Backup tool fot ZFS with all "classic dump(8)" fetatures -- what should I use? (or is here any way to make dump -L works well on large FFS2+SU?)

[Andriy Gapon]

on 28/03/2011 10:20 Lev Serebryakov said the following:
> Hello, Freebsd-stable.
> 
>   Now I'm backing up my HOME filesystem with dump(8). It works
> perfectly for 80GiB FS with many features: snapshot for consistency,
> levels, "nodump" flag (my users use it a lot!), ability to extract
> only one removed file from backup without restoring full FS, simple
> sctipy wrap-up for levels schedule, etc.
> 
>   On new server I  have huge HOME (500GiB). And even if it is filled
> up only with 25GiB of data, creating snapshot takes about 10 minutes,
> freeze all I/O, and sometimes FAILS (!!!).
> 
>   I'm thinking to transfer GOME filesystem to ZFS. But I can not find
> appropriate tools for backing it up. Here is some requirements:
> 
>  (1) One-file (one-stream) backup. Not directory mirror. I need to
>      store it on FTP server and upload with single command.
> 
>  (2) Levels & increment backups. Now I have "Monthly (0) - Weekly
>     (1,2,3) - daily (4,5,6,7,8,9)" scheme. I could afford other schemes,
>     but if they doesn't store full backup every day and doesn't need full
>     backup more often than weekly.
> 
>  (3) Minimum of local metadata. Storing previous backups locally to
>      calculate next one is not appropriate solution. "zfs send" needs
>      previous snapshots for incremental backup, for example.
> 
>  (4) Working with snapshot (I think, it is trivial in case of ZFS).
> 
>  (5) Backup exclusions should be controlled by users (not super-user) themselves,
>      like "nodump" flag in case of FFS/dump(8). "zfs send" can not
>      provide this. I have very responsible users, so full backup
>      now takes only up to 10GiB when all HOME FS is about 25GiB, so it
>      is big help when backup is sent over Internet to other host.
> 
>  (6) Storing of ALL FS-specific information -- ACLs, etc.
> 
>  (7) Free :)
> 
>   Is here something like this for ZFS? "zfs send" looks promising,
>  EXCEPT item (5) and, maybe, (3) :(
> 
>    gnu tar looks like everything but (6) :(

I have a script built around zfs snapshot and star (archivers/star) that has
functionality similar to your requirements.

-- 
Andriy Gapon