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Does FabricPool data tiering change ONTAP metadata?

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generalsupport
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Applies to

FabricPool
Commvault backup solutions

Answer

FabricPool data tiering in NetApp ONTAP does not update or modify file or inode metadata (mtime, atime, ctime, inode attributes). Tiering operates at the block level—cold data blocks are moved from the performance tier to the capacity tier (object store), while file metadata remains logically unchanged in the performance tier. However, backup solutions such as Commvault may trigger a full backup and metadata re-index if they detect large-scale metadata changes or require data hydration (retrieving tiered data back to the performance tier). This hydration process can delay backup operations and may indirectly cause backup jobs to run longer, but it is not due to direct metadata modification by FabricPool tiering. If Commvault uses Network Data Management Protocol (NDMP) for backup, read operations on tiered data may be slower and could lead to timeouts, causing a fallback to full backup.

Additional Information

For more details on FabricPool tiering and metadata behavior, see How does FabricPool inactive data reporting work (https://kb.netapp.com/on-prem/ontap/...reporting_work). For troubleshooting slow NDMP backups on FabricPool tiered volumes, refer to KB: Slow NDMP backup on FabricPool tiered volumes (https://kb.netapp.com/on-prem/ontap/...tiered_volumes).
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