Copying files from legacy physical server

[Frosty]

Looking for some suggestions.

We have VBR 7.0R4 (not yet ready to upgrade to v8). I have one remaining physical SQL server and its causing me some grief. Database size around 100GB. SQL Server 2005 (so I don't have access to SQL backup compression).

I am looking for ways to robustly backup the SQL .BAK files WITH compression. After a lot of trial and error I have ended up with a batch script and command-line 7-zip. This gives me about 5:1 compression and the job takes about 1 hour, giving me a roughly 20GB .ZIP file.

Since I want the backup files to end up on my VBR server, I tried a File Copy job, but unfortunately that doesn't Compress the files into a single backup file, it just replicates the files.

Any suggestions as to how else I might try to solve this? I have already experimented with Windows folder compression and also with Windows native .ZIP folders.

EDIT: forgot to mention, the SQL server is on Windows Server 2003, so native Windows backup doesn't do compression either.

[foggy]

Stephen, you can copy the files to some VM and then get it backed up by regular Veeam B&R backup job with compression enabled.

[Frosty]

foggy ... you are a flipping genius ... well done! I couldn't see the wood for the trees!!!

[foggy]

It's a pretty common workaround used by our customers in similar cases, when you need to back up some files residing on a physical server using Veeam B&R.