From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Mon Jul 11 10:59:26 2011 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 7E2DE106564A for ; Mon, 11 Jul 2011 10:59:26 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from m.seaman@infracaninophile.co.uk) Received: from smtp.infracaninophile.co.uk (smtp6.infracaninophile.co.uk [IPv6:2001:8b0:151:1:3fd3:cd67:fafa:3d78]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id D823C8FC14 for ; Mon, 11 Jul 2011 10:59:25 +0000 (UTC) Received: from seedling.black-earth.co.uk (seedling.black-earth.co.uk [81.187.76.163]) (authenticated bits=0) by smtp.infracaninophile.co.uk (8.14.5/8.14.5) with ESMTP id p6BAxJnh088291 (version=TLSv1/SSLv3 cipher=DHE-RSA-CAMELLIA256-SHA bits=256 verify=NO) for ; Mon, 11 Jul 2011 11:59:20 +0100 (BST) (envelope-from m.seaman@infracaninophile.co.uk) X-DKIM: Sendmail DKIM Filter v2.8.3 smtp.infracaninophile.co.uk p6BAxJnh088291 DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=infracaninophile.co.uk; s=201001-infracaninophile; t=1310381960; bh=aUGep4afokxITKNWum/TSH5SS6+Ahut8+mLo54W7rvg=; h=Message-ID:Date:From:MIME-Version:To:Subject:References: In-Reply-To:Content-Type:Cc:Content-Type:Date:From:In-Reply-To: Message-ID:Mime-Version:References:To; z=Message-ID:=20<4E1AD77F.7050900@infracaninophile.co.uk>|Date:=20M on,=2011=20Jul=202011=2011:59:11=20+0100|From:=20Matthew=20Seaman= 20|User-Agent:=20Mozilla/5.0=20(M acintosh=3B=20Intel=20Mac=20OS=20X=2010.6=3B=20rv:5.0)=20Gecko/201 10624=20Thunderbird/5.0|MIME-Version:=201.0|To:=20freebsd-question s@freebsd.org|Subject:=20Re:=20ZFS=20on=20root=20backup|References :=20<4E1ACE74.2040809@nagual.nl>|In-Reply-To:=20<4E1ACE74.2040809@ nagual.nl>|X-Enigmail-Version:=201.2|OpenPGP:=20id=3D60AE908C|Cont ent-Type:=20multipart/signed=3B=20micalg=3Dpgp-sha1=3B=0D=0A=20pro tocol=3D"application/pgp-signature"=3B=0D=0A=20boundary=3D"------- -----enigE09801D484BDB438124DBDB6"; b=yasTOYibaL3X91oCQayqrkDTv/ej4OQ1QjZtouzD+8dSbDJCVj8Ct7XUaI3faPiFA vro/0/wrgQBEzjfez0SympsxWpHEJGmNkv5w2q04YDO7ZueYjT6U95irIzg6TDzrQa gh7K6aBFddmfnTXLuOtEEyyzEL7FOJvyLn5iwntE= Message-ID: <4E1AD77F.7050900@infracaninophile.co.uk> Date: Mon, 11 Jul 2011 11:59:11 +0100 From: Matthew Seaman User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10.6; rv:5.0) Gecko/20110624 Thunderbird/5.0 MIME-Version: 1.0 To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org References: <4E1ACE74.2040809@nagual.nl> In-Reply-To: <4E1ACE74.2040809@nagual.nl> X-Enigmail-Version: 1.2 OpenPGP: id=60AE908C Content-Type: multipart/signed; micalg=pgp-sha1; protocol="application/pgp-signature"; boundary="------------enigE09801D484BDB438124DBDB6" X-Virus-Scanned: clamav-milter 0.97.1 at lucid-nonsense.infracaninophile.co.uk X-Virus-Status: Clean X-Spam-Status: No, score=-0.1 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_40,DKIM_SIGNED, DKIM_VALID,DKIM_VALID_AU,SPF_FAIL autolearn=no version=3.3.2 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.3.2 (2011-06-06) on lucid-nonsense.infracaninophile.co.uk Subject: Re: ZFS on root backup X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Mon, 11 Jul 2011 10:59:26 -0000 This is an OpenPGP/MIME signed message (RFC 2440 and 3156) --------------enigE09801D484BDB438124DBDB6 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable On 11/07/2011 11:20, Dick Hoogendijk wrote: > OK, so now my ZFS on root FreeBSD-8.2 system runs smoothly and I'm very= > happy being able to have ZFS (coming from solaris11), but.. what is the= > best strategy to back this fbsd system up. do I create various ZFS > backup filesystem streams or can I easely backup the zroot pool as a > whole? And if yes, how? > Grateful for all the help I can get in these matters. Well, the best backup strategy is a very site specific thing. There's no one-size-fits-all answer. Suppose your machine caught fire right now. You're always going to lose some data -- everything that changed since the last backup. How much data can you afford to lose like that? A day's worth? A week's worth? Absolutely none at all? Given your server is destroyed, how fast do you need to get it back? Can you wait for a week in order to source replacement kit? Or does every second of lost uptime cost you significant amounts of money? Now imagine the ultimate disaster scenario: typically something like -- a fully loaded jumbo jet crashes into your datacenter and everything is completely destroyed[*]. Will your backups survive? Can you rebuild your system using those backups? Suppose someone stole your backup media: can they extract all your data from them, and does it matter if they do? Those are the sorts of questions you need to think about when designing a backup system. There's nothing particularly specific about ZFS there. What ZFS does get you in terms of backups are two things: 1) Really easy and unlimited amounts of snap-shotting. As well as making it really simple to get a coherent point-in-time backup of an active filesystem, they also give you a really simple 'undo' type functionality, so you can unwind accidental deletions and other user mistakes. 2) ZFS import and export -- again, exploiting the snap-shotting capability, this makes it pretty easy to create a duplicate of your filesystem onto another host, and to update the duplicate in a very efficient way. Cheers, Matthew [*] As a number of companies found out to their cost, 'in the basement of the other tower' was not sufficiently off-site to be effective. --=20 Dr Matthew J Seaman MA, D.Phil. 7 Priory Courtyard Flat 3 PGP: http://www.infracaninophile.co.uk/pgpkey Ramsgate JID: matthew@infracaninophile.co.uk Kent, CT11 9PW --------------enigE09801D484BDB438124DBDB6 Content-Type: application/pgp-signature; name="signature.asc" Content-Description: OpenPGP digital signature Content-Disposition: attachment; filename="signature.asc" -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG/MacGPG2 v2.0.16 (Darwin) Comment: Using GnuPG with Mozilla - http://enigmail.mozdev.org/ iEYEARECAAYFAk4a14cACgkQ8Mjk52CukIy0RACeNPCUR/9aqDUI6dhVRousPfny zvwAnR0A6Y/9c1amEriQ867KDsi+MlbD =BdG6 -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- --------------enigE09801D484BDB438124DBDB6--