What are SAP BR*Tools ?

The SAP BRTools for Oracle is a package of utilities developed by SAP AG to

protect and manage SAP data stored in Oracle databases. BR*Tools supports
functions for online or offline, partial or full backups of database (BRBACKUP) and
backup of archived redo logs (BRARCHIVE). It provides functions for database
restore and recovery (BRRECOVER and BRRESTORE). BR*Tools can be used not
only for database recoverability tasks, but it can also serve as a tool for
creating homogenous database copies and can assist with database migration to
different platforms or database versions. BR*Tools backup and restore functions can be
accessed either from the user interface (BRGUI or BRTOOLS) or directly from the
command line or script by executing the commands BRBACKUP, BRARCHIVE,
BRRESTORE, and BRRECOVER. The BR*Tools executables are located in the
/sap/<SID>/SYS/exe/run directory.

BRBACKUP
BRBACKUP is the BR*Tools utility that enables online or offline backup of database files
such as data files, control files, online redo log files and also BR*Tools configuration
profiles and logs that are required for the database disaster recovery. Before taking the
offline backup, BRBACKUP automatically closes the database and opens it as soon as
the backup is accomplished.
BRARCHIVE
BRARCHIVE provides functions for offline redo log files backup in Oracle databases
running in archiving mode. The redo log is the most important database component for

a recovery from a crash, media failure, or user failure. Therefore, at least the production
databases should be configured in archiving mode. To prevent the archivelog
directory from filling up, BRARCHIVE should be executed periodically to move the
offline redo logs from the the archive directory to the backup media. The most common
use of BRARCHIVE is to back up the offline redo log files to backup storage and delete
the backed up log files from the archivelog directory.
In addition to data files and redo logs, BRBACKUP and BRARCHIVE can also back up
the following objects
BR*Tools profiles init<SID>.ora and init<SID>.dba

The BRBACKUP and BRARCHIVE logs

The summary BRSPACE log space<SID>.log, the log of database

structure changes struc<SID>.log, and the log of database parameter
changes param<SID>.log.

BRRESTORE
BRRESTORE is used to restore the whole database or parts of it (data files, control
files, and archive redo log files). Before BRRESTORE starts placing the data files back
into the file system, it determines whether there is the appropriate free space on the file
system. In addition to restoring data files, BRRESTORE can also recovers the
directories and links.
BRRECOVER
BRRECOVER is a BR*Tools component used for database restore and recovery after
media errors, user errors, or disasters occur and the entire database has to be restored,
including backup profiles and logs. It can also be used to recover the entire
database or part of the database. To restore data files, BRRECOVER calls the utility
BRRESTORE.
Use the restore and recovery functions for Complete database recovery, Database
point-in-time recovery, Tablespace point-in-time recovery, Whole database reset and
complete Disaster recovery. BR*Tools backup repository is backed up together with a
database when using the BRBACKUP tool. The log files are located in the following
directories
The BR*Tools logs associated with data file backup functions in
<SAPDATA_HOME>\sapbackup directory.

The BR*Tools logs associated with redo log backup tasks

in <SAPDATA_HOME>\saparch directory.

All these SAP BRTools utilities uses the BACKINT interface to take the SAP database
backup and restore functions. You can only take Full SAP database backup through
BACKINT interface. You can start a full backup either in online mode or in offline mode.
In case of the online type, the offline redo log files generated during the full backup are
also backed up to the same media.
BRTOOLS uses below process to take the SAP database backup

BR*Tools utility BRBACKUP informs Oracle what data has to be backed up and
puts the database into the proper backup state, online or offline.

BRBACKUP calls Tivoli Data Protection for SAP using the BACKINT interface
with a list of all files to be backed up.

Data Protection for SAP reads all the requested files from the database
and reports back to BRBACKUP. BRBACKUP adds these files to the
repository containing all processed backups.

BACKINT saves the data to Tivoli Storage Manager.

BR*Tools updates the file repository containing information about the status
of the files.

The BR*Tools configuration is stored in the initialization profile file init<SID>.sap. The
configuration file contains parameters that affect the performance of backup and restore
functions. The default location of the file is
In UNIX
In Windows

<ORACLE_HOME>/dbs
<ORACLE_HOME>\database

How does the old SAP database & redologs backups get expired or deleted ?

The old SAP database and archived redologs backups can be expired in two
ways. You have to choose which method to use for your environment before
going to configuration steps. The backup retention policy can configured either
on the Tivoli Storage Manager server side by the archive copy group parameter
RETVER or on the side of Tivoli Storage Manager for ERP by specifying the
parameter MAX_VERSIONS in the configuration profile (init<SID>.utl).

The parameter MAX_VERSIONS defines the maximum number of

database backup versions to be kept in backup storage. The default setting for
this value is 0, meaning that backup version control is disabled.

Every time a full backup completes successfully, the version count

is incremented by 1 and stored in the TDP for SAP configuration file. This value
is also assigned to the tablespace files and to all subsequent redo log backups.
If the number of versions kept in backup storage is larger than the
specified maximum
number
of
backup
versions
(stored
in
the
parameter MAX_VERSIONS), the oldest versions are deleted (together with
the corresponding tablespace and redo log files) until only the specified
maximum number of most recent versions remain.

A Tivoli Storage Manager server uses the value of the parameter

RETVER specified when defining an archive copy group to give files an
expiration date. If you use Data Protection for SAP backup version control, you
need to bypass this expiration function. If you use the Tivoli Storage Manager
expiration function, you need to turn off Data Protection for SAP backup version
control. Use only one of these methods to control how long you keep backups.

If you use Data Protection for SAP backup version control, set the Tivoli
Storage Manager parameter RETVER to RETVER=9999 so that the files are
not considered expired and are not deleted by Tivoli Storage Manager. If you use
Tivoli Storage Manager expiration, deactivate DP for SAP versioning by setting
MAX_VERSIONS=0.

Steps to configure IBM TDP for SAP for taking SAP database backup
using BR*Tools
You can perform the following steps to configure BR*Tools to use the Tivoli Storage
Manager BACKINT adapter with Tivoli Storage Manager for ERP
Steps to be performed on the Tivoli Storage Manager server
Define a policy domain with two management classes that will be used to transfer
data and logs.

Define an archive copy group for each of the management classes. If the
retention control will be performed at the Tivoli Storage Manager server, specify
RETVER=<days> for the number of days for each archive copy group.

If retention control will be performed at the Tivoli Storage Manager for ERP level,
specify RETVER=nolimit.

Register the Tivoli Storage Manager node with the defined domain.

Update the parameter MAXNUMMP for the Tivoli Storage Manager node to
MAXNUMMP=<value> (based on the number of drives available).

Steps to be performed on the client node

Update or create dsm.sys file for the Tivoli Storage Manager API client.
The parameter
PASSWORDACCESS=PROMPT
must
be
set
for
this configuration.

Configure the environment values DSMI_DIR and DSMI_LOG for the Oracle
user. the Tivoli Storage Manager API client looks for the dsm.sys configuration
file in the directory specified by DSMI_DIR.

Install Tivoli Storage Manager for ERP - Oracle on the Oracle server, with SAP
already installed. The installation wizard lets you specify the name of Tivoli
Storage Manager server stanza in dsm.sys file, the Tivoli Storage Manager node
name, and the management classes to be used for backup of data and archived
logs.

Configure the client resources for Oracle server in the Tivoli Storage Manager for
ERP configuration file <ORACLE_HOME>\dbs\init<SID>.utl.

In the initSID.utl file, check the defined Tivoli Storage Manager node name and
Tivoli Storage Manager management classes to be used for the backup of offline
redo log files and data files. Make sure that the SERVER parameter refers to
an existing stanza in the dsm.sys file. See the below example images, first

image is parameters in initSID.utl file and second image is dsm.sys file

parameters.

Remember, if you specify ADSNODENAME in initSID.utl file then you must not
be specify again in dsm,sys file.

If the retention control will be driven by Tivoli Storage Manager for ERP, set up
the MAX_VERSIONS parameter.

Switch the user to the Oracle instance owner and update the password of the
Tivoli Storage Manager node using the following command
backint -p <full_path>\init<SID>.utl -f password

Instruct BR*Tools to use the BACKINT interface by setting the backup_dev_type

parameter in the SAP initialization file (init<SID>.sap) as follows

- See more at: http://www.tsmtutorials.com/2014/02/tsm-erp-tdp-sap-oracle-brtoolsbackup.html#sthash.sd6x7RQC.dpuf