Full vs Incremental vs Differential Backup: Backup Types & Differences

Are you confused between different backup types, wondering which strategy offers the best protection for your valuable data? Deciding between incremental and differential backup, or even where a full vs. incremental vs. differential backup fits into your plan, can be confusing.

Understanding the differences between data backup strategies is essential for implementing backup best practices.

In this article, we’ll explore the advantages and disadvantages of incremental backups and compare them against different backup and recovery methods.

Whether you’re evaluating cloud backup options, seeking backup solutions for businesses, or simply trying to determine which is better, differential or incremental backup for your specific needs, this guide will clarify these complex concepts and help you make informed choices about your incremental data storage.

Let’s get started!

What are Backups?

Backups are one of the most important components of any system administration strategy. We actively create copies of our critical data from individual files and databases to complete server images, and store them in a secure, separate location. This proactive measure ensures we can recover our systems and information following data loss events, such as hardware failures, accidental deletions, or malicious attacks.

However, most people think just making a copy of data is enough to protect it.

A well-planned backup strategy is not just about having copies of data but about having a reliable path to recovery, which also means testing the restores. If you cannot restore a backup, it is useless.

What is a Full Backup?

A full backup is a comprehensive copy of all selected data. This includes every file, database record, configuration setting, and other relevant data within a specified system or application. Think of it as taking a complete snapshot of your system at a given time.

System administrators initiate full backups to ensure they have a complete, independent version of the data readily available for restoration. This type of backup does not rely on any previous backup, making it self-contained and simple to restore from. This is often the most important backup in your entire system.

RunCloud’s Full Backup Options for Web Apps

RunCloud provides a user-friendly interface for initiating full backups of web applications.

In the RunCloud dashboard, you can navigate to the specific web application, and in the “Backup” section, you’ll find options for triggering on-demand backups. These backups can save all of the app’s components, including the web application files, the database (if one is associated), and any related Nginx configurations. RunCloud allows you to specify the backup destination, including local server storage or an off-site location.

Moreover, you can create schedules for automated full backups by setting the day of the week and the time to run them without intervention. The easy integration with external storage providers such as Amazon S3, Google Cloud Storage, and DigitalOcean Spaces allows for convenient off-site storage of full backups.

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Pros of Full Backup

Full backups offer several significant advantages. First, they guarantee the simplest restoration process. Since we have a complete data snapshot within a single backup set, we don’t need to worry about locating previous backups or reconstructing data from multiple sources. We simply restore the full backup, and the system is back to its state when the backup was taken.

The complete nature of full backups also reduces the risk of inconsistencies when recovering, providing a high degree of confidence that the restored system is functionally identical to the backup state. In addition, full backups can be independently moved and copied to different locations without any other files needed. This self-contained nature facilitates offsite storage for disaster recovery purposes.

Cons of Full Backup

While full backups are indispensable, they also have drawbacks. The most notable con is the substantial amount of storage space they consume. Since every file is copied each time, the full backup size can rapidly grow, especially with large databases or web applications with extensive media content. This also directly leads to the second major drawback: backup time.

Backing up entire systems takes significantly longer than incremental backups, which just track changes. Longer backup times can mean longer backup windows, potentially interfering with production workloads and increasing resource consumption on the server.

For example, when full backups are performed too frequently, they may overwhelm the network and require more time for restoration in an emergency. Therefore, we must be mindful of optimizing the schedule and location for the most effective use of full backups.

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What is an Incremental Backup?

An incremental backup is an advanced type of backup strategy that focuses on capturing only the changes made since the most recent backup, regardless of whether that was a full or incremental backup. This method differs significantly from a full backup, which copies everything each time. We use incremental backups to quickly and efficiently capture the data alterations made to our systems and applications after an initial baseline is established through a full backup.

This incremental approach allows for significantly faster backup times and reduces storage consumption as we do not copy the same unchanged data repeatedly. The main idea is to keep our backup window short and minimize resources during the backup process.

RunCloud’s Incremental Backup Options for Web Apps

RunCloud streamlines the process of scheduling and managing incremental backups for web applications.

In the RunCloud dashboard, you can configure the backup settings for a specific web application. The “Backup Frequency” dropdown menu lets us choose how often we want to initiate incremental backups, typically on a daily or hourly schedule.

RunCloud also displays the “Next Scheduled Backup At” time, allowing precise backup planning and timing.

The “Backup File Retention” field dictates how long we store each incremental backup, which is important for planning storage usage. RunCloud automatically keeps track of the last full backup and builds subsequent incremental backups.

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Pros of Incremental Backup

Incremental backups offer several compelling advantages, particularly for busy web applications. First and foremost, they are far more resource-efficient than full backups in terms of time and space. Because we are only copying changed data, the backup operation completes much faster, placing less load on the server, which means less impact on live web applications.

