A FlashArray Protection Group is an administrative container for volumes which will be protected together. Volumes are added to a protection group by adding individual volumes, hosts or a host groups (volumes attached to hosts or host groups are added to the protection group by association). Protection group snapshots create a snapshot of each volume apart of it, creating a consistency group - where all the volume snapshots in the group will be consistent with one another to that point in time.
SAP HANA Crash Consistent storage snapshots need to be created as apart of a protection group to ensure the log and data volumes are consistent with one another.
To create a protection group, in the FlashArray GUI navigate to the Protection section and select "Protection groups". To create a Protection group on the local system select the "+" in the top right hand corner of "Source Protection Groups".
When the "Create Protection Group" prompt is shown give it a name.
Once the Protection Group has been created navigate towards it and Add either the SAP HANA Hosts, Host Groups or Volumes.
Scale Up
A Scale Up SAP HANA system will typically have a single log and data volume (assuming this is a single instance system).
Add the Log and Data volume to the protection group.
Once the volumes, hosts or host groups have been added to the protection group, snapshots can be created by selecting the "+" in the top right hand corner of the "Protection Group Snapshots" section.
Give the protection group snapshot a name and choose to apply any further policies to it such as a retention policy or to have the snapshot asynchronously replicate to a target.
Once the snapshot has been created it will show up in the "Protection Group Snapshots" section.
Selecting the Protection Group Snapshot will show which snapshots were created as apart of it.
Scale Out
In a Scale Out environment there will be multiple data and log volumes, as each worker node will have its own log and data volume.
Once the volumes, hosts or host groups have been added to the protection group, snapshots can be created by selecting the "+" in the top right hand corner of the "Protection Group Snapshots" section.
Give the protection group snapshot a name and choose to apply any further policies to it such as a retention policy or to have the snapshot asynchronously replicate to a target.
Once the snapshot has been created it will show up in the "Protection Group Snapshots" section.
Selecting the Protection Group Snapshot will show which snapshots were created as apart of it.