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Move a FlexVol volume overview

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You can move or copy volumes for capacity utilization, improved performance, and to satisfy service-level agreements. Knowing how moving a FlexVol volume works helps you to determine whether the volume move satisfies service-level agreements and to understand where a volume move is in the volume move process.

FlexVol volumes are moved from one aggregate or node to another within the same storage virtual machine (SVM). A volume move does not disrupt client access during the move.

Note During the cutover phase of a volume move operation, you cannot create FlexClone files or FlexClone LUNs of a FlexVol volume.

Moving a volume occurs in multiple phases:

  • A new volume is made on the destination aggregate.

  • The data from the original volume is copied to the new volume.

    During this time, the original volume is intact and available for clients to access.

  • At the end of the move process, client access is temporarily blocked.

    During this time the system performs a final replication from the source volume to the destination volume, swaps the identities of the source and destination volumes, and changes the destination volume to the source volume.

  • After completing the move, the system routes client traffic to the new source volume and resumes client access.

The move is not disruptive to client access because the time in which client access is blocked ends before clients notice a disruption and time out. Client access is blocked for 35 seconds by default. If the volume move operation cannot finish in the time that access is denied, the system aborts this final phase of the volume move operation and allows client access. The system attempts the final phase three times by default. After the third attempt, the system waits an hour before attempting the final phase sequence again. The system runs the final phase of the volume move operation until the volume move is complete.