Hi Johan,
I don't think Legato Networker can backup a SAP (or any) database straight
to tape without the appropriate add-on module (SQL_Server, or the
SAP_on_Oracle ones). That was the case with Networker 6.1.3 I've worked with
and I wouldn't think they changed that in version 7.
The thing with Legato (unlike Veritas) is that they provide 60-day trial
keys for all their products in the supplied media kit, so I would assume
that your client is probably using a module for they SAP_DB in evaluation
mode.

The advantage of using an add-on module - assuming they have their SAP on MS
SQL Server (and this stands true for both Networker and NetBackup) - is that
they talk straight to the SQL Server using the Virtual Device Interface
(VDI) API, so it's not really a surprise that Legato is backing up their
databases faster (although the times differences as you describe them are
really amazing).  
I would think that  similar principles are used with Oracle or other
databases.

For a proper evaluation you would have to try backing up using the same
method (i.e. dumping the DBs on disk and then back them up - assuming you
cannot get a key for the NetBackup add-on module) and then compare the
results.

Hope this helps

Regards,

Panos 


-----Original Message-----
From: Johan Redelinghuys [mailto:jredelinghuys AT stortech.co DOT za]
Sent: Thursday, August 28, 2003 10:01 AM
To: Veritas-bu AT mailman.eng.auburn DOT edu
Subject: [Veritas-bu] SAP_DB backups.


Hi All

We've got a client that uses SAP_DB. We setup Netbackup (4.5_2) to backup
the data. The data gets staged to disk and then to tape, as there is no
Netbackup agent that we can use to backup directly to tape. This work fine
but the backup takes long to complete.

The client installed Legato to compare. Legato can backup straight to tape.
The back on Legato takes 1 hour compared to 3 hours on Netbackup. Is there
any other way that we can setup Netbackup to compete with Lergato?

JR
Jredelinghuys AT stortech.co DOT za