VoltDB does not delete snapshots after they are restored; the snapshot files remain on each node of the cluster. For automated snapshots, the oldest snapshot files are purged according to the settings in the configuration. But if you create snapshots manually or if you change the directory path or the prefix for automated snapshots, the old snapshots will also be left on the cluster.
To simplify maintenance, it is a good idea to observe certain guidelines when using save and restore:
Create dedicated directories for use as the paths for VoltDB snapshots.
Do not store any other files in the directories used for VoltDB snapshots.
Periodically cleanup the directories by deleting obsolete, unused snapshots.
You can delete snapshots manually. To delete a snapshot, use the unique identifier, which is applied as a filename prefix, to find all of the files in the snapshot. For example, the following commands remove the snapshot with the ID TestSave from the directory /etc/voltdb/backup/. Note that VoltDB separates the prefix from the remainder of the file name with a dash for manual snapshots:
$ rm /etc/voltdb/backup/TestSave-*
However, it is easier if you use the system procedures VoltDB provides for managing snapshots. If you delete snapshots manually, you must make sure you execute the commands on all nodes of the cluster. When you use the system procedures, VoltDB distributes the operations across the cluster automatically.
VoltDB provides several system procedures to assist with the management of snapshots:
@Statistics "SNAPSHOTSTATUS" provides information about the most recently performed snapshots for the current database. The response from @Statistics for this selector includes information about up to ten recent snapshots, including their location, when they were created, how long the save took, whether they completed successfully, and the size of the individual files that make up the snapshot. See the reference section on @Statistics for details.
@SnapshotScan lists all of the snapshots available in a specified directory path. You can use this system procedure to determine what snapshots exist and, as a consequence, which ought to be deleted. See the reference section on @SnapshotScan for details.
@SnapshotDelete deletes one or more snapshots based on the paths and prefixes you provide. The parameters to the system procedure are two string arrays. The first array specifies one or more directory paths. The second array specifies one or more prefixes. The array elements are taken in pairs to determine which snapshots to delete. For example, if the first array contains paths A, B, and C and the second array contains the unique identifiers X, Y, and Z, the following three snapshots will be deleted: A/X, B/Y, and C/Z. See the reference section on @SnapshotDelete for details.
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