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I've asked about enabling xGZIP in the past, and the answer was no, still can't understand why.
If you want to compress tape backups , the tape device compress data.
If you want to compress Image Catalog virtual media or SAVF, I suggest to try creating an Uncompressed file, then use ZSTD or PIGZ for parallel compression.
You can even use piping to compress while sending data to an S3 or SCP/SFTP target.
Good luck
Diego KESSELMAN
No, the main intention is to speed up backups (in particular, where compression is enabled).
And less data also means less time for encryption and network transfer.
SW compression is generally slower than HW compression and consumes more CPU time.
The mentioned paper shows for AIX backup times (fig.6),
which are 20% longer for uncompressed data (720s) than when using NX842 compression(655s).
I mentioned a “system library” because this solution is chosen for AIX to have only a single implementation.
NX842 seems to be a part of the POWER hardware, that can be enabled easily. AIX uses it, RedHat probably,
too. (A source code for Linux is https://github.com/torvalds/linux/blob/master/drivers/crypto/nx/nx-842.c)
If NX842 is enabled, I would appreciate it to be (the default?) an option on IBM i to choose, wherever it is useful.
https://www.ibm.com/support/pages/save-command-parameters-affect-performance
I am only aware of external HW compression (like in tape drives) not others like in additional adapter cards (as used for encryption).
There are business examples.
Can you please describe more details regarding this request. Today we have software compression support on SAVxxx commands and API's as indicated in the DTACPR parameter with the highest compression algorithm currently offered on IBM i (*HIGH = LZ1 algorithm). This support is only when saving to save file or optical only. Is this request for a modern compression algorithm special value on this parameter that could leverage hardware compression capabilities when saving to savf or optical?