Want to change my Urbackup installation to use btrfs

Server
1

UrBackup 2.5.31 is running as a container on my Synology NAS.
Question: can i just rebuild the container with the btrfs option? Or do i need to reinstall the server (and maybe even the clients)?

2

The question is how to transfer the old backups into snapshots to the btrfs file system.
Maybe there is a script for it? @uroni

3

There is some info in the manual. (10.8 Migrate non-btrfs backup storage.) I moved from ext4 to btrfs with no service stopping. I used a new drive matrix. Conversion ext4 to btrfs failed.

4
  1. I would not recommend “converting” anything into a btrfs. CREATE a btrfs file system and copy the files in that case.
  2. In THIS situation OP want to move the backups he has made onto a btrfs filesystem and utilize urbackups features connected to that. That means the backups has to be converted to one snapshot each and referenced in the database.
5

Found a way to do it:

  • stop the container
  • delete all the files from config (besides the keys for the server) and backups
  • rebuild container with btrfs option
  • start container
    all the clients found the server and created new backups without any need to reinstall the clients
1 Like
6

Could you plese verify your backups are transferred into snapshots by typing sudo btrfs subvolume list /path/to/your_btrfsmountpoint
Every backup made from your clients should be in one snapshot each. (if you want to utilize btrfs)

Or did it just simply accept the file structure and will create snapshots of future backups?

Can you restore from them?

7

I just created new backups and deleted the old backups.

8

So you did not solve it. You did a fresh install. :stuck_out_tongue:

Good to know for future readers of the thread. :slight_smile:

9

At least i did not need to change anything on the clients.

10

To get the server to use btrfs, no (only need to make sure snapshot_helper does not return any errors and configure it to use btrfs according to documentation).
But if you are also backing up from a system that uses btrfs (and want to utilize the strength of btrfs), you need to tell the client (might have to rebuild) to use btrfs snapshot method.