A volume begins running out of space due to many long-retention Snapshots. Performance drops as WAFL struggles to write new data. Which ONTAP feature solves this automatically?

• A. Volume autosize
• B. Snapshot autodelete
• C. SnapMirror cascade
• D. FabricPool tiering

Answer: (B)

Automatic space reclamation from snapshots is what solves this scenario. Snapshots preserve point-in-time data, but they consume space. When a volume has many long-retention snapshots, free space can disappear and WAFL may struggle to allocate new blocks, causing performance to drop. Snapshot autodelete automatically frees space by removing older, non-protected snapshots as soon as the volume runs low on free space, so writes can proceed and performance improves. This keeps recent restore points intact while reclaiming space behind the scenes. Other options don’t address the immediate need to reclaim snapshot-occupied space: volume autosize would grow the volume if there’s available capacity but doesn’t specifically purge snapshots; FabricPool tiering moves data off the primary, not the snapshot housekeeping; SnapMirror cascade relates to replication, not space management.