SQL HyperBac 5.4

Walkthrough: Configuring SQL HyperBac

When you've installed SQL HyperBac, you can use the HyperBac service to add compression and encryption to your SQL Server backups, without changing your existing backup routines. This walk-though will show you how to configure SQL HyperBac to recognize and work on your backups.

This walkthrough of SQL HyperBac will show you:

• How to configure SQL HyperBac to recognize new file types
• How to add compression and encryption to native SQL Server backups
• How to use SQL HyperBac when taking SQL Server backups

Contents:

• Step 1: Taking a backup in SQL Server
• Step 2: HyperBac Configuration Manager
• Step 3: Choosing a file path for the backup
• Step 4: Adding a new file extension
• Step 5: Adding compression
• Step 6: Adding encryption
• Step 7: Confirming the settings
• Step 8: Checking the settings
• Step 9: Taking a new backup for comparison
• Step 10: Comparing the file sizes

Step 1: Taking a backup in SQL Server

In this walkthrough, we want SQL HyperBac's compression and encryption to complement our existing backup routine. In this example, we will back up and restore our database, AdventureWorks, using native commands in SQL Server Management Studio. In the screenshot above, we can see the time it has taken to back up AdventureWorks natively, without benefiting from the compression and encryption provided by SQL HyperBac.

Step 2: HyperBac Configuration Manager

We can use SQL HyperBac in our existing backup routines by registering .bak files in the SQL HyperBac extensions list. We only need to register this file type once to be able to compress .bak backups for our chosen file path. Once we have registered this file format, SQL HyperBac will automatically act to compress and/or encrypt this file type when we trigger the backups.
 
At this point, we could also choose to use proprietary file extensions, such as .hbe for compressed, encrypted backups. We would simply need to update the file extension in our native command or script in order for SQL HyperBac to compress and encrypt our backups in this format.

To add .bak files to the extensions list, we open the SQL HyperBac Configuration Manager, select the Extensions tab and click Add.

Step 3: Choosing a file path for the backup

The Add/Modify Registration Wizard then opens and takes us to the File Path tab. In this example, we want SQL HyperBac to act on any .bak backups we write from now on, so we check the 'Include All Paths' option.

Step 4: Adding a new file extension

Next, we move to the File Extension tab, and enter the file type that we want SQL HyperBac to recognize – in this example, .bak files.

Step 5: Adding compression

In the Compression tab, we can choose compression rate options for SQL HyperBac to use from now on.

In this case, we want to optimize our compressed backups for size, so we pick Integrated Compression, rather than Fast Compression.

Fast Compression means the time to take a backup is shorter, but the size of the compressed backup file is likely to be greater than when we use Integrated Compression.

If we wanted to back up to .zip, we could also enable the ZIP Compatible Output Format at this stage.

Step 6: Adding encryption

Finally, we want SQL HyperBac to encrypt our backups automatically. We have three levels of encryption to choose from, and we select the 256-bit level for maximum security against unauthorized access.

Step 7: Confirming the settings

These are all the settings we want for now, so we click OK, and tell SQL HyperBac to apply our changes immediately.

The completion of our settings means that, in this example, SQL HyperBac will automatically act when we backup .bak files on any file path, from SQL Server Management Studio. Our backups will be compressed, with 256-bit AES encryption. No changes to our existing backup process have been required to take advantage of the compression and encryption. From the point we register all our settings, we can continue to use our existing backup techniques or native maintenance plans as normal. SQL HyperBac will automatically compress and encrypt our backups as specified.

Step 8: Checking the settings

We can double-check that our settings are fully registered for .bak backups – compression is set to Enabled and encryption to AES-256, as we specified.

Step 9: Taking a new backup for comparison

Returning to Management Studio, we can run another backup query as normal on AdventureWorks to see the difference SQL HyperBac's compression and encryption make to the size and speed of the backup. We want to check the size as well as the speed, so we change our backup's name to avoid overwriting it. The Messages box shows that implementing SQL HyperBac's compression for this backup has caused the backup time to go down to a little over four seconds.

In future, we can just take backups as usual in Management Studio and SQL HyperBac will automatically compress and encrypt them as they are written, according to the specifications in the HyperBac Configuration Manager.

Step 10: Comparing the file sizes

Finally, we can also check the new backup's size following SQL HyperBac's compression. At just over 40,000 KB, it's achieved a 75% compression rate in this particular example.

If we need to restore our new backup, we simply run a normal restore operation in Management Studio. SQL HyperBac would automatically detect the operation, decompressing and/or decrypting it as appropriate.