witten_borgmatic/docs/how-to/snapshot-your-filesystems.md

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How to snapshot your filesystems	key parent order 📸 Snapshot your filesystems How-to guides 9

Filesystem hooks

Many filesystems support taking snapshots—point-in-time, read-only "copies" of your data, ideal for backing up files that may change during the backup. These snapshots initially don't use any additional storage space and can be made almost instantly.

To help automate backup of these filesystems, borgmatic can use them to take snapshots.

ZFS

New in version 1.9.3 Beta feature borgmatic supports taking snapshots with the ZFS filesystem and sending those snapshots to Borg for backup.

To use this feature, first you need one or more mounted ZFS datasets. Then, enable ZFS within borgmatic by adding the following line to your configuration file:

zfs:

No other options are necessary to enable ZFS support, but if desired you can override some of the commands used by the ZFS hook. For instance:

zfs:
    zfs_command: /usr/local/bin/zfs
    mount_command: /usr/local/bin/mount
    umount_command: /usr/local/bin/umount

As long as the ZFS hook is in beta, it may be subject to breaking changes and/or may not work well for your use cases. But feel free to use it in production if you're okay with these caveats, and please provide any feedback you have on this feature.

Dataset discovery

You have a couple of options for borgmatic to find and backup your ZFS datasets:

• For any dataset you'd like backed up, add its mount point to borgmatic's source_directories option.
• Or set the borgmatic-specific user property org.torsion.borgmatic:backup=auto onto your dataset, e.g. by running zfs set org.torsion.borgmatic:backup=auto datasetname. Then borgmatic can find and backup these datasets.

If you have multiple borgmatic configuration files with ZFS enabled, and you'd like particular datasets to be backed up only for particular configuration files, use the source_directories option instead of the user property.

During a backup, borgmatic automatically snapshots these discovered datasets (non-recursively), temporarily mounts the snapshots within its runtime directory, and includes the snapshotted files in the paths sent to Borg. borgmatic is also responsible for cleaning up (destroying) these snapshots after a backup completes.

Additionally, borgmatic rewrites the snapshot file paths so that they appear at their original dataset locations in a Borg archive. For instance, if your dataset is mounted at /var/dataset, then the snapshotted files will appear in an archive at /var/dataset as well—even if borgmatic has to mount the snapshot somewhere in /run/user/1000/borgmatic/zfs_snapshots/ to perform the backup.

New in version 1.9.4 borgmatic is smart enough to look at the parent (and grandparent, etc.) directories of each of your source_directories to discover any datasets. For instance, let's say you add /var/log and /var/lib to your source directories, but /var is a dataset. borgmatic will discover that and snapshot /var accordingly. This also works even with nested datasets; borgmatic selects the dataset that's the "closest" parent to your source directories.

With Borg version 1.2 and earlierSnapshotted files are instead stored at a path dependent on the runtime directory in use at the time the archive was created, as Borg 1.2 and earlier do not support path rewriting.

Extract a dataset

Filesystem snapshots are stored in a Borg archive as normal files, so you can use the standard extract action to extract them.

Btrfs

New in version 1.9.4 Beta feature borgmatic supports taking snapshots with the Btrfs filesystem and sending those snapshots to Borg for backup.

To use this feature, first you need one or more Btrfs subvolumes on mounted filesystems. Then, enable Btrfs within borgmatic by adding the following line to your configuration file:

btrfs:

No other options are necessary to enable Btrfs support, but if desired you can override some of the commands used by the Btrfs hook. For instance:

btrfs:
    btrfs_command: /usr/local/bin/btrfs
    findmnt_command: /usr/local/bin/findmnt

As long as the Btrfs hook is in beta, it may be subject to breaking changes and/or may not work well for your use cases. But feel free to use it in production if you're okay with these caveats, and please provide any feedback you have on this feature.

