zfs discuss - Dec 2009 - Using iSCSI on ZFS with non-native FS - How to backup.

Hi there.

I''m looking at moving my home server to ZFS and adding a second for
backup purposes.
In the process of researching ZFS I noticed iSCSI.
I''m thinking of creating a zvol, share it with iSCSI and use it with my
Mac(s).
In this scenario, the fs would obviously have to be HFS+.

Now, my question is:
How would I go about replicating this non-native FS to the backup server?
Can I have snapshots of the zvol like if it was a native zfs filesystem?
If yes, do they take up as little space and overhead as "normal"
snapshots?

Thanks,
Jens.

I think it should work. I have seen blog post about ZFS, iSCSI and Macs. Just
google a bit.
-- 
This message posted from opensolaris.org

On Sat, Dec 5, 2009 at 12:13 PM, Jens Vilstrup <yonzie at gmail.com>
wrote:
> Hi there.
>
> I''m looking at moving my home server to ZFS and adding a second
for backup
> purposes.
> In the process of researching ZFS I noticed iSCSI.
> I''m thinking of creating a zvol, share it with iSCSI and use it
with my
> Mac(s).
> In this scenario, the fs would obviously have to be HFS+.
>
> Now, my question is:
> How would I go about replicating this non-native FS to the backup server?
> Can I have snapshots of the zvol like if it was a native zfs filesystem?
> If yes, do they take up as little space and overhead as "normal"
snapshots?
>
> Thanks,
> Jens.
>
>
Yes.  Snapshots work at the block level so you can take snapshots regardless
of the FS on top of the iSCSI LUN.  The two caveats are you''ll need
another
Mac system at your DR to recover, and also to get a guaranteed consistent
snapshot, you''ll need to pause all traffic to the LUN while taking the
snapshot.


-- 
--Tim
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL:
<http://mail.opensolaris.org/pipermail/zfs-discuss/attachments/20091206/c69d25ee/attachment.html>

On 06/12/2009, at 09.05, Tim Cook wrote:
> Yes.  Snapshots work at the block level so you can take snapshots
regardless of the FS on top of the iSCSI LUN.  The two caveats are
you''ll need another Mac system at your DR to recover, and also to get a
guaranteed consistent snapshot, you''ll need to pause all traffic to the
LUN while taking the snapshot.
> 
> -- 
> --Tim
So what you''re saying is that it "just works".
That''s great.
My Google-Fu failed me in securing a proper answer, so thank you!

Jens.

It does ''just work'', however you may have some file and/or
file system corruption if the snapshot was taken at the moment that your mac is
updating some files. So use the time slider function and take a lot of snaps. :)
-- 
This message posted from opensolaris.org