Using FlexClone volumes to create efficient copies of your FlexVol volumes

FlexClone volumes are writable, point-in-time copies of a parent FlexVol volume. FlexClone volumes are space-efficient because they share the same data blocks with their parent FlexVol volumes for common data. The Snapshot copy used to create a FlexClone volume is also shared with the parent volume.

You can clone an existing FlexClone volume to create another FlexClone volume. You can also create a clone of a FlexVol volume containing LUNs and LUN clones.

You can also split a FlexClone volume from its parent volume. As a result, the FlexClone volume becomes an independent FlexVol volume with its own disk space, instead of sharing disk space with its parent.

You can create two types of FlexClone volumes: read-write FlexClone volumes and data protection FlexClone volumes. While you can create a read-write FlexClone volume of a regular FlexVol volume, you must use only a SnapVault secondary volume to create a data protection FlexClone volume.