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Question about incremental backups

Philip_D
Level 5

I usually do 1 full backup on Friday and then differentials Saturday through Thursday, but lately I've been wondering if it wouldn't be better for me to do incrementals Monday through Thursday.  I was under the impression that if I, for example, needed to restore an entire folder that is very frequently edited, I would have to restore the latest full and then every incremental from every day up until the day I needed the restore from.  After watching a video on the VMWare infrastructure agent, I've been lead to believe that Backup Exec might automatically pull what it needs from the other incrementals so that you only have to restore the full and the incremental.  Do I have this completely wrong?  Can someone please explain?  Thanks so much!

Backup Exec 12.5 and 2010 (currently in the process of moving from 12.5 to 2010) on Windows Server 2008.
5 REPLIES 5

tech29
Level 6
Hi Philip,

If you are using Full-incremental backup strategy then for restore.. you need last succesful full backup along with ALL  the incremental backups till the date of restore.

if you are using full-differential strategy then for restore you need the last successful full backup and ONLY the LAST differential backup.


Regards,
tech29

Philip_D
Level 5

Are you sure that hasn't changed in BE 2010?  This may just apply to the VMWare agent, but I keep seeing that it automatically combines incrementals to make a synthetic full backup.

JoaoMatos
Level 6
Partner
Hi hilip,
What Tech2 says is correct.
Any way:
You  only need the last full backup and last differencial backup, or all the incremental backups till the date of restore, if you need a full system restore.
If you are looking for a specific file 
May be the file you are looking for is in the last backup. 
In differencial backups the file is in the last diferential backup, but in Incremental, if the file is not in the last, you have to find it in the day before.

Regards,

JoaoMatos

tech29
Level 6
Yes, this has not been changed in BE 2010.  Synthetic full backup is a different kind of backup. There is a lot of difference in synthetic full backup and a  regular full backup.  You may refer to Backup Exec Admin guide for getting more idea about the synthetic backup.

REgards,
tech29

Ken_Putnam
Level 6
TECH29 is correct

Another thing to keep in mind is that  INCR backups will generally take about the same amount of time each night

DIFFs will take longer and backup more data as the week progresses, since they grab all changes since the last FULL (or INCR)

if your backup window is tight, you  may have to settle for daily INCRs just to fit your window.  If this is not a problem, then DIFFs are probably the better choice due to the reduced recovery time

The final decision can only be made by you, based on your business requirements