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LVM snapshots the raw block device (logical volume). The filesystem is layered on top of that, and then open and partially written files on top of that. So sn

by rleigh 10y ago

LVM snapshots the raw block device (logical volume). The filesystem is layered on top of that, and then open and partially written files on top of that. So snapshotting an active database is really not the best idea; it might work, it should work, but it'll need to discard any dirty state from the WAL when you restart it with the snapshot. You might be in for more trouble with other data and applications, depending upon their requirement for consistency. It's definitely not as consistent as "stop the world then backup" because the filesystem is dirty, and the database is dirty. It's equivalent to yanking the power cord from the back of the system, then running fsck, then replaying all the uncommitted transactions from the WAL. It's for this reason that I use ZFS for snapshotting. It guarantees filesystem consistency and data consistency at a given point in time. It'll still need to deal with replaying the WAL, but you don't need to worry about the filesytem being unmountable (it does happen), and you don't need to worry about the snapshot becoming unreadable (once the snapshot LV runs out of space). LVM was neat in the early 2000s, but there are much better solutions today.

koolba 10y ago
> LVM snapshots the raw block device (logical volume). The filesystem is layered on top of that, and then open and partially written files on top of that. So snapshotting an active database is really not the best idea; it might work, it should work, but it'll need to discard any dirty state from the WAL when you restart it with the snapshot. You might be in for more trouble with other data and applications, depending upon their requirement for consistency. > It's definitely not as consistent as "stop the world then backup" because the filesystem is dirty, and the database is dirty. It's equivalent to yanking the power cord from the back of the system, then running fsck, then replaying all the uncommitted transactions from the WAL. I was referring to using LVM to snapshot the filesystem where the git repos are hosted. It'd work for a database as well, assuming your database correctly uses fsync/fdatasync, and for git specifically it works fine. Using LVM snapshots with a journaled filesystem (i.e. any modern/sane choice for a fs) should have no issues though there would be some journal replay at mount time to get things consistent (v.s. say ZFS which wouldn't require it). If it does have issues, you'd have the same issues with the raw device in the event of hard shutdown (ex: power failure).

by rleigh 10y ago

koolba 10y ago

> LVM snapshots the raw block device (logical volume). The filesystem is layered on top of that, and then open and partially written files on top of that. So snapshotting an active database is really not the best idea; it might work, it should work, but it'll need to discard any dirty state from the WAL when you restart it with the snapshot. You might be in for more trouble with other data and applications, depending upon their requirement for consistency. > It's definitely not as consistent as "stop the world then backup" because the filesystem is dirty, and the database is dirty. It's equivalent to yanking the power cord from the back of the system, then running fsck, then replaying all the uncommitted transactions from the WAL. I was referring to using LVM to snapshot the filesystem where the git repos are hosted. It'd work for a database as well, assuming your database correctly uses fsync/fdatasync, and for git specifically it works fine. Using LVM snapshots with a journaled filesystem (i.e. any modern/sane choice for a fs) should have no issues though there would be some journal replay at mount time to get things consistent (v.s. say ZFS which wouldn't require it). If it does have issues, you'd have the same issues with the raw device in the event of hard shutdown (ex: power failure).