Best PracticeBackup and Restore for

Best Practice
Backup and Restore for SAP System Landscapes
© 2010 SAP AG page 42/64
5 Managing Incomplete Recovery
Databases offer the possibility to perform a point-in-time recovery, which means recovering the database with
the help of the database logs to any point in time between a backup and the current time. Previously, point-in-
time recovery (or incomplete recovery) was considered an acceptable option to remove logical errors from a
system by recovering the system to a point before that error occurred. In a system landscape of multiple
databases exchanging data, a point-in-time recovery is less feasible since it will cause data inconsistencies
between the systems, as discussed in Implications of an Incomplete Recovery. The inconsistencies need to
be resolved in an additional recovery phase we call business recovery. Because of this, incomplete
recovery needs to be avoided in a system landscape and alternate approaches for handling logical errors
should be exploited, see Avoiding Incomplete Recovery.
Before doing an incomplete recovery of a productive system, open a call at SAP and check if
the situation can be solved using SAP Note 434645 or the Best Practice “Emergency Handling for
Recovery of SAP System Landscapes”.
But still, in rare cases, there might be recovery situations when an incomplete recovery of a system cannot be
avoided. This raises the need to identify and deal with the resulting inconsistencies between the systems.
Since these activities need to be part of the recovery process, they should be introduced in a B&R concept,
see Performing an Incomplete Recovery in a System Landscape and Handling Data Inconsistencies between
Systems.
5.1 Avoiding Incomplete Recovery
As discussed above, incomplete recovery of a system in a system landscape will result in data
inconsistencies between the systems of a landscape and needs to be avoided whenever possible. This
section looks at possible reasons for incomplete recovery and shows ways of avoiding it.
Incomplete recovery may result mainly for the following reasons which will be regarded more closely in the
next sections:
x Technical problems when trying to perform a complete database recovery
x Incomplete recovery as a means to back out logical errors
x Restoring the backup of a filesystem
5.1.1 Incomplete Recovery Due to Technical Problems
A main task of the B&R concept must be to avoid technical problems becoming a reason for an incomplete
recovery. The following measures should be taken to prevent incomplete recoveries due to technical
problems: