SAP MaxDB Agent: Data Aging

Getting Started

Data Aging is the process of removing old data from secondary storage to allow the associated media to be reused for future backups.

You can change the retention of your data based on your needs.

Setting Up the Basic Retention Rule

1. From the CommCell Browser, expand Policies > Storage Policies > storage_policy.

2. Right-click the appropriate storage policy copy, and then click the Properties.

3. In the Copy Properties dialog box, on the Retention tab, under Basic Retention Rule for All Backups, click the Retain For, and then enter the number of days to retain the data.

   Note

   For database backups, you can retain data only based on the number of days.

4. Click OK.

5. In the Confirm Basic Retention dialog box, click Yes.

6. On the ribbon in the CommCell Console, on the Reports tab, click Forecast, and then click Run.

7. The Data Retention Forecast and Compliance report displays the data to be pruned when a data aging job is run.

   Note:

   • To ensure only data intended for aging is actually aged, it is important to identify the data that will be aged based on the retention rules you have configured. Hence, ensure this report includes only the data you intend to age.

     If necessary, fine-tune your rules so that only the intended data is aged.

Running the Data Aging Job

1. From the CommCell Console, right click the CommServe node, click All Tasks > Data Aging.

2. In the Data Aging Options dialog box, in the Job Initiation area, define whether the data aging job runs immediately or if it will be scheduled.

3. Click OK.

   If you chose to run the job immediately, the data aging job starts now.

   If you chose to run the job according to a schedule, the data aging job runs according to the schedule that you defined.

   After data aging job is run, the data will be pruned from the storage.

Extended Retention Rules

Extended retention rules allow you to keep specific full (or synthetic full) backups for an additional period.

Extended retention rules can be used in the following circumstances:

• If you have a single drive tape library

• If you want to create a hierarchical retention scheme (grandfather-father-son tape rotation)

Extended retention rules allow you to define three additional "extended" retention periods for full (or synthetic full) backups. For example:

• You may want to retain your weekly full backups for 30 days.

• You may want to retain your monthly full backup for 90 days.

• You may want to retain your yearly full backup for 365 days.

A backup job will be selected for extended retention based on its start time. For example: If a backup job starts at 11:55 pm on August 31st and ends at 1 am on September 1st, then it will be selected as the last full backup for the month of August and will be picked up for extended retention.

In all other cases, we recommend you use Auxiliary Copy for extended storage since it creates another physical copy of the data, thereby reducing the risk of data loss due to media failure.

Setting Up the Extended Retention Rules

Use the following steps for setting up the extended retention rules:

1. Right-click the storage policy copy and click Properties.

2. Click the Retention tab.

3. Set the basic retention rules by clicking Retain for and entering the number of days and cycles appropriate for your organization.

4. Set the extended retention rules as follows:

   1. Click the For button.

   2. Enter the number of Days Total to retain the backup.

   3. Click the Keep drop-down list, and select the desired backup criteria (for example, Monthly Full, Weekly Full).

   4. Click the Grace Days drop-down list and select the number of days (for example, 2).

      This allows you to consider the additional number of days along with the Extended Retention rule. For example, if the last full backup job fails with in the defined extended retention criteria, then the next full backup job that ran in the specified grace days will be selected for retention.

5. Repeat Step 4 to configure additional extended retention.

6. Click OK.

   

Data Aging for Log Backups

The SAP for MAXDB iDataAgent uses the command line to perform the data and log backup operations. Log Backups are not considered part of the backup cycle. However, a log backup will be linked to a full data backup operation based on the type of backup job.

The following table determines the behavior and retention policy of log backups:

Configuring Retention Rules for Backups

You can manually set the retention time for each command line job from the storage policy copy. The log backups will be aged according to the retention time set for its associated data backup job.

1. From the CommCell Console, click the Storage tab.

2. Click the Media Management icon.

3. Click the Data Aging tab.

4. Select the Days to retain the jobs when cycles are ignored and retention days on copy is 0 option and set the desired number of retention days.

5. Click OK.

   

Configuring Retention Rules for Unlinked Log Backups

If a full backup job is run on data and logs, then the next log backup will not be linked to this full backup job. An unlinked log backup will follow the unique data aging rules for log backups. Use the following steps to configure the retentions rules by set number of days.

1. From the CommCell Console, click the Storage tab.

2. Click the Media Management icon.

3. Click the Data Aging tab.

4. In the Prune All Database Agent Logs Only By Days Retention Rule, type 1 to enable pruning for all database agent logs based on the days retention.

5. Click OK.

   

Data Aging Rules for Jobs Completed with Errors

Jobs that are completed with errors are not treated as a valid full backup job and hence are pruned based on basic retention rules. However, if you require to apply extended retention rules to these jobs, you can exclude the jobs that completed with errors during extended retention calculations.

1. From the CommCell Console, click the Storage tab.

2. Click the Media Management icon.

3. Click the Data Aging tab.

4. Change the value for the Ignore Completed With Errors job option for Extended Retention calculations option from 1 to 0.

5. Click OK.