Configuring the LiteSpeed Engine for SQL Server
Quest’s new LiteSpeed Engine for SQL Server is a transparent way to compress and encrypt your Microsoft SQL Server backups – without changing your existing backup scripts or maintenance plans. Instead of calling special stored procedures at backup time, just configure the Engine once and be done with it. Learn how to set it and forget it in this video by Brent Ozar.
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December 22nd, 2009 at 11:08 AM
So is this a copy of what HyperBac has?
December 22nd, 2009 at 12:35 PM
That’s an interesting question – I haven’t used HyperBac’s technology myself, so I can’t say.
January 12th, 2010 at 3:54 PM
Nice video Brent!
I have a few questions.
1. Is the compression implemented at the server prior to transmittal to its ultimate destination? For example, we back up to CIFS shares on the network; and we want to ensure bak file compression happens on the SQL Server PRIOR to it being transported across the network and then written to disk elswhere.
2. Once the backup has been compressed and written, how would a restore occur? And by that I mean does the same thing happen in reverse:- pull from network, decompression by the LiteSpeed engine driver on the SQL server, and then deposit at required location? Also with this in mind, I’m assuming we ould need an instance of this driver runing on any box we would anticipate restoring a database to in the future. Is this the case?
Thanks a million,
Steve
January 13th, 2010 at 10:59 AM
Steve – good questions. The compression is implemented at the server prior to its transmittal, before it’s written to disk. We sort of stand between SQL Server and its file system so that when SQL Server writes a backup file, we’re compressing it before those bits ever hit the network or the disks themselves. The same thing happens in reverse for restores – SQL Server requests bits off the disks, and we uncompress them in memory before handing them off to SQL Server. Therefore you’ll need LiteSpeed in order to do the restore.
Hope that helps! Let me know if you’ve got more questions.
January 14th, 2010 at 4:13 AM
Hi Brent,
MSSQL 2008 has a built in backup compression feature.
3rd party tools are unable to use this feature. Do you have a comparison about compression rates of built-in MSSQL2008 feature and LightSpeed compressed backups?
Microsoft made some measurements on his SAP ERP system, and published it in this blog:
http://blogs.msdn.com/saponsqlserver/archive/2008/03/28/how-does-microsoft-perform-backups-in-their-sap-system-landscape.aspx
Many thanks
Balazs
January 14th, 2010 at 1:34 PM
Hello Brent,
Can you install this on a log-shipped pair of servers without having to interrupt log-shipping? And do you have to purchase two licenses if one of the log-shipping pair is dedicated DR server?
Regards,
SCM
January 18th, 2010 at 11:03 AM
Balazs – only SQL Server 2008 Enterprise Edition has that feature, and since Enterprise costs roughly $25,000 per CPU, not everybody buys Enterprise. Marlon Ribunal did a comparison on his blog that might help:
http://dbalink.wordpress.com/2010/01/14/sql-server-2008-backup-compression/
January 18th, 2010 at 11:05 AM
@SuperCoolMoss – yes, you can install it on log-shipped servers, but I would recommend this sequence:
1. Install the LiteSpeed Engine software on both servers
2. Configure the Engine to use a new backup extension (different than the one you’re already using like BKP)
3. Change your log shipping plans to use the new extension
That way you can restore both old and new backups without any changes. About the licensing – yes, you do have to purchase two licenses, but your salesperson might give you discounts on the second instance.
January 26th, 2010 at 7:05 AM
Hi,
How does this functionality difer to Quest’s previous product Native Command Substition (NCS)?
My concern is around an issue that arose with NCS where by Microsoft still does not support the use of detours as per http://support.microsoft.com/kb/920925/en-us.
So, are you achieving the functionality in a different way that is fully supported by Microsoft?
Regards
Andrew
January 28th, 2010 at 1:04 PM
Andrew – hi, great question. It’s completely different – we don’t do NCS at all. Instead, we’re using a file system filter driver. It’s fully supported by Microsoft, and funny you mention it, one of our developers is at Microsoft this week testing an upcoming version with their help.