Isilon

OneFS
Version 8.0.0

Web Administration Guide

Copyright 2001-2016 EMC Corporation. All rights reserved. Published in the USA.
Published May 2016
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OneFS 8.0.0 Web Administration Guide

CONTENTS

Chapter 1

Introduction to this guide

21

About this guide............................................................................................22

Isilon scale-out NAS overview........................................................................22
IsilonSD Edge overview................................................................................. 22
Where to go for support.................................................................................22

Chapter 2

Isilon scale-out NAS

25

OneFS storage architecture........................................................................... 26

Isilon node components................................................................................26
Internal and external networks...................................................................... 27
Isilon cluster................................................................................................. 27
Cluster administration......................................................................27
Quorum............................................................................................28
Splitting and merging.......................................................................28
Storage pools...................................................................................29
The OneFS operating system......................................................................... 29
Data-access protocols......................................................................29
Identity management and access control......................................... 30
Structure of the file system............................................................................31
Data layout...................................................................................... 31
Writing files......................................................................................32
Reading files.................................................................................... 32
Metadata layout...............................................................................32
Locks and concurrency.....................................................................33
Striping............................................................................................ 33
Data protection overview...............................................................................33
N+M data protection........................................................................ 34
Data mirroring.................................................................................. 35
The file system journal..................................................................... 35
Virtual hot spare (VHS).....................................................................35
Balancing protection with storage space.......................................... 35
VMware integration....................................................................................... 35
Software modules......................................................................................... 36

Chapter 3

General cluster administration

39

General cluster administration overview........................................................40

User interfaces.............................................................................................. 40
Connecting to the cluster...............................................................................41
Log in to the web administration interface........................................41
Open an SSH connection to a cluster................................................41
Licensing.......................................................................................................42
License status..................................................................................43
License configuration....................................................................... 45
Activate a license............................................................................. 46
View license information.................................................................. 46
Certificates....................................................................................................47
Replace or renew the SSL certificate................................................. 47
Verify an SSL certificate update........................................................ 48
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Self-signed SSL certificate data example.......................................... 49

Cluster identity..............................................................................................49
Set the cluster name and contact information.................................. 50
Cluster date and time.................................................................................... 50
Set the cluster date and time........................................................... 51
Specify an NTP time server............................................................... 51
SMTP email settings...................................................................................... 51
Configure SMTP email settings......................................................... 52
Configuring the cluster join mode..................................................................52
Specify the cluster join mode........................................................... 53
File system settings.......................................................................................53
Enable or disable access time tracking.............................................53
Specify the cluster character encoding............................................. 54
Security hardening........................................................................................ 54
STIG hardening profile......................................................................55
Apply a security hardening policy..................................................... 56
Revert a security hardening policy.................................................... 57
View the security hardening status...................................................58
Cluster monitoring.........................................................................................59
Monitor the cluster...........................................................................59
View node status............................................................................. 60
Monitoring cluster hardware..........................................................................61
View node hardware status.............................................................. 61
Chassis and drive states.................................................................. 61
Check battery status........................................................................ 64
SNMP monitoring............................................................................. 64
Events and alerts...........................................................................................67
Events overview............................................................................... 67
Event groups overview..................................................................... 68
Alerts overview.................................................................................68
Channels overview........................................................................... 68
Viewing and modifying event groups................................................ 68
Managing alerts............................................................................... 69
Managing channels..........................................................................71
Maintenance and testing..................................................................75
Cluster maintenance..................................................................................... 77
Replacing node components............................................................ 77
Upgrading node components........................................................... 77
Managing drive firmware..................................................................77
Managing cluster nodes................................................................... 83
Upgrading OneFS............................................................................. 85
Remote support.............................................................................................86
Configuring ESRS support................................................................ 86
Remote support scripts.................................................................... 87
Enable and configure ESRS.............................................................. 89

Chapter 4

Access zones

91

Access zones overview ................................................................................. 92

Base directory guidelines.............................................................................. 92
Access zones best practices..........................................................................93
Access zone limits.........................................................................................94
Quality of service...........................................................................................94
Managing access zones................................................................................ 95
Create an access zone......................................................................95
Assign an overlapping base directory............................................... 95
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Manage authentication providers in an access zone.........................96

Associate an IP address pool with an access zone............................96
Modify an access zone..................................................................... 97
Delete an access zone......................................................................97
View a list of access zones............................................................... 97

Chapter 5

Authentication

99

Authentication overview..............................................................................100
Authentication provider features................................................................. 100
Supported authentication providers............................................................ 100
Active Directory........................................................................................... 101
LDAP........................................................................................................... 102
NIS..............................................................................................................102
Kerberos authentication.............................................................................. 103
Keytabs and SPNs overview........................................................... 103
MIT Kerberos protocol support....................................................... 104
File provider................................................................................................ 104
Local provider............................................................................................. 104
Managing Active Directory providers............................................................105
Configure an Active Directory provider............................................105
Modify an Active Directory provider................................................ 106
Delete an Active Directory provider.................................................106
Active Directory provider settings................................................... 106
Managing LDAP providers............................................................................107
Configure an LDAP provider............................................................108
Modify an LDAP provider................................................................ 109
Delete an LDAP provider.................................................................109
LDAP query settings....................................................................... 109
LDAP advanced settings.................................................................110
Managing NIS providers.............................................................................. 112
Configure an NIS provider.............................................................. 112
Modify an NIS provider...................................................................113
Delete an NIS provider................................................................... 113
Managing MIT Kerberos authentication....................................................... 113
Managing MIT Kerberos realms...................................................... 113
Managing MIT Kerberos providers.................................................. 115
Managing MIT Kerberos domains................................................... 118
Managing file providers...............................................................................119
Configure a file provider................................................................. 120
Generate a password file................................................................120
Password file format...................................................................... 121
Group file format............................................................................ 122
Netgroup file format....................................................................... 123
Modify a file provider..................................................................... 123
Delete a file provider...................................................................... 123
Managing local users and groups................................................................ 124
View a list of users or groups by provider....................................... 124
Create a local user......................................................................... 124
Create a local group....................................................................... 125
Naming rules for local users and groups.........................................126
Modify a local user.........................................................................126
Modify a local group.......................................................................126
Delete a local user......................................................................... 127
Delete a local group....................................................................... 127
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Chapter 6

Administrative roles and privileges

129

Role-based access...................................................................................... 130

Roles...........................................................................................................130
Custom roles..................................................................................130
Built-in roles.................................................................................. 131
Privileges.................................................................................................... 134
Supported OneFS privileges........................................................... 135
Data backup and restore privileges................................................ 137
Command-line interface privileges................................................. 138
Managing roles........................................................................................... 141
Create a custom role...................................................................... 142
Modify a role.................................................................................. 142
Copy a role.....................................................................................142
Add a privilege to a custom role..................................................... 142
Add a member to a role.................................................................. 143
Delete a custom role...................................................................... 143
View a role..................................................................................... 143
View privileges...............................................................................144

Chapter 7

Identity management

145

Identity management overview....................................................................146

Identity types.............................................................................................. 146
Access tokens............................................................................................. 147
Access token generation............................................................................. 148
ID mapping.................................................................................... 148
User mapping................................................................................ 150
On-disk identity............................................................................. 152
Managing ID mappings............................................................................... 153
Create an identity mapping............................................................ 153
Modify an identity mapping............................................................154
Delete an identity mapping............................................................ 154
View an identity mapping...............................................................154
Flush the identity mapping cache...................................................155
View a user token...........................................................................155
Configure identity mapping settings...............................................156
View identity mapping settings...................................................... 156
Managing user identities.............................................................................156
View user identity.......................................................................... 157
Create a user-mapping rule............................................................ 158
Test a user-mapping rule................................................................158
Merge Windows and UNIX tokens................................................... 159
Retrieve the primary group from LDAP............................................ 160
Mapping rule options..................................................................... 161
Mapping rule operators..................................................................162

Chapter 8

Home directories

165

Home directories overview.......................................................................... 166

Home directory permissions........................................................................166
Authenticating SMB users........................................................................... 166
Home directory creation through SMB......................................................... 166
Create home directories with expansion variables..........................167
Create home directories with the --inheritable-path-acl option....... 168
Create special home directories with the SMB share %U variable...169
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Home directory creation through SSH and FTP............................................. 170

Set the SSH or FTP login shell ........................................................ 170
Set SSH/FTP home directory permissions....................................... 170
Set SSH/FTP home directory creation options.................................171
Provision home directories with dot files........................................172
Home directory creation in a mixed environment......................................... 173
Interactions between ACLs and mode bits................................................... 173
Default home directory settings in authentication providers........................ 173
Supported expansion variables................................................................... 174
Domain variables in home directory provisioning........................................ 176

Chapter 9

Data access control

177

Data access control overview...................................................................... 178

ACLs............................................................................................................178
UNIX permissions........................................................................................179
Mixed-permission environments................................................................. 179
NFS access of Windows-created files..............................................179
SMB access of UNIX-created files................................................... 179
Managing access permissions.....................................................................180
View expected user permissions.................................................... 180
Configure access management settings......................................... 181
Modify ACL policy settings..............................................................182
ACL policy settings options............................................................ 182
Run the PermissionsRepair job.......................................................188

Chapter 10

File sharing

191

File sharing overview...................................................................................192

Mixed protocol environments.........................................................192
Write caching with SmartCache...................................................... 193
SMB............................................................................................................ 194
SMB shares in access zones.......................................................... 195
SMB Multichannel..........................................................................195
SMB share management through MMC.......................................... 197
SMB server-side copy.....................................................................198
SMB continuous availability...........................................................198
SMB file filtering............................................................................ 199
Symbolic links and SMB clients......................................................200
Anonymous access to SMB shares................................................. 202
Managing SMB settings................................................................. 202
Managing SMB shares................................................................... 205
NFS............................................................................................................. 211
NFS exports....................................................................................211
NFS aliases.................................................................................... 212
NFS log files................................................................................... 212
Managing the NFS service.............................................................. 213
Managing NFS exports................................................................... 214
Managing NFS aliases.................................................................... 220
FTP.............................................................................................................. 221
Enable and configure FTP file sharing............................................. 221
HTTP and HTTPS.......................................................................................... 222
Enable and configure HTTP.............................................................222

Chapter 11

File filtering

225
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File filtering in an access zone.....................................................................226

Enable and configure file filtering in an access zone....................................226
Modify file filtering settings in an access zone.............................................226
View file filtering settings............................................................................ 227

Chapter 12

Auditing

229

Auditing overview........................................................................................230
Syslog......................................................................................................... 230
Syslog forwarding.......................................................................... 230
Protocol audit events.................................................................................. 231
Supported event types................................................................................ 231
Supported audit tools................................................................................. 232
Sample audit log......................................................................................... 233
Managing audit settings..............................................................................233
Enable protocol access auditing.....................................................234
Forward protocol access events to syslog ...................................... 235
Enable system configuration auditing............................................ 235
Forward system configuration changes to syslog............................ 236
Configure protocol event filters...................................................... 236
Integrating with the EMC Common Event Enabler.........................................237
Install CEE for Windows..................................................................237
Configure CEE for Windows............................................................ 238

Chapter 13

Snapshots

241

Snapshots overview.................................................................................... 242

Data protection with SnapshotIQ.................................................................242
Snapshot disk-space usage........................................................................ 242
Snapshot schedules....................................................................................243
Snapshot aliases........................................................................................ 243
File and directory restoration.......................................................................243
Best practices for creating snapshots..........................................................244
Best practices for creating snapshot schedules........................................... 244
File clones...................................................................................................245
Shadow-store considerations.........................................................246
Snapshot locks........................................................................................... 246
Snapshot reserve........................................................................................ 247
SnapshotIQ license functionality.................................................................247
Creating snapshots with SnapshotIQ...........................................................247
Create a SnapRevert domain.......................................................... 248
Create a snapshot schedule........................................................... 248
Create a snapshot.......................................................................... 249
Snapshot naming patterns............................................................. 250
Managing snapshots .................................................................................. 252
Reducing snapshot disk-space usage............................................ 252
Delete snapshots........................................................................... 253
Modify snapshot attributes............................................................ 253
Assign a snapshot alias to a snapshot........................................... 254
View snapshots..............................................................................254
Snapshot information.................................................................... 254
Restoring snapshot data............................................................................. 254
Revert a snapshot.......................................................................... 255
Restore a file or directory using Windows Explorer..........................255
Restore a file or directory through a UNIX command line.................256
Clone a file from a snapshot...........................................................256
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Managing snapshot schedules....................................................................256

Modify a snapshot schedule.......................................................... 257
Delete a snapshot schedule........................................................... 257
View snapshot schedules...............................................................257
Managing snapshot aliases.........................................................................257
Configure a snapshot alias for a snapshot schedule.......................258
Assign a snapshot alias to a snapshot........................................... 258
Reassign a snapshot alias to the live file system............................ 258
View snapshot aliases................................................................... 258
Snapshot alias information............................................................ 259
Managing with snapshot locks.................................................................... 259
Create a snapshot lock...................................................................259
Modify a snapshot lock expiration date..........................................260
Delete a snapshot lock...................................................................260
Snapshot lock information............................................................. 261
Configure SnapshotIQ settings.................................................................... 261
SnapshotIQ settings.......................................................................261
Set the snapshot reserve.............................................................................262
Managing changelists................................................................................. 263
Create a changelist........................................................................ 263
Delete a changelist........................................................................ 263
View a changelist........................................................................... 263
Changelist information...................................................................264

Chapter 14

Deduplication with SmartDedupe

267

Deduplication overview...............................................................................268
Deduplication jobs......................................................................................268
Data replication and backup with deduplication..........................................269
Snapshots with deduplication.....................................................................269
Deduplication considerations......................................................................270
Shadow-store considerations......................................................................270
SmartDedupe license functionality..............................................................271
Managing deduplication............................................................................. 271
Assess deduplication space savings.............................................. 271
Specify deduplication settings....................................................... 272
Start or schedule a deduplication job.............................................272
View deduplication space savings..................................................273
View a deduplication report........................................................... 273
Deduplication job report information............................................. 273
Deduplication information............................................................. 274

Chapter 15

Data replication with SyncIQ

275

SyncIQ data replication overview.................................................................276

Accessing SyncIQ with IsilonSD Edge............................................. 276
Replication policies and jobs...................................................................... 276
Automated replication policies.......................................................277
Source and target cluster association.............................................278
Configuring SyncIQ source and target clusters with NAT................. 279
Full and differential replication.......................................................280
Controlling replication job resource consumption.......................... 281
Replication policy priority...............................................................281
Replication reports.........................................................................281
Replication snapshots.................................................................................282
Source cluster snapshots............................................................... 282
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Target cluster snapshots................................................................ 282

Data failover and failback with SyncIQ.........................................................283
Data failover.................................................................................. 283
Data failback..................................................................................284
Recovery times and objectives for SyncIQ....................................................284
RPO Alerts......................................................................................285
Replication policy priority............................................................................285
SyncIQ license functionality........................................................................ 285
Creating replication policies........................................................................ 285
Excluding directories in replication.................................................285
Excluding files in replication.......................................................... 286
File criteria options........................................................................ 287
Configure default replication policy settings...................................289
Create a replication policy..............................................................289
Assess a replication policy............................................................. 296
Managing replication to remote clusters......................................................296
Start a replication job.....................................................................296
Pause a replication job...................................................................297
Resume a replication job................................................................297
Cancel a replication job..................................................................297
View active replication jobs............................................................297
Replication job information............................................................ 297
Initiating data failover and failback with SyncIQ.......................................... 298
Fail over data to a secondary cluster...............................................298
Revert a failover operation............................................................. 299
Fail back data to a primary cluster.................................................. 299
Performing disaster recovery for SmartLock directories................................300
Recover SmartLock compliance directories on a target cluster........300
Migrate SmartLock compliance directories..................................... 301
Managing replication policies..................................................................... 302
Modify a replication policy............................................................. 302
Delete a replication policy..............................................................303
Enable or disable a replication policy............................................. 303
View replication policies................................................................ 304
Replication policy information........................................................304
Replication policy settings............................................................. 304
Managing replication to the local cluster..................................................... 307
Cancel replication to the local cluster.............................................308
Break local target association........................................................ 308
View replication policies targeting the local cluster........................ 308
Remote replication policy information............................................ 308
Managing replication performance rules..................................................... 309
Create a network traffic rule........................................................... 309
Create a file operations rule........................................................... 309
Modify a performance rule............................................................. 310
Delete a performance rule.............................................................. 310
Enable or disable a performance rule............................................. 310
View performance rules..................................................................310
Managing replication reports.......................................................................310
Configure default replication report settings...................................311
Delete replication reports...............................................................311
View replication reports................................................................. 311
Replication report information........................................................312
Managing failed replication jobs................................................................. 312
Resolve a replication policy............................................................313
Reset a replication policy............................................................... 313
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Perform a full or differential replication.......................................... 313

Chapter 16

Data layout with FlexProtect

315

FlexProtect overview....................................................................................316
File striping................................................................................................. 316
Requested data protection.......................................................................... 316
FlexProtect data recovery.............................................................................317
Smartfail........................................................................................ 317
Node failures................................................................................. 317
Requesting data protection......................................................................... 318
Requested protection settings.....................................................................318
Requested protection disk space usage...................................................... 319

Chapter 17

NDMP backup and recovery overview

321

NDMP backup and recovery overview.......................................................... 322

NDMP backup and recovery for IsilonSD Edge................................ 322
NDMP two-way backup................................................................................322
NDMP three-way backup............................................................................. 323
NDMP multi-stream backup and recovery.................................................... 323
Snapshot-based incremental backups........................................................ 323
NDMP protocol support............................................................................... 324
Supported DMAs......................................................................................... 325
NDMP hardware support............................................................................. 325
NDMP backup limitations............................................................................ 325
NDMP performance recommendations........................................................ 326
Excluding files and directories from NDMP backups.................................... 327
Configuring basic NDMP backup settings.................................................... 328
NDMP backup settings................................................................... 328
Configure and enable NDMP backup.............................................. 329
Disable NDMP backup....................................................................329
View NDMP backup settings...........................................................329
Managing NDMP user accounts................................................................... 329
Create an NDMP administrator account.......................................... 330
View NDMP user accounts..............................................................330
Modify the password of an NDMP administrator account................330
Delete an NDMP administrator account.......................................... 330
NDMP environment variables overview........................................................331
Managing NDMP environment variables......................................... 331
NDMP environment variable settings..............................................331
Add an NDMP environment variable............................................... 332
View NDMP environment variables................................................. 332
Edit an NDMP environment variable............................................... 332
Delete an NDMP environment variable........................................... 333
NDMP environment variables......................................................... 333
Setting environment variables for backup operations.....................338
Managing NDMP contexts............................................................................338
NDMP context settings................................................................... 338
View NDMP contexts...................................................................... 339
Delete an NDMP context.................................................................339
Managing NDMP sessions........................................................................... 339
NDMP session information............................................................. 340
View NDMP sessions......................................................................342
Abort an NDMP session..................................................................342
Managing NDMP Fibre Channel ports...........................................................342
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NDMP backup port settings............................................................343

Enable or disable an NDMP backup port.........................................343
View NDMP backup ports............................................................... 344
Modify NDMP backup port settings................................................ 344
Managing NDMP backup devices.................................................................344
NDMP backup device settings........................................................ 344
Detect NDMP backup devices.........................................................345
View NDMP backup devices........................................................... 346
Modify the name of an NDMP backup device..................................346
Delete an entry for an NDMP backup device................................... 346
NDMP dumpdates overview.........................................................................346
Managing NDMP dumpdate entries................................................ 347
NDMP dumpdate settings...............................................................347
View NDMP dumpdate entries........................................................ 347
Delete NDMP dumpdate entries..................................................... 347
NDMP restore operations............................................................................ 347
NDMP parallel restore operation.....................................................348
NDMP serial restore operation........................................................348
Specify a NDMP serial restore operation.........................................348
Sharing tape drives between clusters.......................................................... 348
Managing snapshot based incremental backups.........................................349
Enable snapshot-based incremental backups for a directory.......... 349
View snapshots for snapshot-based incremental backups............. 349
Delete snapshots for snapshot-based incremental backups...........349

Chapter 18

File retention with SmartLock

351

SmartLock overview.................................................................................... 352

Compliance mode....................................................................................... 352
SmartLock directories................................................................................. 352
Accessing SmartLock with IsilonSD Edge.....................................................353
Replication and backup with SmartLock...................................................... 353
SmartLock replication and backup limitations................................354
SmartLock license functionality...................................................................354
SmartLock considerations........................................................................... 355
Set the compliance clock............................................................................ 355
View the compliance clock.......................................................................... 356
Creating a SmartLock directory.................................................................... 356
Retention periods...........................................................................356
Autocommit time periods............................................................... 356
Create an enterprise directory for a non-empty directory.................357
Create a SmartLock directory..........................................................357
Managing SmartLock directories................................................................. 358
Modify a SmartLock directory......................................................... 358
View SmartLock directory settings..................................................358
SmartLock directory configuration settings.....................................359
Managing files in SmartLock directories...................................................... 360
Set a retention period through a UNIX command line..................... 360
Set a retention period through Windows Powershell.......................361
Commit a file to a WORM state through a UNIX command line........ 361
Commit a file to a WORM state through Windows Explorer..............361
Override the retention period for all files in a SmartLock directory.. 362
Delete a file committed to a WORM state ....................................... 362
View WORM status of a file.............................................................363

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Chapter 19

Protection domains

365

Protection domains overview...................................................................... 366

Protection domains for IsilonSD Edge.............................................366
Protection domain considerations...............................................................366
Create a protection domain......................................................................... 367
Delete a protection domain......................................................................... 367

Chapter 20

Data-at-rest-encryption

369

Data-at-rest encryption overview................................................................. 370

Data-at-rest encryption for IsilonSD Edge....................................... 370
Self-encrypting drives..................................................................................370
Data security on self-encrypted drives......................................................... 370
Data migration to a cluster with self-encrypted drives..................................371
Chassis and drive states............................................................................. 371
Smartfailed drive REPLACE state..................................................................374
Smartfailed drive ERASE state..................................................................... 375

Chapter 21

SmartQuotas

377

SmartQuotas overview................................................................................ 378

Quota types................................................................................................ 378
Default quota type.......................................................................................379
Usage accounting and limits....................................................................... 381
Disk-usage calculations.............................................................................. 382
Quota notifications..................................................................................... 383
Quota notification rules...............................................................................384
Quota reports..............................................................................................384
Creating quotas...........................................................................................385
Create an accounting quota........................................................... 385
Create an enforcement quota......................................................... 386
Managing quotas........................................................................................ 386
Search for quotas...........................................................................387
Manage quotas.............................................................................. 387
Export a quota configuration file.................................................... 388
Import a quota configuration file.................................................... 389
Managing quota notifications......................................................................389
Configure default quota notification settings..................................389
Configure custom quota notification rules...................................... 390
Map an email notification rule for a quota...................................... 391
Email quota notification messages..............................................................391
Custom email notification template variable descriptions.............. 393
Customize email quota notification templates................................393
Managing quota reports.............................................................................. 394
Create a quota report schedule...................................................... 394
Generate a quota report................................................................. 395
Locate a quota report..................................................................... 395
Basic quota settings....................................................................................396
Advisory limit quota notification rules settings............................................ 396
Soft limit quota notification rules settings................................................... 397
Hard limit quota notification rules settings.................................................. 398
Limit notification settings............................................................................398
Quota report settings.................................................................................. 399

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Chapter 22

Storage Pools

401

Storage pools overview............................................................................... 402

Storage pool functions................................................................................ 402
Storage pool functions supported with IsilonSD Edge.....................404
Autoprovisioning.........................................................................................404
Node pools................................................................................................. 405
Node class compatibilities............................................................. 405
SSD compatibilities........................................................................406
Manual node pools........................................................................ 407
Virtual hot spare..........................................................................................407
Spillover..................................................................................................... 408
Suggested protection.................................................................................. 408
Protection policies...................................................................................... 408
SSD strategies.............................................................................................409
Global namespace acceleration.................................................................. 410
L3 cache overview....................................................................................... 410
Migration to L3 cache.....................................................................411
L3 cache on NL-series and HD-series node pools............................412
Tiers............................................................................................................412
File pool policies......................................................................................... 412
Managing node pools in the web administration interface...........................413
Add node pools to a tier................................................................. 413
Change the name or requested protection of a node pool...............414
Create a node class compatibility...................................................414
Merge compatible node pools........................................................ 415
Delete a node class compatibility...................................................416
Create an SSD compatibility........................................................... 416
Delete an SSD compatibility........................................................... 417
Managing L3 cache from the web administration interface.......................... 418
Set L3 cache as the default for node pools..................................... 418
Set L3 cache on a specific node pool..............................................418
Restore SSDs to storage drives for a node pool.............................. 419
Managing tiers............................................................................................ 419
Create a tier................................................................................... 420
Edit a tier....................................................................................... 420
Delete a tier................................................................................... 420
Creating file pool policies............................................................................421
Create a file pool policy..................................................................422
File-matching options for file pool policies..................................... 422
Valid wildcard characters............................................................... 424
SmartPools settings....................................................................... 424
Managing file pool policies......................................................................... 427
Configure default file pool protection settings................................ 428
Default file pool requested protection settings............................... 428
Configure default I/O optimization settings....................................429
Default file pool I/O optimization settings...................................... 430
Modify a file pool policy................................................................. 430
Prioritize a file pool policy.............................................................. 431
Create a file pool policy from a template........................................ 431
Delete a file pool policy..................................................................432
Monitoring storage pools............................................................................ 432
Monitor storage pools.................................................................... 432
View subpools health.....................................................................433
View the results of a SmartPools job.............................................. 433

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Chapter 23

CloudPools

435

CloudPools overview................................................................................... 436

Accessing CloudPools with IsilonSD Edge...................................... 436
Supported cloud providers.......................................................................... 436
EMC Isilon......................................................................................437
EMC ECS Appliance........................................................................ 437
Virtustream Storage Cloud............................................................. 437
Amazon S3.....................................................................................438
Microsoft Azure..............................................................................438
CloudPools concepts...................................................................................438
CloudPools file processing.......................................................................... 440
Archiving files with file pool policies............................................................441
Sample policies with CloudPools actions....................................... 441
About file pool policy order............................................................ 441
File pool policy cloud archive parameters.......................................442
File matching options for cloud archival policies............................ 446
Combining cloud and local storage policy actions.......................... 447
Retrieving file data from the cloud............................................................... 447
Inline access of cloud data.............................................................448
Recalling files from the cloud......................................................... 448
CloudPools interoperability with other OneFS functions.............................. 448
Compression and encryption of cloud data.................................... 448
NFS inline access........................................................................... 449
SMB inline access.......................................................................... 449
Other protocols supporting inline access....................................... 449
SyncIQ interoperability...................................................................449
SnapshotIQ integration.................................................................. 452
NDMP backup and restore of cloud data.........................................452
CloudPools best practices........................................................................... 453
Use time stamps for cloud data archival and recall.........................453
CloudPools archiving and file size.................................................. 453
Create exclusive accounts for CloudPools purposes....................... 454
CloudPools troubleshooting........................................................................ 454
CloudPools expected behaviors..................................................... 454
CloudPools logs............................................................................. 456
Troubleshooting CloudPools.......................................................... 456
Managing cloud storage accounts............................................................... 457
Create cloud storage accounts....................................................... 457
Edit a cloud storage account.......................................................... 458
Managing CloudPools................................................................................. 458
Create a CloudPool.........................................................................458
View information about a CloudPool.............................................. 459
Edit a CloudPool.............................................................................459
Monitoring CloudPools...................................................................459
Managing cloud policies............................................................................. 460
View or edit default file pool settings............................................. 460
Create a file pool policy for cloud storage....................................... 460
Modify cloud attributes in a file pool policy.................................... 462

Chapter 24

System jobs

463

System jobs overview..................................................................................464

System jobs library......................................................................................464
Job operation.............................................................................................. 467
Job performance impact.............................................................................. 468
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CONTENTS

Job priorities............................................................................................... 469

Managing system jobs................................................................................ 469
View active jobs............................................................................. 469
View job history............................................................................. 469
Start a job...................................................................................... 470
Pause a job.................................................................................... 470
Resume a job................................................................................. 470
Cancel a job................................................................................... 470
Update a job.................................................................................. 471
Modify job type settings................................................................. 471
Managing impact policies........................................................................... 472
Create an impact policy..................................................................472
Copy an impact policy.................................................................... 472
Modify an impact policy................................................................. 473
Delete an impact policy..................................................................473
View impact policy settings............................................................ 474
Viewing job reports and statistics................................................................474
View statistics for a job in progress................................................ 474
View a report for a completed job...................................................474

Chapter 25

Networking

477

Networking overview................................................................................... 478

About the internal network.......................................................................... 478
Internal IP address ranges..............................................................478
Internal network failover................................................................ 479
Configuring the internal network for IsilonSD Edge......................... 479
About the external network......................................................................... 479
Groupnets......................................................................................480
Subnets......................................................................................... 480
IP address pools............................................................................ 481
SmartConnect module....................................................................482
Node provisioning rules................................................................. 485
Routing options............................................................................. 485
Configuring the internal network................................................................. 486
Modify the internal IP address range.............................................. 487
Modify the internal network netmask............................................. 487
Configure and enable internal failover ........................................... 488
Disable internal network failover....................................................489
Managing groupnets................................................................................... 489
Create a groupnet.......................................................................... 489
Modify a groupnet..........................................................................490
Delete a groupnet.......................................................................... 490
View groupnets.............................................................................. 491
Managing external network subnets............................................................491
Create a subnet..............................................................................492
Modify a subnet............................................................................. 493
Delete a subnet..............................................................................493
View subnet settings......................................................................493
Configure a SmartConnect service IP address................................. 493
Enable or disable VLAN tagging......................................................494
Add or remove a DSR address........................................................ 494
Managing IP address pools......................................................................... 494
Create an IP address pool...............................................................495
Modify an IP address pool.............................................................. 495
Delete an IP address pool...............................................................495
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View IP address pool settings.........................................................496

Add or remove an IP address range................................................ 496
Managing SmartConnect Settings................................................................496
Modify a SmartConnect DNS zone.................................................. 496
Specify a SmartConnect service subnet.......................................... 497
Suspend or resume a node............................................................ 497
Configure IP address allocation......................................................498
Configure a connection balancing policy........................................ 499
Configure an IP failover policy........................................................ 500
Configure an IP rebalance policy.................................................... 501
Managing network interface members.........................................................502
Add or remove a network interface................................................. 502
Configure link aggregation............................................................. 503
Managing node provisioning rules...............................................................504
Create a node provisioning rule......................................................504
Modify a node provisioning rule..................................................... 505
Delete a node provisioning rule......................................................505
View node provisioning rule settings..............................................506
Managing routing options........................................................................... 506
Enable or disable source-based routing......................................... 506
Add or remove a static route...........................................................506
Managing DNS cache settings..................................................................... 507
Flush the DNS cache...................................................................... 507
Modify DNS cache settings.............................................................507
DNS cache settings........................................................................ 507
Managing TCP ports.................................................................................... 508
Add or remove TCP ports................................................................ 508

Chapter 26

Hadoop

509

Hadoop overview........................................................................................ 510

Hadoop architecture....................................................................................510
Compute layer................................................................................510
Storage layer..................................................................................510
How Hadoop is implemented on OneFS.......................................................510
Hadoop distributions supported by OneFS.................................................. 511
HDFS files and directories........................................................................... 511
Hadoop user and group accounts................................................................512
HDFS authentication methods..................................................................... 512
HDFS and SmartConnect............................................................................. 512
WebHDFS.................................................................................................... 513
Secure impersonation................................................................................. 513
Ambari agent.............................................................................................. 513
Virtual HDFS racks.......................................................................................514
Deploying Hadoop with OneFS.................................................................... 514
Managing the HDFS service......................................................................... 515
Enable or disable the HDFS service................................................ 515
Configure HDFS service settings..................................................... 515
HDFS service settings.....................................................................515
View HDFS settings........................................................................ 516
Modify HDFS log levels................................................................... 516
View HDFS log levels...................................................................... 516
Set the HDFS root directory..........................................................................517
Configuring HDFS authentication methods.................................................. 517
Set the HDFS authentication method..............................................517
Configure HDFS authentication properties on the Hadoop client.....518
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CONTENTS

Supported HDFS authentication methods.......................................518

Create a local Hadoop user..........................................................................519
Enable or disable WebHDFS........................................................................ 519
Configuring secure impersonation...............................................................519
Create a proxy user........................................................................ 520
Modify a proxy user........................................................................520
Delete a proxy user........................................................................ 520
View a proxy user........................................................................... 521
Configure Ambari agent settings..................................................................521
Managing virtual HDFS racks....................................................................... 522
Create a virtual HDFS rack.............................................................. 522
Modify a virtual HDFS rack..............................................................522
Delete a virtual HDFS rack.............................................................. 522
View a virtual HDFS rack.................................................................523

Chapter 27

Antivirus

525

Antivirus overview....................................................................................... 526

On-access scanning.................................................................................... 526
Antivirus policy scanning............................................................................ 527
Individual file scanning............................................................................... 527
Antivirus scan reports................................................................................. 527
ICAP servers................................................................................................ 527
Supported ICAP servers............................................................................... 528
Antivirus threat responses...........................................................................528
Configuring global antivirus settings........................................................... 529
Exclude files from antivirus scans.................................................. 529
Configure on-access scanning settings...........................................530
Configure antivirus threat response settings.................................. 530
Configure antivirus report retention settings...................................531
Enable or disable antivirus scanning.............................................. 531
Managing ICAP servers................................................................................ 531
Add and connect to an ICAP server................................................. 531
Test an ICAP server connection.......................................................531
Modify ICAP connection settings.................................................... 532
Temporarily disconnect from an ICAP server................................... 532
Reconnect to an ICAP server........................................................... 532
Remove an ICAP server...................................................................532
Create an antivirus policy............................................................................ 532
Managing antivirus policies.........................................................................533
Modify an antivirus policy.............................................................. 533
Delete an antivirus policy............................................................... 534
Enable or disable an antivirus policy.............................................. 534
View antivirus policies................................................................... 534
Managing antivirus scans............................................................................534
Scan a file...................................................................................... 534
Manually run an antivirus policy.....................................................534
Stop a running antivirus scan.........................................................535
Managing antivirus threats..........................................................................535
Manually quarantine a file..............................................................535
Rescan a file.................................................................................. 535
Remove a file from quarantine........................................................535
Manually truncate a file..................................................................536
View threats...................................................................................536
Antivirus threat information........................................................... 536
Managing antivirus reports..........................................................................536
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CONTENTS

View antivirus reports.................................................................... 537

View antivirus events..................................................................... 537

Chapter 28

IsilonSD Edge

539

IsilonSD Edge storage and architecture....................................................... 540

IsilonSD cluster overview............................................................................ 541
IsilonSD Edge licensing overview................................................................ 541
IsilonSD Management Server overview........................................................ 544
Deploying and configuring IsilonSD clusters................................................544

Chapter 29

VMware integration

545

VMware integration overview.......................................................................546

VAAI............................................................................................................ 546
VASA...........................................................................................................546
Isilon VASA alarms......................................................................... 546
VASA storage capabilities.............................................................. 547
Configuring VASA support........................................................................... 547
Enable VASA.................................................................................. 547
Download the Isilon vendor provider certificate..............................548
Add the Isilon vendor provider....................................................... 548
Disable or re-enable VASA...........................................................................549
Troubleshooting VASA storage display failures............................................549

Chapter 30

File System Explorer

551

File System Explorer overview......................................................................552

Browse the file system................................................................................ 552
File System Explorer icons..............................................................552
Create a directory........................................................................................ 553
Modify file and directory properties............................................................. 553
View file and directory properties................................................................ 553
File and directory properties........................................................................ 553

OneFS 8.0.0 Web Administration Guide

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CONTENTS

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OneFS 8.0.0 Web Administration Guide

CHAPTER 1
Introduction to this guide

This section contains the following topics:

l
l
l
l

About this guide....................................................................................................22

Isilon scale-out NAS overview................................................................................22
IsilonSD Edge overview......................................................................................... 22
Where to go for support.........................................................................................22

Introduction to this guide

21

Introduction to this guide

About this guide

This guide describes how the Isilon OneFS web administration interface provides access
to cluster configuration, management, and monitoring functionality.
Most of the information in this guide is also applicable for IsilonSD Edge, a softwaredefined version of OneFS running on the VMware ESXi hypervisor. Differences, if any, are
highlighted in the respective sections of this guide.
Your suggestions help us to improve the accuracy, organization, and overall quality of the
documentation. Send your feedback to https://www.research.net/s/isi-docfeedback. If
you cannot provide feedback through the URL, send an email message to
[email protected].

