If the data that you store in a General-purpose NAS file system has not been accessed for more than 14 days, this type of data is referred to as cold data. In this case, you can enable the lifecycle management feature. Then, you can dump this cold data to an Infrequent Access (IA) storage medium to reduce costs. This topic describes how to manage a lifecycle management policy in the Apsara File Storage NAS console.

Note You cannot configure lifecycle management policies for Server Message Block (SMB) file systems.

Create a lifecycle management policy

  1. Log on to the NAS console.
  2. In the left-side navigation pane, choose File System > File System List.
  3. Find the file system and click Configure policies in the Data Lifecycle Management column.
  4. On the Lifecycle Management page, click Create Policy.
  5. In the Create Lifecycle Management Policy dialog box, set the parameters, as shown in the following figure.
    Create a lifecycle management policy
    Parameter Description
    Name Specify the policy name. The name must be 3 to 64 characters in length and can contain letters, digits, underscores (_), and hyphens (-). The name must start with a letter.
    File System Select the file system for which you want to create a lifecycle management policy.

    The lifecycle management feature is available only for Network File System (NFS) file systems that are created after June 1, 2020, 00:00:00 UTC.

    Directory Path Specify the path of a directory for which you want to create a lifecycle management policy. The path must be prefixed by a forward slash (/). You can use the lifecycle management policy to identify and dump cold data. However, you cannot use the policy to change the directory structure of the file system.

    For example, a directory named /test has only one file named a1 and a lifecycle management policy is created for the directory. If the a1 file is dumped to an IA storage medium, you can write data to the /test directory. In this case, the policy applies to the data that is stored in the directory.

    Management Rules Select a rule for the lifecycle management policy. If a file in the specified directory is not accessed for the specified number of days, the file is dumped to the IA storage medium. The lifecycle management feature supports the following rules:
    • More than 14 days from the most recent access
    • More than 30 days from the most recent access
    • More than 60 days from the most recent access
    • More than 90 days from the most recent access
  6. Click OK.
    Note If a file meets the rule of the lifecycle management policy, the file is automatically dumped to the IA storage medium after about 2 hours. You can query the usage of the IA storage medium on the details page of the file system. You can also view the files that are dumped to the IA storage medium in the NAS console. For more information, see View the files stored in an IA storage medium.

View lifecycle management policies

  1. Log on to the NAS console.
  2. In the left-side navigation pane, choose Life Cycle Management > Life Cycle Policy List.
  3. On the Life Cycle Policy List page, view all lifecycle management policies in the region where the file system resides.

View the usage of the IA storage medium in the file system

  1. Log on to the NAS console.
  2. In the left-side navigation pane, choose File System > File System List.
  3. On the File System List page, click the name of the file system or Management in the Operations column. In the Basic Information section of the page that appears, you can view the usage of the IA storage medium in the file system.
    Note If a file meets the rule of the lifecycle management policy, the file is automatically dumped to the IA storage medium after about 2 hours. You can query the usage of the IA storage medium on the details page of the file system. You can also view the files that are dumped to the IA storage medium in the NAS console. For more information, see View the files stored in an IA storage medium.

Related operations

Operation Description
Modify a lifecycle management policy On the Life Cycle Policy List page, find the lifecycle management policy that you want to modify, and click Modify in the Operations column.

You can modify only the Management Rules parameter. Other parameters cannot be modified.

Delete a lifecycle management policy On the Life Cycle Policy List page, find the lifecycle management policy, click Delete in the Operations column, and then delete the policy as prompted.

The data that is dumped to an IA storage medium remains in the IA storage medium.

FAQ