How to see whether your RDS snapshot copies are incremental.

Question

Here’s an improved version of your text:

I'm trying to determine whether an RDS snapshot copy is incremental or full.

For EBS snapshot copies, this can be done by checking the [copySnapshot](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/ebs/latest/userguide/ebs-cloud-watch-events.html#copy-snapshot-complete) event, which includes the `"incremental": "true"` attribute, indicating whether the copy is incremental or full.

However, I haven't been able to find a similar event for RDS snapshots.

Are there other ways to check if RDS snapshot copies are incremental?

Gary Mclean · Answer

I hope this documentation helps https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonRDS/latest/UserGuide/USER_CopySnapshot.html#USER_CopySnapshot.Incremental

Gary Mclean · Answer

When you copy a snapshot across AWS accounts, the copy is an incremental copy only if all of the following conditions are met:

* The most recent snapshot copy is of the same source DB instance and still exists in the destination account.
* All copies of the snapshot in the destination account are either unencrypted, or were encrypted using the same KMS key.
* If the source DB instance is a Multi-AZ instance, it hasn't failed over to another AZ since the last snapshot was taken from it.

Didier_Durand · Answer

Hi,

This very recent blog will show you how RDS backups are generated: https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/database/accelerate-cross-account-amazon-rds-refreshes-with-incremental-snapshots/

This post says:

```
The snapshots are incremental in nature. The initial snapshot is a full snapshot; however, 
as time progresses, the full snapshot may be removed and the blocks associated with 
older snapshots will be linked to the new incremental snapshots.
```

Also the doc https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonRDS/latest/UserGuide/USER_WorkingWithAutomatedBackups.html says

```
The first snapshot of a DB instance contains the data for the full database. Subsequent snapshots 
of the same database are incremental, which means that only the data that has changed after your 
most recent snapshot is saved.
```

Best,

Didier

How to see whether your RDS snapshot copies are incremental.

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