ZFS Snapshot on OPNsense - does it work without hickups?

Started by lar.hed, December 04, 2023, 05:37:04 PM

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So I have had a not so interesting story with challenges with my OPNsense installation. So much that I decided to try to find a way to backup the lot so to speak...

And my first thought was ProxMox (use the snapshot function) and virtualize OPNsense, and a few other servers I have hanging around (pi4B's) - nice thought. Can not make the network design on paper to be good enough so I decided to stick with bare metal OPNsense. At least until I figure out howto and test that. This will take another hardware box and the testing might take a while...

But then I seem to recall that I could maybe do with snapshot in filesystem level? UFS (that I for some reason uses - don't remember why I choosed UFS but it is what it is and all that) does support snapshot, but not in the OPNsense installation I seem to have - can not find the binaries anyway....

However OPNsense seems to include all binaries that is needed for snapshot. It even exists a map in root (/.snap) that seems to created for this - yet I can not find any information on this...

So before I re-install OPNsense on ZFS (this time), and restore my config file and all that. Does anyone use snapshot on ZFS for well taking say a snapshot before any major upgrade of OPNsense, or even just any smal updates?

(and while I am it: How come this is not so to speak turned-on default before any updates, taking a snapshot that is - yes I know, I use UFS for some funny reason, but if I use ZFS, will snapshots be taken automatically before any upgrades?)

Deciso DEC750
People who think they know everything are a great annoyance to those of us who do. (Isaac Asimov)

I am creating snapshots before any update or complex changes in config.
At least before major updates, but also sometimes between them, I use bemanager to export snapshots.
About 3 weeks ago I used this for migration to another hardware... Create snapshot, export snapshot, import snapshot, done. This is great when 3rd party apps are in use.
i am not an expert... just trying to help...