Users Guide

Creating and Managing FluidFS NAS Volume

Snapshots and Snapshot Schedules

Storage Centers present a certain amount of capacity (a NAS pool, composed of NAS volumes) to the Dell Fluid File System (FluidFS)

cluster. When you create an NFS datastore, an associated NAS volume is created in the FluidFS cluster. The path of the NFS Export

folder corresponds with the NAS volume and is mounted on the ESXi host.

Use the vSphere Web Client Plugin to create and manage snapshots of NAS volumes associated with an NFS datastore, and set a

schedule for taking, retaining, and deleting the snapshots.

About FluidFS NAS Volume Snapshots

NAS volume snapshots are point-in-time copies of a NAS volume and are available for data recovery. NAS volume snapshots are similar to

VMFS snapshots, except that VMFS snapshots are mounted as VMFS datastores and NAS volume snapshots are mounted as NFS

datastores. The first snapshot taken contains contents of the entire NAS volume. All snapshots created after that baseline represent only

the changes made since the previous snapshot.

Using the Dell Storage vSphere Web Client Plugin, you can:

• Create a snapshot for an associated NAS volume for the corresponding NFS datastore

• Display all available snapshots of the associated NAS volume

• Modify the snapshot name and expiration date

• Select and delete one or more snapshots

About FluidFS NAS Volume Snapshot Schedules

NAS volume snapshot schedules let you take snapshots at regular intervals (for example, hourly or daily) to provide a complete view of

your file system over time.

Using the Dell Storage vSphere Web Client Plugin, you can:

• Create a schedule that specifies the snapshot schedule name, frequency of snapshots taken, and retention time. Frequency and

retention can be in minutes, hours, days, or weeks.

• Select and change the snapshot schedule name, frequency, and retention time.

• Select and delete a snapshot schedule.

NAS Volume Snapshots and Snapshot Schedules

This section provides steps for creating on-demand NAS volume snapshots and for setting up schedules to take snapshots at regular

intervals.

Creating NAS Volume Snapshots

You can create an on-demand snapshot of a NAS volume for an associated datastore and set the expiration date for the snapshot.

Steps

1. Select an NFS datastore in inventory.

2. Select Actions > All Dell Storage Actions > Snapshot > Create Snapshot.

The Create Snapshot wizard starts.

3. Type a name for the snapshot. Names can be a maximum of 230 characters including special characters (right or left angle bracket,

backslash, hyphen, underscore, ampersand, tilde, plus sign). As best practice, use a snapshot name that is concise and descriptive.

NOTE:

If a snapshot name that you specified is already present, the snapshot is not created and the message

Snapshot name already exists will be displayed.

4. (Optional) If you want to set an expiration date for the snapshot, select Enable Expiration and a date from the calendar. You can also

indicate hours and minutes.

Next steps

(Optional) Set up a snapshot schedule to take snapshots of a NAS volume at regular intervals..

Working With Dell Storage