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).