BACKUP compression in SQL Server 2008

After a long wait, SQL Server 2008 is going to be
released with inbuilt compression for backups. Until the release of SQL Server
2005, compression was only available via third party backup software
such
as  SQL LiteSpeed, SQLZip,
etc.

This article demonstrates how to take
Full, Differential and Transactional log backups with compression,
without compression and how to enable compression as a default.

Note: This article is written based on the SQL Server 2008
– Nov CTP.

Let us create a database “MyDB” as shown below.


USE [master]
GO

/****** Object: Database [MyDB]
Script Date: 12/10/2007 01:08:14 ******/
IF EXISTS (SELECT name FROM sys.databases WHERE name = N’MyDB’)
DROP DATABASE [MyDB]
GO

USE [master]
GO
/****** Object: Database [MyDB]
Script Date: 12/10/2007 01:05:09 ******/
CREATE DATABASE [MyDB] ON PRIMARY
( NAME = N’MyDB_Data’,
FILENAME =
N’F:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL10.SQL2008\
MSSQL\DATA\MyDB_Data.mdf’ ,
SIZE = 2176KB , MAXSIZE = UNLIMITED, FILEGROWTH = 1024KB )
LOG ON
( NAME = N’MyDB_log’,
FILENAME =
N’F:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL10.SQL2008\
MSSQL\DATA\MyDB_log.LDF’ ,
SIZE = 504KB , MAXSIZE = 2048GB , FILEGROWTH = 10%)
GO
ALTER DATABASE [MyDB] SET RECOVERY FULL
GO

Now let us create a table “MyTable” in the database “MyDB”
as shown below


USE [MyDB]
GO

/****** Object: Table [dbo].[MyTable]
Script Date: 12/10/2007 01:12:00 ******/
IF EXISTS (SELECT * FROM sys.objects
WHERE object_id = OBJECT_ID(N’[dbo].[MyTable]’)
AND type in (N’U’))
DROP TABLE [dbo].[MyTable]
GO
USE [MyDB]
GO

/****** Object: Table [dbo].[MyTable]
Script Date: 12/10/2007 01:12:26 ******/
SET ANSI_NULLS ON
GO

SET QUOTED_IDENTIFIER ON
GO

SET ANSI_PADDING ON
GO

CREATE TABLE [dbo].[MyTable](
[id] [int] NULL,
[name] [char](100) NULL
) ON [PRIMARY]

GO

SET ANSI_PADDING OFF
GO

Let’s add
10000 rows of data to the table “MyTable” as shown below.


USE [MyDB]
GO

declare @myid int
set @myid=1
while @myid<=10000
begin
insert into MyTable select @myid, ‘A’+convert(varchar(10),@myid)
set @myid =@myid +1
end

Select the
data using the following T-SQL command. [Refer Fig 1.0]


use MyDB
go
Select * from MyTable
go



Fig 1.0

Create a
folder, D:\Backup, as shown below. [Refer Fig 1.1]



Fig 1.1

Now let us take a full backup as shown below. [Refer
Fig 1.2]

Backup Database MyDB to disk ='d:\Backup\MyDB_Full.bak' with init



Fig 1.2

Let’s add
some more data [1000 rows] to the table “MyTable” in the database “MyDB” as
shown below.


USE [MyDB]
GO

declare @myid int
set @myid=1
while @myid<=1000
begin
insert into MyTable select @myid, ‘A’+convert(varchar(10),@myid)
set @myid =@myid +1
end

Now let us a take a transaction log backup,
as shown below. [Refer Fig 1.3]

Backup log  MyDB to disk ='d:\Backup\MyDB_TLog_1.bak' with init



Fig 1.3

By default, SQL Server does not compress the
backups. We can compress the backups in two different ways.

a.      Change the default behavior of SQL
Server to compress all of the backups.

b.      Add an
optional keyword “With COMPRESSION” in the
backup clause.

The database MyDB and the Full backup, Transactional log
backup that we took were without compression. That is the default
SQL Server behavior.

Now let’s take a full backup of
the database with compression as shown below. [Refer Fig 1.4]

Backup Database MyDB to disk ='d:\Backup\MyDB_Full2.bak' with COMPRESSION



Fig 1.4

From figure 1.4, you can see that the
size of MyDB_Full2.bak is much smaller when compared to MyDB_Full.Bak and
MyDB_Tlog_1.bak.

Add some
more data [1000 rows] to the table “MyTable” in the database “MyDB” as shown
below.


USE [MyDB]
GO

declare @myid int
set @myid=1
while @myid<=1000
begin
insert into MyTable select @myid, ‘A’+convert(varchar(10),@myid)
set @myid =@myid +1
end

Now let’s take a transaction log backup as shown below. [Refer
Fig 1.5]

Backup log  MyDB to disk ='d:\Backup\MyDB_TLog_new.bak' with COMPRESSION



Fig 1.5

In
figure 1.5, you can see that the size of
MyDB_Tlog_new.bak is much smaller when compared to MyDB_Tlog_1.bak.

Let’s take
a differential backup without compression and compare it with the
differential backup with compression.

Execute the following commands as shown below. [Refer
Fig 1.6]


backup database MyDB to disk =’d:\Backup\MyDB_Diff.bak’ with differential

backup database MyDB to disk =’d:\Backup\MyDB_Diff2.bak’ with differential, COMPRESSION



Fig 1.6

Fig 1.6 shows the compression ratio between
MyDB_Diff.bak and MyDB_Diff2.bak.

Let’s
change the default behavior of SQL Server from uncompressed
backup to compressed. This can be done using the
SP_CONGIFURE command.

Execute the command as shown below.


USE master
GO
EXEC sp_configure ‘backup compression default’, ‘1’
GO
RECONFIGURE WITH OVERRIDE
GO

Now let’s take a full backup of the MyDB database,
without the optional keyword “WITH COMPRESSION”. [Refer Fig 1.7]

Backup Database MyDB to disk ='d:\Backup\MyDB_Full3.bak'



Fig 1.7

From figure 1.7, we can clearly see
that the backup by default is compressed.

Conclusion

This article demonstrated how to take a Full backup,
Differential backup and transactional log backup with or without
compression and how to enable compression as a default.

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