Adrian Black's picture

Hi all,

I would like your oppinions/experiences

Which is better - a backup or a snapshot ?

(and on an amazon server - which is cheaper)

Traditionally I would go with a backup - but had a few problems, so I tried a snapshot.

Both allow you to start a new server with the data

The backup however is the only one that can be restored to the original server.

But then with a snapshot you can just destroy the original server and start a new one from the snapshot.

So I am thinking is there any reason I should use a backup, and not just regularly schedule snapshots.


Any thoughts appreciated.

Jeremy Davis's picture

I have yet to use snapshots but backup would the preferred option. It can trip people up though as you need to make sure you are putting all your data in the correct places (and/or including filesystem areas). There have been a few issues here and there, but generally once your server and TKLBAM are configured correctly all should work as intended.

I imagine that snapshots would be larger than backups (and thus cost more). Also I note on the blog post announcement for the introduction of snapshots Alon states that snapshots should not be a replacement for backups.

My recommendation would be to work out why your backups aren't working successfully so they will in future. Snapshots may still be a useful option, but IMO TKLBAM is still the one to use for your data protection purposes.

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