This results in a much shorter backup window, which is critical for maintaining system availability. In addition, the smaller size of incremental backups translates directly into reduced storage requirements, saving valuable disk space and associated costs. This makes incremental backups ideally suited for daily or even more frequent backups and allows you to use more backups for smaller RPOs (Recovery Point Objectives).

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Cons of Incremental Backup

While incremental backups offer great efficiency, they come with some potential downsides. The primary disadvantage lies in the complexity of the restoration process. To restore a system from an incremental backup, you typically must first restore the initial full backup and then apply each subsequent incremental backup in the correct sequence. This recovery process can be more time-consuming and intricate than restoring from a single full backup.

We must also be aware that if one incremental backup is lost or corrupted, all subsequent backups may become unusable. Therefore, regular verification of the backup integrity and reliability is important. Additionally, the restore process can be harder to troubleshoot in the event of corrupted or lost files in incremental sets. We must weigh these considerations carefully when planning a complete backup strategy and choose the best approach for balancing speed and convenience.

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What is a Differential Backup?

A differential backup, like an incremental backup, focuses on saving changes, but it does so in a different way. Instead of recording changes since the last backup (regardless of type), a differential backup captures all the changes made since the last full backup. This means that each subsequent differential backup will contain all modifications since the initial full backup.

For example, if you have a full backup on Monday, the differential backup on Tuesday will include changes since Monday, the differential backup on Wednesday will also include changes since Monday, and so on. We use differential backups as a middle ground between the size efficiency of incremental backups, and the restoration simplicity of full backups. These are generally larger than incremental backups, but they simplify the restore process since we need only one full and the latest differential set.

Pros of Differential Backup

Differential backups offer a balance between efficiency and ease of recovery. They are less space-intensive and faster to create than full backups since they don’t always copy all the data. However, unlike incremental backups, we only need two backup sets to complete a restore: the initial full backup and the most recent differential backup.

This makes the restoration process simpler and faster than using a long chain of incremental backups. Also, because differential backups are based on the last full backup, the set of differential backups is not dependent on each other, creating a more resilient backup approach. This can be especially useful when we require a restore in a time-sensitive manner.

Cons of Differential Backup

While offering several benefits, differential backups have some drawbacks. One key disadvantage is that each differential backup grows in size until the next full backup is completed. This can result in differential backups significantly larger than the first differential backup, making them slower to complete as the week progresses.

Differential backups occupy more disk space than incremental backups because they contain the accumulated changes since the last full backup. This can lead to higher storage costs and longer backup windows. In addition, while the restore process is simpler than incremental, it is still more complex than a full backup alone. We must restore the initial full backup before applying the latest differential backup.

Difference Between Full vs. Incremental vs. Differential Backup: Which One Should You Choose?

Which Backup is Better for You?

There is no one size fits all, and each organization or user should adjust as per their needs and requirements. But here are our recommendations: 

• High-Traffic E-commerce Websites:
  • Best Choice: A combination of weekly full backups with daily differential backups.
  • Reasoning: This allows for a balance of faster backups for frequent recovery points and a simpler restore process.
• Small Blogs or Static Websites:
  • Best Choice: Weekly full backups with daily incremental backups.
  • Reasoning: These websites tend to have fewer daily changes, making incremental backups efficient and easy to manage.
• Large Databases with High Transaction Volume:
  • Best Choice: Full backups less frequently, with differential and transaction log backups for better recovery points.
  • Reasoning: Large data stores benefit from less frequent full backups and more frequent differential and transaction log backups, which are efficient and can be restored more easily than multiple incremental backups.
• Budget-Conscious Users:
  • Best Choice: Full backups are less frequently combined with incremental backups as they are the most storage efficient.
  • Reasoning: This approach minimizes storage costs while still having backups to recover from.

Final Thoughts

Throughout this guide, we’ve explored different types of backups and discussed the intricacies of full, incremental, and differential strategies. We’ve compared their strengths and weaknesses and shared the knowledge needed to choose the right approach for your specific needs.

But it’s worth knowing how to put this knowledge into action with RunCloud.

RunCloud simplifies the entire backup process by offering an intuitive interface for scheduling and managing all types of backups for your web applications.

Below is a glimpse into RunCloud’s backup dashboard. RunCloud enables you to configure full, incremental, and differential backups for individual web applications and databases with a few clicks.

It’s easy to schedule backups daily, hourly, weekly, or monthly. You can also define a retention policy that will manage storage for backups. Furthermore, you can store them on local or remote storage with providers such as Amazon S3, Google Cloud Storage, DigitalOcean Spaces, or even your own S3-compliant bucket.

With RunCloud, you can be confident that your data is protected, accessible, and readily available when you need it, as RunCloud handles all the complex tasks behind the scenes to ensure your backups are taken securely, automatically, and reliably.

Start using RunCloud today.

FAQs on Backups