[SunHELP] Best way to copy ZFS filesystems across network?

[microcode at zoho.com]

On Mon, Dec 24, 2012 at 12:08:39AM +1100, Gary R. Schmidt wrote:
> >[SunHELP] Best way to copy ZFS filesystems across network?

> I use zfs send/receive when replicating stuff, as it copies all the
> snapshots and so on.
> 
> If I don't want the snapshots, or it is not a very active
> filesystem, then I use rsync - but the initial copy would have been
> zfs send.
> 
> If it's a busy filesystem, i.e. most of the files have been touched,
> zfs send.

Based on the comments I should have said a little more about what I'm trying
to do. Sorry for not doing that in the initial post.

I have a bunch of relatively static stuff, mostly a huge collection of doc
and some old software and I don't want to lose it. I add to the collection
and clean it up as I get to it so there are no point in time issues to worry
about.

Someone reminded me rsync has to walk the whole dataset while ZFS knows
which blocks are changed. This would be a killer advantage to ZFS over rsync
on incremental backups. I don't know if there would be any clear advantage
to the initial copy with ZFS vs. rsync or some other copying method, unless
subsequent send -i wouldn't work for some reason unless there was an initial send.

I'll play around with send/receive on a small filesystem. I have no idea how
it works since I never used it and I don't have much comfort level with it
and this data is important (to me). I have used rsync for years and am
comfortable with it but it is probably not the best choice for this.

Thanks everybody.