NetApp FlexVol
Flexible Volumes (or FlexVol) are a major advantage of the NetApp storage. Using virtualisation, the FlexVol is not tied to the physical storage elements. Each FlexVol can be sized accurately according to requirements, ranging in size from 20MB to 16TB.
Even FlexVols that are small in size still span across all disks in the filer (excluding hot spares). This enables far higher utilisation of raw disk than can be achieved in a traditional environment, and performance guarantees.
FlexVols can be increased or decreased in size, on-line whilst serving data. Additional disk capacity can be added to the filer without any disruption to services, by adding disks in free slots or by adding additional shelves.
Not only is their no downtime, but also unlike competitive products the RAID group can be increased in size, on the fly, without any downtime and without any performance impact or copying of data.
NetApp FlexClone
FlexVol is complemented by NetApp FlexClone, which allows instant replication of data volumes and sets. FlexClone volumes are transparent, virtual copies, optimised for storage space usage
Together FlexVol and FlexClone provide advanced data storage management features, for a wide range of applications including development/deployment testing, simulations and staging as well as day-to-day operational management.