What's the difference between a regular clone and Instant Clone?
Applicable Products
- QuTS hero h5.x and later
- Storage & Snapshots
Details
QuTS hero provides two snapshot clone methods: a regular clone method and Instant Clone. Each method has its own advantages and limitations. Refer to the table below for a comparison of their features.
| Feature | Regular Clone | Instant Clone |
| Requirements | - | iSCSI service must be enabled for cloning LUNs. For details, see iSCSI & Fibre Channel global settings. |
| Cloning duration | Longer | Shorter |
| Required space | Normal | Less space required for cloning a thin shared folder or a thin LUN |
| Cloned shared folders/LUNs can be a source for Snapshot Replica jobs | Yes | No |
| Cloned shared folders/LUNs can be a source for SnapSync jobs | Yes | No |
| After cloning, you can revert to an earlier snapshot | Yes | No All Instant Clone shared folders/LUNs of the snapshot must be deleted first. |
| After cloning, the snapshot can be deleted | Yes | No All Instant Clone shared folders/LUNs of the snapshot must be deleted first. |
| After cloning, the original shared folder/LUN of the snapshot can be deleted | Yes | No All of the original shared folder/LUN's snapshots which have Instant Clone shared folders/LUNs must be deleted first. |
Further Reading
For details, see the "Snapshot clone" section in the QuTS hero User Guide.
For further assistance, ask other users and QNAP experts in the community. Go to QNAP Community
