File FlexClone on NTFS within SAN lun

[vital_bsatu_by]

TR-3742(http://media.netapp.com/documents/tr-3742.pdf) states:

2.6 CREATING A FLEXCLONE INSTANCE OF A FILE IN A SAN ENVIRONMENT

...

Host-side tool support is needed to integrate the cloned data blocks into the host file system and to present the cloned file to the host file system.

Though TR-3742 is dated 2010 I can't find any trace of real-world implementation of file FlexClone. What I need is the way to clone VHD files on a CSV LUN used in Hyper-V virtualization cluster.

Is file FlexClone really implemented, or does the feature exist only on paper? If it really exists, how can I use it (preferably from a PS script)? If it is a waporware, are there any plans to implement it in the real world?

[radek_kubka]

This is definitely coming as a real thing - I've seen some slides describing this functionality on Hyper-V (not sure whether it depends on SnapDrive, SnapManager for Hyper-V, or both)

Regards,

Radek

[vital_bsatu_by]

May be you've seen LUN FlexClone example on those slides? - that's not what I'm looking for.

[radek_kubka]

Nope - it was definitely about sub-LUN cloning.

[vital_bsatu_by]

Can you remember any time frame of the feature release from the slides? No current software (including PowerShell Toolkit 1.6 released today) support this feature yet.

[winfield · Accepted solution]

Hi Guys

This is already available to you chaps today, via the powershell commandlets that come with the oncommand for Microsoft environments plugin.

You can view the PowerShell based demonstration here .

Let me know if you need anything else

R

Steve

[radek_kubka]

Thanks for that Steve - you are a star!

[vital_bsatu_by]

Thank you!

Also I can't get it working yet, that seems to be exactly what I was looking for!