I'm trying to get a deeper understanding of differential backups: Say I have a fairly large database (2.5 TB) that uses the simple recovery model. (Bare with me. ) How does the db engine determine what's changed since the differential base was created? Is it just a page-by-page comparison? If so, will index reorgs/rebuilds bloat the differential?
First , welcome to Forums Differential backups are usually to scan any data set changes for any extent that if any data change happened for any extend , it will be recorded in what is called differential bitmap page , thereby it sounds that indexes maintenance operations aren’t included within differential backups.. You can read more about it at http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms175526.aspx
