MySQL backup soon becomes an important matter when the database is used in production. The pain-point comes from the fact that while backuping the database is not available to respond to client requests anymore. With mysqldump - the standard tool for performing MySQL backups - and a large database the operation can go over many tenth of minutes if not hours. If I am running my business on line this is simply not acceptable.

The classical approach to workaround this problem is to take advantage of MySQL replication. I set up a master/slave configuration where the slave acts as copy of the master. Then, when needed, I run mysqldump on the slave without any service interruption on the master.

But ZFS snapshosts bring a new straightforward approach that avoids the pain and the complexity of a master/slave replication.