Planning the Backup and Recovery

To protect your data, develop and implement a backup plan. Ensure that you have created and tested your backup and recovery commands as part of the plan.

Some of the factors that you need to consider include:

• Where are the database files located?
• What files need to be backed up?
• Where are the backup files stored?
• How does the backup affect database or application performance?
• Will the database server be running while you run the backup?

Some of the most common situations that require recovery include:

• Failed media
• Failed hardware
• File corruption your specific disaster recovery plan.

External factors, such as available hardware, the size of database files, recovery medium, disk space, and unexpected errors can affect your recovery time. When developing your backup plan, allow additional recovery time for tasks such as entering recovery commands or retrieving and loading tapes.

• Database Files to be Backed Up
  The SAP Mobile Platform files to be backed up include SQL Anywhere database files, and transaction logs.
• Database Files Location
  This section describes the location of database files for single-node and cluster deployments.
• Backup Files Location
  Keep the backup files on a separate hard drive and, ideally, in a separate geographic location from the original database and transaction log files. The media for storing the backup copies (for example, tape drives, disk drives or removable disks) depends on how large the backup data is and how often you need to restore the backed up data.
• Backup Frequency
  The frequency of each backup type depends on the type of data that you are protecting. The frequency of full and incremental backup depends on the volume of data, criticality of the data being mobilized, and recovery point objectives. It is a common practice to perform full backup after the initial installation, and before and after major upgrades and scheduled maintenance.  Incremental backup is based on the recovery point objective (RPO) service-level agreement (SLA), that is, the maximum amount of lost data you can tolerate in the event of a disaster. Alternatively, incremental backup can be based on the length of time your organization can function without access to the data in your database.
• Types of Backup
  SAP Mobile Platform uses SQL Anywhere to store data. SQL Anywhere includes different mechanisms and options for backing up the data. See SQL Anywhere documentation to learn more about the different backup options, and select the right approach based on your business requirements and backup strategy.
• Database Connections Strings
  Many backup and recovery tasks require you to connect to a database using various command line tools. These tools use a connection string that defines connection variable values required for a given database. Before entering a connection string, use dbisql, located in SMP_HOME\Servers\SQLAnywhere16\BINXX, to verify that you can connect to the database.