currently i lost my /-partition because btrfs got corrupted (due to some adverse circumstances). This raises for me the question: how can i really backup a btrfs partition, including subvolumes and snapshots ?
We have a file-based tape backup over the network (EMC), but this does not support BTRFS. That means it just copies the files from /, it does not care about subvolumes or snapshots. With ext3 it never was a problem, in desaster recovery i could restore / in a reasonable amount of time. / is for me just software, os and configuration. No databases, no virtual machines. That’s another topic.
Fortunately the system with btrfs was a test system, so maybe it was lucky that i got the problem and realized it. Better than in production. So my question to you:
How do you backup your btrfs root partition ? Do you backup the subvolumes and the snapshots ? How do you achieve that ? Or, the other way round: what do you do when your btrfs /-partition gets corrupted ? Assume you lost the complete fs, with all subvolumes (this is what happened to me).
btrfs check still seems to be limited. And i don’t want to play or try or test some tools in desaster scenario, i would like to have a backup with which i can restore my /-partition in a reasonable amount of time (maximum some hours !).
how can i
really backup a btrfs partition, including subvolumes and snapshots ?[/color]
The easiest way is to run your server as a VM and backup the whole VM.
–
Kevin Boyle - Knowledge Partner
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The places I am using Btrfs in Production do this; the VMs have the
snapshots for a quick fix should anything be needed, but disk corruption
should not happen, so it is nice to have those unforeseen things fixed by
the next layer up, meaning VM snapshots in this case.
It should be noted that Btrfs can be used in other places too, like as
part of the Container as a Service Platform (CaaSP) and in those cases the
snapshot features also work for a quick restore as long as the disks
themselves are okay. In this case as well it seems to make sense that
conventional backups are used for disasters beyond what snapshots can fix,
such as bad disks or corrupt filesystems as a whole (usually because of
bad disks).
–
Good luck.
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But my vm’s need a hypervisor, which is SLES. I have the configuration and some software on /, my vm’s reside on other partitions. How can i backup / if it resides on btrfs ?