Re: A standard snapshot notification framework in Linux ?

From: Coywolf Qi Hunt
Date: Tue Nov 15 2005 - 03:24:54 EST


On Tue, Nov 15, 2005 at 01:15:54PM +0530, Block Device wrote:
> Hi,
>
> does the linux kernel provide a mechanism whereby applications can
> register themselves
> to be notified when a snapshot is being taken of the volume they might
> be writing to.
>
> If there is no such framework then how do backup applications
> guarantee ( application level ) consistency. I have seen freeze_bdev

call sync and mount read-only, or go down to init 1.

Coywolf

> and friends which work for file systems and how the device mapper uses
> them. But when it comes to application level consistency, a mechanism
> is required to give the application a chance to flush & quiesce its
> writes so that the backup taken will be consistent for the application
> also. Windows has the VSS ( Volume Shadow Service ) which provides an
> elaborate framework for this. Is anyone working on something similar
> for Linux and if not why is it not such a worthwhile idea ?
>
> Regards
> BD
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