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Snapshots operations using pxctl

Snapshots are efficient point-in-time read-only copies of volumes. Once created, you can use a snapshot to read data, restore data, and to make clones from a given snapshot.

Under the hood, snapshots are using a copy-on-write technique, so that they store only the modified data. This way, snapshots significantly reduce the consumption of resources.

Snapshots can be created explicitly by running the pxctl volume snapshot create command (called henceforth user created snapshots) or through a schedule that is set on the volume.

Creating snapshots

Here’s an example of how to create a snapshot:

pxctl volume snapshot create --name mysnap --label color=blue,fabric=wool myvol
Volume snap successful: 234835613696329810

The string of digits in the output is the volume ID of the new snapshot. You can use this ID(234835613696329810) or the name(mysnap), to refer to the snapshot in subsequent pxctl commands.

The label values allow you to tag the snapshot with descriptive information of your choosing. You can use them to filter the output of the pxctl volume list command.

There is an implementation limit of 64 snapshots per volume.

Listing Snapshots

To list existing snapshots, you can use pxctl volume list. Let’s have a look at the available flags:

pxctl volume list --help
List volumes in the cluster

Usage:
  pxctl volume list [flags]

Aliases:
  list, l

Flags:
  -a, --all                   show all volumes, including snapshots
  -g, --group string          show all volumes for given group
  -h, --help                  help for list
  -l, --label string          list of comma-separated name=value pairs
      --name string           volume name used during creation if any
      --node string           show all volumes whose replica is present on the given node
  -p, --parent string         show all snapshots created for given volume
      --pool-uid string       show all volumes whose replica is present on the given pool
      --sched-policy string   filter volumes by sched policy
  -s, --snapshot              show all snapshots (read-only volumes)
      --snapshot-schedule     show all schedule created snapshots
  -t, --time                  show all volumes sorted by creation time
  -v, --volumes               show only volumes

Global Flags:
      --ca string            path to root certificate for ssl usage
      --cert string          path to client certificate for ssl usage
      --color                output with color coding
      --config string        config file (default is $HOME/.pxctl.yaml)
      --context string       context name that overrides the current auth context
  -j, --json                 output in json
      --key string           path to client key for ssl usage
      --output-type string   use "wide" to show more details
      --raw                  raw CLI output for instrumentation
      --ssl                  ssl enabled for portworx

User created snapshots

To list your user created snapshots, use one of the following commands:

pxctl volume list --all
ID          NAME                                    SIZE    HA  SHARED  ENCRYPTED   COMPRESSED  IO_PRIORITY SCALE   STATUS
234835613696329810  mysnap                                  1 GiB   1   no  no      no      LOW     1   up - detached
1125771388930868153 myvol                                   1 GiB   1   no  no      no      LOW     1   up - detached
The above command shows all volumes, including snapshots.

(or)

pxctl volume list --snapshot
ID          NAME                                    SIZE    HA  SHARED  ENCRYPTED   COMPRESSED  IO_PRIORITY SCALE   STATUS
234835613696329810  mysnap                                  1 GiB   1   no  no      no      LOW     1   up - detached
The above command shows only snapshots.

Scheduled snapshots

To list all your scheduled snapshots, run this command:

pxctl volume list --snapshot-schedule
ID          NAME                                    SIZE    HA  SHARED  ENCRYPTED   COMPRESSED  IO_PRIORITYSCALE    STATUS
423119103642927058  myvol_periodic_2018_Feb_26_21_12                    1 GiB   1   no  no      no      LOW     1up - detached

Filtering the results

You can filter the results with the –parent and –label options. For instance, –parent myvol will show only snapshots whose parent is myvol (i.e. mynsap):

pxctl volume list --parent myvol --snapshot
ID          NAME    SIZE    HA  SHARED  ENCRYPTED   COMPRESSED  IO_PRIORITY SCALE   STATUS
234835613696329810  mysnap  1 GiB   1   no  no      no      LOW     1   up - detached

Giving labels restricts the list to snapshots that have all of the specified labels. For instance, –label fabric=wool would again show mysnap but –label fabric=cotton won’t.

pxctl volume list --parent myvol --snapshot --label fabric=wool
ID          NAME    SIZE    HA  SHARED  ENCRYPTED   COMPRESSED  IO_PRIORITY SCALE   STATUS
234835613696329810  mysnap  1 GiB   1   no  no      no      LOW     1   up - detached

Deleting snapshots

To delete a snapshot, run pxctl volume delete with the name or the id of the snapshot you want to delete as an argument:

pxctl volume delete mysnap
Delete volume 'mysnap', proceed ? (Y/N): y
Volume mysnap successfully deleted.
Only detached snapshots can be deleted.

Restoring snapshots

In order to restore a volume from snapshot use the pxctl volume restore command:

/opt/pwx/bin/pxctl volume restore -h
Restore volume from snapshot

Usage:
  pxctl volume restore [flags]

Aliases:
  restore, r

Examples:
pxctl volume restore [flags] volName

Flags:
  -h, --help              help for restore
  -s, --snapshot string   snapshot-name-or-ID

Global Flags:
      --ca string            path to root certificate for ssl usage
      --cert string          path to client certificate for ssl usage
      --color                output with color coding
      --config string        config file (default is $HOME/.pxctl.yaml)
      --context string       context name that overrides the current auth context
  -j, --json                 output in json
      --key string           path to client key for ssl usage
      --output-type string   use "wide" to show more details
      --raw                  raw CLI output for instrumentation
      --ssl                  ssl enabled for portworx

In the below example parent volume myvol is restored from its snapshot mysnap. Make sure volume is detached in order to restore from the snapshot.

pxctl volume restore --snapshot mysnap myvol
Successfully started restoring volume myvol from mysnap.

