BrickStor SP allows you to select a snapshot to clone, which will create a writeable version of the snapshot without modifying the snapshot. Only changes to the clone will take additional capacity on disk. You can choose the path to create the clone. It must be on the same pool as the snapshot. Clones are the way to retrieve a file or files out of the snapshot on a replica because they are not mounted.

Be careful when promoting a clone. You should only promote a clone when you want all the snapshots prior to the snapshot to be linked to the clone and not the original active dataset. This operation is not reversible. It may also break replication if done improperly and you lose the common snapshot between the original and the replica.

Clones are a rapid way to create an entire dataset based on a point in time. This is a common method used to recover from a ransomware attack. They can also be used to create a version of a dataset to test an upgrade or run destructive tests and analysis against data without affecting the golden copy of data.