In Data ONTAP 7.3 and later, part of the metadata resides in the volume and part of it resides in the aggregate outside the volume. The fingerprint database and the change log files are located outside the volume in the aggregate, and are therefore not locked in Snapshot copies.
This change enables deduplication to achieve higher space savings. However, some other temporary metadata files created during the deduplication operation are still placed inside the volume. These temporary metadata files are deleted after the deduplication operation is complete. These temporary metadata files can get locked in the Snapshot copies that are created during a deduplication operation. The metadata files remain locked until the Snapshot copies are deleted.
Therefore, there are some changes in the behavior of block-level copy operations such as volume SnapMirror, vol copy, FlexClone, and volume SnapRestore.