Santi Saez wrote: > Hi, > > I want to take snapshots of a iSCSI devices from a target that hasn't > snapshot/cloning capabilities (it's a Infortrend A16E storage array). > > What method are you using to make snapshots/clones of iSCSI targets > using Open-iSCSI + CentOS? What about using Open-iSCSI + LVM snapshots > system? For example: > > - Take a LVM snapshot in the initiator with "lvcreate". > - Give read-only access to the backup server, for the same LUN/volume. > - In the backup server, mount in read-only mode this snapshot. > - Take a backup of this snapshot, using dd/tar/rsync for example. > - Unmount the snapshot in the backup server. > - Remove this snapshot from the host with "lvremove". > > Is there any soft to make this? thanks! NOTE: It's a must, that device > snapshots must be in other device.. not in the same target. > as I understand it, LVM snapshots are copy-on-write. that means the data blocks of the LVM snapshot are quite dynamic when the underlying original volume is changing. I do NOT think it would be even remotely safe to mount this read only on another environment as that OS wouldn't have a clue the underlying LVM stuff was being changed while its reading it.