Manage snapshots by using Azure NetApp Files

• 02/20/2021
• 7 minutes to read
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Azure NetApp Files supports creating on-demand snapshots and using snapshot policies to schedule automatic snapshot creation. You can also restore a snapshot to a new volume, restore a single file by using a client, or revert an existing volume by using a snapshot.

Create an on-demand snapshot for a volume

You can create volume snapshots on demand.

1. Go to the volume that you want to create a snapshot for. Click Snapshots.

   

2. Click + Add snapshot to create an on-demand snapshot for a volume.

   

3. In the New Snapshot window, provide a name for the new snapshot that you are creating.

   

4. Click OK.

Manage snapshot policies

You can schedule for volume snapshots to be taken automatically by using snapshot policies. You can also modify a snapshot policy as needed, or delete a snapshot policy that you no longer need.

Register the feature

The snapshot policy feature is currently in preview. If you are using this feature for the first time, you need to register the feature first.

1. Register the feature:

   Register-AzProviderFeature -ProviderNamespace Microsoft.NetApp -FeatureName ANFSnapshotPolicy
   

2. Check the status of the feature registration:

   Note

   The RegistrationState may be in the Registering state for up to 60 minutes before changing toRegistered. Wait until the status is Registered before continuing.

   Get-AzProviderFeature -ProviderNamespace Microsoft.NetApp -FeatureName ANFSnapshotPolicy
   

You can also use Azure CLI commands az feature register and az feature show to register the feature and display the registration status.

Create a snapshot policy

A snapshot policy enables you to specify the snapshot creation frequency in hourly, daily, weekly, or monthly cycles. You also need to specify the maximum number of snapshots to retain for the volume.

1. From the NetApp Account view, click Snapshot policy.

   

2. In the Snapshot Policy window, set Policy State to Enabled.

3. Click the Hourly, Daily, Weekly, or Monthly tab to create hourly, daily, weekly, or monthly snapshot policies. Specify the Number of snapshots to keep.

   See Resource limits for Azure NetApp Files about the maximum number of snapshots allowed for a volume.

   The following example shows hourly snapshot policy configuration.

   

   The following example shows daily snapshot policy configuration.

   

   The following example shows weekly snapshot policy configuration.

   

   The following example shows monthly snapshot policy configuration.

   

4. Click Save.

If you need to create additional snapshot policies, repeat Step 3. The policies you created appear in the Snapshot policy page.

If you want a volume to use the snapshot policy, you need to apply the policy to the volume.

Apply a snapshot policy to a volume

If you want a volume to use a snapshot policy that you created, you need to apply the policy to the volume.

You cannot apply a snapshot policy to a destination volume in cross-region replication.

1. Go to the Volumes page, right-click the volume that you want to apply a snapshot policy to, and select Edit.

   

2. In the Edit window, under Snapshot policy, select a policy to use for the volume. Click OK to apply the policy.

   

Modify a snapshot policy

You can modify an existing snapshot policy to change the policy state, snapshot frequency (hourly, daily, weekly, or monthly), or number of snapshots to keep.

1. From the NetApp Account view, click Snapshot policy.

2. Right-click the snapshot policy you want to modify, then select Edit.

   

3. Make the changes in the Snapshot Policy window that appears, then click Save.

Delete a snapshot policy

You can delete a snapshot policy that you no longer want to keep.

1. From the NetApp Account view, click Snapshot policy.

2. Right-click the snapshot policy you want to modify, then select Delete.

   

3. Click Yes to confirm that you want to delete the snapshot policy.

   

Edit the Hide Snapshot Path option

The Hide Snapshot Path option controls whether the snapshot path of a volume is visible. During the creation of an NFS or SMB volume, you have the option to specify whether the snapshot path should be hidden. You can subsequently edit the Hide Snapshot Path option as needed.

1. To view the Hide Snapshot Path option setting of a volume, select the volume. The Hide snapshot path field shows whether the option is enabled.
   
2. To edit the Hide Snapshot Path option, click Edit on the volume page and modify the Hide snapshot path option as needed.
   

