backup compression thoughts ?

  • Hello all.

    Are there any considerations to be aware of when using SQL backup compression to a location that uses disk compression ?

    I have a location that I want to backup to, that is already using NTFS compression.

    As these will be backup files , I won't be accessing them on a regular basis.

    Is there any thing else I should investigate and take into account ?

    Thanks

  • The compression for the backup will occur within SQL Server, so there's no issue there. I'll bet you don't get any additional compression on the drive since the file will already be compressed as it gets written out. I don't think there's any special concern, no.

    "The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood"
    - Theodore Roosevelt

    Author of:
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  • What I've done is leave my folders uncompressed and invoked the database backup compression. However I'm just finishing up a backup/transaction archival process that moves my backups from their original location to 1 of 7 folders depending the age of the backup & transaction logs. These "archive" folders have been set up as NTFS compressed.

    Although I haven't proven it, I believe that reading/writing to a compressed folder requires an extra step of compression/decompression that may impact the overall performance of the backup job . I don't want to impact my database and transaction log backups with having to go through that extra step of compression/decompression. That is why I perform my backups to a NTFS non-compressed folder. However my archival process I'm not all that concerned when those database/transaction log backups go from a NTFS non-compressed folder to a NTFS compressed folder.

    My 2 cents worth.

    Kurt

    Kurt W. Zimmerman
    SR DBA
    Lefrak Organization
    New York, NY

    http://www.linkedin.com/in/kurtwzimmerman

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