Performing a backup in a ZFS filesystem

Ten years ago, I didn't think about learning how to use any backup software, and honestly, I didn't like this kind of software because I thought it was so simple. Nowadays, I can see why I was so wrong.

Administering and managing backup software is the most fundamental activity in IT, acting as the last line of defense against hackers. By the way, hackers are winning the war using all types of resources—malwares, Trojans, viruses, worms, and spywares, and only backups of file servers and applications can save a company.

Oracle Solaris 11 offers a simple solution composed of two commands (zfs send and zfs recv) to back up ZFS filesystem data. During the backup operation, data is generated as a stream and sent (using the zfs send command) through the network to another Oracle Solaris 11 system that receives this stream (using zfs recv).

Oracle Solaris 11 is able to produce two kinds of streams: the replication stream, which includes the...