Release Notes

• Optimize NAS volume for use as VMware vSphere datastore – When enabled, FluidFS snapshots on
NAS volumes containing VMs will take VM snapshots, to ensure the VM is always in a consistent state.
Access Control
• Microsoft group policy support – Group Policy and Group Policy Objects (GPO) are a Microsoft
framework and set of protocols integrated into Windows clients and servers. GPOs enable central
management of administrative policies. FluidFS v5 supports the file system security GPO that allows
Active Directory administrators to centrally set DACLs, SACLs, and ownership on specific files and
directories residing in NAS volumes.
NOTE: This feature is supported on NTFS or mixed security style volumes only.
• Ability to set DACL, SACL, owner of SMB shares from Dell Storage Manager – Administrators can
configure ACLs and ownership of SMB shares using Dell Storage Manager, without the need to log in
to the specific share. Prior to FluidFS v5, administrators could control those actions only by accessing
the shares or using MMC.
• Ability to restrict access to .snapshots folder and “previous versions” – Allows the administrator to
limit user access to snapshots through the .snapshot hidden folder and through the “previous version”
operation. This feature is configurable for each NAS volume.
• Ability to set NTFS-style volumes to ignore UNIX/NFS set permission operations – Sets FluidFS to
ignore UNIX/NFS metadata modification requests (such as chmod, chown, chgrp). FluidFS will “ignore”
these types of operations on NTFS-style NAS volumes, and not return any errors to the NFS client.
• Set hidden attribute on files with a dot prefix via SMB – Allows the administrator to select whether
dot files should be shown to SMB clients by FluidFS.
• Configure LDAP port – Allows the administrator to configure and use an LDAP port other than the
default known port, when configuring LDAP for external User Database use.
Improved Manageability and Flexibility
• Replication throttling – Allows the administrator to control client network bandwidth used by
replication jobs. For example, lowering bandwidth usage during working hours and increasing
bandwidth consumption during off-hours.
• Single-port replication – File replication in FluidFS v5 now uses only a single-port communication for
all involved components, in contrast to older FluidFS versions that required the use of several TCP
ports.
NOTE:
– The single-port infrastructure supports communication over IPv4 and IPv6 ports.
– Either one of the following ports can be configured: 10560, 3260
– All other unused ports can be closed after updating to FluidFS v5.
• PowerShell API – Customer-facing API for controlling day-to-day FluidFS operations.
• REST API – Customer-facing REST APIs provide the ability to manage FluidFS via URL paths. REST API
uses HTTP requests and responses with the standard GET, PUT, POST, and DELETE methods.
• Manage local users and groups of FluidFS from MMC – Manages local users and groups using the
Microsoft Management Console (MMC) with the Local Users and Groups snap-in. To gain
administrative access to the cluster, log in to Windows as a member of Domain Admins or as a
member of the Administrators group on the cluster.
• FluidFS VAAI plugin – Allows the NAS administrator to disable or enable VAAI plugin accessibility
(enabled by default) for security enhancement.
• Email notification – The FluidFS email notification feature enables you to set a more granular level of
email notifications by selecting a specific category or severity. FluidFS users are encouraged to use
FluidFS email notification instead of the default Dell Storage Manager email notification.
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Dell FluidFS Version 5.0 Release Notes