Compressing SQL Backups and logs?

  • Does anyone know of a Utility besides SQLzip that will compress the SQL database backups and logs.

    I tested SQLzip and it seems to take a long time to backup the files.

    Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

    Chad

  • You could check one of this site sponsors, at http://www.sqllitespeed.com

  • Both good products (and both have supported our site with advertising), but I think Litespeed has the edge in performance. Definitely worth a try. Steve Jones has a review of it posted.

    Andy

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

  • Thanks for your help guys. I downloaded the eval copy and will let you know what kind of numbers I get performance and size.

    This site is the best SQL site I have seen yet.

    Chad

  • If you are storing the database backups on a hard drive on a Windows NT/2000/XP computer, you can simply compress the target folders to save space.

  • I have found the WinZip will not compress large backups. I think the size limit of the compressed file is 2 gig. Does Litespeed have this size limitation on how big of backup it can compress? Which product will support compressing larger backups?

    Gregory Larsen, DBA

    If you looking for SQL Server Examples check out my website at http://www.geocities.com/sqlserverexamples

    Gregory A. Larsen, MVP

  • For info Winzip 9 (Beta available) does zip/unzip files over 4gb.

  • I currently use Win 8.1 with the command line add-on. (Command line add-on Beta 1.1). This will allow you zip very large files. My .bak files are in the range of 6 to 9gb.

    I just check PKware website. Their new PKware for windows can zip over 4gb files now. I might download their software and give it a try.

    Hope this helps.

    Dave

  • Doesn't Winzip take a long time to compress a file. I tried to compress a 23GB database and it was going to take like 10-15 Hours just to do that file. Does the command line add-on speed it up?

    Thanks,

    Chad

  • I use Winrar to compress backup files. The ratio is very good. I pack 1.65 GB backup files into a single 177 MB .rar file in 15 minutes. Then I ftp the .rar file to an off-site for backup.

  • Chad,

    There's alot of factors to compare speed of systems. However, I can zip a 8.72gb .bak file to 1.54gb .zip file in less than 30 minutes.

    My server is a 2.4 Xeon with 4gb of memory.

    Dave

  • SQLZip (I believe) uses an algorithm similar to Winzip and eats up quite a bit of CPU. Compression is better than Litespeed set at level 2, but didn't appear to be worth the resource load (IMHO). I run 2 and rarely see CPU go over 30.

    Steve Jones

    sjones@sqlservercentral.com

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

    http://www.dkranch.net

  • We also use Winrar to compress the full backup of 18G database. However, the newer version of PKZip does support compression of files over 4G.

  • I personally recommend using SQL LiteSpeed it is easier work with you also don't have the two steps of backup database then compress it happens all at once. Restores are also a snap.

    Wes

  • I use winrar and in am compressing 50-60 gig backups with no problems i recently compressed a 20gig backup down to 3 gig using winrar normal compression

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