Using external drive to seed ZFS replication

[DuncanM]

Hello and thanks for reading this,

one of my customers are using a FreeNAS for storage with great success. The problem we have is over time their data usage has increased significantly. At the moment they are using ZFS replication to replicate off-site this is working well but now it can not keep up with the replication speed. Unfortunately upgrading speed is not an option as the location does not have faster connection and we can not get extra line as there is non available to the the site.

I know I can move the servers together but they are heavy and I would prefer not to move either server if possible. I have read about ZFS replication to USB drive but it does not mention if this could be used to seed ZFS replication across WAN. If it is possible has anyone done this? Is it just a case of using replication to replicate then importing the export and then changing the target for the replication. If this method would not work would I be better using rsync?

Thank you very much for your time.

 

[Ericloewe]

Sure, this is very doable. However, the deltas must still be transferrable with the connection you have, unless you want to sneakernet around constantly.

 

[DuncanM]

Thank you for your very quick reply, we plan to use the connection for the deltas until it becomes too far out of date then reseed using drive. This will be about once every 2 months.

 

[Ericloewe]

But how would that work, unless there's a burst every two months?

 

[DuncanM]

The system is loosing about 2 days every month the customer can stand about 4 days loss so we would need to resync every 2 months. There is a large amount of data being generated every month and the connection just can not keep up. We are looking in to a long range microwave link but we need planning permission to place a mast due to terrain.