Incremental backup guidelines

Go Up to Creating incremental backups

When specifying an incremental backup, keep the following information in mind:

• Performing an incremental online dump still requires a full scan of the source database.
• The performance improvement accrues from limiting the number of page writes to the online dump files, especially if those files are located on a remote file server.
• Multiple online dumps of the same or distinct databases can be run concurrently though this would not be recommended for performance reasons.
• An active online dump can be cancelled by the InterBase Performance Monitor or killing the GBAK process.
• External tables are not backed up by an online dump.
• External tables may not be accessible if the online dump is attached as a read-only database. If the external file pathnames cannot be accessed from the online dump location, there is no way to modify the metadata of the dump without making the dump a read-write database. If it is made a read-write database, it can no longer be a target for online dump again.
• Since an online dump is a physical backup, the online dump files are not transportable to other hardware platforms. To make the backup transportable, use traditional logical backup of gbak using the -t switch.
• When a CREATE JOURNAL ARCHIVE statement is executed, InterBase uses the online dump feature to copy the database to a journal archive directory. For more information about journal files and journal archiving, see Journaling and Disaster Recovery.

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• Executing an incremental backup