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Reasons for using FlexClone LUNs

Contributors netapp-aherbin
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You can use FlexClone LUNs to create multiple read/write copies of a LUN.

You might want to do this for the following reasons:

  • You need to create a temporary copy of a LUN for testing purposes.

  • You need to make a copy of your data available to additional users without giving them access to the production data.

  • You want to create a clone of a database for manipulation and projection operations, while preserving the original data in an unaltered form.

  • You want to access a specific subset of a LUN's data (a specific logical volume or file system in a volume group, or a specific file or set of files in a file system) and copy it to the original LUN, without restoring the rest of the data in the original LUN. This works on operating systems that support mounting a LUN and a clone of the LUN at the same time. SnapDrive for UNIX supports this with the snap connect command.

  • You need multiple SAN boot hosts with the same operating system.