Backup SAP ASE DBs

[kaka81]

Hi @all,

is it possible to create a consistent backup of SAP ASE DBs (Win Server 2012R2) incl. transaction logs?
According to this thread a vss writer is needed:
http://forums.veeam.com/veeam-backup-re ... 21315.html

But there's no vss writer available, no sqlanywhere or something like that?!

How to get it work correctly?
Thank you for you input.
Cheers, Christoph

[PTide]

Hi,

If it's not possible to install VSS writer for your database then the only option is to use pre-freeze and post-thaw scripts in order to prepare you system for backup.

Thank you.

[kaka81]

Hi,

thank you for response.
I don't know if there's any vss writer or not, I haven't found anything yet in internet but that doesn't mean that it don't exist.
Unfortunatelly I don't know how to configure these scripts for those DBs?

Does anybody know how to create these scripts?
Thank you.

[Vitaliy S.]

Hi Christoph,

What backup approach are you currently using for these DBs? Native tools?

Thanks!

[PTide]

I don't know if there's any vss writer or not

You can check that with vssadmin list writers command issued on your SAP ASE server.

Unfortunatelly I don't know how to configure these scripts for those DBs?

There should be a set of native routines/tools that prepare database for backup, please refer to SAP knowledge base.

Thank you.

[kaka81]

Hi,

at the moment I use veeam for backup (incremental every day).

@PTide:
no ASE vss writer is installed on server(s) and I don't find any on the internet. Preparing the script will be very challenging for me

Thank you.

[PTide]

Preparing the script will be very challenging for me

You can use forum search in order to find some similar scripts or post your query on SAP-related communities - maybe someone who already ran into the same problem could suggest you a solution.

[Andreas Neufert]

Hi, I´m by far no Sybase DB admin.

In my old company we backed up a sybase database hourly on a crash consistent way and used once a day the described backup methods from here: http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/Sybase-ASA-HOWTO/backup.html
But thats not on the VM level.

Google search found an command to quiesce the Sybase DB with a command and release it after backup:
http://infocenter.sybase.com/help/index ... X16609.htm

Together with the Logfile Truncation command from http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/Sybase-ASA-HOWTO/backup.html it looks like a script solution for VM based backups.

But again I am not a Sybase DBA. Speak with your Sybase DBA about that options and follow his recommendations.

CU... Andy

[kaka81]

Hi,

I didn't get managed it so far. Does Veeam v9 supports ASE? Any other simple solutions?

Thank you.
BR
Christoph

[Andreas Neufert]

Hi Christoph, sad to hear that.
No, Sybase Explorer or Logfile Backup in v9.
I will sit down with an SAP partner end of February who do as well use Veeam for Sybase. Will report here if I figure out something.

[kaka81]

Hi Andreas,
this would be great!! Thank you in advance.

Maybe some other suggestions meanwhile?
Thank you.

[kaka81]

Hi Andreas,

Any news?

Thank you.
Br, Christoph

[Andreas Neufert]

The whitepaper is written and proofreaded. Content Team finalizing the whitepaper at the moment. Release will be soon

[kaka81]

Hi again,

Sorry for my impatience but do you have any news or any information in advance?

Thank you.
Br
Christoph

[btanguay]

Hi,

I've read a lot of post on this, but i'm looking to see if there any news on that.
SAP acquise Sybase long time ago now and they start to push the Sybase ASE database as one of their solution on SAP deployment.
I'm looking to see the Veeam will have in the future an solution to backup that type of database (with an Sybase ASE Explorer).

SAP already confirm they are not supporting the VSS feature (everything we found on VSS for Sybase is related to SQL Anywhere, they old version of Sybase DB)
Since Sybase is now part of SAP a lot of backup software already start to support the Sybase ASE solutions (Veristas, TSM, Legata, EMC, NetApp).
I would assume Veeam will follow others suppliers and look into this.

Anybody from Veeam can update us on this?

