Configuring the cloud as a tier
You can configure the following clouds as a storage tier with a file system:
Amazon S3
Amazon Glacier
AWS GovCloud (US)
Azure
Google cloud
S3-compatible
If you want to add any other S3-compatible storage, it can be qualified with Access Appliance and used.
The data is always written to the on-premises storage tier and then data can be moved to the cloud tier by setting up policies. The policies can be configured based on access time, modification time, and pattern of the files. File metadata including any attributes set on the file resides on-premises even though the file is moved to the cloud. The cloud as a tier feature is best used for moving infrequently accessed data to the cloud.
Warning:
When any cloud service is used as a cloud tier for a file system, Access Appliance exclusively owns all the buckets and the objects created by Access Appliance. Any attempt to tamper with these buckets or objects outside of Access Appliance corrupts the files represented by those modified objects.
See the storage_cloud(1) man page for detailed examples.
See the storage_tier(1) man page for detailed examples.
Warning:
Access Appliance cannot add a cloud tier if the clock on the Access Appliance system is more than 15 minutes out-of-sync with the actual time. To ensure that the Access Appliance clock time is accurate, configure an NTP server or use the System> clock set command.
To configure the cloud as a tier for a file system
- Display the available cloud services.
Storage> cloud listservice service_name
If the cloud service is not listed, you may need to add the cloud subscription to the cluster.
- Add the cloud as a tier to a file system.
Storage> tier add cloud 'S3 | Glacier' fs_name tier_name service_name region interface
interface is an optional argument. It takes the name of the public data network interface and uses this interface during cloud data transfer.
Note:
If the cloud tier is configured over a bond which is created over two public data interfaces, and later the bond is broken, then the data transfer will fail for that cloud tier.
If the cloud tier is configured over two public data interfaces and then a bond is created with both the data interfaces, then data transfer will fail for that cloud tier.
Amazon AWS has standard regions defined. Based on the region you choose in Access Appliance, AWS storage is served through that region. To get better performance, always select the closest geographic region.
- Verify that the cloud tier is configured on the specified file system.
Storage> tier list fs_name
To remove the cloud tier
- Remove the cloud tier.
Storage> tier remove fs_name tier_name
If there are any files present in the cloud tier, the remove cloud tier operation fails. Move the files back to the primary tier before removing the cloud tier.