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Snapshots set to hourly - some are missing #26605970
I’m experimenting with an RN204 and OS 6.4.2. Long term my employer would not use that but may buy an RN516 or RN716. The RN204 is just an inexpensive way to test out the features and functionality of the OS and see if it will work for us. So this is not production, just a test environment.
I enabled snapshots on a share on an hourly basis. Allow access is enabled. I expected to see 48 hours of hourly snaps + nightly etc. Instead I’m seeing hours when snaps are not being taken. Keep in mind that the files on this NAS are not changing unless I force a change to one. It’s just a test share with a bunch of static files on it. After some experiments, I came to these conclusions and I’m hoping someone can confirm or deny that this is intended operation:
- An hourly snapshot will NOT be taken if no files have changed.
- An hourly snapshot will NOT be taken if a new file was created but it is empty (0 byte size).
- An hourly snapshot will NOT be taken if a file was copied to a new file but its contents are identical to the original file. Hard to understand but maybe dedup is getting in the way?
- An hourly snapshot WILL be taken if an existing file is changed.
- An hourly snapshot WILL be taken if a new file is created and it has a size greater than 0 bytes.
It seems that nightly snapshots are created no matter what.
Again, can someone confirm or deny this operation is as expected?
Thanks for the help.
This issue got bumped up a support tier. I have been working with them and here is what is going on: if disk spindown is enabled, hourly snapshots can be missed. If spindown is not enabled, hourly snapshots are taken each hour as expected. This has been confirmed for OS 6.4.2 and 6.5.0 beta on an RN204. It may apply to other models, I'm not sure. A problem report was logged into engineering to fix the issue.
I want to thank support, which has been excellent, and you folks for your efforts. From my point of view this thread is resolved.
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TullyNYGuy wrote:
- An hourly snapshot will NOT be taken if a file was copied to a new file but its contents are identical to the original file. Hard to understand but maybe dedup is getting in the way?
I'd be interested in Netgear's comments. There are some changes here with 6.5.0 beta (in particular the new custom schedule has an option to create the snapshots even if the share hasn't changed).
But there is no dedup. How are you copying the file?
BTW, the effect of a software error that misses a snapshot (say at 2:00) is simply that you can't roll back to the 2 pm state. You can still roll back to the 1:00 pm state.
The file was copied using Windows explorer. Ctrl-C and CTRL-V. I'll rerun the experiment to confirm the results.
Reading into your answer, it sounds like no snapshot if no files changed is intended operation?
A missed snapshot is important to us. Our users recover files from snapshot on our current system many times a month. We have CAD folks who do design all day and who would lose an hour of work if they have to go back an extra hour.
TullyNYGuy wrote:
Reading into your answer, it sounds like no snapshot if no files changed is intended operation?
My smart snapshots were previously set to daily, which seem to be always created - I'm not sure on hourly.
However, the 6.5.0 has a "custom snapshot" feature which I am now using. That includes a checkbox for "Only take snapshots with changes". You can also set retention (either in days/months or number of retention). They are not "thinned" over time either. It sounds to me like the custom snapshots might be of interest to you.
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