topic Re: CIFs snapshots: is deleting a snapshot or "previous version" of a single folder possible? in ONTAP Discussions

CIFs snapshots: is deleting a snapshot or "previous version" of a single folder possible?

marcconeley — Thu, 05 Jun 2025 07:04:49 GMT

Hi Everyone,

I have quite a unique problem which I hope someone can help me with.

We have all of our CIFs shares running on a FAS system with volume level snapshots running. We also allow our users to use the "previous versions" feature of Windows to view and restore data from these snapshots - this works fine.

But some highly sensitive data was accidentally moved into a public folder and left there for a period of time before it was spotted and removed.

My problem now is that this folder is still available in the hourly & daily "previous versions" or snapshots that we performed. And as it was a public folder and the snapshots keep access rights, it means every user still has access to a read-only copy of this data in the previous versions.

Therefore is there any way to delete individual folder snapshots?

Or change the access rights to a snapshot so users can't delete it?

Or do I need to remove all the snapshots for my entire volume? (which I would really like to avoid!).

I am guessing the latter but hoping some bright spark has another idea.

Thanks,

Marc

Re: CIFs snapshots: is deleting a snapshot or "previous version" of a single folder possible?

sriegerdss — Mon, 22 Nov 2010 14:52:38 GMT

Why not disable snapshot viewing for this volume temporarily ?

This way your data stays secure (local backups), and you don't have to

reinvent the wheel

Re: CIFs snapshots: is deleting a snapshot or "previous version" of a single folder possible?

marcconeley — Mon, 22 Nov 2010 15:49:01 GMT

Yes I considered that, and this will likely be the end result unless we can find an alternative.

The problem is that the vol contains all of my companies shares - this is tens of thousands of folders and files. So if I temporarily disable the ability to see snapshots/previous for my users, it will create a different problem altogether (and lots more work for IT). We keep snapshots for 31 days - which would mean I have to temporarily turn off the ability for users to see previous versions for another 27 days!!

So I was kind of hoping for a way to remove the snapshots for 1 specific folder before I do this disable this useful functionality.

Any other ideas?

Re: CIFs snapshots: is deleting a snapshot or "previous version" of a single folder possible?

ekashpureff — Mon, 22 Nov 2010 16:03:54 GMT

Marc -

Snapshots are volume based - there's no way to delete for a given folder.

No way to hide snapshots share by share - just by volume.

Wish there was a better answer for you.

I hope this response has been helpful to you.

At your service,

Eugene E. Kashpureff
ekashp@kashpureff.org
Fastlane NetApp Instructor and Independent Consultant
http://www.fastlaneus.com/ http://www.linkedin.com/in/eugenekashpureff

(P.S. I appreciate points for helpful or correct answers.)