New zfs-auto-snapshot implementation on it's way
Niall wrote a post to the zfs-auto-snapshot alias announcing his new time-sliderd implementation of the ZFS Automatic Snapshot service.
I'm looking forward to this new implementation: I wrote the old ksh-based code back in 2006 and have been adding features & fixing bugs ever since. Over time, it's started creaking at the seams - there were a few issues with it that were tricky to deal with in it's existing implementation. I've long felt the desire to start again, but just couldn't give it the time it needed. Well, Niall's done just that - many thanks Niall!
I've got commentary on the thread on the auto snapshot mailing list and have also forwarded Niall's announcement to zfs-discuss. The old README on this blog has been updated, with a pointer to the original heads-up message.
So now I get to focus on my day-job again :-)
Wow great stuff thanks, I have two questions will the new code work with Enterprise Solaris? if yes Where can we download the upgrade?
There is an extra quote at the end of the link "a post to the zfs-auto-snapshot"
Thanks.
Posted by Eli Kleinman on November 17, 2009 at 02:48 PM GMT #
Thanks for the correction Eli, fixed that.
As far as I know, the initial putback of the code will be to the OpenSolaris codebase (and I suspect, would then appear in the next Solaris release that's based on OpenSolaris) - I don't know of a plan to backport it to an S10-based Solaris release though. [ not knowing much about its implementation, I don't know how complex such a port would be ]
Probably worth dropping a mail to the auto-snapshot alias to see if anyone there can help.
Posted by Tim Foster on November 17, 2009 at 03:00 PM GMT #
Rewriting this is fine by me, but I have to agree with Darren (and others) on a couple of points. IMHO:
1) A non-GUI backend should remain available for server use.
2) zfs send/recv and incremental snaphots should remain.
I would like to continue using auto-snapshots for headless systems where I will never use the Time Slider GUI features, like I do now with Solaris.
rsync is great if you want to add that capability, but I feel that it shouldn't supplant the native ZFS tools. Thanks... -cheers, CSB
Posted by Craig S. Bell on November 17, 2009 at 07:41 PM GMT #
Thanks for the comments - as I said in my inital response to the zfs-auto-snapshot alias here:
http://mail.opensolaris.org/pipermail/zfs-auto-snapshot/2009-November/000201.html
I agree with the necessity of keeping headless support and porting the zfs/backup functionality (and potentially adding rsync at some point in the future). Here's hoping the Desktop guys will come around to our way of thinking.
Posted by Tim Foster on November 18, 2009 at 09:10 AM GMT #