AB12/Linux backing up files from zfs volume?
Hi,
I'm trialling AB12 on a Debian 8.5 server. It backups up files from the system volume fine, but seems to completely ignore files on a mounted zfs volume. Is that expected? This is with a few directories within that zfs mount point selected for backup, so the web UI shows files/dirs within that tree no probs.
The backup reports no errors... just doesn't backup the files on the zfs volume.
Thanks, sTu.
Thanks for the info Raph!
Interesting that you suggest basically a full disk backup rather than per file. I had thought per file more likely to have less problems! I saw that supported-fs page - it doesn't specifically say which model its referring to, the closest thing to clarity is "filesystems that can be backed up or recovered"... which to me sounds like a full volume backup rather than just files, in which case that page is not relevant to my file based backup profile.
I'm not FS developer, but I'd have thought that if any commandline tool can access these zfs-mounted files, then surely acronis daemons could too !
I'd also like to know how to get any sort of error log showing Acronis skipping such trees due to FS type! The downloadable log shows no errors - just the triggering of the backup and its components.
One other possibility here is a problem with permissions. I can't see anything in the manual or backup profile about effective backup credentials, but I CAN see that the management engine and spawned backup tasks are running as root user, in which case permission problems are not expected.
*shrugs*
I'm not FS developer, but I'd have thought that if any commandline tool can access these zfs-mounted files, then surely acronis daemons could too !
Thats right, but I don't know how Acronis performes direct filesystem actions. If they are using direct disk access they probably would using their own FS driver rather than the installed kernel ones.
In case of Debian ZFS is supported only via FUSE, so no "native" kernel module is available. (If you are not compiling your own kernel)
We have a bunch of ZFS filers, but never tried to back it up using AB12. Unfortunately AB12 cannot backup single files from a VM yet, "testing" that feature requires native hardware. You could open a support case, maybe something is going wrong.
Hmmm, I'd be happy for AB12 to access the files without its own drivers.
As for our machine - its a baremetal installed debian box... no VM's involved (If thats what you meant).
I've started on getting a case opened with tech support.
Also curious that the web UI does let me browse that dir tree on the zfs mounted volume.
Hi
File-level backup is possible for ZFS. In fact, file-level backup supports all types of file systems if there are drivers for that systems in the Linux (means that if you can have access to files on that file systems via teminal for example).
Volume-level backup does not suppport ZFS right now.
Ok, great, so the file level backup I'm trying to do SHOULD be working then. I now have a support case up and running - will reply here later with the results.
Stu.
As for our machine - its a baremetal installed debian box... no VM's involved (If thats what you meant).
I meant to reproduce the behavior (showing files, but not backing up) in an easy way. Lets see what Acronis support figures out.
well, unfortunately so far my ticket has only resulted in the default "zfs is not supported" per the afore mentioned webpage, but I don't believe it!
1) it says the backup will fail if not supported FS - mine simply skips those folders - no error thrown.
2) that page says that it will revert to "sector by sector" mode with unsupported FS's.
2.1) There is no sign of it trying to (or even contemplating) switching to sector-by-sector mode in this backup.
2.2) Why would a file-based backup ever switch to sector-by-sector mode for some particular folder on a given volume? Surely if its an unsupported FS then all it could do is backup the whole volume, not that particular folder. I can't see that eventuality! ("we couldn't backup your 30MB folder on this 2TB ZFS drive due to unsupported FS, so since we don't understand the FS structure, to backup that data we switched to sector-by-sector mode and backed up the whole volume instead").
3) In this forum thread, the Senior Program Manager (Ramil Yusupov) for this product has indicated that file-level backup of zfs-positioned files should be fine.
So, Ramil, are you able to look into my ticket and shake the tree a bit? Case ID 02780565.
Thanks, Stu.
Hi
I talked with support managers, support guys will investigate this issue again.
In a mean time, can you post here screenshots that you sent to support? I cannot view them, only text of your email.
Hi Ramil, I just sent you a PM, partly due to the relatively sensetive nature of the screenshots.
Thank, stu.
FTR, Ramil has bounced this back to the support team now - for re-consideration.
Thankfully The support engineers have now reproduced the problem in the lab, and are saying a fix for this will be availed to us in the "next release".
Stu.