Considerations

There may be times when an administrator would like to manually delete a snapshot. The mechanics of doing so are very simple, but there are several considerations to take into account 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 a snapshot 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 might it 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 "Current storage" until the retention of your snapshot schedule passes. If you decide that you no longer need the recovery points that these snapshots provided, 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.

Can data be retained in multiple Snapshots?

Yes, in fact, if the data was present during more than 1 snapshot then all of those snapshots will hold onto the data. But it's important to note that if the same data is retained by more than 1 snapshot, the amount of data usage is not duplicated, it is simply referenced by them. Deleting one of the snapshots will not delete the data as it's still referenced by others. 

How to delete a Snapshot

First, open the LucidLink desktop or web application and find the desired filespace in the relevant workspace. Now use the drop-down menu and select "Snapshots".

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

How long does it take?

If you delete a snapshot, the blocks of data exclusively retained in that Snapshot are then marked for garbage collection. Garbage collection begins every 10 minutes 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 "Current storage" in the LucidLink application, or on the web portal.