How to delete a GlusterFS snapshot

Deleting an unused GlusterFS snapshot reclaims storage reserved for snapshot metadata and keeps snapshot inventories from becoming noisy on busy clusters. Regular cleanup also reduces the risk of carrying snapshots beyond the intended retention window.

The GlusterFS snapshot feature tracks snapshots cluster-wide and, depending on the backend, can reserve underlying snapshot resources on each brick (commonly LVM on Linux). Removing a snapshot with gluster snapshot delete deletes the snapshot entry from the cluster and releases the associated snapshot resources.

Snapshot deletion is permanent, so confirm the snapshot name and validate it is no longer needed for recovery before removal. If bricks or peers are unhealthy, snapshot operations can fail or partially complete, so resolve cluster issues first when errors appear.

1. List snapshots for the target GlusterFS volume to obtain the snapshot name.

   $ sudo gluster snapshot list volume1
   snap-volume1-2025
   snap-volume1-2025-02

   Use gluster snapshot list without a volume name to list snapshots across all volumes.

2. Display snapshot information to confirm the snapshot matches the intended volume and creation time.

   $ sudo gluster snapshot info snap-volume1-2025
   Snapshot                  : snap-volume1-2025
   Volume Name               : volume1
   Created                   : 2025-02-01 02:00:12
   Status                    : Activated
   ##### snipped #####

3. Delete the snapshot by its exact name.

   $ sudo gluster snapshot delete snap-volume1-2025
   snapshot delete: success: Snap snap-volume1-2025 deleted successfully

   Deleted snapshots cannot be recovered.

4. Confirm the snapshot no longer appears in the volume snapshot list.

   $ sudo gluster snapshot list volume1
   snap-volume1-2025-02