Speed up DirectAdmin backups with PIGZ

DirectAdmin backup uses gzip (single-threaded compression) by default, which can be slow on servers with large datasets. PIGZ (Parallel Implementation of GZip) compresses data in parallel across all CPU cores, significantly speeding up the backup process.

This guide shows you how to integrate PIGZ into DirectAdmin to speed up backups.

Install PIGZ

# AlmaLinux/Rocky Linux/CentOS
yum install pigz -y
# Ubuntu/Debian
apt install pigz -y

Enable PIGZ in DirectAdmin

cd /usr/local/directadmin/custombuild
./build set pigz yes
./build rewrite_confs

All DirectAdmin backups will now automatically use PIGZ instead of gzip. No further configuration needed.

Performance Comparison

Backup test with 10GB data on an 8-core server:

• gzip (1 core): ~15 minutes
• PIGZ (8 cores): ~3 minutes

Compression ratio is nearly identical, but speed improvement is dramatic.

💡 PIGZ output files are fully compatible with gzip. You can decompress PIGZ files with standard gunzip. Combine PIGZ with zstd compression (./build set compression zstd) for even better results.

Vietnamese version: Tăng tốc backup DirectAdmin với PIGZ

Summary

PIGZ is the simplest upgrade to speed up DirectAdmin backups. One package install, two CustomBuild commands, and backups run several times faster. Especially effective on servers with multiple CPU cores.