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Managing MySBfiles

How much space do I have? | Virus Protection | Backup & Recovery | Back to MySBfiles


500 MB Storage Quota

Each student, faculty and staff is granted a 500 MB storage quota. This is the total amount of storage that can be used per person. Any attempt to store files which exceed this quota will be denied. Unless you are working with a mapped network drive in Windows, you'll most likely not receive any indication as to why a file copy fails when the quota is exceeded.

To determine how much space is used and how much is remaining:

  • In Microsoft Windows, right-click the drive mapped to our directory and
    select Properties from the menu.
  • In Mac OS 10.x, select your directory volume and from the File menu,
    select Get Info.


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Virus Protection

All files on MySBfiles are protected by anti-virus software. Attempts to copy a file infected with a virus into MySBfiles will most likely result in the file copy being denied, with little indication as to why the copy failed.


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Backup and Recovery

Data on MySBfiles is protected in 2 ways:

  1. Snapshots taken at regular intervals
  2. Backups to tape

Snapshots are point in time backups that are kept on the same disks on which the original home directories are located. Snapshots are performed on a scheduled basis and files backed up during that snapshot are retained for a certain period of time. Snapshots are accessible via a hidden directory called "~snapshot". This hidden directory can be accessed from every MySBFiles.

Snapshot Schedule

The snapshots are performed every four hours daily fro the current day, nightly for the current week, and weekly for four weeks.

Weekly
Sunday, 12:00 AM
Retention = 4 copies
Nightly
Mon. - Sat., 12:00 AM
Retention = 6 copies
Daily
1:00 AM
Retention = 6 copies
Daily
5:00 AM
Retention = 6 copies
Daily
9:00 AM
Retention = 6 copies
Daily
1:00 PM
Retention = 6 copies
Daily
5:00 PM
Retention = 6 copies
Daily
9:00 PM
Retention = 6 copies

Backups to tape are made for disaster recovery purposes only, so if you need to recover a file, you will need to do so from one of your snapshots.

To locate and restore a file from a snapshot:

  • From Microsoft Windows and Mac OS 10.x, search the "~snapshot" directory located in your directory for the file you wish to restore. This directory is hidden so you'll need to be sure your options are set so that you can view hidden files and directories.
  • To set your options to view hidden files on a Windows machine:
    • Choose the Tools Menu > then Folder Options > Click on the View tab > Chose Show Hidden Files.
  • Within the "~snapshot" directory you'll notice several more directories, each named for the snapshot schedule under which they were created. The names of these directories don't directly correspond to the snapshot schedule under which they were run, so you'll need to search through all of these directories for the files you want to restore.
  • After you have performed a search for the file you wish to restore, you'll then need to look at the timestamp of the file to determine the correct version of the file you wish to restore. Once you find the file you wish to restore, just copy that file anywhere outside of the "~snapshot" directory.

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