I have a backup running and I am trying to minimize network traffic in duration as well as cycles on the host computer. IT is a database server. My question is, is it faster to:
1). Tar the folder right to the network drive ? (tar -zcvf /net/backup.tar.gz *)
Or
2). Tar the folder THEN copy it over? (tar -zcvf ~/backup.tar.gz;mv backup.tar.gz /net/.)

Would I even be saving anything?

If you do the Tar THEN copy it over.. you add an extra layer of work but are moving less data from point A to point B across the network as the data will already be compressed.

But its got to be a huge server on a network stretched to its limits to make that much of a difference in my opinion (unless its a really slow network). And for reference....it had to be in the multiple terabytes to be big in my mind much less huge.

Ballpark how much data are we talking....and is it on a 100baseT or 1000baseT network.

Several gigs on 1gbe.

It is doing a database backup. I was trying to figure out a good way to lessen the load on the server. Have to look at the actual database on the server and not the backup.

Unless the network has a high utilization it can easily move that much data in a matter of minutes. As far as load. Which machine is actually compressing which is where the load will be.. I'm assuming the server being backed up. But if it another machine is handling that load... then the data will be the only concern. Unless either the server or the machine where the backup is stored have really low throughput.

Best option is if it sees a low usage time at any point of the day.. (eg. At night) set it up to happen then.

Its a pretty beefy server if its throughput can even come close to what a gig ethernet can handle. A 4 array disk raid 5 doesn't even come close to it. In fact I can be be moving hundreds of gigs across several different servers before it really impacts the network enough to even be seen streaming a video at 1080p at a high bit-rate. (no tollerance for dropped or re-transmitted packets.)

Unless that thing is thrashed within an inch of its life....and the network is pushing nearly 80%+ utilization ( you start having real problems beyond that point)...you might not even notice either way.

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Originally Posted by smoothy

If you do the Tar THEN copy it over.. you add an extra layer of work but are moving less data from point A to point B across the network as the data will already be compressed.

But its got to be a huge server on a network stretched to its limits to make that much of a difference in my opinion (unless its a really slow network). And for reference....it had to be in the multiple terabytes to be big in my mind much less huge.

Ballpark how much data are we talking....and is it on a 100baseT or 1000baseT network.

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You are right, It will save complete data.

Figured out what the problem was and it was the database server, old database that hadn't been tuned in quite some time. The way it was used caused certain indexes to grow fabulously. The actual backup process was minimal at best.