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FlexVol volumes and reclaiming free space with autodelete overview

Contributors netapp-aaron-holt netapp-dbagwell netapp-aherbin
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You can enable the autodelete setting of a FlexVol volume to automatically delete FlexClone files and FlexClone LUNs. By enabling autodelete, you can reclaim a target amount of free space in the volume when a volume is nearly full.

You can configure a volume to automatically start deleting FlexClone files and FlexClone LUNs when the free space in the volume decreases below a particular threshold value, and automatically stop deleting clones when a target amount of free space in the volume is reclaimed. Although, you cannot specify the threshold value that starts the automatic deletion of clones, you can specify whether a clone is eligible for deletion, and you can specify the target amount of free space for a volume.

A volume automatically deletes FlexClone files and FlexClone LUNs when the free space in the volume decreases below a particular threshold and when both of the following requirements are met:

  • The autodelete capability is enabled for the volume that contains the FlexClone files and FlexClone LUNs.

    You can enable the autodelete capability for a FlexVol volume by using the volume snapshot autodelete modify command. You must set the -trigger parameter to volume or snap_reserve for a volume to automatically delete FlexClone files and FlexClone LUNs. Learn more about volume snapshot autodelete modify in the ONTAP command reference.

  • The autodelete capability is enabled for the FlexClone files and FlexClone LUNs.

    You can enable autodelete for a FlexClone file or FlexClone LUN by using the file clone create command with the -autodelete parameter. As a result, you can preserve certain FlexClone files and FlexClone LUNs by disabling autodelete for the clones and ensuring that other volume settings do not override the clone setting. Learn more about file clone create in the ONTAP command reference.