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

Create a lifecycle policy

  1. Log on to the NAS console.
  2. In the left-side navigation pane, choose File System > File System List.
  3. In the top navigation bar, select a region.
  4. Find the file system and click Configure policies in the Data Lifecycle column.
  5. On the Lifecycle Policies page, click Create Policy.
  6. In the Create Lifecycle Policy dialog box, configure the parameters, as shown in the following figure.
    Create a policy
    ParameterDescription
    Policy NameSpecify 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 SystemSelect the file system for which you want to create a lifecycle policy.
    Directory PathSpecify the directory paths for which you want to create a lifecycle policy. You can specify a maximum of 10 paths.
    • Enter Directory Paths: The path must start with a forward slash (/). You can enter letters, digits, spaces, and the following special characters: . / + - = * @ % ( ) ,.
    • Select Directory Paths: Click Select Directory Paths. In the dialog box that appears, select files or directory paths, and then click OK.
    Note You can use a lifecycle 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 policy is created for the directory. If the a1 file is dumped to an IA storage medium, you can still access the a1 file in the /test directory and you can write data to the directory. In this case, the policy applies to the data that is stored in the directory.
    Management RuleSelect a rule for lifecycle management. 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. You can select one of 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
  7. Click OK.
    Note If the lifecycle management feature is enabled, a file that meets a specified lifecycle policy is dumped to an IA storage medium in 2 to 24 hours. The time that is required to dump the file to an IA storage medium varies based on the storage usage of the file system and the size of the file. Subsequent file dumps are performed at a specific point in time every week. You can view the storage 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 policies

  1. Log on to the NAS console.
  2. In the left-side navigation pane, choose Lifecycle Management > Lifecycle Policies.
  3. In the top navigation bar, select a region.
  4. On the Lifecycle Policies page, view all lifecycle 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. In the top navigation bar, select a region.
  4. On the File System List page, click the name of the file system or click Manage in the Actions 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.

What to do next

OperationDescription
Modify a lifecycle policyOn the Lifecycle Policies page, find the lifecycle policy that you want to modify, and click Modify in the Actions column.

You can modify only the Management Rule parameter. Other parameters cannot be modified. After you modify the parameter, files will be dumped based on the new rule in the next scan cycle.

Delete a lifecycle policyOn the Lifecycle Policies page, find the lifecycle policy that you want to delete, and click Delete in the Actions column. In the message that appears, click OK.
Important When you delete a lifecycle policy, data in the IA storage media is not deleted. To prevent fees that are incurred by the data in the IA storage media, we recommend that you retrieve the data before you delete the policy. For more information, see Create a data retrieval task.

FAQ