Details
After the first full backup, all scheduled backups run as incremental.
Advantages
- Faster backups after the initial full backup
Disadvantages
- More backup images over time, making it harder to find the right one
- Large image sets may cause the console to slow down or hang during restore
- If one incremental image is corrupted, you can’t restore from any later images in the chain
Counter Measures
Eternal incremental backups can become hard to manage as images increase. Using AIP or ImageCenter’s consolidation feature helps by keeping only recent backups visible and merging older ones.
Advantages of Consolidation
- Shows only recent incremental images, making restores easier
- Fewer images to sort through in the console
Disadvantages of Consolidation
- Repeated consolidation can make backup files very large
- Storage usage may eventually exceed that of a full backup
Workaround
There’s no way to prevent consolidated incremental backups from growing too large, so eternal incremental backup is not recommended.
Instead, schedule regular full backups (weekly or monthly) and use a retention policy to limit how many incremental backups are kept before older ones are deleted.
For more details, see the related articles on retention policy behavior.
Related Articles
Overview and example scenario of Consolidation
https://actiphyhelp.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/57504035849369
How to count the number of backup generations when the retention policy is enabled
https://actiphyhelp.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/47619297248665
Number of backup images left based on the Retention Policy
https://actiphyhelp.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/47628021659033
Target Product
- ActiveImage Protector 2022
- ImageCenter
(57397847595673)
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