General-purpose NAS is designed to store frequently accessed data. It offers three performance tiers: Capacity, Premium, and Performance. This topic describes the performance metrics, supported file protocols, storage classes, advanced features, and use cases for each tier to help you select the right NAS type. For latency-sensitive applications, use Extreme NAS.
Performance metrics
Item | Capacity NAS | Premium NAS | Performance NAS |
Throughput (peak) | Starts with 150 MB/s of read/write throughput. Throughput increases by 0.15 MB/s for every 1 GiB of used capacity. The maximum read throughput is 10 GB/s and the maximum write throughput is 5 GB/s. | Starts with 300 MB/s of read/write throughput. Throughput increases by 0.3 MB/s for every 1 GiB of used capacity. The maximum read throughput is 20 GB/s and the maximum write throughput is 5 GB/s. | Starts with 600 MB/s of read/write throughput. Throughput increases by 0.6 MB/s for every 1 GiB of used capacity. The maximum read throughput is 20 GB/s and the maximum write throughput is 5 GB/s. |
IOPS | Up to 15,000. | Up to 30,000. | Up to 30,000. |
Average latency for 4 KiB single-threaded reads | 10 ms | 2 ms | 2 ms |
Average latency for 4 KiB single-threaded writes | 10 ms | 2 ms | 2 ms |
Capacity | 0 to 10 PiB | 0 to 1 PiB | 0 to 1 PiB |
Scaling increment | 4 KiB | 4 KiB | 4 KiB |
Scaling method | Auto scaling | Auto scaling | Auto scaling |
Used capacity = Standard storage + Infrequent Access (IA) storage + Archive storage + recycle bin usage. Capacity is calculated in binary units, such as PiB, TiB, GiB, MiB, or KiB. A file smaller than 4 KiB is billed as 4 KiB. A file larger than 4 KiB is billed as a rounded-up multiple of 4 KiB.
For more information about IOPS, see What is IOPS?
Average latency is the average of read or write operation times within a 1-second interval.
In some regions, the maximum throughput of General-purpose NAS file systems has additional limits. For more information, see Throughput.
File protocols
Protocol type | Capacity NAS | Premium NAS | Performance NAS |
NFS | Supports the NFSv3 and NFSv4.0 protocols. | ||
SMB | Supports SMB 2.0 and later versions. | ||
File storage classes
General-purpose NAS offers different storage classes for cost-effective storage: Standard, Infrequent Access (IA), and Archive.
Standard storage: Offers highly reliable, available, and high-performance file storage for frequently accessed data. After a file system is created, its data is first stored in the Standard storage class. You can then use lifecycle policies to transition data to the IA or Archive storage classes. For more information about Standard storage for General-purpose NAS, see General-purpose NAS.
Infrequent Access (IA) storage: Provides highly durable file storage at a lower cost. Data is accessible in real time. When you access data in the IA storage class, you are charged for read/write traffic. This storage class is suitable for workloads with a low access frequency, such as one to three times per month on average.
Archive storage: Provides highly durable file storage at an extremely low cost. Data is accessible in real time. When you access data in the Archive storage class, you are charged for read/write traffic. This storage class is suitable for long-term data preservation with an average access frequency of one to two times per quarter, such as for data auditing and archiving.
For more information about file storage classes, see File storage classes.
Operating systems
General-purpose NAS supports Linux and Windows operating systems. To achieve optimal performance, use the recommended kernel images or later versions. For more information about the kernel images recommended for NAS, see Recommended kernel images.
We recommend that you use NFS file systems for Linux operating systems and containers, and use SMB file systems for Windows operating systems. Compatibility issues may arise in cross-protocol mount scenarios. For more information, see FAQ about file read, write, and access.
