Skip to main content

Restoring a file from a Snapshot copy on an NFS or CIFS client

A user on an NFS or CIFS client can restore a file directly from a Snapshot copy without the intervention of a storage system administrator.

Every directory in the file system contains a subdirectory named .snapshot accessible to NFS and CIFS users. The .snapshot subdirectory contains subdirectories corresponding to the Snapshot copies of the volume:
$ ls .snapshot
daily.2020-05-14_0013/ hourly.2020-05-15_1106/
daily.2020-05-15_0012/ hourly.2020-05-15_1206/
hourly.2020-05-15_1006/ hourly.2020-05-15_1306/

Each subdirectory contains the files referenced by the Snapshot copy. If users accidentally delete or overwrite a file, they can restore the file to the parent read-write directory by copying the file from the Snapshot subdirectory to the read-write directory:
$ ls my.txt
ls: my.txt: No such file or directory
$ ls .snapshot
daily.2020-05-14_0013/ hourly.2020-05-15_1106/
daily.2020-05-15_0012/ hourly.2020-05-15_1206/
hourly.2020-05-15_1006/ hourly.2020-05-15_1306/
$ ls .snapshot/hourly.2020-05-15_1306/my.txt
my.txt
$ cp .snapshot/hourly.2020-05-15_1306/my.txt .
$ ls my.txt
my.txt