ReadyNAS snapshots

Dewdman42 wrote:

So when I unchecked the "Allow Snapshot Access" checkbox, it does remove the /snapshot dir, but the hidden dir called "/.snapshots" is still there, root owned at the root of the share.  

Yes, I just double-checked.  /.snapshots is there.  Don't try to delete this (or the snapshots inside). They are not ordinary folders, they are BTRFS subvolumes (and these are the actual snapshots, not a hard link).  Here's what you see with the btrfs commands:

root@NAS:/data/Test/.snapshots# btrfs subvolume show /data/Test
Test
        Name:                   Test
        UUID:                   c4d3f37b-3325-6a47-a333-1ca00266f839
        Parent UUID:            -
        Received UUID:          -
        Creation time:          2016-11-09 10:56:50 -0500
        Subvolume ID:           296
        Generation:             1493758
        Gen at creation:        240
        Parent ID:              5
        Top level ID:           5
        Flags:                  -
        Snapshot(s):
                                Test/.snapshots/124/snapshot
                                Test/.snapshots/125/snapshot
                                Test/.snapshots/126/snapshot

Dewdman42 wrote:

I am not sure what that windows previous version checkbox is for

With Windows 10 and 11, you can right-click on a file or folder and see "Restore Previous Versions".  If you enable that option, and then select that option from a PC you'll see something like this:

So this is another way to access the snapshots.  It doesn't need access to the web ui, so it is something ordinary users can use.  It is also a useful way to see the modification dates of the file (or folder).

Note this is only available on Windows, and you won't see the previous versions if you navigated into the folder from the main volume.  For example, if I navigated to \\nas\documents and right-click on a file, I'll see the previous versions.  But if I instead navigate to \\nas\data\documents and right-click on the same file, Windows will say there are no previous versions.

Dewdman42 wrote:

Actually once I get local backups happening I am going to turn off snapshots on my main raid anyway and just use it on the local backup

You might instead leave the snapshots on, but use a short retention period.  That sometimes will let you recover a file that you inadvertantly deleted before it was backed up.