Is it possible to delete a SnapLock Compliance aggregate/Volume?
Applies to
- SnapLock
- ONTAP 9
- Tamperproof Snapshot (TPS) copies
Answer
Deletion commands on a SnapLock Compliance volume or aggregate only succeeds if all the WORM records and files with specified retention periods have expired and have been removed from the volume, the same applies toTamperproof Snapshot (TPS) copies.
| SnapLock Type | Snapshot Locking enable (TPS) | Can I delete the Volume? |
| not expired Compliance data | true or false | No |
| not expired Enterprise data | false | Yes |
| Any | true and not expired snapshots | No |
Note: Cloud Volumes ONTAP (CVO) systems have limitations on SnapLock protection due to operating under a "trusted storage administrator" model. While WORM files or snapshots are protected from alteration or modification, volumes can be deleted by a cluster administrator even if those volumes contain unexpired WORM data. At the cloud administrator level, volumes can be removed by editing cloud storage directly from the cloud provider.
Additional Information
- What SnapLock is
- SnapLock Compliance restrictions (page 7)
- SnapLock and tamperproof snapshots for ransomware protection
- Learn about WORM storage on CVO
- Create tamperproof Snapshot copies of WORM files on Cloud Volumes ONTAP
- How to identify TPS Snapshots:
cluster1::> volume snapshot show -volume SnapshotLock -fields snaplock-expiry-time vserver volume snapshot snaplock-expiry-time------- ------------ ---------------------- --------------------svm1 SnapshotLock hourly.2026-03-09_1705 -svm1 SnapshotLock locked2027 3/9/2027 12:00:00 +00:002 entries were displayed.