Transitioning from zfs-auto-snapshot to sanoid/syncoid?

pgadey · October 27, 2026, 5:29pm

Hi! I’ve been using zfs-auto-snapshot keep and prune snapshots for backup purposes for the last few years. I have a snapshots going back to offsite_daily-2022-09-21-2205. In order to get them to my offsite backup, I have to manually run a script which I almost never do. Ooops! It seems like syncoid would be the right tool for the job.

I’m wondering if there is a way to setup sanoid / syncoid on the existing dataset?

Or, if there isn’t, what would be a reasonable way to transition this setup to sanoid / syncoid?

For a peek, I have something like this setup on the main computer.

$ zfs list | tail -n20

internalpool@zfs-auto-snap_hourly-2026-10-27-0417 26.6M internalpool@zfs-auto-snap_hourly-2026-10-27-0517 26.6M internalpool@zfs-auto-snap_hourly-2026-10-27-0617 26.6M internalpool@zfs-auto-snap_hourly-2026-10-27-0717 26.6M internalpool@zfs-auto-snap_hourly-2026-10-27-0817 26.6M internalpool@zfs-auto-snap_hourly-2026-10-27-0917 26.5M internalpool@zfs-auto-snap_hourly-2026-10-27-1017 26.5M internalpool@zfs-auto-snap_hourly-2026-10-27-1117 15.5M internalpool@zfs-auto-snap_daily-2026-10-27-1138 internalpool@offsite_daily-2026-10-27-0738 internalpool@zfs-auto-snap_hourly-2026-10-27-1217 18.3M internalpool@zfs-auto-snap_hourly-2026-10-27-1317 26.6M internalpool@zfs-auto-snap_hourly-2026-10-27-1417 26.7M internalpool@zfs-auto-snap_hourly-2026-10-27-1517 28.2M internalpool@zfs-auto-snap_hourly-2026-10-27-1617 internalpool@zfs-auto-snap_frequent-2026-10-27-1630 112K internalpool@zfs-auto-snap_frequent-2026-10-27-1645 384K internalpool@zfs-auto-snap_frequent-2026-10-27-1700 7.20M internalpool@zfs-auto-snap_frequent-2026-10-27-1715 internalpool@zfs-auto-snap_hourly-2026-10-27-1717 - 384G - - 384G - - 384G - - 384G - - 384G - - 384G - - 384G - - 384G - 0B - 384G - 0B - 384G - - 384G - - 384G - - 384G - - 384G - 760K - 384G - - 384G - - 384G - - 384G - 0B - 384G - 0B - 384G -

mercenary_sysadmin · October 27, 2026, 5:32pm

If you want Sanoid to prune your existing snapshots according to policy you set there, you’ll need to rename those snapshots to match Sanoid’s naming format.

Syncoid, on the other hand, will work with any snapshots you have. Zero additional configuration is needed in order for syncoid to replicate snapshots you already have, it works with any and all snapshots and doesn’t care what they’re named or how they were taken.