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Thin clones are based on snapshot technology and are a great way to present a read/write copy of databases. They are the preferred way to use snapshots for presenting database copies because they have many of the same data services as a regular LUN. Thin clones present SQL Server database copies in a fast and space-efficient manner that cannot be performed with traditional SQL Server tools. After the thin clone is presented to the host, the volumes can be brought online, and the database is attached using the attach database method in SQL Server.
When using the refresh feature with thin clones, make sure to take all databases offline that are contained on the thin clone before performing the refresh operation. SQL Server is unaware of the thin-clone-based LUNs being reverted. Failure to offline databases before this operation can result in data inconsistency errors or incorrect data results from SQL Server.