Get started with NAS - setup, billing, and operations - File Storage NAS

What is NAS?

Alibaba Cloud File Storage NAS is a file storage service for compute nodes, such as ECS instances, E-HPC, and container services. NAS is a distributed file system that provides shared access, scalability, high reliability, and high performance.

NAS supports the POSIX file interface and shared access from thousands of compute nodes. Mount NAS file systems on ECS, bare metal instances, ACK, ECI, BC, E-HPC, and PAI. NAS provides a high-performance shared storage service that lets you migrate to the cloud without application changes.

File system types

NAS provides five file system types supporting NFS or SMB. You can choose one or more types based on your reliability, security, and persistence requirements. Select a file system type.

Scenarios

Performance NAS: Low-latency file sharing for Linux/Windows enterprise apps, container PVs, web content management, and genetic computing.
Premium NAS: Low-latency file sharing for container data persistence, AI training, industrial simulation, and genetic computing.
General-purpose Capacity NAS: Cost-sensitive file sharing for database backups, log storage, and user home directories.
Extreme NAS (Standard and Advanced): Low-latency storage for Linux CI/CD environments, high-performance web services, online education, and gaming.

Billing

NAS defaults to pay-as-you-go. Resource plans and Storage Capacity Units (SCUs) are also available. Storage plans and subscription billing have been replaced by resource plans and are no longer sold. Billing overview.

Billing method	Description
Pay-as-you-go	General-purpose NAS: billed by actual storage used. Extreme NAS: billed by provisioned capacity. Best for fluctuating workloads.
Resource plan	Purchase resource plans in advance to offset pay-as-you-go bills. Best for stable workloads.
Storage Capacity Unit (SCU)	Storage Capacity Unit (SCU) is a subscription resource plan that offsets storage fees across multiple cloud storage products.
Storage plan (No longer available for new purchases)	Deducts storage capacity fees for the file system to which it is attached. Replaced by resource plans — no longer sold, but existing plans can be renewed or upgraded.
Subscription (No longer available for new purchases)	Deducts storage fees for a subscription Extreme NAS file system. Replaced by resource plans — no longer sold, but existing plans can be renewed or scaled out.

Getting started examples

Mount a NAS file system on an ECS instance

Mount a NAS file system for PAI-DSW

Quick start (PAI-DSW)

Explore additional use cases in Scenarios for mounting a file system.

Common operations

If you want to...	See...
Create a file system	Create a file system
Add a mount target	Manage mount targets
Create a permission group and rules	Manage permission groups
Mount a file system	Mount a file system on an ECS instance Mount a file system on a container Mount a file system for Function Compute Access a file system across networks or accounts Access a file system from a data center
Migrate data to a NAS file system	Migrate data from a non-Alibaba Cloud source to NAS Migrate data between OSS and NAS Migrate data between NAS file systems
Migrate data from a NAS file system to an on-premises location	Migrate NAS data to an on-premises location
Unmount a file system from a server	Unmount a directory
Delete a file system	Release file system resources
Monitor file usage	Data monitoring
Limit the number of directories or files in a directory	Directory quotas
Back up data in a file system	Back up and restore files Recycle bin Snapshots
Archive cold data in a file system	Lifecycle management Configure a lifecycle policy
Encrypt data in a file system	Server-side encryption Encryption in transit for NFS file systems Encryption in transit for SMB file systems
Configure ACL permissions for a file system	NAS SMB ACLs NAS NFS ACLs

File Storage NAS:Get started with NAS