Skip to Main Content
  • Questions

  • RMAN full back vs Incremental Backup

Breadcrumb

Question and Answer

Connor McDonald

Thanks for the question.

Asked: May 19, 2017 - 7:12 am UTC

Last updated: May 23, 2017 - 1:57 am UTC

Version: 11g R2 Oracle database

Viewed 1000+ times

You Asked

Hii AskTOM Team.

I also refer following two website for my problem.

https://docs.oracle.com/cd/E11882_01/backup.112/e10642/rcmcncpt.htm#BRADV109

https://www.pythian.com/blog/rman-full-backup-level-0-incrmental/


But I have confusion about RMAN Incremental backup level 1 and 0 and cumulative.
I know very well what's a RMAN full backup. but when we are going on Incremental backup level 0 and 1 then i don't know anything.

So what's level come first level 1 or level 0 come first?

can u explain me in simple terms so i can understand which either level 1 should come first and day to day level 0 or vise versa.

10x In-advance.

and Connor said...

A full backup is a copy of the datafiles.

An incremental level 0 is the same, but the difference is, it can then be used in a "strategy" or "plan" that you have to manage incremental backups.

So if you consider a typical example of (say):

- backup everything on monday
- backup the changes since monday on tuesday

then if you took a *full* on monday, this can *not* be used as the base for that second backup. It must be an incremental level 0. You can think of a full as a "standalone" copy, whereas an incremental level 0 is a complete copy taken that can be used as part of other incremental schemes.

A level 'n' incremental backup is all of the changes since an incremental of a lower level of n. So you could do something like:

monday: level 0
tuesday: level 1 - changes since mon
wednesday: level 2 - changes since tue
thursday: level 2 - changes since wed
friday : level 2 - changes since thu
saturday: level 1 - changes since tue

but in my experience, I've rarely seen people use lots of different levels. Much more common is just level 0 and level 1.


Rating

  (1 rating)

Is this answer out of date? If it is, please let us know via a Comment

Comments

A reader, May 20, 2017 - 10:43 am UTC

Have any dynamic performance view or any table in oracle database so we get more detail about which backup in incremental backup or full database backup?
Connor McDonald
May 23, 2017 - 1:57 am UTC

RMAN> list backup;

tells you all the details about backups.
more

Connor and Chris don't just spend all day on AskTOM. You can also catch regular content via Connor's blog and Chris's blog. Or if video is more your thing, check out Connor's latest video and Chris's latest video from their Youtube channels. And of course, keep up to date with AskTOM via the official twitter account.

More to Explore

Backup/Recovery

Check out the complete guide to all of the Backup & Recovery techniques in the Oracle Database.