# Percona MongoDB: Difference between hot backup and backup using mongo dump

**URL:** <https://forums.percona.com/t/percona-mongodb-difference-between-hot-backup-and-backup-using-mongo-dump/6719>\
**Category:** Percona Server for MongoDB\
**Created:** [December 3, 2018, 8:45am UTC](https://forums.percona.com/t/percona-mongodb-difference-between-hot-backup-and-backup-using-mongo-dump/6719 "2018-12-03T08:45:04Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![gowtham](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b4bc9f/32.png) [@gowtham](https://forums.percona.com/u/gowtham)\
**Post date:** [December 3, 2018, 8:45am UTC](https://forums.percona.com/t/percona-mongodb-difference-between-hot-backup-and-backup-using-mongo-dump/6719/1 "2018-12-03T08:45:04Z")

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Hello team,

I see that percona mongodb has a feature -hotbackup which can be initiated within the shell from admin database.  
Questions:

1. How different is it when compared with mongo dump ?
2. The user manual states that there is no point in time recovery? In this case should we use mongdump to backup the OPLOG ?
3. Do we have any other alternatives in percona?

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**Author:** ![Barrett](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/user_avatar/forums.percona.com/barrett/32/15734_2.png) [@Barrett](https://forums.percona.com/u/Barrett)\
**Post date:** [December 3, 2018, 9:16am UTC](https://forums.percona.com/t/percona-mongodb-difference-between-hot-backup-and-backup-using-mongo-dump/6719/2 "2018-12-03T09:16:07Z")

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> [@](#):
>
> 1. How different is it when compared with mongo dump ?

For more information about how the PSMDB hotbackup works, it was added to PSMDB from the [WiredTiger original hot backup](http://source.wiredtiger.com/1.4.2/hot_backup.html).

> [@](#):
>
> 1. The user manual states that there is no point in time recovery? In this case should we use mongdump to backup the OPLOG ?

This is the best method for true PIT recovery for MongoDB Community and PSMDB.

> [@](#):
>
> 1. Do we have any other alternatives in percona?

The most popular backup method we see for MongoDB is mongodump with oplog. A second option is snapshotting. We have not-yet-supported tool in our Percona lab for [MongoDB consistent backups](https://github.com/Percona-Lab/mongodb_consistent_backup) that may help automate this process if you are interested.