Cloudera Docs

Managing HDFS Snapshots

This topic demonstrates how to manage HDFS snapshots using Cloudera Manager or the command line.

For HDFS services, use the File Browser tab to view the HDFS directories associated with a service on your cluster. You can view the currently saved snapshots for your files, and delete or restore them. From the HDFS File Browser tab, you can perform the following tasks:

  • Designate HDFS directories to be "snapshottable" so snapshots can be created for those directories.
  • Initiate immediate (unscheduled) snapshots of a HDFS directory.
  • View the list of saved snapshots currently being maintained. These can include one-off immediate snapshots, as well as scheduled policy-based snapshots.
  • Delete a saved snapshot.
  • Restore an HDFS directory or file from a saved snapshot.
  • Restore an HDFS directory or file from a saved snapshot to a new directory or file (Restore As).
Before you use snapshots, note the following limitations:
  • Snapshots that include encrypted directories cannot be restored outside of the zone within which they were created.
  • The Cloudera Manager Admin Console cannot perform snapshot operations (such as create, restore, and delete) for HDFS paths with encryption-at-rest enabled. This limitation only affects the Cloudera Manager Admin Console and does not affect CDH command-line tools or actions not performed by the Admin Console, such as Replication Manager which uses command-line tools. For more information about snapshot operations, see the Apache HDFS snapshots documentation.