Portal and data collector files retrieved using the Support Tools function are archived as {{.zip.xz}}. This format is used to minimize the disk space required on the portal and collector plus minimize network transfer time.

The format {{.zip.xz}} is not natively supported by most platforms, but there are standard tools available to process them. On most platforms it will be necessary to first extract the uncompressed {{.zip}} from the {{.xz}}, and then extract the files from the {{.zip}}. This means that the system on which the files are being extracted will need free disk space equal to approximately twice the size of the uncompressed files.

Windows requires a third-party tool to process the archives. 7-zip (http://www.7-zip.org/) and its derivatives (such as Easy 7-zip (http://www.e7z.org/) are suitable. Other extraction tools may also provide {{.xz}} and {{.zip}} support.

To extract using 7-zip is a two-step process:

Most Linux distributions come with command-line support for {{.xz}} and {{.zip}} archives, or such support can be easily added.

To extract using the standard command-line tools is a two-step process, as the standard {{unzip}} tool cannot take a zip archive via standard input (cannot pipe into {{unzip}}).