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Managing local Snapshot copies

A Snapshot copy is a read-only, point-in-time image of a volume. The image consumes minimal storage space and incurs negligible performance overhead because it records only changes to files since the last Snapshot copy.

You can use a Snapshot copy to restore the entire contents of a volume, or to recover individual files or LUNs. Snapshot copies are stored in the directory .snapshot on the volume.

In ONTAP 9.5 and later, a volume can contain up to 1023 Snapshot copies.

  • Configuring custom Snapshot policies
    A Snapshot policy defines how the system creates Snapshot copies. The policy specifies when to create Snapshot copies, how many copies to retain, and how to name them. For example, a system might create one Snapshot copy every day at 12:10 a.m., retain the two most recent copies, and name the copies daily.timestamp.
  • Managing the Snapshot copy reserve
    The Snapshot copy reserve sets aside a percentage of disk space for Snapshot copies, five percent by default. Because Snapshot copies use space in the active file system when the Snapshot copy reserve is exhausted, you might want to increase the Snapshot copy reserve as needed. Alternatively, you can autodelete Snapshot copies when the reserve is full.
  • Restoring files from Snapshot copies
    You can use a Snapshot copy to recover individual files or LUNs, or to restore the entire contents of a volume. You can restore files from an NFS or CIFS client as well as from the storage system. This feature requires a SnapRestore license, which is included in the Fundamentals Bundle.