In ONTAP 9.5, for a Sync policy, you need to consider a few important aspects while selecting the NFSv3 or NFSv4 workloads. The amount of data read or write operations by workloads is not a consideration, as Sync policy can handle high read or write IO workloads. In ONTAP 9.5, workloads that have excessive file creation, directory creation, file permission changes, or directory permission changes may not be suitable (these are referred to as high-metadata workloads). A typical example of a high-metadata workload is a DevOps workload in which you create multiple test files, run automation, and delete the files. Another example is parallel build workload that generate multiple temporary files during compilation. The impact of a high rate of write metadata activity is that it can cause synchronization between mirrors to temporarily break which stalls the read and write IOs from the client.

Beginning with ONTAP 9.6, these limitations are removed and SnapMirror synchronous can be used for enterprise file services workloads that include multiuser environments, such as home directories and software build workloads.

SnapMirror synchronous Configuration and Best Practices