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Any of the following facets of a backup can be altered, via a given data sink:
  • Backup snapshots can be merged into a single full snapshot.
  • Backup snapshots can be individually deleted
  • Backup options can be set
ALTER BACKUP Syntax

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Parameters

<backup name>

Name of the backup to alter.

<data sink name>

Name of the data sink used to alter the database backup files on the remote file store.

MERGE

Merges all snapshots of a given backup into a single, full snapshot. An error will be reported if the backup contains only one full snapshot.

PURGE

Deletes the snapshot identified with backup id. Only applicable to incremental and differential snapshots.

SET

Sets the given list of properties to their given corresponding values.
These settings will affect future snapshots of the given backup; existing snapshots will remain unchanged.
Alterable properties include:
PropertyDescription
CHECKSUMWhether or not to calculate checksums on backed-up objects.
DDL_ONLYWhether or not to only back up DDL for any tables.
MAX_INCREMENTAL_BACKUPS_TO_KEEPMaximum number of incremental snapshots to keep.

WITH OPTIONS

Optional indicator that a comma-delimited list of alteration option name/value assignments will follow.Alter options include:
OptionDescription
COMMENTA new comment for the backup that is created by a MERGE; only valid for MERGE operations.
DRY_RUNWhether or not to execute a dry run of a backup alteration and not actually alter the backup.

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Examples

For example, to merge all snapshots of a backup into a single full snapshot and add a comment to the merged backup:
MERGE Backup Example
To purge a given snapshot by ID number:
PURGE Backup Example
To set the maximum number of incremental snapshots of a backup to keep to 5:
SET Backup Properties Example