Isilon scale-out NAS overview

The EMC Isilon scale-out NAS storage platform combines modular hardware with unified
software to harness unstructured data. Powered by the OneFS operating system, an EMC
Isilon cluster delivers a scalable pool of storage with a global namespace.
The platform's unified software provides centralized web-based and command-line
administration to manage the following features:
l

A cluster that runs a distributed file system

Scale-out nodes that add capacity and performance

Storage options that manage files and tiering

Flexible data protection and high availability

Software modules that control costs and optimize resources

IsilonSD Edge overview

IsilonSD Edge is a software-defined version of OneFS that runs on the VMware ESXi
hypervisor and provides scale-out NAS capabilities on commodity hardware.
You can create OneFS nodes as virtual machines within OneFS clusters that are deployed
on VMware ESXi hosts using the hardware resources available on those hosts. The virtual
OneFS clusters and nodes are called IsilonSD clusters and IsilonSD nodes.
IsilonSD Edge supports most of the features and software modules that are supported by
OneFS. It also provides centralized web-based and command-line administration, which
is the same as OneFS, to manage the cluster and node management tasks. For more
information, see the IsilonSD Edge Installation and Administration Guide.

Where to go for support

Contact EMC Isilon Technical Support for any questions about EMC Isilon products.
Online Support

Live Chat
Create a Service Request

Telephone
Support

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OneFS 8.0.0 Web Administration Guide

United States: 1-800-SVC-4EMC (800-782-4362)

Canada: 800-543-4782

Introduction to this guide

Worldwide: +1-508-497-7901
For local phone numbers for a specific country, see EMC Customer
Support Centers.
Help with Online
Support

For questions specific to EMC Online Support registration or access,

email [email protected].

Isilon Info Hubs

For the list of Isilon info hubs, see the Isilon Info Hubs page on the
EMC Isilon Community Network. Isilon info hubs organize Isilon
documentation, videos, blogs, and user-contributed content into
topic areas, making it easy to find content about subjects that
interest you.

Support for IsilonSD Edge

If you are running a free version of IsilonSD Edge, community support is available through
the EMC Isilon Community Network. However, if you have purchased one or more licenses
of IsilonSD Edge, you can contact EMC Isilon Technical Support for assistance, provided
you have a valid support contract for the product.

Where to go for support

23

Introduction to this guide

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OneFS 8.0.0 Web Administration Guide

CHAPTER 2
Isilon scale-out NAS

This section contains the following topics:

l
l
l
l
l
l
l
l
l

OneFS storage architecture................................................................................... 26

Isilon node components........................................................................................26
Internal and external networks.............................................................................. 27
Isilon cluster......................................................................................................... 27
The OneFS operating system................................................................................. 29
Structure of the file system....................................................................................31
Data protection overview.......................................................................................33
VMware integration............................................................................................... 35
Software modules................................................................................................. 36

Isilon scale-out NAS

25

Isilon scale-out NAS

OneFS storage architecture

EMC Isilon takes a scale-out approach to storage by creating a cluster of nodes that runs
a distributed file system. OneFS combines the three layers of storage architecturefile
system, volume manager, and data protectioninto a scale-out NAS cluster.
Each node adds resources to the cluster. Because each node contains globally coherent
RAM, as a cluster becomes larger, it becomes faster. Meanwhile, the file system expands
dynamically and redistributes content, which eliminates the work of partitioning disks
and creating volumes.
Nodes work as peers to spread data across the cluster. Segmenting and distributing data
a process known as stripingnot only protects data, but also enables a user
connecting to any node to take advantage of the entire cluster's performance.
OneFS uses distributed software to scale data across commodity hardware. Each node
helps control data requests, boosts performance, and expands the cluster's capacity. No
master device controls the cluster; no slaves invoke dependencies. Instead, each node
helps control data requests, boosts performance, and expands the cluster's capacity.

Isilon node components

As a rack-mountable appliance, a storage node includes the following components in a
2U or 4U rack-mountable chassis with an LCD front panel: CPUs, RAM, NVRAM, network
interfaces, InfiniBand adapters, disk controllers, and storage media. An Isilon cluster
comprises three or more nodes, up to 144.
When you add a node to a cluster, you increase the cluster's aggregate disk, cache, CPU,
RAM, and network capacity. OneFS groups RAM into a single coherent cache so that a
data request on a node benefits from data that is cached anywhere. NVRAM is grouped to
write data with high throughput and to protect write operations from power failures. As
the cluster expands, spindles and CPU combine to increase throughput, capacity, and
input-output operations per second (IOPS).
EMC Isilon makes several types of nodes, all of which can be added to a cluster to
balance capacity and performance with throughput or IOPS:
Node

Use Case

S-Series

IOPS-intensive applications

X-Series

High-concurrency and throughput-driven workflows

NL-Series Near-primary accessibility, with near-tape value

HD-Series Maximum capacity

The following EMC Isilon nodes improve performance:

Node

Function

A-Series Performance Accelerator Independent scaling for high performance

A-Series Backup Accelerator

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OneFS 8.0.0 Web Administration Guide

High-speed and scalable backup-and-restore solution for tape

drives over Fibre Channel connections

Isilon scale-out NAS

Internal and external networks

A cluster includes two networks: an internal network to exchange data between nodes
and an external network to handle client connections.
Nodes exchange data through the internal network with a proprietary, unicast protocol
over InfiniBand. Each node includes redundant InfiniBand ports so you can add a second
internal network in case the first one fails.
Note

In the case of IsilonSD Edge, nodes exchange data through the Ethernet switch. For more
information on the internal and external network requirements for IsilonSD Edge, see the
IsilonSD Edge Installation and Administration Guide.
Clients reach the cluster with 1 GigE or 10 GigE Ethernet. Since every node includes
Ethernet ports, the cluster's bandwidth scales with performance and capacity as you add
nodes.
CAUTION

Only Isilon nodes should be connected to your InfiniBand switch. Information exchanged
on the back-end network is not encrypted. Connecting anything other than Isilon nodes
to the InfiniBand switch creates a security risk.

Isilon cluster
An Isilon cluster consists of three or more hardware nodes, up to 144. Each node runs the
Isilon OneFS operating system, the distributed file-system software that unites the nodes
into a cluster. A clusters storage capacity ranges from a minimum of 18 TB to a maximum
of 50 PB.
If you are running IsilonSD Edge, see the IsilonSD cluster section in this guide for the
IsilonSD cluster requirements.

Cluster administration
OneFS centralizes cluster management through a web administration interface and a
command-line interface. Both interfaces provide methods to activate licenses, check the
status of nodes, configure the cluster, upgrade the system, generate alerts, view client
connections, track performance, and change various settings.
In addition, OneFS simplifies administration by automating maintenance with a Job
Engine. You can schedule jobs that scan for viruses, inspect disks for errors, reclaim disk
space, and check the integrity of the file system. The engine manages the jobs to
minimize impact on the cluster's performance.
With SNMP versions 2c and 3, you can remotely monitor hardware components, CPU
usage, switches, and network interfaces. EMC Isilon supplies management information
bases (MIBs) and traps for the OneFS operating system.
OneFS also includes an application programming interface (API) that is divided into two
functional areas: One area enables cluster configuration, management, and monitoring
functionality, and the other area enables operations on files and directories on the
cluster. You can send requests to the OneFS API through a Representational State
Transfer (REST) interface, which is accessed through resource URIs and standard HTTP
Internal and external networks

27

Isilon scale-out NAS

methods. The API integrates with OneFS role-based access control (RBAC) to increase
security. See the Isilon Platform API Reference.

Quorum
An Isilon cluster must have a quorum to work properly. A quorum prevents data conflicts
for example, conflicting versions of the same filein case two groups of nodes become
unsynchronized. If a cluster loses its quorum for read and write requests, you cannot
access the OneFS file system.
For a quorum, more than half the nodes must be available over the internal network. A
seven-node cluster, for example, requires a four-node quorum. A 10-node cluster requires
a six-node quorum. If a node is unreachable over the internal network, OneFS separates
the node from the cluster, an action referred to as splitting. After a cluster is split, cluster
operations continue as long as enough nodes remain connected to have a quorum.
In a split cluster, the nodes that remain in the cluster are referred to as the majority
group. Nodes that are split from the cluster are referred to as the minority group.
When split nodes can reconnect with the cluster and resynchronize with the other nodes,
the nodes rejoin the cluster's majority group, an action referred to as merging.
A OneFS cluster contains two quorum properties:
l

read quorum (efs.gmp.has_quorum)

write quorum (efs.gmp.has_super_block_quorum)

By connecting to a node with SSH and running the sysctl command-line tool as root,
you can view the status of both types of quorum. Here is an example for a cluster that has
a quorum for both read and write operations, as the command's output indicates with a
1, for true:
sysctl efs.gmp.has_quorum
efs.gmp.has_quorum: 1
sysctl efs.gmp.has_super_block_quorum
efs.gmp.has_super_block_quorum: 1

The degraded states of nodessuch as smartfail, read-only, offline, and so onaffect

quorum in different ways. A node in a smartfail or read-only state affects only write
quorum. A node in an offline state, however, affects both read and write quorum. In a
cluster, the combination of nodes in different degraded states determines whether read
requests, write requests, or both work.
A cluster can lose write quorum but keep read quorum. Consider a four-node cluster in
which nodes 1 and 2 are working normally. Node 3 is in a read-only state, and node 4 is
in a smartfail state. In such a case, read requests to the cluster succeed. Write requests,
however, receive an input-output error because the states of nodes 3 and 4 break the
write quorum.
A cluster can also lose both its read and write quorum. If nodes 3 and 4 in a four-node
cluster are in an offline state, both write requests and read requests receive an inputoutput error, and you cannot access the file system. When OneFS can reconnect with the
nodes, OneFS merges them back into the cluster. Unlike a RAID system, an Isilon node
can rejoin the cluster without being rebuilt and reconfigured.

Splitting and merging

Splitting and merging optimize the use of nodes without your intervention.
OneFS monitors every node in a cluster. If a node is unreachable over the internal
network, OneFS separates the node from the cluster, an action referred to as splitting.
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When the cluster can reconnect to the node, OneFS adds the node back into the cluster,
an action referred to as merging.
When a node is split from a cluster, it will continue to capture event information locally.
You can connect to a split node with SSH and run the isi event events list
command to view the local event log for the node. The local event log can help you
troubleshoot the connection issue that resulted in the split. When the split node rejoins
the cluster, local events gathered during the split are deleted. You can still view events
generated by a split node in the node's event log file located at /var/log/
isi_celog_events.log.
If a cluster splits during a write operation, OneFS might need to reallocate blocks for the
file on the side with the quorum, which leads allocated blocks on the side without a
quorum to become orphans. When the split nodes reconnect with the cluster, the OneFS
Collect system job reclaims the orphaned blocks.
Meanwhile, as nodes split and merge with the cluster, the OneFS AutoBalance job
redistributes data evenly among the nodes in the cluster, optimizing protection and
conserving space.

Storage pools
Storage pools segment nodes and files into logical divisions to simplify the management
and storage of data.
A storage pool comprises node pools and tiers. Node pools group equivalent nodes to
protect data and ensure reliability. Tiers combine node pools to optimize storage by
need, such as a frequently used high-speed tier or a rarely accessed archive.
The SmartPools module groups nodes and files into pools. If you do not activate a
SmartPools license, the module provisions node pools and creates one file pool. If you
activate the SmartPools license, you receive more features. You can, for example, create
multiple file pools and govern them with policies. The policies move files, directories, and
file pools among node pools or tiers. You can also define how OneFS handles write
operations when a node pool or tier is full. SmartPools reserves a virtual hot spare to
reprotect data if a drive fails regardless of whether the SmartPools license is activated.

The OneFS operating system

A distributed operating system based on FreeBSD, OneFS presents an Isilon cluster's file
system as a single share or export with a central point of administration.
The OneFS operating system does the following:
l

Supports common data-access protocols, such as SMB and NFS.

Connects to multiple identity management systems, such as Active Directory and

LDAP.

Authenticates users and groups.

Controls access to directories and files.

Data-access protocols
With the OneFS operating system, you can access data with multiple file-sharing and
transfer protocols. As a result, Microsoft Windows, UNIX, Linux, and Mac OS X clients can
share the same directories and files.
OneFS supports the following protocols.

Storage pools

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Isilon scale-out NAS

SMB
The Server Message Block (SMB) protocol enables Windows users to access the
cluster. OneFS works with SMB 1, SMB 2, and SMB 2.1, as well as SMB 3.0 for
Multichannel only. With SMB 2.1, OneFS supports client opportunity locks (oplocks)
and large (1 MB) MTU sizes. The default file share is /ifs.
NFS
The Network File System (NFS) protocol enables UNIX, Linux, and Mac OS X systems
to remotely mount any subdirectory, including subdirectories created by Windows
users. OneFS works with NFS versions 3 and 4. The default export is /ifs.
HDFS
The Hadoop Distributed File System (HDFS) protocol enables a cluster to work with
Apache Hadoop, a framework for data-intensive distributed applications. HDFS
integration requires you to activate a separate license.
FTP
FTP allows systems with an FTP client to connect to the cluster and exchange files.
HTTP and HTTPS
HTTP and its secure variant, HTTPS, give systems browser-based access to resources.
OneFS includes limited support for WebDAV.
Swift
Isilon Swift enables you to access file-based data stored on your EMC Isilon cluster
as objects. The Swift API is implemented as a set of Representational State Transfer
(REST) web services over HTTP or secure HTTP (HTTPS). Content and metadata can be
ingested as objects and concurrently accessed through other supported EMC Isilon
protocols. For more information, see the Isilon Swift Technical Note.

Identity management and access control

OneFS works with multiple identity management systems to authenticate users and
control access to files. In addition, OneFS features access zones that allow users from
different directory services to access different resources based on their IP address.
Meanwhile, role-based access control (RBAC) segments administrative access by role.
OneFS authenticates users with the following identity management systems:
l

Microsoft Active Directory (AD)

Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP)

Network Information Service (NIS)

Local users and local groups

A file provider for accounts in /etc/spwd.db and /etc/group files. With the file
provider, you can add an authoritative third-party source of user and group
information.

You can manage users with different identity management systems; OneFS maps the
accounts so that Windows and UNIX identities can coexist. A Windows user account
managed in Active Directory, for example, is mapped to a corresponding UNIX account in
NIS or LDAP.
To control access, an Isilon cluster works with both the access control lists (ACLs) of
Windows systems and the POSIX mode bits of UNIX systems. When OneFS must
transform a file's permissions from ACLs to mode bits or from mode bits to ACLs, OneFS
merges the permissions to maintain consistent security settings.
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Isilon scale-out NAS

OneFS presents protocol-specific views of permissions so that NFS exports display mode
bits and SMB shares show ACLs. You can, however, manage not only mode bits but also
ACLs with standard UNIX tools, such as the chmod and chown commands. In addition,
ACL policies enable you to configure how OneFS manages permissions for networks that
mix Windows and UNIX systems.
Access zones
OneFS includes an access zones feature. Access zones allow users from different
authentication providers, such as two untrusted Active Directory domains, to access
different OneFS resources based on an incoming IP address. An access zone can
contain multiple authentication providers and SMB namespaces.
RBAC for administration
OneFS includes role-based access control for administration. In place of a root or
administrator account, RBAC lets you manage administrative access by role. A role
limits privileges to an area of administration. For example, you can create separate
administrator roles for security, auditing, storage, and backup.

Structure of the file system

OneFS presents all the nodes in a cluster as a global namespacethat is, as the default
file share, /ifs.
In the file system, directories are inode number links. An inode contains file metadata
and an inode number, which identifies a file's location. OneFS dynamically allocates
inodes, and there is no limit on the number of inodes.
To distribute data among nodes, OneFS sends messages with a globally routable block
address through the cluster's internal network. The block address identifies the node and
the drive storing the block of data.
Note

We recommend that you do not save data to the root /ifs file path but in directories
below /ifs. The design of your data storage structure should be planned carefully. A
well-designed directory optimizes cluster performance and cluster administration.

Data layout
OneFS evenly distributes data among a cluster's nodes with layout algorithms that
maximize storage efficiency and performance. The system continuously reallocates data
to conserve space.
OneFS breaks data down into smaller sections called blocks, and then the system places
the blocks in a stripe unit. By referencing either file data or erasure codes, a stripe unit
helps safeguard a file from a hardware failure. The size of a stripe unit depends on the
file size, the number of nodes, and the protection setting. After OneFS divides the data
into stripe units, OneFS allocates, or stripes, the stripe units across nodes in the cluster.
When a client connects to a node, the client's read and write operations take place on
multiple nodes. For example, when a client connects to a node and requests a file, the
node retrieves the data from multiple nodes and rebuilds the file. You can optimize how
OneFS lays out data to match your dominant access patternconcurrent, streaming, or
random.

Structure of the file system

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Isilon scale-out NAS

Writing files
On a node, the input-output operations of the OneFS software stack split into two
functional layers: A top layer, or initiator, and a bottom layer, or participant. In read and
write operations, the initiator and the participant play different roles.
When a client writes a file to a node, the initiator on the node manages the layout of the
file on the cluster. First, the initiator divides the file into blocks of 8 KB each. Second, the
initiator places the blocks in one or more stripe units. At 128 KB, a stripe unit consists of
16 blocks. Third, the initiator spreads the stripe units across the cluster until they span a
width of the cluster, creating a stripe. The width of the stripe depends on the number of
nodes and the protection setting.
After dividing a file into stripe units, the initiator writes the data first to non-volatile
random-access memory (NVRAM) and then to disk. NVRAM retains the information when
the power is off.
During the write transaction, NVRAM guards against failed nodes with journaling. If a
node fails mid-transaction, the transaction restarts without the failed node. When the
node returns, it replays the journal from NVRAM to finish the transaction. The node also
runs the AutoBalance job to check the file's on-disk striping. Meanwhile, uncommitted
writes waiting in the cache are protected with mirroring. As a result, OneFS eliminates
multiple points of failure.

Reading files
In a read operation, a node acts as a manager to gather data from the other nodes and
present it to the requesting client.
Because an Isilon cluster's coherent cache spans all the nodes, OneFS can store different
data in each node's RAM. By using the internal InfiniBand network, a node can retrieve
file data from another node's cache faster than from its own local disk. If a read operation
requests data that is cached on any node, OneFS pulls the cached data to serve it
quickly.
In addition, for files with an access pattern of concurrent or streaming, OneFS pre-fetches
in-demand data into a managing node's local cache to further improve sequential-read
performance.

Metadata layout
OneFS protects metadata by spreading it across nodes and drives.
Metadatawhich includes information about where a file is stored, how it is protected,
and who can access itis stored in inodes and protected with locks in a B+ tree, a
standard structure for organizing data blocks in a file system to provide instant lookups.
OneFS replicates file metadata across the cluster so that there is no single point of
failure.
Working together as peers, all the nodes help manage metadata access and locking. If a
node detects an error in metadata, the node looks up the metadata in an alternate
location and then corrects the error.

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Locks and concurrency

OneFS includes a distributed lock manager that orchestrates locks on data across all the
nodes in a cluster.
The lock manager grants locks for the file system, byte ranges, and protocols, including
SMB share-mode locks and NFS advisory locks. OneFS also supports SMB opportunistic
locks.
Because OneFS distributes the lock manager across all the nodes, any node can act as a
lock coordinator. When a thread from a node requests a lock, the lock manager's hashing
algorithm typically assigns the coordinator role to a different node. The coordinator
allocates a shared lock or an exclusive lock, depending on the type of request. A shared
lock allows users to share a file simultaneously, typically for read operations. An
exclusive lock allows only one user to access a file, typically for write operations.

Striping
In a process known as striping, OneFS segments files into units of data and then
distributes the units across nodes in a cluster. Striping protects your data and improves
cluster performance.
To distribute a file, OneFS reduces it to blocks of data, arranges the blocks into stripe
units, and then allocates the stripe units to nodes over the internal network.
At the same time, OneFS distributes erasure codes that protect the file. The erasure codes
encode the file's data in a distributed set of symbols, adding space-efficient redundancy.
With only a part of the symbol set, OneFS can recover the original file data.
Taken together, the data and its redundancy form a protection group for a region of file
data. OneFS places the protection groups on different drives on different nodescreating
data stripes.
Because OneFS stripes data across nodes that work together as peers, a user connecting
to any node can take advantage of the entire cluster's performance.
By default, OneFS optimizes striping for concurrent access. If your dominant access
pattern is streamingthat is, lower concurrency, higher single-stream workloads, such as
with videoyou can change how OneFS lays out data to increase sequential-read
performance. To better handle streaming access, OneFS stripes data across more drives.
Streaming is most effective on clusters or subpools serving large files.

Data protection overview

An Isilon cluster is designed to serve data even when components fail. By default, OneFS
protects data with erasure codes, enabling you to retrieve files when a node or disk fails.
As an alternative to erasure codes, you can protect data with two to eight mirrors.
When you create a cluster with five or more nodes, erasure codes deliver as much as 80
percent efficiency. On larger clusters, erasure codes provide as much as four levels of
redundancy.
In addition to erasure codes and mirroring, OneFS includes the following features to help
protect the integrity, availability, and confidentiality of data:
Feature

Description

Antivirus

OneFS can send files to servers running the Internet Content Adaptation
Protocol (ICAP) to scan for viruses and other threats.

Locks and concurrency

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Feature

Description

Clones

OneFS enables you to create clones that share blocks with other files to save
space.

NDMP backup
and restore

OneFS can back up data to tape and other devices through the Network Data
Management Protocol. Although OneFS supports both three-way and two-way
backup, two-way backup requires an Isilon Backup Accelerator Node.
Note

IsilonSD Edge supports only the three-way NDMP backup.

Protection
domains

You can apply protection domains to files and directories to prevent changes.

The following software modules also help protect data, but they require you to activate a
separate license:
Licensed
Feature

Description

SyncIQ

SyncIQ replicates data on another Isilon cluster and automates failover and
failback operations between clusters. If a cluster becomes unusable, you can
fail over to another Isilon cluster.

SnapshotIQ

You can protect data with a snapshota logical copy of data stored on a
cluster.

SmartLock

The SmartLock tool prevents users from modifying and deleting files. You can
commit files to a write-once, read-many state: The file can never be modified
and cannot be deleted until after a set retention period. SmartLock can help
you comply with Securities and Exchange Commission Rule 17a-4.

N+M data protection

OneFS supports N+M erasure code levels of N+1, N+2, N+3, and N+4.
In the N+M data model, N represents the number of nodes, and M represents the number
of simultaneous failures of nodes or drives that the cluster can handle without losing
data. For example, with N+2 the cluster can lose two drives on different nodes or lose two
nodes.
To protect drives and nodes separately, OneFS also supports N+M:B. In the N+M:B
notation, M is the number of disk failures, and B is the number of node failures. With N
+3:1 protection, for example, the cluster can lose three drives or one node without losing
data.
The default protection level for clusters larger than 18 TB is N+2:1. The default for
clusters smaller than 18 TB is N+1.
The quorum rule dictates the number of nodes required to support a protection level. For
example, N+3 requires at least seven nodes so you can maintain a quorum if three nodes
fail.
You can, however, set a protection level that is higher than the cluster can support. In a
four-node cluster, for example, you can set the protection level at 5x. OneFS protects the
data at 4x until a fifth node is added, after which OneFS automatically re-protects the
data at 5x.

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Data mirroring
You can protect on-disk data with mirroring, which copies data to multiple locations.
OneFS supports two to eight mirrors. You can use mirroring instead of erasure codes, or
you can combine erasure codes with mirroring.
Mirroring, however, consumes more space than erasure codes. Mirroring data three
times, for example, duplicates the data three times, which requires more space than
erasure codes. As a result, mirroring suits transactions that require high performance.
You can also mix erasure codes with mirroring. During a write operation, OneFS divides
data into redundant protection groups. For files protected by erasure codes, a protection
group consists of data blocks and their erasure codes. For mirrored files, a protection
group contains all the mirrors of a set of blocks. OneFS can switch the type of protection
group as it writes a file to disk. By changing the protection group dynamically, OneFS can
continue writing data despite a node failure that prevents the cluster from applying
erasure codes. After the node is restored, OneFS automatically converts the mirrored
protection groups to erasure codes.

The file system journal

A journal, which records file-system changes in a battery-backed NVRAM card, recovers
the file system after failures, such as a power loss. When a node restarts, the journal
replays file transactions to restore the file system.

Virtual hot spare (VHS)

When a drive fails, OneFS uses space reserved in a subpool instead of a hot spare drive.
The reserved space is known as a virtual hot spare.
In contrast to a spare drive, a virtual hot spare automatically resolves drive failures and
continues writing data. If a drive fails, OneFS migrates data to the virtual hot spare to
reprotect it. You can reserve as many as four disk drives as a virtual hot spare.

Balancing protection with storage space

You can set protection levels to balance protection requirements with storage space.
Higher protection levels typically consume more space than lower levels because you
lose an amount of disk space to storing erasure codes. The overhead for the erasure
codes depends on the protection level, the file size, and the number of nodes in the
cluster. Since OneFS stripes both data and erasure codes across nodes, the overhead
declines as you add nodes.

VMware integration
OneFS integrates with several VMware products, including vSphere, vCenter, and ESXi.
For example, OneFS works with the VMware vSphere API for Storage Awareness (VASA) so
that you can view information about an Isilon cluster in vSphere. OneFS also works with
the VMware vSphere API for Array Integration (VAAI) to support the following features for
block storage: hardware-assisted locking, full copy, and block zeroing. VAAI for NFS
requires an ESXi plug-in.
With the Isilon Storage Replication Adapter, OneFS integrates with the VMware vCenter
Site Recovery Manager to recover virtual machines that are replicated between Isilon
clusters.
Data mirroring

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Software modules
You can access advanced features by activating licenses for EMC Isilon software
modules.
Note

If you are running IsilonSD Edge, the supported list of software modules varies,
depending on whether you have configured the free or purchased version of this product.
For more information on the software modules available with IsilonSD Edge, see the
IsilonSD Edge licensing overview section in this guide.
SmartLock
SmartLock protects critical data from malicious, accidental, or premature alteration
or deletion to help you comply with SEC 17a-4 regulations. You can automatically
commit data to a tamper-proof state and then retain it with a compliance clock.
HDFS
OneFS works with the Hadoop Distributed File System protocol to help clients
running Apache Hadoop, a framework for data-intensive distributed applications,
analyze big data.
SyncIQ automated failover and failback
SyncIQ replicates data on another Isilon cluster and automates failover and failback
between clusters. If a cluster becomes unusable, you can fail over to another Isilon
cluster. Failback restores the original source data after the primary cluster becomes
available again.
Security hardening
Security hardening is the process of configuring your system to reduce or eliminate
as many security risks as possible. You can apply a hardening policy that secures
the configuration of OneFS, according to policy guidelines.
SnapshotIQ
SnapshotIQ protects data with a snapshota logical copy of data stored on a
cluster. A snapshot can be restored to its top-level directory.
SmartDedupe
You can reduce redundancy on a cluster by running SmartDedupe. Deduplication
creates links that can impact the speed at which you can read from and write to files.
SmartPools
SmartPools enables you to create multiple file pools governed by file-pool policies.
The policies move files and directories among node pools or tiers. You can also
define how OneFS handles write operations when a node pool or tier is full.
CloudPools
Built on the SmartPools policy framework, CloudPools enables you to archive data to
cloud storage, effectively defining the cloud as another tier of storage. CloudPools
supports EMC Isilon, EMC ECS Appliance, Virtustream Storage Cloud, Amazon S3,
and Microsoft Azure as cloud storage providers.
SmartConnect Advanced
If you activate a SmartConnect Advanced license, you can balance policies to evenly
distribute CPU usage, client connections, or throughput. You can also define IP
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address pools to support multiple DNS zones in a subnet. In addition, SmartConnect

supports IP failover, also known as NFS failover.
InsightIQ
The InsightIQ virtual appliance monitors and analyzes the performance of your Isilon
cluster to help you optimize storage resources and forecast capacity.
SmartQuotas
The SmartQuotas module tracks disk usage with reports and enforces storage limits
with alerts.
Isilon Swift
Isilon Swift is an object storage gateway compatible with the OpenStack Swift 1.0
API. Through Isilon Swift, you can access existing file-based data stored on your EMC
Isilon cluster as objects. The Swift API is implemented as a set of RESTful web
services over HTTP or HTTPS. Since the Swift API is considered as a protocol, content
and metadata can be ingested as objects and concurrently accessed through other
supported EMC Isilon protocols.

Software modules

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CHAPTER 3
General cluster administration

This section contains the following topics:

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General cluster administration overview................................................................40

User interfaces...................................................................................................... 40
Connecting to the cluster.......................................................................................41
Licensing...............................................................................................................42
Certificates............................................................................................................47
Cluster identity......................................................................................................49
Cluster date and time............................................................................................ 50
SMTP email settings.............................................................................................. 51
Configuring the cluster join mode..........................................................................52
File system settings...............................................................................................53
Security hardening................................................................................................ 54
Cluster monitoring.................................................................................................59
Monitoring cluster hardware..................................................................................61
Events and alerts...................................................................................................67
Cluster maintenance............................................................................................. 77
Remote support.....................................................................................................86

General cluster administration

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General cluster administration overview

You can manage general OneFS settings and module licenses for the EMC Isilon cluster.
General cluster administration covers several areas. You can:
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manage general settings such as cluster name, date and time, and email

monitor the cluster status and performance, including hardware components

configure how events and notifications are handled

perform cluster maintenance such as adding, removing, and restarting nodes

Most management tasks are accomplished through both the web administration or
command-line interface; however, you will occasionally encounter a task that can only be
managed by one or the other.

User interfaces
OneFS and IsilonSD Edge provide several interfaces for managing the EMC Isilon clusters
and IsilonSD clusters.
Interface

Description

Comment

OneFS web
administration
interface

The browser-based OneFS web administration

interface provides secure access with OneFSsupported browsers. Use this interface to view
robust graphical monitoring displays and to
perform cluster-management tasks.