- Will Veeam support Sybase ASE Database in the future?
- Is this already in the road map for future release?
- Do we need to create an sort of request for enhancemend for that ?
- Is they any workarround solution that can be apply to Veeam in the meantime ?

Thanks

[MPlesnerJ]

Hi Andreas,

Any news?
Thank you.
/ Martin

[kaka81]

Hi again,

nothing's new here?

Thx.
BR, Christoph

[Andreas Neufert]

https://www.veeam.com/wp-sap-oracle-dep ... guide.html
You can find an appendix about ASE there.

[kaka81]

Hi Andreas,

thank you for reply but I've some questions:
you mean in backup job: guest processing - enable application-aware processing - applications - select VM - edit - Tab "SQL" and here "backup logs periodically". Is that correct?
On VM the "Windows Shadow Copy" Service is running (C:\Windows\system32\vssvc.exe)

Is that correct?
Thank you very much.
BR, Christoph

[PTide]

Hi,

you mean in backup job: guest processing - enable application-aware processing - applications - select VM - edit - Tab "SQL" and here

No, for SAP ASE backup you need to make sure that you have "Enable appliaction-aware processing" option enabled as well as "Require successful processing" in "General" tab. Please check the whitepaper Andreas has provided you with the link to, p.67

Thanks

[Andreas Neufert]

There is another Appendix for MS SQL maybe it was the wrong appendix.

[kaka81]

These settings I've configured from the beginning last October but in my opinion that's not a consistent backup for sybase ASE databases because I'm not able to recover database from e.g. 1 hour ago, only whole VM from last backup (every day @22:00)? And my SAP partner told me that transaction logs etc. are growing bigger and bigger and I should delete them. I don't have these problems with MS SQL Server?!

[PTide]

There are three options mentioned in the appendix, which one have you configured?

[kaka81]

sorry, the first one (a) as you have written with enable application aware processing and require successful processing

[Andreas Neufert]

All 3 options were documented with the intention to bring ASE in a consistent state to backup on image level. (and use VM/Instant VM and File Level Recovery).

You need to handle logs with native scripts from ASE.
Veeam do not provide any tool to delete logs over time and restore to a specific point in time with ASE. (No Veeam Explorer for ASE available).

It is common that the ASE partner have some bavkup scripts that can be modified for Veeam there.
For example you can run your logfile handling script at post script in the Veeam job.

[kaka81]

If I understand correct - I want consistent backup of Sybase ASE DBs with a max delta of for example 1h. So I had to schedule the backup job periodically every hour (or less) to get consistent backups? is that correct? So if original VM gets broken I could restore this VM from backup with e.g. 1h delta (means backup 1h ago) without any issues?

And with postscript I could delete log files etc.

[Andreas Neufert]

Yes, thats one of the option. You can then restore to the point of backup with Veeam. If you have one database per server, you can use Instant VM Recovery to bringt the service back within ~5 min (2min + OS boot).

Another option would be to backup once a day ( or more frequent with Veeam) and backup the logs with a generic ASE command to another server. Then there is maybe an option to restore the database with Veeam (maybe file restore, Instant VM Recovery or Database dump restore) and then rollforward the logs with "until_time". I am not a ASE specialist so you need to work with one to get this done and tested.
If you can schedule the logbackup high frequent this would give you better RPO but less RTO compared with my first option above.

[kaka81]

ok, this sounds good for me.

Just another (maybe stupid) question: what's the best way to backup and replicate these Sybase VMs? Backup every full hour, replication every half hour?

[Andreas Neufert]

It depends on your needs.
You can consider Replication from Backup maybe to tansport data only once.

At Replica 28 Restore Points are max.
If you need a very high restore point amount at Backup job, consider Syntetic Full with Incrementals (~max 60 incrementals per synt full).

[w00ch]

Any one can share their current setup on backing up the SAP ASE DBs?

Do i really need to setup VSS for the DB server?