NetVault Plug-in for Filesystem does backup and restore sparse files.
In the manner it works, NetVault backups sparse files non-sparse. The size of the backup will be the allocated size of the sparse file, not the size on the disk of the sparse file. For example, if a sparse file has an allocated size of 512MB and the size on the disk of the sparse file is 4KB, NetVault will backup the allocated size, 512MB. To reduce required storage space, NetVault relies on backup device compression, for example, Quest QoreStor advanced source-based data deduplication and compression technologies, if using Quest QoreStor as a backup device.
NetVault restores the sparse files sparse, except the last block. If the block size is 4KB, the size on the disk of the restored sparse file would be about 4KB more than the size on the disk of the backed-up file. For example, if the size of the disk of the backed-up sparse file is 4KB, the size on the disk of the restored sparse file would be 8KB.