The OneFS web

administration interface
uses port 8080 as its default
port.

OneFS command- Run OneFS isi commands in the commandline interface

line interface to configure, monitor, and
manage the cluster. Access to the commandline interface is through a secure shell (SSH)
connection to any node in the cluster.

The OneFS command-line

interface provides an
extended standard UNIX
command set for managing
the cluster.

OneFS API

The OneFS application programming interface

(API) is divided into two functional areas: one
area enables cluster configuration,
management, and monitoring functionality,
and the other area enables operations on files
and directories on the cluster. You can send
requests to the OneFS API through a
Representational State Transfer (REST)
interface, which is accessed through resource
URIs and standard HTTP methods.

You should have a solid

understanding of HTTP/1.1
and experience writing HTTPbased client software before
you implement client-based
software through the OneFS
API.

Node front panel

With the exception of accelerator nodes, the

front panel of each node contains an LCD
screen with five buttons that you can use to
monitor node and cluster details.

Node status, events, cluster

details, capacity, IP and MAC
addresses, throughput, and
drive status are available
through the node front
panel.

Note

This interface is not applicable for IsilonSD

Edge.

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Connecting to the cluster

EMC Isilon cluster access is provided through the web administration interface or through
SSH. You can use a serial connection to perform cluster administration tasks through the
command-line interface.
You can also access the cluster through the node front panel to accomplish a subset of
cluster management tasks. For information about connecting to the node front panel, see
the installation documentation for your node.
Note

The node front panel is not available with IsilonSD Edge.

Log in to the web administration interface

You can monitor and manage your EMC Isilon cluster from the browser-based web
administration interface.
Procedure
1. Open a browser window and type the URL for your cluster in the address field,
replacing <yourNodeIPaddress> with the first IP address you provided when you
configured ext-1 in the one of the following examples:
IPv4
https://<yourNodeIPaddress>:8080
IPv6
https://[<yourNodeIPaddress>]:8080
Note

IPv6 addresses are not supported with IsilonSD Edge.

The system displays a message if your security certificates have not been configured.
Resolve any certificate configurations and continue to the web site.
2. Log in to OneFS by typing your OneFS credentials in the Username and Password
fields.
After you log into the web administration interface, there is a 4-hour login timeout.

Open an SSH connection to a cluster

You can use any SSH client such as OpenSSH or PuTTY to connect to an EMC Isilon
cluster.
Before you begin
You must have valid OneFS credentials to log in to a cluster after the connection is open.
Procedure
1. Open a secure shell (SSH) connection to any node in the cluster, using the IP address
of the node and port number 22.
2. Log in with your OneFS credentials.
Connecting to the cluster

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General cluster administration

At the OneFS command line prompt, you can use isi commands to monitor and
manage your cluster.

Licensing
Advanced cluster features are available when you activate licenses for OneFS software
modules. Each optional OneFS software module requires you to activate a separate
license.
For more information about the following optional software modules, contact your EMC
Isilon sales representative.
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CloudPools

Security hardening

HDFS

InsightIQ

Isilon Swift

SmartConnect Advanced

SmartDedupe

SmartLock

SmartPools

SmartQuotas

SnapshotIQ

SyncIQ

Note

If you are running IsilonSD Edge, CloudPools, SmartLock, and SyncIQ are available only
when you purchase an IsilonSD Edge license. All the other optional modules are available
by default, with the free license of this product.

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License status
The status of a OneFS module license indicates whether the functionality provided by a
module is available on the cluster.
Licenses exist in one of the following states:
Status

Description

Inactive

The license has not been activated on the cluster. You cannot access the features
provided by the corresponding module.

Evaluation The license has been temporarily activated on the cluster. You can access the
features provided by the corresponding module for a limited period of time. After the
license expires, the features become unavailable unless the license is reactivated.
Activated

The license has been activated on the cluster. You can access the features provided
by the corresponding module.

Expired

The evaluation license has expired on the cluster. You can no longer access the
features provided by the corresponding module. The features will remain unavailable
unless you reactivate the license.

Note

If you are running IsilonSD Edge, the licenses for the software modules depend on
whether you have configured a free or purchased license of IsilonSD Edge and the
corresponding license states.
The following table describes what functionality is available for each license depending
on the license's status:
License

Inactive

Evaluation/
Activated

Expired

CloudPools

Clients cannot
connect to or store
files in the cloud.

Clients may store,

access, and modify
files in the cloud.
Cloud files may be
accessed over
common protocols
such as NFS and
SMB.

New connections may not be

made to the cloud and new
data may not be archived.
Previously written cloud
data can still be retrieved.

Security Hardening

Clients cannot apply

or revert security
hardening. Clients
can view hardening
status.

Clients can apply

and revert security
hardening and view
hardening status.

Clients cannot apply or

revert security hardening.
Clients can view hardening
status.

HDFS

Clients cannot
access the cluster
through HDFS.

You can configure

HDFS settings and
clients can access
the cluster through
HDFS.

You cannot configure HDFS

settings. After the HDFS
service restarts, clients can
no longer access the cluster
through HDFS.

License status

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General cluster administration

44

License

Inactive

Evaluation/
Activated

Expired

InsightIQ

You cannot monitor

the cluster with
InsightIQ.

You can monitor the

cluster with
InsightIQ.

InsightIQ stops monitoring

the cluster. Data previously
collected by InsightIQ is still
available on the InsightIQ
instance.

Isilon Swift

Clients cannot
access the cluster
through Swift.

Clients can access

existing file-based
data stored on the
cluster as objects
through a Swift API
client application
over HTTP or HTTPS.

Clients can no longer access

the cluster through Swift.

SmartConnect
Advanced

Client connections
are balanced by
using a round-robin
policy. IP address
allocation is static.
Each external
network subnet can
be assigned only
one IP address pool.

You can access

You can no longer specify
features such as CPU SmartConnect Advanced
utilization,
settings.
connection counting,
and client
connection policies
in addition to the
round-robin policy.
You can also
configure address
pools to support
multiple DNS zones
within a single
subnet, and support
IP failover.

SmartDedupe

You cannot
deduplicate data
with SmartDedupe.

You can deduplicate

data with
SmartDedupe.

You can no longer

deduplicate data. Previously
deduplicated data remains
deduplicated.

SmartLock

You cannot enforce

file retention with
SmartLock.

You can enforce file

retention with
SmartLock.

You cannot create new

SmartLock directories or
modify SmartLock directory
configuration settings for
existing directories.
You can still commit files to
a write once read many
(WORM) state, even after the
SmartLock license is
unconfigured, but you
cannot delete WORMcommitted files from
enterprise directories.

SmartPools

All files belong to the

default file pool and
are governed by the
default file pool
policy. Virtual hot
spare allocation,

You can create

multiple file pools
and file pool
policies. You can
also manage
spillover which

You can no longer manage

file pool policies, and the
SmartPools job will no
longer run. Newly added
files will be governed by the
default file pool policy, and

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General cluster administration

License

Inactive

Evaluation/
Activated

Expired

which reserves
space for data repair
if a drive fails, is also
available.

defines how write

operations are
handled when a
storage pool is not
writable.

the SetProtectPlus job will

eventually apply the default
file pool policy to all files in
the cluster.
If the SmartPools job is
running when the license
expires, the job completes
before becoming disabled.

SmartQuotas

You cannot create

quotas with
SmartQuotas.

You can create

quotas with
SmartQuotas.

OneFS disables all quotas.

Exceeding advisory and soft
thresholds does not trigger
events. Hard and soft
thresholds are not enforced.

SnapshotIQ

You can view and

manage snapshots
generated by OneFS
applications.
However, you cannot
create snapshots or
configure
SnapshotIQ settings.

You can create, view,

and manage
snapshots. You can
also configure
snapshot settings.

You will no longer be able to

generate snapshots.
Existing snapshot schedules
are not deleted; however,
the schedules will not
generate snapshots.
You can still delete
snapshots and access
snapshot data.

SyncIQ

You cannot replicate

data with SyncIQ.

You can replicate

data with SyncIQ

You will no longer be able to

replicate data to remote
clusters, and remote
clusters will not be able to
replicate data to the local
cluster. Replication policies
will still display a status of
enabled; however, future
replication jobs created by
the policy will fail.
If a replication job is in
progress when the license
expires, the job completes.

License configuration
You can configure some OneFS module licenses.
You can configure a license by performing specific operations through the corresponding
module. Not all actions that require you to activate a license will configure the license.
Also, not all licenses can be configured. Configuring a license does not add or remove
access to any features provided by a module.
The following table describes the actions that cause each license to be configured:
License

Cause of configuring

CloudPools

Create a cloud pool policy (other than the default pool policy).
License configuration

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General cluster administration

License

Cause of configuring

Hardening

Cannot configure this license.

HDFS

Cannot configure this license.

InsightIQ

Cannot configure this license.

Isilon Swift

Cannot configure this license

SmartConnect Configure SmartConnect Advanced settings for at least one IP address pool.
SmartDedupe Cannot configure this license.
SmartLock

Cannot configure this license.

SmartPools

Create a file pool policy (other than the default file pool policy).

SmartQuotas

Create a quota.

SnapshotIQ

Create a snapshot schedule.

SyncIQ

Create a replication policy.

Note

In the case of IsilonSD Edge, the module licenses are bundled with the free and
purchased licenses of IsilonSD Edge. You are not required to configure them separately.

Activate a license
To access a OneFS module, you must activate a license.
Before you begin
Before you can activate a license, you must obtain a valid license key, and you must have
root user privileges on your cluster. To obtain a license key, contact your EMC Isilon sales
representative.
Note

If you are running IsilonSD Edge, you can activate a license through the IsilonSD
Management Server. For more information, see the IsilonSD Edge Installation and
Administration Guide.
Procedure
1. Click Cluster Management > Licensing.
2. In the Activate Licenses area, enter a license key for a module. Click Add Another
License Key if you are activating licenses for multiple modules.

View license information

You can view information about the current status of any optional Isilon software
modules installed on your cluster.
Procedure
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Click Cluster Management > Licensing.

You can review information about licenses, including status and expiration date.

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Certificates
You can renew the Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) certificate for the Isilon web administration
interface or replace it with a third-party SSL certificate.
All Platform API communication, which includes communication through the web
administration interface, is over SSL. You can replace or renew the self-signed certificate
with a certificate that you generate. To replace or renew an SSL certificate, you must be
logged in as root.

Replace or renew the SSL certificate

You can replace or renew the Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) certificate, which is used to
access the EMC Isilon cluster through a browser.
Before you begin
When you renew or replace a self-signed SSL certificate, you must provide information for
your organization in the format that is described in the self-signed SSL certificate data
example.
The following folders are the default locations for the server.crt and server.key
files in OneFS 6.0 and higher.
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SSL certificate: /usr/local/apache2/conf/ssl.crt/server.crt

SSL certificate key: /usr/local/apache2/conf/ssl.key/server.key

Procedure
1. Establish an SSH connection to any node in the cluster.
2. To create the appropriate directory, run the following command:
mkdir /ifs/local/

3. To change to the directory, run the following command:

cd /ifs/local/

4. Choose the type of certificate you want to install.

Option
Third-party
(public or
private) CAissued
certificate

Description
a. To generate a new Certificate Signing Request (CSR) in addition
to a new key, run the openssl req command. The following
command generates a CSR where the hostname is
isilon.example.com:
openssl req -new -nodes -newkey rsa:1024 -keyout \
<common name>.key -out <common-name>.csr

b. Send the contents of the <common_name>.csr file from the

cluster to your Certificate Authority (CA) for signing. When you
receive the signed certificate (now a .crt file) from the CA,
copy the certificate to /ifs/local/<common-name>.crt.

Certificates

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General cluster administration

Option
Self-signed
certificate
based on the
existing (stock)
ssl.key

Description
a. At the command prompt, run the following command to create
a two-year certificate. Increase or decrease the value for -days
to generate a certificate with a different expiration date.
cp /usr/local/apache2/conf/ssl.key/server.key ./openssl
req -new \
/-days 730 -nodes -x509 -key server.key -out server.crt

A renewal certificate is created, based on the existing (stock) ssl.key file.

5. (Optional) To verify the attributes in an SSL certificate, run the openssl req
command.
openssl x509 -text -noout -in <common-name>.crt

6. Run the following commands to install the certificate and key:

isi services -a isi_webui disable chmod 640 <common name>.key \
isi_for_array -s 'cp /ifs/local/<common-name>.key \
/usr/local/apache2/conf/ssl.key/server.key' \
isi_for_array -s 'cp /ifs/local/<common-name>.crt \
/usr/local/apache2/conf/ssl.crt/server.crt' isi services -a
isi_webui enable

7. To remove files, run the rm command. The following command removes the files
in /ifs/local/folder1:
rm /ifs/local/folder1/*

Verify an SSL certificate update

You can verify the details stored in a Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) certificate.
Procedure
1. Open a web browser window.
2. Browse to https://<common name>:8080, where <common name> is the host
name for the EMC Isilon web administration interface, such as isilon.example.com.
3. In the security details for the web page, verify that the subject line and other details
that you provided are correct.
Note

The steps to view security details vary by browser. For example, in some browsers, you
can click the padlock icon in the address bar to view the security details for the web
page. Follow the steps that are specific to your browser.

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Self-signed SSL certificate data example

Self-signed SSL certificate renewal or replacement requires you to provide data such as
your fully qualified domain name and a contact email address.
When you renew or replace a self-signed SSL certificate, you are asked to provide data in
the format shown in the following example. Some fields in the certificate file contain a
default value. If you type '.', the field is left blank when the certificate is generated.
l

Country Name (2 letter code) [XX]:US

State or Province Name (full name) [Some-State]:Washington

Locality Name (for example, city) [default city]:Seattle

Organization Name (for example, company) [Internet Widgits Pty Ltd]:Isilon

Organizational Unit Name (for example, section) []:Support

Common Name (for example, server FQDN or server name) []:isilon.example.com

Email Address []:[email protected]

In addition, you should add the following attributes to be sent with your certificate
request:
l

Challenge password []:Isilon1

Optional company name []:

Cluster identity
You can specify identity attributes for the EMC Isilon cluster.
Cluster name
The cluster name appears on the login page, and it makes the cluster and its nodes.
more easily recognizable on your network. Each node in the cluster is identified by
the cluster name plus the node number. For example, the first node in a cluster
named Images may be named Images-1.
Note

In the case of IsilonSD Edge, you can assign a cluster name only through the
IsilonSD Management Plug-in. For more information, see the IsilonSD Edge
Installation and Administration Guide.
Cluster description
The cluster description appears below the cluster name on the login page. The
cluster description is useful if your environment has multiple clusters.
Login message
The login message appears as a separate box on the login page of the OneFS web
administration interface, or as a line of text under the cluster name in the OneFS
command-line interface. The login message can convey cluster information, login
instructions, or warnings that a user should know before logging into the cluster. Set
this information in the Cluster Identity page of the OneFS web administration
interface

Self-signed SSL certificate data example

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General cluster administration

Set the cluster name and contact information

You can specify a name, description, login message, and contact information for your
EMC Isilon cluster.
Cluster names must begin with a letter and can contain only numbers, letters, and
hyphens. If the cluster is joined to an Active Directory domain, the cluster name must be
11 characters or fewer.
Procedure
1. Click Cluster Management > General Settings > Cluster Identity.
2. (Optional) In the Cluster Identity area, type a name for the cluster in the Cluster Name
field and type a description in the Cluster Description field.
Note

In the case of IsilonSD Edge, specify the cluster name through the IsilonSD
Management Plug-in within VMware vCenter. For more information, see the IsilonSD
Edge Installation and Administration Guide.
3. (Optional) In the Login Message area, type a title in the Message Title field and a
message in the Message Body field.
4. In the Contact Information area, enter the name and location of your company.
5. In the Primary Administrator Information area, enter the name, phone numbers, and
email address of the primary OneFS administrator for the cluster.
6. In the Secondary Administrator Information area, enter the name, phone numbers,
and email address of the secondary OneFS administrator for the cluster.
7. Click Save Changes..
After you finish
You must add the cluster name to your DNS servers.

Cluster date and time

The Network Time Protocol (NTP) service is configurable manually, so you can ensure that
all nodes in a cluster are synchronized to the same time source.
The NTP method automatically synchronizes cluster date and time settings through an
NTP server. Alternatively, you can set the date and time reported by the cluster by
manually configuring the service.
Windows domains provide a mechanism to synchronize members of the domain to a
master clock running on the domain controllers, so OneFS adjusts the cluster time to that
of Active Directory with a service. If there are no external NTP servers configured, OneFS
uses the Windows domain controller as the NTP time server. When the cluster and
domain time become out of sync by more than 4 minutes, OneFS generates an event
notification.
Note

If the cluster and Active Directory become out of sync by more than 5 minutes,
authentication will not work.

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Set the cluster date and time

You can set the date, time, and time zone that is used by the EMC Isilon cluster.
Procedure
1. Click Cluster Management > General Settings > Date & Time.
The Date and Time page displays a list of each node's IP address and the date and
time settings for each node.
2. From the Date and time lists, select the month, date, year, hour, and minute settings.
3. From the Time zone list, select a value.
If the time zone that you want is not in the list, select Advanced from the Time zone
list, and then select the time zone from the Advanced time zone list.
4. Click Submit.

Specify an NTP time server

You can specify one or more Network Time Protocol (NTP) servers to synchronize the
system time on the EMC Isilon cluster. The cluster periodically contacts the NTP servers
and sets the date and time based on the information that it receives.
Procedure
1. Click Cluster Management > General Settings > NTP.
2. (Optional) In the NTP Servers area, enter the IPv4 or IPv6 address of one or more NTP
servers. If you want to use a key file, enter the key numbers in the field next to the
server's IP address.
Click Add Another NTP Server if you are specifying multiple servers.
3. (Optional) If you are using a key file for the NTP server, enter the file path for that file
in the Path to Key File field.
4. In the Chimer Settings area, specify the number of chimer nodes that contact NTP
servers (the default is 3).
5. To exclude a node from chiming, enter its logical node number (LNN) in the Nodes
Excluded from Chiming field.
6. Click Save Changes.

SMTP email settings

If your network environment requires the use of an SMTP server or if you want to route
EMC Isilon cluster event notifications with SMTP through a port, you can configure SMTP
email settings.
SMTP settings include the SMTP relay address and port number that email is routed
through. You can specify an origination email and subject line for all event notification
emails sent from the cluster.
If your SMTP server is configured to support authentication, you can specify a username
and password. You can also specify whether to apply encryption to the connection.

Set the cluster date and time

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Configure SMTP email settings

You can send event notifications through an SMTP mail server. You can also enable SMTP
authentication if your SMTP server is configured to support it.
Procedure
1. Click Cluster Management > General Settings > Email Settings.
2. In the SMTP Settings area, enter the IPv4 or IPv6 address or the fully qualified domain
name of the SMTP relay in the SMTP relay address field.
3. In the SMTP relay port field, type the port number.
The default port number is 25.
4. Click the Use SMTP Authentication check box to require SMTP authentication.
Fields in which you can enter the authentication user name and password appear, as
well as radio buttons pertaining to transport layer security. Skip to step 7 if you do not
want to use SMTP authentication.
5. Enter the authentication user name and password, and confirm the password.
6. Specify the connection security. The default is no security. Select STARTTLS if you
want to use a TLS encrypted connection.
7. In the Event Notification Settings area, type the originating email address that will be
displayed in the To line of the email in the Send email as field.
8. In the Subject field, type the text that will be displayed in the Subject line of the email.
9. If you want to batch event notification emails, select an option from the Notification
Batch Mode drop-down menu. The default is No batching.
10. In the Default Email Template drop-down menu, select whether to use the default
template provided with OneFS or a custom template. If you select a custom template,
the Custom Template Location field appears. Enter a path name for the template.
11. Click Save Changes.
You can test your configuration by sending a test event notification.

Configuring the cluster join mode

The cluster join mode specifies how a node is added to the EMC Isilon cluster and
whether authentication is required. OneFS supports manual and secure join modes for
adding nodes to the EMC Isilon cluster.
Mode

Description

Manual Allows you to manually add a node to the cluster without requiring authorization.
Secure

Requires authorization of every node added to the cluster and the node must be added
through the web administration interface or through the isi devices -a add -d
<unconfigured_node_serial_no> command in the command-line interface.
Note

If you specify a secure join mode, you cannot join a node to the cluster through serial
console wizard option [2] Join an existing cluster.

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Note

In the case of IsilonSD Edge, you cannot configure the cluster join mode. For more
information, see the IsilonSD Edge Installation and Administration Guide.

Specify the cluster join mode

You can specify a join mode that determines how nodes are added to the EMC Isilon
cluster.
These instructions are not applicable for IsilonSD Edge.
Procedure
1. Click Cluster Management > General Settings > Join Mode.
2. In the Settings area, select the mode that will determine how nodes can be added to
the cluster.
Option

Description

Manual

Joins can be manually initiated

Secure

Joins can be initiated only by the cluster and require authentication

3. Click Submit.

File system settings

You can configure global file system settings on an EMC Isilon cluster pertaining to
access time tracking and character encoding.
You can enable or disable access time tracking, which monitors the time of access on
each file. If necessary, you can also change the default character encoding on the cluster.

Enable or disable access time tracking

You can enable access time tracking to support features that require it.
By default, the EMC Isilon cluster does not track the timestamp when files are accessed.
You can enable this feature to support OneFS features that use it. For example, accesstime tracking must be enabled to configure SyncIQ policy criteria that match files based
on when they were last accessed.
Note

Enabling access-time tracking may affect cluster performance.

Procedure
1. Click File System Management > File System Settings > Access Time Tracking.
2. In the Access Time Tracking area, click the Enable access time tracking check box to
track file access time stamps. This feature is disabled by default.
3. In the Precision fields, specify how often to update the last-accessed time by typing a
numeric value and by selecting a unit of measure, such as Seconds, Minutes, Hours,
Days, Weeks, Months, or Years.
For example, if you configure a Precision setting of one day, the cluster updates the
last-accessed time once each day, even if some files were accessed more often than
once during the day.
Specify the cluster join mode

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General cluster administration

4. Click Save Changes.

Specify the cluster character encoding

You can modify the character encoding set for the EMC Isilon cluster after installation.
Only OneFS-supported character sets are available for selection. UTF-8 is the default
character set for OneFS nodes.
Note

If the cluster character encoding is not set to UTF-8, SMB share names are case-sensitive.
You must restart the cluster to apply character encoding changes.
CAUTION

Character encoding is typically established during installation of the cluster. Modifying

the character encoding setting after installation may render files unreadable if done
incorrectly. Modify settings only if necessary after consultation with Isilon Technical
Support.
Procedure
1. Click File System Management > File System Settings > Character Encoding.
2. (Optional) From the Character encoding list, select the character-encoding set that
you want to use.
3. Click Save Changes, and then click Yes to acknowledge that the encoding change
becomes effective after the cluster is restarted.
4. Restart the cluster.
Results
After the cluster restarts, the OneFS web administration interface reflects your change.

Security hardening
Security hardening is the process of configuring your system to reduce or eliminate as
many security risks as possible. You can apply a hardening policy that secures the
configuration of OneFS, according to policy guidelines.
Security hardening on OneFS is carried out by a hardening engine that reads a hardening
profile and applies the profile guidelines. During this process, the hardening engine
identifies configuration issues that will prevent hardening on the nodes. For example, the
hardening engine might find that the file permissions set for a particular directory are not
set to the expected value, or that the required directories are missing. When an issue is
found, you can choose to allow the hardening engine to resolve the issue or to defer
resolution and fix the issue manually.
Note

At this time, OneFS supports only Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) Security
Technology Security Guide (STIG) hardening. No other security profiles are available.
OneFS enables you to revert a security hardening policy if the hardening configuration is
not right for your system. Reverting a policy returns OneFS to the configuration achieved
by resolving issues, if any, prior to hardening.

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OneFS also enables you to apply successive hardening. If a security hardening policy has
already been applied to the system, you can apply a new policy with a new profile or with
the same profile.
You must have an active security hardening license and be logged in to the EMC Isilon
cluster as the root user to apply hardening to OneFS. To obtain a license, contact your
EMC Isilon sales representative.
Note

Security hardening is not supported with IsilonSD Edge.

STIG hardening profile

The STIG hardening profile contains configuration requirements set by the Department of
Defense.
To meet federal Approved Products List (APL) requirements, the configuration of OneFS
must comply with several Security Technology Implementation Guides (STIG) that contain
hardening configuration requirements. STIGs are maintained by the Defense Information
Systems Agency (DISA), which produces a STIG for several computing technologies
referred to as assessment areas. The STIG hardening profile contains the requirements
for all of the assessment areas that are applicable to OneFS.
After you apply the STIG hardening profile, the configuration of OneFS is modified to meet
the STIG requirements. The following modifications are examples of the many system
changes:
l

After you log in through SSH or the web interface, the system will display a message
that you are accessing a U.S. Government Information System and will display the
terms and conditions of using the system.

On each node, SSH and the web interface will listen only on the node's external IP
address.

Password complexity requirements for local user accounts will increase. Passwords
must be at least 14 characters and contain at least one of each of the following
character types: numeric, uppercase, lowercase, symbol.

Root SSH will be disabled. To log in after hardening is applied, you can log in as root
only through the web interface or through a serial console session.

STIG profile assessment areas

The STIG hardening profile contains configuration requirements for several aspects of the
system, which are referred to as areas of assessment.
The following table displays each area of assessment and the associated Security
Technology Implementation Guide (STIG) that is enforced by the hardening profile:
Area of assessment

STIG

Operating system

UNIX Manual SRG - Version 1, Release 3

UNIX Policy Manual SRG - Version 1, Release 2

Apache Web server

Apache 2.2 STIG UNIX - Version 1, Release 4

Web server

Web Server SRG - Version 1, Release 1

Web Policy Manual STIG - Version 1, Release 1

Application security and

development

Application Security and Development STIG - Version 3, Release 8

STIG hardening profile

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Area of assessment

STIG

Application server

Application Server SRG - Version 1, Release 1

Network

Network Devices STIG - Version 8, Release 17

Sharing peripherals across the

network

Storage Area Network STIG - Version 2, Release 2

Database

Database SRG - Version 1, Release 1

Enclave

Enclave STIG - Version 4, Release 5

Removable storage

Removable Storage STIG - Version 1, Release 2

Remote access server

RAS Remote Access Server STIG - Version 2, Release 7

Apply a security hardening policy

You can select a hardening profile and apply security hardening to the EMC Isilon cluster.
Before you begin
Security hardening requires root privileges and can be performed only through the
command-line interface.
Once hardening has been successfully applied to the cluster, root SSH is not allowed on
a hardened cluster. To log in as the root user on a hardened cluster, you must connect
through a serial console session.
You must have an active security hardening license to apply hardening to OneFS. To
obtain a license, contact your EMC Isilon sales representative.
Procedure
1. Open a secure shell (SSH) connection to any node in the cluster and log in as root.
2. Run the isi hardening apply command.
The following command directs the hardening engine to apply the STIG hardening
profile to the Isilon cluster.
isi hardening apply --profile=STIG

The hardening engine checks whether the system contains any configuration issues
that must be resolved before hardening can be applied.
l

If the hardening engine does not encounter any issues, the hardening policy is
applied.

If the hardening engine encounters issues, the system displays output similar to
the following example:
Found the following Issue(s) on the cluster:
Issue #1 (Isilon Control_id:isi_GEN001200_01)
Node: test-cluster-2
1: /etc/syslog.conf: Actual permission 0664; Expected
permission 0654
Issue #2 (Isilon Control_id:isi_GEN001200_02)
Node: test-cluster-3
1: /usr/bin/passwd: Actual permission 4555; Expected permission
0555
2: /usr/bin/yppasswd: Actual permission 4555; Expected
permission 0555

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Node: test-cluster-2
1: /usr/bin/passwd: Actual permission 4555; Expected permission
0555
2: /usr/bin/yppasswd: Actual permission 4555; Expected
permission 0555
Total: 2 issue(s)
Do you want to resolve the issue(s)?[Y/N]:

3. Resolve any configuration issues. At the prompt Do you want to resolve the
issue(s)?[Y/N], choose one of the following actions:
a. To allow the hardening engine to resolve all issues, type Y.
The system will fix the issues and then apply the hardening policy.
b. To defer resolution and fix all found issues manually, type N.
After you have fixed all deferred issues, run the isi hardening apply
command again.
Note

If the hardening engine encounters an issue that is considered catastrophic, the

system will prompt you to resolve the issue manually; the hardening engine cannot
resolve a catastrophic issue.

Revert a security hardening policy

You can revert a security hardening policy that has been applied to the EMC Isilon cluster.
Before you begin
Reverting security hardening requires root privileges and can be performed only through
the command-line interface. To log in as the root user on a hardened cluster, you must
connect through a serial console session; root SSH is not allowed on a hardened cluster.
You must have an active security hardening license to revert a hardening policy on
OneFS. To obtain a license, contact your EMC Isilon sales representative.
Procedure
1. Open a serial console session on any node in the cluster and log in as root.
2. Run the isi hardening revert command.
The hardening engine checks whether the system is in an expected state.
l

If the hardening engine does not encounter any issues, the hardening policy is
reverted.

If the hardening engine encounters any issues, the system displays output similar
to the following example:
Found the following Issue(s) on the cluster:
Issue #1 (Isilon Control_id:isi_GEN001200_01)
Node: test-cluster-2
1: /etc/syslog.conf: Actual permission 0664; Expected
permission 0654
Issue #2 (Isilon Control_id:isi_GEN001200_02)
Node: test-cluster-3
1: /usr/bin/passwd: Actual permission 4555; Expected permission
0555
2: /usr/bin/yppasswd: Actual permission 4555; Expected
permission 0555
Revert a security hardening policy

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Node: test-cluster-2
1: /usr/bin/passwd: Actual permission 4555; Expected permission
0555
2: /usr/bin/yppasswd: Actual permission 4555; Expected
permission 0555
Total: 2 issue(s)
Do you want to resolve the issue(s)?[Y/N]:

3. Resolve any configuration issues. At the prompt Do you want to resolve the
issue(s)?[Y/N], choose one of the following actions:
a. To allow the hardening engine to resolve all issues, type Y.
The hardening engine will set the affected configurations to the expected state and
then revert the hardening policy.
b. To defer resolution and fix all found issues manually, type N.
The hardening engine halts the revert process until all issues are fixed. After you
have fixed all deferred issues, run the isi hardening revert command
again.
Note

If the hardening engine encounters an issue that is considered catastrophic, the

system will prompt you to resolve the issue manually; the hardening engine cannot
resolve a catastrophic issue.

View the security hardening status

You can view the security hardening status of the EMC Isilon cluster and each cluster
node.
Before you begin
Viewing the security hardening status of the cluster requires root privileges and can be
performed only through the command-line interface. To log in as the root user on a
hardened cluster, you must connect through a serial console session; root SSH is not
allowed on a hardened cluster.
You do not need a security hardening license to view the hardening status of the cluster.
Procedure
1. Open a console session on any node in the cluster and log in as root.
2. Run the isi hardening status command to view the status of security
hardening on the Isilon cluster.
The system displays output similar to the following example:
Cluster Name: test-cluster
Hardening Status: Not Hardened
Profile: STIG
Node status:
test-cluster-1: Disabled
test-cluster-2: Enabled
test-cluster-3: Enabled

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Cluster monitoring
You can monitor the health, performance, and status of your EMC Isilon cluster.
Using the OneFS dashboard from the web administration interface, you can monitor the
status and health of the OneFS system. Information is available for individual nodes,
including node-specific network traffic, internal and external network interfaces, and
details about node pools, tiers, and overall cluster health. You can monitor the following
areas of your EMC Isilon cluster health and performance:
Node status
Health and performance statistics for each node in the cluster, including hard disk
drive (HDD) and solid-state drive (SSD) usage.
Client connections
Number of clients connected per node.
New events
List of event notifications generated by system events, including the severity, unique
instance ID, start time, alert message, and scope of the event.
Cluster size
Current view: Used and available HDD and SSD space and space reserved for the
virtual hot spare (VHS).
Historical view: Total used space and cluster size for a one-year period.
Cluster throughput (file system)
Current view: Average inbound and outbound traffic volume passing through the
nodes in the cluster for the past hour.
Historical view: Average inbound and outbound traffic volume passing through the
nodes in the cluster for the past two weeks.
CPU usage
Current view: Average system, user, and total percentages of CPU usage for the past
hour.
Historical view: CPU usage for the past two weeks.

Monitor the cluster

You can monitor the health and performance of an EMC Isilon cluster with charts and
tables that show the status and performance of nodes, client connections, events, cluster
size, cluster throughput, and CPU usage.
Procedure
1. Click Dashboard > Cluster Overview > Cluster Status.
2. (Optional) View cluster details.
l

Status: To view details about a node, click the ID number of the node.

Client connection summary: To view a list of current connections, click Dashboard >
Cluster Overview > Client Connections .

New events: To view more information about an event, click View details in the
Actions column.
Cluster monitoring

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Cluster size: To switch between current and historical views, click Historical or
Current near the Monitoring section heading. In historical view, click Used or
Cluster size to change the display.