To restore a volume from the trash can, specify the –trashcan flag:

pxctl volume restore --trashcan trashedvol myvol
Successfully started restoring volume myvol from trashedvol.

Snapshot schedule policies

You can use the pxctl sched-policy command to create and manage your snapshot schedule policies.

The example below creates a policy named p1 with the following properties:

  • Portworx performs periodic backups every 60 minutes and keeps the last periodic 5 backups
  • Portworx performs weekly backups every Sunday at 12:00 and keeps the last 4 weekly backups

Run the following command to create the p1 backup policy:

pxctl sched-policy create --periodic 60,5 --weekly sunday@12:00,4 p1

You can add schedule policies either when a volume gets created or afterward.

Here is an example of how you can add a schedule policy when the volume is created:

pxctl volume create --policy p1 vol1

The following example adds or updates a schedule policy later:

pxctl volume snap-interval-update --policy p1 vol1

The example below removes a policy from a volume by setting the snap interval to 0:

pxctl volume snap-interval-update --periodic 0 vol1

For more information on how to create, list, update, and delete your snapshot schedule policies with pxctl, see this page.

Snapshot schedules

If you create a volume and a snapshot schedule at the same time, you can use and combine as needed the following four scheduling options:

  • –-periodic,
  • –-daily,
  • –-weekly and
  • –-monthly.

Scheduled snapshots have names of the form <Parent-Name>_<freq>_<creation_time>, where <freq> denotes the schedule frequency (i.e., periodic, daily, weekly, monthly):

myvol_periodic_2018_Feb_26_21_12
myvol_daily_2018_Feb_26_12_00

As an example, to create a new volume named myvol and to schedule:

  1. a periodic snapshot for every 60 min and a
  2. daily snapshot at 8:00 am and a
  3. weekly snapshot on Friday at 23:30 pm and
  4. monthly snapshot on the 1st of the month at 6:00 am.

you would run this command:

pxctl volume create --periodic 60 --daily @08:00 --weekly Friday@23:30 --monthly 1@06:00 myvol

Here’s another example. In order to create a volume named myvol and to schedule:

  1. 10 periodic snapshots that trigger every 120 min and
  2. 3 daily snapshots that trigger at 8:00 am

you would run the following:

pxctl volume create --periodic 120,10 --daily @08:00,3 myvol
Once the count is reached, the oldest existing one will be deleted if necessary.

Changing a snapshot schedule

To change the snapshot schedule for a given volume, use the pxctl volume snap-interval-update command.

First, let’s see the available flags:

pxctl volume snap-interval-update --help
Update volume configuration

Usage:
  pxctl volume snap-interval-update [flags]

Aliases:
  snap-interval-update, snap

Examples:
pxctl volume snap-interval-update [flags] volName

Flags:
  -d, --daily strings     daily snapshot at specified hh:mm,k (keeps 7 by default)
  -h, --help              help for snap-interval-update
  -m, --monthly strings   monthly snapshot at specified day@hh:mm,k (keeps 12 by default)
  -p, --periodic string   periodic snapshot interval in mins,k (keeps 5 by default), 0 disables all schedule snapshots
      --policy string     policy names separated by comma
  -w, --weekly strings    weekly snapshot at specified weekday@hh:mm,k (keeps 5 by default)

Global Flags:
      --ca string            path to root certificate for ssl usage
      --cert string          path to client certificate for ssl usage
      --color                output with color coding
      --config string        config file (default is $HOME/.pxctl.yaml)
      --context string       context name that overrides the current auth context
  -j, --json                 output in json
      --key string           path to client key for ssl usage
      --output-type string   use "wide" to show more details
      --raw                  raw CLI output for instrumentation
      --ssl                  ssl enabled for portworx

In the below example, the old snapshot schedule is replaced with a daily snapshot triggered at 15:00 pm (5 snapshots are kept):

pxctl volume snap-interval-update --daily @15:00,5 myvol

Disabling scheduled snapshots

To disable scheduled snapshot for a given volume, use --periodic 0 on snap-interval-update:

pxctl volume snap-interval-update --periodic 0 myvol

View the snapshot schedule for a volume

To view the snapshot schedule for a volume, use the pxctl volume inspect command as follows:

pxctl volume inspect myvol
Volume	:  1125771388930868153
	Name            	 :  myvol
	Size            	 :  1.0 GiB
	Format          	 :  ext4
	HA              	 :  1
	IO Priority     	 :  LOW
	Creation time   	 :  Feb 26 18:06:31 UTC 2018
	Snapshot        	 :  daily @15:00,keep last 5
	Shared          	 :  no
	Status          	 :  up
	State           	 :  Attached: minion1
	Device Path     	 :  /dev/pxd/pxd1125771388930868153
	Reads           	 :  54
	Reads MS        	 :  152
	Bytes Read      	 :  1105920
	Writes          	 :  53
	Writes MS       	 :  841
	Bytes Written   	 :  16891904
	IOs in progress 	 :  0
	Bytes used      	 :  48 MiB
	Replica sets on nodes:
		Set  0
			Node 		 :  70.0.34.84 (Pool 0)
	Replication Status	 :  Up

For information about creating snapshots of your Portworx volumes, refer to the Create and use snapshots page.

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Last edited: Tuesday, May 9, 2023
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