Your customer wants to create application-aware backups of their SAP HANA databases, which are running on VMware vSphere. What two steps must be…

To perform application-aware backups of SAP HANA with NetApp SnapCenter, two fundamental components are required. First, the SnapCenter Plug-in for SAP HANA must be installed on the database host. This plug-in facilitates communication with the SAP HANA database to quiesce it, ensuring a transactionally consistent state before the storage snapshot is taken. Second, a backup policy must be created. This policy defines critical parameters for the backup job, including the backup schedule, retention duration for the snapshots, and replication settings, which are essential for managing the backup lifecycle according to the customer's requirements.

C. Install the plug-in for Unix file systems.

This plug-in is for generic file-level backups and lacks the capability to interact with the SAP HANA database to ensure application consistency.

D. Install the plug-in for VMware vSphere in SnapCenter software.

This plug-in manages VM-level snapshots, which are typically crash-consistent, not application-consistent. The SAP HANA plug-in is required to operate within the guest OS for database-aware backups.

1. NetApp SnapCenter 4.8 SAP HANA Administration Guide:

Reference for B: In the section "Installation and setup workflow for SnapCenter Plug-in for SAP HANA," the guide states, "You must install and configure the SnapCenter Plug-in for SAP HANA to protect your SAP HANA databases." This establishes the plug-in as a mandatory component.

Reference for A: In the chapter "Protecting SAP HANA resources," the section "Create a backup policy for SAP HANA resources" details the necessity and procedure for creating policies to define backup frequency, retention, and other settings.

2. NetApp Technical Report TR-4614: SAP HANA on NetApp All Flash FAS Systems with NFS:

Reference for B & A: In the "SAP HANA Backup and Recovery with SnapCenter" section, Figure 21 illustrates the architecture, showing the "SnapCenter Plug-In for SAP HANA" installed on the database server. The accompanying text describes the workflow: "The backup policy defines the backup frequency, the number of backups to be retained... The policy is then applied to a resource group." (Page 35). This confirms the necessity of both the specific plug-in and a defined policy.