Cluster throughput (file system): To switch between current and historical views,
click Historical or Current next to the Monitoring section heading. To view
throughput statistics for a specific period within the past two weeks, click
Dashboard > Cluster Overview > Throughput Distribution.
Note

You can hide or show inbound or outbound throughput by clicking Inbound or

Outbound in the chart legend. To view maximum throughput, next to Show, select
Maximum.
l

CPU usage: To switch between current and historical views, click Historical or
Current near the Monitoring section heading.
Note

You can hide or show a plot by clicking System, User, or Total in the chart legend.
To view maximum usage, next to Show, select Maximum.

View node status

You can view the current and historical status of a node.
Procedure
1. Click Dashboard > Cluster Overview > Cluster Status.
2. (Optional) In the Status area, click the ID number for the node that you want to view
status for.
3. View node details.
l

Status: To view networks settings for a node interface or subnet or pool, click the
link in the Status area.

Client connections: To view current clients connected to this node, review the list
in this area.

Chassis and drive status: To view the state of drives in this node, review this area.
To view details about a drive, click the name link of the drive; for example, Bay1.

Node size: To switch between current and historical views, click Historical or
Current next to the Monitoring area heading. In historical view, click Used or
Cluster size to change the display accordingly.

Node throughput (file system): To switch between current and historical views,
click Historical or Current next to the Monitoring area heading. To view throughput
statistics for a period within the past two weeks, click Dashboard > Cluster
Overview > Throughput Distribution.
Note

You can hide or show inbound or outbound throughput by clicking Inbound or

Outbound in the chart legend. To view maximum throughput, next to Show, select
Maximum.
l

60

CPU usage: To switch between current and historical views, click Historical or
Current next to the Monitoring area heading.

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Note

You can hide or show a plot by clicking System, User, or Total in the chart legend.
To view maximum usage, next to Show, select Maximum.

Monitoring cluster hardware

You can manually check the status of hardware on the EMC Isilon cluster as well as
enable SNMP to remotely monitor components.

View node hardware status

You can view the hardware status of a node.
Procedure
1. Click Dashboard > Cluster Overview > Cluster Status.
2. (Optional) In the Status area, click the ID number for a node.
3. In the Chassis and drive status area, click Platform.

Chassis and drive states

You can view chassis and drive state details.
In a cluster, the combination of nodes in different degraded states determines whether
read requests, write requests, or both work. A cluster can lose write quorum but keep
read quorum. OneFS provides details about the status of chassis and drives in your
cluster. The following table describes all the possible states that you may encounter in
your cluster.
Note

If you are running IsilonSD Edge, you can view and manage the chassis and drive state
details through the IsilonSD Management Plug-in. For more information, see the IsilonSD
Edge Installation and Administration Guide.
State

Description

Interface

HEALTHY

All drives in the node are functioning

correctly.

Command-line
interface, web
administration
interface

L3

A solid state drive (SSD) was

deployed as level 3 (L3) cache to
increase the size of cache memory
and improve throughput speeds.

Command-line
interface

SMARTFAIL or
Smartfail or
restripe in
progress

The drive is in the process of being

removed safely from the file system,
either because of an I/O error or by
user request. Nodes or drives in a
smartfail or read-only state affect only
write quorum.

Command-line
interface, web
administration
interface

Monitoring cluster hardware

Error
state

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General cluster administration

State

Description

Interface

Error
state

NOT AVAILABLE

A drive is unavailable for a variety of

reasons. You can click the bay to view
detailed information about this
condition.

Command-line
interface, web
administration
interface

Note

In the web administration interface,

this state includes the ERASE and

SED_ERROR command-line interface

states.

62

SUSPENDED

This state indicates that drive activity

is temporarily suspended and the
drive is not in use. The state is
manually initiated and does not occur
during normal cluster activity.

Command-line
interface, web
administration
interface

NOT IN USE

A node in an offline state affects both

read and write quorum.

Command-line
interface, web
administration
interface

REPLACE

The drive was smartfailed successfully Command-line

and is ready to be replaced.
interface only

STALLED

The drive is stalled and undergoing

Command-line
stall evaluation. Stall evaluation is the interface only
process of checking drives that are
slow or having other issues.
Depending on the outcome of the
evaluation, the drive may return to
service or be smartfailed. This is a
transient state.

NEW

The drive is new and blank. This is the Command-line

state that a drive is in when you run
interface only
the isi dev command with the -a
add option.

USED

The drive was added and contained

Command-line
an Isilon GUID but the drive is not
interface only
from this node. This drive likely will be
formatted into the cluster.

PREPARING

The drive is undergoing a format

operation. The drive state changes to
HEALTHY when the format is
successful.

Command-line
interface only

EMPTY

No drive is in this bay.

Command-line
interface only

WRONG_TYPE

The drive type is wrong for this node. Command-line

For example, a non-SED drive in a SED interface only

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State

Description

Interface

Error
state

node, SAS instead of the expected

SATA drive type.

BOOT_DRIVE

Unique to the A100 drive, which has

boot drives in its bays.

Command-line
interface only

SED_ERROR

The drive cannot be acknowledged by

the OneFS system.

Command-line
interface, web
administration
interface

Note

In the web administration interface,

this state is included in Not

available.
ERASE

The drive is ready for removal but

needs your attention because the
data has not been erased. You can
erase the drive manually to guarantee
that data is removed.

Command-line
interface only

Note

In the web administration interface,

this state is included in Not

available.
INSECURE

Data on the self-encrypted drive is

accessible by unauthorized
personnel. Self-encrypting drives
should never be used for nonencrypted data purposes.

Command-line
interface only

Web
administration
interface only

Note

In the web administration interface,

this state is labeled Unencrypted

SED.
UNENCRYPTED SED

Data on the self-encrypted drive is

accessible by unauthorized
personnel. Self-encrypting drives
should never be used for nonencrypted data purposes.
Note

In the command-line interface, this

state is labeled INSECURE.

Chassis and drive states

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Check battery status

You can monitor the status of NVRAM batteries and charging systems. This task may only
be performed at the OneFS command-line interface on node hardware that supports the
command.
These instructions are not applicable for IsilonSD Edge.
Procedure
1. Open an SSH connection to any node in the cluster.
2. Run the isi batterystatus list command to view the status of all NVRAM
batteries and charging systems on the node.
The system displays output similar to the following example:
Lnn Status1 Status2 Result1 Result2
---------------------------------------1
Good
Good
2
Good
Good
3
Good
Good
----------------------------------------

SNMP monitoring
You can use SNMP to remotely monitor the EMC Isilon cluster hardware components,
such as fans, hardware sensors, power supplies, and disks. Use the default Linux SNMP
tools or a GUI-based SNMP tool of your choice for this purpose.
You can enable SNMP monitoring on individual nodes on your cluster, and you can also
monitor cluster information from any node. Generated SNMP traps are sent to your SNMP
network. You can configure an event notification rule that specifies the network station
where you want to send SNMP traps for specific events, so that when an event occurs, the
cluster sends the trap to that server. OneFS supports SNMP in read-only mode. OneFS
supports SNMP version 2c, which is the default, and SNMP version 3.
Note

OneFS does not support SNMP version 1. Although an option for --snmp-v1-v2access exists in the OneFS command-line interface (CLI) command isi snmp
settings modify, if you turn on this feature, OneFS will only monitor through SNMP
version 2c.
You can configure settings for SNMP version 3 alone or for both SNMP version 2c and
version 3.
Note

If you configure SNMP version 3, OneFS requires the SNMP-specific security level of
AuthNoPriv as the default value when querying the cluster. The security level AuthPriv is
not supported.
Elements in an SNMP hierarchy are arranged in a tree structure, similar to a directory tree.
As with directories, identifiers move from general to specific as the string progresses from
left to right. Unlike a file hierarchy, however, each element is not only named, but also
numbered.
For example, the SNMP
entity .iso.org.dod.internet.private.enterprises.isilon.oneFSss.s
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sLocalNodeId.0 maps to .1.3.6.1.4.1.12124.3.2.0. The part of the name that

refers to the OneFS SNMP namespace is the 12124 element. Anything further to the right
of that number is related to OneFS-specific monitoring.
Management Information Base (MIB) documents define human-readable names for
managed objects and specify their data types and other properties. You can download
MIBs that are created for SNMP-monitoring of an Isilon cluster from the OneFS web
administration interface or manage them using the command line interface (CLI). MIBs
are stored in /usr/share/snmp/mibs/ on a OneFS node. The OneFS ISILON-MIBs
serve two purposes:
l

Augment the information available in standard MIBs

Provide OneFS-specific information that is unavailable in standard MIBs

ISILON-MIB is a registered enterprise MIB. Isilon clusters have two separate MIBs:
ISILON-MIB
Defines a group of SNMP agents that respond to queries from a network monitoring
system (NMS) called OneFS Statistics Snapshot agents. As the name implies, these
agents snapshot the state of the OneFS file system at the time that it receives a
request and reports this information back to the NMS.
ISILON-TRAP-MIB
Generates SNMP traps to send to an SNMP monitoring station when the
circumstances occur that are defined in the trap protocol data units (PDUs).
The OneFS MIB files map the OneFS-specific object IDs with descriptions. Download or
copy MIB files to a directory where your SNMP tool can find them, such as /usr/share/
snmp/mibs/.
To enable Net-SNMP tools to read the MIBs to provide automatic name-to-OID mapping,
add -m All to the command, as in the following example:
snmpwalk -v2c -c public -m All <node IP> isilon

If the MIB files are not in the default Net-SNMP MIB directory, you may need to specify the
full path, as in the following example. Note that all three lines are a single command.
snmpwalk -m /usr/local/share/snmp/mibs/ISILON-MIB.txt:/usr \
/share/snmp/mibs/ISILON-TRAP-MIB.txt:/usr/share/snmp/mibs \
/ONEFS-TRAP-MIB.txt -v2c -C c -c public <node IP> enterprises.onefs
Note

The previous examples are run from the snmpwalk command on a cluster. Your SNMP
version may require different arguments.

Managing SNMP settings

You can use SNMP to monitor cluster hardware and system information. You can
configure settings through either the web administration interface or the command-line
interface.
You can enable SNMP monitoring on individual nodes in the cluster, and you can monitor
information cluster-wide from any node when you enable SNMP on each node. When
using SNMP on an Isilon cluster, you should use a fixed general username. A password
for the general user can be configured in the web administration interface.
You should configure a network monitoring system (NMS) to query each node directly
through a static IPv4 or IPv6 address. This approach allows you to confirm that all nodes
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have external IP addresses and therefore respond to SNMP queries. Because the SNMP
proxy is enabled by default, the SNMP implementation on each node is configured
automatically to proxy for all other nodes in the cluster except itself. This proxy
configuration allows the Isilon Management Information Base (MIB) and standard MIBs to
be exposed seamlessly through the use of context strings for supported SNMP versions.
After you download and save the appropriate MIBs, you can configure SNMP monitoring
through either the web administration interface or though the command-line interface.

Configure the cluster for SNMP monitoring

You can configure your EMC Isilon cluster to remotely monitor hardware components
using SNMP.
Before you begin
When SNMPv3 is used, OneFS requires the SNMP-specific security level of AuthNoPriv as
the default value when querying the cluster. The security level AuthPriv is not supported.
You can enable or disable SNMP monitoring, allow SNMP access by version, and
configure other settings, some of which are optional. All SNMP access is read-only.
Note

The Isilon cluster does not generate SNMP traps unless you configure an event
notification rule to send events.
Procedure
1. Click Cluster Management > General Settings > SNMP Monitoring.
2. In the SNMP Service Settings, click the Enable SNMP Service check box. The SNMP
service is enabled by default.
3. Download the MIB file you want to use (base or trap).
Follow the download process that is specific to your browser.
4. Copy the MIB files to a directory where your SNMP tool can find them, such as /usr/
share/snmp/mibs/.
To have Net-SNMP tools read the MIBs to provide automatic name-to-OID mapping,
add -m All to the command, as in the following example:
snmpwalk -v2c -c public -m All <node IP> isilon

5. If your protocol is SNMPv2, ensure that the Allow SNMPv2 Access check box is
selected. SNMPv2 is selected by default.
6. In the SNMPv2 Read-Only Community Name field, enter the appropriate community
name. The default is I$ilonpublic.
7. To enable SNMPv3, click the Allow SNMPv3 Access check box.
8. Configure SNMP v3 Settings:
a. In the SNMPv3 Read-Only User Name field, type the SNMPv3 security name to
change the name of the user with read-only privileges.
The default read-only user is general.
b. In the SNMPv3 Read-Only Password field, type the new password for the read-only
user to set a new SNMPv3 authentication password.

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The default password is password. We recommend that you change the

password to improve security. The password must contain at least eight characters
and no spaces.
c. Type the new password in the Confirm password field to confirm the new
password.
9. In the SNMP Reporting area, enter a cluster description in the Cluster Description
field.
10. In the System Contact Email field, enter the contact email address.
11. Click Save Changes.

View SNMP settings

You can review SNMP monitoring settings.
Procedure
l

Click Cluster Management > General Settings > SNMP Monitoring.

Events and alerts

OneFS continuously monitors the health and performance of your cluster and generates
events when situations occur that might require your attention.
Events can be related to file system integrity, network connections, jobs, hardware, and
other vital operations and components of your cluster. After events are captured, they are
analyzed by OneFS. Events with similar root causes are organized into event groups.
Note

For descriptions of individual event types by event type ID, see the Isilon OneFS Event
Reference. Certain events such as hardware events do not apply to IsilonSD Edge.
An event group is a single point of management for numerous events related to a
particular situation. You can determine which event groups you want to monitor, ignore,
or resolve.
An alert is the message that reports on a change that has occurred in an event group.
You can control how alerts related to an event group are distributed. Alerts are distributed
through channels. You can create and configure a channel to send alerts to a specific
audience, control the content the channel distributes, and limit frequency of the alerts.

Events overview
Events are individual occurrences or conditions related to the data workflow,
maintenance operations, and hardware components of your cluster.
Throughout OneFS there are processes that are constantly monitoring and collecting
information on cluster operations.
When the status of a component or operation changes, the change is captured as an
event and placed into a priority queue at the kernel level.
Every event has two ID numbers that help to establish the context of the event:
l

The event type ID identifies the type of event that has occurred.

The event instance ID is a unique number that is specific to a particular occurrence of

an event type. When an event is submitted to the kernel queue, an event instance ID
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is assigned. You can reference the instance ID to determine the exact time that an
event occurred.
You can view individual events. However, you manage events and alerts at the event
group level.

Event groups overview

Event groups are collections of individual events that are related symptoms of a single
situation on your cluster. Event groups provide a single point of management for multiple
event instances that are generated in response to a situation on your cluster.
For example, if a chassis fan fails in a node, OneFS might capture multiple events related
both to the failed fan itself, and to exceeded temperature thresholds within the node. All
events related to the fan will be represented in a single event group. Because there is a
single point of contact, you do not need to manage numerous individual events. You can
handle the situation as a single, coherent issue.
All management of events is performed at the event group level. You can mark an event
group as resolved or ignored. You can also configure how and when alerts are distributed
for an event group.

Alerts overview
An alert is a message that describes a change that has occurred in an event group.
At any point in time, you can view event groups to track situations occurring on your
cluster. However, you can also create alerts that will proactively notify you if there is a
change in an event group.
For example, you can generate an alert when a new event is added to an event group,
when an event group is resolved, or when the severity of an event group changes.
You can configure your cluster to only generate alerts for specific conditions or event
groups, or during limited time periods.
Alerts are delivered through channels. You can configure a channel to determine who will
receive the alert and when.

Channels overview
Channels are pathways by which event groups send alerts.
When an alert is generated, the channel associated with the alert determines how the
alert is distributed and who receives the alert.
You can configure a channel to deliver alerts with one of the following mechanisms:
SMTP, SNMP, or ConnectEMC. You can also specify routing and labeling information that
is required by the delivery mechanism.

Viewing and modifying event groups

You can view event and modify the status of event groups.

View an event group

You can view the details of an event group.
Procedure
1. Click Cluster Management > Events and Alerts.
2. In the Actions column of the event group you want to view, click View Details.
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Change the status of an event group

You can ignore or resolve an event group.
After you resolve an event group, you cannot reverse that action. Any new events that
would have been added to the resolved event group will be added to a new event group.
Procedure
1. Click Cluster Management > Events and Alerts.
2. In the Actions column of the event group you want to change, click More.
3. In the menu that appears, click Mark Resolved to resolve the event group or Ignore to
ignore the event group.
Note

You can perform an action on multiple event groups by selecting the check box next to
the event group ID of the events you want to change, then selecting an action from the
Select a bulk action drop-down list.
4. Click Mark Resolved or Ignore to confirm the action.

View an event
You can view the details of a specific event.
Procedure
1. Click Cluster Management > Events and Alerts.
2. In the Actions column of the event group that contains the event you want to view,
click View Details.
3. In the Event Details area, in the Actions column for the event you want to view, click
View Details.

Managing alerts
You can view, create, modify, or delete alerts to determine the information you deliver
about event groups.

View an alert
You can view the details of a specific alert.
Procedure
1. Click Cluster Management > Events and Alerts > Alerts.
2. In the Actions column of the alert you want to view, click View / Edit.

Create a new alert

You can create new alerts to provide specific updates on event groups.
Procedure
1. Click Cluster Management > Events and Alerts > Alerts.
2. Click Create an Alert.
3. Modify the settings for the new alert as needed.

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a. In the Name field, type the alert name.

b. In the Alert Channels area, click the checkbox next to the channel you want to
associate with the alert.
To associate a new channel with the alert, click Create an Alert Channel.
c. Click the checkbox next to the Event Group Categories you want to associate with
the alert.
d. In the Event Group ID field, enter the ID of the event group you would like the alert
to report on.
To add another event group ID to the alert, click Add Another Event Group ID.
e. Select the an alert condition from the Condition drop-down list.
Note

Depending on the alert condition you select, other settings will appear.
f. For the New event groups, New events, Interval, Severity
increase, Severity decrease, and Resolved event group conditions,
enter a number and time value for how long you would like an event to exist before
the alert reports on it.
g. For the New events condition, in the Maximum Alert Limit field, edit the
maximum number of alerts that can be sent out for new events.
h. For the ONGOING condition, enter a number and time value for the interval you
want between alerts related to an ongoing event.
4. Click Create Alert.

Delete an alert
You can delete alerts that you created.
Procedure
1. Click Cluster Management > Events and Alerts > Alerts.
2. In the Actions column of the alert you want to delete, click More.
3. In the menu that appears, click Delete.
Note

You can delete multiple alerts by selecting the check box next to the alert names you
want to delete, then selecting Delete Selections from the Select an action drop-down
list.
4. Click Delete to confirm the action.

Modify an alert
You can modify an alert that you created.
Procedure
1. Click Cluster Management > Events and Alerts > Alerts.
2. In the Actions column of the alert you want to modify, click View / Edit.
3. Click Edit Alert.
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4. Modify the alert settings as needed.

a. In the Name field, edit the alert name.
b. In the Alert Channels area, click the checkbox next to the channel you want to
associate with the alert.
To associate a new channel with the alert, click Create an Alert Channel.
c. Click the checkbox next to the Event Group Categories you want to associate with
the alert.
d. In the Event Group ID field, enter the ID of the event group you would like the alert
to report on.
To add another event group ID to the alert, click Add Another Event Group ID.
e. Select the an alert condition from the Condition drop-down list.
Note

Depending on the alert condition you select, other settings will appear.
f. For the New event groups, New events, Interval, Severity
increase, Severity decrease, and Resolved event group conditions,
enter a number and time value for how long you would like an event to exist before
the alert reports on it.
g. For the New events condition, in the Maximum Alert Limit field, edit the
maximum number of alerts that can be sent out for new events.
h. For the ONGOING condition, enter a number and time value for the interval you
want between alerts related to an ongoing event.
5. Click Save Changes.

Managing channels
You can view, create, modify, or delete channels to determine how you deliver
information about event groups.

View a channel
You can view the details of a specific channel.
Procedure
1. Click Cluster Management > Events and Alerts > Alerts.
2. In the Alert Channels area, locate the channel you want to view.
3. In the Actions column of the channel you want to view, click View / Edit.

Create a new channel

You can create and configure new channels to send out alert information.
Procedure
1. Click Cluster Management > Events and Alerts > Alerts.
2. In the Alert Channels area, click Create an Alert Channel.
3. In the Name field, type the channel name.
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4. Click the Enable this Channel checkbox to enable or disable the channel.
5. Select the delivery mechanism for the channel from the Type drop-down list.
Note

Depending on the delivery mechanism you select, different settings will appear.
6. If you are creating an SMTP channel, you can configure the following settings:
a. In the Send to field, enter an email address you want to receive alerts on this
channel.
To add another email address to the channel, click Add Another Email Address.
b. In the Send from field, enter the email address you want to appear in the from field
of the alert emails.
c. In the Subject field, enter the text you want to appear on the subject line of the
alert emails.
d. In the SMTP Host or Relay Address field, enter your SMTP host or relay address.
e. In the SMTP Relay Port field, enter the number of your SMTP relay port.
f. Click the Use SMTP Authentication checkbox to specify a username and password
for your SMTP server.
g. Specify your connection security between NONE or STARTTLS.
h. From the Notification Batch Mode dropdown, select whether alerts will be batched
together, by severity, or by category.
i. From the Notification Email Template dropdown, select whether emails will be
created from a standard or custom email template.
If you specify a custom template, enter the location of the template on your cluster
in the Custom Template Location field.
j. In the Master Nodes area, in the Allowed Nodes field, type the node number of a
node in the cluster that is allowed to send alerts through this channel.
To add another allowed node to the channel, click Add another Node. If you do not
specify any nodes, all nodes in the cluster will be considered allowed nodes.
k. In the Excluded Nodes field, type the node number of a node in the cluster that is
not allowed to send alerts through this channel.
To add another excluded node to the channel, click Exclude another Node.
7. If you are creating a ConnectEMC channel, you can configure the following settings:
a. In the Master Nodes area, in the Allowed Nodes field, type the node number of a
node in the cluster that is allowed to send alerts through this channel.
To add another allowed node to the channel, click Add another Node. If you do not
specify any nodes, all nodes in the cluster will be considered allowed nodes.
b. In the Excluded Nodes field, type the node number of a node in the cluster that is
not allowed to send alerts through this channel.
To add another excluded node to the channel, click Exclude another Node.
8. If you are creating an SNMP channel, you can configure the following settings:
a. In the Community field, enter your SNMP community string.
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b. In the Host field, enter your SNMP host name or address.

c. In the Master Nodes area, in the Allowed Nodes field, type the node number of a
node in the cluster that is allowed to send alerts through this channel.
To add another allowed node to the channel, click Add another Node. If you do not
specify any nodes, all nodes in the cluster will be considered allowed nodes.
d. In the Excluded Nodes field, type the node number of a node in the cluster that is
not allowed to send alerts through this channel.
To add another excluded node to the channel, click Exclude another Node.
9. Click Create Alert Channel.

Modify a channel
You can modify a channel that you created.
Procedure
1. Click Cluster Management > Events and Alerts > Alerts.
2. In the Alert Channels area, locate the channel you want to modify.
3. In the Actions column of the channel you want to modify, click View / Edit.
4. Click Edit Alert Channel.
5. Click the Enable this Channel checkbox to enable or disable the channel.
6. Select the delivery mechanism for the channel from the Type drop-down list.
Note

Depending on the delivery mechanism you select, different settings will appear.
7. If you are modifying an SMTP channel, you can change the following settings:
a. In the Send to field, enter an email address you want to receive alerts on this
channel.
To add another email address to the channel, click Add Another Email Address.
b. In the Send from field, enter the email address you want to appear in the from field
of the alert emails.
c. In the Subject field, enter the text you want to appear on the subject line of the
alert emails.
d. In the SMTP Host or Relay Address field, enter your SMTP host or relay address.
e. In the SMTP Relay Port field, enter the number of your SMTP relay port.
f. Click the Use SMTP Authentication checkbox to specify a username and password
for your SMTP server.
g. Specify your connection security between NONE or STARTTLS.
h. From the Notification Batch Mode dropdown, select whether alerts will be batched
together, by severity, or by category.
i. From the Notification Email Template dropdown, select whether emails will be
created from a standard or custom email template.
If you specify a custom template, enter the location of the template on your cluster
in the Custom Template Location field.
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j. In the Master Nodes area, in the Allowed Nodes field, type the node number of a
node in the cluster that is allowed to send alerts through this channel.
To add another allowed node to the channel, click Add another Node. If you do not
specify any nodes, all nodes in the cluster will be considered allowed nodes.
k. In the Excluded Nodes field, type the node number of a node in the cluster that is
not allowed to send alerts through this channel.
To add another excluded node to the channel, click Exclude another Node.
8. If you are modifying a ConnectEMC channel, you can change the following settings:
a. In the Master Nodes area, in the Allowed Nodes field, type the node number of a
node in the cluster that is allowed to send alerts through this channel.
To add another allowed node to the channel, click Add another Node. If you do not
specify any nodes, all nodes in the cluster will be considered allowed nodes.
b. In the Excluded Nodes field, type the node number of a node in the cluster that is
not allowed to send alerts through this channel.
To add another excluded node to the channel, click Exclude another Node.
9. If you are modifying an SNMP channel, you can change the following settings:
a. In the Community field, enter your SNMP community string.
b. In the Host field, enter your SNMP host name or address.
c. In the Master Nodes area, in the Allowed Nodes field, type the node number of a
node in the cluster that is allowed to send alerts through this channel.
To add another allowed node to the channel, click Add another Node. If you do not
specify any nodes, all nodes in the cluster will be considered allowed nodes.
d. In the Excluded Nodes field, type the node number of a node in the cluster that is
not allowed to send alerts through this channel.
To add another excluded node to the channel, click Exclude another Node.
10. Click Save Changes.

Delete a channel
You can delete channels that you created.
Procedure
1. Click Cluster Management > Events and Alerts > Alerts.
2. In the Alert Channels area, locate the channel you want to delete.
3. In the Actions column of the channel you want to delete, click Delete.
Note

You can delete multiple channels by selecting the check box next to the channel
names you want to delete, then selecting Delete Selections from the Select an action
drop-down list.
4. Click Delete to confirm the action.

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Maintenance and testing

You can modify event settings to specify retention and storage limits for event data,
schedule maintenance windows, and send test events.

Event data retention and storage limits

You can modify settings to determine how event data is handled on your cluster.
By default, data related to resolved event groups is retained indefinitely. You can set a
retention limit to make the system automatically delete resolved event group data after a
certain number of days.
You can also limit the amount of memory that event data can occupy on your cluster. By
default, the limit is 1 megabyte of memory for every 1 terabyte of total memory on the
cluster. You can adjust this limit to be between 1 and 100 megabytes of memory. For
smaller clusters, the minimum amount of memory that will be set aside is 1 gigabyte.
When your cluster reaches a storage limit, the system will begin deleting the oldest event
group data to accommodate new data.

View event storage settings

You can view your storage and maintenance settings.
Procedure
1. Click Cluster Management > Events and Alerts > Settings.

Modify event storage settings

You can view your storage and maintenance settings.
Procedure
1. Click Cluster Management > Events and Alerts > Settings.
2. Locate the Event Retention Settings area.
3. In the Resolved Event Group Data Retention field, enter the number of days you want
resolved event groups to be stored before they are deleted.
4. In the Event Log Storage Limit field, enter the limit for the amount of storage you want
to set aside for event data.
The value in this field represents how many megabytes of data can be stored per
terabyte of total cluster storage.
5. Click Save Changes.

Maintenance windows
You can schedule a maintenance window by setting a maintenance start time and
duration.
During a scheduled maintenance window, the system will continue to log events, but no
alerts will be generated. Scheduling a maintenance window will keep channels from
being flooded by benign alerts associated with cluster maintenance procedures.
Active event groups will automatically resume generating alerts when the scheduled
maintenance period ends.

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Schedule a maintenance window

You can schedule a maintenance window to discontinue alerts while you are performing
maintenance on your cluster.
Procedure
1. Click Cluster Management > Events and Alerts > Settings.
2. Locate the Maintenance Period Settings area.
3. In the Start Date field, enter the date you want the maintenance window to begin.
4. From the Start Date dropdowns, select the time you want the maintenance window to
begin.
5. In the Duration field, enter a number and time value for how long you want the
maintenance window to last.
6. Click Save Changes.

Test events and alerts

Test events called heartbeat events are automatically generated. You can also manually
generate test alerts.
In order to confirm that the system is operating correctly, test events are automatically
sent every day, one event from each node in your cluster. These are referred to as
heartbeat events and are reported to an event group named Heartbeat Event.
To test the configuration of channels, you can manually send a test alert through the
system.

Send a test alert

You can manually generate a test alert.
Procedure
1. Click Cluster Management > Events and Alerts > Alerts.
2. Locate the Send Test Alert area.
3. In the Text message field, enter the text of the message you want to send.
4. Click Send Test Alert.

Modify the heartbeat event

You can change the frequency that a heartbeat event is generated.
This procedure is available only through the command-line interface.
Procedure
1. Open a secure shell (SSH) connection to any node in the cluster and log in.
2. Modify the heartbeat event interval by running the isi event settings modify
command.
The following example command modifies the heartbeat event so that it is sent on a
weekly basis:
isi event settings modify --heartbeat-interval weekly

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Cluster maintenance
Trained service personnel can replace or upgrade components in Isilon nodes.
Isilon Technical Support can assist you with replacing node components or upgrading
components to increase performance.

Replacing node components

If a node component fails, Isilon Technical Support will work with you to quickly replace
the component and return the node to a healthy status.
Trained service personnel can replace the following field replaceable units (FRUs):
Note

These components are not applicable for an IsilonSD node.

l

battery

boot flash drive

SATA/SAS Drive

memory (DIMM)

fan

front panel

intrusion switch

network interface card (NIC)

InfiniBand card

NVRAM card

SAS controller

power supply

If you configure your cluster to send alerts to Isilon, Isilon Technical Support will contact
you if a component needs to be replaced. If you do not configure your cluster to send
alerts to Isilon, you must initiate a service request.

Upgrading node components

You can upgrade node components to gain additional capacity or performance.
Trained service personnel can upgrade the following components in the field:
Note

These node components are not applicable for IsilonSD Edge.

l

drive

memory (DIMM)

network interface card (NIC)

If you want to upgrade components in your nodes, contact Isilon Technical Support.

Managing drive firmware

If the firmware of any drive in a cluster becomes obsolete, the cluster performance or
hardware reliability might get affected. To ensure overall data integrity, you may update
Cluster maintenance

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the drive firmware to the latest revision by installing the drive support package or the
drive firmware package.
Note

Drive firmware and its related features and functions are not applicable for IsilonSD Edge.
You can determine whether the drive firmware on your cluster is of the latest revision by
viewing the status of the drive firmware.
Note

We recommend that you contact EMC Isilon Technical Support before updating the drive
firmware.

Drive firmware update overview

You can update the drive firmware through drive support packages or drive firmware
packages.
Download and install either of these packages from http://support.emc.com depending
on the OneFS version running on your cluster and the type of drives on the nodes.
Drive Support Package
For clusters running OneFS 7.1.1 and later, install a drive support package to update the
drive firmware. You do not need to reboot the affected nodes to complete the firmware
update. A drive support package provides the following additional capabilities:
l

Updates the following drive configuration information:

n

List of supported drives

Drive firmware metadata

SSD wear monitoring data

SAS and SATA settings and attributes

Automatically updates the drive firmware for new and replacement drives to the latest
revision before those drives are formatted and used in a cluster. This is applicable
only for clusters running OneFS 7.2 and later.
Note

Firmware of drives in use cannot be updated automatically.

Drive Firmware Package
For clusters running OneFS versions earlier than 7.1.1, or for clusters with non-bootflash
nodes, install a cluster-wide drive firmware package to update the drive firmware. You
must reboot the affected nodes to complete the firmware update.

Install a drive support package

For clusters running OneFS 7.1.1 and later, install the latest drive support package to
update your drive firmware to the latest supported revision.
Before you begin
See the Considerations for installing the latest drive support package section before you
begin the installation.
Procedure
1. Go to the EMC Support page that lists all the available versions of the drive support
package.
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2. Click the latest version of the drive support package and download the file.
Note

See the Considerations for installing the latest drive support package section in order
to select the appropriate variant of the package. If you are unable to download the
package, contact EMC Isilon Technical Support for assistance.
3. Open a secure shell (SSH) connection to any node in the cluster and log in.
4. Create or check for the availability of the directory structure /ifs/data/
Isilon_Support/dsp.
5. Copy the downloaded file to the dsp directory through SCP, FTP, SMB, NFS, or any
other supported data-access protocols.
6. Unpack the file by running the tar command.
For example, based on the variant selected for the drive support package, unpack the
package by running one of the following commands:
tar -zxvf Drive_Support_<version>.tgz
tar zxvf Drive_Support_<version>_No_SSD.tgz

7. Install the package by running the isi_dsp_install command.

For example, based on the variant selected for the drive support package, install the
package by running one of the following commands:
isi_dsp_install Drive_Support_<version>.tar
isi_dsp_install Drive_Support_<version>_No_SSD.tar
Note
l

You must run the isi_dsp_install command to install the drive support
package. Do not use the isi pkg command.

Running isi_dsp_install will install the drive support package on the entire
cluster.

