Purpose

This WIKI provides best practices for backing up the Business Planning and Consolidation for Microsoft environment.

Overview

In order to have an effective backup strategy for SAP BPC, you should be aware of what the key components are. SAP BPC has four functional pieces that need to be backed up.

The first two parts are NTFS folders that need to be backed up using a third party tool that has ‘open file agent’ functionality. Open file agent means that if files are in use (active on the web server), they can still be backed up.

• WebFolders – Directory (repository) containing all application set information relating to the design of the application set as well as all reports, books, and schedules (X:\OutlookSoft\Data\Webfolders \AppsetName)
• FileDB – Directory (repository) containing all application set information relating to the publication of books (X:\OutlookSoft\Data\FileDB\AppsetName) The second two parts are databases that need to be backed up using either third party tools/agents or using SQL Enterprise Manager (or both).
• SQL Databases – Need to have backups of the SQL databases (data and transaction logs depending on corporate standards) in order to recover to a single point in time in the event of a software/hardware failure. There are two SQL databases and are named according the specified application set name. For example:
  • Application Set Name: ApShell  
  • SQL Database: ApShell  
  • SQL Audit Database: ApShell_Extra

• OLAP Databases – Need to have backups of the Analysis Services databases in order to recover from a hardware/software failure. This task can be automated several different ways. The SAP BPC preferred method is by leveraging SQL jobs in SQL Enterprise Manager. There (can be) two OLAP databases and they are named according the specified application set name. For example:
  • Application Set Name: ApShell 
  • OLAP Database: ApShell 
  • OLAP Insight Database: ApShell_BPU (ONLY IF INSIGHT IS ENABLED)

In addition to the Application Set databases, AppServer database should have backups performed regularly. This database contains information related to all SAP BPC Application Sets and Server configuration parameters. 

Once the above procedures have been met, IT should perform a full test if the backup strategy to guarantee that the backups are working and that the IT team is familiar and comfortable with this task in the event of a hardware/software failure.

Simple recovery method

In the simple recovery model, an SAP BPC application can be recovered to the point of the last full backup. This strategy is relatively simple to implement, but it does not provide recovery to the point of failure. Updates performed after the last available full backup will have to be redone manually. The backup and recovery steps for simple recovery are outlined in this section. To perform a recovery to the point of failure, see the Full Recovery instructions.

Backing up databases and files

You should schedule backups of SQL Server and Analysis Services databases, as well as SAP BPC WebFolders/FileDB on a nightly basis. Having these items backed up allows you to perform a simple recovery.

Backing up Microsoft SQL Server for simple recovery. Use Enterprise Manager to backup SQL Databases for Simple Recovery:

• Perform a nightly backup of the master and msdb databases 
• Perform a nightly backup of the <appserver> database 
• Perform a nightly backup of the ApShell and ApShellExtra database 
• Perform a nightly backup of each of your organization-specific application set databases. Each application set is contained in a separate SQL database.

Backing up files and folders

To back up files and folders, do the following:

1. Perform a nightly backup of all files and folders in the SAP BPC Data Folder directory. This directory is normally located in: <driveletter>:\Outlooksoft\Data, where <drive letter> is the letter of the hard drive where SAP BPC files are stored.  
   Note: You must use an ‘Open File Agent’ to backup Data files that may be in use by the Web server. These files and folders can be used to reload metadata from the saved excel sheets. Report and Input Schedule templates are saved in these folders as well. If data has been loaded via text files, these files will also be stored within this folder structure. The following represents a summary of the files contained within the WebFolders directory. These files are available for all Appsets: 
   
   • Dimension XLS files  
   • User XLS file  
   • Report and Input Templates 
   • Data Conversion XLS files 
   • Data files (if loading from text or other file) 
   • Admin Templates 
   • Appset publications 
   • Application Publications 
   • Private Publications  
2. Perform nightly backup of all files and folders in <drive letter>\Outlooksoft\Data\FileDB. This folder contains all the books published for all available Appsets. 
3. Perform nightly backups of files in <drive letter>\OutlookSoft\Websrvr\Insight\InsightRepTemplate This folder contains the configuration for users KPI’s in Insight. File name site_’Application Set name’.
   

Full recovery method

The Full Recovery model uses database backups and transaction log backups to provide complete protection against media failure. If one or more data files are damaged, media recovery can restore all committed transactions. In process transactions are rolled back. In this recovery model, the SAP BPC application can be recovered to the point of the last incremental backup. This strategy, although more difficult to implement than the simple recovery method, can provide recovery to the most recent incremental backups made. Depending upon the size of the database these incremental backups of various SAP BPC components can be scheduled up to every X hour.

Backing up Microsoft SQL Server databases and files

The database server needs to be setup in full-recovery mode. To guarantee this degree of recoverability, all operations, including bulk operations such as SELECT INTO, CREATE INDEX, and bulk loading data, are fully logged.

Use Enterprise Manager to backup SQL Databases for full recovery:

• Database backups:  
  • Perform a nightly backup of the master and msdb databases.  
  • Perform a nightly backup of the <appserver> database.  
  • Perform a nightly backup of the ApShell and ApShellExtra database 
  • Perform nightly backup of each of the other application set databases. A separate database exists for each application set.
    
• Differential backups (optional):
  • Perform differential backup of the <appserver> database every X hours during business hours.
  • Perform differential backup of each of the other application set databases every X hours during business hours.
• Transaction log backups:
  • Perform transaction log backup of the <appserver> database every X hours during business hours.
  • Perform transaction log backup of each of the other application set databases every X hours during business hours.
    
  • Ensure that you have a working full database backup, you will not be able to apply any transaction logs if your full database backup has not been applied, and will result in an error and unsuccesful restore.

Related Content

Related Documents

Related Notes

SAP Note 1502464  - How To Prepare an BPC MS Appset for Transfer / How to reduce the size of an appset for transferring to SAP.