Splitting a FlexClone volume from its parent volume

If you want a read-write FlexClone volume to have its own disk space rather than using that of its parent volume, you can split the FlexClone volume from its parent volume. Because this operation creates a copy of the data that is currently shared between the parent volume and the FlexClone volume, the operation can take some time to complete.

About this task

Splitting a FlexClone volume from its parent volume consumes free space from the containing aggregate. If you do not have sufficient privileges to view the space available in your aggregate, you must contact your storage administrator to verify that there is sufficient space in the aggregate for the split operation to finish.

Starting with ONTAP 9.5, for non-guaranteed volumes on AFA systems, the split operation for FlexClone volumes shares the physical blocks and does not copy the data. Therefore, splitting of FlexClone volumes on AFA systems is faster than the FlexClone splitting operation in other Hybrid systems in ONTAP 9.5. The improved FlexClone splitting operation on AFA systems has the following benefits:

Storage efficiency is preserved after splitting the clone from the parent.
Existing Snapshot copies are not deleted.
The operation is faster.
The FlexClone volume can be split from any point in the clone hierarchy.

Determine the amount of free space required to complete the split operation: volume clone show -estimate -vserver vserver_name -flexclone clone_volume_name -parent-volume parent_vol_name
Example
The following example provides information about the free space required to split a FlexClone volume clone1 from its parent volume vol1:
cluster1::> volume clone show -estimate -vserver vs1 -flexclone clone1 -parent-volume volume1 Split Vserver FlexClone Estimate --------- ------------- ---------- vs1 clone1 40.73MB
Verify that the aggregate containing the FlexClone volume and its parent has sufficient space:
1. Determine the amount of free space in the aggregate that contains the FlexClone volume and its parent: storage aggregate show
2. If the containing aggregate does not have enough free space available, add storage to the aggregate: storage aggregate add-disks
Start the split operation: volume clone split start -vserver vserver_name -flexclone clone_volume_name
Example
The following example shows how you can initiate the process to split the FlexClone volume clone1 from its parent volume vol1:
cluster1::> volume clone split start -vserver vs1 -flexclone clone1 Warning: Are you sure you want to split clone volume clone1 in Vserver vs1 ? {y|n}: y [Job 1617] Job is queued: Split clone1.

Monitor the status of the FlexClone split operation: volume clone split show -vserver vserver_name -flexclone clone_volume_name

Example

The following example shows the status of the FlexClone split operation on an AFA system running ONTAP 9.5:

cluster1::> volume clone split show -vserver vs1 -flexclone clone1
                                              Inodes                   Blocks
                                     ---------------------    ---------------------
Vserver   FlexClone    Processed Total    Scanned  Updated      % Inode   % Block
                                                                 Complete  Complete
vs1       clone1        0         0       411247   153600         0        37

Verify that the split volume is no longer a FlexClone volume: volume show -volume volume_name -fields clone-volume
The value of the clone-volume option is false for a volume that is not a FlexClone volume.
Example
The following example shows how you can verify whether the volume clone1 that is split from its parent is not a FlexClone volume.
cluster1::> volume show -volume clone1 -fields clone-volume vserver volume clone-volume ------- ------ ------------ vs1 clone1 false

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