Are there any know issues / challenges in using vSphere Snapshots for SAP deployments?

Hi Nick,

SAP note 1056052 describes :

"When using VMware snapshots, consult VMware KB 1025279 (http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1025279). Make sure that the Virtual Machine has no active snapshot before reporting performance problems. If you run Microsoft SQL Server on VMware, read Microsoft KB 956893 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/956893)."

However, I am not aware of any SAP customer using VMware snapshots and I hear from my VMware contacts this is not supported in production.(Although, I am not finding an SAP OSS note confirming that statement)

Additional considerations are:

SAP systems protection usually focuses around the database, where all data is stored. Backing up a database with multiple terrabyte requires usually a) to suspend writes of the DB before taking a snapshot (otherwise the snapshot is not write consistent) and b) to be very fast to not impact production activities. This is typically done with SAN based tools like Timefinder operations (clones, snapshots) or RecoverPoint.

RecoverPoint adds another very important dimension VMware snapshots cannot. SAP systems usually come in "herds" because several SAP applications (ERP, CRM, BW, SRM) a customer runs requires a federated Point in Time Recovery model. Only RecoverPoint in combination of consistency groups can offer that level of protection utilizing CDP. Additionally, the same tool and process can then be used to provide Disaster Recovery by utilizing RecoverPoint's CRR.

Cheers,

Christoph

Just received this from a VMware SAP specialist. See answer below- You cannot use snapshots for SAP systems. They are not supported and not recommended for production.  You can only use them during testing\sandbox etc but not as a production “backup” scenario.

Anyone care to comment?

Nick

This is a link to key practices for SAP virtualization on VMware.

http://scn.sap.com/docs/DOC-27321