Incremental Backup in PostgreSQL
summary
Feature targets very large databases by copying only changed blocks to cut backup time and size, claiming up to avoiding hundreds of gigabytes or terabytes of WAL work. A new WAL summarizer writes tiny summary files when summarize_wal is enabled; pg_basebackup --incremental uses a previous backup_manifest plus those summaries to produce deltas; pg_combinebackup reconstructs a synthetic full backup which still requires normal WAL replay. Feature is new and may have data‑corrupting bugs.
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chapters (8)
- 0:00Start
- 0:13Introduction - Incremental Backup in PostgreSQL 17
- 0:45Overview & Motivation
- 2:45Taking an Incremental Backup
- 7:01Knowing What Data Has Changed: Requirements
- 10:15The Write-Ahead Log to the Rescue
- 13:09Restoring an Incremental Backup
- 16:19Summary
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