Re: AW: WG: How to properly setup for snapshots

[Graham Cobb <g.btrfs@cobb.uk.net>]

On 21/12/2020 20:45, Claudius Ellsel wrote:
> I had a closer look at snapper now and have installed and set it up. This seems to be really the easiest way for me, I guess. My main confusion was probably that I was unsure whether I had to create a subvolume prior to this or not, which got sorted out now. The situation is apparently still not ideal, as to my current understanding it would have been preferable to set up a subvolume first at root level directly after creating the files system. However, as this is only the data drive in the machine (OS runs on an ext4 SSD) it is at least not planned to simply swap the entire volume to a snapshot but rather to restore snapshots at file / folder level, where snapper can also be used for.
> 
> One can possibly also safely achieve the same with only using btrfs commandline tools (I made the mistake of not thinking about read only snapshots when I wrote about my fear to delete / modify mounted snapshots). Still I have a better feeling when using snapper, as I hope it is less easy to screw things up with it :)

I have never used snapper but I know it is a popular tool. But there are
many other tools - with their own advantages, disadvantages and ways of
working. You may want to experiment with several of them. Personally I
use btrbk for automation of snapshots.

Just remember that btrfs snapshots are not a backup tool. At best, they
are a convenience tool, for quickly restoring deleted or modified files
(or full subvolumes) to an earlier (snapshotted) state without having to
access your backups. But they are completely useless if a hardware or
software problem (kernel bug, disk problem, system memory error, faulty
cable, etc) corrupts the filesystem. You don't have a backup solution
unless you are copying the files to another physical disk, preferably on
a different system. btrbk can help with that as well (but it is just
automating btrfs send and btrfs receive underneath).