Storage Checkpoints differ from Veritas File System snapshots in the following ways because they:
Allow write operations to the Storage Checkpoint itself.
Persist after a system reboot or failure.
Share the same pool of free space as the file system.
Maintain a relationship with other Storage Checkpoints by identifying changed file blocks since the last Storage Checkpoint.
Can have multiple, read-only Storage Checkpoints that reduce I/O operations and required storage space because the most recent Storage Checkpoint is the only one that accumulates updates from the primary file system.
Can restore the file system to its state at the time that the Storage Checkpoint was taken.
Various backup and replication solutions can take advantage of Storage Checkpoints. The ability of Storage Checkpoints to track the file system blocks that have changed since the last Storage Checkpoint facilitates backup and replication applications that only need to retrieve the changed data. Storage Checkpoints significantly minimize data movement and may promote higher availability and data integrity by increasing the frequency of backup and replication solutions.
Storage Checkpoints can be taken in environments with a large number of files, such as file servers with millions of files, with little adverse impact on performance. Because the file system does not remain frozen during Storage Checkpoint creation, applications can access the file system even while the Storage Checkpoint is taken. However, Storage Checkpoint creation may take several minutes to complete depending on the number of files in the file system.