FS7610 - Only admins can see hidden snapshot folders

Hi John,

You are referring to NFS shares correct?   Not Windows shares?

Don

Hello,

In that case have you looked under "Previous Version" feature in Windows?  FluidFS leverages Volume Shadow Service.

Don

This is from a Dell document available online:

Direct file restore — To recover accidentally deleted or modified files, a user can access the hidden snapshot directory (/.snapshots/), find the appropriate snapshot folder (named according to its time of creation), and copy the file(s).

This is the document (pg 9)

en.community.dell.com/.../20292399

The "previous versions" feature, in this case, only works for folders.  It does not work for individual files.

We're on v3.0.940120

So in v3 FluidFS, under the previous version a user should be able to view the previous version or recover the previous file.  Or are you trying to restore the entire volume to a previous point in time?

Hello,

That document is from 2013, which I suspect might be referring to  FluidFS v2.  What version are you running.

Regards,

Don

We would like to use the ".snapshots" functionality.  To restore a single file.

As I had said, the "Previous Versions" functionality is only for a folder.

I'm double checking, but I'm pretty sure the ".snapshot" was a v2 feature.

Hi John,

I think you might want to open a support case for this, so they can see what's going on.  

Taken from V4 Best Practices Doc.   http://intranet.dell.com/dept/aes/eql_gs/sandbox/EQL%20Document%20Library/Fluid%20FS%20NAS/Best%20Practices/Best%20Practices%20-%20FS8600%20Snapshot%20and%20Cloning%20-%20April%202014.pdf

 V4 for 8600 share many of the same features as V3 for 7610.

3.3 Accessing FluidFS snapshots

FluidFS snapshots are accessible from any point in the volume. From Windows server version 7 or greater, the snapshot can be accessed by using the “Restore previous version” function. From a Linux client, the snapshot can be seen by accessing a hidden directory called .snapshots. Under each NFS export or Windows CIFS share, each snapshot retains the same security style as its source. Therefore, users can access only their own files based on existing permissions. The data available when accessing a particular snapshot is at the level of the specific share and its subdirectories, ensuring that users cannot access other parts of the file system.

The active file system user and permission information may change based on the change rate over time. Permissions can be impacted by the method the client uses to copy the data and the destination of the data. When an entire volume is restored or an individual file/folder is copied from a snapshot, the user and permission information stored in the snapshot is restored. The copy operation for an individual file or folder follows the standard UNIX/NTFS mechanism. This mechanism verifies that the files and folders in the active file system and snapshot have adequate permissions for the operation.

3.4 Restoring data

There are two ways to restore data from a FluidFS snapshot:

Direct file restore: To recover accidentally deleted or modified files using a Linux client, a user can access the hidden snapshot directory (/.snapshots/), find the appropriate snapshot folder (named according to its time of creation), and copy the file(s). In Microsoft Windows environments, FluidFS integrates with the Previous Versions (Figure 3 below) tracking feature of Windows Explorer. Using this tool, end users can directly restore files from snapshots of their home directories. This method is useful for the day-to-day restore activities of individual files, testing data sets to identify the proper restore point, and bulk restores of directories.

Figure 3 Using Windows previous versions to restore files from snapshots

Admin-level NAS volume restore: An entire NAS volume, irrespective of its size, can be restored from a snapshot instantly using the FluidFS NAS administrative interface available through the Dell Compellent Enterprise Manager Client. When restoring a NAS volume, all snapshots with creation dates that are more recent than the snapshot used for the volume restore are deleted. In addition, restoring the entire NAS volume disconnects current connections.

So in my test lab restoring a file from previous version is possible.

Don