info request

[deputies]

Hello and greetings to all the community.

We are evaluating the product Zextras and we came up with some questions to bring to your attention.
If we were to apply the "Retain Data Backup" equal to 0 days, so always entirely consistent, theoretically we could be with the backup volume larger than that of exercise.
But while on Zimbra store is the ability to change the volume with the increase in employment of disk space, how can we emulate this feature with Backup Zextras to have the same characteristics?
We have to manage the exponential growth of the backup thus increasing storage?
We can not split the backup into the main volume and the secondary volume as well as Zimbra is for the store?

[Cine]

Hello deputies,
welcome to the forums!

It is not yet possible to manage the ZeXtras Backup store on a "Primary/Secondary" logic. While the complete rewrite of the ZeXtras Backup store is one of the planned features for version 2.0, the current store is not designed to provide the level of scalability needed to support the kind of storage growth you talk about - which is actually not exponential, but proportional to the amount of data being processed by the server.

Right now the only thing you could do to achieve this kind of scalability - and this is kind of a "dirty" workaround - would be to split the direcories containing the backupped items - /opt/zimbra/backup/zextras/items/* - into different disks, using then the appropriate mount options in order to make them appear as a single directory tree.
Again, this is just a workaround, but if you are interested in this I'll be glad to run some tests and provide you with some help on how to setup the whole storage.

Another solution would be to set up a Multiserver infrastucture using multiple mailboxd servers. This way you will split the backup data between two or more server, while also improving the overall Zimbra functionality (I assume you are managing a great number of users or dealing with lots of data - if your question stems from the concern of reaching the maximum volume size for your infrastructure).


Have a nice day,
Cine

[deputies]

Thanks for the reply Cine,
we will try to understand what is the best solution waiting for the new features planned for version 2.0.

Certainly to divide the store at the moment seems the least painless, without of course forgetting your first proposal, and we are pleased that you would be willing to give us any help.

Can you show us the expected date which will be released in version 2.0?

[Cine]

Thanks for the reply Cine,

Can you show us the expected date which will be released in version 2.0?

Hello Deputies!

The release of version 2.0 is scheduled for Q1 2013. Unfortunately I can't be more precise at the moment but as soon as more detailed informations about the release date and the new features will be available we'll make an announcement here and on the social networks...

Have a nice day,
Cine

P.s.: I'm starting the "split store" tests in a few hours, I hope I can give you some feedbacks on this matter at the beginning of the next week...

[deputies]

Hello Cine,
we wanted to know if you started the test on the "split store" and if you had the news .....

Good job,
duputies

[Cine]

Hi deputies,

I started the tests but I don't have any final news yet (been sick for a couple of days, now I'm catching up with the work)...


Have a nice day,
Cine

[Cine]

Hello deputies,

I completed my tests and I confirm that it is possible to split the ZeXtras Backup data between multiple stores...

My test environment:

- Single server infrastructure
- "Original" store: 500gb ext3 Virtual Disk
- "New" store: 500gb ext3 Virtual Disk
- The backup path is a folder in the "Original" store.


The ZeXtras Backup Store:

As you can see HERE the actual Items are stored in the items/ folder, splitted in subfolders named after the first two characters of the hash of the item. Those subfolders are owned by the zimbra user and created by ZeXtras Backup at run-time as soon as the folder itself is needed (permissions: 750).


Splitting the Backup Store:

The most difficult part is actually selecting how to manage the Split Store, as two options are possible:
- Preemptive Split: Creating half of the folders in another store (mins that splitting half of the folders on another store does not guarantee that the size of the data will be equally split between the stores)
- Manual Split: Splitting the current data between the stores depending on the size of the folders and repeating the operation ad libitum as the size of the data grows.

Both options are equally viable, depending on personal preferences and needs - the first option is more of a "apply and forget" approach while the second requires some maintenance but will provide a better distribution of the data.


The Split:

After deciding how to manage the split, you need to perform the following operations in order to implement the split:

- Prepare the new store according to your needs (size, filesystem, settings... Just make sure that the file system is Case Sensitive)
- Create the folders you need on the new store.
- Mount the new store to a non-related position
- Stop the Real Time Scanner.
- Move the current data in the existing folders from the original store to the new one.

- Make the folders on the new store visible as if those were in the original store:
I achieved this using the "bind" option of mount:
E.g.: the original store is in /opt/zimbra/backup/zextras/, the new store is in /zextras2 and It contains 2 folders: /zextras2/Aa and /zextras2/Bb. To make the Aa and Bb folders appear as subfolders of /opt/zimbra/backup/zextras/items/ I used the following commands

mount -o bind /zextras2/Aa /opt/zimbra/backup/zextras/items/Aa
mount -o bind /zextras2/Bb /opt/zimbra/backup/zextras/items/Bb

If everything is ok, you should see the following lines in the output of the "mount" command

/zextras2/Aa on /opt/zimbra/backup/zextras/items/Aa type none (rw,bind)
/zextras2/Bb on /opt/zimbra/backup/zextras/items/Bb type none (rw,bind)

You can automate the mount procedure by adding the appropriate lines to the /etc/fstab file or through a startup script.

(The use of Bind Mounts is just one of the possible solutions, and while other solutions can be easier to manage this is the most "standard compliant" one.)


Once the folders are set up according to your preference, simply enable the Real Time Scanner and you are good to go.


Have a nice day,
Cine