What's the difference between a regular clone and Instant Clone?
Last modified date:
2025-07-01
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.
