You can use Storage Manager to create, edit, and delete volumes.
You can access all the volumes in the cluster by using the Volumes tab.
Note: The Volumes tab is displayed only if you have enabled the CIFS and
NFS licenses.
Editing volume properties
You can modify volume properties such as the volume name, security style, fractional reserve, and space guarantee by using Storage Manager. You can modify storage efficiency settings (deduplication schedule, deduplication policy, and compression) and space reclamation settings.
Editing data protection volumes
You can use Storage Manager to modify the volume name for a data protection (DP) volume. If the source volume does not have storage efficiency enabled, you might want to enable storage efficiency only on the destination volume.
Deleting volumes
You can use Storage Manager to delete a FlexVol volume when you no longer require the data that a volume contains or if you have copied the data that a volume contains to another location. When you delete a volume, all the data in the volume is destroyed, and you cannot recover that data.
Creating FlexClone volumes
You can use Storage Manager to create a FlexClone volume when you require a writable, point-in-time copy of an existing FlexVol volume. You might want to create a copy of a volume for testing or to provide access to the volume for additional users without giving them access to the production data.
Splitting a FlexClone volume from its parent volume
If you want a FlexClone volume to have its own disk space instead of using the disk space of its parent volume, you can split the volume from its parent by using Storage Manager. After the split, the FlexClone volume becomes a normal FlexVol volume.
Setting the Snapshot copy reserve
You can use Storage Manager to reserve space (measured as a percentage) for the Snapshot copies in a volume. By setting the Snapshot copy reserve, you can allocate enough disk space for the Snapshot copies so that they do not consume the active file system space.
Scheduling automatic creation of Snapshot copies
You can use Storage Manager to set up a schedule for the automatic creating automatic Snapshot copies of a volume. You can specify the time and frequency of creating the copies. You can also specify the number of Snapshot copies that are saved.
Resizing volumes
When a volume reaches nearly full capacity, you can increase the size of the volume, delete some Snapshot copies, or adjust the Snapshot reserve. You can use the Volume Resize wizard in Storage Manager to provide more free space.
Moving FlexVol volumes between aggregates or nodes
You can nondisruptively move a FlexVol volume to a different aggregate or a different node for capacity utilization and improved performance by using Storage Manager.
Assigning volumes to Storage QoS
You can limit the throughput of FlexVol volumes and FlexGroup volumes by assigning them to storage Quality of Service (QoS) policy groups. You can assign storage QoS for new volumes, or you can modify the storage QoS details of the volumes that are already assigned to a policy group by using Storage Manager.
Creating a mirror relationship from a source SVM
You can use Storage Manager to create a mirror relationship from the source storage virtual machine (SVM), and to assign a mirror policy and schedule to the mirror relationship. The mirror copy enables quick availability of data if the data on the source volume is corrupted or lost.
Creating a vault relationship from a source SVM
You can use Storage Manager to create a vault relationship from the source storage virtual machine (SVM), and to assign a vault policy to the vault relationship to create a backup vault. In the event of data loss or corruption on a system, backed-up data can be restored from the backup vault destination.
Creating a mirror and vault relationship from a source SVM
You can use Storage Manager to create a mirror and vault relationship from the source storage virtual machine (SVM). Creating this relationship enables you to better protect your data by periodically transferring data from the source volume to the destination volume. This relationship also enables you to retain data for long periods by creating backups of the source volume.
Changing the tiering policy of a volume
You can use Storage Manager to change the default tiering policy of a volume to control whether the data of the volume is moved to the cloud tier when the data becomes inactive.
Creating FlexGroup volumes
A FlexGroup volume can contain many volumes that can be administered as a group instead of individually. You can use Storage Manager to create a FlexGroup volume by selecting specific aggregates or by selecting system-recommended aggregates.
Viewing FlexGroup volume information
You can use Storage Manager to view information about a FlexGroup volume. You can view a graphical representation of the space allocated, the protection status, and the performance of a FlexGroup volume.
Editing FlexGroup volumes
Starting with Storage Manager 9.6, you can edit the properties of an existing FlexGroup volume.
Using FlexGroup Rebalance
Flexgroup Rebalance is supported for moving volume data between the constituent volumes that comprise the FlexGroup. This feature is displayed by after you select the volume and specify the level of balance for the FlexGroup.
Resizing FlexGroup volumes
You can use Storage Manager to resize a FlexGroup volume by resizing existing resources or by adding new resources.
Deleting FlexGroup volumes
You can use Storage Manager to delete a FlexGroup volume when you no longer require the FlexGroup volume.
What Volume Encryption is
Volume Encryption is the process of protecting the user data, including the metadata, by encrypting the data before storing it on the disk. The data is decrypted and provided to the user only after proper authentication is provided.
Snapshot configuration
You can configure Snapshot copies by setting a schedule for an existing Snapshot policy. Starting with ONTAP 9.5, you can have less than 1024 Snapshot copies of a FlexVol volume.
How volume guarantees work for FlexVol volumes
Volume guarantees (sometimes called space guarantees) determine how space for a volume is allocated from its containing aggregate—whether or not the space is preallocated for the volume.
FlexClone volumes and space guarantees
A FlexClone volume inherits its initial space guarantee from its parent volume. For example, if you create a FlexClone volume from a parent volume with a space guarantee of volume, then the FlexClone volume's initial space guarantee will be volume also. You can change the FlexClone volume's space guarantee.
Thin provisioning for greater efficiencies using FlexVol volumes
With thin provisioning, when you create volumes and LUNs in a given aggregate, you do not actually allocate any space for those in advance. The space is allocated as data is written to the volumes or LUNs.
Using space reservations with FlexVol volumes
Using space reservation, you can provision FlexVol volumes. Thin provisioning appears to provide more storage than is actually available from a given aggregate, as long as not all of that storage is currently being used.
Benefits of storage efficiency
Storage efficiency enables you to store the maximum amount of data for the lowest cost and accommodate rapid data growth while consuming less space. You can use technologies such as RAID-DP, FlexVol, Snapshot copies, deduplication, data compression, SnapMirror, and FlexClone to increase storage utilization and decrease storage costs. When used together, these technologies help to achieve increased performance.
Considerations when moving volumes
Moving a volume has many considerations and recommendations that are influenced by the volume you are moving or by the system configuration. You should understand the considerations associated with moving volumes.