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With rsync I can create a set of incremental backups, and delete backups older than a certain age. Then the oldest backup becomes the new base backup, essentially.

Is this possible with xfsdump? Once I create 9 backup levels for a media object, can I delete the the level 0 backup and keep creating more incremental backups? Does the level 1 dump then become level 0, and so on? Or do I have to start over again with a new full backup.

orodbhen
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You can only have 9 levels of incrementals, and you will have to start over at level 0. Deleting a level 0 dump will render the dependent incrementals invalid.

That said, you can have multiple level 1 dumps. A L1 dump is 'everything since the last L0'. If you have a 1-9 series, a second L1 will contain the cumulative changes in the L2-9 dumps. That second L1 may be vastly smaller than another L0, depending on your data.

sysadmin1138
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  • So then, I'm wondering how incremental backups actually work with xfsdump. It must not be with hard links, like rsync. – orodbhen Mar 23 '15 at 03:49
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    @DJon It's a filesystem-specific tool, so may use XFS internals to maintain what it does. I'm not sure. – sysadmin1138 Mar 23 '15 at 11:13