Backup & Storage Resilience
SAP HANA Backup Architecture Across Hyperscalers
Backint-certified backup technologies, storage replication tiers, managed disk types, and cost analysis for Azure, AWS, and Google Cloud.
3
Backint-certified solutions
6×
GRS copies across regions
15 min
RPO with log shipping
16.8 GB/s
Max backup throughput (AWS)
01 — Replication Tiers
Backup Storage Redundancy
How many copies of your backup data exist, and where they live, determines your resilience against datacenter, zone, and regional failures.
Azure — Recovery Services Vault Redundancy
LRS
Locally Redundant Storage
3
copies in one datacenter
Three synchronous copies within a single storage scale unit. Lowest cost. Protects against rack and drive failures only.
ZRS
Zone-Redundant Storage
3
copies across 3 availability zones
Synchronous replication across three AZs within the same region. Survives an entire zone outage. Data residency stays in-region.
GRS
Geo-Redundant Storage
6
copies across 2 regions
Three LRS copies in the primary region + three LRS copies asynchronously replicated to a paired region hundreds of miles away. Cross-Region Restore enables reads from secondary.
AWS — S3 & Backup Vault Replication
S3 Standard
Same-Region, Multi-AZ
3+
copies across ≥3 AZs automatically
S3 Standard stores data redundantly across a minimum of three AZs within a region. 99.999999999% (11 9s) durability by default.
CRR
Cross-Region Replication
6+
copies across 2 regions
S3 CRR asynchronously replicates objects to a bucket in another region. Each destination bucket also stores across ≥3 AZs. AWS Backup supports cross-region vault copy natively.
One Zone-IA
Single-AZ Infrequent Access
1
AZ (multiple copies within it)
Stores data in a single AZ at ~20% less cost than Standard-IA. Not recommended for SAP backups — data lost if AZ is destroyed.
GCP — Cloud Storage Bucket Topology
Regional
Single Region Bucket
2+
copies within the region
Redundant within a single region. Lowest latency for co-located HANA instances. Standard class at $0.020/GB/mo.
Dual-Region
Two Specified Regions
4+
copies across 2 regions
Data replicated across two specific regions you choose. Turbo replication available for sub-15-minute RPO. Standard class at $0.022/GB/mo.
Multi-Region
Continental Geographic Area
6+
copies across continent
Data distributed across a continental area (US, EU, ASIA). Highest availability at $0.026/GB/mo. 8 parallel channels recommended.
02 — Backint-Certified Solutions
SAP HANA Backup Agents
All three hyperscalers offer SAP-certified Backint agents that stream backup data directly from HANA to cloud object storage, bypassing disk entirely.
Azure Backup Plugin for HANA
Backint-certified native integration using HANA streaming APIs. Supports full, differential, and log backups via Backint + HANA-consistent managed disk snapshots with vault support for long-term retention.
Backup Configuration
catalog_backup_using_backint: true
parallel_data_backup_backint_channels: 1
log_backup_timeout_s: 900
backint_response_timeout: 7200
RPO: 15 minutes
Parameters set at database level — host-level settings override and must be removed. Snapshot-based backup stores in Standard HDD tier at managed disk snapshot pricing.
Storage Tiers
Vault-Standard tier for operational recovery. Archive tier for compliance retention (180-day minimum). Cross-Region Restore available with GRS vaults.
Redundancy Options
Recovery Services Vault supports LRS, ZRS, and GRS. GRS is default and recommended. Reserved capacity available in 100 TB and 1 PB increments for 1 or 3 years.
Security
Immutable vaults with WORM compliance, soft-delete protection (14-day default), multi-user authorization, and Azure RBAC integration. Enhanced policy (preview) adds instance snapshot support.
