[zfs-discuss] [Fwd: [zfs-auto-snapshot] Heads up: SUNWzfs-auto-snapshot obsoletion in snv 128]

[Tim Foster]

Hi all,

Just forwarding Niall's heads-up message about the impending removal of
the existing zfs-auto-snapshot implementation in nv_128

I've not been involved in the rewrite, but what I've read about the new
code, it'll be a lot more efficient than the old ksh-based code, and
will fix many of the problems with the old solution.

The new code currently lacks support for the 'zfs/backup' functionality
- which allowed you to specify a command to tell the service to generate
incremental or full send streams at each time interval, along with a
commandline to process that stream (sshing to a remote server and doing
a zfs recv, for example)

If you do use that functionality, it'd be good to drop a mail to the
thread[1] on the zfs-auto-snapshot alias.


It's been a wild ride, but my work on zfs-auto-snapshot is done I
think :-)

	cheers,
			tim

[1] http://mail.opensolaris.org/pipermail/zfs-auto-snapshot/2009-November/thread.html#199

-------- Forwarded Message --------
From: Niall Power <Niall.Power at Sun.COM>
To: zfs-auto-snapshot at opensolaris.org
Subject: [zfs-auto-snapshot] Heads up: SUNWzfs-auto-snapshot obsoletion
in	snv 128
Date: Mon, 16 Nov 2009 18:26:28 +1100

This is a heads up for user of Tim's zfs-auto-snapshot auto snapshot 
service currently delivered
in Solaris Nevada and OpenSolaris. As of build 128 the zfs-auto-snapshot 
scripts are being replaced
by a rewritten daemon (time-sliderd).
Time-sliderd will continue to support the existing SMF 
auto-snapshot:<schedule> service instances
as it's configuration mechanism so for most users there should be no 
significant differences noticeable.
Some of the options will no longer be supported however since they are 
either obsolete or too
specifically tied to the zfs-auto-snapshot implementation to make them 
portable.

Stuff that will work:
- Default out of the box schedules (frequent, hourly, daily, weekly, 
monthly)
- Custom schedules

SMF properties that will be supported:
- interval
- period
- keep

SMF properties that won't be supported
- "offset" The time-slider daemon schedules snapshots based on relative
   times rather that absolute times which makes it more suitable for systems
   that do not have constant 24/7 uptime so this feature isn't so relevant
   anymore (it only got implemented recently in zfs-auto-snapshot also)

- "label" Dropping it allows naming shemes to be simplified and
   enforces uniqueness when SMF tries to import an auto-snapshot instance

- backup/backup-save-cmd/backup-lock
  We plan to implement an rsync based backup mechanism that allows backups
  to be browsed like a proper filesystem instead of having binary 
snapshot blobs
  that are explicitly classified as unstable/volatile by zfs(1)

For those who want to use time-slider without going through the GUI, simply
enable/configure (or create) the auto-snapshot instances you need then 
enable
the time-slider SMF service. time-slider will pick up the enabled 
auto-snapshot
instances and schedule snapshots for them.

For folks who prefer to continue using zfs-auto-snapshot, you will need to
remove SUNWgnome-time-slider and install the existing zfs-auto-snapshot
packages instead.

Comments/questions welcome ;)

Cheers,
Niall.

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