A removable Storage Checkpoint can self-destruct under certain conditions when the file system runs out of space.

See Storage Checkpoint space management considerations.

During user operations such as create or mkdir, if the file system runs out of space, removable Storage Checkpoints are deleted, even if the Storage Checkpoints are mounted. This ensures that applications can continue without interruptions due to lack of disk space. Non-removable Storage Checkpoints are not automatically removed under such ENOSPC conditions. Symantec recommends that you create only removable Storage Checkpoints. However, during certain administrative operations, such as fsadm, even if the file system runs out of space, removable Storage Checkpoints are not deleted.

Storage Checkpoints are created as non-removable by default. The default behavior can be changed so that VxFS creates removable Storage Checkpoints by using the vxtunefs -D ckpt_removable=1 command. With the default set to create removable Storage Checkpoints, non-removable Storage Checkpoints can be created using fsckptadm -R create ckpt_name mount_point command.

See the vxtunefs(1M) and fsckptadm(1M) manual pages.