The installation process takes care of installing all the necessary files from the
drive support package followed by the uninstallation of the package. You do not
need to delete the package after its installation or prior to installing a later version.

View drive firmware status

You can view the status of the drive firmware on the cluster to determine whether you
need to update the firmware.
Procedure
1. Open a secure shell (SSH) connection to any node in the cluster and log in.
2. Perform one of the following tasks:
l

View the drive firmware status of all the nodes. Depending on your version of
OneFS, run one of the following commands:
OneFS 8.0 or later
isi devices drive firmware list --node-lnn all

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Earlier than OneFS 8.0

isi drivefirmware status
l

To view the drive firmware status of drives on a specific node, run one of the
following commands:
OneFS 8.0 or later
isi devices drive firmware list --node-lnn <node-number>
Earlier than OneFS 8.0
isi drivefirmware status -n <node-number>

If a drive firmware update is not required, the Desired FW column is empty.

Update drive firmware

If the firmware for a drive becomes obsolete, you must update the drive firmware.
This procedure explains how to update the drive firmware on nodes that contain
bootflash drives. To update drive firmware on nodes that do not contain bootflash drives,
you must download and install the latest drive firmware package. For more information,
see the latest drive firmware package release notes available on https://
support.emc.com/.
Note

Do not restart or power off nodes while drive firmware is being updated on the cluster.
Procedure
1. Open a secure shell (SSH) connection to any node in the cluster and log in.
2. Depending on your version of OneFS, run one of the following commands to update
the drive firmware for your cluster:
OneFS 8.0 or later
To update the drive firmware for your entire cluster, run the following command:
isi devices drive firmware update start all --node-lnn
all
To update the drive firmware for a specific node only, run the following
command:
isi devices drive firmware update start all --node-lnn
<node-number>
OneFS 7.1.1 - OneFS 8.0
For OneFS versions between 7.1.1 - 8.0 you will need to run the following
command on each node that requires drive firmware:
isi devices -a fwupdate
CAUTION

You must wait for one node to finish updating before you initiate an update on the
next node. To confirm that a node has finished updating, run the following command:
isi devices -d <node-number>
A drive that is still updating will display a status of FWUPDATE.

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Updating the drive firmware of a single drive takes approximately 15 seconds,

depending on the drive model. OneFS updates drives sequentially.

Verify a drive firmware update

After you update the drive firmware in a node, confirm that the firmware is updated
properly and that the affected drives are operating correctly.
Procedure
1. Ensure that no drive firmware updates are currently in progress by running one of the
following commands:
OneFS 8.0 or later
isi devices drive firmware update list

Earlier than OneFS 8.0

isi devices

If a drive is currently being updated, [FW_UPDATE] appears in the status column.

2. Verify that all drives have been updated by running the following command:
OneFS 8.0 or later
isi devices drive firmware list

Earlier than OneFS 8.0

isi drivefirmware status

If all drives have been updated, the Desired FW column is empty.

3. Verify that all affected drives are operating in a healthy state by running the following
command:
OneFS 8.0 or later
isi devices drive list --node-lnn all

Earlier than OneFS 8.0

isi devices

If a drive is operating in a healthy state, [HEALTHY] appears in the status column.

Managing drive firmware

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Drive firmware status information

You can view information about the status of the drive firmware through the OneFS
command-line interface.
The following example shows the output of the isi drivefirmware status
command:
Model
HGST HUS724030ALA640

FW
MF80AAC0

Desired FW
30

Count
1

Nodes

Where:
Model
Displays the name of the drive model.
FW
Displays the version number of the firmware currently running on the drives.
Desired FW
If the drive firmware should be upgraded, displays the version number of the drive
firmware that the firmware should be updated to.
Count
Displays the number of drives of this model that are currently running the specified
drive firmware.
Nodes
Displays the LNNs of nodes that the specified drives exist in.
The following example shows the output of the isi devices command with the -a
fwstatus option:
Node 1
Bay 1
Bay 2
Bay 3

Model
HGST HUS724030ALA640
HGST HUS724030ALA640
HGST HUS724030ALA640

FW
MF80AAC0
MF80AAC0
MF80AAC0

Desired FW

Where:
Drive
Displays the number of the bay that the drive is in.
Note

This column is not labeled in the output. The information appears under the node
number.
Model
Displays the name of the drive model.
FW
Displays the version number of the firmware currently running on the drive.

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Desired FW
Displays the version number of the drive firmware that the drive should be updated
to. If a drive firmware update is not required, the Desired FW column is empty.

Automatic update of drive firmware

For clusters running OneFS 7.2 or later, install the latest drive support package on a node
to automatically update the firmware for a new or replacement drive.
The information within the drive support package determines whether the firmware of a
drive must be updated before the drive is formatted and used. If an update is available,
the drive is automatically updated with the latest firmware.
Note

New and replacement drives added to a cluster are formatted regardless of the status of
their firmware revision. You can identify a firmware update failure by viewing the firmware
status for the drives on a specific node. In case of a failure, run the isi devices
command with the fwupdate action on the node to update the firmware manually. For
example, run the following command to manually update the firmware on node 1:
isi devices -a fwupdate -d 1

Managing cluster nodes

You can add and remove nodes from a cluster. You can also shut down or restart the
entire cluster.

Add a node to a cluster

You can add a new node to an existing EMC Isilon cluster.
Before you begin
Before you add a node to a cluster, verify that an internal IP address is available. Add IP
addresses as necessary before you add a new node.
If a new node is running a different version of OneFS than the cluster, the system changes
the node version of OneFS to match the cluster.
Note
l

For specific information about version compatibility between OneFS and EMC Isilon
hardware, refer to the Isilon Supportability and Compatibility Guide.

If you are running IsilonSD Edge, follow the instructions in the IsilonSD Edge
Installation and Administration Guide to add a node to an IsilonSD cluster.

Procedure
1. Click Cluster Management > Hardware Configuration > Add Nodes.
2. In the Available Nodes table, click Add for the node that you want to add to the
cluster.

Managing cluster nodes

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Remove a node from the cluster

You can remove a node from an EMC Isilon cluster. When you remove a node, the system
smartfails the node to ensure that data on the node is transferred to other nodes in the
cluster.
Removing a storage node from a cluster deletes the data from that node. Before the
system deletes the data, the FlexProtect job safely redistributes data across the nodes
remaining in the cluster.
Note

If you are running IsilonSD Edge, follow the instructions in the IsilonSD Edge Installation
and Administration Guide to remove a node from the cluster.
Procedure
1. Navigate to Cluster Management > Hardware Configuration > Remove Nodes.
2. In the Remove Node area, specify the node that you want to remove.
3. Click Submit.
If you remove a storage node, the Cluster Status area displays smartfail progress. If
you remove a non-storage accelerator node, it is immediately removed from the
cluster.

Modify the LNN of a node

You can modify the logical node number (LNN) of a node. This procedure is available only
through the command-line interface (CLI).
The nodes within your cluster can be renamed to any name/integer between 1 and 144.
By changing the name of your node, you are resetting the LNN.
Note
l

Although you can specify any integer as an LNN, we recommend that you do not
specify an integer greater than 144. Specifying LNNs above 144 can result in
significant performance degradation.

Ignore these instructions if you are running IsilonSD Edge because you cannot modify
the LNN of an IsilonSD node.

Procedure
1. Open a secure shell (SSH) connection to any node in the cluster and log in.
2. Open the isi config command prompt by running the following command:
isi config

3. Run the lnnset command.

The following command switches the LNN of a node from 12 to 73:
lnnset 12 73

4. Enter commit .

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Results
You might need to reconnect to your SSH session before the new node name is
automatically changed.

Shut down or restart a cluster

You can shut down or restart an entire EMC Isilon cluster.
Procedure
1. Click Cluster Management > Hardware Configuration > Shutdown & Reboot Controls.
2. In the Shut Down or Reboot This Cluster area, specify an action:
Option

Description

Shut down

Shuts down the cluster.

Reboot

Stops then restarts the cluster.

3. Click Submit.

Upgrading OneFS
Two options are available for upgrading the OneFS operating system: a rolling upgrade or
a simultaneous upgrade. Before upgrading OneFS software, a pre-upgrade check must be
performed.
A rolling upgrade individually upgrades and restarts each node in the EMC Isilon cluster
sequentially. During a rolling upgrade, the cluster remains online and continues serving
clients with no interruption in service, although some connection resets may occur on
SMB clients. Rolling upgrades are performed sequentially by node number, so a rolling
upgrade takes longer to complete than a simultaneous upgrade. The final node in the
upgrade process is the node that you used to start the upgrade process.
Note

Rolling upgrades are not available for all clusters. For instructions on how to plan an
upgrade, prepare the cluster for upgrade, and perform an upgrade of the operating
system, see the OneFS Upgrades Isilon Info Hub
A simultaneous upgrade installs the new operating system and restarts all nodes in the
cluster at the same time. Simultaneous upgrades are faster than rolling upgrades but
require a temporary interruption of service during the upgrade process. Your data is
inaccessible during the time that it takes to complete the upgrade process.
Before beginning either a simultaneous or rolling upgrade, OneFS compares the current
cluster and operating system with the new version to ensure that the cluster meets
certain criteria, such as configuration compatibility (SMB, LDAP, SmartPools), disk
availability, and the absence of critical cluster events. If upgrading puts the cluster at
risk, OneFS warns you, provides information about the risks, and prompts you to confirm
whether to continue the upgrade.
If the cluster does not meet the pre-upgrade criteria, the upgrade does not proceed, and
the unsupported statuses are listed.

Upgrading OneFS

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Note

EMC Isilon Technical Support recommends that you run the optional pre-upgrade checks.
Before starting an upgrade, OneFS checks that your cluster is healthy enough to complete
the upgrade process. Some of the pre-upgrade checks are mandatory, and will be
performed even if you choose to skip the optional checks. All pre-upgrade checks
contribute to a safer upgrade.

Remote support
OneFS allows remote support through EMC Secure Remote Services (ESRS) which
monitors your EMC Isilon cluster, and with your permission, allows remote access to
Isilon Technical Support personnel to gather cluster data and troubleshoot issues.
ESRS is a secure, IP-based customer service support system. ESRS features include 24x7
remote monitoring and secure authentication with AES 256-bit encryption and RSA digital
certificates.
When configured, ESRS monitors your Isilon cluster on a node-by-node basis and sends
alerts regarding the health of your devices. Isilon Technical Support personnel can
establish remote sessions through SSH or the web administration interface. During
remote sessions, support personnel can run scripts that gather diagnostic data about
cluster settings and operations, which is sent to a secure FTP site, and troubleshoot open
support cases on your cluster.
If you enable remote support, you must share cluster login credentials with Isilon
Technical Support personnel. Isilon Technical Support personnel will request remote
access to your cluster only in the context of an open support case, and you can allow or
deny the remote session request.
ESRS is included with the OneFS operating system and does not require you to activate a
separate license. You must enable and configure ESRS before it can run scripts to gather
data. The feature may have been enabled when the cluster was first set up, but you can
enable or disable ESRS at any time.
For a complete description of ESRS features and functionality, see the most recent
version of the document titled EMC Secure Remote Services Technical Description.
Additional documentation about ESRS can be found on the EMC Online Support site.

Configuring ESRS support

You can configure support for EMC Secure Remote Services (ESRS) on your Isilon cluster.
Before configuring ESRS, at least one ESRS gateway server must be installed and
configured. The gateway server acts as the single point of entry and exit for IP-based
remote support activities and monitoring notifications. You can also set up a secondary
gateway server as a failover.
ESRS does not support IPv6 communications. To support ESRS transmissions and remote
connections, at least one subnet on the EMC Isilon cluster must be configured for IPv4
addresses. All nodes that you want managed by ESRS must have at least one network
interface that is a member of an IPv4 address pool.
You must designate one or more IP address pools that will handle remote gateway
connections by support personnel. The IP address pool must belong to a subnet under
groupnet0, which is the default system groupnet and is referenced by the System access
zone. We recommend that you designate pools with static IP addresses that are
dedicated to remote connections through ESRS.

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If ESRS transmissions fail, you can direct ESRS to send event notifications to a failover
SMTP address. You can also specify whether an email should be sent upon transmission
failure. The SMTP address and email address are specified in OneFS general cluster
settings.
When you enable support for ESRS on a cluster, the serial number and IP address of each
node is sent to the gateway server. Once node information is received, you can:
l

Select which nodes you want managed through ESRS with the ESRS Configuration
Tool.

Create rules for remote support connections to Isilon nodes with the ESRS Policy
Manager.

See the most recent version of the document titled EMC Secure Remote Services Site
Planning Guide for a complete description the gateway server requirements, installation,
and configuration.
See the most recent version of the document titled EMC Secure Remote Services
Installation and Operations Guide for a complete description of the ESRS Configuration
Tool.
See the most recent version of the document titled EMC Secure Remote Services Policy
Manager Operations Guide for a complete description of the ESRS Policy Manger.
Additional documentation about ESRS can be found on the EMC Online Support site.

Remote support scripts

After you enable remote support through ESRS, Isilon Technical Support personnel can
request logs with scripts that gather EMC Isilon cluster data and then upload the data.
The remote support scripts based on the Isilon isi_gather_info log-gathering tool
are located in the /ifs/data/Isilon_Support/ directory on each node.
Additionally, isi_phone_home, a tool that focuses on cluster- and node-specific data,
is enabled once you enable ESRS. This tool is pre-set to send information about your
cluster to Isilon Technical Support on a weekly basis. You can disable or enable
isi_phone_home from the OneFS command-line interface.
The following table lists the data-gathering activities that remote support scripts perform.
At the request of an Isilon Technical Support representative, these scripts can be run
automatically to collect information about your cluster's configuration settings and
operations. ESRS then uploads the information to a secure Isilon FTP site, so that it is
available for Isilon Technical Support personnel to analyze. The remote support scripts do
not affect cluster services or the availability of your data.
Action

Description

Clean watch folder

Clears the contents of /var/crash.

Get application data

Collects and uploads information about

OneFS application programs.

Generate dashboard file daily

Generates daily dashboard information.

Generate dashboard file sequence

Generates dashboard information in the

sequence that it occurred.

Get ABR data (as built record)

Collects as-built information about

hardware.

Remote support scripts

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88

Action

Description

Get ATA control and GMirror status

Collects system output and invokes a

script when it receives an event that
corresponds to a predetermined
eventid.

Get cluster data

Collects and uploads information about

overall cluster configuration and
operations.

Get cluster events

Gets the output of existing critical events

and uploads the information.

Get cluster status

Collects and uploads cluster status

details.

Get contact info

Extracts contact information and uploads

a text file that contains it.

Get contents (var/crash)

Uploads the contents of /var/crash.

Get job status

Collects and uploads details on a job that

is being monitored.

Get domain data

Collects and uploads information about

the clusters Active Directory Services
(ADS) domain membership.

Get file system data

Collects and uploads information about

the state and health of the OneFS /ifs/
file system.

Get IB data

Collects and uploads information about

the configuration and operation of the
InfiniBand back-end network.

Get logs data

Collects and uploads only the most recent

cluster log information.

Get messages

Collects and uploads active /var/log/

messages files.

Get network data

Collects and uploads information about

cluster-wide and node-specific network
configuration settings and operations.

Get NFS clients

Runs a command to check if nodes are

being used as NFS clients.

Get node data

Collects and uploads node-specific

configuration, status, and operational
information.

Get protocol data

Collects and uploads network status

information and configuration settings for
the NFS, SMB, HDFS, FTP, and HTTP
protocols.

Get Pcap client stats

Collects and uploads client statistics.

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Action

Description

Get readonly status

Warns if the chassis is open and uploads

a text file of the event information.

Get usage data

Collects and uploads current and

historical information about node
performance and resource usage.

isi_gather_info

Collects and uploads all recent cluster log

information.

isi_gather_info --incremental

Collects and uploads changes to cluster

log information that have occurred since
the most recent full operation.

isi_gather_info --incremental single

node

Collects and uploads changes to cluster

log information that have occurred since
the most recent full operation.
Prompts you for the node number.

isi_gather_info single node

Collects and uploads details for a single

node.
Prompts you for the node number.

isi_phone_home --script-file

Collects and uploads recent cluster- and

node-specific information.

Upload the dashboard file

Uploads dashboard information to the

secure Isilon Technical Support FTP site.

Enable and configure ESRS

You can enable support for EMC Secure Remote Services (ESRS) on an Isilon cluster.
Before you begin
An ESRS gateway server must be installed and configured before you can enable ESRS on
an Isilon cluster. The IP address pools that will handle gateway connections must already
exist in the system and must belong to a subnet under groupnet0, which is the default
system groupnet.
Procedure
1. Click Cluster Management > General Settings > ESRS.
2. Select the Enable ESRS Gateway Support checkbox to enable ESRS.
3. In the Primary ESRS Gateway Server field, type an IPv4 address or the name of the
primary gateway server.
4. In the Secondary ESRS Gateway Server field, type an IPv4 address or the name of the
secondary gateway server.
5. From the Gateway Access Pools section, click the arrows to move IP address pools
between the Available Pools and Selected Pools lists.
The Available Pools list will only display IP address pools that belong to a subnet
under groupnet0, which is the default system groupnet. You should only choose pools
that contain IPv4 address ranges.
6. Select the Use SMTP if ESRS transmission fails checkbox to specify that event
notifications must be sent to a failover SMTP address if ESRS transmission fails.
Enable and configure ESRS

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The SMTP address is configured at Cluster Management > General Settings > Email
Settings.
7. Select the Send email upon transmission failure checkbox to send an alert to a
customer email address if ESRS transmission fails.
The email address is configured at Cluster Management > General Settings > Cluster
Identity.
8. Click Save Changes.

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CHAPTER 4
Access zones

This section contains the following topics:

l
l
l
l
l
l

Access zones overview ......................................................................................... 92

Base directory guidelines...................................................................................... 92
Access zones best practices.................................................................................. 93
Access zone limits.................................................................................................94
Quality of service...................................................................................................94
Managing access zones........................................................................................ 95

Access zones

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Access zones overview

Although the default view of an EMC Isilon cluster is that of one physical machine, you
can partition a cluster into multiple virtual containers called access zones. Access zones
allow you to isolate data and control who can access data in each zone.
Access zones support configuration settings for authentication and identity management
services on a cluster, so you can configure authentication providers and provision
protocol directories such as SMB shares and NFS exports on a zone-by-zone basis. When
you create an access zone, a local provider is automatically created, which allows you to
configure each access zone with a list of local users and groups. You can also
authenticate through a different authentication provider in each access zone.
To control data access, you associate the access zone with a groupnet, which is a toplevel networking container that manages DNS client connection settings and contains
subnets and IP address pools. When you create an access zone, you must specify a
groupnet. If a groupnet is not specified, the access zone will reference the default
groupnet. Multiple access zones can reference a single groupnet. You can direct incoming
connections to the access zone through a specific IP address pool in the groupnet.
Associating an access zone with an IP address pool restricts authentication to the
associated access zone and reduces the number of available and accessible SMB shares
and NFS exports.
An advantage to multiple access zones is the ability to configure audit protocol access for
individual access zones. You can modify the default list of successful and failed protocol
audit events and then generate reports through a third-party tool for an individual access
zone.
A cluster includes a built-in access zone named System where you manage all aspects of
a cluster and other access zones. By default, all cluster IP addresses connect to the
System zone. Role-based access, which primarily allows configuration actions, is
available through only the System zone. All administrators, including those given
privileges by a role, must connect to the System zone to configure a cluster. The System
zone is automatically configured to reference the default groupnet on the cluster, which
is groupnet0.
Configuration management of a non-System access zone is not permitted through SSH,
the OneFS Platform API, or the web administration interface. However, you can create and
delete SMB shares in an access zone through the Microsoft Management Console (MMC).

Base directory guidelines

A base directory defines the file system tree exposed by an access zone. The access zone
cannot grant access to any files outside of the base directory. You must assign a base
directory to each access zone.
Base directories restrict path options for several features such as SMB shares, NFS
exports, the HDFS root directory, and the local provider home directory template. The
base directory of the default System access zone is /ifs and cannot be modified.
To achieve data isolation within an access zone, EMC recommends creating a unique
base directory path that is not identical to or does not overlap another base directory,
with the exception of the System access zone. For example, do not specify /ifs/
data/hr as the base directory for both the zone2 and zone3 access zones, or if /ifs/
data/hr is assigned to zone2, do not assign /ifs/data/hr/personnel to zone3.

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OneFS supports overlapping data between access zones for cases where your workflows
require shared data; however, this adds complexity to the access zone configuration that
might lead to future issues with client access. For the best results from overlapping data
between access zones, EMC recommends that the access zones also share the same
authentication providers. Shared providers ensures that users will have consistent
identity information when accessing the same data through different access zones.
If you cannot configure the same authentication providers for access zones with shared
data, EMC recommends the following best practices:
l

Select Active Directory as the authentication provider in each access zone. This
causes files to store globally unique SIDs as the on-disk identity, eliminating the
chance of users from different zones gaining access to each other's data.

Avoid selecting local, LDAP, and NIS as the authentication providers in the access
zones. These authentication providers use UIDs and GIDs, which are not guaranteed
to be globally unique. This results in a high probability that users from different zones
will be able to access each other's data

Set the on-disk identity to native, or preferably, to SID. When user mappings exist
between Active Directory and UNIX users or if the Services for Unix option is
enabled for the Active Directory provider, OneFS stores SIDs as the on-disk identity
instead of UIDs.

Access zones best practices

You can avoid configuration problems on the EMC Isilon cluster when creating access
zones by following best practices guidelines.
Best practice

Details

Create unique base directories.

To achieve data isolation, the base directory path of each

access zone should be unique and should not overlap or be
nested inside the base directory of another access zone.
Overlapping is allowed, but should only be used if your
workflows require shared data.

Separate the function of the

System zone from other access
zones.

Reserve the System zone for configuration access, and create

additional zones for data access. Move current data out of the
System zone and into a new access zone.

Create access zones to isolate

data access for different clients
or users.

Do not create access zones if a workflow requires data sharing

between different classes of clients or users.

Assign only one authentication

provider of each type to each
access zone.

An access zone is limited to a single Active Directory provider;

however, OneFS allows multiple LDAP, NIS, and file
authentication providers in each access zone. It is
recommended that you assign only one type of each provider
per access zone in order to simplify administration.

Avoid overlapping UID or GID

ranges for authentication
providers in the same access
zone.

The potential for zone access conflicts is slight but possible if

overlapping UIDs/GIDs are present in the same access zone.

Access zones best practices

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Access zone limits

You can follow access zone limits guidelines to help size the workloads on the OneFS
system.
If you configure multiple access zones on an EMC Isilon cluster, limits guidelines are
recommended for optimal system performance. The limits described in the EMC Isilon
Guidelines for Large Workloads publication are recommended for heavy enterprise
workflows on a cluster, treating each access zone as a separate physical machine.

Quality of service
You can set upper bounds on quality of service by assigning specific physical resources
to each access zone.
Quality of service addresses physical hardware performance characteristics that can be
measured, improved, and sometimes guaranteed. Characteristics measured for quality of
service include but are not limited to throughput rates, CPU usage, and disk capacity.
When you share physical hardware in an EMC Isilon cluster across multiple virtual
instances, competition exists for the following services:
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CPU

Memory

Network bandwidth

Disk I/O

Disk capacity

Access zones do not provide logical quality of service guarantees to these resources, but
you can partition these resources between access zones on a single cluster. The following
table describes a few ways to partition resources to improve quality of service:
Use

Notes

NICs

You can assign specific NICs on specific nodes to an IP address pool that is
associated with an access zone. By assigning these NICs, you can determine the
nodes and interfaces that are associated with an access zone. This enables the
separation of CPU, memory, and network bandwidth.
If you are running IsilonSD Edge, the port group manages the NICs on the IsilonSD
nodes. For more information on port group configuration, see the IsilonSD Edge
Installation and Administration Guide.

SmartPools

SmartPools are separated by node hardware equivalence classes, usually into

multiple tiers of high, medium, and low performance. The data written to a
SmartPool is written only to the disks in the nodes of that pool.
Associating an IP address pool with only the nodes of a single SmartPool enables
partitioning of disk I/O resources.

SmartQuotas Through SmartQuotas, you can limit disk capacity by a user or a group or in a
directory. By applying a quota to an access zone's base directory, you can limit
disk capacity used in that access zone.

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Managing access zones

You can create access zones on the EMC Isilon cluster, view and modify access zone
settings, and delete access zones.

Create an access zone

You can create an access zone and define a base directory and authentication providers.
Procedure
1. Click Access > Access Zones.
2. Click Create an access zone.
3. In the Zone Name field, type a name for the access zone.
4. In the Zone Base Directory field, type or browse to the base directory path for the
access zone.
5. If the directory you set does not already exist in the system, select the Create zone
base directory if it does not exist checkbox.
6. From the Groupnet list, select a groupnet to associate with the access zone. The
access zone can only be associated with IP address pools and authentication
providers that share the selected groupnet.
7. (Optional) Click Add a Provider to open the Add a New Auth Provider window and
select an authentication provider for the access zone.
a. From the Authentication Provider Type list, select a provider type. A provider type
is listed only if an instance of that type exists in the system.
b. From the Authentication Provider list, select the authentication provider.
c. To change the order in which authentication providers are searched during
authentication and user lookup, click the title bar of a provider instance and drag it
to a new position in the list.
8. Click Create Zone.
9. If the directory you set overlaps with the base directory of another access zone, click
Create at the system prompt to confirm that you want to allow access to users in both
access zones.
After you finish
Before users can connect to an access zone, you must associate it with an IP address
pool.

Assign an overlapping base directory

You can create overlapping base directories between access zones for cases where your
workflows require shared data.
Procedure
1. Click Access > Access Zones.
2. Click View/Edit next to the access zone that you want to modify.
The system displays the View Access Zone Details window.
3. Click Edit.
The system displays theEdit Access Zone Details window.
Managing access zones

95

Access zones

4. In the Zone Base Directory field, type or browse to the base directory path for the
access zone.
5. Click Save Changes.
The system prompts you to confirm that the directory you set overlaps with the base
directory of another access zone.
6. Click Update at the system prompt to confirm that you want to allow data access to
users in both access zones.
7. Click Close.
After you finish
Before users can connect to an access zone, you must associate it with an IP address
pool.

Manage authentication providers in an access zone

You can add an remove authentication providers to an access zone and manage the order
in which the providers are checked during the authentication process.
Procedure
1. Click Access > Access Zones.
2. Click View/Edit next to the access zone that you want to modify.
The system displays the View Access Zone Details window.
3. Click Edit.
The system displays theEdit Access Zone Details window.
4. (Optional) Click Add a Provider to open the Add a New Auth Provider window and
select an authentication provider for the access zone.
a. From the Authentication Provider Type list, select a provider type. A provider type
is listed only if an instance of that type exists in the system.
b. From the Authentication Provider list, select the authentication provider.
c. To change the order in which authentication providers are searched during
authentication and user lookup, click the title bar of a provider instance and drag it
to a new position in the list.
5. Click Create Zone.
6. If the directory you set overlaps with the base directory of another access zone, click
Create at the system prompt to confirm that you want to allow access to users in both
access zones.
After you finish
Before users can connect to an access zone, you must associate it with an IP address
pool.

Associate an IP address pool with an access zone

You can associate an IP address pool with an access zone to ensure that clients can
connect to the access zone only through the range of IP addresses assigned to the pool.
Before you begin
The IP address pool must belong to the same groupnet referenced by the access zone.

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Procedure
1. Click Cluster Management > Network Configuration > External Network.
2. Click View/Edit next to the IP address pool that you want to modify.
The system displays the View Pool Details window.
3. Click Edit.
The system displays the Edit Pool Details window.
4. From the Access Zone list, select the access zone you want to associate with the pool.
5. Click Save Changes.

Modify an access zone

You can modify the properties of any access zone with some exceptions: you cannot
change the name of the built-in System zone, and you cannot modify the selected
groupnet.
Procedure
1. Click Access > Access Zones.
2. Click View/Edit next to the access zone that you want to modify.
The system displays the View Access Zone Details window.
3. Click Edit.
The system displays theEdit Access Zone Details window.
4. Modify the settings you want, click Save Changes, and then click Close.

Delete an access zone

You can delete any access zone except the built-in System zone. When you delete an
access zone, all associated authentication providers remain available to other zones, but
IP addresses are not reassigned to other zones. SMB shares, NFS exports, and HDFS data
paths are deleted when you delete an access zone; however, the directories and data still
exist, and you can map new shares, exports, or paths in another access zone.
Procedure
1. Click Access > Access Zones.
2. From the table of access zones, click Delete next to the access zone that you want to
delete.
3. In the Confirm Delete dialog box, click Delete.

View a list of access zones

You can view a list of all access zones on the cluster.
Procedure
1. Click Access > Access Zones.
2. Click View/Edit next to the access zone that you want to view.
The system displays the View Access Zone Details window.
3. Click Close.

Modify an access zone

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CHAPTER 5
Authentication

This section contains the following topics:

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Authentication overview......................................................................................100
Authentication provider features......................................................................... 100
Supported authentication providers.................................................................... 100
Active Directory................................................................................................... 101
LDAP................................................................................................................... 102
NIS......................................................................................................................102
Kerberos authentication...................................................................................... 103
File provider........................................................................................................ 104
Local provider..................................................................................................... 104
Managing Active Directory providers....................................................................105
Managing LDAP providers....................................................................................107
Managing NIS providers...................................................................................... 112
Managing MIT Kerberos authentication............................................................... 113
Managing file providers.......................................................................................119
Managing local users and groups........................................................................ 124

Authentication

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Authentication overview
OneFS supports local and remote authentication providers to verify that users attempting
to access an EMC Isilon cluster are who they claim to be. Anonymous access, which does
not require authentication, is supported for protocols that allow it.
OneFS supports concurrent multiple authentication provider types, which are analogous
to directory services. For example, OneFS is often configured to authenticate Windows
clients with Active Directory and to authenticate UNIX clients with LDAP. You can also
configure NIS, designed by Sun Microsystems, to authenticate users and groups when
they access a cluster.
Note

OneFS is RFC 2307-compliant.

Authentication provider features

You can configure authentication providers for your environment.
Authentication providers support a mix of the features described in the following table.
Feature

Description

Authentication

All authentication providers support plain-text authentication. You

can configure some providers to support NTLM or Kerberos
authentication also.

Users and groups

OneFS provides the ability to manage users and groups directly on

the cluster.

Netgroups

Specific to NFS, netgroups restrict access to NFS exports.

UNIX-centric user and group

properties

Login shell, home directory, UID, and GID. Missing information is

supplemented by configuration templates or additional
authentication providers.

Windows-centric user and

group properties

NetBIOS domain and SID. Missing information is supplemented by

configuration templates.

Supported authentication providers

You can configure local and remote authentication providers to authenticate or deny user
access to an EMC Isilon cluster.
The following table compares features that are available with each of the authentication
providers that OneFS supports. In the following table, an x indicates that a feature is fully
supported by a provider; an asterisk (*) indicates that additional configuration or support
from another provider is required.

100

Authentication
provider

NTLM Kerberos User/group

Netgroups UNIX
Windows
management
properties properties
(RFC 2307)

Active Directory

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Authentication
provider

NTLM Kerberos User/group

Netgroups UNIX
Windows
management
properties properties
(RFC 2307)

LDAP

NIS
Local

File

MIT Kerberos

x
x

Active Directory
Active Directory is a Microsoft implementation of Lightweight Directory Access Protocol
(LDAP), Kerberos, and DNS technologies that can store information about network
resources. Active Directory can serve many functions, but the primary reason for joining
the cluster to an Active Directory domain is to perform user and group authentication.
You can join the EMC Isilon cluster to an Active Directory (AD) domain by specifying the
fully qualified domain name, which can be resolved to an IPv4 or an IPv6 address, and a
user name with join permission. When the cluster joins an AD domain, a single AD
machine account is created. The machine account establishes a trust relationship with
the domain and enables the cluster to authenticate and authorize users in the Active
Directory forest. By default, the machine account is named the same as the cluster. If the
cluster name is more than 15 characters long, the name is hashed and displayed after
joining the domain.
OneFS supports NTLM and Microsoft Kerberos for authentication of Active Directory
domain users. NTLM client credentials are obtained from the login process and then
presented in an encrypted challenge/response format to authenticate. Microsoft
Kerberos client credentials are obtained from a key distribution center (KDC) and then
presented when establishing server connections. For greater security and performance,
we recommend that you implement Kerberos, according to Microsoft guidelines, as the
primary authentication protocol for Active Directory.
Each Active Directory provider must be associated with a groupnet. The groupnet is a toplevel networking container that manages hostname resolution against DNS nameservers
and contains subnets and IP address pools. The groupnet specifies which networking
properties the Active Directory provider will use when communicating with external
servers. The groupnet associated with the Active Directory provider cannot be changed.
Instead you must delete the Active Directory provider and create it again with the new
groupnet association.
You can add an Active Directory provider to an access zone as an authentication method
for clients connecting through the access zone. OneFS supports multiple instances of
Active Directory on an Isilon cluster; however, you can assign only one Active Directory
provider per access zone. The access zone and the Active Directory provider must
reference the same groupnet. Configure multiple Active Directory instances only to grant
access to multiple sets of mutually-untrusted domains. Otherwise, configure a single
Active Directory instance if all domains have a trust relationship. You can discontinue
authentication through an Active Directory provider by removing the provider from
associated access zones.

