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Database and VM snapshot and backup can be tricky.

My suggestion is using ZFS.

Doesn't zfs kind of solve all the backup problems alone? Technically, no other backup tools can beat it as being the filesystem itself, it knows more than any external tools can know, like instantly know what file got changed over time without scanning the entire tree.

I use Borg as backup of backup (zfs snapshots), so I'll be having multiple implementations of backups (also both are on different remote location) just to be on the safe side.

I don't use any other fancier ones as I don't like risking data on less reliable tools.

Remote ZFS replication kinda does. But the offsite backup wouldn't be encrypted and not everyone is using ZFS. So it's not for all situations.

You can send zfs encrypted volume as encrypted.

How does it matter if anyone else is using zfs? You either use a service that supports zfs target or run your own Linux instance which is just installing a single package for Ubuntu.

What I meant was that there are people who don't run ZFS, but still need backups. So it won't work for everyone.

Even for my own use cases, not every server and system I maintain could use ZFS right away.

Still good to know about the encrypted volume feature. Will be sure to test this next year.

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