Audience: Faculty, staff, students (uses Introduction text setting)
Introduction
Accidentally deleted / overwrote a file in your Unix home folder?
Files in Unix are backed-up, or 'snapshotted' every hour, every evening, every week, and every month. This means you you may be able to find a backup of the file using the "snapshot" feature of the CCU filesystem.
Snapshots
Backups of all of the files in your Unix home directory are made on a regular basis and may be accessed in a directory named .snapshot in the root folder of your home account.
For example, to view a list of available backup points (called snapshots):
hostname% cd
hostname% ls -lu .snapshot
total 480
drwxr-xr-x 61 support cserv 12288 Aug 14 12:00 hourly.0
drwxr-xr-x 61 support cserv 12288 Aug 14 08:00 hourly.1
drwxr-xr-x 61 support cserv 12288 Aug 11 20:00 hourly.10
drwxr-xr-x 61 support cserv 12288 Aug 11 16:00 hourly.11
drwxr-xr-x 61 support cserv 12288 Aug 11 12:00 hourly.12
drwxr-xr-x 61 support cserv 12288 Aug 11 08:00 hourly.13
drwxr-xr-x 61 support cserv 12288 Aug 10 20:00 hourly.14
drwxr-xr-x 61 support cserv 12288 Aug 10 16:00 hourly.15
drwxr-xr-x 61 support cserv 12288 Aug 13 20:00 hourly.2
drwxr-xr-x 61 support cserv 12288 Aug 13 16:00 hourly.3
drwxr-xr-x 61 support cserv 12288 Aug 13 12:00 hourly.4
drwxr-xr-x 61 support cserv 12288 Aug 13 08:00 hourly.5
drwxr-xr-x 61 support cserv 12288 Aug 12 20:00 hourly.6
drwxr-xr-x 61 support cserv 12288 Aug 12 16:00 hourly.7
drwxr-xr-x 61 support cserv 12288 Aug 12 12:00 hourly.8
drwxr-xr-x 61 support cserv 12288 Aug 12 08:00 hourly.9
drwxr-xr-x 61 support cserv 12288 Aug 14 00:00 nightly.0
drwxr-xr-x 61 support cserv 12288 Aug 13 00:00 nightly.1
drwxr-xr-x 61 support cserv 12288 Aug 12 00:00 nightly.2
drwxr-xr-x 61 support cserv 12288 Aug 11 00:00 nightly.3
hostname%
Each of the directories listed contains a mirror of the state of your account at the specified time. To restore a file, simply browse the snapshot directory to the file to be restored and copy it to your account. For example, to restore a file named Golf.doc in the root folder of this account to its state on August 14 at 12:00:
hostname% cp .snapshot/hourly.0/Golf.doc ~
Unix limitations
The files available for restore are limited to backed-up files only. Backups are carried out in the form of snapshots and scheduled backups of your home directory. Backups are stored according to the following regiment:
Backup type:
| Snapshot | Nightly | Weekly | Monthly |
Backup time:
| 8 a.m., 12 p.m., 4 p.m., 9 p.m. and 12 a.m. | Between 12 a.m. and 6 a.m. | Sunday, between 12 a.m. and 6 a.m. | Final "Weekly", 11:30 p.m. |
Retained:
| 16 consecutive files are kept | 7 consecutive files are kept | Retained for 1 week | Retained for 1 year |
If you created and deleted a file within a span of time that did not overlap any one of the backup times, it cannot be restored.
Before sending a request, consider the limitations.
Unix restore procedures
Send requests to the IST Service Desk to have files restored. Include as much information as possible about the files to be restored in your request. See below for suggested information to include:
Account ID (UMNetID):
File name(s):
File type(s):
Info about file (is it music, pictures, documents with images):
Date deleted:
Unix home directoryandpath (~/ ?):
Phone number:
Note: You can copy the fields above, and paste them into your request.
If you need to restore a file from an earlier date than is available through the snapshots, please contact the IST Service Desk.
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