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Snapshots

Only data stored in /home/$USERNAME are managed with snapshots. If a file is lost in this filesystem, it can be recovered from daily intervals over the past week. It can be recovered on a weekly basis for the past 30 days. If the file is on a different filesystem (e.g., /blue or /orange), that file cannot be recovered unless backups are being performed for that directory.

Basics

  • Change directory to /home/$USERNAME/.snapshot, where $USERNAME is your username.
  • You will see at least seven directories, each with a day of the week in the name. If the current day is Friday, the directory labeled ##_friday_home will be the snapshot from 5:00 am today.
  • You may also see a couple ##_weekly_home directories. These are taken every Monday morning at 3:00 am and kept for 30 days.
  • Change directory to the snapshot you wish to restore from and navigate to your missing file.
  • Copy the file(s) as needed back to your main home directory.

Video demo

Here is a video demo of the process of restoring from a snapshot.

Example

  • Username: it-rc-test
  • Day: Wednesday

Suppose you have accidentally deleted a file in your home area called /home/it-rc-test/test/important.txt. You know that file was there yesterday, so you should be able to recover it. 

[it-rc-test@login1 ~]$ ls /home/it-rc-test/test
important.txt     also_important.txt    not_so_important.txt
[it-rc-test@login1 ~]$ rm -rf important.txt
[it-rc-test@login1 ~]$ ls /home/it-rc-test/test
also_important.txt    not_so_important.txt
[it-rc-test@login1 ~]$ cd /home/it-rc-test/test
[it-rc-test@login1 ~/test]$ ls .snapshot
56_sunday_home  57_monday_home  58_tuesday_home  59_wednesday_home  60_thursday_home  61_friday_home
[it-rc-test@login1 ~/test]$ cd .snapshot/58_tuesday_home
[it-rc-test@login1 ~/test/.snapshot/58_tuesday_home]$ ls
important.txt     also_important.txt    not_so_important.txt
[it-rc-test@login1 ~/test/.snapshot/58_tuesday_home]$ cp important.txt /home/it-rc-test/test/important.txt
[it-rc-test@login1 ~/test/.snapshot/58_tuesday_home]$ cd /home/it-rc-test/test
[it-rc-test@login1 ~/test]$ ls
important.txt     also_important.txt    not_so_important.txt