Dell EMC PowerVault MD 34XX/38XX Series Storage Arrays Administrator's Guide

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Creating a snapshot virtual disk of a snapshot image

You create a snapshot virtual disk to provide host access to a snapshot image within a snapshot group. A read-write snapshot virtual disk has its own repository that is used to save any subsequent modifications made by the host application to the base virtual disk without affecting the referenced snapshot image.

The snapshot virtual disk can be designated as either read-only or read-write:

A read-only snapshot virtual disk provides a host application with READ access to a copy of the data contained in the snapshot image, but without the ability to modify the snapshot image. A read-only snapshot virtual disk does not have an associated repository.
A read-write snapshot virtual disk requires an associated repository to provide the host application with WRITE access to a copy of the data contained in the snapshot image.