Active Directory

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Authentication

LDAP
The Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) is a networking protocol that enables
you to define, query, and modify directory services and resources.
OneFS can authenticate users and groups against an LDAP repository in order to grant
them access to the cluster. OneFS supports Kerberos authentication for an LDAP provider.
The LDAP service supports the following features:
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Users, groups, and netgroups.

Configurable LDAP schemas. For example, the ldapsam schema allows NTLM
authentication over the SMB protocol for users with Windows-like attributes.

Simple bind authentication, with and without SSL.

Redundancy and load balancing across servers with identical directory data.

Multiple LDAP provider instances for accessing servers with different user data.

Encrypted passwords.

IPv4 and IPv6 server URIs.

Each LDAP provider must be associated with a groupnet. The groupnet is a top-level
networking container that manages hostname resolution against DNS nameservers and
contains subnets and IP address pools. The groupnet specifies which networking
properties the LDAP provider will use when communicating with external servers. The
groupnet associated with the LDAP provider cannot be changed. Instead you must delete
the LDAP provider and create it again with the new groupnet association.
You can add an LDAP provider to an access zone as an authentication method for clients
connecting through the access zone. An access zone may include at most one LDAP
provider. The access zone and the LDAP provider must reference the same groupnet. You
can discontinue authentication through an LDAP provider by removing the provider from
associated access zones.

NIS
The Network Information Service (NIS) provides authentication and identity uniformity
across local area networks. OneFS includes an NIS authentication provider that enables
you to integrate the cluster with your NIS infrastructure.
NIS, designed by Sun Microsystems, can authenticate users and groups when they
access the cluster. The NIS provider exposes the passwd, group, and netgroup maps from
an NIS server. Hostname lookups are also supported. You can specify multiple servers for
redundancy and load balancing.
Each NIS provider must be associated with a groupnet. The groupnet is a top-level
networking container that manages hostname resolution against DNS nameservers and
contains subnets and IP address pools. The groupnet specifies which networking
properties the NIS provider will use when communicating with external servers. The
groupnet associated with the NIS provider cannot be changed. Instead you must delete
the NIS provider and create it again with the new groupnet association.
You can add an NIS provider to an access zone as an authentication method for clients
connecting through the access zone. An access zone may include at most one NIS
provider. The access zone and the NIS provider must reference the same groupnet. You
can discontinue authentication through an NIS provider by removing the provider from
associated access zones.
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Note

NIS is different from NIS+, which OneFS does not support.

Kerberos authentication
Kerberos is a network authentication provider that negotiates encryption tickets for
securing a connection. OneFS supports Microsoft Kerberos and MIT Kerberos
authentication providers on an EMC Isilon cluster. If you configure an Active Directory
provider, support for Microsoft Kerberos authentication is provided automatically. MIT
Kerberos works independently of Active Directory.
For MIT Kerberos authentication, you define an administrative domain known as a realm.
Within this realm, an authentication server has the authority to authenticate a user, host,
or service; the server can resolve to either IPv4 or IPv6 addresses. You can optionally
define a Kerberos domain to allow additional domain extensions to be associated with a
realm.
The authentication server in a Kerberos environment is called the Key Distribution Center
(KDC) and distributes encrypted tickets. When a user authenticates with an MIT Kerberos
provider within a realm, an encrypted ticket with the user's service principal name (SPN)
is created and validated to securely pass the user's identification for the requested
service.
Each MIT Kerberos provider must be associated with a groupnet. The groupnet is a toplevel networking container that manages hostname resolution against DNS nameservers
and contains subnets and IP address pools. The groupnet specifies which networking
properties the Kerberos provider will use when communicating with external servers. The
groupnet associated with the Kerberos provider cannot be changed. Instead you must
delete the Kerberos provider and create it again with the new groupnet association.
You can add an MIT Kerberos provider to an access zone as an authentication method for
clients connecting through the access zone. An access zone may include at most one MIT
Kerberos provider. The access zone and the Kerberos provider must reference the same
groupnet. You can discontinue authentication through an MIT Kerberos provider by
removing the provider from associated access zones.

Keytabs and SPNs overview

A Key Distribution Center (KDC) is an authentication server that stores accounts and
keytabs for users connecting to a network service within an EMC Isilon cluster. A keytab is
a key table that stores keys to validate and encrypt Kerberos tickets.
One of the fields in a keytab entry is a service principal name (SPN). An SPN identifies a
unique service instance within a cluster. Each SPN is associated with a specific key in the
KDC. Users can use the SPN and its associated keys to obtain Kerberos tickets that
enable access to various services on the cluster. A member of the SecurityAdmin role can
create new keys for the SPNs and modify them later as necessary. An SPN for a service
typically appears as <service>/<fqdn>@<realm>.
Note

SPNs must match the SmartConnect zone name and the FQDN hostname of the cluster. If
the SmartConnect zone settings are changed, you must update the SPNs on the cluster to
match the changes.

Kerberos authentication

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MIT Kerberos protocol support

MIT Kerberos supports certain standard network communication protocols such as HTTP,
HDFS, and NFS. MIT Kerberos does not support SMB, SSH, and FTP protocols.
For the NFS protocol support, MIT Kerberos must be enabled for an export and also a
Kerberos provider must be included within the access zone.

File provider
A file provider enables you to supply an authoritative third-party source of user and group
information to an EMC Isilon cluster. A third-party source is useful in UNIX and Linux
environments that synchronize /etc/passwd, /etc/group, and etc/netgroup
files across multiple servers.
Standard BSD /etc/spwd.db and /etc/group database files serve as the file
provider backing store on a cluster. You generate the spwd.db file by running the
pwd_mkdb command in the OneFS command-line interface (CLI). You can script updates
to the database files.
On an Isilon cluster, a file provider hashes passwords with libcrypt. For the best
security, we recommend that you use the Modular Crypt Format in the source /etc/
passwd file to determine the hashing algorithm. OneFS supports the following
algorithms for the Modular Crypt Format:
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MD5

NT-Hash

SHA-256

SHA-512

For information about other available password formats, run the man 3 crypt
command in the CLI to view the crypt man pages.
Note

The built-in System file provider includes services to list, manage, and authenticate
against system accounts such as root, admin, and nobody. We recommended that you do
not modify the System file provider.

Local provider
The local provider provides authentication and lookup facilities for user accounts added
by an administrator.
Local authentication is useful when Active Directory, LDAP, or NIS directory services are
not configured or when a specific user or application needs access to the cluster. Local
groups can include built-in groups and Active Directory groups as members.
In addition to configuring network-based authentication sources, you can manage local
users and groups by configuring a local password policy for each node in the cluster.
OneFS settings specify password complexity, password age and re-use, and passwordattempt lockout policies.

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Managing Active Directory providers

You can view, configure, modify, and delete Active Directory providers. OneFS includes a
Kerberos configuration file for Active Directory in addition to the global Kerberos
configuration file, both of which you can configure through the command-line interface.
You can discontinue authentication through an Active Directory provider by removing it
from all access zones that are using it.

Configure an Active Directory provider

You can configure one or more Active Directory providers, each of which must be joined to
a separate Active Directory domain. By default, when you configure an Active Directory
provider, it is automatically added to the System access zone.
Note

Consider the following information when you configure an Active Directory provider:
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When you join Active Directory from OneFS, cluster time is updated from the Active
Directory server, as long as an NTP server has not been configured for the cluster.

If you migrate users to a new or different Active Directory domain, you must re-set the
ACL domain information after you configure the new provider. You can use third-party
tools such as Microsoft SubInACL.

Procedure
1. Click Access > Authentication Providers > Active Directory.
2. Click Join a domain.
3. In the Domain Name field, specify the fully qualified Active Directory domain name,
which can be resolved to an IPv4 or an IPv6 address.
The domain name will also be used as the provider name.
4. In the User field, type the username of an account that is authorized to join the Active
Directory domain.
5. In the Password field, type the password of the user account.
6. (Optional) In the Organizational Unit field, type the name of the organizational unit
(OU) to connect to on the Active Directory server. Specify the OU in the format OuName
or OuName1/SubName2.
7. (Optional) In the Machine Account field, type the name of the machine account.
Note

If you specified an OU to connect to, the domain join will fail if the machine account
does not reside in the OU.
8. From the Groupnet list, select the groupnet the authentication provider will reference.
9. (Optional) To enable Active Directory authentication for NFS, select the Enable Secure
NFS check box.

Managing Active Directory providers

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Authentication

Note

If you specified an OU to connect to, the domain join will fail if the machine account
does not reside in the OU.
If you enable this setting, OneFS registers NFS service principal names (SPNs) during
the domain join.
10. (Optional) To configure advanced settings, click Advanced Active Directory Settings.
11. Click Join.

Modify an Active Directory provider

You can modify the advanced settings for an Active Directory provider.
Procedure
1. Click Access > Authentication Providers > Active Directory.
2. In the Active Directory Providers table, click View details for the provider whose
settings you want to modify.
3. Click Advanced Active Directory Settings.
4. For each setting that you want to modify, click Edit, make the change, and then click
Save.
5. (Optional) Click Close.

Delete an Active Directory provider

When you delete an Active Directory provider, you disconnect the cluster from the Active
Directory domain that is associated with the provider, disrupting service for users who
are accessing it. After you leave an Active Directory domain, users can no longer access
the domain from the cluster.
Procedure
1. Click Access > Authentication Providers > Active Directory.
2. In the Active Directory Providers table, click Leave for the domain you want to leave.
3. In the confirmation dialog box, click Leave.

Active Directory provider settings

You can view or modify the advanced settings for an Active Directory provider.
Setting

Description

Services For UNIX

Specifies whether to support RFC 2307 attributes for domain

controllers. RFC 2307 is required for Windows UNIX Integration and
Services For UNIX technologies.

Map to primary domain

Enables the lookup of unqualified user names in the primary domain.

If this setting is not enabled, the primary domain must be specified
for each authentication operation.

Ignore trusted domains

Ignores all trusted domains.

Trusted Domains

Specifies trusted domains to include if the Ignore Trusted

Domains setting is enabled.

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Setting
Domains to Ignore

Description
Specifies trusted domains to ignore even if the Ignore Trusted

Domains setting is disabled.

Send notification when
domain is unreachable

Sends an alert as specified in the global notification rules.

Use enhanced privacy and Encrypts communication to and from the domain controller.
encryption
Home Directory Naming

Specifies the path to use as a template for naming home directories.

The path must begin with /ifs and can contain variables, such as
%U, that are expanded to generate the home directory path for the
user.

Create home directories

on first login

Creates a home directory the first time that a user logs in if a home
directory does not already exist for the user.

UNIX Shell

Specifies the path to the login shell to use if the Active Directory
server does not provide login-shell information. This setting applies
only to users who access the file system through SSH.

Query all other providers

for UID

If no UID is available in the Active Directory, looks up Active Directory

users in all other providers for allocating a UID.

Match users with

lowercase

If no UID is available in the Active Directory, normalizes Active

Directory user names to lowercase before lookup.

Auto-assign UIDs

If no UID is available in the Active Directory, enables UID allocation

for unmapped Active Directory users.

Query all other providers

for GID

If no GID is available in the Active Directory, looks up Active Directory

groups in all other providers before allocating a GID.

Match groups with

lowercase

If no GID is available in the Active Directory, normalizes Active

Directory group names to lowercase before lookup.

Auto-assign GIDs

If no GID is available in the Active Directory, enables GID allocation

for unmapped Active Directory groups.

Make UID/GID
Restricts user and group lookups to the specified domains.
assignments for users and
groups in these specific
domains

Managing LDAP providers

You can view, configure, modify, and delete LDAP providers. You can discontinue
authentication through an LDAP provider by removing it from all access zones that are
using it.

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Configure an LDAP provider

By default, when you configure an LDAP provider, it is automatically added to the System
access zone.
Procedure
1. Click Access > Authentication Providers > LDAP.
2. Click Add an LDAP provider.
3. In the LDAP Provider Name field, type a name for the provider.
4. In the Server URIs field, type one or more valid LDAP server URIs, one per line, in the
format ldaps://<server>:<port> (secure LDAP) or ldap://<server>:<port> (non-secure
LDAP). An LDAP server URI can be specified as an IPv4 address, IPv6 address, or
hostname.
Note
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If you do not specify a port, the default port is used. The default port for nonsecure LDAP (ldap://) is 389; for secure LDAP (ldaps://), it is 636. If you specify
non-secure LDAP, the bind password is transmitted to the server in clear text.

If you specify an IPv6 address, the address must be enclosed in square brackets.
For example, ldap://[2001:DB8:170:7cff::c001] is the correct IPv6 format for this
field.

5. Select the Load balance servers check box to connect to an LDAP server at random. If
unselected, OneFS connects to an LDAP server in the order listed in the Server URIs
field.
6. In the Base Distinguished Name field, type the distinguished name (DN) of the entry
at which to start LDAP searches.
Base DNs can include cn (Common Name), l (Locality), dc (Domain Component), ou
(Organizational Unit), or other components. For example, dc=emc,dc=com is a base
DN for emc.com.
7. From the Groupnet list, select the groupnet the authentication provider will reference.
8. In the Bind to field, type the distinguished name of the entry at which to bind to the
LDAP server.
9. In the Password field, specify the password to use when binding to the LDAP server.
Use of this password does not require a secure connection; if the connection is not
using Transport Layer Security (TLS), the password is sent in clear text.
10. (Optional) To modify the default settings for user, group, and netgroup queries, click
Default Query Settings.
11. (Optional) To modify the settings for user queries and home directory provisioning,
click User Query Settings.
12. (Optional) To modify the settings for group queries, click Group Query Settings.
13. (Optional) To modify the settings for netgroup queries, click Netgroup Query Settings.
14. (Optional) To modify the default LDAP attributes that contain user information or to
modify LDAP security settings, click Advanced LDAP Settings.
15. Click Add LDAP Provider.
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Modify an LDAP provider

You can modify any setting for an LDAP provider except its name. You must specify at
least one server for the provider to be enabled.
Procedure
1. Click Access > Authentication Providers > LDAP.
2. In the LDAP Providers table, click View details for the provider whose settings you
want to modify.
3. For each setting that you want to modify, click Edit, make the change, and then click
Save.
4. (Optional) Click Close.

Delete an LDAP provider

When you delete an LDAP provider, it is removed from all the access zones. As an
alternative, you can stop using an LDAP provider by removing it from each access zone
that contains it so that the provider remains available for future use.
Procedure
1. Click Access > Authentication Providers > LDAP.
2. In the LDAP Providers table, click Delete for the provider you want to delete.
3. In the confirmation dialog box, click Delete.

LDAP query settings

You can configure the entry point and depth at which to search for LDAP users, groups,
and netgroups. You also can configure the settings for user home directory provisioning.
Note

OneFS is RFC 2307-compliant.

Distinguished Name
Specifies the base distinguished name (base DN) of the entry at which to start LDAP
searches for user, group, or netgroup objects. Base DNs can include cn (Common
Name), l (Locality), dc (Domain Component), ou (Organizational Unit), or other
components. For example, dc=emc,dc=com is a base DN for emc.com.
Search Scope
Specifies the depth from the base DN at which to perform LDAP searches.
The following values are valid:
default
Applies the search scope that is defined in the default query settings. This
option is not available for the default query search scope.
base
Searches only the entry at the base DN.
onelevel
Searches all entries exactly one level below the base DN.

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subtree
Searches the base DN and all entries below it.
children
Searches all entries below the base DN, excluding the base DN itself.
Search Timeout
Specifies the number of seconds after which to stop retrying and fail a search. The
default value is 100. This setting is available only in the default query settings.
Query Filter
Specifies the LDAP filter for user, group, or netgroup objects. This setting is not
available in the default query settings.
Authenticate users from this provider
Specifies whether to allow the provider to respond to authentication requests. This
setting is available only in the user query settings.
Home Directory Naming
Specifies the path to use as a template for naming home directories. The path must
begin with /ifs and can contain variables, such as %U, that are expanded to
generate the home directory path for the user. This setting is available only in the
user query settings.
Create home directories on first login
Specifies whether to create a home directory the first time a user logs in, if a home
directory does not already exist for the user. This setting is available only in the user
query settings.
UNIX Shell
Specifies the path to the user's login shell, for users who access the file system
through SSH. This setting is available only in the user query settings.

LDAP advanced settings

You can configure LDAP security settings and specify the LDAP attributes that contain
user information.
Note

OneFS is RFC 2307-compliant.

Name Attribute
Specifies the LDAP attribute that contains UIDs, which are used as login names. The
default value is uid.
Common Name Attribute
Specifies the LDAP attribute that contains common names (CNs). The default value is
cn.
Email Attribute
Specifies the LDAP attribute that contains email addresses. The default value is
mail.

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GECOS Field Attribute

Specifies the LDAP attribute that contains GECOS fields. The default value is gecos.
UID Attribute
Specifies the LDAP attribute that contains UID numbers. The default value is
uidNumber.
GID Attribute
Specifies the LDAP attribute that contains GIDs. The default value is gidNumber.
Home Directory Attribute
Specifies the LDAP attribute that contains home directories. The default value is
homeDirectory.
UNIX Shell Attribute
Specifies the LDAP attribute that contains UNIX login shells. The default value is
loginShell.
Member Of Attribute
Sets the attribute to be used when searching LDAP for reverse memberships. This
LDAP value should be an attribute of the user type posixAccount that describes the
groups in which the POSIX user is a member. This setting has no default value.
Netgroup Members Attribute
Specifies the LDAP attribute that contains netgroup members. The default value is
memberNisNetgroup.
Netgroup Triple Attribute
Specifies the LDAP attribute that contains netgroup triples. The default value is
nisNetgroupTriple.
Group Members Attribute
Specifies the LDAP attribute that contains group members. The default value is
memberUid.
Unique Group Members Attribute
Specifies the LDAP attribute that contains unique group members. This attribute is
used to determine which groups a user belongs to if the LDAP server is queried by
the users DN instead of the users name. This setting has no default value.
Alternate Security Identities Attribute
Specifies the name to be used when searching for alternate security identities. This
name is used when OneFS attempts to resolve a Kerberos principal to a user. This
setting has no default value.
UNIX Password Attribute
Specifies the LDAP attribute that contains UNIX passwords. This setting has no
default value.
Windows Password Attribute
Specifies the LDAP attribute that contains Windows passwords. A commonly used
value is ntpasswdhash.
Certificate Authority File
Specifies the full path to the root certificates file.
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Require secure connection for passwords

Specifies whether to require a Transport Layer Security (TLS) connection.
Ignore TLS Errors
Continues over a secure connection even if identity checks fail.

Managing NIS providers

You can view, configure, and modify NIS providers or delete providers that are no longer
needed. You can discontinue authentication through an NIS provider by removing it from
all access zones that are using it.

Configure an NIS provider

By default, when you configure an NIS provider it is automatically added to the System
access zone.
Procedure
1. Click Access > Authentication Providers > NIS.
2. Click Add a NIS provider.
3. In the NIS Provider Name field, type a name for the provider.
4. In the Servers field, type one or more valid IPv4 addresses, host names, or fully
qualified domain names (FQDNs), separated by commas.
Note

If the Load balance servers option is not selected, servers are accessed in the order in
which they are listed.
5. In the NIS Domain field, type the domain name.
6. (Optional) Configure the Load balance servers setting:
l

To connect to an NIS server at random, select the check box.

To connect according to the order in which the NIS servers are listed in the Servers
field, clear the check box.

7. From the Groupnet list, select the groupnet the authentication provider will reference.
8. (Optional) Specify the Default Query Settings.
a. In the Search Timeout field, specifies the number of seconds after which to stop
retrying and fail a search. The default value is 20.
b. In the Retry Frequency field, specify the timeout period in seconds after which a
request will be retried. The default value is 5.
9. (Optional) Specify the User Query Settings.
a. Select the Authenticate users from this provider check box to allow the provider to
respond to authentication requests.
b. Type a path in the Home Directory Naming field to use as a template for naming
home directories. The path must begin with /ifs and can contain expansion
variables, such as %U, which expand to generate the home directory path for the
user. For more information, see the Home directories section.
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c. Select the Create home directories on first login check box to specify whether to
create a home directory the first time a user logs in, if a home directory does not
already exist for the user.
d. Select a path from the UNIX Shell list to specify the path to the user's login shell
for users who access the file system through SSH.
10. (Optional) Click Host Name Query Settings and then configure the Resolve hosts from
this provider setting:
l

To enable host resolution, select the check box.

To disable host resolution, clear the check box.

11. Click Add NIS provider.

Modify an NIS provider

You can modify any setting for an NIS provider except its name. You must specify at least
one server for the provider to be enabled.
Procedure
1. Click Access > Authentication Providers > NIS.
2. In the NIS Providers table, click View details for the provider whose settings you want
to modify.
3. For each setting that you want to modify, click Edit, make the change, and then click
Save.
4. Click Close.

Delete an NIS provider

When you delete an NIS provider, it is removed from all access zones. As an alternative,
you can stop using an NIS provider by removing it from each access zone that contains it
so that the provider remains available for future use.
Procedure
1. Click Access > Authentication Providers > NIS.
2. In the NIS Providers table, click Delete for the provider that you want to delete.
3. In the confirmation dialog box, click Delete.

Managing MIT Kerberos authentication

You can configure an MIT Kerberos provider for authentication without Active Directory.
Configuring an MIT Kerberos provider involves creating an MIT Kerberos realm, creating a
provider, and joining a predefined realm. Optionally, you can configure an MIT Kerberos
domain for the provider. You can also update the encryption keys if there are any
configuration changes to the Kerberos provider. You can include the provider in one or
more access zones.

Managing MIT Kerberos realms

An MIT Kerberos realm is an administrative domain that defines the boundaries within
which an authentication server has the authority to authenticate a user or service. You
can create, view, edit, or delete a realm. As a best practice, specify a realm name using
uppercase characters.
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Create an MIT Kerberos realm

An MIT Kerberos realm is an administrative domain that defines the boundaries within
which an authentication server has the authority to authenticate a user or service. You
can create a realm by defining a Key Distribution Center (KDC) and an administrative
server.
Procedure
1. Click Access > Authentication Providers > Kerberos Provider.
2. Click Create a Kerberos Realm.
3. In the Realm Name field, type a domain name in uppercase characters. For example,
CLUSTER-NAME.COMPANY.COM.
4. Select the Set as the default realm check box to set the realm as the default.
5. In the Key Distribution Centers (KDCs) field add one or more KDCs by specifying the
IPv4 address, IPv6 address, or the hostname of each server.
6. (Optional) In the Admin Server field, specify the IPv4 address, IPv6 address, or
hostname of the administration server, which will be fulfill the role of master KDC. If
you omit this step, the first KDC that you added previously is used as the default
administrative server.
7. (Optional) In the Default Domain field, specify the domain name to use for translating
the service principal names.
8. Click Create Realm.

Modify an MIT Kerberos realm

You can modify an MIT Kerberos realm by modifying the Key Distribution Center (KDC) and
the administrative server settings for that realm.
Procedure
1. Click Access > Authentication Providers > Kerberos Provider.
2. In the Kerberos Realms table, select a realm and click View / Edit.
3. In the View a Kerberos Realm page, click Edit Realm.
4. Select or clear the Set as the default realm check box to modify the default realm
setting.
5. In the Key Distribution Centers (KDCs) field, specify the IPv4 address, IPv6 address, or
the hostname of each additional KDC server.
6. In the Admin Server field, specify the IPv4 address, IPv6 address, or hostname of the
administration server, which will be fulfill the role of master KDC.
7. In the Default Domain field, specify an alternate domain name for translating the
service principal names (SPNs).
8. Click Save Changes to return to the View a Kerberos Realm page.
9. Click Close.

View an MIT Kerberos realm

You can view details related to the name, Key Distribution Centers (KDCs), and
administrative server associated with an MIT Kerberos realm.
Procedure
1. Click Access > Authentication Providers > Kerberos Provider.
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2. In the Kerberos Realms table, select a realm and click View / Edit to view the
information associated with the realm.

Delete an MIT Kerberos realm

You can delete one or more MIT Kerberos realms and all the associated MIT Kerberos
domains. Kerberos realms are referenced by Kerberos providers. Hence before you delete
a realm for which you have created a provider, you must first delete that provider.
Procedure
1. Click Access > Authentication Providers > Kerberos Provider.
2. In the Kerberos Realms table, select one or more realms and then perform one of the
following actions:
l

To delete a single realm, select the realm and click More > Delete from the Actions
column.

To delete multiple realms, select the realms and then select Delete Selection from
the Select a bulk action list.

3. In the confirmation dialog box, click Delete.

Managing MIT Kerberos providers

You can create view, delete, or modify an MIT Kerberos provider. You can also configure
the Kerberos provider settings.

Creating an MIT Kerberos provider

You can create an MIT Kerberos provider by obtaining the credentials for accessing a
cluster through the Key Distribution Center (KDC) of the Kerberos realm. This process is
also known as joining a realm. Thus when you create a Kerberos provider you also join a
realm that you have previously created. You must be a member of the SecurityAdmin role
to create an MIT Kerberos provider.
Using the web interface, you can perform the following tasks through a single workflow or
perform each task individually before creating the provider.
l

Defining a realm

Defining a domain

Managing a service principal name (SPN)

Create an MIT Kerberos realm, domain, and a provider

You can create an MIT Kerberos realm, domain, and a provider through a single workflow
instead of configuring each of these objects individually.
Procedure
1. Click Access > Authentication Providers > Kerberos Provider.
2. Click Get Started.
The system displays the Create a Kerberos Realm and Provider window.
3. From the Create Realm section, type a domain name in the Realm Name field.
It is recommended that the domain name is formatted in uppercase characters, such
as CLUSTER-NAME.COMPANY.COM.
4. Check the Set as the default realm box to set the realm as the default.
5. In the Key Distribution Centers (KDCs) field, add one or more KDCs by specifying the
IPv4 address, IPv6 address, or the hostname of each server.
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6. In the Admin Server field, specify the IPv4 address, IPv6 address, or hostname of the
administration server, which will be fulfill the role of master KDC. If you omit this step,
the first KDC that you added previously is used as the default admin server.
7. In the Default Domain field, specify the domain name to use for translating the service
principal names (SPNs).
8. (Optional) From the Create Domain(s) section, specify one or more domain names to
associate with the realm in the Domain(s) field.
9. From the Authenticate to Realm section, type the name and password of a user that
has permission to create SPNs in the Kerberos realm in the User and Password fields.
10. From the Create Provider section, select the groupnet the authentication provider will
reference from the Groupnet list.
11. From the Service Principal Name (SPN) Management area, select one of the following
options to be used for managing SPNs:
l

Use recommended SPNs

Manually associate SPNs

If you select this option, type at least one SPN in the format service/
principal@realm to manually associate it with the realm.

12. Click Create Provider and Join Realm.

Create an MIT Kerberos provider and join a realm

You join a realm automatically as you create an MIT Kerberos provider. A realm defines a
domain within which the authentication for a specific user or service takes place.
Before you begin
You must be a member of the SecurityAdmin role to view and access the Create a
Kerberos Provider button and perform the tasks described in this procedure.
Procedure
1. Click Access > Authentication Providers > Kerberos Provider.
2. Click Create a Kerberos Provider.
3. In the User field, type a user name who has the permission to create service principal
names (SPNs) in the Kerberos realm.
4. In the Password field, type the password for the user.
5. From the Realm list, select the realm that you want to join. The realm must already be
configured on the system.
6. From the Groupnet list, select the groupnet the authentication provider will reference.
7. From the Service Principal Name (SPN) Management area, select one of the following
options to be used for managing SPNs:
l

Use recommended SPNs

Manually associate SPNs

If you select this option, type at least one SPN in the format service/
principal@realm to manually associate it with the realm.

8. Click Create Provider and Join Realm.

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Modify an MIT Kerberos provider

You can modify the realm authentication information and the service principal name
(SPN) information for an MIT Kerberos provider.
Before you begin
You must be a member of the SecurityAdmin role to view and access the View / Edit
button to modify an MIT Kerberos provider.
Procedure
1. Click Access > Authentication Providers > Kerberos Provider.
2. In the Kerberos Provider table, select a domain and click View / Edit.
3. In the View a Kerberos Provider page, click Edit Provider.
4. In the Realm Authentication Information section, specify the credentials for a user
with permissions to create SPNs in the given Kerberos realm.
5. In the Provider Information section, select one of the following options for managing
the SPNs:
l

Use the recommended SPNs.

Type an SPN in the format service/principal@realm to manually associate

the SPN with the selected realm. You can add more than one SPN for association,
if necessary.

6. Click Save Changes to return to the View a Kerberos Provider page.

7. Click Close.

View an MIT Kerberos provider

You can view information related to MIT Kerberos realms and service principal names
(SPNs) associated with an MIT Kerberos provider.
Procedure
1. Click Access > Authentication Providers > Kerberos Provider.
2. In the Kerberos Providers table, select a provider and click View / Edit to view the
provider information including the realm, recommended SPNs, and any other SPNs
that are discovered.

Delete an MIT Kerberos provider

You can delete an MIT Kerberos provider and remove it from all the referenced access
zones. When you delete a provider, you also leave an MIT Kerberos realm.
Before you begin
You must be a member of the SecurityAdmin role to perform the tasks described in this
procedure.
Procedure
1. Click Access > Authentication Providers > Kerberos Provider.
2. In the Kerberos Providers table, select one or more providers and then perform one of
the following actions:
l

To delete a single provider, select the provider and click More > Delete from the
Actions column.

To delete multiple providers, select the providers and then select Delete Selection
from the Select a bulk action list.
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3. In the confirmation dialog box, click Delete.

Configure Kerberos provider settings

You can configure the settings of a Kerberos provider to allow the DNS records to locate
the Key Distribution Center (KDC), Kerberos realms, and the authentication servers
associated with a Kerberos realm. These settings are global to all the users of Kerberos
across all the nodes, services, and access zones. Some settings are applicable only to
the client-side Kerberos that is relevant when joining a realm or when communicating
with an Active Directory KDC. Typically, you do not need to change the settings after the
initial configuration.
Procedure
1. Click Access > Authentication Providers > Kerberos Settings.
2. In the Default Realm field, specify the realm to use for the service principal name
(SPN). The default realm is the first realm that you create.
3. Select a check box to always send pre-authentication. This is a client-side Kerberos
configuration setting.
Selecting this check box enables the Kerberos ticket requests to include
ENC_TIMESTAMP as the pre-authentication data even if the authentication server did
not request it. This is useful when working with Active Directory servers.
4. Select a check box to specify whether to use the DNS server records to locate the
KDCs and other servers for a realm, if that information is not listed for the realm.
5. Select a check box to specify whether to use the DNS text records to determine the
Kerberos realm of a host.
6. Click Save Changes.

Managing MIT Kerberos domains

You can optionally define MIT Kerberos domains to allow additional domain extensions to
be associated with an MIT Kerberos realm. You can always specify a default domain for a
realm.
You can create, modify, delete, and view an MIT Kerberos domain. A Kerberos domain
name is a DNS suffix that you specify typically using lowercase characters.

Create an MIT Kerberos domain

You optionally create an MIT Kerberos domain to allow additional domain extensions to
be associated with an MIT Kerberos realm apart from the default domains.
Before you begin
You must be a member of the SecurityAdmin role to perform the tasks described in this
procedure.
Procedure
1. Click Access > Authentication Providers > Kerberos Provider.
2. Click Create a Kerberos Domain.
3. In the Domain field, specify a domain name which is typically a DNS suffix in
lowercase characters.
4. From the Realm list, select a realm that you have configured previously.
5. Click Create Domain.

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Modify an MIT Kerberos domain

You can modify an MIT Kerberos domain by modifying the realm settings.
Before you begin
You must be a member of the SecurityAdmin role to perform the tasks described in this
procedure.
Procedure
1. Click Access > Authentication Providers > Kerberos Provider.
2. In the Kerberos Domains table, select a domain and click View / Edit.
3. In the View a Kerberos Domain page, click Edit Domain.
4. From the Realm list, select an alternate realm.
5. Click Save Changes to return to the View a Kerberos Domain page.
6. Click Close.

View an MIT Kerberos domain

You can view the properties of an MIT Kerberos domain mapping.
Procedure
1. Click Access > Authentication Providers > Kerberos Provider.
2. In the Kerberos Domains table, select a domain and click View / Edit to view the
properties of the domain mapping.

Delete an MIT Kerberos domain

You can delete one or more MIT Kerberos domain mappings.
Before you begin
You must be a member of the SecurityAdmin role to perform the tasks described in this
procedure.
Procedure
1. Click Access > Authentication Providers > Kerberos Provider.
2. In the Kerberos Domains table, select one or more domain mappings and then
perform one of the following actions:
l

To delete a single domain mapping, select the mapping and click More > Delete
from the Actions column.

To delete multiple domain mappings, select the mappings and then select Delete
Selection from the Select a bulk action list.

Managing file providers

You can configure one or more file providers, each with its own combination of
replacement files, for each access zone. Password database files, which are also called
user database files, must be in binary format.
Each file provider pulls directly from up to three replacement database files: a group file
that has the same format as /etc/group; a netgroups file; and a binary password file,
spwd.db, which provides fast access to the data in a file that has the /etc/
master.passwd format. You must copy the replacement files to the cluster and
reference them by their directory path.
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Note

If the replacement files are located outside the /ifs directory tree, you must distribute
them manually to every node in the cluster. Changes that are made to the system
provider's files are automatically distributed across the cluster.

