Linking data sources with SAP ASE
The dSource is an object that the Continuous Data Engine uses to create and update virtual copies of your database. As a virtualized representation of your source data, it cannot be managed, manipulated, or examined by database tools. For an overview of all dSource related actions, please visit Managing Data Sources.
Continuous Data for SAP ASE databases leverages backup-based ingestion, which means that Delphix will look for, or sometimes initiate the creation of, a backup through your SAP ASE backup server. From there, the backup is restored on a staging server and the staging copy is then ingested into Delphix. See Delphix Architecture with SAP ASE for more information.
When linking a dSource from an SAP ASE source database, Delphix offers several different methods of capturing backup information:
ASE Managed Backups, where the SAP ASE source database schedules and initiates backups. This method supports various backup types which include:
Full backups
Transaction log backups (with LogSync disabled)
Transaction log backups (with LogSync enabled)
Delphix Managed Backups, where the Delphix Engine schedules and initiates the backups from the source database, and captures them.
ASE managed backups
Further contextual information on the various backup types (listed above):
Full Backups - A snapshot will be created on the Delphix Timeflow for each Full backup.
Transaction log backups (with LogSync disabled) - A snapshot will be created on the Delphix Timeflow for each transaction log backup.
Transaction logs
Transaction logs are not collected if:
a) there are gaps in the sequence of log backups (a break in the “log chain”).
b) the available log backups do not include any changes since the last successful Delphix snapshot.
Transaction log backups (with LogSync enabled) - A snapshot will be created on the Delphix Timeflow for each transaction log backup. In addition, point-in-time provisioning will be an available option if you would like to provision from any point in between snapshots.
Log files
Log files consume additional space on the Delphix Engine and are managed according to the defined retention policy for logs.
Delphix managed backups
When the checkbox for Delphix Managed Backups is selected, the Delphix Engine will initiate a full backup of the source database for the initial load of the dSource. Thereafter, the Delphix Engine will initiate full backups of the source database using the schedule specified by the selected SnapSync Policy. If you select the None policy, the Delphix Engine will not automatically initiate a full backup, but you can initiate them manually using the snapshot (camera) icon.
Delphix looks for the backup files on the staging host (unless a "remote" backup server is used in which case, the remote host is used which is often the source environment)
Procedure
Login to the Delphix Management application.
Navigate to Manage > Datasets.
Click the plus icon and select Add dSource.
Note:
Delphix looks for the backup files on the staging host (unless a "remote" backup server is used in which case, the remote host is used which is often the source environment.In the Add dSource wizard, select the source environment with the correct environment-based user.
Enter your login credentials for the source database and click Next.
Enter a name and select a group for your dSource. Adding a dSource to a dataset group lets you set Delphix Domain user permissions for that database and its objects, such as snapshots. See the topics under Users and Groups for more information.
Select the Data Management settings needed, as described in Data Management Settings for ASE Data Sources.
From the Data Management tab under the Initial Load option, select and enter any additional settings needed. There are three options for the initial load of the dSource:
If the source ASE instance resides on the same server as the staging ASE instance, the staging database's NFS mounted "temp" directory will be present for the source database to write to in response to the "DUMP DATABASE" command.
If the source and staging ASE instances are configured to allow remote access to the backup servers and the dSource is linked using the Remote Server option as described below. Delphix will then issue the "DUMP DATABASE" command and append the "AT <staging_backup_server_name>" clause so that the dump is written to the staging backup server.
(Recommended) New Full Backup - Lets Delphix create a new full backup file and load it. Note - that when Delphix creates the backup, it is moved to Delphix’s NFS-mounted storage located on the stage host rather than. The backup will be located in the “temp” directory and will be deleted once the Delphix Engine has restored the backup and created a dSource from the restored staging database. This means that this option will work under two scenarios:
Most Recent Existing Full Backup – Find the most recent existing full backup file in the Backup Location and load it.
Note:If Dump History is not active on the Source Database: Choosing this option can delay completion of the dSource link as Delphix attempts to find and catalog every single backup listed in the source database's backup server log file.
Specific Existing Full Backup – Specify which backup files in the Backup Location you want to load. Choosing this option is much faster because Delphix will skip directly to loading the desired backup and only start to search for and catalog backups in the background after the linking of the source database has completed.
Note:When using a dump taken with the deprecated compression syntax, select the Specific Existing Full Backup option for Initial Load and, for each stripe, type compress::<file name> into the text box.
Select the Staging environment and ASE instance that will be used to manage the staging database used for validated sync of the dSource.
Select any policies for the new dSource.
Click Next, then specify any pre-hook and post-hook scripts.
Review the dSource Configuration and Data Management information, and click Submit to begin provisioning the VDB.