This topic describes how to get started with Apsara File Storage NAS (NAS).
Procedure
Get familiar with the types of NAS file systems
Before you use a NAS file system, select the type of the file system based on your business requirements.
Create a file system
You can use the NAS console or call an API operation to create a file system.
Create a permission group
A permission group defines the permissions to access a file system by using mount targets. You can add rules to a permission group to specify the authorized IP addresses and the corresponding read and write permissions on the file system. A permission group named "VPC default permission group (all allowed)" is automatically created for each Alibaba Cloud account. This permission group allows access from all IP addresses in the VPC to the file system by using mount targets.
For more information, see Manage a permission group.
Create a mount target
A mount target specifies the endpoint of a NAS file system and is used for data transmission.
For more information, see Manage mount targets.
Mount a file system
Before you use a file system, mount the file system on one of the following objects:
ECS instances
Containers
Other hosts
Migrate data
After you mount a NAS file system, you can migrate data from a local host or other storage devices to the NAS file system. Then, you can share or manage the file system in the NAS console.
Read and write data
You can access the data of a NAS file system the same way you access the data of a local host.
FAQ
What is NAS?
NAS is a distributed file system that provides shared access, scalability, high reliability, and high performance. NAS supports Portable Operating System Interface for UNIX (POSIX)-based APIs. A NAS file system can be mounted on thousands of compute nodes for shared storage. The compute nodes include Elastic Compute Service (ECS) instances, ECS Bare Metal instances, Container Service for Kubernetes (ACK) clusters, elastic container instances (ECIs), Batch Compute instances, Elastic High Performance Computing (E-HPC) clusters, and Platform for AI (PAI) models. You can mount NAS file systems to provide high-performance shared storage for these compute resources. You can seamlessly migrate your business systems to Alibaba Cloud without the need to modify your application code.
What are the scenarios of NAS?
NAS provides file sharing solutions for ECS instances in the following scenarios:
To deploy web servers by attaching multiple ECS instances to a Server Load Balancer (SLB) instance, a shared storage space is required for the ECS instances to share data.
To process and analyze log data of multiple ECS instances in a centralized manner, a shared storage space is required for the ECS instances to store the log data.
To share files among business groups within an enterprise, a shared storage space is required to store data.
For more information about the use scenarios of NAS, see Scenarios.
What protocols are supported by NAS?
NAS supports the following protocols:
NFSv3 and NFSv4.0.
SMB 2.1 and later versions. NAS also supports operating systems including Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 R2, and later versions. However, NAS does not support Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008, or earlier versions.
Which protocol can I select for a NAS file system?
We recommend that you select a protocol for the file system based on your business requirements.
If you want to share files among Linux clients, we recommend that you create a Network File System (NFS) file system.
If you want to share files among Windows clients, we recommend that you create a Server Message Block (SMB) file system.
If you want to share files between Linux clients and Windows clients, we recommend that you create an SMB file system.
Am I charged after I activate NAS?
No, you are not charged if you only activate NAS. However, you are charged when you write data to NAS file systems.
How am I billed for the storage usage of a NAS file system?
General-purpose NAS file system
The storage usage of a NAS file system indicates the total size of all files in the file system. The size of directories is not included. The basic storage unit is 4 KiB. If the size of a file is less than 4 KiB, the billed storage usage of the file is rounded up to 4 KiB. If the size of a file is larger than 4 KiB, the billed storage usage is rounded up to the nearest multiple of 4 KiB. For example, if the size of a file is 2 KiB, the storage usage is counted as 4 KiB. If the size of a file is 6 KiB, the storage usage is counted as 8 KiB.
File holes occupy storage space in Apsara File Storage NAS. You are charged for the file holes in your NAS file systems. A file hole consists of zeros that are not written to a file. You can create a file hole by running the truncate, lseek, or fallocate command.
After you enable the recycle bin feature, you are charged for the storage usage of the temporary files in the recycle bin based on the pricing of the original storage type during the retention period. For example, if you delete a file from a Capacity NAS file system, you are charged for the file based on the unit price of storage space in Capacity NAS file systems. Likewise, if you delete a file from an IA storage medium, you are charged for the file based on the unit price of storage space in IA storage media. For more information, see Recycle bin.
For more information, see Billing of General-purpose NAS file systems.
Extreme NAS file system
You are billed based on the capacity that is specified when you create an Extreme NAS file system. For more information, see Billing of Extreme NAS file systems.