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* How does BTRFS compression influence existing and new snapshots?
@ 2021-05-28 16:02 Thorsten Schöning
  2021-05-28 19:36 ` Zygo Blaxell
  0 siblings, 1 reply; 5+ messages in thread
From: Thorsten Schöning @ 2021-05-28 16:02 UTC (permalink / raw)
  To: linux-btrfs

Hi everyone...

# Context

I have some Synology NAS storing backups created by WBADMIN from
Windows using SMB, which means VHDX image files in the end with
compression disabled, as otherwise WBADMIN refuses to work on those
files. Those files need to still be available on the NAS for some
time, but it's VERY unlikely that those need to be mounted again by
anyone, therefore I would like to apply compression afterwards now to
simply safe some space. If it's ever need to be mounted again, things
can easily be decompressed, so let's ignore that for now. DSM provides
all the necessary tools[1] to deal with compression of existing data
on the shell as well:         

> chattr -R +c [...]
> btrfs filesystem defragment -r -c [...]

The important thing to note is that the existing VHDX files are
protected by automatically created snapshots already and the NAS
continues to create snapshots automatically after I compressed the
files. So what happens with those snapshots?

# Are blocks hold by existing snapshots compressed as well?

According this[2] explanation I don't think so. Additionally this
would somewhat defeat the whole purpose of snapshots guaranteeing
unchanged data for some point in time. Things simply were not
compressed in the past when the snapshots were created, so in theory
that data needs to be available somehow.

OTOH, compression is designed to be somewhat transparent anyway
already and that might be argued all the way through to existing
blocks even in snapshots. Might safe a lot of space in the end.
Compression even is that transparent that "du"[3] is not able to
recognize[4].

# Are newly compressed blocks changes hold by new snapshots?

I have a snapshot BEFORE compressing, compress the VHDX files and
create a new snapshot AFTERWARDS. Nothing else changes in the VHDX by
Windows or WBADMIN or whomever, so from a logical point of view the
file is still unchanged. Though, the individual blocks/extents of the
file managed by BTRFS have been changed a lot, depending on how good
compression has been applied.

This results in actual storage newly allocated between the two
snapshots, doesn't it? So after compression, until earlier snapshots
holding uncompressed data are deleted, overall storage might simply be
less than before.

Or am I wrong somewhere? Thanks!

[1]: https://community.synology.com/enu/forum/1/post/138784
[2]: https://superuser.com/a/892293/308859
[3]: https://stackoverflow.com/a/20899536/2055163
[4]: https://btrfs.wiki.kernel.org/index.php/Compression#Why_does_not_du_report_the_compressed_size.3F

Mit freundlichen Grüßen

Thorsten Schöning

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Für Rückfragen stehe ich Ihnen sehr gerne zur Verfügung.

Mit freundlichen Grüßen

Thorsten Schöning


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^ permalink raw reply	[flat|nested] 5+ messages in thread

end of thread, other threads:[~2021-05-31 10:04 UTC | newest]

Thread overview: 5+ messages (download: mbox.gz / follow: Atom feed)
-- links below jump to the message on this page --
2021-05-28 16:02 How does BTRFS compression influence existing and new snapshots? Thorsten Schöning
2021-05-28 19:36 ` Zygo Blaxell
2021-05-29  9:53   ` Thorsten Schöning
2021-05-29 22:16     ` Zygo Blaxell
2021-05-31 10:03       ` Thorsten Schöning

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