Desktop

Ask something
Discussion Locked

Compressing large files

0 helpful
11 replies

by jcannon1

Closed to new repliesThis discussion is closed. It stays readable, but it takes no new replies.
I am getting large backup files generated by SQL that I am unable to backup to tape due to their size. They are over 4 GBs. PKZIP nor WINZip will compress them. Any suggestions?

11 replies

by estebandelatorre

Double check if your backupsize is real data and not device space defined. (sql 2000)
I recommend you not to compress them, instead, backup to a dat tape drive with compression enable (hardware)
Also try to save the backup file to an NTFS compress(local or remote) drive.

by estebandelatorre

When saying real data, I'm refering to the log size. Did you ever dump the transaction log?
Dump transaction with NO_LOG

by jcannon1

We are running SQL 7 and I am referring to the single file that is created when you have SQL backup to file (*.bak).
Currently, the system is setup to backup the data in SQL to a file on our backup server (Win NT4 / NTFS) and then those files are compressed, via PKZIP, and backed up to 10/20GB tape.
This file that is too large to compress is not a log. We do dump the transaction log.
Thanks for the recommendation, though.

by donq

If the "data" you need to save exceeds the tape size - get a bigger tape drive. If the "data" and "software" combine to create the 4GB - seperate saved data into a private directorry and back it up ONLY. Prepare to buy a bigger backup shortly - 4GB isn't that big any more?

by jcannon1

It's not that the data exceeds the size of the tape, it's that I cannot compress a file that is larger than 4GB, and the backup software, Backup Exec, will not backup a file that large, either.
The problem is the overall amount of data, but the amount in a single file.

by lo

Not sure but ...

Isnt' there a way to tell SQL to start a new backup every N hours/minutes/etc. (rather than just doing 1 per day)? I think our DBA did this with Oracle just to get more managable files (don't think we have any SQL Servers at the office).

Other than more data per tape and unattended backup, why not just backup to multiple tapes? You can get past unattended backup with autoloader devices.

by jcannon1

Again, it's not the amount of total data, it's the size of a single file that I am having problems with.

by lo

Hi - You got a bit quick with the reject. Was expecting to add a comment after the test.

I just did a 6.2gb file (backup of various disks getting .5gb each, DOS copy to a single file. I PKZIPed that, Win NT version, v2.6, registered version. If you are running the unregistered download, might license or just purchase a retail copy. Didn't do WinZip, have to install (removed some time back). From my test (Workstation), I would guess there is a solution but may cost a bit of $ to get upgraded software.

If you want a solution for backup that ONLY uses compression, reread - previous posts (and below).

If you want a solution to backup, reguardless of means, reread previous posts, get a larger capacity tape. A larger tape or a software package that will do compression will give you same/similar to compressing with PKZIP or WinZIP and probably faster. I use NovaBack from NovaStor, about $60 retail for WorkStation. It gets close to 2:1 compression. I put 2.2 + 1.7 + 2.? on a4/8 TR4. If you get a tape drive that will do 10/20 gb (?$150? or so) you can get a really large file with compression on 1 tape.

by jcannon1

Okay, I messed up. Meant to give the points to Lo, for he pointed me in the right direction in getting the registered verison on PKZip 4.5. It compresses files larger than 4 GB. Was using PKZip 4.0 shareware and it would just say the file was toobig. Thought that it would at least tell me that the registered version would compress large files. Oh well. Lesson learned.

This discussion is closed to new replies.