Backup in 7z format

[batfastad]

Hi guys

I'm not actually an owner/user of Zimbra yet. There's a few things that we need to see added before we can switch from Exchange. ZCS v6 will be the one that does it for us.
(I cannot wait to get rid of Exchange!!!)

But I've been reading up on docs and using the AJAX interface demos etc, getting ready for the day.

I see that you can tell the backups to be done into zip format by adding a switch to the backup command.

Just wondered if anyone had considered 7z format?
Clearly this isn't a deal-breaker for us. Just more of a general wondering really.

Increased compression ratio over zip (the results are quite staggering in some cases in our office!) but I guess increased CPU usage to actually run it.

Comments/suggestions?

Thanks, B

[p24t]

I've seen 7z do some amazing compression, and I've seen it do some not so great compression.

Personally, I was surprised they didn't go with gzip or something instead. I guess everyone understands zip files for the most part. bzip2 has some better compression, but I don't think it's worth the tradeoff CPU overhead vs. filesize unless you're archiving things or are really worried about space.

7z also isn't included with everything. Sure you can install it, but until it's installed with every system I don't think it'll see as widespread usage.

[batfastad]

Fair enough.
What I might try is comparing the compression of a zipped backup, with a regular one that I then run through 7z to see if it's worth it.

I'm hoping I can fit an entire mailbox backup onto our Iomega Rev drive for off-site backups

[VS_onD]

Zip files can open automatically on Windows machines.

That's why it's there :-)