We take snapshots of /home every 4 hours and keep various daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly snapshots. Users can copy files from these snapshots if they accidentally delete a file from their home directory. These snapshots are stored on a machine called starfish. Here’s a complete example of getting a file back from our snapshots:
# go to machine where the snapshots are stored
ssh starfish
# look at dates and times and figure out which snapshot to use
ls -l /snapshots
# assuming you are csmajor1, and want to go back 4 days
cd /snapshots/daily.4/csmajor1
# copy a file from the snapshot back to your home directory
cp lostfile ~/csmajor1/.There are many different snapshots, so it helps to know when the last time the file existed. For example, here are just a few of the snapshot directories:
$ ssh starfish
$ ls -l /snapshots
lrwxrwxrwx root Mar 20 00:45 daily.0 -> /m10vols/home-2018-03-20-0015
lrwxrwxrwx root Mar 19 00:45 daily.1 -> /m10vols/home-2018-03-19-0015
lrwxrwxrwx root Mar 18 00:45 daily.2 -> /m10vols/home-2018-03-18-0015
lrwxrwxrwx root Mar 17 00:45 daily.3 -> /m10vols/home-2018-03-17-0015
lrwxrwxrwx root Mar 16 00:45 daily.4 -> /m10vols/home-2018-03-16-0015
lrwxrwxrwx root Mar 15 00:45 daily.5 -> /m10vols/home-2018-03-15-0015
lrwxrwxrwx root Mar 23 16:15 hourly.0 -> /m10vols/home-2018-03-23-1615
lrwxrwxrwx root Mar 23 12:15 hourly.1 -> /m10vols/home-2018-03-23-1215
lrwxrwxrwx root Mar 20 04:15 hourly.2 -> /m10vols/home-2018-03-20-0415
lrwxrwxrwx root Mar 20 00:15 hourly.3 -> /m10vols/home-2018-03-20-0015
lrwxrwxrwx root Mar 19 20:15 hourly.4 -> /m10vols/home-2018-03-19-2015
lrwxrwxrwx root Mar 19 16:15 hourly.5 -> /m10vols/home-2018-03-19-1615
lrwxrwxrwx root Mar 1 08:45 monthly.0 -> /m10vols/home-2018-03-01-0815
lrwxrwxrwx root Feb 1 08:45 monthly.1 -> /m10vols/home-2018-02-01-0815
lrwxrwxrwx root Jan 1 08:45 monthly.2 -> /m10vols/home-2018-01-01-0815
lrwxrwxrwx root Dec 1 08:45 monthly.3 -> /m10vols/home-2017-12-01-0815
lrwxrwxrwx root Mar 18 04:45 weekly.0 -> /m10vols/home-2018-03-18-0415
lrwxrwxrwx root Mar 11 04:45 weekly.1 -> /m10vols/home-2018-03-11-0415
lrwxrwxrwx root Mar 4 04:45 weekly.2 -> /m10vols/home-2018-03-04-0415
lrwxrwxrwx root Feb 25 04:45 weekly.3 -> /m10vols/home-2018-02-25-0415
lrwxrwxrwx root Feb 18 04:45 weekly.4 -> /m10vols/home-2018-02-18-0415So, if you last remember working on the file you want back on Jan 31, there’s a good chance a copy is available in the monthly.1 snapshot, which was done on “Feb 1 at around 8am”.
We also try to make weekly tape backups of all user home directories. If the file you are looking for is not in the snapshots, email local-staff with the file name and directory, and we can see if it exists in one of our tape backups.