A File System Level Snapshot In Ext4

Abstract

Snapshot makes a copy of current working system. Creating a snapshot with some processing andoverheads is important to provide the reliable data service during backup. There are two types of snapshottechniques: volume-based approach and system-based approach. The volume-based Logical VolumeManager provides compact space usability, but requires some space to save snapshot and makes systemwith extra overheads. The system-based Snapshot works better than volume based. The file system basedSnapshot does not need reserve space for snapshot. Therefore, the system-based Snapshot is considered agood solution in the computer environment where large-scale space management capability is not thatcritical. However, such snapshot feature is available in Linux kernel 2.2, 2.6 in EXT3 file system. In thispaper, we proposed a system-based snapshot for the ext4 system in Linux kernel 2.6 or higher. The main concept of the system-based snapshot mainly come from old-version system based Snapshot.

Keywords: Snapcreate, kernel, Inode, SnapFS.