# The Cycle: Incremental Backup \> Preparation \> Restoration \> Incremental Backup

**URL:** <https://forums.percona.com/t/the-cycle-incremental-backup-preparation-restoration-incremental-backup/4194>\
**Category:** Percona XtraBackup\
**Created:** [April 30, 2015, 3:58am UTC](https://forums.percona.com/t/the-cycle-incremental-backup-preparation-restoration-incremental-backup/4194 "2015-04-30T03:58:18Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![nikhil.lingala](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/bcef8e/32.png) [@nikhil.lingala](https://forums.percona.com/u/nikhil.lingala)\
**Post date:** [April 30, 2015, 3:58am UTC](https://forums.percona.com/t/the-cycle-incremental-backup-preparation-restoration-incremental-backup/4194/1 "2015-04-30T03:58:18Z")

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Hello,

I have been trying to test Percona innobackupex to achieve incremental backups.

Full backup and restore: [LIST=1]  
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[\*]  
[/LIST] That worked like a charm.

Then I tried the incremental backup - below are the steps: [LIST=1]  
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[/LIST] Could you kindly let me know your thoughts? Thanks very much in advance!

Nikhil

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**Author:** ![nikhil.lingala](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/bcef8e/32.png) [@nikhil.lingala](https://forums.percona.com/u/nikhil.lingala)\
**Post date:** [April 30, 2015, 6:25am UTC](https://forums.percona.com/t/the-cycle-incremental-backup-preparation-restoration-incremental-backup/4194/2 "2015-04-30T06:25:34Z")

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In short, is it advisable at all, to merge a full-prepared backup (CB1) with the upcoming incremental backups (IB4, IB5 and so on)?

If so, can we consider this composite backup (CB1) as full-backup and just repeat the process of merging them just like we do it for the first time? Or there is some other way to do this?