Synthetic backup meaning1/17/2024 Let’s visualize how much data is copied from a source server to a backup server by using a backup scheme with an active full backup once a week and daily incremental backups. However, only data of the changed blocks (B4, D1) was copied on Sunday (day 8) to the backup repository by running an incremental backup instead of copying all data by running an active full backup.Īs a result, we have a full backup on Sunday (8) after doing two operations: creating an incremental backup and creating a full synthetic backup. The data set in a backup repository on Sunday (day 8) is the same as on a source server (A4, B4, C1, D1). As a result, we have a synthetic full backup on Sunday (day 8) with blocks (A4, B4, C1, D1). The data is assembled by using the first full backup made on Sunday ( day1) and the chain of subsequent incremental backups (days 2 to 7). In this case, a full backup is synthesized from the previous increments. All data is copied from the source server to a destination backup server.Īfter a week, a synthetic full backup is created on Sunday (day 8) instead of creating an active full backup. Sunday is day 1 in our backup schedule, and we create the initial active full backup as shown in the image below. Incremental backups are created once every day. The backup cycle is configured to create a full backup once a week on Sunday. If block A1 changes again, it is renamed to A2, and so on and so forth. For example, if block A changes, its name becomes A1. After a change, 1 is added to the block name. Let’s say that we have four blocks (A, B, C, D) on a disk, and some of these blocks change every day. Now let’s consider an example of how a synthetic full backup works. Using synthetic full backup is the optimal way to create periodic full backups as this approach is fast and doesn’t rely on production machines. Only a backup server and target disks (where backups are stored) are loaded. The increments in the backup storage are used as the source for creating this synthetic full backup. In this case, there’s no load on production or source servers, disks, and networks as no data is copied from the source machine. Synthetic full backup involves using the last full backup and the following chain of incremental backups to synthesize a new full backup periodically. Here’s where the synthetic full backup comes in. This is one of the reasons why it is usually recommended that you create a full backup at regular intervals and use an incremental-with-full-backup approach for a reliable data protection strategy.Ĭreating a full backup periodically still places a load on production machines and networks. One more disadvantage is that if one of the increments in the chain is corrupted, you cannot recover data backed up starting from this incremental backup. The more increments you need to replay for restoring data, the more time recovery takes. Restoring data by using a chain of incremental backups takes more time compared to a full backup because you need to “play the changelog” and reassemble data by using the chain of multiple increments. Incremental backups are fast and require less storage space for data changes than storing the whole data set for a full backup. As the chain of full backups grows over time, the amount of backup data becomes quite large and consumes a lot of storage space in the backup repository.Īn incremental backup involves copying only data that has changed since the last full or incremental backup.Workloads such as VMs running on a source server may slow down.Creating full backups places an extra load on both the infrastructure resources (processor, disk drives, memory) and the network.However, an approach relying exclusively on full backups of virtual or physical machines has its drawbacks: Modern backup solutions require using the traditional approach to backup and, thus, performing full backups periodically. A full backup that copies all data directly from a source machine is called an active full backup. The advantage of a full backup is the high level of reliability and ease and speed of data restores. Full backupĪ full backup involves copying all data from the source machine to the target storage. We will also cover forever-incremental backups, which share some characteristics with synthetic backups. Let’s first look at the full and incremental approaches used in a synthetic full backup. This means that a backup solution does not have to transfer the full amount of data from the source machine and can synthetize the latest incremental backups with the last full backup to create the next synthetic full backup. DISCOVER SOLUTION What Is Synthetic Full Backup?Ī synthetic full backup is a backup approach that involves creating a new full backup by using the previous full backup and related incremental backups.
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