Volumes

NFS volumes represent allocated storage areas within a storage system.
Access is achieved by mounting the volumes on a Linux host. For this purpose, integration into pluscloud or a Dedicated Server is a suitable option.

Currently, neither Windows systems nor Kerberos authentication are supported.

Network File Storage (2nd Gen) supports NFS version NFSv4.

Mounting Network File Storage (2nd Gen) Volumes

Mounting is performed using NFS.
First, the appropriate NFS client package must be installed on the target system - depending on the Linux distribution being used:

• Ubuntu / Debian:

  sudo apt update
  sudo apt install nfs-common
  

• RHEL, CentOS, Fedora:

  sudo yum install nfs-utils
  

Manual Mounting

Network File Storage (2nd Gen) volumes can be mounted manually as follows:

1. Create a directory to serve as the mount point

   sudo mkdir /var/<directory>
   

   Example:

   sudo mkdir /var/backups
   

   This directory must be created on the target system.

2. Mounting the Network File Storage (2nd Gen) Volume Use the following command to mount the volume:

   sudo mount -t nfs <ip_address>:/<contract_number> /var/<directory>
   

   Example:

   sudo mount -t nfs 10.10.0.10:/sn123456 /var/backups
   

   • <ip_address> is the volume’s public IP address.
   • <contract_number> corresponds to your contract number.
   • <directory> is the mount directory you created earlier.

   If the mount was successful, no output should be displayed here.

   Optionally, additional parameters can be specified using the -o option, for example, to specify the NFS version:

   mount -t nfs -o nfsvers=4.2 <ip_address>:/<contract_number> /var/<directory>
   

   A complete list of available parameters can be found in the man page.

3. Check the mount Verify the mount using the mount or df -h commands.

Automatic Mounting

With automatic mounting on the target system, the Network File Storage (2nd Gen) volume is automatically mounted during the boot process. The mount remains active even after the system is restarted.

The volumes to be mounted are managed via the /etc/fstab file.

The following procedure can be used for the automatic mounting of Network File Storage (2nd Gen) volumes:

1. Create a directory to serve as the mount point

   sudo mkdir /var/<directory>
   

   Example:

   sudo mkdir /var/backups
   

   This directory must be created on the target system.

2. Editing the /etc/fstab file:

   You can edit the file using the text editor of your choice.

   sudo vim /etc/fstab
   

   The volume to be mounted must now be specified within the /etc/fstab file:

   # <file system>                     <dir>       <type>   <options>   <dump>    <pass>
   <ip_address>:/<contract_number> /var/<directory>  nfs      defaults    0       0
   

   Here <ip_address> refers to the address of the Network File Storage (2nd Gen) volume.

3. Mount the volume:

   The directory and volume are mounted using the following command:

   mount /var/<directory>
   mount <ip_address>:/<contract_number>
   

The Network File Storage (2nd Gen) volume is now mounted and will remain connected even after the system is restarted.

Unmounting

To unmount an existing Network File Storage (2nd Gen) volume, you must first stop all services that are accessing the volume. You can view a list of services that are accessing a specific volume using the command

fuser -m /var/<directory>

If no services are accessing the volume, you can unmount it using

umount <ip_address>:/<contract_number> 
umount /var/<directory>

Maximum Values

For NFS volumes, there are several maximum values that must be observed:

• When using Network File Storage (2nd Gen) as NAS, there is a technical limit of 20 TB, as well as a maximum of 3 million files per directory.
• With regard to Inodes, there is a maximum of 3,112,959 Inodes per 100 GB and 212,511,260 Inodes per volume.

Snapshots

Snapshots are used to back up and restore volumes. You can purchase various snapshot packages containing 5, 15, or 30 snapshots each. These snapshots can be created at various intervals, including hourly, daily, and weekly snapshots.

The snapshot directory can be accessed via the CLI. Keep in mind that snapshots do not appear when listing files using commands such as ls -l, etc., because it is a hidden directory named .snapshot. For this reason, you must use commands, such as for example ls -la.

The .snapshot directory is located in the Network File Storage (2nd Gen) volume. The size of the snapshots within this directory grows dynamically, depending on the changes that have occurred since the last snapshot. In this process, the .snapshot directory within the Network File Storage (2nd Gen) volume grows.

Restoring from Snapshots

If it becomes necessary to restore data from a snapshot, proceed as follows:

1. Navigate to the .snapshot directory within the Network File Storage (2nd Gen) volume.

   ls .snapshot
   

   This directory, in turn, contains subdirectories that correspond to the volume’s snapshots:

   ls .snapshot
   daily.2017-05-14_0013/              hourly.2017-05-15_1106/
   daily.2017-05-15_0012/              hourly.2017-05-15_1206/
   hourly.2017-05-15_1006/             hourly.2017-05-15_1306/
   

2. Navigate to the desired subdirectory containing the data to be recovered.

   ls .snapshot/hourly.2017-05-15_1306/my.txt
   my.txt
   

3. Copy the data to be restored to the desired directories.

   cp .snapshot/hourly.2017-05-15_1306/my.txt .
   

Once these steps are completed, the desired data will successfully be recovered.

Encryption

NFS Volumes in Network File Storage (2nd Gen) are encrypted by default using encryption at rest. The AES-256 encryption algorithm is used for this purpose.

Monitoring

Network File Storage (2nd Gen) volumes are monitored for availability, not for their fill level. We therefore recommend monitoring capacity using Client Monitoring. The plusserver team is happy to assist you with integrating Network File Storage (2nd Gen) volumes into your monitoring solution.