Automated domain snapshots
From DreamHost
| The use of automated snaphsot directories is being discontinued. Procedures relying on the availability of these snapshot directories should be considered deprecated. While snapshot directories may be available on your server at the present time, as accounts are moved to new servers these directories will no longer be available This functionality is being replaced by our new "Domain Restore" feature that is already available for all accounts. If you are now relying on these automated snapshots, server changes may cause them to become unavailable to you at any time. |
Automated domain snapshots are a DreamHost service for keeping a few recent copies of the files in your DreamHosted domain as a backup. See Backup for references to other backup tools and strategies.
Snapshots
At DreamHost, we know everybody's data is important, no matter what plan they're on. That's why all our packages include full backup "snapshots" of your data at various regular intervals (two hourly, two daily, and two weekly). This means you get direct access to last two hours of backups , the last two days of backups and the last two weeks of backups. If you accidentally delete an important file, you can restore it yourself or let our customer service team know right away and we'll do our best to recover it in a recent state for you! Of course, you should ALWAYS keep your OWN backup copies of everything of any importance to you no matter what. But we'll do our best to make sure you never need them!
Steps for restoring data on your own :
-
cdinto the hidden directory named .snapshot (it will not show up in any directory listing at all, but it's there) - Choose how far back you would like to go ( hourly.0 is one hour ago, hourly.1 is two hours ago, nightly.0 is one day ago, nightly.1 is two days ago, weekly.0 is one week ago, weekly.1 is two weeks ago )
- Copy the restored file to where you want it. You're done! NOTE: You'll need to delete the original before replacing it with a copy from the snapshot.
* Please be advised that sometimes DreamHost will delete any, or all, .snapshot backups in order to make room on the network file servers. It doesn't happen often but it is something they are forced to do from time to time. More specific information about this is available here. As always, you should keep your own backup copies of everything of any importance to you no matter what".
NOTE regarding Private Servers: As of Dec. 27, 2007, attempting to enter the .snapshot directory (using cd ~/.snapshot from a shell account) will return this error: -bash: cd: /home/[username]/.snapshot: Operation not permitted. This is a known issue with Private Servers caused by a kernel level bug; however, the .snapshot backups do exist, but you must ask Support to perform restores for you for now. The plan is to resolve this within "the coming weeks" but no firm date has been confirmed. (Please remove this note when this is functioning, as well as the copy at Snapshot data restoration.)
This article contains a more detailed explanation of snapshots and tutorials on how to restore your files. Snapshot data restoration
See Also
- Backup, a portal to articles about backup strategies and tools in general.
- Snapshot data restoration, a more detailed explanation of snapshots and tutorials on how to restore your files.
