Snapshots and Backups
Data reliability is one of the added benefits of using a NAS space to store your files. The data in a NAS space is protected in two ways: snapshots taken at regular intervals and daily backups.
Snapshots
A snapshot is a read-only copy of the contents of a NAS space at a particular point in time. Snapshots of a NAS space are made several times during the day and every day at midnight (see the Snapshot Schedule on the Network-Attached Storage page for a detailed schedule). The purpose of these snapshots is to allow you to easily restore previous versions of files without having to contact a system administrator. These snapshots do not count against the NAS space's quota.
Viewing your Snapshots
Snapshots are stored within the NAS space. The location of the snapshots is different depending on your operating system and the method by which you connect to the NAS space:
- In Windows, snapshots are located in a hidden folder named "~Snapshot". To view this directory, you must enable showing hidden files and folders:Windows XP/Vista.
- In Mac OS X via SMB, snapshots are located in a folder named "~snapshot".
- In Mac OS X via NFS, snapshots are located in a folder named ".snapshot".
- In Unix with NFS, snapshots are located in a directory named ".snapshot".
Inside of the snapshots folder will be several folders, one for each snapshot of the NAS space. These folders are named based on the type of snapshot:
- Hourly - snapshots taken every three hours for the current day
- Nightly - snapshots taken every night for the current week
- Weekly - snapshots taken every week for the current one and a half months
It is important to note that previous versions of files contained within snapshots have the same read permissions as the original file when the snapshot was taken.
Restoring Files from Snapshots
Restoring a previous version of a file from a snapshot is as simple as locating the appropriate version of a file in a snapshot and copying it over the current version. For more detailed information on locating and restoring a file from a snapshot, use one of the following sets of instructions:
Backups
Every day, a backup is made of the contents of all NAS spaces. This backup is stored off-site and is used for disaster recovery purposes only. If you need to have a previous version of a file restored, restore it from one of the snapshots.
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