how to allow backup files on a zfs pool?

[mfgamma]

Hi

on pvE4.4 , only disk image and container are allowed by default

when adding the backup file case in /etc/pve/storage.cfg for the specific zfspool it doest not show up in the GUI as an option.

Is it on purpose?

thanks

 

[wolfgang]

Hi,

You have to create an extra storage from type "dir" to use zfs as backup store.

 

[mfgamma]

Hi Wolfgang

thanks for the reply.

in fact I was doing that ie defining a dir using as directory the mount point of a dataset

But what triggered my point was I have seen in another track that dir on zfs is "risky"

so what exactly is ok as dir on zfs?

thanks and best regards
Marc

 

[fireon]

But what triggered my point was I have seen in another track that dir on zfs is "risky"

Dir on ZFS is ok, but qcow2 and other strange things are very bad ideas. You create a new dataset for you backups (it is like a dir).

zfs create mypool/backups
zfs set compression=lz4 mypool/backups

 

[mfgamma]

Hi sorry but Tom (staff member ) anwser in link https://forum.proxmox.com/threads/proxmox-5-and-zfs.39336/#post-194609

clearly stated that

" ... you use directory storage on ZFS, this is dangerous and not recommend. "

so who should I believe,

thanks

 

[morph027]

Not sure why this should be dangerous...ZFS is built to be a filesystem

 

[lethargos]

Hi,

You have to create an extra storage from type "dir" to use zfs as backup store.

I know this is an old thread, but I'd still want to ask if you can do incremental backups with zfs using the dir storage.
As far as I know, you need to have the zfs logic also on the other side. Otherwise, you'd have to use full backups and you just reimport the files as they are.