XtremIo snapshot usage question

The answer is 'YES'

Create an OS volume snapshot  same as source OS volume, you can present it to another host as a bootable volumes.

As I know, Other EMC storage like VNX , VMAX are all supported in this way.

I guess my concen is that as a snapshot it would still have pointers back to the original volume.I am more accustom to clones that are independent volumes.

Both Snapshot (with Pointer) and physical Clone are block level LUN replication,  the target LUN should be identical with the source LUN.  To make it bootable to the target host, you may need to perform certain steps on both the server and the SAN storage sides

The following guidelines should be followed for host connectivity to SAN environments (take Linux for example):

• Maintain the simplest connectivity configuration between host server and SAN environment before installing OS. The configuration can be altered after installation.
• If multiple HBAs are attached to the host, make sure it is the HBA connected to the lowest-numbered PCI slot that is zoned to the array.
• All arrays, except the array where the boot device resides, should be un-zoned from the host server. On the array where the boot device resides, there should only be the boot device that is attached to the host server.
• EMC recommends that the boot LUN be assigned Host LUN ID 0. If the boot LUN has taken a Host ID other than 0, there is possibility for HBA BIOS installation failure, hence no visibility to the boot LUN.
• Additional LUNs can be added after OS installation is completed.
• When configuring a RHEL boot LUN under the Linux native DM-MPIO, it may require that either all paths to the boot device be available or only a single path be available during the installation. Refer to your Red Hat RHEL installation documentation for details of this type of installation.
• When configuring a SLES boot LUN under the Linux native DM-MPIO, it expects only a single path to the boot device during installation with DM-MPIO. Refer to your SuSE SLES installation documentation for details of this type of installation.
• When configuring a Linux boot LUN under EMC PowerPath control, the boot LUN may be configured using only a single path during the OS installation; however, you will want to add the additional paths for EMC PowerPath control. Refer to EMC PowerPath installation document for details of PowerPath installation.

Basic boot from SAN procedure:

Setting up and executing Boot from SAN requires performing certain steps on both the server and the storage sides of the SAN.

The basic steps for setting up the system to boot from SAN are as follows:

• Establish the physical connectivity between the HBA, SAN switch, and storage subsystem.
• Provision LUNs on the storage subsystem to accommodate host images. Create one LUN per OS boot image.
• Select the proper HBA port (HBA WWPN) and LUN from which the host must launch its boot image.
• Ensure that the appropriate LUN is mapped to the appropriate host server through storage partitioning. It is also required that no other host server can view this specific LUN.
• Boot into the host server system.
• Configure the HBAs on the hosts to point toward the external storage unit. The HBA BIOS will inform the host that its boot image is now located on the SAN.

Thanks to Everyone. I feel more confident in performing this action now.

Thanks Again!