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IMO compression in backups is overrated. (I run Relica, a backup service built atop restic: https://relicabackup.com https://relicabackup.com) Most large files
by mholt 8y ago
IMO compression in backups is overrated. (I run Relica, a backup service built atop restic: https://relicabackup.com https://relicabackup.com)
Most large files are already in compressed formats: mp4, zip, tgz, jpg, etc.
What you _really_ want is deduplication (which restic does), so that chunks are only stored once, even if multiple machines sharing some data back up to the same repo. Dedup saves me about 30% per backup repo in my own experience.
Not saying compression wouldn't be nice (to have done properly, it is somewhat at odds with encryption), but I'm just saying I don't think it's worth making it a #1 deciding factor.
- johntash 8y agoI agree that compression is overrated for most backups. It'd help with a lot of text-oriented data, but honestly that takes up so little space compared to a vm image or something like that. If I was backing up a single computer, compression would matter more to me. But if I'm backing up 10s or 100s of servers, there's going to be a lot of duplicated data that would make a much bigger difference.