Administrator Guide

Cloning a NAS Volume
Cloning a NAS volume creates a writable copy of the NAS volume. This copy is useful to test against non-production data sets in
a test environment without impacting the production file system environment. Most operations that can be performed on NAS
volumes can also be performed on clone NAS volumes, such as resizing, deleting, and configuring SMB shares, NFS exports,
snapshots, replication, NDMP, and so on.
The clone NAS volume is created from a snapshot (base snapshot) taken on the original NAS volume (base volume). No space is
consumed by the clone NAS volume until new data is stored or it is modified.
NAS Volume Clone Defaults
Clone NAS volumes have the following default values:
● The volumes have the same size as their base volumes, are thin-provisioned, and have a reserved space of 0 (and therefore
consume no space).
● Quota usage is copied from the base snapshot of the base volume.
● Quota rules have the default definitions (as with a new NAS volume). Directory quotas have the same definitions as the base
volume at the time of the snapshot.
● The volumes have the same permissions on folders (including the root directory) as the base volumes.
● The volumes have the same security style and access time granularity definitions as the base volumes.
● No SMB shares, NFS exports, or snapshot schedules are defined.
NAS Volume Clone Restrictions
The following restrictions exist with clone NAS volumes:
● You cannot create a clone NAS volume of a clone NAS volume (nested clones) unless a clone NAS volume is replicated to
another FluidFS cluster and then cloned.
● You cannot delete a base volume until all of its clone NAS volumes have been deleted.
● A snapshot cannot be deleted as long as clone NAS volumes are based on it.
● Restoring to an older snapshot fails if it would result in a base snapshot being deleted.
● You can replicate a clone NAS volume only after the base volume is replicated. If the base snapshot in the base volume
is removed, and a clone NAS volume exists on the replication target FluidFS cluster, replication between NAS volumes will
stop. To resume replication, the cloned NAS volume on the target FluidFS cluster must be deleted.
● You cannot create a clone NAS volume from a replication source NAS volume snapshot (a snapshot with a name starting
with rep_) or NDMP snapshot. However, you can create a clone NAS volume of a replication target NAS volume.
● Before creating a clone NAS volume, data reduction and the snapshot space consumption threshold alert must be disabled
on the base volume (previously deduplicated data is allowed).
● Data reduction cannot be enabled on a clone NAS volume.
● After a NAS volume is cloned, data reduction cannot be reenabled until all clone NAS volumes have been deleted.
● A clone NAS volume contains user and group recovery information, but not the NAS volume configuration.
● Clone NAS volumes count toward the total number of NAS volumes in the FluidFS cluster.
View NAS Volume Clones
View the current NAS volume clones.
Steps
1. In the Storage view, select a FluidFS cluster.
2. Click the File System tab.
3. In the File System view, expand NAS Volumes and then select a NAS volume.
4. Click the Snapshots & Clones tab.
The Cloned NAS Volume panel displays the current NAS volume clones.
FluidFS Administration
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