# Best suited name for a snapshot archiver



## Deleted member 67440 (Jun 3, 2021)

I'm not very practical in choosing program names, so I would need suggestions for a zfs snapshot "freezer".

Basically given a certain number of snapshots, for example 
tank/backup@copia_2021-06-03, 
tank/backup@copia_2021-06-02 etc, 
it creates a single file with all the content inside (allowing the destruction of the snapshots retaining the data forever).

For now it's called zcon (I said I'm not very good with the choice of names).

Superfreezer? paqsnap? snapforever?

Thank you


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## rootbert (Jun 3, 2021)

zfreezer ... I also suck at naming


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## Alain De Vos (Jun 3, 2021)

zcryogen.


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## drhowarddrfine (Jun 3, 2021)

Call it what it is. snap_freeze or snap_freezer or zfs_snap_freeze. Don't make people guess. They'll skim right over anything else.


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## Alain De Vos (Jun 3, 2021)

z_snap_vista_ultimate_editon_redstone_blue_longhorn_millenium_mephis_chicago_daytona_snowball_razzle.
Seriously, a name you can lookup. Crystal is for instance a bad name for a programming language.


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## Jose (Jun 3, 2021)

There are only 2 hard things in computer programming:

Cache invalidation
Naming things
Off-by-one errors


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## Deleted member 67440 (Jun 3, 2021)

Alain De Vos said:


> zcryogen.


too hard (the y) for non-english


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## Deleted member 67440 (Jun 3, 2021)

drhowarddrfine said:


> Call it what it is. snap_freeze or snap_freezer or zfs_snap_freeze. Don't make people guess. They'll skim right over anything else.


something_that_you_thought_impossible_and_that_instead_I_know_how_to_do?
In fact people skip all, even if bitten in the ass.

I think that only me in the world will use it, so I was looking for something cool, but not too long or hard to remember.

savetheass?
themiracle?
zcrio?
zpaqcrio?


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## drhowarddrfine (Jun 3, 2021)

fcorbelli What's the first thing you think of when you think of you app? Anything you already suggested? If it doesn't matter cause if the only one using it is you then call it 'a'. Easy to remember. You'll never forget it.

EDIT: Well, I broke my own rule. 'a' is a terrible name cause it doesn't describe the product. Use one of the names I already suggested. You won't care about how cool the name is a few weeks from now no matter what you choose.


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## Deleted member 67440 (Jun 3, 2021)

drhowarddrfine said:


> fcorbelli What's the first thing you think of when you think of you app? Anything you already suggested? If it doesn't matter cause if the only one using it is you then call it 'a'. Easy to remember. You'll never forget it.
> 
> EDIT: Well, I broke my own rule. 'a' is a terrible name cause it doesn't describe the product. Use one of the names I already suggested. You won't care about how cool the name is a few weeks from now no matter what you choose.


So themiracle or embalmer or savetheass
I like the last one


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## Vull (Jun 3, 2021)

"snapshot_archivist"


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## mtu (Jun 3, 2021)

Coming up with good names is part of my job, so I'd love to help. But I still don't understand what this tool does.


fcorbelli said:


> Basically given a certain number of snapshots, for example
> tank/backup@copia_2021-06-03,
> tank/backup@copia_2021-06-02 etc,
> it creates a single file with all the content inside (allowing the destruction of the snapshots retaining the data forever).


So, it basically `zfs send`s all the snapshots into a regular file?

(How is that more useful than just keeping the snapshots, or `zfs recv`ing them into another pool?)


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## Alexander88207 (Jun 3, 2021)

For Backup of snapshots....

Backsnap? or Snapback?


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## Deleted member 67440 (Jun 3, 2021)

No, zfs is not used at all. 
Suppose to have 100 daily snapshot of a dataset, each of say 200 GB. 
The time needed for 100 snapshots is about 2x the time to compress a single snapshot
In a single (about) 200GB will store ALL the 100 different snapshots. 

So you can destroy the 100 snapshots but freezed forever into the archive


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## Deleted member 67440 (Jun 3, 2021)

Alexander88207 said:


> For Backup of snapshots....
> 
> Backsnap? or Snapback?


