Release 10.1A: OpenEdge Data Management:
Database Administration

> ## Incremental backups

> An incremental backup backs up only the data that has changed since the last full or incremental backup. Incremental backups might take less time and media to back up the database; the amount of time you can save depends on the speed of your backup device. You must use PROBKUP to perform an incremental backup.

> In an OpenEdge database, the master block and every database block contains a backup counter. The counter in the master block is incremented each time the database is backed up with an online, offline, full, or incremental backup. When a database block is modified, PROBKUP copies the backup counter in the master block to the backup counter in the modified database block. When you perform an incremental backup, PROBKUP backs up every database block where the counter is greater than or equal to the master block counter. If you specify the Overlap (`-io`) parameter, PROBKUP backs up every database block where the counter is greater than or equal to the master block counter, less the overlap value. For more information on the `-io` parameter, see the "PROBKUP utility" section.

> You must perform a full backup of a database before you can perform the first incremental backup. You should also perform full backups regularly in conjunction with incremental backups. If you do not perform full backups regularly, you will use increasing amounts of backup media for incremental backups and increase recovery time restoring multiple incremental backups in addition to the full backup.

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