Hot backup in CmC what does it do?

system · November 6, 2012, 10:39am

I accidentally saw a section in CmC called Hot Backup (CmC - Settings, last option on that screen)

Could somebody explain to me what this is? How does it works?

Tiny (BOB member since 2004-11-10)

system · November 6, 2012, 11:58am

Supposely it ensures that for the time window chosen a backup of FRS and CMS database will be in sync, without the need to do a cold backup (= taking SAP BI BusObjects server offline).

Andreas (BOB member since 2002-06-20)

system · November 6, 2012, 12:04pm

Ok, I did figured out that Hot means: not taking the system off line but:

What time-frame are you referring to?
Cause it’s stating:
Hot Backup Maximum Duration (minutes): 240
But what does that mean?,

1.the hot back up proces shouldn’t take longer then 240 minutes?
1. There is a hot backup available for the status max. 240 minutes ago?

Where is this backup placed?
And how does this backup proces works? does it store something somewhere?

Tiny (BOB member since 2004-11-10)

system · August 7, 2013, 9:40am

Hi Tiny,

I also want to know where the HOT Backup in placed?
Did you find the answer?

Thanks

Judia

judia (BOB member since 2008-06-24)

system · August 7, 2013, 12:16pm

Hot backup is done the usual way.

File backup (FRS), use any software you like for backing up files, there is nothing provided directly from within BusObjects
CMS database backup, use any database backup tool you like, there is nothing provided directly from within BusObjects
AND 2) must complete in a maximum time frame set as Hot Backup (default: 240 min.)

Andreas (BOB member since 2002-06-20)

system · August 7, 2013, 3:27pm

Hi Andreas,

Thanks for the reply.

I just want to know when we enable Hot Backup in CMC, does it converted to some biar files and gets stored in a specific directory?
Also, CCM server settings backup is done by a wizard which is written as log file. where can i find the log file. For restoring , will this log file would really be used?

I dont know the cluster key , if i reset the cluster key while CCM server settings backup, will that affect the existing BO environment?

Many Thanks for your valuable ideas.
Judia

judia (BOB member since 2008-06-24)

system · August 7, 2013, 4:03pm

No, no BIARfiles whatsoever are created automatically. And remember, BIAR files are not a valid backup. They are an addition to a backup. A valid backup consists of two parts:

a file backup (of the FRS)
and a database backup of the CMS database

Both backups (FRS & CMS database) must go hand in hand, because they might otherwise be out of sync. To prevent out of sync when doing a hot backup (=BusObjects server keeps running and is NOT taking OFFline) SAP introduced the CMC setting of the Hot backup time frame.

What is out of sync?
Imagine you are backing up the CMS database, which among other stuff contains pointers to the Webi documents, the pointer is the actual physical location of the *.wid files in the FRS. 30 min pass while this backup is running, in the meantime a user deletes the very same Webi report from the system, which removes it from the FRS. Now you start the backup of the FRS, but the *.wid file will be missing, and your CMS database backup has an invalid pointer. This is out of sync.

Andreas (BOB member since 2002-06-20)

system · August 9, 2013, 10:41am

Hi Andreas,

Thank you so much for your reply.
i am not able to do a cold backup of BO, as the users have to face downtime.
What i have understood is in Hot backup which is enabled in CMC automatically stores biar files in the time period for 240 mins.
Will that time is enough to take a complete backup.

For restoring where can i find the files generated by HOT backup.
I am sorry if i have confused you.
I will also use promotional management tool to promote objects into LCMBIAR files. I have the idea to store these LCMBIAR in an external hard disk.

I hope this is how everyone stores LCMBIAR files in case if they face any disaster .

You said that the promotional management tool can promote 100 info objects at a a time. So, which means i can promote 100 webi repots once. and next choose 100 crystal reports to promote.
What i understood is Promoting the objects,universes,users, groups,etc can be done in any order. This is for our own understanding i beleive.

Thanks in advance

Judia

judia (BOB member since 2008-06-24)

system · August 12, 2013, 11:12am

AGAIN, NO BIAR files are created, period. Unles you set them up as a job via LCM/Promotion Management. HOT Backup has NOTHING to do whatsoever with BIAR files.

