Backup Concepts (Full, Incr, Diff & Synthetic Full) for beginners

Summary

In this educational video by CorpVault-TechTalks, viewers will learn about different types of backup methods - full, incremental, differential, and synthetic full backups. It begins with the basics of backup concepts, explaining through examples of file and database servers how each type of backup functions. The video describes how full backups serve as a foundational snapshot, and how incremental and differential backups only save changes since the last backup. It also introduces synthetic full backups, which consolidate previous backups without transferring data anew. The tutorial is particularly useful for understanding the Commvault backup systems, though the concepts are widely applicable.

Highlights

• Learn the importance of backup types with a focus on Commvault! 🔍
• Explore full, incremental, differential, and synthetic backups - each with unique benefits 🌟
• See examples with file servers and database servers to solidify understanding 👨‍💻
• Understand why incremental backups are media-efficient - only changed data gets backed up! 🏞️
• See how synthetic full backups provide a complete backup view without extra client data transfers! 📞
• Grasp how differential backups accumulate changes since the last full backup, saving media over time 🌱

Key Takeaways

• Understanding backup basics is crucial for data protection 📚
• Full backups are the complete snapshot of your data - the baseline for all other types 🔄
• Incremental backups save changes since the last backup, saving media space efficiently 💾
• Differential backups store cumulative changes since the last full backup, offering a middle-ground solution ⚖️
• Synthetic full backups create a complete view from prior incremental/differential backups without new data transmission 🤖
• Different backup types suit different needs and scenarios - choose wisely! 📂

Overview

Welcome to the CorpVault-TechTalks channel where we dive into the essentials of backup strategies! In this video, you'll get an insightful look at various backup types that are essential for data protection in technological infrastructures. Whether it's safeguarding a file or database server, understanding these backups will enhance your data security knowledge.

We start with the 'full backup', the comprehensive method capturing all files and creating a baseline or reference point for future backups. Incremental backups take over by only saving changes since the last backup, optimizing for media space, while differential backups focus on storing changes since the previous full backup. This step-by-step guide makes these concepts easy to understand even for beginners.

The innovative 'synthetic full' backup ties everything together by synthesizing previous backups into a holistic image, without transferring new data. This video also hints at the functionality within Commvault systems, making it a rich resource for anyone looking to understand how to maintain a thorough and efficient backup routine. Don't miss out on mastering these vital digital preservation techniques!

Chapters

• 00:00 - 00:30: Introduction and Overview of Backup Types The chapter titled 'Introduction and Overview of Backup Types' begins with a welcome message to the Corpovault channel, encouraging viewers to like, share, comment, subscribe, and follow them on Instagram. The primary focus of the chapter is to discuss various backup types, which are mostly common to any backup system.
• 00:30 - 01:00: Server and File System Basics The chapter introduces the basics of servers and file systems, emphasizing different types of servers, such as file servers and database servers, and their common element: data. The focus is on how different servers (specifically file and database servers) handle data, and the underlying operating systems, namely Windows and Unix. It highlights the differences between these operating systems while noting their common functionalities, such as managing system state and operating system files.
• 01:00 - 01:30: File System Backup The chapter titled 'File System Backup' discusses the concept of system state and its components, highlighting which are essential for system recovery. It explores the nature of file backups, emphasizing that a file system can encompass various data forms, such as database tables, and active directory elements. The main point is that backups treat all files uniformly, without consideration for their type. In this way, the backup process is simplified to viewing every piece of data simply as a file.
• 01:30 - 02:30: Full Backup Explained Full backups, as explained in this chapter, begin with a complete scan of the server to create a catalog of all files, irrespective of their type. This process includes writing both changed and unchanged data to the backup media. For any client, the process of backup begins with such a comprehensive scan and data writing, ensuring a full backup. The chapter uses the example of six files (from A to F) to illustrate this process.
• 02:30 - 03:30: Incremental Backup Explained This chapter, titled 'Incremental Backup Explained,' describes the basics of how incremental backups work. It introduces the concept of a full backup as a baseline, to which incremental backups are subsequently applied. This baseline is referred to as version 0 of a file. The chapter further explains that when a file is changed—through creation, modification, access, or other attribute changes—the version number is updated to reflect these changes.
• 03:30 - 04:30: Handling New and Modified Files in Incrementals This chapter explains incremental backups, focusing on how they handle new and modified files. Incremental backups only store data that is new or changed since the last backup, rather than copying entire files. This approach significantly reduces the amount of media consumed compared to full backups.
• 04:30 - 06:00: Differential Backup Explained The chapter provides an explanation of how differential backup works. It begins with a description of how an incremental backup operates, which involves scanning and checking which files have been created, modified, or accessed since the last backup, and then cataloging them for backup. In the provided example, files named 'A' and 'B' are noted as modified, so changes made to these files are backed up. The chapter also poses a hypothetical scenario about the creation of a new file on a day when an incremental backup is scheduled, indicating that such files would be identified during the scan phase.
• 06:00 - 07:30: Synthetic Full Backup Explained The chapter explains the concept of a synthetic full backup. It begins with the process of checking files that have been modified since the last backup, highlighting that if a new file, such as file 'f', is found, a full backup of it is performed. For other files like 'b' and 'c', which are incrementals, only the changes made since the last backup are written to the backup media. This incremental backup process is applied consistently on other days as well. The chapter also notes an example where file 'd' is deleted on a Sunday.
• 07:30 - 08:30: Commvault Agents and Backup Considerations The chapter discusses different types of backups, focusing on incremental and differential backups. It describes a scenario where an incremental backup runs, and files that have not changed since the last backup (like "philly") are not backed up again, whereas a full backup on Monday backs up all files, including "filee".
• 08:30 - 09:30: Conclusion The chapter on conclusion discusses the different backup methods, focusing on differential and incremental backups. It explains that incremental backups depend on the previous day's backup, whether it's full or incremental, whereas differential backups only contain data that is new or has changed since the last full backup. An example involving scheduled backups on a Thursday and Monday is used to illustrate the point.

