Compression Question

[rshah]

Hi,

I was wondering, is it possible to compress backups if the destination is to a disk rather than a tape drive?
If so, how do I do this?
thanks,

[Ben_L_]

Yes, select Software compression in the job instead of Hardware compression.

[avazquez]

Ben, I have looked for such settings but can not find it.  Is SW compression offered in B2d backup jobs?

[Ben_L_]

Open the job properties, then go to the General settings. There is a drop down box called "Compression type", select Software from the drop down.

[avazquez]

Thank you, you know I have been on this setting so many times adn never noticed it.  What is the compression ratio for the software setting, do you happen to know?

[Ben_L_]

There is not set compression ratio for software compression, it is based on how much the data can be compressed.  So the more Backup Exec can compress the data, the higher the ratio will be.

[avazquez]

Thank you for yur assistance.

[MitchR]

More info, if you were curious.
You can check the option, but there's no clear way to tell if it's working.  The "compression ratio" column shows values for tapes, but it always blank on backup to disk media.  The best way I've foudn to extimate your actual compression is to make a new B2D file and don't pre-allocate.  Thus the file size will be the amout of data written to disk.  Run a backup job to it, and compare the file size vs the job totals.

In my informal tests, B2D compression is about the same as tape compression.