ZFS "cannot open [...]: dataset does not exist"

Niklaas Baudet von Gersdorff niklaas at kulturflatrate.net
Wed Dec 10 08:04:47 UTC 2014


Dear Mailinglist,

Niklaas Baudet von Gersdorff [2014-12-08 20:19 +0100] :

> I am currently using zfssnap.sh [1] to make a regular backup of
> the entire ZFS pool on our server. In principal, this works great,
> nevertheless, every time I am running the script I get the following
> error:
> 
>     cannot open 'tank/usr/ports': dataset does not exist
>     cannot open 'tank/usr/src': dataset does not exist
> 
>     1:  https://bitbucket.org/mmichele/zfssnap
> 

I figured out that the problem is not ZFS itself but `zfssnap.sh`.
Please refer to my explanation at

    https://bitbucket.org/mmichele/zfssnap/issue/2/excludes-not-working

In short, the default behaviour for `zfssnap.sh` is to exclude the
datasets mentioned above. Though, these datasets do not exist on the
server I am administrating. I was aware of that and tried to hand over
an empty `EXCLUDES` variable as it is explained in the programs
documentation.

    If you do not want these excluded, pass an empty EXCLUDES envvar.

        https://bitbucket.org/mmichele/zfssnap/overview

Unfortunately, handing over an empty environment variable does not work.
The solution is to use the following code

    EXCLUDES=" "

Be aware of the white space!

Best,

-- 
Niklaas

Baudet von Gersdorff
niklaas at kulturflatrate.net

http://www.twitter.com/NBvGersdorff
http://www.kulturflatrate.net/niklaas


More information about the freebsd-questions mailing list