The SVM administrator controls whether users on Windows clients can view and access the ~snapshot directory on a share by enabling or disabling the showsnapshot share property using commands from the vserver cifs share properties families.

When the showsnapshot share property is disabled, a user on a Windows client using SMB 2.x cannot view the ~snapshot directory and cannot access Snapshot copies within the ~snapshot directory, even when manually entering the path to the ~snapshot directory or to specific Snapshot copies within the directory.

When the showsnapshot share property is enabled, a user on a Windows client using SMB 2.x still cannot view the ~snapshot directory either at the root of the share or within any junction or directory below the root of the share. However, after connecting to a share, the user can access the hidden ~snapshot directory by manually appending \~snapshot to the end of the share path. The hidden ~snapshot directory is accessible from two entry points:

The hidden ~snapshot directory is not accessible from non-junction subdirectories within the share.

With the configuration shown in the following example, a user on a Windows client with an SMB 2.x connection to the “eng” share can access the ~snapshot directory by manually appending \~snapshot to the share path at the root of the share and at every junction point in the path. The hidden ~snapshot directory is accessible from the following three paths: