Techexams Question

Ally77

I have a question about one of the answers to a question in the techexams practice test; the question is as follows:

You are the domain administrator of a large Windows 2003 domain. Five users in a remote branch office use an application that produces a large amount of graphics and video related files on their local hard disks. They want this data to be included in the daily backup. Because of the large amount of data, you want to use a backup method that takes the least amount of time to backup the data to tape.

Which of the following backup schedules should you use?

Answer: a. Perform a Normal/Full backup every Monday and an Incremental backup for Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday.

Ok, so the question asks what method would take the least amount of time to backup, therefore an incremental backup would select only files that have changed since the last normal backup. However, as i understand a daily backup only backs up files that have changed during the day so would this method not be just as effective in meeting the goals as the incremental method?

Thanks

Webmaster

Apart from Daily backups not being listed in a possibly correct answer in that question (read the answers carefully ), I wouldn't recommend using the Daily option in any backup schedule. Use it only when you actually need a snaphot of today's changed files. There are several reasons/scenarios for this. I.e. The daily backup method does not clear the archive bit (while incremental) does. If you, for whatever reason (i.e. the backup equipement fails, or your coworker who's responsible for actually feeding the tapes 'forgets' to insert a tape) skip a day, your schedule will be messed up and you will have to perform a full backup to include the missing day. And imagine running a daily backup at night (while the workday hasn't really started yet...).

Ally77

ok my apologies, thot 1 of the answers to the question was normal backups then daily backups. Anyway what you wrote makes sense to me, does seem kinda ineffective to use a daily backup other than for an immediate snapshot!!

Thanks again

Webmaster

Your welcome

gabilan

In my job I do a normal backup the first day of the month and the following backups I do differential because when you do a restore you only need your normal backup and the last differential.

Webmaster

Yes, that is the common way to go, but in the practice question I wrote a requirement is to backup in the least amount of time, hence incremental is the best option.