To provide flexibility in managing snapshots, {prodname} includes a supplementary snapshot mechanism, known as _incremental snapshotting_.
Incremental snapshots rely on the {prodname} mechanism for {link-prefix}:{link-signalling}#sending-signals-to-a-debezium-connector[sending signals to a {prodname} connector].
ifdef::community[]
Incremental snapshots are based on the link:https://github.com/debezium/debezium-design-documents/blob/main/DDD-3.md[DDD-3] design document.
endif::community[]

In an incremental snapshot, instead of capturing the full state of a database all at once, as in an initial snapshot, {prodname} captures each {data-collection} in phases, in a series of configurable chunks.
You can specify the {data-collection}s that you want the snapshot to capture and the xref:{context}-property-incremental-snapshot-chunk-size[size of each chunk].
The chunk size determines the number of rows that the snapshot collects during each fetch operation on the database.
The default chunk size for incremental snapshots is 1024 rows.

As an incremental snapshot proceeds, {prodname} uses watermarks to track its progress, maintaining a record of each {data-collection} row that it captures.
This phased approach to capturing data provides the following advantages over the standard initial snapshot process:

* You can run incremental snapshots in parallel with streamed data capture, instead of postponing streaming until the snapshot completes.
  The connector continues to capture near real-time events from the change log throughout the snapshot process, and neither operation blocks the other.
* If the progress of an incremental snapshot is interrupted, you can resume it without losing any data.
  After the process resumes, the snapshot begins at the point where it stopped, rather than recapturing the {data-collection} from the beginning.
* You can run an incremental snapshot on demand at any time, and repeat the process as needed to adapt to database updates.
  For example, you might re-run a snapshot after you modify the connector configuration to add a {data-collection} to its xref:{context}-property-{data-collection}-include-list[`{data-collection}.include.list`] property.

.Incremental snapshot process
When you run an incremental snapshot, {prodname} sorts each {data-collection} by primary key and then splits the {data-collection} into chunks based on the xref:{context}-property-incremental-snapshot-chunk-size[configured chunk size].
Working chunk by chunk, it then captures each {data-collection} row in a chunk.
For each row that it captures, the snapshot emits a `READ` event.
That event represents the value of the row when the snapshot for the chunk began.

As a snapshot proceeds, it’s likely that other processes continue to access the database, potentially modifying {data-collection} records.
To reflect such changes, `INSERT`, `UPDATE`, or `DELETE` operations are committed to the transaction log as per usual.
Similarly, the ongoing {prodname} streaming process continues to detect these change events and emits corresponding change event records to Kafka.

.How {prodname} resolves collisions among records with the same primary key
In some cases, the `UPDATE` or `DELETE` events that the streaming process emits are received out of sequence.
That is, the streaming process might emit an event that modifies a {data-collection} row before the snapshot captures the chunk that contains the `READ` event for that row.
When the snapshot eventually emits the corresponding `READ` event for the row, its value is already superseded.
To ensure that incremental snapshot events that arrive out of sequence are processed in the correct logical order, {prodname} employs a buffering scheme for resolving collisions.
Only after collisions between the snapshot events and the streamed events are resolved does {prodname} emit an event record to Kafka.

.Snapshot window
To assist in resolving collisions between late-arriving `READ` events and streamed events that modify the same {data-collection} row, {prodname} employs a so-called _snapshot window_.
The snapshot window demarcates the interval during which an incremental snapshot captures data for a specified {data-collection} chunk.
Before the snapshot window for a chunk opens, {prodname} follows its usual behavior and emits events from the transaction log directly downstream to the target Kafka topic.
But from the moment that the snapshot for a particular chunk opens, until it closes, {prodname} performs a de-duplication step to resolve collisions between events that have the same primary key..

For each data collection, the {prodname} emits two types of events, and stores the records for them both in a single destination Kafka topic.
The snapshot records that it  captures directly from a table are emitted as `READ` operations.
Meanwhile, as users continue to update records in the data collection, and the transaction log is updated to reflect each commit, {prodname} emits `UPDATE` or `DELETE` operations for each change.

As the snapshot window opens, and {prodname} begins processing a snapshot chunk, it delivers snapshot records to a memory buffer.
During the snapshot windows, the primary keys of the `READ` events in the buffer are compared to the primary keys of the incoming streamed events.
If no match is found, the streamed event record is sent directly to Kafka.
If {prodname} detects a match, it discards the buffered `READ` event, and writes the streamed record to the destination topic, because the streamed event logically supersede the static snapshot event.
After the snapshot window for the chunk closes, the buffer contains only `READ` events for which no related transaction log events exist.
{prodname} emits these remaining `READ` events to the {data-collection}'s Kafka topic.

The connector repeats the process for each snapshot chunk.

Currently, you can use either of the following methods to initiate an incremental snapshot:

* xref:{context}-triggering-an-incremental-snapshot[Send an ad hoc snapshot signal to the signaling {data-collection} on the source database].
* xref:{context}-triggering-an-incremental-snapshot-kafka[Send a message to a configured Kafka signaling topic].
