Administrator Guide

Callout Description
9 Snapshots
A point-in-time copy of data on a volume. Snapshots can be taken on a single volume or on a collection.
10 Thin-provisioned volume
With thin provisioning, a minimal amount of space (10 percent by default) is reserved on a volume and then
allocated when the space is needed.
FS Series Architecture
You can design a unied (block and le) storage architecture by adding a Dell FluidFS NAS appliance to a PS Series SAN. The FluidFS
logical architecture integrates with the underlying SAN architecture. FluidFS presents a traditional le system to network clients while
performing storage operations at the back end. This design utilizes all available resources at the network, server, and disk levels.
The FS Series architecture comprises four fundamental components: FluidFS NAS appliance, NAS cluster, NAS reserve, and NAS
container.
The foundation of the FluidFS architecture is the FS Series NAS appliance. FluidFS software presents multiple network ports from
multiple controllers to the client network. The system recognizes each individual NAS controller as a NAS member. Each NAS
member can access and serve all data stored in the FluidFS system.
The NAS cluster is a virtual le server that hosts multiple SMB shares or NFS exports. You can have only one NAS cluster per PS
Series group. NAS clients connect to le storage through one or more NAS client virtual IP addresses. The group IP address is never
used by NAS clients to access the NAS cluster. The PS Series group stores and protects the block-based data. The NAS cluster
serves the le-based data. When you congure a NAS cluster, you specify the network conguration for the NAS cluster and the
amount of storage pool space that you want to allocate (the NAS reserve or available NAS datastore). You can increase, but not
decrease, the NAS reserve. Dell FluidFS software, which runs on the NAS cluster, load balances client connections across the
available NAS controllers in the NAS cluster.
To provision NAS storage, you need to create NAS containers within the NAS cluster. You allocate space for the NAS shares by
creating these containers from the available space in the PS Series group pool. After you create the NAS containers, you can then
congure a le-sharing protocol (NFS or SMB) to make storage data accessible over the network. NAS appears to a client as a le
server and the client can map or mount drive shares. These shares and exports make storage space available to users.
Figure 3. PS Series Group with NAS Cluster depicts a unied storage architecture with both block and le storage. Table 4. PS Series
Group with NAS Cluster explains the callouts used in the gure.
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Architecture Fundamentals