Subject: Snapshots of domU and block devices
To: None <port-xen@NetBSD.org>
From: Stephen Borrill <netbsd@precedence.co.uk>
List: port-xen
Date: 10/27/2006 17:12:48
This isn't necessarily a xen question, but it's related. I run a number of
servers on Xen 2 (netbsd-3) and one of the exciting possibilities would seem
to be that I could easily get a domU up and running on an alternative server
if the primary was down because of hardware failure. I'm using file backed
xbds and if I could easily snapshot the filesystem onto a central store,
this would make it much easier to get the domU up and running elsewhere. The
obvious solution to this is fss(4), the use of which is hampered by the poor
documentation and it being declared experimental. I want to use this in
production.
For example, I could add a new vnd block device from the dom0 and use fss to
snapshot xbd0a onto xbd1b before unconfiguring it and using rsync to copy
the snapshot vnd elsewhere. Is there prior art for this sort of thing? Does
Xen-3 offer anything over Xen-2 in this respect?
der Mouse's live backup stuff looks interesting too:
ftp://ftp.rodents.montreal.qc.ca/mouse/livebackup
--
Stephen