How to setup snapshots and pruning with zrepl without any replication (yet)

[ovizii]

This is my first simple try which keeps 600 latest snapshots, so I don't lose any old ones while testing. It works.

global:
  logging:
    - type: syslog
      format: human
      level: warn

jobs:
- name: Documents
  type: snap
  filesystems: {
     "sixer/Documents": true,
  }
  snapshotting:
    type: periodic
    prefix: zrepl_
    interval: 15m
    timestamp_format: human
  pruning:
    keep:
      - type: last_n
        count: 600

Next I would like to add a better pruning strategy so I tried replacing

  pruning:
    keep:
      - type: last_n
        count: 600

with

  pruning:
    keep:
      - type: grid
        grid: 1x1h(keep=4) | 24x1h(keep=1) | 7x1d(keep=1) | 4x1w(keep=1) | 12x4w(keep=1) | 10x53w(keep=1)

Unfortunately a zrepl configcheck gives this error:

could not parse config: yaml: unmarshal errors:
  line 21: field regex is required but not given
  line 18: field keep is required but has zero value
  line 7: field pruning is required but has zero value
  line 0: field jobs is required but has zero value

So I am wondering what I am doing wrong here. I need some pointers please.

I thought the docs specifically mentioned this type of job:

Btw. I am not treating this as a backup, I just really don't want to lose any old snapshots until I arrive at the replication step hence the 4x1w(keep=1) | 12x4w(keep=1) | 10x53w(keep=1) part

[kpfleming]

The error message is telling you what is wrong. The grid policy of keep requires a regex and you haven't supplied it. That makes the keep section invalid, so all of the sections above it become invalid as well.

Please take some time to review the documentation thoroughly, as it shows you how the sections should be structured.

[ovizii]

Thanks for pointing out my mistake. I did not read the documentation as "requiring a regex rule" - I mistakenly read it as an option.

So after adding a regex, here is what happens:

global:
  logging:
    - type: syslog
      format: human
      level: warn

jobs:
- name: Documents
  type: snap
  filesystems: {
     "sixer/Documents": true,
  }
  snapshotting:
    type: periodic
    prefix: zrepl_
    interval: 15m
    timestamp_format: human
  pruning:
    keep:
      - type: regex
        regex: "^zrepl_.*"
      - type: grid
        grid: 1x1h(keep=4) | 24x1h(keep=1) | 7x1d(keep=1) | 4x1w(keep=1) | 12x4w(keep=1) | 1x53w(keep=1)

zrepl configcheck

could not parse config: yaml: unmarshal errors:
  line 21: field regex is required but not given
  line 0: field jobs is required but has zero value

I think I have found the problem. This example here: https://zrepl.github.io/configuration/prune.html

    pruning:
      keep_sender:
        # make sure manually created snapshots by the administrator are kept
        - type: regex
          regex: "^manual_.*"
        - type: grid
          grid: 1x1h(keep=all) | 24x1h | 14x1d
          regex: "^zrepl_.*" 

shows 2 types of pruning: regex and grid and grid itself also seems to need a regex. I couldn't tell from the error message that "type: grid" needs the regex option. It looked like the pruning job needed a type: regex

So I seem to have fixed my issue with this config:

global:
  logging:
    - type: syslog
      format: human
      level: warn

jobs:
- name: Documents
  type: snap
  filesystems: {
     "sixer/Documents": true,
  }
  snapshotting:
    type: periodic
    prefix: zrepl_
    interval: 15m
    timestamp_format: human
  pruning:
    keep:
      - type: grid
        grid: 1x1h(keep=4) | 24x1h(keep=1) | 7x1d(keep=1) | 4x1w(keep=1) | 12x4w(keep=1) | 1x53w(keep=1)
        regex: "^zrepl_.*"
      - type: regex
        negate: true
        regex: "^zrepl_.*"