SQL 2008 OpsDay - Data and Backup Compression

Hi all,

Just wanted to thank all the attendees that participated to yesterday's event on SQL Server 2008 in TVP - Reading.

We've received great feedback on the content of the day, and I really hope everybody went back home (for some of you I heard it was quite a long way!) sure that SQL Server 2008 is a great product full of new features and enhancements which are just what you need for your business activities.

I want to follow-up some questions which I've received during the event, and leave some links to review if you want to further learn about Data and Backup Compression.

Questions:

"Data compression is an enterprise only feature. Is it possible though to restore compressed backup on standard?"

Though creating compressed backups is supported only in SQL Server 2008 Enterprise Edition and later, every SQL Server 2008 or later edition can restore a compressed backup.

"Are there some guidelines to tune performances of backup compression"?

Yes, one interesting article from Technet and from SQL CAT:

• Tuning the Performance of Backup Compression in SQL Server 2008

http://sqlcat.com/technicalnotes/archive/2008/04/21/tuning-the-performance-of-backup-compression-in-sql-server-2008.aspx

• How to: Use Resource Governor to Limit CPU Usage by Backup Compression (Transact-SQL)

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc280384(SQL.100).aspx

Useful information:

Reducing Database Size by Using Vardecimal Storage Format

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb508963.aspx

Creating Compressed Tables and Indexes

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc280449(SQL.100).aspx

SQL Server Storage Engine - Data Compression Series

http://blogs.msdn.com/sqlserverstorageengine/archive/tags/Data+Compression/default.aspx

Backup Compression (SQL Server)

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb964719(SQL.100).aspx

SQL Server 2008: Backup Compression

http://www.sqlskills.com/blogs/paul/2007/09/20/SQLServer2008BackupCompression.aspx

SQL Server 2008: Backup Compression CPU Cost

http://www.sqlskills.com/blogs/paul/2008/01/09/SQLServer2008BackupCompressionCPUCost.aspx

Download the last CTP

https://connect.microsoft.com/SQLServer/content/content.aspx?ContentID=5395

For any additional question, please contact myself directly at beatrice.nicolini@microsoft.com and read my blog at http://blogs.technet.com/beatrice.

- Beatrice Nicolini -