Autonomous Ransomware protection (ARP) for FlexGroup volumes, including the following supported functionality:
- FlexGroup expand operations: A new constituent inherits Autonomous Ransomware Protection attributes.
- FlexVol to FlexGroup conversions: Conversions of FlexVols with active Autonomous Ransomware Protection is possible.
- FlexGroup rebalancing: Autonomous Ransomware Protection is supported during disruptive and non-disruptive rebalancing operations.
Schedule a single FlexGroup rebalancing operation.
SnapMirror fanout relationships with SVM DR on FlexGroup volumes. Supports fanout to eight sites.

Features supported beginning with ONTAP 9.12.1

FlexGroup rebalancing
SnapLock for SnapVault
SVM migrate
FabricPool, FlexGroup, and SVM DR working in conjunction. (In releases earlier than ONTAP 9.12.1, any two of these features worked together, but not all three in conjunction.)
FlexGroup volume constituent size up to a maximum of 300 TB on ETERNUS AX/HX Series when using ONTAP 9.12.1 P2 and later.

Features supported beginning with ONTAP 9.11.1

SnapLock volumes

SnapLock does not support the following features with FlexGroup volumes:
- Legal-hold
- Event-based retention
- SnapLock for SnapVault

You configure SnapLock at the FlexGroup level. You cannot configure SnapLock at the constituent level.

What SnapLock is

Client asynchronous directory delete

Manage client rights to delete directories rapidly

Features supported beginning with ONTAP 9.10.1

Convert FlexVol volumes to FlexGroup volumes in an SVM-DR source

Convert a FlexVol volume to a FlexGroup volume within an SVM-DR relationship
SVM DR FlexClone support for FlexGroup volumes

Learn more about creating FlexClone volumes.

Features supported beginning with ONTAP 9.9.1

SVM disaster recovery

Cloning a FlexGroup volume that is part of an SVM-DR relationship is not supported.
SnapMirror fanout relationships of 2 or more (A to B, A to C), with a maximum of 8 fanout legs.

Considerations for creating SnapMirror cascade and fanout relationships for FlexGroups
SnapMirror cascading relationships up to two levels (A to B to C)

Considerations for creating SnapMirror cascade and fanout relationships for FlexGroups

Features supported beginning with ONTAP 9.8

Restoring a single file from a FlexGroup SnapMirror vault or from a UDP destination
- Restore can be from a FlexGroup volume of any geometry to FlexGroup volume of any geometry
- Only one file per restore operation is supported
Converting volumes transitioned from 7-mode systems to FlexGroup volumes
NFSv4.2
Asynchronous delete of files and directories
Files System Analytics (FSA)
FlexGroup as a VMware vSphere datastore
Additional support for tape backup and restore using NDMP, including the following features:
- NDMP restartable backup extension (RBE) and Snapshot Management Extension (SSME)
- Environment variables EXCLUDE and MULTI_SUBTREE_NAMES support FlexGroup backups
- Introduction of IGNORE_CTIME_MTIME environment variable for FlexGroup backups
- Individual file recovery in a FlexGroup using the NDMP_SNAP_RECOVER message, which is part of extension 0x2050 Dump and restore sessions are aborted during an upgrade or revert.

Features supported beginning with ONTAP 9.7

FlexClone volume
NFSv4 and NFSv4.1
pNFS
Tape backup and restore by using NDMP

You must be aware of the following points for NDMP support on FlexGroup volumes:
- The NDMP_SNAP_RECOVER message in the extension class 0x2050 can be used only for recovering an entire FlexGroup volume.
  
  Individual files in a FlexGroup volume cannot be recovered.
- NDMP restartable backup extension (RBE) is not supported for FlexGroup volumes.
- Environment variables EXCLUDE and MULTI_SUBTREE_NAMES are not supported for FlexGroup volumes.
- The ndmpcopy command is supported for data transfer between FlexVol and FlexGroup volumes.
VMware vStorage APIs for Array Integration (VAAI)
Conversion of a FlexVol volume to a FlexGroup volume
FlexGroup volumes as FlexCache origin volumes
Continuously available SMB shares
MetroCluster configurations
Renaming a FlexGroup volume (volume rename command)
Shrinking or reducing the size of a FlexGroup volume (volume size command)
Elastic sizing
Aggregate encryption (AE)
Cloud Volumes ONTAP
ODX copy offload
Storage-Level Access Guard
Enhancements to change notifications for SMB shares

Change notifications are sent for changes to the parent directory on which the changenotify property is set and for changes to all of the subdirectories in that parent directory.
FabricPool
Quota enforcement
Qtree statistics
Adaptive QoS for files in FlexGroup volumes
FlexCache (cache only; FlexGroup as origin supported in ONTAP 9.7)
FPolicy
File auditing
Throughput floor (QoS Min) and adaptive QoS for FlexGroup volumes
Throughput ceiling (QoS Max) and throughput floor (QoS Min) for files in FlexGroup volumes

You use the volume file modify command to manage the QoS policy group that is associated with a file.
Relaxed SnapMirror limits
SMB 3.x multichannel
Antivirus configuration
Change notifications for SMB shares

Notifications are sent only for changes to the parent directory on which the changenotify property is set. Change notifications are not sent for changes to subdirectories in the parent directory.
Qtrees
Throughput ceiling (QoS Max)
Expand the source FlexGroup volume and destination FlexGroup volume in a SnapMirror relationship
SnapVault backup and restore
Unified data protection relationships
Autogrow option and autoshrink option
Inode count factored to ingest
Volume encryption
Aggregate inline deduplication (cross-volume deduplication)
Volume encryption (VE)

FlexGroup volumes were introduced in ONTAP 9.7, with support for several ONTAP features.

SnapMirror technology
Snapshot copies
Active IQ
Inline adaptive compression
Inline deduplication
Inline data compaction
ETERNUS AX
Quota reporting
Snapshot technology
SnapRestore software (FlexGroup level)
Hybrid aggregates
Constituent or member volume move
Postprocess deduplication
RAID-TEC technology
Per-aggregate consistency point
Sharing FlexGroup with FlexVol volume in the same SVM

Unsupported configurations in ONTAP 9

Unsupported protocols	Unsupported data protection features	Other unsupported ONTAP features
pNFS SMB 1.0 SAN	SnapLock volumes (ONTAP 9.10.1 and earlier) SMTape Synchronous SnapMirror SVM DR with FlexGroup volumes containing FabricPools	Remote Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS)

Unsupported protocols

Unsupported data protection features

Other unsupported ONTAP features

pNFS
SMB 1.0
SAN

SnapLock volumes (ONTAP 9.10.1 and earlier)
SMTape
Synchronous SnapMirror
SVM DR with FlexGroup volumes containing FabricPools

Remote Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS)

Related information

Fujitsu Manual Site