Using deleted active file disk space

When enough disk space is available for Snapshot copies in the Snapshot reserve, deleting files in the active file system frees disk space for new files, while the Snapshot copies that reference those files consume only the space in the Snapshot reserve.

Considerations

If Data ONTAP created a Snapshot copy when the disks were full, deleting files from the active file system would not create any free space because everything in the active file system would also be referenced by the newly created Snapshot copy. Data ONTAP would have to delete the Snapshot copy before it could create any new files.

Example

The following example shows how disk space being freed by deleting files in the active file system ends up in the Snapshot copy:

If Data ONTAP creates a Snapshot copy when the active file system is full and there is still space remaining in the Snapshot reserve, the output from the df command—which displays statistics about the amount of disk space on a volume—is as follows:

Filesystem          kbytes  used    avail  capacity
/vol/vol0/          3000000 3000000 0      100%
/vol/vol0/.snapshot 1000000 500000  500000 50%

If you delete 100,000 KB (0.1 GB) of files, the disk space used by these files is no longer part of the active file system, so the space is reassigned to the Snapshot copies instead.

Data ONTAP reassigns 100,000 KB (0.1 GB) of space from the active file system to the Snapshot reserve. Because there was reserve space for Snapshot copies, deleting files from the active file system freed space for new files. If you enter the df command again, the output is as follows:

Filesystem  	       kbytes   used     avail  capacity
/vol/vol0/          3000000  2900000  100000  97%
/vol/vol0/.snapshot 1000000  600000   400000  60%

Parent topic: What the Snapshot reserve is