There are three main advantages to creating a full backup:
- Easy to set up: onboard tools are enough
- Most reliable backup method: low risk of data loss
- Easy to restore: reversing the copy process is usually enough
One advantage of a complete backup is that it is relatively easy to create. As a rule, you do not need any specialized software, but can use existing on-board tools. Because a full backup includes the entire data stock, the creation does not require any special preparations. Only two requirements must be met:
- There is enough memory available on the target system.
- There is sufficient bandwidth to complete the copying process in an acceptable amount of time.
Once you ensured that both requirements are met, you begin the backup process. Then you have to wait. It can take a while for a full backup to complete. Once copying is completed, you should check that the backup was fully done and without errors.
Another big advantage of a full backup is reliability. Since a complete backup includes the entire data set to be backed up, it is impossible to forget or overlook data. However, for this to happen, it is important to stick to the original intention: a full backup, by definition, means that the entire data stock is backed up.
Especially with large amounts of data, it may be tempting to find arguments to exclude certain data from the backup: “We don’t need that anyway”, “it was all backed up last time”, etc. Unfortunately, this could lead to data loss. If no current backup of the excluded data exists, the damage is done. Therefore, it is necessary to back up the entire database even if it may take a long time.
Creating a backup is only half the battle. A backup is only valuable as long as it can be restored true to the original. Here, too, the full backup is the simplest: to restore data, only the backup itself is needed; it is usually sufficient to swap the source and destination and run the copy process again.
However, with full backups, as with all backup methods, you should not assume that the original data can be restored from the backup without testing it first. Testing restores from backups are part of any solid backup strategy. Under no circumstances do you want to realize that the carefully created backups are worthless only when data loss occurs.