Why is the HANA default backup retention period so short?

[former_member1196677]

I noticed that the default HANA backup retention period seems to be typically 30-45 days. This blows my mind given how critical this data is to organizations. What if you need to audit or recover data from 6 months ago or 2 years ago?

Question 1 - Am I missing something here? Can you really only restore back 30 days?

Question 2 - Has anyone extended this period and, if so, how long did you extend it for?

Thank-you!

[OwenLiu]

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[Saumitra · Accepted solution]

Hi @nerdymike : If you are talking about the HANA Database Backup for SAP S/4HANA Cloud system (Public Cloud - SaaS solution) then please have a look at the Backup & DR documentation available in the SAP Activate Roadmap- https://go.support.sap.com/roadmapviewer/#/group//roadmap/IMPS4HANACLDENMGMT/node/01581558036A4CC29C....

Having said that, the backup services in the SAP S/4HANA Cloud solution are not primarily intended for recovery purpose as you used to control during the On Premise establishment or data audit purposes. From data and database audit point of view, the required certificates and attestations (Ex: SOC, ISO etc.) are available in the SAP Cloud Trust Center - given that this is a Public Cloud solution and fully managed by SAP. Find details about them here - https://www.sap.com/uk/about/trust-center/certification-compliance.html

For business data audit & requirements, there are dedicated apps and features in the S/4HANA Cloud system for gaining audit related insights which you can explore that in the SAP S/4HANA Cloud system. Example - https://rapid.sap.com/bp/#/browse/categories/sap_s%254hana/areas/cloud/packageversions/BP_CLD_ENTPR/...

If you need have more specific requirements w.r.t backup and data recovery options, please check back with you Account Executive or SAP contact for further clarifications.

Hope this helps.

Thanks,
Saumi

[former_member1196677 · Accepted solution]

Thank-you for your thoughtful reply Saumitra.

Here is an example of what I am trying to protect against: I know an SAP mining company who ran a process in SAP (I'm not sure the specific process details) which resulted in significant loss of mine production data. The issue was not noticed until the end of the quarter - which was over two months later. Because the backup retention window was so short, they were unable to recover the data from SAP. This resulted in hundreds of hours of data reconstruction scavenged from paper records and delayed financial statements.

Now, I've heard from SAP the line before that 'you would never roll back a production database more than a few days' which I agree with. But in this case, I bet the company could have restored the database to a dev environment, retrieved the data, and then used that to bring it into the production SAP database.

Is this not an unmitigated risk with such a short retention window or am I missing some key feature that could have assisted this company in their recovery?

Thank-you for your assistance with this. It boggles my mind. 🙂

[OwenLiu · Accepted solution]

Hi nerdymike

Do you expect further clarification?

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