Hi,
My Name is Chriz Ott and I'm working in the Transition Team at NetApp. Great Question, we see those frequently.
In order to transition and convert 7-mode folder structures into cDOT you might want to take a look at the rapiddata planner available in the SW download area. Note: (I'm not saying use rapiddata for the transition, as it is an appliance and nfsv3 only). The planner has a gui that can create cli commands to change structures from folders to volumes or qtrees and vice versa ( so much for simplifying the configuration)
The data copy process would then be as described by Richard.
In general there might not be a single correct answer whether to use qtrees or not, I have had good experience with qtrees especially for quota, as all data in the qtree counts toward the limit, whereas with the user quota system owned files do not count towards the limit.
Hope that helps, let me know if I can be of any additional help.
Cheers chriz
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