Basic snapshot questions

I read through the nice PDF on snapshotting with DSS and still had a few questions.

Is it necessary to leave any free space on a volume group (single disk in my case) to allow for snapshots? Or is the snapshot space carved out of the space provided for a the share (NAS volume I believe).

I have 466GB free. I'd like to host some ESXi VMs there and I have nothing else I want to place in this location. But I also want to be able to do snapshots for backups. Should I create a NAS volume that that takes up the entire space and will snapshots come out of that, or do I need to leave some free space (10%?) and then reserve it all for snapshots?

Thanks

each snapshot should be about 18% of the volume to take a snapshot of. This will come from unallocated space in the volume group (same as creating another LV)

Thanks! So is the free space reserved option basically just to assure that the total LV don't exceed that amount and that the required amount of free space remains available for snapshots?

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Originally Posted by johnthrow

Thanks! So is the free space reserved option basically just to assure that the total LV don't exceed that amount and that the required amount of free space remains available for snapshots?

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No, space is not automatically reserved for snapshots. Creating a snapshot uses volume group space the same as a NAS volume or iSCSI volume. You define it when it is created. The 'reserved for snapshot value' will change as snapshots are created or removed from the system.

I understand now. Thanks for your help.