Deleting a Snapshot copy

You should delete older SnapDrive Snapshot copies to keep the number of stored Snapshot copies less than the hard limit of 255 for Data ONTAP and to free space on the storage system volume. Be sure to delete old Snapshot copies before the hard limit is reached; otherwise, subsequent Snapshot copies could fail. Even before the Snapshot copy limit is reached, a Snapshot copy fails if insufficient reserved space for it remains on the disk.

Steps

1. Perform the following actions:
   1. In the left MMC pane, select the instance of SnapDrive you want to manage.
   2. Double-click Disks.
   3. Select the LUN whose Snapshot copy you want to delete.
2. In the right MMC pane, select the Snapshot copy you want to delete.
   Note: You can only delete a Snapshot copy that is consistent with the LUN. Inconsistent Snapshot copies are not available for deletion.

3. From the menu choices on top of MMC, click Action > Delete.

   The Delete Snapshot panel is displayed.

4. In the Delete Snapshot panel, click Yes to delete the Snapshot copy you selected.
   Note: If you get an error message stating that the Snapshot copy is busy or cannot be deleted, it is likely that the Snapshot copy is in use by a LUN that is backed by a Snapshot copy.

• Problems deleting Snapshot copies due to busy snapshot error
  If you attempt to delete a Snapshot copy and you get an error message saying that the Snapshot copy is busy and cannot be deleted, you either have a Snapshot copy that was taken of a LUN backed by another Snapshot copy or the Snapshot copy backed LUN is still connected.