# Difference between mongodump and percona backup

**URL:** <https://forums.percona.com/t/difference-between-mongodump-and-percona-backup/7579>\
**Category:** Percona Backup for MongoDB\
**Created:** [April 27, 2020, 4:40am UTC](https://forums.percona.com/t/difference-between-mongodump-and-percona-backup/7579 "2020-04-27T04:40:35Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![j2geu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e79b87/32.png) [@j2geu](https://forums.percona.com/u/j2geu)\
**Post date:** [April 27, 2020, 4:40am UTC](https://forums.percona.com/t/difference-between-mongodump-and-percona-backup/7579/1 "2020-04-27T04:40:35Z")

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Hello,I am not an expert.  
I am actually testing percona backup fo mongodb and I don’t see what is add or where it is better than only mongodump.   
I have read all documentation about it, install it, etc.So please help me to know the difference and what is pbm agent do ?Thank you very much for you help.

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**Author:** ![lorraine.pocklington](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/user_avatar/forums.percona.com/lorraine.pocklington/32/37_2.png) [@lorraine.pocklington](https://forums.percona.com/u/lorraine.pocklington)\
**Post date:** [April 27, 2020, 9:56am UTC](https://forums.percona.com/t/difference-between-mongodump-and-percona-backup/7579/2 "2020-04-27T09:56:24Z")

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Hello @j2geu   
There’s an answer here from my colleague @“Akira Kurogane” that should help you.&nbsp;  
[https://forums.percona.com/discussion/55599/question-percona-backup-for-mongodb-limits-and-architecture#latest](https://forums.percona.com/discussion/55599/question-percona-backup-for-mongodb-limits-and-architecture#latest "Link: https://forums.percona.com/discussion/55599/question-percona-backup-for-mongodb-limits-and-architecture#latest")&nbsp;  
If you have additional questions you are welcome to ask 😄

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**Author:** ![Andrew\_Pogrebnoi](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/user_avatar/forums.percona.com/andrew_pogrebnoi/32/77_2.png) [@Andrew\_Pogrebnoi](https://forums.percona.com/u/Andrew_Pogrebnoi)\
**Post date:** [April 28, 2020, 2:03am UTC](https://forums.percona.com/t/difference-between-mongodump-and-percona-backup/7579/3 "2020-04-28T02:03:13Z")

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Hello @j2geu   
On the matter of differences between PBM and mongodump I can add that a&nbsp;key difference is that mongodump is just a tool using which one can made backups. But it needs quite a bit of things to be done around mongodump to make it useful and convenient. Starting from keeping track of already done backups - naming, storing etc. And ending with the consistency maintaining of backups on sharded cluster. All these things PBM does for the user. Moreover starting from MongoDB 4.2 mongodump can’t be used for backups of sharded clusters ([https://docs.mongodb.com/v4.2/administration/backup-sharded-clusters/](https://docs.mongodb.com/v4.2/administration/backup-sharded-clusters/)). But PBM can do backups of sharded clusters and guarantee its consistency. Even though mongodump documentation says it “can be used” on sharded clusters of versions 4.0 and before, it is a real pain. As a user has to do a lot of manual labour before and after running mongodump and do it on each shard (but again it will be hard to maintain some data consistency doing it). But with PBM all is needed is just to run `pbm backup` (having pbm properly installed and configured&nbsp;[https://www.percona.com/doc/percona-backup-mongodb/index.html](https://www.percona.com/doc/percona-backup-mongodb/index.html))

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**Author:** ![j2geu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e79b87/32.png) [@j2geu](https://forums.percona.com/u/j2geu)\
**Post date:** [April 28, 2020, 8:40am UTC](https://forums.percona.com/t/difference-between-mongodump-and-percona-backup/7579/4 "2020-04-28T08:40:22Z")

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@AndrewPogrebnoi   
Yes, percona mongodb backup is clearly a better and different tool.  
Thanks for your help and to clarify things.