Advanced features
General-purpose NAS supports the following advanced features:
Category | Scenario | Description | References |
Access control | RAM-based access control | Resource Access Management (RAM) is an Alibaba Cloud service for managing access to your cloud resources. RAM policies are user-based authorization policies. You can use RAM to centrally manage your users, such as employees, systems, or applications, and control their access permissions. For example, you can grant a user read-only permissions on a specific file system. | |
ACL-based access control | NAS supports SMB ACLs and NFS ACLs. You can choose the appropriate ACL type to control access to your resources. | ||
Data security | Data encryption | NAS supports server-side encryption and encryption in transit. You can select an appropriate method to encrypt your data before you store it in NAS. | |
Restoration of accidentally deleted data | NAS supports the recycle bin feature. After you enable the recycle bin, deleted files or directories are automatically moved to the recycle bin and then permanently deleted after a specified retention period. | ||
Data management | Lifecycle management | NAS supports the lifecycle management feature. After you enable lifecycle management, files that meet the policy criteria are automatically transitioned to IA or Archive storage. | |
Data backup | You can use NAS to periodically back up NAS files and restore them in the event of data loss or damage. | ||
Data migration | NAS allows you to migrate data from non-Alibaba Cloud storage services to NAS and from NAS to other storage media. | ||
Quota management | Directory quota creation | The quota feature lets you manage directory-level quotas for General-purpose NAS file systems, including adding, editing, and deleting quotas. |
Use cases
General-purpose NAS provides benefits such as large capacity, high cost-effectiveness, and elastic scalability.
Performance NAS: Ideal for latency-sensitive file sharing workloads, such as enterprise applications on Linux or Windows, container PersistentVolumes (PVs), web content management, and genetic computing.
Premium NAS: Ideal for latency-sensitive file sharing workloads, such as persistent data storage for containers, AI training data storage, industrial simulation, and genetic computing.
Capacity NAS: Ideal for cost-sensitive file sharing workloads with moderate latency requirements, such as database backups, log storage, Windows user directories, and Linux home directories.
For more information about the use cases for NAS, see Scenarios.
Pricing
For more information about the billing rules for General-purpose NAS file systems, see Billing of General-purpose NAS. For detailed pricing information, see the File Storage NAS Pricing page.
For more information about billing-related questions for General-purpose NAS, see Billing FAQs.
Regions and zones
General-purpose NAS is available in Capacity, Premium, and Performance tiers. The following tables list the regions and zones where each tier is available.
Capacity NAS
Region | Zone |
China (Hangzhou) |
|
China (Shanghai) |
|
China (Qingdao) | China (Qingdao) Zone C |
China (Beijing) |
|
China (Zhangjiakou) | China (Zhangjiakou) Zone C |
China (Hohhot) | China (Hohhot) Zone A |
China (Shenzhen) |
|
China (Chengdu) | China (Chengdu) Zone A |
China (Zhongwei) | China (Zhongwei) Zone A |
China (Hong Kong) | China (Hong Kong) Zone B |
Philippines (Manila) | Philippines (Manila) Zone A |
Thailand (Bangkok) | Thailand (Bangkok) Zone A |
US (Virginia) | US (Virginia) Zone B |
US (Silicon Valley) | US (Silicon Valley) Zone B |
UK (London) | UK (London) Zone A |
Germany (Frankfurt) | Germany (Frankfurt) Zone A |
Japan (Tokyo) |
|
Indonesia (Jakarta) | Indonesia (Jakarta) Zone A |
Malaysia (Kuala Lumpur) | Malaysia (Kuala Lumpur) Zone A |
Singapore |
|
Saudi Arabia (Riyadh) | Saudi Arabia (Riyadh) Zone A |
Premium NAS
Region | Zone |
China (Hangzhou) |
|
China (Shanghai) |
|
China (Beijing) |
|
China (Hohhot) | China (Hohhot) Zone A |
China (Shenzhen) |
|
China (Chengdu) | China (Chengdu) Zone A |
China (Hong Kong) |
|
US (Virginia) | US (Virginia) Zone A |
US (Silicon Valley) | US (Silicon Valley) Zone B |
UK (London) | UK (London) Zone A |
Germany (Frankfurt) | Germany (Frankfurt) Zone A |
Japan (Tokyo) |
|
Malaysia (Kuala Lumpur) | Malaysia (Kuala Lumpur) Zone A |
South Korea (Seoul) | South Korea (Seoul) Zone A |
Singapore |
|
Performance NAS
Region | Zone |
China (Hangzhou) |
|
China (Shanghai) |
|
China (Beijing) |
|
China (Hohhot) | China (Hohhot) Zone A |
China (Shenzhen) |
|
China (Chengdu) | China (Chengdu) Zone A |
China (Hong Kong) |
|
US (Virginia) | US (Virginia) Zone A |
US (Silicon Valley) | US (Silicon Valley) Zone B |
UK (London) | UK (London) Zone A |
Germany (Frankfurt) | Germany (Frankfurt) Zone A |
Japan (Tokyo) |
|
Malaysia (Kuala Lumpur) | Malaysia (Kuala Lumpur) Zone A |
South Korea (Seoul) | South Korea (Seoul) Zone A |
Singapore |
|