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How to Create a Network File Storage Snapshot

Validated on 12 Mar 2026 • Last edited on 23 Mar 2026

Network File Storage is a fully managed, POSIX-compliant file storage solution built for demanding workloads like AI/ML pipelines, containerized applications, and DigitalOcean Kubernetes (DOKS) clusters. It provides scalable, high-throughput shared storage that simplifies storage management for distributed applications.

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NFS snapshots are point-in-time, read-only copies of your data. Use snapshots for file-level recovery from accidental deletions, overwrites, or data corruption.

Snapshot data is available in a special hidden .snapshot directory at the root of the share itself.

Snapshots are billed based on their restorable size, which equals the amount of storage used by the share at the time of creation. Read Network File Storage Pricing for details.

To take a snapshot from the Control Panel, click Network File Storage in the main menu. Click the … “more” menu next to the share you want to snapshot, then click Take a Snapshot.

In the Create a Snapshot window that opens, click Take Snapshot to create the snapshot.

To view and manage your team’s snapshots, click the Snapshots tab.

How to Snapshot a Network File Storage Share Using the DigitalOcean CLI

Install doctl, the official DigitalOcean CLI.
Create a personal access token and save it for use with doctl.
Use the token to grant doctl access to your DigitalOcean account.
```
doctl auth init
```
Finally, run doctl nfs snapshot create. Basic usage looks like this, but you can read the usage docs for more details:
```
doctl nfs snapshot create [flags]
```
The following example creates a snapshot for a specified NFS share:
```
doctl nfs snapshot create --name my-snapshot --region 'atl1' --share-id 0a1b2c3d-4e5f-6a7b-8c9d-0e1f2a3b4c5d
```

To take a snapshot of a Network File Storage share via the API, use the NFS actions endpoint and set the action type to snapshot:

curl -X POST \
    -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
    -H "Authorization: Bearer $DIGITALOCEAN_TOKEN" \
    -d '{"type": "snapshot", "region": "atl1", "params": {"name": "<snapshot_name>"}}' \
    "https://api.digitalocean.com/v2/nfs/<your_share_id>/actions"

Replace <your_share_id> with the ID of your share, and <snapshot_name> with the desired name for the snapshot. The snapshot name must be twenty characters or less.

How to Snapshot a Network File Storage Share Using the DigitalOcean API

Create a personal access token and save it for use with the API.
Send a POST request to https://api.digitalocean.com/v2/nfs/{nfs_id}/actions.

Using cURL:

curl -X POST \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $DIGITALOCEAN_TOKEN" \
  -d '{"type": "resize", "params": {"size_gib": 1024}, "region": "atl1"}' \
  "https://api.digitalocean.com/v2/nfs/${nfs_id}/actions"

To list and delete snapshots via the API, read the NFS section of the DigitalOcean API reference.

Access Snapshots

Snapshots are stored in a special hidden, read-only .snapshot directory at the root of the share. Each snapshot is a separate subdirectory of .snapshot, named with the snapshot name followed by the snapshot ID.

Note

You can not find the .snapshot directory using ls on your mount point, even if you use the -a option to show hidden files. The NFS server takes extra steps to hide .snapshot from ls, du, and other commands.

To list out the contents of your snapshot directory, use the following command:

ls -l /mnt/example-nfs-share/.snapshot

Replace /mnt/example-nfs-share/ with your mount point.

How to Create a Network File Storage Snapshot

Snapshot a Share Using the Control Panel

Snapshot a Share Using the CLI

Snapshot a Share Using the API

cURL

Access Snapshots

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