Every storage system must have a root volume. Therefore, you must always have one volume designated as the root volume. However, you can change which volume on your storage system is used as the root volume.
Considerations
You might want to change the storage system's root volume, for example, when you migrate your root volume from a traditional volume to a FlexVol volume. To change your root volume from a traditional volume to a FlexVol volume or from a FlexVol volume to a traditional volume, use the procedure outlined in the chapter about volumes in the Data ONTAP Storage Management Guide.
Steps
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Identify an existing volume to use as the new root volume, or create the new root volume using the vol create command.
For more information about creating volumes, see the Data ONTAP Storage Management Guide.
Note: The required minimum size for the root volume varies depending on the storage system model. If the volume is too small to become the new root volume, you are prevented from setting the root option.
- Using ndmpcopy, copy the /etc directory and all of its subdirectories from the current root volume to the new root volume. For more information about ndmpcopy, see the Data ONTAP Data Protection Tape Backup and Recovery Guide.
- Enter the following command: vol options vol_name root
vol_name is the name of the new root volume.
Note: After a volume is designated to become the root volume, it cannot be brought offline or restricted.
Note: Besides the volume root option that you use to determine which volume will be the root volume after the next storage system reboot, there is also an aggregate root option. The aggregate root option is used only when, for some reason, the storage system cannot determine which volume to use as the root volume.
You are advised not to change the value of the root option for any aggregate unless instructed to do so by technical support.
- Enter the following command to reboot the storage system: reboot
When the storage system finishes rebooting, the root volume is changed to the specified volume.
- Update the httpd.rootdir option to point to the new root volume.
