Schedule automated backup tasks

Scheduling and automating backup and archive operations helps to ensure that data is backed up regularly at a specified time. Products that are used to schedule backup operations can be used to automate these operations.

SAP scheduler
The SAP Computer Center Management System (CCMS) provides a scheduler for database administration and backup planning on a single database server. The scheduler can be started from the SAP GUI command line (transaction code db13) or with the SAP GUI menu function Tools > CCMS > DB administration > DBA scheduling.
Scheduler (Windows) or Crontab (UNIX or Linux)
Automating backups at the database server level is available by using either the Schedule Services feature (on Windows) or the crontab command (for UNIX or Linux).
IBM Spectrum Protect™ scheduler
IBM Spectrum Protect also provides a scheduler function for all of its clients. As a result, automation can be set for multiple database servers. The IBM Spectrum Protect administrative client GUI provides an easy-to-use wizard for defining schedules. Information about how to define IBM Spectrum Protect schedules can be found in the IBM Spectrum Protect Administrator's Reference.
IBM® Workload Scheduler
The IBM Workload Scheduler provides event-driven automation, monitoring, and job control for both local and remote systems.

Sample backup strategy for daily backup processing

This figure illustrates the sequence of backup operations to consider for a daily backup schedule.
Figure 1. Production Backup Example
The graphic shows an example of backup activities that would be required for a strategy with daily backups. Over a period of 28 hours it lists what updates are to be done in which sequence and how long they might take. After online users are no longer busy and batch updates are done, the backup window opens from 10 p.m. to 2 a.m. These 4 hours are filled with 3 hours for DB backup with 1 hour for DB backup logging (duration several seconds), log file migration to tape (duration several minutes), SAP system file backup (duration about 15 minutes) and IBM Spectrum Protect database backup (duration about 30 minutes). The example spans more than 24 hours to show that next day schedules might be different.
The automated backup example shown in the graphic displays these common tasks:
  • A full database backup (offline or without application load) runs each night.
  • Offline log files are backed up to disk during online hours. This action has the advantage of eliminating the need for extra tape mounts for relatively small files.
  • The IBM Spectrum Protect server moves archived log files from disk to tape after the full database backup.
  • SAP system files are backed up incrementally with the IBM Spectrum Protect backup-archive client.
  • The last backup in the daily cycle is the backup of the IBM Spectrum Protect database. This backup must always be done.
Backups can be moved to disk storage and to tape media. The IBM Spectrum Protect server manages the data regardless of the storage media. However, backing up the SAP database directly to tape is the preferred media.