backing up zfs dataset

[Andriy Bakay]

On 2011-11-11, at 11:36 , Johannes Totz 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?
> 
> 
> 
> Johannes
> 
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I am using the following schema: sparse file + GGATE + GELI + ZFS. The destination (remote) machine export/share sparse file through GGATE. The source/local machine attach GGATE block device, encrypted with GELI and on top of it create "local" ZFS pool. You can skip GELI and/or instead sparse file you can use any block device. In this scenario destination/remote machine does not even know what inside that sparse file and does not need to support ZFS. You could periodically attach GGATE/GELI, import ZFS pool and zfs-send/zfs-receive snapshot(s).

NOTE: GELI will provide storage security, but I am not sure will it be secure in terms of transmission. Basically you need to make sure your GGATE layer go through secure/trusted (VPN, SSH tunnel, trusted LAN) link.

You could mirror to remote GGATE devices, but it could lead to some problems (try to search it in mailing list). In this case I recommend you to consider HAST.