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Definition

This section describes incremental backups for the Oracle database. SAP backup tools support incremental backup with the Oracle Recovery Manager (RMAN). In an incremental backup, only the changes that have been made since the last full backup are saved.

Incremental backups improve the performance of the database backup, saving both time and memory. If you do not save as much time as expected, this is because each block has to be checked individually to see if it needs to be backed up, that is, whether it has been changed or not.

Incremental backups are especially useful for regular backups of large databases.

Caution

An incremental backup cannot be used on its own to recover the database. You must always have the preceding full backup as well.

You can only make incremental backups with the RMAN. For more information, see RMAN Backup Strategies.

Use

To be able to make an incremental backup, you must first make a full backup (level 0). A full backup of the database backs up all Oracle database blocks that have already been used.

You can then make incremental backups. An incremental backup (level 1, cumulative) of the database backs up all Oracle database blocks that have changed since the last full backup (level 0).

Example

The following describes a weekly backup scenario:

Note

The SAP incremental backup has the advantage that it comprises a backup (level 0) of the new files that were created as a result of tablespace extensions after the last full database backup. This means that you do not need to make a full backup of the entire database immediately after such extensions.

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