How to create a lifecycle policy - File Storage NAS - Alibaba Cloud Documentation Center

Lifecycle management automatically tiers files and directories in a General-purpose NAS file system to lower-cost storage classes based on their last access time. This reduces storage costs for infrequently accessed data without changing your file system's directory structure.

Two target storage classes are available:

IA storage class: For data accessed infrequently, such as once or twice a month on average.
Archive storage class: For long-term data retention, such as compliance records or audit data.

You can configure three tiering paths:

Tiering path	Description
IA storage class only	Tier cold data to the IA storage class.
Archive storage class only	Tier cold data directly to the Archive storage class.
IA storage class, then Archive storage class	Tier cold data to the IA storage class first, then to the Archive storage class. The Archive transition period must be longer than the IA transition period.

Prerequisites

You have a General-purpose NAS file system. Lifecycle policies apply only to General-purpose NAS file systems.
Review the limits and considerations for lifecycle management before creating a policy. For more information, see Lifecycle management.

Billing

Tiering data to the IA or Archive storage class incurs the following fees.

IA storage class

Fee type	Description
Storage capacity fees	Based on the amount of data tiered to the IA storage class and its storage duration.
Read/write fees	Based on the total hourly read and write traffic. Applies to both internal and public network traffic.

Archive storage class

Fee type	Description
Storage capacity fees	Based on the amount of data tiered to the Archive storage class and its storage duration.
Minimum storage duration fee	Minimum storage duration is 60 days (1,440 hours). If you delete data or reduce its size before 60 days, you are charged for the remaining time (1,440 hours minus actual storage duration) based on the original data size.
Read/write fees	Based on the total hourly read and write traffic. Applies to both internal and public network traffic.

Important

Verify that Archive data has been stored for at least 60 days before deleting it to avoid early deletion charges.

Create a lifecycle policy

Log on to the NAS console.
In the left-side navigation pane, choose Lifecycle Management > Lifecycle Policies.
In the top navigation bar, select the resource group and region where your file system resides.
On the Lifecycle Policies page, click Create Lifecycle Policy.

In the Create Lifecycle Policy dialog box, configure the following parameters.

Parameter	Description
Policy Name	The name must be 3 to 64 characters in length, must start with a letter, and can contain letters, digits, underscores (_), and hyphens (-).
File System ID	Select the file system for the lifecycle policy. Use Fuzzy Search or Exact Search to locate the file system.
Apply To	Specify the scope. You can specify up to 10 directory paths. See Apply To methods for details. / the entire file system: Applies the policy to the entire file system. Select Directory Paths: Click Select Directory Paths, choose the file or directory paths, and then click the icon to add them. Enter Directory Paths: Manually enter paths. Each path must start with a forward slash (/). Paths can contain letters, digits, spaces, and the following special characters: `./+-=@%()` . Note* Lifecycle policies tier only cold data files and do not change the directory structure of the file system. New data written to directories covered by the policy is also subject to the lifecycle policy rules.
Management Rule	Configure tiering rules based on last access time. See Management Rule options for details. Tier to IA storage: 14, 30, 60, or 90 Tier to Archive storage: 14, 30, 60, 90, or 180 Tier to IA storage, then to Archive storage: Set IA days first, click Add Rule, then set Archive days. The Archive period must be longer than the IA period. Important Archive storage is available only in the following regions: China (Chengdu), China (Hangzhou), China (Shanghai), China (Qingdao), China (Beijing), China (Zhangjiakou), China (Hohhot), China (Shenzhen), China (Guangzhou), China (Hong Kong), Philippines (Manila), Thailand (Bangkok), Malaysia (Kuala Lumpur), South Korea (Seoul), US (Silicon Valley), SAU (Riyadh - Partner Region), Indonesia (Jakarta), Japan (Tokyo), UK (London), Singapore, US (Virginia), and Germany (Frankfurt). Lifecycle policies only tier cold data files between 64 KiB and 4.88 TiB in size. Files outside this range are not tiered.

Click OK.

The data migration task begins two hours after you create the policy.

View lifecycle policies

Log on to the NAS console.
In the left-side navigation pane, choose Lifecycle Management > Lifecycle Policies .
In the top navigation bar, select the resource group and region where your file system resides.
On the Lifecycle Policies page, view all lifecycle policies in the selected region.

Modify a lifecycle policy

Only the Management Rule of a lifecycle policy can be modified. Other parameters such as the policy name, file system ID, and scope are not editable.

Log on to the NAS console.
In the left-side navigation pane, choose Lifecycle Management > Lifecycle Policies.
In the top navigation bar, select the resource group and region where your file system resides.
On the Lifecycle Policies page, find the target lifecycle policy and click Modify.
Update the Management Rule and click OK.

After you apply the changes, the system tiers data based on the new rule during the next scan cycle.

Delete a lifecycle policy