Backsnap is not bad at all

Paqsnap? 
In fact use zpaq technology


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## Deleted member 67440 (Jun 3, 2021)

Friendly challenge: try at least one time an archiver
					

I would like to issue a friendly challenge for those interested in backups.  I apologize, but on the other hand I realize that it is difficult to "trust".  Try at least one time my fork of a program already in ports (archivers\paq), which has remained in very old version.  It is an opensource...




					forums.freebsd.org


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## mtu (Jun 3, 2021)

fcorbelli said:


> Suppose to have 100 daily snapshot of a dataset, each of say 200 GB.
> The time needed for 100 snapshots is about 2x the time to compress a single snapshot
> In a single (about) 200GB will store ALL the 100 different snapshots.
> 
> So you can destroy the 100 snapshots but freezed forever into the archive


So … you're re-creating the functionality of `zfs send` with other software? Why? `zfs send` can be incremental, it can be encrypted, deduplicated, … I really don't understand why this is useful if you already have zfs (not trolling).


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## Deleted member 67440 (Jun 3, 2021)

Because you will need to prune the snapshots, sooner or later, deleting the data,for performances reason.
I retain the data of my customer forever, or as now for 4 years with hourly backup.
With thousands of snapshot the enumeration become very slow (minute) and the size grow every day

How many snapshot do you have?  How far in the past can you go?
Do you maintain the snapshots forever?


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## mtu (Jun 3, 2021)

I don't need to keep that many snapshots, but if I _did_, I'd either receive them into a backup pool where I don't care how slow the enumeration is, or store them compressed in a file like `zfs send -Ic @veryold pool/dataset@old > archivefile` and be done with it.


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## Deleted member 67440 (Jun 3, 2021)

In fact no.
If you want to restore a single file, say rc.conf, you will need a lot of work and space to restore the entire snapshot or snapshots if incrementally saved.

Even hours.
Remember : the problem is restore. 
You need a plan for easy fast effortless and safe restore

It's a tool for 'serious' backup, not SOHO.
It's part of my job


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## Alain De Vos (Jun 3, 2021)

Disk usage of the current incremental snapshots of my desktop PC,

```
ZT/ROOT/default/usr/home@2021_06_03__18_34_44      2.85M      -     2.05G  -
ZT/ROOT/default/usr/home@2021_06_03__19_00_10      1.02M      -     2.05G  -
ZT/ROOT/default/usr/home@2021_06_03__19_30_10       860K      -     2.05G  -
ZT/ROOT/default/usr/home@2021_06_03__20_00_10       548K      -     2.05G  -
ZT/ROOT/default/usr/home@2021_06_03__20_30_10       592K      -     2.05G  -
ZT/ROOT/default/usr/home@2021_06_03__21_00_10       612K      -     2.05G  -
ZT/ROOT/default/usr/home@2021_06_03__21_30_10       328K      -     2.05G  -
ZT/ROOT/default/usr/home@2021_06_03__22_00_10       320K      -     2.05G  -
ZT/ROOT/default/usr/home@2021_06_03__22_30_10       480K      -     2.05G  -
ZT/ROOT/default/usr/home@2021_06_03__23_00_10       364K      -     2.05G  -
ZT/ROOT/default/usr/home@2021_06_03__23_30_10       520K      -     2.05G  -
ZT/ROOT/default/usr/home@2021_06_04__00_00_10       520K      -     2.05G  -
```
Units are 1M.
Offcourse a large active postgresql database would give other results.
Backup files of 0.5M are so large I now excluded .cache from backup.


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## Alain De Vos (Jun 4, 2021)

zetaback seems overkill for my desktop.
A program I will probably use is sanoid.
I have doubts about borg-backup and rdiff-backup.
Any idea on these two last ?
I did a recent comparison and the list is large.
duplicity,bup,duplicatti,attic,restic,duplicacy,rdiff,borg,zetaback,sanoid.


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## usakhncit (Jun 4, 2021)

snapshot+backup+archiver=
snabver
snachver
shackiver
bashver (if you like bash  ) # may confuse some
backpack
snapup
snaparch
etc.


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## Deleted member 67440 (Jun 4, 2021)

Alain De Vos said:


> zetaback seems overkill for my desktop.
> A program I will probably use is sanoid.
> I have doubts about borg-backup and rdiff-backup.
> Any idea on these two last ?


borg is way too complex and fragile
rdiff is way too fragile.
zpaq / zpaqfranz is perfect for your desktop backups.
One file, one command.
If you want something much much more complex and unreliable,
hb (hash backup)

About freezing snapshots, I attach a more realistic situation for a small BSD server
As mentioned I don't deal with desktops or SOHOs


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## Deleted member 67440 (Jun 4, 2021)

usakhncit said:


> snapshot+backup+archiver=
> snabver
> snachver
> shackiver
> ...


Currently top (the archiver technology si called zpaq)...

paqsnap
snappaq (two p, so can confuse)
savetheass (I like very much  )
savethesnap


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## usakhncit (Jun 4, 2021)

fcorbelli said:


> savetheass


But the question is "can you?"


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