SOLVED Rename a snapshot? Can I rename an "auto" snapshot to save it permanently?

[winnielinnie]

If I rename a snapshot (which was created automatically from my Periodic Snapshots), will it be spared from being deleted after its 6-month expiration?

Here's an example:

• I have a Periodic Snapshop task for the dataset "userhomes", which is taken weekly, and automatically deleted after six months
• The naming convention yields a snapshot named auto-20191130.0000-6m (November 30, 2019)
• I decide to rename this specific snapshot to saved-20191130.0000

Will the snapshot saved-20191130.0000 be permanently safe even after its 6-month expiration? Or will FreeNAS "know" it is expired and delete it automatically anyways? How does FreeNAS determine this: simply by the name or some other database?

 

[sretalla]

If you want to avoid automatic deletion of a snapshot (which is related to the timestamp in the file, not the name), use the hold function.

To avoid reinventing the wheel, this is described here: https://www.thegeekdiary.com/understanding-holding-a-zfs-snapshot-feature/

Essentially zfs hold tag pool/dataset@snapshot (where tag is some kind of note to classify why the hold was placed, so when you search for held snapshots, you can see that)

 

[winnielinnie]

Brilliant! Thank you so much, sretalla! That's exactly what I was looking for.

I went all over the web, using all types of search queries, and "zfs hold" never came up, or perhaps was underplayed and not really highlighted. I kept bumping into "cloning" a dataset from a snapshot, and eventually gave up.

This works perfectly, and I hope other Google-search adventurers stumble upon this thread.