This is the Migration Problem: given a dataset on a on-ZFS file system,
what is the safest and easiest way to move it to a ZFS pool. There
are two and a half cases:
1. You need to reuse the existing storage.
1.5 You have some extra storage, but not enough for 2 copies of all
your data.
2. You can create the zpool on new storage.
Clearly, case 1 is hardest, and we currently have no automated tool
that will do this. Backup/Destroy existing file systems/Create new
pools and file systems/Restore will work, but (a) you are offline for
a period of time, and (b) you have to really trust your backup and
restore software.
Case 2 can often be solved using rdist. You may have to quiesce
your file systems for a while.
Case 1.5 can usually be solved with a lot of hacking around with
partial versions of case 2. A lot depends on how your existing data
is organized.
We have a number of clever ideas for how to automate case 2, and some
ideas for case 1.5, but no bandwidth to implement them now.
Note that in all cases, it really pays to give some thought up front
to how you want your ZFS pools and file systems to be organized. ZFS
removes many of the arbitrary constraints that may have governed your
existing structure; free yourself from those constraints.
I'm curious to hear of any migration success stories - or not - that
folks on this alias have experienced. You can send them to me and
I'll summarize to the alias.
Thanks,
Fred
Darren Dunham wrote:
Is it possible to convert/upgrade a file system that is currently
under the control of Solaris Volume Manager to ZFS?
SVM or not doesn't really matter. There's no method for converting an
existing filesystem to ZFS in place.
You'll have to populate the ZFS pool after allocating storage to it.
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