Backup Types: Full, Incremental
Learn about the importance of database backups, the differences between full and incremental backups, their pros and cons, and when to use each type effectively.
Imagine our OnlineStore database, bustling with customer orders, product updates, and new user registrations. Suddenly, a critical hardware failure occurs, and the server housing our database crashes! Without a safety net, all that invaluable data, customer histories, sales records, and inventory levels could vanish in an instant. This scenario, while daunting, underscores the absolute necessity of what we’re about to explore: database backups. They are our lifeline in times of data disasters. In this lesson, we’ll dive into the fundamental backup types that every Database Administrator must master.
Our learning objectives for this lesson are:
Understand the concept and critical importance of database backups.
Clearly differentiate between full and incremental backup types.
Weigh the advantages and disadvantages associated with each backup type.
Identify practical scenarios where each backup type is the most suitable choice.
The foundation: Full backups
A full backup is the most comprehensive type of backup we can perform. Its importance lies in creating a complete, self-contained copy of our entire database at a specific point in time. Think of it as a complete snapshot. If a disaster strikes, like data corruption or a server failure, a full backup can be our primary tool to restore all our data and get our OnlineStore back online. Without it, we risk permanent data loss, which could be devastating for any business.
Essentially, a full backup captures everything: all database objects (like tables, indexes, stored procedures) and all the data within them. For our OnlineStore database, a full backup would copy the Categories, Products, Customers, Suppliers, Orders, Order_Details, and Product_Suppliers tables, along with every single record they contain.
The primary advantage of ...