Snapshot manager

This window enables you to do the following tasks:

• Viewing snapshot statistics
• Creating, renaming, or deleting a snapshot
• Specifying snapshot reserve and scheduling snapshots

All information on the window is on a per-volume basis. Use the Volume pull-down menu to specify the volume for which you want to view snapshot statistics or configure snapshots.

Viewing snapshot statistics

This window provides a list of the individual snapshots and the following statistics for each snapshot:

• %/used: The space consumed by snapshots as a percentage of disk space that is used in the volume. The first value represents the cumulative percentage of disk space used by the snapshots up to the point of reference. The second value represents the disk space used by the snapshot at the point of reference.
• %/total: The space that is consumed as a percentage of the total disk space in the volume. The first value represents the cumulative percentage of disk space (relative to total disk space) used by the snapshots up to the point of reference. The second value represents the percentage of disk space (relative to total disk space) used by the snapshot at the point of reference.
• date: The date and time the snapshot was created.
• name: The name of the snapshot.

Creating, renaming, or deleting a snapshot

This provides buttons that allow you to create a new snapshot, and rename or delete existing snapshots. The window provides the following buttons:

• Reload. Click this button to reload the existing snapshot statistics from the filer.
• New. Click anywhere in the display box and click New to create a new snapshot. The filer prompts you to enter a name for the new snapshot. Enter the name and click OK, or click Cancel if you do not want to create a new snapshot. The filer can retain up to 20 different snapshots online simultaneously.
• Rename. Click the appropriate snapshot in the display box and click Rename to give an existing snapshot a new name, which may be useful if you need to "move" a snapshot out of the way so it will not be deleted automatically. The filer prompts you to enter a new name for the snapshot. Enter the new name and click OK or click Cancel if you do not want to rename the snapshot.
• Delete. Click the appropriate snapshot in the display box and click Delete to delete the snapshot. The filer prompts you to confirm the action; click OK to delete the snapshot or click Cancel to keep the snapshot.

Specifying snapshot reserve and scheduling snapshots

In the Snapshot Configuration section of this window, you can specify how and when the filer creates snapshots. After you make a change, click the Save Changes button to save the changes to the filer. To reload the current settings from the filer, click the Reload button.

The configurable fields in this section are:

• Snapshot reserve
• Weekly, nightly, and hourly snapshots
• Hourly snapshot schedule

Snapshot reserve

Specifies the amount of disk space that the snapshots can use. The snapshot reserve can be used only by snapshots, not by the active file system.

Weekly, nightly, and hourly snapshots

Specifies the number of weekly, nightly, and hourly snapshots to keep.

If users rarely lose files or typically notice lost files right away, use the default snapshot schedule.

If users commonly lose files and need to restore them, Network Appliance recommends that you delete the snapshots less often than specified by the default schedule. For file systems that change very quickly, reduce the number of snapshots scheduled. For example, if the entire file system on a filer is filled and emptied each day (for example, a file system storing large temporary files for a CAD application), it might not make sense to use daily or weekly snapshots at all. On a very active system, Network Appliance recommends that you schedule snapshots every hour and keep them for just a few hours.

Hourly snapshot schedule

Specifies the time at which the hourly snapshots are taken. If no times are specified, the snapshots are taken at each hour.