Backing Up a Database Incrementally

Perform a cumulative dump, which is a type of incremental dump (backup) in which only the changes since the last full database dump are backed up.

Prerequisites

Backup Server must be running. If you are not running Backup Server, the wizard displays a message, such as Default Backup Server is not running, and you cannot proceed. See Utility Guide for details on backupserver.
Enable incremental dumps for the database you are dumping:
```
sp_dboption dbname, 'allow incremental dumps', true
```

If you do not do this before performing the task, you cannot select the cumulative backup option.

Task

Note: You cannot perform cumulative dumps on cluster configurations.

In the left pane of the Administration Console, expand ASE Servers > Schema Objects > Databases.
Select one of:
- User Databases
- System Databases
- In-Memory Databases
Click the Name field of the database, then click the drop-down arrow and select Back up.
In the Introduction screen of the Backup Database wizard, choose whether to back up the database using a dump configuration by selecting Backup using configuration.
In the Type of Backup screen, choose Cumulative backup. This creates a copy of all the changes in the database since the last time the entire database was backed up.

To verify that you have enough space, click Estimate Dump Size.

Note: Cumulative backup is unavailable if you have not performed a full backup since enabling incremental dumps, and you see a message similar to:No full database dump is available for cumulative dump.
In the Dump Devices screen, specify the dump stripes from the list. To add dump devices for the dump operation, click Add:
- Named dump device – select the device.
- Explicit dump device – specify a local dump device as either an absolute path name or a relative path name. When dumping across the network, specify an absolute path name.
  When dumping across the network, you can specify the backup server as your remote dump device.

(Optional) The selections in the Options screen are not part of the dump configuration, but are for the dump database and dump transaction commands. This means that some of the options take precedence over the configured parameter value stored in the dump configuration file for a particular dump operation. See dump database and dump transaction in Reference Manual: Commands for more information on these options:

Options	Description
Compression level	The level of compression for all dump stripes. By default, this option is disabled.
Block size	The block size for the dump stripes, which overrides the default block size for all dump stripes. The block size must be least one database page and be an exact multiple of the database page size.
Retain days	The number of days for which the dump is preserved and cannot be overwritten. The default value is 0.
Dump password	A password, between 6 and 30 characters, to protect the dump file from unauthorized users. The default is null.

In the Dump performance screen, specify the amount of data to be dumped. The performance depends on the amount of data and relative speed of the database and dump devices. See sp_dumpoptimize in Reference Manual: Procedures for details on these options:
- Default – use the default values.
- Maximum – dumps the entire database without determining which pages are allocated.
- Minimum – dumps only the allocated pages, which results in the smallest possible archive image.
- Advanced – allows you to specify the value of the reserved threshold and the archive space.
(Optional) Click Summary to view your selected options.
(Optional) Click Preview to view the SQL statement you generated with your settings. To save a copy of the SQL statement, click Save.
Click Finish to start the backup. SAP Control Center displays backup messages from the server.