netapp – disabling and deleting snapshots

16 Jul 2009

Netapp volumes by default are created with snapshots turned on; if the volume is being used for backups (for example), the snapshots just use up space.

Here’s how to delete them:

df vm_dev                     # see space usage for vm_dev volume
snap sched vm_dev             # see the current snapshot schedule
snap sched vm_dev 0 0 0       # zero out the current schedule
vol options vm_dev nosnap on  # disable snapshots (not required, but "belts and braces")
snap delete -a vm_dev         # delete all old snapshots

On a multi terabyte volume, the actual deletion can take a while – don’t expect the space to return immediately.

See Netapp’s “Data Protection Online Backup and Recovery Guide” for more details.