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File Clones and File Snapshots

The Product also supports individual file cloning, which is called file snapshot in the GUI. Despite the snapshot name, this operation creates a clone of the selected file, and the clone is placed in a virtual sub-directory called .fsnapshot/<FILENAME>/<TIMESTAMP>.

You can also set up a file cloning schedule and retention policy to protect files on a regular basis.

Cloned files can be recovered manually using the GUI or by accessing the .fsnapshot directory using the NFS protocol.

Do not confuse file clones with share snapshots. Share snapshots are the recommended approach to protect more than one file in a share. File clones do not maintain special VERSION metadata, further differentiating them from share snapshots. File clones will not show up as a file version using Windows Previous Versions.

For an example objective that moves file clones to cloud/object storage, see Keeping file clones (snapshots) on cloud/object storage.