How the volume ComplianceClock impacts SnapLock operations

You can use the volume ComplianceClock for calculating the retention period for performing various SnapLock operations such as committing a file to WORM state, checking the expiry date and so on.

The volume ComplianceClock impacts the following SnapLock operations:

Creating a SnapLock volume
You must initialize the system ComplianceClock before creating a SnapLock Compliance volume. The volume ComplianceClock gets initialized automatically. The volume ComplianceClock is used for calculating the retention period of a file.
Committing a file to WORM state
When you commit a file to WORM state, volume ComplianceClock time is written to the ctime field of the file. The volume ComplianceClock is used for calculating the retention period of a file.
Note: The ctime value is different from the atime value that is used as the retention date of the file.
Checking the expiry status of a WORM file
To check whether a WORM file has expired, you compare the retention time of the file with the volume ComplianceClock time. If the volume ComplianceClock value is lesser than the retention time of the file, it indicates that the file has not expired.
Destroying a SnapLock Compliance volume
To check whether a SnapLock Compliance volume can be destroyed, you compare its destroy time (equivalent to retention time) with volume ComplianceClock time. If the volume ComplianceClock time is less than the volume's destroy time, you cannot destroy the volume.