Restore a snapshot to a new volume

Currently, you can restore a snapshot only to a new volume.

1. Select Snapshots from the Volume blade to display the snapshot list.

2. Right-click the snapshot to restore and select Restore to new volume from the menu option.

   

3. In the Create a Volume window, provide information for the new volume:

   • Name
     Specify the name for the volume that you are creating.

     The name must be unique within a resource group. It must be at least three characters long. It can use any alphanumeric characters.

   • Quota
     Specify the amount of logical storage that you want to allocate to the volume.

   

4. Click Review+create. Click Create.
   The new volume uses the same protocol that the snapshot uses.
   The new volume to which the snapshot is restored appears in the Volumes blade.

Restore a file from a snapshot using a client

If you do not want to restore the entire snapshot to a volume, you have the option to restore a file from a snapshot by using a client that has the volume mounted.

The mounted volume contains a snapshot directory named .snapshot (in NFS clients) or ~snapshot (in SMB clients) that is accessible to the client. The snapshot directory contains subdirectories corresponding to the snapshots of the volume. Each subdirectory contains the files of the snapshot. If you accidentally delete or overwrite a file, you can restore the file to the parent read-write directory by copying the file from a snapshot subdirectory to the read-write directory.

You can control access to the snapshot directories by using the Hide Snapshot Path option. This option controls whether the directory should be hidden from the clients. Therefore, it also controls access to files and folders in the snapshots.

NFSv4.1 does not show the .snapshot directory (ls -la). However, when the Hide Snapshot Path option is not set, you can still access the .snapshot directory via NFSv4.1 by using the cd <snapshot-path> command from the client command line.

Restore a file by using a Linux NFS client

1. Use the ls Linux command to list the file that you want to restore from the .snapshot directory.

   For example:

   $ ls my.txt
ls: my.txt: No such file or directory

   $ ls .snapshot
daily.2020-05-14_0013/ hourly.2020-05-15_1106/
daily.2020-05-15_0012/ hourly.2020-05-15_1206/
hourly.2020-05-15_1006/ hourly.2020-05-15_1306/

   $ ls .snapshot/hourly.2020-05-15_1306/my.txt
my.txt

2. Use the cp command to copy the file to the parent directory.

   For example:

   $ cp .snapshot/hourly.2020-05-15_1306/my.txt .

   $ ls my.txt
my.txt

Restore a file by using a Windows client

1. If the ~snapshot directory of the volume is hidden, show hidden items in the parent directory to display ~snapshot.

   

2. Navigate to the subdirectory within ~snapshot to find the file you want to restore. Right-click the file. Select Copy.

   

3. Return to the parent directory. Right-click in the parent directory and select Paste to paste the file to the directory.

   

4. You can also right-click the parent directory, select Properties, click the Previous Versions tab to see the list of snapshots, and select Restore to restore a file.

   

Revert a volume using snapshot revert

The snapshot revert functionality enables you to quickly revert a volume to the state it was in when a particular snapshot was taken. In most cases, reverting a volume is much faster than restoring individual files from a snapshot to the active file system. It is also more space efficient compared to restoring a snapshot to a new volume.

You can find the Revert Volume option in the Snapshots menu of a volume. After you select a snapshot for reversion, Azure NetApp Files reverts the volume to the data and timestamps that it contained when the selected snapshot was taken.

1. Go to the Snapshots menu of a volume. Right-click the snapshot you want to use for the revert operation. Select Revert volume.

   

2. In the Revert Volume to Snapshot window, type the name of the volume, and click Revert.

   The volume is now restored to the point in time of the selected snapshot.

   

Delete snapshots

You can delete snapshots that you no longer need to keep.

1. Go to the Snapshots menu of a volume. Right-click the snapshot you want to delete. Select Delete.

   

2. In the Delete Snapshot window, confirm that you want to delete the snapshot by clicking Yes.

   

Next steps

• Troubleshoot snapshot policies
• Resource limits for Azure NetApp Files
• Azure NetApp Files Snapshots 101 video
• What is Azure Application Consistent Snapshot Tool