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Restore a file from a Snapshot copy on an NFS or SMB client

Contributors netapp-ahibbard netapp-lenida netapp-aherbin
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A user on an NFS or SMB client can restore a file directly from a Snapshot copy without the intervention of a storage system administrator.

Every directory in the file system contains a subdirectory named .snapshot accessible to NFS and SMB users. The .snapshot subdirectory contains subdirectories corresponding to the Snapshot copies of the volume:

$ ls .snapshot
daily.2017-05-14_0013/              hourly.2017-05-15_1106/
daily.2017-05-15_0012/              hourly.2017-05-15_1206/
hourly.2017-05-15_1006/             hourly.2017-05-15_1306/

Each subdirectory contains the files referenced by the Snapshot copy. If users accidentally delete or overwrite a file, they can restore the file to the parent read-write directory by copying the file from the Snapshot subdirectory to the read-write directory:

$ ls my.txt
ls: my.txt: No such file or directory
$ ls .snapshot
daily.2017-05-14_0013/              hourly.2017-05-15_1106/
daily.2017-05-15_0012/              hourly.2017-05-15_1206/
hourly.2017-05-15_1006/             hourly.2017-05-15_1306/
$ ls .snapshot/hourly.2017-05-15_1306/my.txt
my.txt
$ cp .snapshot/hourly.2017-05-15_1306/my.txt .
$ ls my.txt
my.txt