SQL Server Compressed Backup

What is SQL Server Compressed Backup?

SQL Server Compressed Backup is a command line utility for backing up and restoring SQL Server 2000, 2005 and 2008 databases in various compression formats including gzip, zip64, and bzip2.

Project Features

• Open Source. SQL Server Compressed Backup is released under GPL v3.
• Compress on the Fly. SQL Server Compressed Backup compresses the data as it saves the data. No temporary files are used.
• Standard Formats. Your data is important, so it stores the data in a standard SQL Server *.bak file, compressed in standard gzip, zip64, or bzip2 formats so that it is easy to restore the database using the method you are most comfortable with. Though SQL Server Compressed Backup can also decompress and restore on the fly.
• Reliable. SQL Server Compressed Backup faithfully stores the bytes that SQL Server writes and compresses with well known and reliable compression formats. The uncompressed data is in the same format as the standard BACKUP DATABASE command.
• Pipeline Architecture. SQL Server Compressed Backup uses a pipeline architecture to backup the data. This allows you to pass the data through a compression plugin, and then, one day, through an encryption plugin (when an encryption plugin exists). Any number of plugins, including plugins you write can be used in the pipeline.
• Multithreaded Compression. SQL Server Compressed Backup can compress your backups using multiple threads to take advantage of multiple cores.

Current Release

• Stable: See project page
Known bugs:
• No known bugs

Known Issues:
• Cntl-c kills the application ungracefully, which isn't ideal.


• Beta:none

System Requirements

SQL Server Compressed Backup is tested against SQL Server 2000, 2005 and 2008 and requires .Net 2.0 which is usually installed with SQL Server 2005 and 2008. This application must run locally with SQL Server.

Installation Instructions

Simple. Unzip the files on the server and open a command prompt to execute msbp.exe. If you execute the *.exe from the command prompt without any arguments, it will print the help to get you started.