Considerations

There may be times when an administrator would like to manually delete a snapshot or snapshots.  The mechanics of doing so are very simple, but there are several considerations to make before doing so.

Is it necessary?

If you are using snapshot schedules, then your snapshots will automatically delete after the specified number of retained snapshots is reached.  For example, if you set a schedule to capture every day and retain 7 snapshots, then on day 8 the oldest snapshot is automatically deleted.  Therefore in normal usage there is no need to delete snapshots manually.

When it might be necessary

If your filespace has experienced a large change in capacity, such as deleting a large amount of data that has recently moved to archive, this deleted data will remain in your used storage until the duration of your snapshot schedule passes.  If you decide that you no longer need the recovery protection that snapshots provide, you may decide to delete the snapshots that were captured prior to the large deletion.

Any manually created snapshots will remain forever unless manually deleted.

Can only a part of a snapshot be deleted?

No, snapshots are read-only captures of a moment in time for your entire filespace.  They can only be retained and deleted as a whole.

Is deleting snapshots permanent?

Yes, if you delete a snapshot, any data unique to that snapshot will be lost forever.

How to delete a Snapshot

To delete a snapshot, click on the ellipsis button to the right of the snapshot and then choose Delete.

How long does it take?

If you do delete a snapshot, the blocks of data exclusively retained in that snapshot are then marked for garbage collection.  Garbage collection begins every 10min and does take some time to fully process.  The exact rate depends on the level of activity in your filespace, and you can monitor the progress by observing your used storage in the LucidLink application, or on the web portal.