[Gluster-devel] Backup support for GlusterFS

[Vijay Bellur]

On 08/08/2016 04:57 AM, Alok Srivastava wrote:
> Reviving the old thread..
>
> I was thinking about a possible NDMP based migration tool built into
> GlusterFS.
> Migration from any other file system storage (source) to gluster storage
> (target) can be challenging because of lack of a tool built into
> GlusterFS. Host based migration is a common approach but it can be
> painful for large datasets.
>
> The proposed migration tool will  transfer data over the Network Data
> Management Protocol (NDMP). This tool will make use of the snapshots
> feature on the source system to ensure that a point-in- time copy of the
> file system is transferred to the target. The proposed tool can also be
> utilized to migrate from gluster on old hardware to gluster on new hardware.
>
> Following is the proposed workflow:
>
> *1) **First copy*
>
> Migrate recursively from source directory to the gluster cluster. This
> is expected to be a time consuming step.
>
> * 2)      Incremental copy*
>
> Migrating any changes that occur after the first copy.
>
>   3)      Cutover
>
> Restrict clients from accessing data on the source , migrate remaining
> changes , and redirect clients to access their data on the gluster cluster.
>
>
> Note that there may be issues with migrating existing file permissions,
> quota enforcements, etc on the source.
>
> Missing pieces in gluster
>
>
> -NDMP support
>
> -May have to revive “ndmp-server” project?
>
>


Why is NDMP better than rsync from NFS (src) to FUSE (destination)?. Is 
it owing to the incremental copy that NDMP can handle better?

I have not seen the ndmp-server project in action or the code to comment 
on how functional it was. We might have to implement from scratch if we 
decide to go down this route.

Aravinda - do you remember the state of this project?

Thanks,
Vijay