NAKIVO Backup & Replication supports two types of repositories for backup storage:
The main difference between a forever-incremental and incremental-with-full-backups repository is that the former only stores an initial full backup with increments while the latter stores machine backup chains that consist of periodic full backups and increments between them. Your choice of which backup repository type in NAKIVO Backup & Replication you select will depend on your particular needs. Each type has its own advantages, therefore, it’s hard to say which one is better. The availability of both options offers you the flexibility to choose the one that will work best in your virtual environment.
When installing NAKIVO Backup & Replication, a forever-incremental backup repository is created by default. If you deploy additional repositories, you can choose to add either a forever-incremental or incremental-with-full-backups. Keep in mind that the backup repository type cannot be changed afterward.
Forever-incremental
This type of repositories is a great option for:
Network-attached storage (NAS)
Disk-based direct-attached storage (DAS)
Cloud storage
This allows you to reduce data growth and the length of the backup window. It also minimizes impact on a client system and reduces data workload going across the network. However, if, for example, some data block gets lost during a backup job, the entire repository can become corrupted.
Incremental-with-full-backups
If you have a large infrastructure where high performance and reliability are key priorities, consider deploying an incremental-with-full-backups repository. Its key features are:
Increased backup speed.
Optimized for deduplication appliances such as Quantum DXi, NEC HYDRAstor, EMC Data Domain, HP StoreOnce, and others.
Fewer data streams during backup and recovery jobs. This means that all backed-up data blocks get arranged into a limited number of files for each machine. Periodic full backups allow you to have a recent full backup in case you need to recover a VM.
High reliability and speed of recovery since a full backup will have to be combined only with a few increments.
Does not require space reclaim in the backup repository, as old backup chains get automatically deleted according to the retention policy you set during the backup repository creation.
Follow this link to find the comparison of the two types of NAKIVO Backup Repositories.