Differential backups - do you do them?

[bessebo]

I am interested in anyone out there that performs differential backups. We don't but I'm thinking of doing them. We perform full database backups every night and we perform transaction log backups daily every 15 minutes from 6:00AM through 10:00 PM. I was thinking that it may make sense to also add a differential backup at noon each day in the event that we would need to restore our full backup, then differential, then transaction log backups, rather than having to restore a large number of transaction log backups. Please let me know when/if you use differential backups and whether you think it makes sense. I'm mostly interested in your reasoning for using differential backups.

 

[mrdenny]

It all depends on the database. I'm still in the process or auditing all the backups and some don't have diffs being done. In the future they will.

I would recommend it as diffs will drastically reduce the amount of time needed to recover the database.

Denny
MCSA (2003) / MCDBA (SQL 2000)

--Anything is possible. All it takes is a little research. (Me)

http://www.mrdenny.com

 

[SQLBill]

I do a full backup at midnight, differential at noon, and transaction logs every 4 hours throughout the day.

-SQLBill

Posting advice: FAQ481-4875