Subvolume discovery

For any subvolume you'd like backed up, add its path to borgmatic's source_directories option. During a backup, borgmatic snapshots these subvolumes (non-recursively) and includes the snapshotted files in the paths sent to Borg. borgmatic is also responsible for cleaning up (deleting) these snapshots after a backup completes.

borgmatic is smart enough to look at the parent (and grandparent, etc.) directories of each of your source_directories to discover any subvolumes. For instance, let's say you add /var/log and /var/lib to your source directories, but /var is a subvolume. borgmatic will discover that and snapshot /var accordingly. This also works even with nested subvolumes; borgmatic selects the subvolume that's the "closest" parent to your source directories.

Additionally, borgmatic rewrites the snapshot file paths so that they appear at their original subvolume locations in a Borg archive. For instance, if your subvolume exists at /var/subvolume, then the snapshotted files will appear in an archive at /var/subvolume as well—even if borgmatic has to mount the snapshot somewhere in /var/subvolume/.borgmatic-snapshot-1234/ to perform the backup.

With Borg version 1.2 and earlierSnapshotted files are instead stored at a path dependent on the temporary snapshot directory in use at the time the archive was created, as Borg 1.2 and earlier do not support path rewriting.

Extract a subvolume

Subvolume snapshots are stored in a Borg archive as normal files, so you can use the standard extract action to extract them.

LVM

New in version 1.9.4 Beta feature borgmatic supports taking snapshots with LVM (Linux Logical Volume Manager) and sending those snapshots to Borg for backup. LVM isn't itself a filesystem, but it can take snapshots at the layer right below your filesystem.

To use this feature, first you need one or more mounted LVM logical volumes. Then, enable LVM within borgmatic by adding the following line to your configuration file:

lvm:

No other options are necessary to enable LVM support, but if desired you can override some of the options used by the LVM hook. For instance:

lvm:
    snapshot_size: 5GB  # See below for details.
    lvcreate_command: /usr/local/bin/lvcreate
    lvremove_command: /usr/local/bin/lvremove
    lvs_command: /usr/local/bin/lvs
    lsbrk_command: /usr/local/bin/lsbrk
    mount_command: /usr/local/bin/mount
    umount_command: /usr/local/bin/umount

As long as the LVM hook is in beta, it may be subject to breaking changes and/or may not work well for your use cases. But feel free to use it in production if you're okay with these caveats, and please provide any feedback you have on this feature.

Snapshot size

The snapshot_size option is the size to allocate for each snapshot taken, including the units to use for that size. While borgmatic's snapshots themselves are read-only and don't change during backups, the logical volume being snapshotted can change—therefore requiring additional snapshot storage since LVM snapshots are copy-on-write. And if the configured snapshot size is too small (and LVM isn't configured to grow snapshots automatically), then the snapshots will fail to allocate enough space, resulting in a broken backup.

If not specified, the snapshot_size option defaults to 10%ORIGIN, which means 10% of the size of the logical volume being snapshotted. See the lvcreate --size and --extents documentation for more information about possible values here. (Under the hood, borgmatic uses lvcreate --extents if the snapshot_size is a percentage value, and lvcreate --size otherwise.)

Logical volume discovery

For any logical volume you'd like backed up, add its mount point to borgmatic's source_directories option.

During a backup, borgmatic automatically snapshots these discovered logical volumes, temporarily mounts the snapshots within its runtime directory, and includes the snapshotted files in the paths sent to Borg. borgmatic is also responsible for cleaning up (deleting) these snapshots after a backup completes.

borgmatic is smart enough to look at the parent (and grandparent, etc.) directories of each of your source_directories to discover any logical volumes. For instance, let's say you add /var/log and /var/lib to your source directories, but /var is a logical volume. borgmatic will discover that and snapshot /var accordingly.

Additionally, borgmatic rewrites the snapshot file paths so that they appear at their original logical volume locations in a Borg archive. For instance, if your logical volume is mounted at /var/lvolume, then the snapshotted files will appear in an archive at /var/lvolume as well—even if borgmatic has to mount the snapshot somewhere in /run/user/1000/borgmatic/lvm_snapshots/ to perform the backup.

With Borg version 1.2 and earlierSnapshotted files are instead stored at a path dependent on the runtime directory in use at the time the archive was created, as Borg 1.2 and earlier do not support path rewriting.

Extract a logical volume

Logical volume snapshots are stored in a Borg archive as normal files, so you can use the standard extract action to extract them.