Configure a file provider

You can configure one or more file providers, each with its own combination of
replacement files, for each access zone. You can specify replacement files for any
combination of users, groups, and netgroups.
Procedure
1. Click Access > Authentication Providers > File Provider.
2. Click Add a file provider.
3. In the File Provider Name field, type a name for the file provider.
4. In the File location for authentication information area, specify one or more of the
following files:
l

To specify a user replacement file, in the Users File field, type or browse to the
location of the spwd.db file.

To specify a group replacement file, in the Groups File field, type or browse to the
location of the group file.

To specify a netgroup replacement file, in the Netgroups File field, type or browse
to the location of the netgroup file.

5. (Optional) Configure the following settings:

Option

Description

Authenticate users
from this provider

Specifies whether to allow the provider to respond to

authentication requests.

Home Directory
Naming

Specifies the path to use as a template for naming home

directories. The path must begin with /ifs and can contain
expansion variables such as %U, which expand to generate
the home directory path for the user. For more information,
see the Home directories section.

Create home
directories on first
login

Specifies whether to create a home directory the first time a

user logs in, if a home directory does not already exist for the
user.

UNIX Shell

Specifies the path to the user's login shell, for users who
access the file system through SSH.

6. Click Add File Provider.

Generate a password file

Password database files, which are also called user database files, must be in binary
format.
This procedure must be performed through the command-line interface (CLI). For
command-usage guidelines, run the man pwd_mkdb command.
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Procedure
1. Establish an SSH connection to any node in the cluster.
2. Run the pwd_mkdb <file> command, where <file> is the location of the source password
file.
Note

By default, the binary password file, spwd.db, is created in the /etc directory. You
can override the location to store the spwd.db file by specifying the -d option with a
different target directory.
The following command generates an spwd.db file in the /etc directory from a
password file that is located at /ifs/test.passwd:
pwd_mkdb /ifs/test.passwd

The following command generates an spwd.db file in the /ifs directory from a
password file that is located at /ifs/test.passwd:
pwd_mkdb -d /ifs /ifs/test.passwd

Password file format

The file provider uses a binary password database file, spwd.db. You can generate a
binary password file from a master.passwd-formatted file by running the pwd_mkdb
command.
The master.passwd file contains ten colon-separated fields, as shown in the following
example:
admin:*:10:10::0:0:Web UI Administrator:/ifs/home/admin:/bin/zsh

The fields are defined below in the order in which they appear in the file.
Note

UNIX systems often define the passwd format as a subset of these fields, omitting the
Class, Change, and Expiry fields. To convert a file from passwd to master.passwd
format, add :0:0: between the GID field and the Gecos field.
Username
The user name. This field is case-sensitive. OneFS does not limit the length; many
applications truncate the name to 16 characters, however.
Password
The users encrypted password. If authentication is not required for the user, you can
substitute an asterisk (*) for a password. The asterisk character is guaranteed to not
match any password.
UID
The UNIX user identifier. This value must be a number in the range 0-4294967294
that is not reserved or already assigned to a user. Compatibility issues occur if this
value conflicts with an existing account's UID.

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GID
The group identifier of the users primary group. All users are a member of at least
one group, which is used for access checks and can also be used when creating
files.
Class
This field is not supported by OneFS and should be left empty.
Change
OneFS does not support changing the passwords of users in the file provider. This
field is ignored.
Expiry
OneFS does not support the expiration of user accounts in the file provider. This field
is ignored.
Gecos
This field can store a variety of information but is usually used to store the users full
name.
Home
The absolute path to the users home directory, beginning at /ifs.
Shell
The absolute path to the users shell. If this field is set to /sbin/nologin, the
user is denied command-line access.

Group file format

The file provider uses a group file in the format of the /etc/group file that exists on
most UNIX systems.
The group file consists of one or more lines containing four colon-separated fields, as
shown in the following example:
admin:*:10:root,admin

The fields are defined below in the order in which they appear in the file.
Group name
The name of the group. This field is case-sensitive. Although OneFS does not limit
the length of the group name, many applications truncate the name to 16 characters.
Password
This field is not supported by OneFS and should contain an asterisk (*).
GID
The UNIX group identifier. Valid values are any number in the range 0-4294967294
that is not reserved or already assigned to a group. Compatibility issues occur if this
value conflicts with an existing group's GID.
Group members
A comma-delimited list of user names.

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Netgroup file format

A netgroup file consists of one or more netgroups, each of which can contain members.
Hosts, users, or domains, which are members of a netgroup, are specified in a member
triple. A netgroup can also contain another netgroup.
Each entry in a netgroup file consists of the netgroup name, followed by a spacedelimited set of member triples and nested netgroup names. If you specify a nested
netgroup, it must be defined on a separate line in the file.
A member triple takes the following form:
(<host>, <user>, <domain>)

Where <host> is a placeholder for a machine name, <user> is a placeholder for a user name,
and <domain> is a placeholder for a domain name. Any combination is valid except an
empty triple: (,,).
The following sample file contains two netgroups. The rootgrp netgroup contains four
hosts: two hosts are defined in member triples and two hosts are contained in the nested
othergrp netgroup, which is defined on the second line.
rootgrp (myserver, root, somedomain.com) (otherserver, root,
somedomain.com) othergrp
othergrp (other-win,, somedomain.com) (other-linux,, somedomain.com)
Note

A new line signifies a new netgroup. You can continue a long netgroup entry to the next
line by typing a backslash character (\) in the right-most position of the first line.

Modify a file provider

You can modify any setting for a file provider, with the exception that you cannot rename
the System file provider.
Procedure
1. Click Access > Authentication Providers > File Provider.
2. In the File Providers table, click View details for the provider whose settings you want
to modify.
3. For each setting that you want to modify, click Edit, make the change, and then click
Save.
4. Click Close.

Delete a file provider

To stop using a file provider, you can clear all of its replacement file settings or you can
permanently delete the provider.
Procedure
1. Click Access > Authentication Providers > File Provider.
2. In the File Providers table, select the provider name.
3. Select Delete from the Select an action list.
4. In the confirmation dialog box, click Delete.
Netgroup file format

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Managing local users and groups

When you create an access zone, each zone includes a local provider that allows you to
create and manage local users and groups. Although you can view the users and groups
of any authentication provider, you can create, modify, and delete users and groups in
the local provider only.

View a list of users or groups by provider

You can view the users and groups of any authentication provider.
Procedure
1. Click Access > Membership & Roles.
2. Click one of the following, depending on what you want to view:
Option

Description

Users

Select this tab to view all users by provider.

Groups

Select this tab to view all groups by provider.

3. From the Current Access Zone list, select an access zone.

4. Depending on your selection in step 2, select the local provider for the access zone
from the Users list or the Groups list.

Create a local user

Each access zone includes a local provider that allows you to create and manage local
users and groups. When creating a local user account, you can configure its name,
password, home directory, UNIX user identifier (UID), UNIX login shell, and group
memberships.
Procedure
1. Click Access > Membership & Roles > Users.
2. From the Current Access Zone list, select an access zone.
3. From the Users list, select the local provider for the zone.
4. Click Create a user.
5. In the Username field, type a username for the account.
6. In the Password field, type a password for the account.
7. (Optional) Configure the following additional settings as needed.

124

Option

Description

Allow password
to expire

Select this check box to specify that the password is allowed to

expire.

UID

If this setting is left blank, the system automatically allocates a

UID for the account. This is the recommended setting. You cannot
assign a UID that is in use by another local user account.

Full Name

Type a full name for the user.

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Option

Description

Email Address

Type an email address for the account.

Primary Group

Click Select group to specify the owner group using the Select a
Primary Group dialog box.
a. To locate a group under the selected local provider, type a
group name or click Search.
b. Select a group to return to the Manage Users window.

Additional
Groups

Click Add group to specify any additional groups to make this user
a member of.

Home Directory

Type the path to the user's home directory. If you do not specify a
path, a directory is automatically created at /ifs/home/
<username>.

UNIX Shell

This setting applies only to users who access the file system
through SSH. From the list, select a shell. By default,
the /bin/zsh shell is selected.

Account
Expiration Date

Click the calendar icon to select the expiration date or type the
expiration date in the field, and then type the date in the format
<mm>/<dd>/<yyyy>.

Enable the
account

Select this check box to allow the user to authenticate against the
local database for SSH, FTP, HTTP, and Windows file sharing
through SMB. This setting is not used for UNIX file sharing through
NFS.

8. Click Create.

Create a local group

In the local provider of an access zone, you can create groups and assign members to
them.
Procedure
1. Click Access > Membership & Roles > Groups.
2. From the Current Access Zone list, select an access zone.
3. From the Groups list, select the local provider for the zone.
4. Click Create a group.
5. In the Group Name field, type a name for the group.
6. (Optional) To override automatic allocation of the UNIX group identifier (GID), in the
GID field, type a numerical value.
Note

You cannot assign a GID that is in use by another group. It is recommended that you
leave this field blank to allow the system to automatically generate the GID.
7. (Optional) For each member that you want to add to the group, click Add user and
perform the following tasks in the Select a User dialog box:
a. Search for either Users or Well-known SIDs.
Create a local group

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Authentication

b. If you selected Users, specify values for the following fields:

Username
Type all or part of a user name, or leave the field blank to return all users.
Wildcard characters are accepted.
Access Zone
Select the access zone that contains the authentication provider that you
want to search.
Provider
Select an authentication provider.
c. Click Search.
d. In the Search Results table, select a user and then click Select.
The dialog box closes.
8. Click Create.

Naming rules for local users and groups

Local user and group names must follow naming rules in order to ensure proper
authentication and access to the EMC Isilon cluster.
You must adhere to the following naming rules when creating and modifying local users
and groups:
l

The maximum name length is 104 characters. It is recommended that names do not
exceed 64 characters.

Names cannot contain the following invalid characters:

"/\[]:;|=,+*?<>

Names can contain any special character that is not in the list of invalid characters. It
is recommend that names do not contain spaces.

Names are not case sensitive.

Modify a local user

You can modify any setting for a local user account except the user name.
Procedure
1. Click Access > Membership & Roles > Users.
2. From the Current Access Zone list, select an access zone.
3. From the Users list, select the local provider for the access zone.
4. In the list of users, click View details for the local user whose settings you want to
modify.
5. For each setting that you want to modify, click Edit, make the change, and then click
Save.
6. Click Close.

Modify a local group

You can add or remove members from a local group.
Procedure
1. Click Access > Membership & Roles > Groups.
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2. From the Current Access Zone list, select an access zone.

3. From the Groups list, select the local provider for the access zone.
4. In the list of groups, click View details for the local group whose settings you want to
modify.
5. For the Members setting, click Edit.
6. Add or remove the users that you want, and then click Save.
7. Click Close.

Delete a local user

A deleted user can no longer access the cluster through the command-line interface, web
administration interface, or file access protocol. When you delete a local user account,
the corresponding home directory remains in place.
Procedure
1. Click Access > Membership & Roles > Users.
2. From the Current Access Zone list, select an access zone.
3. From the Users list, select the local provider for the access zone.
4. Click Delete for the user that you want to delete.
5. In the confirmation dialog box, click Delete.

Delete a local group

You can delete a local group even if members are assigned to it; deleting a group does
not affect the members of that group.
Procedure
1. Click Access > Membership & Roles > Groups.
2. From the Current Access Zone list, select an access zone.
3. From the Groups list, select the local provider for the access zone.
4. Click Delete for the group that you want to delete.
5. In the confirmation dialog box, click Delete.

Delete a local user

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CHAPTER 6
Administrative roles and privileges

This section contains the following topics:

l
l
l
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Role-based access.............................................................................................. 130

Roles...................................................................................................................130
Privileges............................................................................................................ 134
Managing roles................................................................................................... 141

Administrative roles and privileges

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Role-based access
You can assign role-based access to delegate administrative tasks to selected users.
Role based access control (RBAC) allows the right to perform particular administrative
actions to be granted to any user who can authenticate to a cluster. Roles are created by
a Security Administrator, assigned privileges, and then assigned members. All
administrators, including those given privileges by a role, must connect to the System
zone to configure the cluster. When these members log in to the cluster through a
configuration interface, they have these privileges. All administrators can configure
settings for access zones, and they always have control over all access zones on the
cluster.
Roles also give you the ability to assign privileges to member users and groups. By
default, only the root user and the admin user can log in to the web administration
interface through HTTP or the command-line interface through SSH. Using roles, the root
and admin users can assign others to built-in or customer roles that have login and
administrative privileges to perform specific administrative tasks.
Note

As a best practice, assign users to roles that contain the minimum set of necessary
privileges. For most purposes, the default permission policy settings, system access
zone, and built-in roles are sufficient. You can create role-based access management
policies as necessary for your particular environment.

Roles
You can permit and limit access to administrative areas of your EMC Isilon cluster on a
per-user basis through roles. OneFS includes several built-in administrator roles with
predefined sets of privileges that cannot be modified. You can also create custom roles
and assign privileges.
The following list describes what you can and cannot do through roles:
l

You can assign privileges to a role.

You can create custom roles and assign privileges to those roles.

You can copy an existing role.

You can add any user or group of users, including well-known groups, to a role as
long as the users can authenticate to the cluster.

You can add a user or group to more than one role.

You cannot assign privileges directly to users or groups.

Note

When OneFS is first installed, only users with root- or admin-level access can log in and
assign users to roles.

Custom roles
Custom roles supplement built-in roles.
You can create custom roles and assign privileges mapped to administrative areas in your
EMC Isilon cluster environment. For example, you can create separate administrator roles
for security, auditing, storage provisioning, and backup.
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You can designate certain privileges as read-only or read/write when adding the privilege
to a role. You can modify this option at any time to add or remove privileges as user
responsibilities grow and change.

Built-in roles
Built-in roles are included in OneFS and have been configured with the most likely
privileges necessary to perform common administrative functions. You cannot modify the
list of privileges assigned to each built-in role; however, you can assign users and groups
to built-in roles.
The following sections describe each of the built-in roles and include the privileges and
read/write access levels assigned to each role.

SecurityAdmin built-in role

The SecurityAdmin built-in role enables security configuration on the cluster, including
authentication providers, local users and groups, and role membership.
Privileges

Read/write access

ISI_PRIV_LOGIN_CONSOLE N/A
ISI_PRIV_LOGIN_PAPI

N/A

ISI_PRIV_LOGIN_SSH

N/A

ISI_PRIV_AUTH

Read/write

ISI_PRIV_ROLE

Read/write

SystemAdmin built-in role

The SystemAdmin built-in role enables administration of all cluster configuration that is
not specifically handled by the SecurityAdmin role.
Privileges

Read/write access

ISI_PRIV_LOGIN_CONSOLE

N/A

ISI_PRIV_LOGIN_PAPI

N/A

ISI_PRIV_LOGIN_SSH

N/A

ISI_PRIV_SYS_SHUTDOWN

N/A

ISI_PRIV_SYS_SUPPORT

N/A

ISI_PRIV_SYS_TIME

Read/write

ISI_PRIV_SYS_UPGRADE

Read/write

ISI_PRIV_ANTIVIRUS

Read/write

ISI_PRIV_AUDIT

Read/write

ISI_PRIV_CLOUDPOOLS

Read/write

ISI_PRIV_CLUSTER

Read/write

ISI_PRIV_DEVICES

Read/write

ISI_PRIV_EVENT

Read/write

Built-in roles

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Privileges

Read/write access

ISI_PRIV_FILE_FILTER

Read/write

ISI_PRIV_FTP

Read/write

ISI_PRIV_HARDENING

Read/write

ISI_PRIV_HDFS

Read/write

ISI_PRIV_HTTP

Read/write

ISI_PRIV_JOB_ENGINE

Read/write

ISI_PRIV_LICENSE

Read/write

ISI_PRIV_MONITORING

Read/write

ISI_PRIV_NDMP

Read/write

ISI_PRIV_NETWORK

Read/write

ISI_PRIV_NFS

Read/write

ISI_PRIV_NTP

Read/write

ISI_PRIV_QUOTA

Read/write

ISI_PRIV_REMOTE_SUPPORT Read/write
ISI_PRIV_SMARTPOOLS

Read/write

ISI_PRIV_SMB

Read/write

ISI_PRIV_SNAPSHOT

Read/write

ISI_PRIV_SNMP

Read/write

ISI_PRIV_STATISTICS

Read/write

ISI_PRIV_SWIFT

Read/write

ISI_PRIV_SYNCIQ

Read/write

ISI_PRIV_VCENTER

Read/write

ISI_PRIV_WORM

Read/write

ISI_PRIV_NS_TRAVERSE

N/A

ISI_PRIV_NS_IFS_ACCESS

N/A

AuditAdmin built-in role

The AuditAdmin built-in role enables you to view all system configuration settings.

132

Privileges

Read/write access

ISI_PRIV_LOGIN_CONSOLE

N/A

ISI_PRIV_LOGIN_PAPI

N/A

ISI_PRIV_LOGIN_SSH

N/A

ISI_PRIV_SYS_TIME

Read-only

ISI_PRIV_SYS_UPGRADE

Read-only

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Privileges

Read/write access

ISI_PRIV_ANTIVIRUS

Read-only

ISI_PRIV_AUDIT

Read-only

ISI_PRIV_CLOUDPOOLS

Read-only

ISI_PRIV_CLUSTER

Read-only

ISI_PRIV_DEVICES

Read-only

ISI_PRIV_EVENT

Read-only

ISI_PRIV_FILE_FILTER

Read-only

ISI_PRIV_FTP

Read-only

ISI_PRIV_HARDENING

Read-only

ISI_PRIV_HDFS

Read-only

ISI_PRIV_HTTP

Read-only

ISI_PRIV_JOB_ENGINE

Read-only

ISI_PRIV_LICENSE

Read-only

ISI_PRIV_MONITORING

Read-only

SI_PRIV_NDMP

Read-only

ISI_PRIV_NETWORK

Read-only

ISI_PRIV_NFS

Read-only

ISI_PRIV_NTP

Read-only

ISI_PRIV_QUOTA

Read-only

ISI_PRIV_REMOTE_SUPPORT Read-only
ISI_PRIV_SMARTPOOLS

Read-only

ISI_PRIV_SMB

Read-only

ISI_PRIV_SNAPSHOT

Read-only

ISI_PRIV_SNMP

Read-only

ISI_PRIV_STATISTICS

Read-only

ISI_PRIV_SWIFT

Read-only

ISI_PRIV_SYNCIQ

Read-only

ISI_PRIV_VCENTER

Read-only

ISI_PRIV_WORM

Read-only

BackupAdmin built-in role

The BackupAdmin built-in role enables backup and restore of files from /ifs.
Privileges

Read/write access

ISI_PRIV_IFS_BACKUP

Read-only

Built-in roles

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Privileges

Read/write access

ISI_PRIV_IFS_RESTORE Read/write

VMwareAdmin built-in role

The VMwareAdmin built-in role enables remote administration of storage needed by
VMware vCenter.
Privileges

Read/write access

ISI_PRIV_LOGIN_PAPI

N/A

ISI_PRIV_NETWORK

Read/write

ISI_PRIV_SMARTPOOLS

Read/write

ISI_PRIV_SNAPSHOT

Read/write

ISI_PRIV_SYNCIQ

Read/write

ISI_PRIV_VCENTER

Read/write

ISI_PRIV_NS_TRAVERSE

N/A

ISI_PRIV_NS_IFS_ACCESS N/A

Privileges
Privileges permit users to complete tasks on an EMC Isilon cluster.
Privileges are associated with an area of cluster administration such as Job Engine, SMB,
or statistics.
Privileges have one of two forms:
Action
Allows a user to perform a specific action on a cluster. For example, the
ISI_PRIV_LOGIN_SSH privilege allows a user to log in to a cluster through an SSH
client.
Read/Write
Allows a user to view or modify a configuration subsystem such as statistics,
snapshots, or quotas. For example, the ISI_PRIV_SNAPSHOT privilege allows an
administrator to create and delete snapshots and snapshot schedules. A read/write
privilege can grant either read-only or read/write access. Read-only access allows a
user to view configuration settings; read/write access allows a user to view and
modify configuration settings.
Privileges are granted to the user on login to a cluster through the OneFS API, the web
administration interface, SSH, or a console session. A token is generated for the user,
which includes a list of all privileges granted to the user. Each URI, web-administration
interface page, and command requires a specific privilege to view or modify the
information available through any of these interfaces.
In some cases, privileges cannot be granted or there are privilege limitations.
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134

Privileges are not granted to users that do not connect to the System Zone during
login or to users that connect through the deprecated Telnet service, even if they are
members of a role.

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Privileges do not provide administrative access to configuration paths outside of the

OneFS API. For example, the ISI_PRIV_SMB privilege does not grant a user the right to
configure SMB shares using the Microsoft Management Console (MMC).

Privileges do not provide administrative access to all log files. Most log files require
root access.

Supported OneFS privileges

Privileges supported by OneFS are categorized by the type of action or access that is
granted to the userfor example, login, security, and configuration privileges.

Login privileges
The login privileges listed in the following table either allow the user to perform specific
actions or grants read or write access to an area of administration on the EMC Isilon
cluster.
Privilege

Description

Type

ISI_PRIV_LOGIN_CONSOLE Log in from the console.

Action

ISI_PRIV_LOGIN_PAPI

Log in to the Platform API and the web administration

interface.

Action

ISI_PRIV_LOGIN_SSH

Log in through SSH.

Action

System privileges
The system privileges listed in the following table either allow the user to perform specific
actions or grants read or write access to an area of administration on the EMC Isilon
cluster.
Privilege

Description

ISI_PRIV_SYS_SHUTDOWN Shut down the system.

Type
Action

ISI_PRIV_SYS_SUPPORT

Run cluster diagnostic tools. Action

ISI_PRIV_SYS_TIME

Change the system time.

ISI_PRIV_SYS_UPGRADE

Upgrades the OneFS system. Read/write

Read/write

Security privileges
The security privileges listed in the following table either allow the user to perform
specific actions or grants read or write access to an area of administration on the EMC
Isilon cluster.
Privilege

Description

Type

ISI_PRIV_AUTH Configure external authentication providers. Read/write

ISI_PRIV_ROLE Create new roles and assign privileges.

Read/write

Supported OneFS privileges

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Configuration privileges
The configuration privileges listed in the following table either allow the user to perform
specific actions or grants read or write access to an area of administration on the EMC
Isilon cluster.

136

Privilege

Description

Type

ISI_PRIV_ANTIVIRUS

Configure antivirus scanning.

Read/write

ISI_PRIV_AUDIT

Configure audit capabilities.

Read/write

ISI_PRIV_CLOUDPOOLS

Configure CloudPools.

Read/write

ISI_PRIV_CLUSTER

Configure cluster identity and general settings. Read/write

ISI_PRIV_DEVICES

Create new roles and assign privileges.

Read/write

ISI_PRIV_EVENT

View and modify system events.

Read/write

ISI_PRIV_FILE_FILTER

Configure file filtering settings.

Read/write

ISI_PRIV_FTP

Configure FTP server.

Read/write

ISI_PRIV_HDFS

Configure HDFS server.

Read/write

ISI_PRIV_HTTP

Configure HTTP server.

Read/write

ISI_PRIV_JOB_ENGINE

Schedule cluster-wide jobs.

Read/write

ISI_PRIV_LICENSE

Activate OneFS software licenses.

Read/write

ISI_PRIV_MONITORING

Register applications monitoring the cluster.

Read/write

ISI_PRIV_NDMP

Configure NDMP server.

Read/write

ISI_PRIV_NETWORK

Configure network interfaces.

Read/write

ISI_PRIV_NFS

Configure the NFS server.

Read/write

ISI_PRIV_NTP

Configure NTP.

Read/write

ISI_PRIV_QUOTA

Configure file system quotas.

Read/write

ISI_PRIV_REMOTE_SUPPORT Configure remote support.

Read/write

ISI_PRIV_SMARTPOOLS

Configure storage pools.

Read/write

ISI_PRIV_SMB

Configure the SMB server.

Read/write

ISI_PRIV_SNAPSHOT

Schedule, take, and view snapshots.

Read/write

ISI_PRIV_SNMP

Configure SNMP server.

Read/write

ISI_PRIV_STATISTICS

View file system performance statistics.

Read/write

ISI_PRIV_SWIFT

Configure Swift.

Read/write

ISI_PRIV_SYNCIQ

Configure SyncIQ.

Read/write

ISI_PRIV_VCENTER

Configure VMware for vCenter.

Read/write

ISI_PRIV_WORM

Configure SmartLock directories.

Read/write

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File access privileges

The file access privileges listed in the following table either allow the user to perform
specific actions or grants read or write access to an area of administration on the EMC
Isilon cluster.
Privilege

Description

Type

ISI_PRIV_IFS_BACKUP

Back up files from /ifs.

Action

Note

This privilege circumvents traditional file access checks,

such as mode bits or NTFS ACLs.
ISI_PRIV_IFS_RESTORE

Action

Restore files from /ifs.

Note

This privilege circumvents traditional file access checks,

such as mode bits or NTFS ACLs.
ISI_PRIV_IFS_WORM_DELETE Perform privileged delete operation on WORM committed
files.

Action

Note

If you are not logged in through the root user account, you
must also have the ISI_PRIV_NS_IFS_ACCESS privilege.

Namespace privileges
The namespace privileges listed in the following table either allow the user to perform
specific actions or grants read or write access to an area of administration on the EMC
Isilon cluster.
Privilege

Description

Type

ISI_PRIV_NS_TRAVERSE

Traverse and view directory metadata.

Action

ISI_PRIV_NS_IFS_ACCESS Access the /ifs directory through the OneFS API. Action

Data backup and restore privileges

You can assign privileges to a user that are explicitly for cluster data backup and restore
actions.
Two privileges allow a user to backup and restore cluster data over supported client-side
protocols: ISI_PRIV_IFS_BACKUP and ISI_PRIV_IFS_RESTORE.
CAUTION

These privileges circumvent traditional file access checks, such as mode bits or NTFS
ACLs.
Most cluster privileges allow changes to cluster configuration in some manner. The
backup and restore privileges allow access to cluster data from the System zone, the
Data backup and restore privileges

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traversing of all directories, and reading of all file data and metadata regardless of file
permissions.
Users assigned these privileges use the protocol as a backup protocol to another
machine without generating access-denied errors and without connecting as the root
user. These two privileges are supported over the following client-side protocols:
l

SMB

NFS

RAN API

FTP

SSH

Over SMB, the ISI_PRIV_IFS_BACKUP and ISI_PRIV_IFS_RESTORE privileges emulate the

Windows privileges SE_BACKUP_NAME and SE_RESTORE_NAME. The emulation means
that normal file-open procedures are protected by file system permissions. To enable the
backup and restore privileges over the SMB protocol, you must open files with the
FILE_OPEN_FOR_BACKUP_INTENT option, which occurs automatically through Windows
backup software such as Robocopy. Application of the option is not automatic when files
are opened through general file browsing software such as Windows File Explorer.
Both ISI_PRIV_IFS_BACKUP and ISI_PRIV_IFS_RESTORE privileges primarily support
Windows backup tools such as Robocopy. A user must be a member of the BackupAdmin
built-in role to access all Robocopy features, which includes copying file DACL and SACL
metadata.

Command-line interface privileges

You can perform most tasks granted by a privilege through the command-line interface
(CLI). Some OneFS commands require root access.

Command-to-privilege mapping
Each CLI command is associated with a privilege. Some commands require root access.

138

isi command

Privilege

isi antivirus

ISI_PRIV_ANTIVIRUS

isi audit

ISI_PRIV_AUDIT

isi auth, excluding isi auth roles

ISI_PRIV_AUTH

isi auth roles

ISI_PRIV_ROLE

isi batterystatus

ISI_PRIV_DEVICES

isi cloud

ISI_PRIV_CLOUDPOOLS

isi config

root

isi dedupe, excluding isi dedupe stats

ISI_PRIV_JOB_ENGINE

isi dedupe stats

ISI_PRIV_STATISTICS

isi devices

ISI_PRIV_DEVICES

isi email

ISI_PRIV_CLUSTER

isi event

ISI_PRIV_EVENT

isi fc

ISI_PRIV_NDMP

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isi command

Privilege

isi file-filter

ISI_PRIV_FILE_FILTER

isi filepool

ISI_PRIV_SMARTPOOLS

isi ftp

ISI_PRIV_FTP

isi get

root

isi hardening

ISI_PRIV_HARDENING

isi hdfs

ISI_PRIV_HDFS

isi http

ISI_PRIV_HTTP

isi job

ISI_PRIV_JOB_ENGINE

isi license

ISI_PRIV_LICENSE

isi ndmp

ISI_PRIV_NDMP

isi network

ISI_PRIV_NETWORK

isi nfs

ISI_PRIV_NFS

ifs ntp

ISI_PRIV_NTP

isi quota

ISI_PRIV_QUOTA

isi readonly

ISI_PRIV_DEVICES

isi remotesupport

ISI_PRIV_REMOTE_SUPPORT

isi servicelight

ISI_PRIV_DEVICES

isi services

root

isi set

root

isi smb

ISI_PRIV_SMB

isi snapshot

ISI_PRIV_SNAPSHOT

isi snmp

ISI_PRIV_SNMP

isi statistics

ISI_PRIV_STATISTICS

isi status

ISI_PRIV_EVENT
ISI_PRIV_DEVICES
ISI_PRIV_JOB_ENGINE
ISI_PRIV_NETWORK
ISI_PRIV_SMARTPOOLS
ISI_PRIV_STATISTICS

isi storagepool

ISI_PRIV_SMARTPOOLS

isi swift

ISI_PRIV_SWIFT

isi sync

ISI_PRIV_SYNCIQ

isi tape

ISI_PRIV_NDMP

isi time

ISI_PRIV_SYS_TIME

isi upgrade

ISI_PRIV_SYS_UPGRADE

Command-line interface privileges

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isi command

Privilege

isi version

ISI_PRIV_CLUSTER

isi worm excluding isi worm files delete

ISI_PRIV_WORM

isi worm files delete

ISI_PRIV_IFS_WORM_DELETE

isi zone

ISI_PRIV_AUTH

Privilege-to-command mapping
Each privilege is associated with one or more commands. Some commands require root
access.
Privilege

isi commands

ISI_PRIV_ANTIVIRUS

isi antivirus

ISI_PRIV_AUDIT

isi audit

ISI_PRIV_AUTH

isi auth - excluding isi auth role

isi zone

ISI_PRIV_CLOUDPOOLS

isi cloud

ISI_PRIV_CLUSTER

isi email
isi version

ISI_PRIV_DEVICES

isi batterystatus
isi devices
isi readonly
isi servicelight
isi status

ISI_PRIV_EVENT

isi event
isi status

ISI_PRIV_FILE_FILTER

isi file-filter

ISI_PRIV_FTP

isi ftp

ISI_PRIV_HARDENING

isi hardening

ISI_PRIV_HDFS

isi hdfs

ISI_PRIV_HTTP

isi http

ISI_PRIV_JOB_ENGINE

isi job
isi dedupe
isi status

ISI_PRIV_LICENSE

isi license

ISI_PRIV_NDMP

isi fc
isi tape
isi ndmp

ISI_PRIV_NETWORK

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isi network
isi status

Administrative roles and privileges

Privilege

isi commands

ISI_PRIV_NFS

isi nfs

ISI_PRIV_NTP

isi ntp

ISI_PRIV_QUOTA

isi quota

ISI_PRIV_REMOTE_SUPPORT

isi remotesupport

ISI_PRIV_ROLE

isi auth role

ISI_PRIV_SMARTPOOLS

isi filepool
isi storagepool
isi status

ISI_PRIV_SMB

isi smb

ISI_PRIV_SNAPSHOT

isi snapshot

ISI_PRIV_SNMP

isi snmp

ISI_PRIV_STATISTICS

isi status
isi statistics
isi dedupe stats

ISI_PRIV_SWIFT

isi swift

ISI_PRIV_SYNCIQ

isi sync

ISI_PRIV_SYS_TIME

isi time

ISI_PRIV_SYS_UPGRADE

isi upgrade

ISI_PRIV_WORM

isi worm excluding isi worm files delete

ISI_PRIV_IFS_WORM_DELETE

isi worm files delete

root

isi config

isi get

isi services

isi set

Managing roles
You can view, add, or remove members of any role. Except for built-in roles, whose
privileges you cannot modify, you can add or remove OneFS privileges on a role-by-role
basis.
Note

Roles take both users and groups as members. If a group is added to a role, all users who
are members of that group are assigned the privileges associated with the role. Similarly,
members of multiple roles are assigned the combined privileges of each role.

Managing roles

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Create a custom role

You can create a custom role and add privileges and members to that role.
Procedure
1. Click Access > Membership & Roles > Roles.
2. Click Create a Role.
3. In the Role Name field, type a name for the role.
The role name must follow POSIX naming conventions. For example, the role name
should not contain spaces or hyphens.
4. In the Description field, type a description.
5. Click Add a member to this role to add a member to the role.
6. Click Add a privilege to this role to assign access rights and privileges.
7. Click Create Role.

