A cluster snapshot has the following characteristics:

• A snapshot for a cluster-mounted file system can be mounted on any node in a cluster. The file system can be a primary, secondary, or secondary-only. A stable image of the file system is provided for writes from any node.

• Multiple snapshots of a cluster file system can be mounted on the same or a different node in a cluster.

• A snapshot is accessible only on the node mounting a snapshot. The snapshot device cannot be mounted on two different nodes simultaneously.

• The device for mounting a snapshot can be a local disk or a shared volume. A shared volume is used exclusively by a snapshot mount and is not usable from other nodes in a cluster as long as the snapshot is active on that device.

• On the node mounting a snapshot, the snapped file system cannot be unmounted while the snapshot is mounted.

• A cluster file system snapshot ceases to exist if it is unmounted or the node mounting the snapshot fails. A snapshot, however, is not affected if any other node leaves or joins the cluster.

• A snapshot of a read-only mounted file system cannot be taken. It is possible to mount a snapshot of a cluster file system only if the snapped cluster file system is mounted with the crw option.