System Administration Guide: Devices and File Systems

Example—Dump Levels for Daily, Cumulative Backups

Doing daily, cumulative incremental backups is the most commonly used backup schedule and is recommended for most situations. The following example shows a schedule that uses a level 9 dump Monday through Thursday, and a level 5 dump on Friday restarts process.

Figure 24–1 Incremental Backup: Daily Cumulative

Illustration shows increasing amount of tape needed for
a daily cumulative backup that starts on Monday and finishes on Friday.

In the preceding example, you could have used other numbers in the 1–9 range to produce the same results. The key is using the same number Monday through Thursday, with any lower number on Friday. For example, you could have specified levels 4, 4, 4, 4, 2 or 7, 7, 7, 7, 5.