Backup Concepts (Full, Incr, Diff & Synthetic Full) for beginners Transcription

• 00:00 - 00:30 [Music] welcome to the corpovault channel in this video we will discuss various backup types please like share comment or suggest subscribe for more videos and you can follow us on instagram the backup types that we are going to discuss are mostly common to any backup
• 00:30 - 01:00 tool but we might focus on commvault if needed let's pick two servers a file server and a database server in both the servers the common element is data but the use might be different for a server operating system is common be it windows or unix the way unix works is different for windows apart from operating system files you have system state
• 01:00 - 01:30 the system state contains following components and services some might be non-essential but some are essential for system state recovery let's discuss file system backup with example do note that the file system could also represent other data such as database tables active directory objects and attributes ideally backup does not see a file by its type it only sees it as a file in other words
• 01:30 - 02:00 as a flat file and perform backup in our example we have six files from a to f full backups backups for any client start with a full backup a full backup when started it runs a full scan on the server and makes the catalog of all the files regardless of the type and then writes all the data on the server changed and unchanged to the backup media if we speak for convult then it is the
• 02:00 - 02:30 sub-client contents that will be scanned and backed up the full backup becomes a baseline to which subsequent backup types are applied in our example it is version 0 of a file also if the file is changed then the version number of the file is changed for easy understanding what contribute to the change of file it is usually created modified accessed and other attributes of the file which
• 02:30 - 03:00 can be seen from the file properties incremental backups an incremental backup contains only data that is new or has changed since the last backup regardless of the type it means the backup will not write the entire file to backup media but it will only write the changes made to the file since last backup to the backup media hence on average incremental backups consume far less media compared to full backups
• 03:00 - 03:30 when incremental backup start it will run a scan and checks which files been created modified accessed since last backup and then catalog them for backup in our example files a and b are modified hence changes made for those two files are backed up to backup media what if a new file is created on a day when incremental backup is scheduled during scan phase files that are created
• 03:30 - 04:00 modified accessed since last backup are checked if a new file is found then a full backup of that file is performed this is what happens to file f in our example other files b and c are incrementals hence changes made since the time of the last backup are written to backup media the same process continues on all incremental backups made on other days on sunday the file d is deleted before
• 04:00 - 04:30 the incremental backup is run the latest version of the file was backed up on thursday's incremental backup which can be recovered if needed if you have noticed philly did not change therefore it was not backed up in any of the incremental backups on a monday a full backup has run which backed up all the files present on that day including filee let's discuss differential backup in our
• 04:30 - 05:00 example let's say on a thursday and monday differential backups are scheduled by now you know incremental backups are dependent on previous days backup be it full or incremental a differential backup contains only the data that is new or has changed since the last full backup in our example the thursday's differential backup contains files with changes made from last full backup
• 05:00 - 05:30 likewise monday's differential backup contains files with changes made from last full backup like incrementals differential backups on average consume less media compared to full backups differential backups are cumulative this means that each differential backup contains all changes accumulated since the last full backup in our example each successive differential backup contains all the changes from the previous
• 05:30 - 06:00 incremental or differential backup let's discuss synthetic full backup as the name suggests it is a synthesized backup it is created from the most recent full backup that is a standard or synthetic backup and subsequent incremental and or differential backups the resulting synthetic full backup is identical to what would have been created by a normal full backup unlike full incremental and differential
• 06:00 - 06:30 backups a synthetic full backup does not actually transfer data from a client computer to the backup media in this sense it is not really a backup at all rather a backup consolidator synthetic full backups enable you to create full backups from existing incremental and differential backups because the source data originates from existing backups no new data is backed up unless the run incremental backup option is selected in
• 06:30 - 07:00 convult running an incremental backup immediately before the synthetic full ensures that any new or recently changed data is included in the synthetic full running an incremental backup immediately after the synthetic full ensures that any new or recently changed data since the backup performed is backed up by the incremental we have catalogued some of the commvault agents and their supported backup types
• 07:00 - 07:30 please go through them please note for microsoft sql agent if you have enabled auto discover instance in sql configuration and if and database admin adds a very large database then the subsequent transaction log or differential backup might run long because of newly added database backup being converted to full backup we will end this video here do subscribe for more videos
• 07:30 - 08:00 if not already done so do subscribe for more videos thank you