Erik, I don't think there was any confusion about the block nature of "zfs send" vs. the file nature of star. I think what this discussion is coming down to is the best ways to utilize "zfs send" as a backup, since (as Darren Moffat has
noted) it supports all the ZFS objects and metadata. I see 2 things coming out of this: 1. NDMP for putting "zfs send" streams on tape over the network. So the question I have now is for anyone who has used or is using NDMP on OSol. How well does it work? Pros? Cons? If people aren't using it, why not? I think this is one area where there are some gains to be made on the OSol backup front. I still need to go back and look at the best ways to use local tape drives on OSol file servers running ZFS to capture ZFS objects and metadata (ZFS ACLs, ZVOLs, etc.). 2. A new tool is required to provide some of the functionality desired, at least as a supported backup method from Sun. While someone in the community may be interested in developing such a tool, Darren also noted that the requisite APIs are private currently and still in flux. They haven't yet stabilized and been published. To Ed Harvey: Some questions about your use of NetBackup on your secondary server: 1. Do you successfully backup ZVOLs? We know NetBackup should be able to capture datasets (ZFS file systems) using straight POSIX semantics. 2. What version of NetBackup are you using? 3. You simply run the NetBackup agent locally on the (Open)Solaris server? I thank everyone who has participated in this conversation for sharing their thoughts, experiences and realities. It has been most informational. On Fri, Mar 19, 2010 at 13:11, erik.ableson <eable...@me.com> wrote: > On 19 mars 2010, at 17:11, Joerg Schilling wrote: > > >> I'm curious, why isn't a 'zfs send' stream that is stored on a tape yet > >> the implication is that a tar archive stored on a tape is considered a > >> backup ? > > > > You cannot get a single file out of the zfs send datastream. > > zfs send is a block-level transaction with no filesystem dependencies - it > could be transmitting a couple of blocks that represent a portion of a file, > not necessarily an entire file. And since it can also be used to host a > zvol with any filesystem format imaginable it doesn't want to know. > <snip> -- "You can choose your friends, you can choose the deals." - Equity Private "If Linux is faster, it's a Solaris bug." - Phil Harman Blog - http://whatderass.blogspot.com/ Twitter - @khyron4eva
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