overwritten, if you explicitly marked the checkbox for that in the medium definition.

It's not enable per default and should be used with great care.

>So this means that I have to use the parallel medium and have to add 7 sets there so that I can take 7 backups. Is this the right approach to get 7 days rotation of the backup set.

Nope - wrong approach here.

Parallel mediums are there to speed up the backup/restore process.

You can write to multiple files/tapes/pipes at the same time and spread the backup over these multiple destinations.

> BRBACKUP uses a different name everytime it executes and remembers it but I dont see anyting like it here. I need to take 7 days backup and then I can overwrite it.

Yeah, I know how BRBACKUP handles this.

Actually I really don't like this approach because it makes people think "Hey, I make 7 backups a week, all to the same folder on my harddisk, so I'm safe."

But you're not.

Taking backups is all about storing data elsewhere safe.

So if you want to put it to disk - you should move this backup somewhere else where it's safe and afterwards you may overwrite the file.

Of course, if you really really really want to backup to your 2nd harddisk or usb disk everyday, then just create 7 different backup templates/mediums and use a different every other day.

But think about how safe your backups would be, if e.g. the house burns down.

If you don't really care about this - well then you might as well stick with overwriting the single backup each day again ...

Lars

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Lars,

Thanks a lot for all your help. You are definitely a great help to all of us.

Thanks

Shafquat