Transaction Log Truncation - in Full or Incremental backup

  • Hi all,

    It seems that during full backup does include the transaction logs

    Can I confirm that

    a) is transaction log (eligible for or/& being truncated) after full backup ?

    b) incremental backup does not include transaction log, and thus does not cause log truncation.

    Regards,

    Noob

  • A full backup does not truncate the transaction log.

    There's no such thing as an incremental backup in this case. Do you mean differential? Transaction log?

  • szejiekoh (4/6/2016)


    a) is transaction log (eligible for or/& being truncated) after full backup ?

    Full backups do not ever truncate the transaction log

    b) incremental backup does not include transaction log, and thus does not cause log truncation.

    No such thing as an incremental backup.

    If you mean differential, it includes log just like a full backup does and does not truncate the log, just like a full backup.

    Gail Shaw
    Microsoft Certified Master: SQL Server, MVP, M.Sc (Comp Sci)
    SQL In The Wild: Discussions on DB performance with occasional diversions into recoverability

    We walk in the dark places no others will enter
    We stand on the bridge and no one may pass
  • GilaMonster (4/6/2016)


    szejiekoh (4/6/2016)


    a) is transaction log (eligible for or/& being truncated) after full backup ?

    Full backups do not ever truncate the transaction log

    b) incremental backup does not include transaction log, and thus does not cause log truncation.

    No such thing as an incremental backup.

    If you mean differential, it includes log just like a full backup does and does not truncate the log, just like a full backup.

    Hi Gila and all,

    Thanks for the reply.

    q1) Can I know the rational/reason behind on why full backup with transaction log will not allow the truncation of the transaction log ? (-- at least on the part of the transaction log that is already being backup) ?

    Regards,

    Noob

  • szejiekoh (4/7/2016)


    q1) Can I know the rational/reason behind on why full backup with transaction log will not allow the truncation of the transaction log ? (-- at least on the part of the transaction log that is already being backup) ?

    That choice ensures that all transaction log backups form an unbroken chain. Suppose you need to restore and find that the last full backup is unreadable, you can still restore from the previous full and then apply all tran log backups. That would not be possible if log records included in the full were missing from the chain of tran log backups.


    Hugo Kornelis, SQL Server/Data Platform MVP (2006-2016)
    Visit my SQL Server blog: https://sqlserverfast.com/blog/
    SQL Server Execution Plan Reference: https://sqlserverfast.com/epr/

  • So that full backups don't mess with the log chain.

    And the full backup doesn't back up the entire transaction log. Just what it need to restore consistent. So if the log contains 4 hours of log records, a log backup will backup all 4 hours, a full backup might just back up the last 5 minutes because that's all it needs.

    Gail Shaw
    Microsoft Certified Master: SQL Server, MVP, M.Sc (Comp Sci)
    SQL In The Wild: Discussions on DB performance with occasional diversions into recoverability

    We walk in the dark places no others will enter
    We stand on the bridge and no one may pass
  • Hugo Kornelis (4/7/2016)


    Suppose you need to restore and find that the last full backup is unreadable, you can still restore from the previous full and then apply all tran log backups. That would not be possible if log records included in the full were missing from the chain of tran log backups.

    Also, if it did and someone took an ad-hoc full backup, that would mean that the DB could no longer be restored from the scheduled backups. That's a disaster waiting to happen.

    Gail Shaw
    Microsoft Certified Master: SQL Server, MVP, M.Sc (Comp Sci)
    SQL In The Wild: Discussions on DB performance with occasional diversions into recoverability

    We walk in the dark places no others will enter
    We stand on the bridge and no one may pass
  • If the behavior of this is not what you expected and you don't need the ability to restore to a point in time, consider using the Simple recovery model instead of Full.

  • Hi Gila, Hugo, and everyone,

    Thanks for showing me the light, I get the reason now !

    Sorry for the slow reply!

    Regards,

    Noob

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