Creating file versions
Starting from version 2.1 multiple versions of a file can be created on the server. Consider the following scenario:
- A user creates a new document and backs it up to Syncrify server
- Later on he/she makes changes to this document and backs up the modified version of the same file
- Syncrify server will keep both versions of the file. The latest version is stored as-is on the server but older versions just contains the difference in the file. If a user decides to restore an older version, Syncrify server will rebuild the file on-demand.
Benefits of using versioning
- Users can restore a previous version of a file.
- Previous versions of a file are store in a special format containing enough information to rebuild the file on demand, tremendously reducing disk space on the server.
Steps to use versioning
Versioning can be enabled or disabled on a per-user basis.
When creating a new user, the administrator must decide the number of versions to maintain for every file. Specify a number greater than 0 to enable versioning. Assume a backup is run every night. Specifying a value 7 for this field will create up to 7 versions of a file, each representing one day of data.
On client's end, versioning can be further narrowed down to a profile level - meaning you can select the profiles for which versioning is enabled. Allowing users to create versions for certain types of files but not others.
Follow the steps below to enable versioning on the client's end
- Start Syncrify client
- Select a desired profile
- Click on the advanced tab
- Check Enable versioning
- Save the profile
Caveats
It is important to note that previous file versions are automatically deleted when:
- File encryption is enabled or disabled
- Encryption password is modified
- Versioning is enabled but client runs a backup job with this option disabled. In this case, previous versions will be removed and new versions will be created when it is enabled again.
- The option "Delete files from server" is checked and user deletes a file from the client machine.
Restoring previous version
Previous versions of a file can only be restored using Syncrify client. You cannot use a web browser to
restore an older version of a file
Following steps demonstrate how to restore a previous version
- Start Syncrify client
- Navigate to the file that you would like to restore. If the desired file does not exist on the client, create a dummy file with the same name
- Highlight the desired file, click the right mouse button and select Restore previous versions from the pop-up menu.
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This will invoke a screen that displays previously backed up versions and allows users to restore the desired file.
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This screen displays previous versions of the selected file in a grid, containing the following columns:
- Version - Version number of the file. Version numbers are incremented whenever a new version is backed up. Assume you decide to store 10 versions for every file. In this case there will be a maximum of 11 files on the server - 10 files containing deltas for the older versions and one file representing the most recent version. As new versions are backed up, older versions will be deleted from the server.
- Last modified - Date and time when the file was last modified
- File size - Original size of the file for the given version
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To restore any version, select appropriate row in the grid and then click the Restore button. File names for the older versions are automatically generated by Syncrify and the downloaded file is stored in the same folder where the original file reside.
How are versions stored
You will see additional files on the server when versioning is enabled. These files are stored in the same folder where the actual file is stored.
Assume the 5 versions of Instructions.docx exist. You will see the following files in the repository path of the user.
| File Name |
File Size |
Last modified date |
Description |
| Instructions.docx |
24.5 MB |
March 30, 2010 |
This is the most recent version (version 5) of the file. |
| Instructions.docx.4_34233_1000_synver |
1.5 KB |
March 25, 2010 |
Version 4 - this is just the delta change. If user decides to restore this version, Syncrify merges this delta with version 5 and sends it back to the client. |
| Instructions.docx.3_3584_1000_synver |
2.4 KB |
March 20, 2010 |
Version 3 |
| Instructions.docx.2_78484_1000_synver |
2.4 KB |
March 10, 2010 |
Version 2 |
| Instructions.docx.1_873584_1000_synver |
2.4 KB |
March 09, 2010 |
Version 1 |
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