Configure backup compression

By default, Percona Backup for MongoDB uses the s2 compression method when making a backup.

You can start a backup with a different compression method by passing the --compression flag to the pbm backup command.

For example, to start a backup with gzip compression, use the following command:

$ pbm backup --compression=gzip

Supported compression types are: gzip, snappy, lz4, pgzip, zstd. The none value means no compression is done during backup.

As of version 1.7.0, you can configure the compression level for backups. Specify the value for the --compression-level flag.

Default compression levels differ per compression method used.

The following table shows available compression levels per compression method:

Compression method	Supported compression levels	Default
zstd	1 - fastest speed, 2 - default, 3 - better compression, 4 - best compression	2
snappy	no levels
lz4	From 1 (fastest) to 16	1
gzip and pgzip	-1 - default compression, 0 - no compression, 1 - best speed, 9 - best compression	-1

Note that the higher value you specify, the more time and computing resources it will take to compress the data.

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Last update: February 24, 2025
Created: February 24, 2025