The (ZFS) snapshot approach mentioned above might be useful? That would make sure the important files are still available (even over smb) by going to the hidde

The (ZFS) snapshot approach mentioned above might be useful? That would make sure the important files are still available (even over smb) by going to the hidden .zfs directory inside the zfs file system. I'd probably do something like create a new ZFS file system on your server just for these special files, move them into it, snapshot the file system to ensure they're preserved, then make the filesystem available over the network via a new SMB share. That's just a rough first idea. If you're changing those special files much, then some kind of automatic timed snapshot thing (maybe with expiry) would probably be useful too. aka cronjob