Backup Process Architecture
Microsoft Learn
End-to-end flow: Recovery Services Vault → VM registration → HANA discovery → Backint plugin → streaming backup. View documentation →
HANA System Replication + Backup
Microsoft Learn
HSR-aware backup with failover handling and log chain consistency checks across primary and secondary nodes. View documentation →
Snapshot Backup Architecture
Microsoft Learn
Managed disk snapshot flow — managed identity permissions and resource group placement for HANA-consistent snapshots. View documentation →
Snapshot Restore Architecture
Microsoft Learn
Restore flow — reading disk snapshots, creating managed disks, and attaching to target VMs via managed identity. View documentation →
03 — Managed Disk Tiers
Storage Performance for SAP HANA
The disk tier underneath your HANA database directly impacts backup performance, snapshot speed, and cost. Only certain tiers are SAP HANA certified.
Ultra
Ultra Disk
Sub-millisecond latency. Adjustable IOPS/throughput at runtime. SAP HANA certified. LRS only.
400K
Max IOPS
10 GB/s
Max throughput
64 TiB
Max size
P.v2
Premium SSD v2
Sub-ms latency. 3,000 baseline IOPS + 125 MB/s free. Granular per-GiB pricing. SAP HANA certified.
80K
Max IOPS
2 GB/s
Max throughput
64 TiB
Max size
P1
Premium SSD (v1)
Single-digit ms latency. Fixed tier pricing (P1–P80). Bursting available on P30+. SAP HANA certified. Supports ZRS.
20K
Max IOPS
900 MB/s
Max throughput
32 TiB
Max size
Std
Standard SSD / HDD
Not SAP HANA certified. Use for /usr/sap, backup staging, or non-HANA workloads only.
6K / 3K
Max IOPS
750 / 500
MB/s throughput
32 TiB
Max size
Snapshot backup: Azure Backup takes HANA-consistent managed disk snapshots stored as Standard HDD. First snapshot is full; subsequent are incremental (delta changes only). Snapshots are billed per used data, not provisioned capacity. Ultra Disk supports only LRS — no ZRS snapshots.
Azure NetApp Files (ANF): NFS-based storage alternative to managed disks. Native snapshots (space-efficient, instant), Cross-Region Replication (CRR) via SnapMirror. Often preferred for HANA /hana/data and /hana/log at scale — avoids disk striping complexity.
04 — Backup Architecture
Disk-Based vs Stream-Based Backup
Two fundamentally different approaches to protecting HANA data — each with distinct RPO, RTO, and cost characteristics.
Stream-Based (Backint)
HANA streams backup data directly to cloud object storage via the certified Backint agent. No local disk staging required. Supports full, incremental, differential, and continuous log shipping.
HANA DB
Data + Redo Logs
→
Backint Agent
Parallel streams
→
Object Storage
S3 / Blob / GCS
→
DR Region
CRR / GRS / Dual
Advantages
- No local backup disk required
- Native HANA integration (SAP-supported)
- Granular PITR with log shipping
- Storage tiering reduces long-term cost
- Cross-region replication built in
Considerations
- Restore slower than snapshot (full stream)
- Network bandwidth dependency
- Large DBs need tuning (channels, concurrency)
- Encryption can limit parallelism (GCP)
Disk-Based (Snapshots)
Storage-level snapshots of the managed disks or volumes hosting HANA data and log files. HANA-consistent when integrated with the backup agent (Azure, GCP) or application-consistent via pre/post scripts.
HANA DB
Freeze I/O
→
Managed Disk
Incremental snap
→
Snapshot Store
Delta only
→
DR Region
Copy / replicate
Advantages
- Near-instant recovery (attach snapshot)
- Incremental = low ongoing cost
- No backup throughput bottleneck
- Fast for very large databases (multi-TB)
- Low compute overhead during backup
Considerations
- Coarser RPO (no continuous log shipping)
- Requires log backups for PITR
- Cross-region copy adds latency + cost
- First-access latency penalty (without FSR)
Best practice: Combine both approaches. Use Backint streaming for continuous log shipping (RPO ≈ 15 min) and periodic full/incremental backups. Use disk snapshots for rapid recovery and as a secondary protection layer. This “belt and suspenders” approach is recommended by SAP and all three hyperscalers.
