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

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:

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.

Examples

FAQ

What is NAS?

Apsara File Storage NAS is a distributed file system that provides shared access, scalability, high reliability, and high performance. NAS supports 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 Machine Learning Platform for AI 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 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

    You are billed for a General-purpose NAS file system on an hourly basis based on the maximum storage usage. The storage usage is the total size of all files in the General-purpose NAS file system, excluding the size of directories. The basic storage unit is 4 KiB. If the size of a file is not a multiple of 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 3 KiB, you are billed for a storage usage of 4 KiB.

  • Extreme NAS file system

    You are billed based on the capacity that is specified when you create an Extreme NAS file system.