backup size

When I run “innobackupex --slave-info --safe-slave-backup --user=user --password=password /backupdir/”, the backup is ~140gb which is about the size of my dataset. When I prep the backup with “innobackupex --apply-log /backupdir/timestamp”, the backup grows to 250gb.

I thought this was due to new data being written to the slave, so I even tried to stop the slave replication to make sure no new data is submitted before running innobackupex, and the size still grows.

Here’s my version:
innobackupex -version
InnoDB Backup Utility v1.5.1-xtrabackup;

My mysql version is 5.5.27

As a test, I’ve restored the backup to a test server, and my dataset is now 250gb. Running mysqlcheck optimize brings it back down to 140gb.

Not sure if it helps, but I’m running percona-xtrabackup-2.0.0.

I’ve installed the latest xtrabackup 2.0.3, and it’s the same result. Any help will be appreciated.