The BusObjects repository consists of two parts:

Files part of the FRS (File Repository Server) AND
CMS database

Therefore a backup must consist of a:

File backup of the FRS AND
A database backup of the CMS database

No BIAR files here, understood! ,-)
There is a reason why it is called Promotion Management Tool (and not Backup tool)

Andreas (BOB member since 2002-06-20)

system · August 12, 2013, 2:38pm

Hi Andreas,

Thank you so much for replying.
I have understood that NO biar files will be generated in Hot backup.
The best way to perform a backup is copy the ifrs,ofrs folders files (directory specified in CMC).
also to perform a Database backup for cms.

Thank you so much for your effort.

Judia

judia (BOB member since 2008-06-24)

system · May 7, 2014, 7:42pm

I think there’s still a gap in understanding the Hot Backup feature. When I think of a backup, I envision physical files being saved (database dump or input/output zip file) and I can restore them. All the explanation of this Hot Backup feature doesn’t mention anything about any physical files.

I have opened a ticket with SAP and they only can talk about the settings and high level overview of Hot Backup. For some odd reason, no one can explain how Hot Backup works exactly.

Anyone knows?

gjwl_8 (BOB member since 2010-02-17)

system · May 20, 2014, 6:34pm

A hot backup will basically put the system in a sort of sleep state so that NO CHANGES ARE OCCURING. What this means is that you can be absolutly certain that your FRS and database backup will be in sync when you run your own CMS repository backup and FILESYSTEM backup. Thats it…

jsolomonic (BOB member since 2009-03-02)

system · May 21, 2014, 7:09am

and It will do so for 240 minutes?, so you have 240 minutes of time to create FSR file backup and CMS database back up and create a LCM BIAR?
After that the system will continue to process all activities which were done by the end-users during this time frame (240 minutes)?

Tiny (BOB member since 2004-11-10)

system · December 9, 2014, 3:10pm

Hi,

This discussion is a good summary of my interaction with SAP on this topic.

I know Hot Backup will ensure consistency between FRS and CMS Database but would like to understand the mechanism behind it.

In the CMC we can only set a timeframe of x minutes. How do i ensure that this timeframe starts at the exact same moment as the backup itself starts?

I have no way of indicating a date and time? I once got the reply it’s a “sliding window” 8).
But this would mean any changes are committed with a delay of x minutes? So changes of x minutes ago would still interfere with my backup.
Or does he commit every x minutes? But then this commit could happen in the middle of my backup?

So to summarize: How does this “Hot Backup” setting ensure consistency between FRS & CMS DB when i have no option to indicate when my backups are running.

Maybe i’m missing some basic OS / DBA knowledge?

Thanks if anyone can clarify.

lverstraeten (BOB member since 2006-11-02)

system · December 16, 2014, 2:53pm

Nobody any idea?

lverstraeten (BOB member since 2006-11-02)

JohnBClark · December 17, 2014, 3:39pm

From what I have observed, the hot backup option retains a deleted report in the file repository for the amount of time designated by the Hot Backup Maximum Duration (minutes): default 240. After the time has been reached, the report is deleted from the file repository. I don’t think it is a system wide backup.

I could be wrong about this but it is what I have observed.

system · March 28, 2017, 11:59am

Yes it keeps the multiple “possible” versions of a file/report that may have been edited, deleted during the period (default 240 minutes), so that there is a chance of preserving the synchronicity of the backed up CMS Database pointers with the actual filestore.

Then i assume under the hood, when you restore, the system would be able to fall on its feets gracefully (in other words the pointer in the restored CMS database would land on the right file in the restored Filestore).

It is worth noting this happens continuously, if you have left the Hot Back up switched on.

In other words, during every 240 minutes windows one can breath through during a day (i have not calculated how many there are), the filestore would retain in the same folder location, all edited and deleted versions of a report, during each of the 240 minutes windows.
So if you edited or deleted nothing whilst one of those 240 minutes window did not lapse, all you would see during that window and after it, is only 1 file (File 1a), until such time as you start to edit that file/report, then a second file appears (File 1b), and is retained for 240 minutes, after it first appeared, and then when the window lapses, the older file disappears (File 1a) and it is the second file that is kept (File 1b) forever, until you next edit it, etc…

So plan for your FileStore Storage accordingly, as one can edit a report many times in a given 240 minutes window (or whichever duration you have configured) !

PS: i assume the above “also” applies to instances of reports that get deleted via the Limits settings - insofar that it would have to keep the copy of that instance, as it was & existed before it got auto-deleted, for a period of 240 minutes, in case your CMS database backup was performed before the instance disappeared…

rascasse83 (BOB member since 2010-05-06)