[linux-lvm] Keep snapshots active for 24 hours?

[Terje Kvernes]

* Dave Alden

> I'm in the process of evaluating LVM (with XFS) for our ~500G RAID
> NFS server. I'm using hardware RAID, so I'm only using LVM is for
> snapshots. My original plan was to take a snapshot around midnight
> everyday, run the backup, then remove the snapshot (just as the FAQ
> says to :-). However, I'd like to offer my users the ability to have
> access to the previous days snapshot (so they can easily restore an
> accidentally deleted file). I don't need all 500G (we're currently
> using only ~60G), so I was thinking of either 50G or 100G for the
> snapshot (although I only expect ~5G/day to be changed). I was
> wondering what kind of performance hit would I take if I kept the
> snapshot for 24 hours?

* Andreas Dilger

> Well, it will basically mean [read-]write-write for all data going
> to the disk. Generally, this will not matter a huge amount unless
> you are doing tons of I/O. You could start with a large snapshot
> size, and then get an idea of how much data really changes each day.

  this is something I'm hoping to get done -- eventually. the idea of
  having at least a snapshot taken an hour ago will be very nice for
  our dearest tape-robot-backup-thingy. not to mention the network. :)

> You could then actually keep multiple snapshots if you had the
> space. 

  hm. this will add one extra write for every currently open snapshot,
  right? 

> If you were really clever, you could write a script which checked
> the free space in the snapshots every minute, and if they had less
> than X PEs free, you extend the snapshot LV to have more free space.
> If you run out of free PEs, you delete the oldest snapshot.

  heh. I was thinking of trying to get a snapshot taken every three
  hours or so, and storing it until the next one came about. but of
  course, you're right, I should check how much free space I have, and
  keep a backlog until I _need_ the space. 

  come to think of it, it doesn't take that complicated a shell-script
  to get this working. hm... :)

-- 
Terje - who finally gets to be with his girlfriend again, after 4
        months and 10 days... *yay*!