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Storage : Volumes : Understanding volumes : How flexible volumes work
How flexible volumes work
Flexible volumes (also called FlexVol volumes) allow you to manage the logical layer of the file system independently of the physical layer of storage. Multiple FlexVol volumes can exist within a single separate, physically defined aggregate structure of disks and RAID groups. FlexVol volumes contained by the same aggregate share the physical storage resources, RAID configuration, and plex structure of that aggregate.
FlexVol volumes represent a significant administrative improvement over traditional volumes. Using multiple FlexVol volumes enables you to do the following:
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Perform administrative and maintenance tasks (for example, backup and restore) on individual FlexVol volumes rather than on a single, large file system.
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Set services (for example, Snapshot copy schedules) differently for individual FlexVol volumes.
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Minimize interruptions in data availability by taking individual FlexVol volumes offline to perform administrative tasks on them while the other FlexVol volumes remain online.
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Save time by backing up and restoring individual FlexVol volumes instead of all the file systems an aggregate contains.

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