> Is it safe to backup a database by just straight copying its files? ZFS snapshots are atomic. Recovering from a snapshot is the same as recovering from a los

> Is it safe to backup a database by just straight copying its files? ZFS snapshots are atomic. Recovering from a snapshot is the same as recovering from a loss of power. All serious databases don't acknowledge commits until either the transaction log or the container is synced to disk and can handle an unexpected loss of power/reboot/system crash without significant data loss. However, it is absolutely better to put the database into some kind of backup/write-suspend mode when taking the snapshot.