Compress backup files

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Compress backup files

techie3

SSC Rookie

Points: 27
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June 12, 2007 at 12:56 pm

#117498

Is there an inexpensive way to compress .*bak files? I've heard of SQLZip but hadn't tried it yet. Is there any other suggestions?

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John Rowan SSC Guru Points: 56440 More actions · Answer 1

Check out the zip functionality in this link. It has worked great for me.

http://www.sqlservercentral.com/columnists/ckempster/customlogshipping.asp

John Rowan

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Michael Valentine Jones SSC Guru Points: 64818 More actions · Answer 2

You can make your backup to a compressed directory.

Joe Clifford SSCrazy Eights Points: 8739 More actions · Answer 3

Check out http://www.red-gate.com/products/SQL_Backup/index.htm. The lite version of the product may be what you're looking for. Idera also has a nice product if a little more pricey than Red Gate's.

Peter E. Kierstead SSCarpal Tunnel Points: 4114 More actions · Answer 4

If your shop permits controlled use of xp_CmdShell I would use WinZIPs (v9 or greater) command-line module. With it you can compress (multiple levels) and encrypt (multiple techniques) your backup files simultaneously. As with any large data file minimizing the number of passes thru the data is essential to keep processing times down.

Hope this helps...

PeteK
I have CDO. It's like OCD but all the letters are in alphabetical order... as they should be.

Linda Johanning SSCertifiable Points: 6727 More actions · Answer 5

I tried SQLZip and it worked fine on smaller databases. When I used it on large, busy databases with sets of 2 or more files the restores errored. I don't know if Windows patches might have affected it or not, but I tried Windows 2000 and 2003. I also tried various combinations of options and could not do restores of large databases successfully. Just my experience.

philcart SSC-Forever Points: 47795 More actions · Answer 6

We've made extensive use of GZip (http://www.gxip.org) at many of our client sites. Haven't had any issues as yet. Does tend to churn a bit when thrown a mulit-gigabyte file, but does eventually eat it up.

That said I'd also like to add my vote for Red-Gate SQL Backup, reliable on the fly compression at a bargin basement price.

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Daniel Simon Grasshopper Points: 22 More actions · Answer 7

I use WinAce, compresses a 8GB .bak file to a 900MB .ace file.