A snapshot backup is a periodic backup of the dgraph_input directory after stopping the MDEX Engine. Snapshot backups are useful if your baseline updates are relatively infrequent.

Snapshot backups are useful when you run baseline or delta updates with periodic partial updates in between, and can afford to periodically stop and restart the MDEX Engine, which lets you back up the dgraph_input directory. For example, you may run a baseline update daily, partial update hourly, and stop and restart the MDEX Engine nightly to back up dgraph_input.