How to Test and Monitor Disaster Recovery for SAP

One of the most popular and powerful technologies many businesses use is SAP. It is the market leader in enterprise resource planning (ERP) software. It helps companies of all sizes and industries to integrate and manage their core processes, such as finance, sales, procurement, production, human resources, and more. SAP systems are complex and critical for business performance and continuity.

A Disaster Recovery (DR) plan is a set of procedures and actions to restore SAP to a normal or acceptable state after a disaster. A disaster can be anything that causes a significant loss of data, functionality, or performance of SAP, such as hardware failure, network outage, cyberattack, natural disaster, or human error.

Understanding DRaaS for SAP

SAP is a backbone for many enterprises as their business-critical applications depend on SAP. Disaster Recovery as a Service allows businesses to back up their critical data and applications in the cloud. For SAP-dependent businesses, this means that if their primary systems fail, they can swiftly switch to the replicated environment, retrieving their data and continuing their business operations.

However, the implementation of DRaaS for SAP has challenges that must be addressed properly. This article explores some of these challenges and explores strategies and tips to overcome them.

Types of Disaster Recovery Tests for SAP

Different types of DR tests can be performed for SAP systems, depending on the scope and complexity of the scenario. Some of the common Disaster Recovery tests are:

Full test: A full test involves shutting down the primary SAP system and restoring it from the backup in the secondary site. This test validates the entire DR process, from backup to restore, and verifies that the SAP system is fully functional after the recovery.

Partial test: A partial test only restores a subset of the SAP system components or data from the backup in the secondary site. This test validates the restored components or data and verifies that they are consistent and compatible with the primary system.

Simulation test: A simulation test involves creating a copy of the primary SAP system in the secondary site without shutting down or affecting the primary system. This test simulates the DR scenario and verifies that the backup and restore procedures work as expected.

The frequency and schedule of DR tests depend on several factors, such as:

• The necessity of the SAP systems.
• The RPO and RTO requirements.
• The frequency of changes to the SAP system.
• The availability of resources.

Some best practices for testing DR for SAP are:

• Plan and document the DR test objectives, scope, steps, roles, and responsibilities.
• Backup the primary SAP system before performing the DR test.
• Identify the gaps and issues during the DR tests.
• Update and improve the DR plan based on the feedback and lessons learned from the DR test.

Monitoring of Disaster Recovery for SAP

Monitoring the Disaster Recovery for the SAP system includes checking the status and health of the backup and restore process. Moreover, the availability and performance of the secondary SAP system is also monitored. This ensures the restore process and the secondary systems are up and running and are ready to take over in the case of a disaster.

Some best practices for monitoring DR for SAP are:

• Set up your RPO and RTO objectives and ensure that they meet the requirements of your business.
• Perform regular checks on the secondary system and ensure they are synced and updated with the primary systems.
• Enable the alerts or notifications for the failure of the backup or restore process.
• Update and improve the DR plan based on the feedback and lessons learned from the DR test.
• Perform periodic performance tests and benchmarks on the secondary SAP system to verify that it meets the SLA and RTO requirements.

Conclusion

Disaster Recovery is a vital aspect of SAP system management, as it ensures business continuity and data protection in a disaster. Testing and monitoring DR for SAP systems are important activities that help validate and improve the DR plan and ensure the readiness and reliability of the secondary SAP system.

Contact Us today if you want to set up a firm Disaster Recovery plan for your SAP systems!