05 — Cost Comparison
Backup Storage Pricing
Per-GB monthly costs for backup data across storage classes and replication tiers. Prices shown for US regions.
| Storage Tier | Azure | AWS (S3) | GCP (Cloud Storage) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hot / Operational Backup | |||
| Standard (single region) | ~$0.028/GB (LRS vault) | $0.023/GB | $0.020/GB |
| Zone-redundant | ~$0.035/GB (ZRS vault) | Included (S3 = multi-AZ) | Included (regional) |
| Geo-redundant | ~$0.050/GB (GRS vault) | $0.023 + CRR transfer | $0.022/GB (dual-region) |
| Multi-region / continental | N/A (paired region only) | $0.023 + CRR to chosen region | $0.026/GB (multi-region) |
| Cool / Infrequent Access | |||
| Infrequent access tier | Archive tier (vault) | $0.0125/GB (Standard-IA) | $0.010/GB (Nearline, 30d min) |
| One-zone / reduced | N/A | $0.010/GB (One Zone-IA) | N/A |
| Cold / Archive | |||
| Cold storage | Archive tier | $0.004/GB (Glacier Instant) | $0.004/GB (Coldline, 90d min) |
| Deep archive | N/A | $0.00099/GB (Deep Archive) | $0.0012/GB (Archive, 365d min) |
| Retrieval fee | Blob Archive pricing | $0.01–$0.03/GB | $0.01–$0.05/GB |
| Disk Snapshots | |||
| Snapshot storage | ~$0.05/GB (incremental) | $0.05/GB (EBS snapshots) | ~$0.048/GB (PD snapshots) |
| Cross-region snapshot | + data transfer | $0.01/GB copy + storage | Multi-region snapshot pricing |
| Archive snapshots | N/A | $0.0125/GB (EBS Archive, 90d) | N/A |
| Additional Costs | |||
| Protected instance fee | Yes (per HANA instance) | N/A | N/A |
| Restore cost | Free (standard tier) | Per-GB from cold tiers | Per-GB retrieval fee |
| Reserved capacity | 1yr/3yr (100TB / 1PB) | N/A | N/A |
Hidden cost: AWS and GCP include multi-AZ redundancy in their base pricing, while Azure charges separately for ZRS. A fair comparison of geo-redundant backup costs must include Azure GRS vs AWS Standard + CRR vs GCP dual-region — the base S3/GCS price already includes zonal redundancy Azure LRS does not.
06 — Cost Estimator
Backup Storage Cost Calculator
Estimate monthly backup costs based on your HANA database size, retention policy, and target redundancy level.
4 TB
4 weekly fulls retained
5% daily change
Estimated Monthly Cost
$1,096
Azure Backup (vault)
$556
AWS (S3 + Backint)
$483
GCP (Cloud Storage)
23.6 TB
Total backup data stored
Breakdown
Full backups (4 × 4 TB)16 TB
Differential backups4.8 TB
Log backups2.8 TB
Total stored23.6 TB
07 — Decision Framework
Choosing Your Backup Strategy
Match your RPO/RTO requirements and budget to the right combination of backup technology and storage tier.
Non-Production
Backint weekly full + daily differential to Standard-IA / Nearline. LRS/single-region. No disk snapshots needed.
Standard Production
Backint daily full + continuous log shipping. ZRS/multi-AZ storage. Weekly disk snapshots for fast recovery. Standard storage class.
Mission-Critical
Backint + continuous log + daily disk snapshots. GRS/dual-region with cross-region copy. HSR for database-level replication in parallel.
Zero Data Loss
Synchronous HSR (RPO=0) + Backint + snapshots + GRS vault + immutable/WORM retention. Belt, suspenders, and body armor.
Protect Your SAP Investment
Let Skynome design a backup architecture that balances resilience, compliance, and cost across your SAP landscape.
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