Elephant Backup

Elephant Backup is an easy backup CLI to archive any number of ZFS filesystems containing lots of snapshots to another ZFS filesystem.

Feature

Elephant Backup archives any number of ZFS filesystems containing lots of snapshots.

• Archive your ZFS filesystems staying snapshots as it is.
• Supports the incremental backup from the previous one.
• Show the difference between the current archive and the previous one.
• Take a one-shot snapshot and snapshots automatically every hour.

Website

Development Site: https://github.com/patineboot/elephant-backup

Released Elephant Backup with npm : https://www.npmjs.com/package/elephant-backup

Install

Install Elephant Backup

npm install elephant-backup

Note:
Install npm with the apt package manager if npm does not exist on Ubuntu. Install node with npm and reboot after installing npm.

apt install npm
npm --global install node
reboot

Usage

Quick Start

Archive ZFS filesystems, meaning ZFS pool or ZFS dataset, with the command line:

elephant-backup backup -a <archive filesystem> <primary filesystem...>

• <archive filesystem>: The name of the ZFS filesystem, which stores the primary ZFS filesystems.
• <primary filesystem...>: One or more names of the ZFS filesystem which are archived.

e.g., archive two of the primary ZFS pools named root.pool and storage.pool to the archive.pool archive ZFS pool.

sudo elephant-backup backup -a archive.pool root.pool storage.pool

Snapshot

Take snapshots automatically with the systemd timer.

elephant-backup systemd-install <primary filesystem...>

• <primary filesystem>: One or more names of the ZFS filesystem which are taken automatically.

e.g., automatically take snapshots named root.pool and storage.pool.

• Start to take snapshots automatically.

  sudo elephant-backup systemd-install root.pool storage.pool

• Stop taking snapshots automatically.

  sudo elephant-backup systemd-uninstall

Other Usages

Find three sub-commands and two auto-snapshot by running the elephant-backup command with the -h option.

See more details using the -h option with sub-command.

elephant-backup -h

elephant-backup backup -h

elephant-backup diff -h

elephant-backup snapshot -h

Environment

Elephant Backup runs on the following software environment or later versions.

Operating System:

• Ubuntu Server 22.04.1 LTS with OpenZFS 2.1.4 installed

Software Programs:

• node.js v18.6.0

For Developers

I have developed Elephant Backup currently.

Will arrive the new feature:

• purging some existing snapshots from remaining size.

$ zfs list -o space -r rpool
NAME                       AVAIL   USED  USEDSNAP  USEDDS  USEDREFRESERV  USEDCHILD
rpool                      59.1G  7.84G       21K    109K              0      7.84G
rpool@snap1                    -    21K         -       -              -          -
rpool/ROOT                 59.1G  4.78G         0     31K              0      4.78G
rpool/ROOT@snap1               -      0         -       -              -          -

The USED property of snapshots is the size which snapshot consume.

We estimate the volume size of the ZFS pool from the USED property of to be purged snapshot.

Development version

1. Install

   • Install the development version from a local directory.

     Move the directory containing Elephant Backup, and install it.

     cd working/elephant-backup
     npm install ../elephant-backup

   • Install the development version from GitHub.

     npm install patineboot/elephant-backup

2. Run the development version.

   sudo ./elephant-backup/src/main.js --help

Debug

Debug Elephant Backup with the remote debug.

e.g.,

• Remote Machine Name: ubuntu.local
• Elephant Backup Path on Remote: /home/patine/working/elephant-backup

The remote debug procedure:

1. Debug Machine: Change remoteRoot on the .vscode/launch.json file.

   "remoteRoot": "/home/patine/working/elephant-backup"

2. Remote Machine: Run Elephant Backup with the debugging flag on node.js on the .

   cd /home/patine/working/elephant-backup
   sudo node --inspect-brk=ubuntu.local src/main.js --help

3. Debug Machine: Select 'Attach to remote' on the Visual Studio Code.

Test

Setup the test environment on your machine.

1. Move the current directory to elephant-backup.
2. Install node.js with version 18.0.0 or higher.

npm install node@18.9.0

Run the test.

1. Move the current directory to elephant-backup.
2. Run the test on the test environment.

npx node --test