Feature Suggestion: Automatically create/delete LVM, ZFS or Btrfs snapshot
  • Jeff S
    0
    Well, I don't know for sure that this would be necessary for Cloudberry Backup - maybe it has another way of ensuring consistent backups with an active filesystem?

    But, I wanted to suggest that Cloudberry Backup for Linux add a feature to allow you to configure it to automatically create an LVM snapshot (if LVM is detected for the filesystem being backed up), ZFS (if the fs being backed up is ZFS) or Btrfs snapshot (if the fs being backed up is Btrfs), and then create the backup from the snapshot (which will ensure a quiesced filesystem in a consistent state). Once the backup finishes (either successfully or if it fails with an error), delete the snapshot. Or maybe have config options on how many snapshots to retain before deleting (e.g. maybe you keep 1 or 2 snapshots for a quick rollback - something cloudberry could even include in the options when restoring a backup - if the corresponding snapshot still exists, have an option to restore by rolling back the snapshot, so that the 'restore' is very fast).
    Jeff S Options
  • Gleb
    34
    Hi
    ↪Jeff S
    . Sounds like a good idea. I will take it to the developers for discussion.

    May I ask you what your environment(s) is(are) and what is the distribution of different filesystems you have?
    As in, if you have 1 server with ZFS and 10 servers with BtrFS - that's valuable information.
    You can also PM me (click my nickname -> Send a message) if you want to keep this info private.
    Thanks in advance!
    Gleb Options
  • Jeff S
    0
    Well, currently I don't have any servers.

    At the moment, I have a desktop computer that dual boots Windows and Ubuntu 18.04 LTS. Ubuntu is currently just using an ext4 partition. I am considering reformatting the root partition to either an LVM PV/LV, or Btrfs, for snapshots, still with Ubuntu. Probably use LVM with Ubuntu, as that's easy to setup out-of-the-box with Ubuntu.

    I have used SuSE and OpenSuSE at work - they have very nice Btrfs integration, including a snapshot management system called snapper, although Ubuntu does NOT have snapper, but it will work with Btrfs.

    ALSO, I am running an experiment of sorts - I have set my fiance's mother up with Linux Mint, with LVM (because I wanted to have snapshot capability for making consistent backups). If I like Cloudberry, I might try setting her up with Cloudberry for backup. If I find I can get her working well with Mint or Ubuntu, I may try convincing some of my other relatives to let me get them setup on Linux.

    I think, for simplicity sake, I'd probably mostly have them on Either Mint or Ubuntu with LVM. So, for what it's worth, that's where my vote for first support would be.
    Jeff S Options
  • Jeff S
    0
    You know, the other thing is, instead of having an explicit feature for managing snapshots, I could maybe roll my own solution as a shell script, if there is a feature to allow you to run programs or shell scripts before and after the backup?

    That is, just have somewhere in the backup settings for a particular backup profile, a pre-backup command and post-backup command, and allow me to pass the variables like %backup_name%, etc as parameters to my scripts.
    Jeff S Options
  • Gleb
    34
    ↪Jeff S
    , wow, thanks for the details! Noted.

    We plan to include pre-backup and post-backup scripts execution by December (depending on how the testing stage goes, of course).
    For the sake of experiment, you might want to start backup manually using the CLI, here's the guide for it.
    This way you can't really pass variables from the backup process to the script itself, but it's something.
    Gleb Options
  • Jeff S
    0
    Yeah, that's a good idea. If I use the CLI, I can script it myself.
    Jeff S Options
bold
italic
underline
strike
code
quote
ulist
image
url
mention
reveal
youtube
tweet
Add a Comment