Home > Storage > PowerFlex > White Papers > Dell PowerFlex: Snapshots > Snapshot independence
PowerFlex does not rigidly enforce the parent-child relationships in a V-Tree. It is possible to overwrite the contents of one snapshot with the contents from any other snapshot. In the following example, we have a root volume, a snapshot of the root volume, and a snapshot of the snapshot.
Figure 6. Base volume, snapshot, and a snapshot of a snapshot
We can remove the root (or source) volume and choose whether we want to delete the descendent snapshots.
Figure 7. Detail of the volume deletion action
Alternatively, we might choose to overwrite the contents of the root volume with the contents of a child or ‘grandchild’ snapshot. Select the root volume as our target.
Figure 8. Select volume to overwrite
Then select the volume whose contents you want to use for the overwrite. You can select the time range in which to search for the snapshot you want. In this case, we will use the snapshot of a snapshot.
Figure 9. Select the source volume
Click the Overwrite Content button to start the overwrite process. PowerFlex Manager will warn of the destructiveness of the process.
Figure 10. Overwrite volume review
In general, there are few if any limits on the possible manipulations of members of a V-Tree. This sort of flexibility is useful in development scenarios wherein a gold copy might be used to develop and test many iterations and versions.