SBCON has three types of backup sessions:
Full backup: Backs up the entire file system of the selected target regardless of whether the data has changed since the last backup, and clears the Modify bit after the backup.
Differential backup: Available only for the file system; backs up only data that has been changed since the last full or incremental backup. When you perform a differential backup, the modify bit is not cleared after the backup. All files modified since the last full backup are included in the backup (unless they have been deleted). Each differential backup uses more media and is slower than an incremental backup because it backs up more files.
IMPORTANT:Do not interchange differential backups and incremental backups. If you do, the differential backup will not contain all changes since the last full backup. Use full backups interspersed with differential backups or full backups interspersed with incremental backups.
Incremental backup: Available only for the file system; backs up only data that has been changed since the last full or incremental backup (whichever was last). Incremental backup sessions back up only files that have the modify bit set (that is, files that changed since the last full or incremental backup session when the modify bit was cleared).
NOTE:While backing up SLES file system mount points, the modify bit based incremental and differential backups are not supported. Use the modify date and time options to achieve the incremental and differential backups.