backing up zfs dataset

[Xin LI]

On Fri, Nov 11, 2011 at 8:36 AM, Johannes Totz <jtotz at imperial.ac.uk> wrote:
> Hi,
>
> To back up a zfs dataset there are a few possibilities:
> 1) rsync file data to another machine
> 2) zfs-send to another machine, into a zfs dataset
> 3) zfs-send to another machine, dumping the stream to a file
>
> The first one works alright but you loose admin info, properties set on the
> dataset, etc
> The second is prefered but requires another machine which runs zfs.
> The third is bad.
>
> So far I have been doing (3), for daily short-term backups, works, tested,
> everything is peachy. However, I dont like it anymore for obvious reasons.
> Ideally, I would like to go with (2). But I dont have another zfs-capable
> machine, or the machine that I would like to backup onto will not ever run
> zfs.
>
> So I came up with another crazy idea, assuming the remote machine exports a
> block device (somehow):
> 4) zpool-attach the remote block dev as a mirror, let it resilver, offline
> it during the day, at night online it, resilver, and so on
> 5) create a pool on the block dev locally on the to-be-backed-up-machine and
> periodically zfs-send stuff over
>
> I would go for (4), it seems to be the mostly automatic.
> Any thoughts on this?
> Should I expect things to go titsup if there's network issues?

I think this is not a good idea.  Could you please try if zstreamdump
would fulfill your need?

Cheers,
-- 
Xin LI <delphij at delphij.net> https://www.delphij.net/
FreeBSD - The Power to Serve! Live free or die