OneFS: How to delete snapshots

Summary: How to properly delete snapshots from a cluster.

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Instructions

Procedure

CAUTION
To free disk space when deleting snapshots, always delete the oldest snapshots first. Delete in order from oldest to newest. Deleting the most recently taken snapshots might free some space, but it does not fully free disk space.

Do not leave gaps in a sequence of snapshots taken for the same path by deleting snapshots from the middle of the sequence. Deleting snapshots from the middle of the sequence might not free disk space. Also, it causes additional disk Input/Output (I/O) operations as data from the deleted snapshots is copied to recent snapshots taken for the same path.  

 

WARNING
Snapshots with names that start with "SIQ" are SyncIQ snapshots. Do not delete SIQ snapshots unless the ramifications are understood. Deleting SIQ snapshots resets the SyncIQ policy state, which requires a reset of the policy and potentially cause a full sync. A full sync could take many times longer than a regular snapshot-based incremental sync.

Snapshots can be deleted using either the OneFS web administration interface or from the command-line interface.

 


OneFS web administration interface

  1. Log in to the OneFS web administration interface.
  2. Click Data Protection > SnapshotIQ.
  3. Click the Snapshots tab.
  4. Select the checkbox next to each snapshot chosen to delete.
  5. For each snapshot to delete, click View Details, and take note of the snapshot identifier (ID). Use the ID later to verify that the snapshots have been queued for deletion.
  6. From the Select an action list, select Delete.
  7. In the Confirm Delete dialog box, click Delete.

    The snapshots are queued for a SnapshotDelete job. There might be a delay of up to 10 minutes before the SnapshotDelete job starts.

 

NOTE:
A SnapshotDelete job may not run while a FlexProtect or FlexProtectLin job is running. To check whether a FlexProtect or FlexProtectLin job is running, click Cluster Management > Operations > Operations Summary and check the Running Jobs section. If a FlexProtect or FlexProtectLin job is running and disk space must be made available immediately, contact Dell Technical Support.

 


Command-line interface

 

  1. Open an SSH connection on any node in the cluster and log in using the "root" account.
  2. Get a list of snapshot names and IDs:
      
    isi snapshot snapshot list -v --format=table --sort=path
     
  3. Take note of the name and ID number of the snapshot chosen to delete. Use the ID number in the Verification section below.
  4. Run the following command for each snapshot chosen to delete, where <snapshot name> or <snapshot ID> is the snapshot to delete:
      
    isi snapshot snapshots delete <snapshot name>

-or-

isi snapshot snapshots delete <snapshot ID>
     
  5. At the confirmation prompt, type yes to confirm deletion of the snapshot.

 

NOTE:
To delete the snapshot without the confirmation in step 4, include the -f switch with the command:

 

isi snapshot snapshots delete <snapshot name> -f

The snapshot is queued for a SnapshotDelete job. There might be a delay of up to 10 minutes before the SnapshotDelete job starts.  
 

NOTE:

In older versions of OneFS, a SnapshotDelete job may not run while a FlexProtect or FlexProtectLin job is running.

To check whether a FlexProtect or FlexProtectLin job is running, run isi job status. If a FlexProtect or FlexProtectLin job is running and disk space must be made available immediately, contact Dell Technical Support.

 

Verification
Perform the verification from the OneFS command-line interface.

To see the list of snapshots that are queued for deletion:

  1. Open an SSH connection on any node in the cluster and log in using the "root" account.
  2. Run the following command:
      
    isi snapshot snapshot list --state deleting -v --format=table --sort=id

    Output similar to the following is displayed, where <ID> is the snapshot ID number. Snapshots that are queued for deletion have the State of deleting (highlighted below).
      
    ID Name Path Has Locks Schedule Alias Created Expires Size Shadow Bytes % Reserve % Filesystem State
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
28 <snapshot deleted, cleanup pending> /ifs No - - 2013-05-28T23:09:34 - 240.0K 0b 0.00% 0.00% deleting
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Total: 1 240.0K 0.00% 0.00%
  3. Confirm that the snapshots chosen to delete are listed.
 
NOTE:
Run the following command to generate a list of current snapshots and verify the ones chosen for deletion are no longer on the list: 
isi snapshot snapshot list -v --format=table --sort=path
 

Tips:

Snapshots may contain locks that prevent snapshot deletion. See KB article Isilon: How to remove Snapshot locks for more information.

If ALL snapshots must be deleted, see KB article Isilon: How to delete all snapshots from an Isilon cluster for more information.

Affected Products

PowerScale OneFS

Products

Isilon
Article Properties
Article Number: 000008457
Article Type: How To
Last Modified: 17 Oct 2025
Version:  9
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