Coordinating Snapshot and Backup Operations
Chapter 7 Snapshots
59
Accessing Snapshots Within the Snapshot Share
A snapshot share contains a series of directories. Each directory inside the snapshot
share represents a different snapshot. The directory names reflect the date and time
the snapshot was created. For example, assume the snapshot share named
Sales_SNAP
contains the following four directories:
latest
2003-12-25.120000
2004-01-01.000100
2004-01-07.020100
The
latest
directory always points to the most recent snapshot (in this case,
2003-
01-07.020100
, or January 7th, 2003, at 2:01 a.m.). A user may view an individual
file as it existed at a previous point in time or even roll back to a previous version of
the file by creating a file copy to the current live volume.
Tip
The “latest” subdirectory is very useful for setting up backup jobs as the name
of the directory is always the same and always points to the latest available
snapshot.
Coordinating Snapshot and Backup Operations
Like backups, snapshots can be scheduled to recur at a designated time and
interval. In addition to synchronizing the backup and snapshot schedules, you must
create a share (and snapshot share) to the appropriate directory so that the backup
software can access the snapshot. For most backup purposes, the directory specified
should be one that points to the root of the volume so that all of the volume’s data is
backed up and available from the snapshot share.
1
Create a snapshot for each volume you want to back up.
In the Administration Tool, navigate to the
Storage > Snapshots
screen
,
and click
Create Snapshot
. When defining and scheduling the snapshot, consider the
following:
• In the Create Recovery File pull-down menu, select
Yes
to ensure that the ACL,
extended attributes, and quota information is captured and appended to the
snapshot. This step is needed because many backup packages do not back up
native ACLs and quotas. Placing this information in a recovery file allows all
backup packages to include this information. If the volume needs to be
restored from tape, or the entire system needs to be recreated from scratch on a
different server, this information may be required to restore all rights and
quota information.
• Offset the snapshot and backup schedules such that the backup does not occur
until you are sure the snapshot has been created. (The snapshot itself does not
require much time, but creating the recovery file may take up to 30 minutes,
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