SQL LiteSpeed - Lightning Fast Backups

  • Comments posted to this topic are about the content posted at http://www.sqlservercentral.com/columnists/sjones/sqllitespeedlightningfastbackups.asp

  • Sql Litespeed is a great product. We have a 80 gig database that produced 60 gig backup files taking about 2.5 hours to complete. SQL Litespeed reduced the size of the backups to 21 gigs and the time dropped to 1:40 to 2:00 hours.

    So far no major issues, although at one point shortly after we started using the product, the time to complete the backup jumped to 4.5 - 5.5 hours! Needless-to-say we were concerned. After defragging the drives and defragging the database (recreating indexes) the time came back down to the sub 2 hour range.

    My major peeve with this product is that it does not integrate with the Sql Maint Plans. You have to create your own job. What I find even worse is you have to create a methodology to remove old backups unlike using SQLMaint which can remove old backups for you. If anyone knows how to get SQL Litespeed to remove old backups itself, i'd love to hear how.

  • Steve, Brian, and I met several of the team from DBAssociates at Pass - great guys! You don't have to talk to them long to see that they worked to bring this product to market and are proud of what they have built and the response to it so far. Nice thing about the SQL tool market is that they are mostly small companies interested in solving problems.

    Andy

    http://www.sqlservercentral.com/columnists/awarren/

  • They are working on a maint plan replacement and some other enhancements. I'm expecting (and excited) to see them soon, so I'll let you know.

    Since we use Diff's anyway, the maint plans are a problem, so not as big a deal for us.

    Steve Jones

    sjones@sqlservercentral.com

    http://www.sqlservercentral.com/columnists/sjones

  • I work for Edgewood Solutions, we're a reseller of the LiteSpeed product. We've been working with DBAssociates on putting together scripts that replace maintanace plans that are generated using the wizard.

    If you'd like more information on this, feel free to contact us at 888-788-2444 or craiga@edgewoodsolutions.com.

  • One word: Sa-weet! Now to see if we can get a test in-house.

    K. Brian Kelley

    http://www.truthsolutions.com/

    Author: Start to Finish Guide to SQL Server Performance Monitoring

    http://www.netimpress.com/shop/product.asp?ProductID=NI-SQL1

    K. Brian Kelley
    @kbriankelley

  • The product is very good and I highly recommend it, unfortunatly for me, the company I am contracting for at present has no money (but they can buy lots of carpet, and fancy gold embossed signs outside the elevaltor!)

    Cheers

    Ck


    Chris Kempster
    www.chriskempster.com
    Author of "SQL Server Backup, Recovery & Troubleshooting"
    Author of "SQL Server 2k for the Oracle DBA"

  • I do agree with SQL Lite assesments as well as the notes regarding maintenance plans.

    We are testing the product and it does help a lot.

    Space and speed wise is one of the best products I've ever come across. I hope they find a solution soon.

    After runing a backup and restore from SQLLite, I left that backup file in the particular backup directory.

    The nightly backup failed (this particular backup is set for overwrite previous backup files)

    I just deleted the SQLLite backup file and everything went back to the way it was.

    From SQL Lite to overwrite SQL Server backups, works fine, but the other way around it did not.

    Question is: Is the backup format different from the one created by SQL Server? or is the compression the culprit, not allowing SQL Server to overwrite the previous backup becasue it does not recognize the file as it should?

    Just a couple of lines to contribute with the site

  • The formats are different, but I'm not sure if that was your issue.

    I generate a unique filename each night so I always know which backup I've got stored in the filesystem.

    Steve Jones

    sjones@sqlservercentral.com

    http://www.sqlservercentral.com/columnists/sjones

  • I am impressed with the speed and storage saving of backup. However, I did not see much gain on the restore with sqllitespeed. I have done two restores with different database size, both took longer than the native method.

    I'm using the eval version, if that matters.

  • Doeas anybody know if Litespeed is able to work together with other backup softrwares, like TSM (Tivoli Storage Manager)?

    Actually we have a mainframe based TSM server with a mainframe attached tape library and we cannot replace it (also I don't want to because it is working fine)



    Bye
    Gabor

  • quote:


    Doeas anybody know if Litespeed is able to work together with other backup softrwares, like TSM (Tivoli Storage Manager)?

    Actually we have a mainframe based TSM server with a mainframe attached tape library and we cannot replace it (also I don't want to because it is working fine)


    They only support direct to file backups, not tape or other media. However you can always make a file backup and then pickup the file for storage to tape.

  • We have 2 TSM's here on AIX and both are used to grab the flat file that Litespeed generates. Backing up a db to tape isn't recommended anyway.

    We just purchased the product and our 150GB+ nightly SQL backups have dropped down to a little over 40GB total. We're also moving to differentials most nights.

    Since Litespeed geneates a flat file, it doesn't change anything on the TSM.

    Steve Jones

    sjones@sqlservercentral.com

    http://www.sqlservercentral.com/columnists/sjones

    http://www.dkranch.net

  • Bad product becase

    Poort support from Quest. Never replies your emails.

    Activation required. Server upgrade or new server requires new key.

    Don't get stuck with this product.

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