How to move a btrfs balance operation to the background?

Question

I have remoted into my DIY NAS, and have run:

sudo btrfs balance start -dconvert=raid1 -mconvert=raid1 /mnt/tank

However, from some napkin math, it will take about a week to complete from the data from:

sudo btrfs balance status /mnt/tank

As I didn't run the btrfs balance start operation with --bg, how can I move it to the background now?

I have tried Ctrl + Z as well as entering disown, both to no avail.

I have also checked the documentation on btrfs balance pause, however btrfs balance resume does not have a --bg flag it seems.

How should I proceed?

Answer 1

Your two best options are probably to login again with ssh and either:

1. btrfs cancel the btrfs balance command and run it again in with --bg, or

2. pause it, run tmux, and resume it in tmux (or use screen instead of tmux).

Answer 2

I put mine on a cron job that runs in the background every hour. I'm not sure if this is the right way, but it does run in the background. Here's my command:

btrfs balance start -mconvert=raid1 -dconvert=raid0 / -f

My setup is RAID0, not RAID1, but you get the idea.