August 21, 2008 at 1:41 pm
We regularly are running out of space on the drive used for BAK files from Database Maintenance Plans. We are now at the point where we cannot keep more than 2 BAK files without the Database Maintenance Plan failing due to lack of space. Needless to say, setting x=3 in the "Delete files older than x days" parameter doesn't help.
Is there any way to "shrink" backup files (BAK) created within Database Maintenance Plans?
August 21, 2008 at 2:55 pm
BAK files zip quite nicely, or you could use a third party tool like litespeed from quest, I have had good luck with that one. I've also heard there is backup compression in 2008, but I haven't had time to try it out yet
August 21, 2008 at 3:03 pm
I have used gzip in the past as it is a bit more robust if you want to script it out. The only oddity with using it is when you unzip the files they sometimes lose permission information and you will have to add permissions back in to read the file for a restore.
David
@SQLTentmaker“He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose” - Jim Elliot
September 2, 2008 at 7:37 am
Can you backup locally via SQL and then move the backup files to a network share for longer term storage? Leave one day on local disk and maybe a week or so to a SAN device?
-- You can't be late until you show up.
September 3, 2008 at 11:40 am
At my company, we purchased SQL Backup by RedGate software. It compresses the backups automatically and has 3 different levels of compression. It shrunk backup file sizes by 80% and backups/restores run 75% faster! It's a great tool. It also does a better job of reporting in my opinion. The report you get actually has all the information broken down by "these backups failed" and "these backups worked" including the start/stop times. One other item I really like was that it has the option to delete the previous backups *before* the backup job runs. From what I can tell, SQL jobs do this *after* the job runs, so it stinks when you run out of space.
September 3, 2008 at 2:59 pm
I used SQLSafe by Idera ... sounds similar to RedGate's. The other ideas post above are also good options.
September 3, 2008 at 3:02 pm
I used SQLSafe and Lightspeed. Comparable in functionality, both very good products. It came down to purchase price and maintenance costs.
-- You can't be late until you show up.
September 3, 2008 at 3:16 pm
Another option is HyperBac. We are using it, and it works quite well for us, and we still use standard SQL Server backup/restore commands.
Compression is about 80% and backup/restore times are 50% faster.
😎
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