Manually deleting snapshot files in Linux Edition

Details

Online backups in Linux Edition use the Datto driver. Since snapshot files (.datto, .datto1) are required for full or incremental backups, avoid manually deleting them. If backups are disabled, snapshots will remain. To delete snapshots manually, refer to the article below.

Manually deleting snapshot files will make the next scheduled backup a full backup. This does not affect scheduled backup operations. 

Schedule backups are disabled:

- Immediately after system reboot

- Immediately after a full system restore using an online backup image. 

Specifications of driver operation

Full backups use 10% of each volume, while incremental backups use 0.2%. Online backups create hidden files (".datto" or ".datto1") in the root of each volume. A full backup creates ".datto," and incremental backups alternate between ".datto1" and ".datto.

After a system reboot, hidden files remain, but the data in '/proc/dattoinfo' is cleared. This causes the next scheduled backup to run as a full backup, whether full or incremental was planned. Even if a datto file exists, it will be recreated, staying within 10% of the volume size. Datto files are deleted automatically when ActiveImage Protector is uninstalled, so manual deletion during scheduled backups is not recommended.

Based on the above, if you still need to check or manually delete the files, please use the following operating procedures:

To manually delete hidden files, open a terminal and run the following commands with administrative privileges:

1) Check the status and usage of the datto file. If it’s not in use for scheduled backups, the command output will show 'devices' : [] as empty.

# cat /proc/datto-info 
{
"version": "0.12.1.1",
"devices": [
]
}

In this case, manually deleting the datto file won’t impact operations.

When ActiveImage Protector is uninstalled, 'datto-info' is deleted, and 'devices' : [] will show 'not found.' If the datto file still exists, please delete it manually.

During scheduled backups (online full or incremental), 'devices' : [] will display the following information.

# cat /proc/datto-info 
{
"version": "0.12.1.1",
"devices": [
{
"minor": 0,
"cow_file": "/.datto1",
"block_device": "/dev/dm-0",
},
{
"minor": 1,
"cow_file": "/.datto1",
"block_device": "/dev/sda1",
},
{
"minor": 2,
"cow_file": "/.datto1",
"block_device": "/dev/sda2",
}
]
}

In this case, do not use the following procedures to delete snapshots.

2) If you need to delete snapshots during a scheduled backup, you can try running the 'dbdctl destroy [minor value]' command to remove temporary snapshot files. However, it is not recommended to delete these files during a backup. If you run this command for troubleshooting or to restart a scheduled backup with a full backup, it’s fine. 

# dbdctl destroy 0
# dbdctl destroy 1
# dbdctl destroy 2

* When using the above procedures, delete all three datto files: '0', '1', and '2'. 

3) The following commands can check if ".datto" or ".datto1" files exist and display their sizes, if any. 

# find /. -type f -name ".datto*" | xargs ls -lh
---------- 1 root root 51M October 23 04:00 /./.datto1
---------- 1 root root 2.1M October 23 04:00 /./boot/.datto1
-rwx------ 1 root root 1.2M October 23 04:00 /./boot/efi/.datto1
---------- 1 root root 51M October 23 04:00 /.datto1

# rm /./.datto1
..

When 'devices' : [] in step 1) shows empty, it means the scheduled backup isn't running. You can safely use the 'rm' command to delete all detected datto files.

If '.datto' or '.datto1' is not found after running the command, the snapshot files are deleted.

Target Product

- ActiveImage Protector 2018 Linux Edition

- ActiveImage Protector 2022 Linux Edition

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