Which ONTAP feature would you use to create test environments from production with minimal storage usage?

Which ONTAP feature would you use to create test environments from production with minimal storage usage?

• A. FlexClone Volume
• B. SnapMirror Synchronous
• C. FlexGroup Volume
• D. SnapVault

Answer: (A)

FlexClone is the feature you’d use. It creates writable clones of a volume or qtree using a copy-on-write mechanism, so the clone initially references the same data as the production volume. Only when test processes modify data do new blocks get written, which keeps storage usage to a minimum while giving you a fully functional test environment. While other options relate to replication or scalable storage, they don’t provide the same space-efficient cloning capability. SnapMirror Synchronous mirrors data for real-time DR, SnapVault is for backups, and FlexGroup is for large, scalable volumes—not for creating writable, space-efficient test clones.

FlexClone is the feature you’d use. It creates writable clones of a volume or qtree using a copy-on-write mechanism, so the clone initially references the same data as the production volume. Only when test processes modify data do new blocks get written, which keeps storage usage to a minimum while giving you a fully functional test environment.

While other options relate to replication or scalable storage, they don’t provide the same space-efficient cloning capability. SnapMirror Synchronous mirrors data for real-time DR, SnapVault is for backups, and FlexGroup is for large, scalable volumes—not for creating writable, space-efficient test clones.