Article gpfs snapshots

[iam4tune]

Pull Request

The article explains how users can access their user and project snapshot directories.

Intent

The intent of this article is to guide Cheaha users on how to independently access and restore files using GPFS snapshots. It explains how GPFS snapshots are and how they work. It shows instructions for navigating and retrieving files.

Proposed Changes

Changes to Section Headers

N/A

Changes to Page URLs

N/A

Related or Fixed Issues

Fixes #1143

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[bdu-birhanu]

Everything looks good. I followed the steps and found them easy to follow. I also tested this in both the user home and data directories. There is a snapshot available for each, organized in the same format we see under /gpfs/.snapshot.

In addition, by running: cd /home/$USER/.snapshot we can access snapshots of the home directory. The same approach works for /data/user/$USER/ as well.

Let's see whether this would help, or if @mdefende or other teams may want to add more information.

[mdefende]

In addition, by running: cd /home/$USER/.snapshot we can access snapshots of the home directory. The same approach works for /data/user/$USER/ as well.

@bdu-birhanu I didn't know this. Just running ls -a $HOME also doesn't show a .snapshots directory, but it works just like you said. Did you run across this information somewhere or did you just randomly try it yourself? That's very cool

[bdu-birhanu]

In addition, by running: cd /home/$USER/.snapshot we can access snapshots of the home directory. The same approach works for /data/user/$USER/ as well.

@bdu-birhanu I didn't know this. Just running ls -a $HOME also doesn't show a .snapshots directory, but it works just like you said. Did you run across this information somewhere or did you just randomly try it yourself? That's very cool

As I wasn't aware of the path you posted today /gpfs/.snapshots/<snapshot_id>/user/home/<username> , for accessing $HOME files, I searched around and found something similar on: https://docs.ycrc.yale.edu/data/backups/. I then tried it randomly, and it worked.

[bdu-birhanu]

Thanks for addressing and including the discussion. This looks much better! I have a few points below that I wanted to share. We can include them now, or maybe in another issue.