What is FlexClone and what problem does it solve?

• A. FlexClone cloness data but doubles storage usage.
• B. FlexClone is a backup method requiring full data copies.
• C. FlexClone is a legacy feature not used in modern ONTAP.
• D. FlexClone creates space-efficient clones of FlexVols or qtrees, enabling rapid testing and development without duplicating data.

Answer: (D)

FlexClone is a way to create writable, space-efficient copies of NetApp FlexVols or qtrees. It works by using copy-on-write and data block sharing, so the clone initially references the same data blocks as the source rather than duplicating all the data. The clone becomes independent only when writes occur; only the modified blocks are stored separately. This makes provisioning many test and development environments fast and storage-efficient, since you don’t copy the entire dataset. It’s ideal for rapid testing, development, QA, and sandbox environments, and you can delete clones when they’re no longer needed to reclaim space.