3396152 - FAQs about Backup, Recovery and Disaster Recovery Services for S/4HANA Public Cloud Customers

You have question related to Backup, Recovery & Disaster Recovery services for your SAP S/4HANA Public Cloud Edition.

SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition

1. What backup strategy is used in SAP S/4HANA Public Cloud?

   In the SAP S/4HANA Public Cloud, backup services include regular data backups and archive log backups to ensure data protection and recovery.

   The database is backed up based on the following strategy

   • Productive system: Daily data backups, with archive logs backed up multiple times a day

   • Nonproductive system: Weekly data backups, with archive logs backed up multiple times a day
   
   

2. What are the backup cycles for productive and non-productive systems?

   Productive systems have daily data backups with a 30-day retention period

   Non-productive systems have weekly data backups with a 14-day retention period
   
   

3. Where are the backups of the SAP S/4HANA Cloud stored?

   The backups of SAP S/4HANA Cloud are stored in a secure offsite location which ensures data safety and redundancy.
   
   

4. What measures are in place to validate the integrity of S/4HANA Cloud backups?

   The SAP uses appropriate processes and automated tools to validate backup integrity. Backup logs are reviewed daily to detect and correct any failures, ensuring all backups are reliable and recoverable.
   
   

5. How can customer confirm that their data is backed up successfully by SAP?

   As this is a SaaS product, backup management is fully handled by the SAP. Customers can access the SAP Trust Centre for detailed information on compliance and security practices.
   
   

6. Are the costs for backup and data restoration included in the subscription?

   Yes, customers do not need to pay additional fees for backup and data restoration services, as these are included in the subscription.
   
   

7. Can customer export and backup the data by their own?

   No, the customer cannot take backups or export the data on their own.

   However, customers can download their SAP S/4HANA business or archiving data from SAP S/4HANA cloud systems to a local system using the Customer Data Return application.

   For additional information on Customer Data Return application please refer: Working with Customer Data Return | SAP Help Portal
   
   

8. Can customers restore their data within the retention period for both productive and non-productive systems?

   Restore is not a service available on request for customers for the productive and nonproductive system. It is only available in an emergency to mitigate risks from logical errors, such as data corruption and other irreparable situations.
   
   

9. What are the recovery options available for data restoration?

   The range of data restoration options includes the ability to restore data to any desired point in time within the backup retention period for production and non-production systems.

    

   Disaster Recovery
   
   

10. What are the disaster recovery services offered for SAP S/4HANA Public Cloud?

    The disaster recovery services provide failover and restoration of the system to a remote data center.

    In SAP S/4HANA Public Cloud it offered in Standard DR and EDR services.

    Both DR and EDR services aim to ensure business continuity, EDR provides advanced features like continuous data replication and a defined Recovery Time Objective (RTO) of currently 12 hours and Recovery Point Objective (RPO) of 15 minutes.

    For eDR the remote data centers are in a remote region.
    
    

11. Which service do I get if I have standard DR and not the enhanced DR?

    The description of the backup and restore from above FAQ 1 describes standard DR service. A comprehensive comparison you can find in the DR and B&R Fact Sheet in the Trust Center.
    
    

12. Does Customer have the option to subscribe to DR services?

    Yes, Customers have the option to subscribe to these services for SAP S/4HANA Cloud.
    
    

13. Is the EDR service included in the standard SAP S/4HANA Cloud subscription?

    The EDR service is optional and subject to additional fees.
    
    

14. What happens in case of a disaster resulting in the loss of the production data centre in SAP S/4HANA Cloud?

    Commercially reasonable efforts are made to restore productive tenants from the backups as soon as practicable. The recovery process involves retrieving backups and prioritizing tenant restoration based on predefined guidelines.

    In EDR service the recovery time is shorter, ensuring quick restoration of services with max. 15 minutes data loss.

    In both cases the URL of the customer system stays unchanged by the failover
    
    

15. What are the operational characteristics of the DR data center?

    The DR data centre offers an in-place network, security measures, storage capabilities, and a basic set of replacement servers. The standby database is maintained at the remote site with continuous data replication.
    
    

16. At what interval is the customer's data replicated?

    The customer's productive data is continuously replicated using SAP HANA system replication to a data centre in a second region. The purpose of continuous replication is to ensure data redundancy and availability by maintaining a synchronized copy of the productive data in a secondary data center.

    The continuous replication service is only applicable to the productive system and not for nonproductive systems.
    
    

17. Can noncritical updates of the cloud service be restricted during failover under the disaster recovery service?

    Yes, while operating under the disaster recovery service failover the noncritical updates of the cloud service may be restricted to prioritize stability and avoid potential disruptions.
    
    

18. What are the geographical locations covered by the service availability for continuous replication?

    Customer from all locations can use the service. The service itself is made available in DCs in EU, Canada, US, India, Japan and Australia
    
    

19. Do disaster recovery services apply to SAP S/4HANA Cloud add-ons and customizations?

    The disaster recovery services do apply to add-ons for SAP S/4HANA Cloud developed on embedded steampunk.

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