SNAPSHOTS Explained in Under 10 Minutes

[@pergunnareriksson]

Thanks! As a QNAP NAS newbie this was most helpful!

[@b4d6d5d9dcf1]

💯 I have been monkeying with my snapshot provisioning percent for 6 hours. There is so much garbage on YT, but this is a gem.

[@goddessoftruth]

That was PERFECT! I just installed my first personal (to me - not for a business) home NAS and I was looking for what the difference was between Snapshots and Backups and after this video my question is completely answered! Thank you so much! Do you happen to know if there is a QNAP USA YT channel? I cannot find one.

[@Anamnesia]

I'm still trying to wrap my head around; *_Snapshots_* - *_Hybrid Backup Sync_* and *_SYNC_* ... So let me see if I can get this straight (in plain English); *_Snapshots_* only store *Changed* or *Deleted* files. Great for retrieving deleted files - will not work as a FULL data backup! *_SYNC_* mirrors the file system, either uni-directional, or bi-directional in an uncompressed format *_Hybrid Backup Sync_* is similar to _SYNC_ in that it mirrors the file system, but it's compressed & QdeDuped. I believed *_Hybrid Backup Sync_* was like a merger/combination of _Snapshots_ and _SYNC_ ??? In that it first does a _FULL Backup_ & then subsequent incremental backups? I thought *_Hybrid Backup Sync_* was similar to the Apple "Time Machine" method of full & incremental backups... (?) Using Snapshots, can I drill down to a single file & recover it - or does it only restore at the directory level?

[@LoopinFool]

@QNAPUK Sorry to comment on an old video, but I saw in the "What is the difference between Static Volume, Thin Volume, and Thick Volume?" FAQ on the QNAP site that "Note: If you are using Snapshots with a thick volume, writing new data to the empty space of the volume will increase the Snapshot used space by the same size as the new data. You must monitor the pool free space and recycle older Snapshots periodically to avoid running out of pool space. For this reason, thin volumes would be recommended when using Snapshots." But your video shows thick volumes using very little snapshot space. Is that article out of date? It was last modified in July 2022.

[@Damjanhd]

ONE question. If I create snapshot and store it on another external disk and when disk in qnap with files die can I restore all files from snapshot or not?

[@kevlartwinky]

Background: I have a 4-bay nas w three drives in raid5 plus an enclosure spare for homeuse w mostly Plex and to offload photos from my phone. As long as only one drive dies(at a time) Im safe since the database can be restored but if two drives die at the same time or another one dies while the restoration is ongoing I’ll loose everything. Now to my question :) could I use snapshots that are being backed up to an attached usb3 disk to restore my data if I loose it due to more than one drive failing or something else or should I just use this usb-drive to fully backup what I have on my nas(I only have one nas)?

[@JoseLipari]

Craig, if the snapshots only saves modified and deleted blocks, what happens if I completely loose my disk? Good explanation!!

[@JoseLipari]

@@QNAPUK Thank you Craig, very clear. So, if I have a snapshot replica in another disk, and loose the main NAS, could I restore the entire volume only with a snapshot replica ?(only changes, delete and metadata). 2. Is there any app to replicate the snapshots to cloud for offsite strategy?

[@JoseLipari]

Excellent! Now, I can understand the reasons why when I enable snapshot replication the required storage is made up of the entire volume + snapshots. Conclusion: 1. snapshot are useful and fast, but does not cover a physical loose of a disk, only permits restore over deletions and modifications over a healthy disk. 2. snapshot replicas cover a disaster situation, but requires another NAS or Storage Pool in the same NAS and a much higher storage capacity. Very Clear! Thank you Craig!!

[@jpptubie]

Thank you Craig. Is there a quick way to delete all the snapshots on a volume?

[@ThienTran-mg4bo]

2 years too late but just incase anyone else is looking for this info. You can go into File station, left side bar go to snapshots and in there you can right click delete old snapshots manually.

[@TorbenRick]

Thanks

[@richardgraber967]

I wish to use snapshots to protect against ransomware. When my client was attacked, the backups on my nas were renamed and wouldn't restore. How can an older snapshot restore the entire backup from an earlier date if the entire backup isn't contained in the snapshots?

[@comedyfish]

Hi I'm just a normal guy not a business. I bought Qnap TS-230 with 4tb WD drive just for videos, music etc When I set it up it asked me shall I make a snap shot I didn't know what i was doing so said yeah and allocated 20% of the hard drive to it. Now I have everything backed up, the NAS is for convenience so I'm not even sure I need to use snapshots but anyway I'm getting warnings that my snapshots have exceeded the threshold - even though I have 800Gb free space - also i really only need one or 2 snapshots i think. I just feel I'm being very inefficient - can I delete older snapshots would that free up space? I see now thanks to your vid that the snapshot only happens when I change things well as its new i was changing things quite a bit so that might explain it. its on smart snapshot - maybe it doesnt need to be if I'm just going to add a new film here and there. Any advice?

[@khalil4826]

THANKS SIR

[@richarddavies4496]

Richard. Many thanks. Most interesting, Craig. Have a TS231P NAS. Have 450GB of used capacity on my volume. Can I create a snapshot? What is the impact of creating the first snapshot, please? Does it take a long time? Newish to the NAS world. A brief idiot's guide to Snapshots would be helpful?

[@Mayur_Surati]

How to remove Ghost/invisible snapshot ?

[@stevelloyd3]

Hi, I've got a question that I can't find an answer to on any of your wonderful videos. I've got two QNAP NAS's (one TS-251D with 2x4TB drives in raid1, and one TS-251 which I would like to use as a snapshot replica repository, for taking weekly snapshots of my source NAS, using a single 6TB disk on the destination NAS. Both NAS's are on the same (home) network, and both are visible in QFINDER PRO. I haven't yet installed the new 6TB in the destination NAS. Is there any documentation (or a video), or might you have any suggestions that would help me set this up correctly ?

[@xenonozhid3383]

Is there a simple way to completely delete all snapshots and switch this feature permanently off? Thanks.

[@xenonozhid3383]

@@QNAPUK Thanks.

[@audiooaddict]

how to reduse snapshot space

[@QNAPUK]

If you mean the reserved space, you can "manage" your Storage Pool and in the actions you can configure the guaranteed snapshot reserved space and make it smaller. If your snapshots actual size is too large the only thing you can do is to reduce the length of time you keep snapshots for, or disable them completely, these actions would be done in the Snapshot Manager.

[@joyross8160]

I Don't want snapshot on?

[@QNAPUK]

You can disable it if you have no need for it.