I'm new to DB backup. I just learned about backup types from this question(Link). After I read the differential backup is cumulative since the last full
, I got curious if multiple full and differential backups are not mandatory.
For example, I have backups like this:
full_backup_2018_05_09_000000.bak
tran_backup_2018_05_09_000500.trn
tran_backup_2018_05_09_001000.trn
diff_backup_2018_05_09_001500.bak
tran_backup_2018_05_09_002000.trn
tran_backup_2018_05_09_002500.trn
diff_backup_2018_05_09_003000.bak
tran_backup_2018_05_09_003500.trn
tran_backup_2018_05_09_004000.trn
diff_backup_2018_05_09_004500.bak
tran_backup_2018_05_09_005000.trn
tran_backup_2018_05_09_005500.trn
full_backup_2018_05_09_010000.bak
...
What's the difference between this and using one full backup and transaction log backups like this?
full_backup_2018_05_09_000000.bak
tran_backup_2018_05_09_000500.trn
tran_backup_2018_05_09_001000.trn
tran_backup_2018_05_09_001500.trn
tran_backup_2018_05_09_002000.trn
tran_backup_2018_05_09_002500.trn
tran_backup_2018_05_09_003000.trn
tran_backup_2018_05_09_003500.trn
tran_backup_2018_05_09_004000.trn
tran_backup_2018_05_09_004500.trn
tran_backup_2018_05_09_005000.trn
tran_backup_2018_05_09_005500.trn
tran_backup_2018_05_09_010000.trn
...
time point
You must restore: last full before tp + every diff between last full and tp + every tran between last diff and tp. So diff backups decrease the total amount of backups to restore.