Re: Differential Backups

"Ian Harding" <ianh@tpchd.org> writes:

> I have been thinking about backups.  I currently do one a day.
> However, I thought it might be nice to get differential backups
> through the day.  I should be able to generate dumps throughout the
> day, generate a diff from my baseline dump, and just keep the diff,
> right?  Then to do a restore I would just patch for the point in
> time I wanted to restore to?  Seems like it would work, but whether
> it would save any hard drive space would depend on how much activity
> the database saw.  Anyone doing this now?

Interesting idea.  The one thing I might worry about is that 'diff'
might (I'm not familiar with its algorithm) eat a great deal of memory
if the dumps you're comparing are very large and significantly
different.

I'd say give it a try and see how you like it.

-Doug
--
Let us cross over the river, and rest under the shade of the trees.
   --T. J. Jackson, 1863