Snapshots

HBase and HDFS snapshots can be created with Cloudera Manager or by using the command line.

HBase snapshots allow you to create point-in-time backups of tables without making data copies, and with minimal impact on RegionServers. HBase snapshots are supported for clusters running CDH 4.2 or later.
HDFS snapshots allow you to create point-in-time backups of directories or the entire filesystem without actually cloning the data. These snapshots appear on the filesystem as read-only directories that can be accessed just like any other ordinary directories. HDFS snapshots are supported for clusters running CDH 5 or later. CDH 4 does not support snapshots for HDFS.

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