Replicating snapshots to a backup FreeNAS

[Matt McGowan]

I have a production FreeNAS that is taking snapshots of itself every day and replicating them using a replication task to a second FreeNAS server. Both servers are running FreeNAS 9.3

When I first set up the replication task, I did not check the box for "Recursively replicate and remove stale snapshot on remote side" because I was not positive what that affected. Today I saw that all of the old snapshots are still on the backup FreeNAS. This behavior was expected, however the server is out of space.

The question I have, is did the initial replication copy all of the data in addition to the snapshot, or just the snapshot? If I delete all of the old snapshots (including the first one) on the replication (backup) server, will I still be able to restore the data to our production FreeNAS?

Any help would be greatly appreciated. I would be happy to provide any additional information necessary.

 

[Robert Trevellyan]

The question I have, is did the initial replication copy all of the data in addition to the snapshot, or just the snapshot? If I delete all of the old snapshots (including the first one) on the replication (backup) server, will I still be able to restore the data to our production FreeNAS?

Replication always copies a snapshot. A snapshot is "all of the data" as it existed at the time of the snapshot. What you'd be able to restore is the contents of any of the snapshots that exist on the backup server.