topic Re: I want to know if there are any best practices as to when to use a volume vs when to use a Qtrees. in Network and Storage Protocols

I want to know if there are any best practices as to when to use a volume vs when to use a Qtrees.

RMAMIDI83 — Thu, 05 Jun 2025 05:39:20 GMT

Hello Folks,

I am trying to understand if there are any best practices as to when to use a volume vs Qtrees. I was planning to create separate volumes for all the CIFS shares I am creating in my environment (around 10 approx). Is it good idea to create just one volume and create Qtrees for all the required File Shares. Please suggest.

Thanks

Raj

Re: I want to know if there are any best practices as to when to use a volume vs when to use a Qtrees.

resqme914 — Thu, 27 Mar 2014 15:07:21 GMT

In my opinion (and this is just my opinion) I would avoid qtrees unless you really have a need to use it. Here is a link to a comparison between qtrees and flexvols... https://library.netapp.com/ecmdocs/ECMP1196986/html/GUID-9E562EC3-9566-4CB5-A10A-018A92368F07.html

Re: I want to know if there are any best practices as to when to use a volume vs when to use a Qtrees.

billshaffer — Thu, 27 Mar 2014 17:05:35 GMT

In general, I agree with resqme about avoiding qtrees - but, there are some variables and caveats.

Creating a single volume for all the shares will let you dedupe all the data together, which is good. You can create the shares at a sub-volume level (cifs shares -add share /vol/vol1/dir1) without creating a qtree at dir1. If you want to use quotas at the share level, though, you'll either need to use qtrees or split the shares into different volumes.

If you think you may want to snapmirror the data in the future - if you only want to do it share level, then the shares will have to be in qtrees or seperate volumes.

Bill