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How deleting protected files can lead to less file space than expected

Contributors netapp-aaron-holt netapp-aherbin
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A snapshot points to a block even after you delete the file that used the block. This explains why an exhausted snapshot reserve might lead to the counter-intuitive result in which deleting an entire file system results in less space being available than the file system occupied.

Consider the following example. Before deleting any files, the df command output is as follows:

Filesystem          kbytes  used    avail  capacity
/vol/vol0/          3000000 3000000 0       100%
/vol/vol0/.snapshot 1000000 500000  500000   50%

After deleting the entire file system and making a snapshot of the volume, the df command generates the following output:

Filesystem          kbytes  used    avail  capacity
/vol/vol0/          3000000 2500000 500000   83%
/vol/vol0/.snapshot 1000000 3500000 0       350%

As the output shows, the entire 3 GB formerly used by the active file system is now being used by snapshots, in addition to the 0.5 GB used before the deletion.

Because the disk space used by the snapshots now exceeds the snapshot reserve, the overflow of 2.5 GB “spills” into the space reserved for active files, leaving you with 0.5 GB free space for files where you might reasonably have expected 3 GB.