the source can not be zipped because as soon as the backup is done I would like to start the db, and not waste time zipping and unzipping

@remiah:I did think about using that module, however as Aaron mentioned gzip worked out better to zip individual files.

the one that I posted earlier is working.

@ramprasad27: hoping that it answers your question based on what I have done, please see if there is a better way of achieving that