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Snapshot Center

Note: This function may differ depending on the NAS model in use.

ADM 3.3 arrives with the capability to perform volume snapshots with Snapshot Center and Btrfs. Snapshot Center makes it easier to manage, schedule, create and restore snapshots. Schedules can be set to create snapshots or be manually created at any time. Snapshots also make it incredibly easy to restore previous versions of files and can be integrated with existing iSCSI LUNs in Snapshot Center with all volume snapshots for easy browsing and restoration.

System requirements for Btrfs and Volume snapshots: AS31, 32, 40, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 61, 62, 63, 64, 70, Lockerstor, Lockerstor Gen2, Lockerstor Pro, Flashstor, Drivestor Lite (AS11TL), Drivestor Pro Gen2 (AS33 v2).

About Btrfs

Btrfs is a modern file system developed by multiple parties and now supported by select ASUSTOR NAS models.

  • The metadata mirroring and checksum features are enabled by default on all Btrfs volumes.
  • For files, the copy-on-write and checksum features are also enabled by default.

Creating snapshots:

Snapshots on Btrfs allow efficient instant backups of data that can be created without affecting system performance.

Note: Volumes must be formatted with Btrfs to support snapshots. Please back up data before reformatting volume as Btrfs.


Snapshots can be created in a variety of ways:

  • Manual creation: Click the icon to create a snapshot.
  • Scheduling: Click the icon to schedule snapshots to run regularly. Scheduled snapshots will be named using the date and time created.
    1. Once: Users can create a snapshot at specific date and time.
    2. Daily: Users can set a minimum of 5 minutes or up to 12 hours to create a snapshot.
    3. Weekly: One or more days of the week can be set to create snapshots with options for daily included.

Settings: Snapshots can be locked and retention rules can be set. Snapshot Center limits saved snapshots to 256. Upon reaching the limit, schedules can be terminated or Snapshot Center will automatically remove the oldest unlocked snapshot. When a snapshot is locked, it will not be removed automatically.

When a volume's used capacity is greater than 95% of volume capacity, unlocked snapshots will be automatically deleted. If a volume's used capacity is greater than the upper limit after deleting all unlocked snapshots, no new snapshots will be made. (Introduced in ADM 4.2)

Note: ADM will stop creating snapshots if a new snapshot exceeds the maximum amount of snapshots while all previous snapshots are locked. Users need to manually remove the locked snapshots and then can create snapshots again.

About Snapshot

  • The "snapshot" feature is a point-in-time copy stored in the same volume used to record the whole data status at the time upon being taken.
  • Snapshots use only a small amount of additional storage space, and do not have a performance impact.
  • With the snapshots, if a user accidentally modifies or deletes data on a volume with snapshots, you are able to quickly restore the data back to the previous time at which the snapshot was taken.

Snapshots management:

Users can select snapshots of volume or iSCSI LUN in Snapshot Center to restore, edit or remove. With the Shift key, you can select multiple snapshots to remove. The volume snapshots can activate to preview in ADM File Explorer.

Note:

  • The files of the snapshot previewed are all read-only and cannot be modified.
  • The preview function is supported only for snapshots that have been created and are in a valid state.
  • When previewing the snapshot, the encrypted shared folder cannot be browsed.

Snapshots restoration:

Users can select any snapshots of volume or iSCSI LUN to restore. Before the snapshot is restored, users can create a new snapshot before the restore and choose whether to keep the snapshot after the restore.

Note:

  • All services will be temporarily suspended when recovering snapshots, please DO NOT power off your NAS. Upon restoration, some apps may need to synchronize files or databases. Thank you for your patience.
  • Volume snapshots containing WORM shared folders cannot be restored to overwrite the original data. (Introduced in ADM 4.2.6)

Learn More

NAS 252 - Introducing ASUSTOR Snapshot Center