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Improve Microsoft remote copy performance overview

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Microsoft Offloaded Data Transfer (ODX), also known as copy offload, enables direct data transfers within or between compatible storage devices without transferring the data through the host computer.

ONTAP supports ODX for both the SMB and SAN protocols. The source can be either a CIFS server or LUN, and the destination can be either a CIFS server or LUN.

In non-ODX file transfers, the data is read from the source and is transferred across the network to the client computer. The client computer transfers the data back over the network to the destination. In summary, the client computer reads the data from the source and writes it to the destination. With ODX file transfers, data is copied directly from the source to the destination.

Because ODX offloaded copies are performed directly between the source and destination storage, there are significant performance benefits. The performance benefits realized include faster copy time between source and destination, reduced resource utilization (CPU, memory) on the client, and reduced network I/O bandwidth utilization.

For SMB environments, this functionality is only available when both the client and the storage server support SMB 3.0 and the ODX feature. For SAN environments, this functionality is only available when both the client and the storage server support the ODX feature. Client computers that support ODX and have ODX enabled automatically and transparently use offloaded file transfer when moving or copying files. ODX is used irrespective of whether you drag-and-drop files through Windows Explorer or use command-line file copy commands, or whether a client application initiates file copy requests.

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