How can you perform incremental database backups in SQL Server?
To perform an incremental backup of SQL Server, you can follow these steps:
- Open SQL Server Management Studio and connect to the server where the database you want to back up is located.
- Expand the “Databases” node in the Object Explorer to locate the database to be backed up.
- Right-click on the database, choose “Tasks”, and then select “Backup”.
- In the “Backup Database” dialog box, choose the “Backup Type” as “Differential”.
- On the “Target” tab, select the location and file name for the backup file. You can click the “Add” button to browse to the specified location. Make sure that the selected location has enough disk space to store the backup file.
- In the “Options” tab, you can choose whether to compress backup files, as well as other backup options.
- Click the “OK” button to start the incremental backup operation.
- After the backup is complete, you can find the backup file in the specified location.
Please note that incremental backups will backup changes made since the last full backup or differential backup, so when restoring, it is necessary to first restore the most recent full backup and then restore the incremental backups.