A qtree is a logically defined file system that can exist as a special subdirectory of the root directory within either a traditional volume or a flexible volume. You can create up to 4995 qtrees per volume.
You might create a qtree for one or more of the following reasons:
You can easily create qtrees for managing and partitioning your data within the volume.
You can create a qtree to assign user- or workgroup-based soft or hard usage quotas to limit the amount of storage space that a specified user or group of users can use on the qtree to which they have access.
In general, qtrees are similar to volumes. However, they have the following key differences:
Snapshots can be enabled or disabled for individual volumes but not for individual qtrees.
Qtrees do not support space reservations or space guarantees.
You can use qtrees regardless of whether quotas are enabled on your filer. There are no restrictions on how much disk space can be used by the qtree or how many files can exist in the qtree.
For more information about qtrees, see the Data ONTAP Storage Management Guide.