Modify a role
You can modify the description and the user or group membership of any role, including
built-in roles. However, you can modify the name and privileges only for custom roles.
Procedure
1. Click Access > Membership & Roles > Roles.
2. In the Roles area, select a role and click View / Edit.
The View Role Details dialog box appears.
3. Click Edit Role and modify the settings as needed in the Edit Role Details dialog box.
4. Click Save Changes to return to the View Role Details dialog box.
5. Click Close.

Copy a role
You can copy an existing role and add or remove privileges and members for that role as
needed.
Procedure
1. Click Access > Membership & Roles > Roles.
2. In the Roles area, select a role and click More > Copy.
3. Modify the role name, description, members, and privileges as needed.
4. Click Copy Role.

Add a privilege to a custom role

You can add or remove privileges to a custom role as needed. You can designate certain
privileges as read-only or read/write. You cannot modify the privileges assigned to a
built-in role. Repeat this procedure for each privilege that you want to add to a custom
role.
Procedure
1. Click Add a privilege to this role in the dialog box for creating, copying, or editing a
role.
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2. In the Add a privilege to this role dialog box, select an access type for the role.
3. Select a privilege from the list.
4. Click Add Privilege.

Add a member to a role

You can add one or more members to a role when creating, copying, or modifying the
role. A user or a group can be a member of more than one role. The privileges associated
with a role are granted to all members of that role. Repeat this procedure to add more
members to the role.
Procedure
1. Click Add a member to this role in the dialog box for creating, copying, or editing a
role.
2. In the Select a User dialog box, select one of following options:
l

Users

Groups

Well-known SIDs

3. If you selected User or Group, locate the user or group through one of the following
methods:
l

Type the Username or Group Name you want to search for in the text field.

Select the authentication provider you want to search for from the Provider list.
Only providers that are currently configured and enabled on the cluster are listed.

4. Click Search.
5. Select a user name, group name, or a well-known SID from the search results to add
as members to the role.
6. Click Select.

Delete a custom role

Deleting a custom role does not affect the privileges or users that are assigned to it. You
cannot delete built-in roles.
Procedure
1. Click Access > Membership & Roles > Roles.
2. In the Roles area, select one or more roles, and then perform one of the following
actions:
l

To delete a single role, click More > Delete from the Actions column against the
selected role.

To delete multiple roles, select Delete Selection from the Select a bulk action list.

3. In the confirmation dialog box, click Delete.

View a role
You can view information about built-in and custom roles.
Procedure
1. Click Access > Membership & Roles > Roles.
Add a member to a role

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2. In the Roles area, select a role and click View / Edit.

3. In the View Role Details dialog box, view information about the role.
4. Click Close to return to the Membership & Roles page.

View privileges
You can view user privileges.
This procedure must be performed through the command-line interface (CLI). You can
view a list of your privileges or the privileges of another user using the following
commands:
Procedure
1. Establish an SSH connection to any node in the cluster.
2. To view privileges, run one of the following commands.
l

To view a list of all privileges, run the following command:

isi auth privileges --verbose

To view a list of your privileges, run the following command:

isi auth id

To view a list of privileges for another user, run the following command, where
<user> is a placeholder for another user by name:
isi auth mapping token <user>

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CHAPTER 7
Identity management

This section contains the following topics:

l
l
l
l
l
l

Identity management overview............................................................................146

Identity types...................................................................................................... 146
Access tokens..................................................................................................... 147
Access token generation..................................................................................... 148
Managing ID mappings........................................................................................153
Managing user identities.....................................................................................156

Identity management

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Identity management overview

In environments with several different types of directory services, OneFS maps the users
and groups from the separate services to provide a single unified identity on an EMC
Isilon cluster and uniform access control to files and directories, regardless of the
incoming protocol. This process is called identity mapping.
Isilon clusters are frequently deployed in multiprotocol environments with multiple types
of directory services, such as Active Directory and LDAP. When a user with accounts in
multiple directory services logs in to a cluster, OneFS combines the users identities and
privileges from all the directory services into a native access token.
You can configure OneFS settings to include a list of rules for access token manipulation
to control user identity and privileges. For example, you can set a user mapping rule to
merge an Active Directory identity and an LDAP identity into a single token that works for
access to files stored over both SMB and NFS. The token can include groups from Active
Directory and LDAP. The mapping rules that you create can solve identity problems by
manipulating access tokens in many ways, including the following examples:
l

Authenticate a user with Active Directory but give the user a UNIX identity.

Select a primary group from competing choices in Active Directory or LDAP.

Disallow login of users that do not exist in both Active Directory and LDAP.

For more information about identity management, see the white paper Managing identities
with the Isilon OneFS user mapping service at EMC Online Support.

Identity types
OneFS supports three primary identity types, each of which you can store directly on the
file system. Identity types are user identifier and group identifier for UNIX, and security
identifier for Windows.
When you log on to an EMC Isilon cluster, the user mapper expands your identity to
include your other identities from all the directory services, including Active Directory,
LDAP, and NIS. After OneFS maps your identities across the directory services, it
generates an access token that includes the identity information associated with your
accounts. A token includes the following identifiers:
l

A UNIX user identifier (UID) and a group identifier (GID). A UID or GID is a 32-bit
number with a maximum value of 4,294,967,295.

A security identifier (SID) for a Windows user account. A SID is a series of authorities
and sub-authorities ending with a 32-bit relative identifier (RID). Most SIDs have the
form S-1-5-21-<A>-<B>-<C>-<RID>, where <A>, <B>, and <C> are specific to a domain or
computer and <RID> denotes the object in the domain.

A primary group SID for a Windows group account.

A list of supplemental identities, including all groups in which the user is a member.

The token also contains privileges that stem from administrative role-based access
control.
On an Isilon cluster, a file contains permissions, which appear as an access control list
(ACL). The ACL controls access to directories, files, and other securable system objects.
When a user tries to access a file, OneFS compares the identities in the users access
token with the files ACL. OneFS grants access when the files ACL includes an access
control entry (ACE) that allows the identity in the token to access the file and that does
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not include an ACE that denies the identity access. OneFS compares the access token of
a user with the ACL of a file.
Note

For more information about access control lists, including a description of the
permissions and how they correspond to POSIX mode bits, see the white paper titled EMC
Isilon multiprotocol data access with a unified security model on the EMC Online Support
web site.
When a name is provided as an identifier, it is converted into the corresponding user or
group object and the correct identity type. You can enter or display a name in various
ways:
l

UNIX assumes unique case-sensitive namespaces for users and groups. For example,
Name and name represent different objects.

Windows provides a single, case-insensitive namespace for all objects and also
specifies a prefix to target an Active Directory domain; for example, domain\name.

Kerberos and NFSv4 define principals, which require names to be formatted the same
way as email addresses; for example, [email protected].

Multiple names can reference the same object. For example, given the name support and
the domain example.com, support, EXAMPLE\support and [email protected] are all
names for a single object in Active Directory.

Access tokens
An access token is created when the user first makes a request for access.
Access tokens represent who a user is when performing actions on the cluster and supply
the primary owner and group identities during file creation. Access tokens are also
compared against the ACL or mode bits during authorization checks.
During user authorization, OneFS compares the access token, which is generated during
the initial connection, with the authorization data on the file. All user and identity
mapping occurs during token generation; no mapping takes place during permissions
evaluation.
An access token includes all UIDs, GIDs, and SIDs for an identity, in addition to all OneFS
privileges. OneFS reads the information in the token to determine whether a user has
access to a resource. It is important that the token contains the correct list of UIDs, GIDs,
and SIDs. An access token is created from one of the following sources:
Source

Authentication

Username

SMB impersonate user

Kerberized NFSv3

Kerberized NFSv4

NFS export user mapping

HTTP

FTP

HDFS

SMB NTLM

Privilege Attribute Certificate (PAC)

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Source

User identifier (UID)

Authentication
l

Active Directory Kerberos

NFS AUTH_SYS mapping

Access token generation

For most protocols, the access token is generated from the username or from the
authorization data that is retrieved during authentication.
The following steps present a simplified overview of the complex process through which
an access token is generated:
Step 1: User identity lookup
Using the initial identity, the user is looked up in all configured authentication
providers in the access zone, in the order in which they are listed. The user identity
and group list are retrieved from the authenticating provider. Next, additional group
memberships that the user and group list are looked up for all other authentication
providers. All of these SIDs, UIDs, are GIDs are added to the initial token.
Note

An exception to this behavior occurs if the AD provider is configured to call other

providers, such as LDAP or NIS.
Step 2: ID mapping
The user's identifiers are associated across directory services. All SIDs are converted
to their equivalent UID/GID and vice versa. These ID mappings are also added to the
access token.
Step 3: User mapping
Access tokens from other directory services are combined. If the username matches
any user mapping rules, the rules are processed in order and the token is updated
accordingly.
Step 4: On-disk identity calculation
The default on-disk identity is calculated from the final token and the global setting.
These identities are used for newly created files.

ID mapping
The Identity (ID) mapping service maintains relationship information between mapped
Windows and UNIX identifiers to provide consistent access control across file sharing
protocols within an access zone.
Note

ID mapping and user mapping are different services, despite the similarity in names.
During authentication, the authentication daemon requests identity mappings from the
ID mapping service in order to create access tokens. Upon request, the ID mapping
service returns Windows identifiers mapped to UNIX identifiers or UNIX identifiers
mapped to Windows identifiers. When a user authenticates to a cluster over NFS with a
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UID or GID, the ID mapping service returns the mapped Windows SID, allowing access to
files that another user stored over SMB. When a user authenticates to the cluster over
SMB with a SID, the ID mapping service returns the mapped UNIX UID and GID, allowing
access to files that a UNIX client stored over NFS.
Mappings between UIDs or GIDs and SIDs are stored according to access zone in a
cluster-distributed database called the ID map. Each mapping in the ID map is stored as a
one-way relationship from the source to the target identity type. Two-way mappings are
stored as complementary one-way mappings.

Mapping Windows IDs to UNIX IDs

When a Windows user authenticates with an SID, the authentication daemon searches
the external Active Directory provider to look up the user or group associated with the
SID. If the user or group has only an SID in the Active Directory, the authentication
daemon requests a mapping from the ID mapping service.
Note

User and group lookups may be disabled or limited, depending on the Active Directory
settings. You enable user and group lookup settings through the isi auth ads
modify command.
If the ID mapping service does not locate and return a mapped UID or GID in the ID map,
the authentication daemon searches other external authentication providers configured
in the same access zone for a user that matches the same name as the Active Directory
user.
If a matching user name is found in another external provider, the authentication daemon
adds the matching user's UID or GID to the access token for the Active Directory user, and
the ID mapping service creates a mapping between the UID or GID and the Active
Directory user's SID in the ID map. This is referred to as an external mapping.
Note

When an external mapping is stored in the ID map, the UID is specified as the on-disk
identity for that user. When the ID mapping service stores a generated mapping, the SID
is specified as the on-disk identity.
If a matching user name is not found in another external provider, the authentication
daemon assigns a UID or GID from the ID mapping range to the Active Directory user's
SID, and the ID mapping service stores the mapping in the ID map. This is referred to as a
generated mapping. The ID mapping range is a pool of UIDs and GIDs allocated in the
mapping settings.
After a mapping has been created for a user, the authentication daemon retrieves the UID
or GID stored in the ID map upon subsequent lookups for the user.

Mapping UNIX IDs to Windows IDs

The ID mapping service creates temporary UID-to-SID and GID-to-SID mappings only if a
mapping does not already exist. The UNIX SIDs that result from these mappings are never
stored on disk.
UIDs and GIDs have a set of predefined mappings to and from SIDs.
If a UID-to-SID or GID-to-SID mapping is requested during authentication, the ID mapping
service generates a temporary UNIX SID in the format S-1-22-1-<UID> or S-1-22-2-<GID> by
applying the following rules:

ID mapping

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For UIDs, the ID mapping service generates a UNIX SID with a domain of S-1-22-1 and
a resource ID (RID) matching the UID. For example, the UNIX SID for UID 600 is
S-1-22-1-600.

For GIDs, the ID mapping service generates a UNIX SID with a domain of S-1-22-2 and
an RID matching the GID. For example, the UNIX SID for GID 800 is S-1-22-2-800.

ID mapping ranges
In access zones with multiple external authentication providers, such as Active Directory
and LDAP, it is important that the UIDs and GIDs from different providers that are
configured in the same access zone do not overlap. Overlapping UIDs and GIDs between
providers within an access zone might result in some users gaining access to other users'
directories and files.
The range of UIDs and GIDs that can be allocated for generated mappings is configurable
in each access zone through the isi auth settings mappings modify
command. The default range for both UIDs and GIDs is 10000002000000 in each
access zone.
Do not include commonly used UIDs and GIDs in your ID ranges. For example, UIDs and
GIDs below 1000 are reserved for system accounts and should not be assigned to users
or groups.

User mapping
User mapping provides a way to control permissions by specifying a user's security
identifiers, user identifiers, and group identifiers. OneFS uses the identifiers to check file
or group ownership.
With the user-mapping feature, you can apply rules to modify which user identity OneFS
uses, add supplemental user identities, and modify a user's group membership. The
user-mapping service combines a users identities from different directory services into a
single access token and then modifies it according to the rules that you create.
Note

You can configure mapping rules on a per-zone basis. Mapping rules must be configured
separately in each access zone that uses them. OneFS maps users only during login or
protocol access.

Default user mappings

Default user mappings determine access if explicit user-mapping rules are not created.
If you do not configure rules, a user who authenticates with one directory service receives
the identity information in other directory services when the account names are the same.
For example, a user who authenticates with an Active Directory domain as Desktop\jane
automatically receives identities in the final access token for the corresponding UNIX user
account for jane from LDAP or NIS.
In the most common scenario, OneFS is connected to two directory services, Active
Directory and LDAP. In such a case, the default mapping provides a user with the
following identity attributes:
l

A UID from LDAP

The user SID from Active Directory

An SID from the default group in Active Directory

The user's groups come from Active Directory and LDAP, with the LDAP groups and the
autogenerated group GID added to the list. To pull groups from LDAP, the mapping
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service queries the memberUid attribute. The users home directory, gecos, and shell
come from Active Directory.

Elements of user-mapping rules

You combine operators with user names to create a user-mapping rule.
The following elements affect how the user mapper applies a rule:
l

The operator, which determines the operation that a rule performs

Fields for usernames

Options

A parameter

Wildcards

User-mapping best practices

You can follow best practices to simplify user mapping.
Use Active Directory with RFC 2307 and Windows Services for UNIX
Use Microsoft Active Directory with Windows Services for UNIX and RFC 2307
attributes to manage Linux, UNIX, and Windows systems. Integrating UNIX and Linux
systems with Active Directory centralizes identity management and eases
interoperability, reducing the need for user-mapping rules. Make sure your domain
controllers are running Windows Server 2003 or later.
Employ a consistent username strategy
The simplest configurations name users consistently, so that each UNIX user
corresponds to a similarly named Windows user. Such a convention allows rules
with wildcard characters to match names and map them without explicitly specifying
each pair of accounts.
Do not use overlapping ID ranges
In networks with multiple identity sources, such as LDAP and Active Directory with
RFC 2307 attributes, you should ensure that UID and GID ranges do not overlap. It is
also important that the range from which OneFS automatically allocates UIDs and
GIDs does not overlap with any other ID range. OneFS automatically allocates UIDs
and GIDs from the range 1,000,000-2,000,000. If UIDs and GIDs overlap multiple
directory services, some users might gain access to other users directories and files.
Avoid common UIDs and GIDs
Do not include commonly used UIDs and GIDs in your ID ranges. For example, UIDs
and GIDs below 1000 are reserved for system accounts; do not assign them to users
or groups.
Do not use UPNs in mapping rules
You cannot use a user principal name (UPN) in a user mapping rule. A UPN is an
Active Directory domain and username that are combined into an Internet-style
name with an @ symbol, such as an email address: jane@example. If you include a
UPN in a rule, the mapping service ignores it and may return an error. Instead,
specify names in the format DOMAIN\user.com.
Group rules by type and order them
The system processes every mapping rule by default, which can present problems
when you apply a deny-all rulefor example, to deny access to all unknown users. In
addition, replacement rules might interact with rules that contain wildcard
characters. To minimize complexity, it is recommended that you group rules by type
and organize them in the following order:
User mapping

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1. Replacement rules: Specify all rules that replace an identity first to ensure that
OneFS replaces all instances of the identity.
2. Join, add, and insert rules: After the names are set by any replacement
operations, specify join, add, and insert rules to add extra identifiers.
3. Allow and deny rules: Specify rules that allow or deny access last.
Note

Stop all processing before applying a default deny rule. To do so, create a rule
that matches allowed users but does nothing, such as an add operator with no
field options, and has the break option. After enumerating the allowed users,
you can place a catchall deny at the end to replace anybody unmatched with an
empty user.
To prevent explicit rules from being skipped, in each group of rules, order explicit
rules before rules that contain wildcard characters.
Add the LDAP or NIS primary group to the supplemental groups
When an Isilon cluster is connected to Active Directory and LDAP, a best practice is
to add the LDAP primary group to the list of supplemental groups. This lets OneFS
honor group permissions on files created over NFS or migrated from other UNIX
storage systems. The same practice is advised when an Isilon cluster is connected to
both Active Directory and NIS.

On-disk identity
After the user mapper resolves a user's identities, OneFS determines an authoritative
identifier for it, which is the preferred on-disk identity.
OnesFS stores either UNIX or Windows identities in file metadata on disk. On-disk identity
types are UNIX, SID, and native. Identities are set when a file is created or a file's access
control data is modified. Almost all protocols require some level of mapping to operate
correctly, so choosing the preferred identity to store on disk is important. You can
configure OneFS to store either the UNIX or the Windows identity, or you can allow OneFS
to determine the optimal identity to store.
On-disk identity types are UNIX, SID, and native. Although you can change the type of ondisk identity, the native identity is best for a network with UNIX and Windows systems. In
native on-disk identity mode, setting the UID as the on-disk identity improves NFS
performance.
Note

The SID on-disk identity is for a homogeneous network of Windows systems managed
only with Active Directory. When you upgrade from a version earlier than OneFS 6.5, the
on-disk identity is set to UNIX. When you upgrade from OneFS 6.5 or later, the on-disk
identity setting is preserved. On new installations, the on-disk identity is set to native.
The native on-disk identity type allows the OneFS authentication daemon to select the
correct identity to store on disk by checking for the identity mapping types in the
following order:

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Order Mapping
type

Description

Algorithmic
mapping

An SID that matches S-1-22-1-UID or S-1-22-2-GID in the internal ID

mapping database is converted back to the corresponding UNIX identity,
and the UID and GID are set as the on-disk identity.

External
mapping

A user with an explicit UID and GID defined in a directory service (such as
Active Directory with RFC 2307 attributes, LDAP, NIS, or the OneFS file
provider or local provider) has the UNIX identity set as the on-disk
identity.

Persistent
mapping

Mappings are stored persistently in the identity mapper database. An

identity with a persistent mapping in the identity mapper database uses
the destination of that mapping as the on-disk identity, which occurs
primarily with manual ID mappings. For example, if there is an ID
mapping of GID:10000 to S-1-5-32-545, a request for the on-disk storage
of GID:10000 returns S-1-5-32-545.

No mapping

If a user lacks a UID or GID even after querying the other directory
services and identity databases, its SID is set as the on-disk identity. In
addition, to make sure a user can access files over NFS, OneFS allocates
a UID and GID from a preset range of 1,000,000 to 2,000,000. In native
on-disk identity mode, a UID or GID that OneFS generates is never set as
the on-disk identity.

Note

If you change the on-disk identity type, you should run the PermissionRepair job in
convert mode to make sure that the disk representation of all files is consistent with the
changed setting.

Managing ID mappings
You can create, modify, and delete identity mappings and configure ID mapping settings.

Create an identity mapping

You can create a manual identity mapping between source and target identities or
automatically generate a mapping for a source identity.
This procedure is available only through the command-line interface.
Procedure
1. Open a secure shell (SSH) connection to any node in the cluster and log in.
2. Run the isi auth mapping create command.
The following command specifies IDs of source and target identities in the zone3
access zone to create a two-way mapping between the identities:
isi auth mapping create --2way --source-sid=S-1-5-21-12345 \
--target-uid=5211 --zone=zone3

Managing ID mappings

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Modify an identity mapping

You can modify the configuration of an identity mapping.
This procedure is available only through the command-line interface.
Procedure
1. Open a secure shell (SSH) connection to any node in the cluster and log in.
2. Run the isi auth mapping modify command.
The following command modifies the mapping of the user with UID 4236 in the zone3
access zone to include a reverse, 2-way mapping between the source and target
identities:
isi auth mapping modify --source-uid=4236 \
--target-sid=S-1-5-21-12345 --zone=zone3 --2way

Delete an identity mapping

You can delete one or more identity mappings.
This procedure is available only through the command-line interface.
Procedure
1. Open a secure shell (SSH) connection to any node in the cluster and log in.
2. Run the isi auth mapping delete command.
The following command deletes all identity mappings in the zone3 access zone:
isi auth mapping delete --all --zone=zone3

The following command deletes all identity mappings in the zone3 access zone that
were both created automatically and include a UID or GID from an external
authentication source:
isi auth mapping delete --all --only-external --zone=zone3

The following command deletes the identity mapping of the user with UID 4236 in the
zone3 access zone:
isi auth mapping delete --source-uid=4236 --zone=zone3

View an identity mapping

You can display mapping information for a specific identity.
This procedure is available only through the command-line interface.
Procedure
1. Open a secure shell (SSH) connection to any node in the cluster and log in.
2. Run the isi auth mapping view command.
The following command displays mappings for the user with UID 4236 in the zone3
access zone:
isi auth mapping view --uid=4236 --zone=zone3

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The system displays output similar to the following example:

Name: user_36
On-disk: UID: 4236
Unix uid: 4236
Unix gid: -100000
SMB: S-1-22-1-4236

Flush the identity mapping cache

You can flush the ID map cache to remove in-memory copies of all or specific identity
mappings.
Modifications to ID mappings may cause the cache to become out-of-sync and users
might experience slowness or stalls when authenticating. You can flush the cache to
synchronize the mappings.
This procedure is available only through the command-line interface.
Procedure
1. Open a secure shell (SSH) connection to any node in the cluster and log in.
2. Run the isi auth mapping flush command.
The following command flushes all identity mappings on the EMC Isilon cluster:
isi auth mapping flush --all

The following command flushes the mapping of the user with UID 4236 in the zone3
access zone:
isi auth mapping flush --source-uid-4236 --zone=zone3

View a user token

You can view the contents of an access token generated for a user during authentication.
This procedure is available only through the command-line interface.
Procedure
1. Open a secure shell (SSH) connection to any node in the cluster and log in.
2. Run the isi auth mapping token command.
The following command displays the access token of a user with UID 4236 in the
zone3 access zone:
isi auth mapping token --uid=4236 --zone=zone3

The system displays output similar to the following example:

User
Name: user_36
UID: 4236
SID: S-1-22-1-4236
On Disk: 4236
ZID: 3
Zone: zone3
Privileges: Primary Group
Name: user_36
GID: 4236

Flush the identity mapping cache

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SID: S-1-22-2-4236
On Disk: 4236

Configure identity mapping settings

You can enable or disable automatic allocation of UIDs and GIDS and customize the
range of ID values in each access zone. The default range is 10000002000000.
This procedure is available only through the command-line interface.
Procedure
1. Open a secure shell (SSH) connection to any node in the cluster and log in.
2. Run the isi auth settings mapping modify command.
The following command enables automatic allocation of both UIDs and GIDs in the
zone3 access zone and sets their allocation ranges to 2500050000:
isi auth settings mapping modify --gid-range-enabled=yes \
--gid-range-min=25000 --gid-range-max=50000 --uid-rangeenabled=yes \
--uid-range-min=25000 --uid-range-max=50000 --zone=zone3

View identity mapping settings

You can view the current configuration of identity mapping settings in each zone.
This procedure is available only through the command-line interface.
Procedure
1. Open a secure shell (SSH) connection to any node in the cluster and log in.
2. Run the isi auth settings mapping view command.
The following command displays the current settings in the zone3 access zone:
isi auth settings mapping view --zone=zone3

The system displays output similar to the following example:

GID Range Enabled:
GID Range Min:
GID Range Max:
UID Range Enabled:
UID Range Min:
UID Range Max:

Yes
25000
50000
Yes
25000
50000

Managing user identities

You can manage user identities by creating user-mapping rules.
When you create user-mapping rules, it is important to remember the following
information:

156

You can only create user-mapping rules if you are connected to the EMC Isilon cluster
through the System zone; however, you can apply user-mapping rules to specific
access zones. If you create a user-mapping rule for a specific access zone, the rule
applies only in the context of its zone.

When you change user-mapping on one node, OneFS propagates the change to the
other nodes.

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Identity management

After you make a user-mapping change, the OneFS authentication service reloads the
configuration.

View user identity

You can view the identities and group membership that a specified user has within the
Active Directory and LDAP directory services.
This procedure must be performed through the command-line interface (CLI).
Note

The OneFS user access token contains a combination of identities from Active Directory
and LDAP if both directory services are configured. You can run the following commands
to discover the identities that are within each specific directory service.
Procedure
1. Establish an SSH connection to any node in the cluster.
2. View a user identity from Active Directory only by running the isi auth users
view command.
The following command displays the identity of a user named stand in the Active
Directory domain named YORK:
isi auth users view --user=YORK\\stand --show-groups

The system displays output similar to the following example:

Name: YORK\stand
DN:
CN=stand,CN=Users,DC=york,DC=hull,DC=example,DC=com
DNS Domain: york.hull.example.com
Domain: YORK
Provider: lsa-activedirectory-provider:YORK.HULL.EXAMPLE.COM
Sam Account Name: stand
UID: 4326
SID: S-1-5-21-1195855716-1269722693-1240286574-591111
Primary Group
ID : GID:1000000
Name : YORK\york_sh_udg
Additional Groups: YORK\sd-york space group
YORK\york_sh_udg
YORK\sd-york-group
YORK\sd-group
YORK\domain users

3. View a user identity from LDAP only by running the isi auth users view
command.
The following command displays the identity of an LDAP user named stand:
isi auth user view --user=stand --show-groups

The system displays output similar to the following example:

Name: stand
DN:
uid=stand,ou=People,dc=colorado4,dc=hull,dc=example,dc=com
DNS Domain: Domain: LDAP_USERS
Provider: lsa-ldap-provider:Unix LDAP
Sam Account Name: stand
View user identity

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UID: 4326
SID: S-1-22-1-4326
Primary Group
ID : GID:7222
Name : stand
Additional Groups: stand
sd-group
sd-group2

Create a user-mapping rule

You can create a user-mapping rule to manage user identities.
Procedure
1. Click Access > Membership & Roles > User Mapping.
2. From the Current Access Zone list, select an access zone that contains the rules you
want to manage, and then click Edit User Mapping Rules.
The Edit User Mapping Rules dialog box appears.
3. Click Create a User Mapping Rule.
The Create a User Mapping Rule dialog box appears.
4. From the Operation list, select an operation.
Depending on your selection, the Create a User Mapping Rule displays additional
fields.
5. Fill in the fields as needed.
6. Click Add Rule to save the rule and return to the Edit User Mapping Rules dialog box.
7. In the User Mapping Rules area, click the title bar of a rule and drag it to a new
position to change the position of a rule in the list.
Rules are applied in the order they are listed. To ensure that each rule gets processed,
list replacement rules first and list allow or deny rules at the end.
8. If the access token is not associated with a default UNIX user or if the default UNIX
user does not have a primary UID or GID, select one of the following options for
authentication:
l

Generate a primary UID or GID from the reserved range of UIDs and GIDs

Deny access to the user

Assign another user as the default UNIX user

Note

It is recommended that you assign a user from the well-known account that has a
read-only access.
9. Click Save Changes.

Test a user-mapping rule

After creating a user-mapping rule, you can test it to make sure that the token results for
a user are as expected.
Procedure
1. Click Access > Membership & Roles > User Mapping.
2. From the Current Access Zone list, select an access zone that contains the rules you
want to test.
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3. In the Test User Mapping section, type or select a user, group, or a well-known SID
from the Select a User dialog box.
4. Click Test Mapping.
The token results appear in the Results section as shown:
User

Name:krb_user_002
UID:1002
SID:S-1-22-1-1001
On disk:1001
ZID:1
Zone:System

Privileges:Primary Group
Name:krb_user_001
GID:1000
SID:S-1-22-2-1001
On disk:1000
Supplemental Identities
Name:Authenticated Users
GID: SID:S-1-5-11

Merge Windows and UNIX tokens

You can use either the join or append operator to merge tokens from different directory
services into a single OneFS user token.
When Windows and Unix user names do not match across directory services, you can
write user-mapping rules that use either the join or the append operator to merge two
user names into a single token. For example, if a user's Windows username is win_bob
and the users Unix username is UNIX_bob, you can join or append the user tokens of the
two different users.
When you append an account to another account, the append operator adds information
from one identity to another: OneFS appends the fields that the options specify from the
source identity to the target identity. OneFS appends the identifiers to the additional
group list.
Procedure
1. Click Access > Membership & Roles > User Mapping.
2. Select the Current Access Zone that contains the rules you want to manage, and then
click Edit User Mapping Rules.
The Edit User Mapping Rules dialog box appears.
3. Click Create a User Mapping Rule.
The Create a User Mapping Rule dialog box appears.
4. From the Operation list, select an option:
Option

Description

Join two users together

Inserts the new identity into the token.

Append field from a user

Modifies the access token by adding fields to it.

Depending on your selection, the Create a User Mapping Rule dialog box refreshes to
display additional fields.
Merge Windows and UNIX tokens

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5. Populate the fields as needed.

6. Click Add Rule.
Note

Rules are called in the order they are listed. To ensure that each rule gets processed,
list replacements first and allow/deny rules last. You can change the order in which a
rule is listed by clicking its title bar and dragging it to a new position.
7. Click Save Changes.

Retrieve the primary group from LDAP

You can create a user-mapping rule to insert primary group information from LDAP into a
user's access token.
By default, the user-mapping service combines information from AD and LDAP but gives
precedence to the information from AD. You can create a mapping rule to control how
OneFS combines the information, giving precedence to a primary group from LDAP rather
than from Active Directory for a user.
Procedure
1. Click Access > Membership & Roles > User Mapping.
2. Select the Current Access Zone that contains the rules you want to manage, and then
click Edit User Mapping Rules.
The Edit User Mapping Rules dialog box appears.
3. Click Create a User Mapping Rule.
The Create a User Mapping Rule dialog box appears.
4. From the Operation list, select Insert fields from a user.
The Create a User Mapping Rule dialog box refreshes to display additional fields.
5. To populate the Insert Fields into this User field, perform the following steps:
a. Click Browse.
The Select a User dialog box appears.
b. Select a user and an Active Directory authentication provider.
c. Click Search to view the search results.
d. Select a username and click Select to return to the Create a User Mapping Rule
dialog box.
The primary group of the second user is inserted as the primary group of the first
user.
6. Select the Insert primary group SID and GID check box.
7. To populate the Insert Fields from this User field, perform the following steps:
a. Click Browse.
The Select a User dialog box appears.
b. Select a user and an LDAP authentication provider.
c. Click Search to view the search results.
d. Select a username and click Select to return to the Create a User Mapping Rule
dialog box.
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8. Click Add Rule.

Note

Rules are called in the order they are listed. To ensure that each rule gets processed,
list the replacements first and the allow or deny rules at the end. You can change the
order in which a rule is listed by clicking its title bar and dragging it to a new position.
9. Click Save Changes.

Mapping rule options

Mapping rules can contain options that target the fields of an access token.
A field represents an aspect of a cross-domain access token, such as the primary UID and
primary user SID from a user that you select. You can see some of the fields in the OneFS
web administration interface. User in the web administration interface is the same as
username. You can also see fields in an access token by running the command isi
auth mapping token.
When you create a rule, you can add an option to manipulate how OneFS combines
aspects of two identities into a single token. For example, an option can force OneFS to
append the supplement groups to a token.
A token includes the following fields that you can manipulate with user mapping rules:
l

username

unix_name

primary_uid

primary_user_sid

primary_gid

primary_group_sid

additional_ids (includes supplemental groups)

Options control how a rule combines identity information in a token. The break option is
the exception: It stops OneFS from processing additional rules.
Although several options can apply to a rule, not all options apply to all operators. The
following table describes the effect of each option and the operators that they work with.
Option

Operator

Description

user

insert, append

Copies the primary UID and primary user SID, if they exist, to the
token.

groups

insert, append

Copies the primary GID and primary group SID, if they exist, to the
token.

groups

insert, append

Copies all the additional identifiers to the token. The additional

identifiers exclude the primary UID, the primary GID, the primary
user SID, and the primary group SID.

default_user all operators

except remove
groups

If the mapping service fails to find the second user in a rule, the
service tries to find the username of the default user. The name
of the default user cannot include wildcards. When you set the
option for the default user in a rule with the command-line
interface, you must set it with an underscore: default_user.

Mapping rule options

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Option

Operator

Description

break

all operators

Stops the mapping service from applying rules that follow the
insertion point of the break option. The mapping service
generates the final token at the point of the break.

Mapping rule operators

The operator determines what a mapping rule does.
You can create user-mapping rules through either the web-administration interface,
where the operators are spelled out in a list, or from the command-line interface.
When you create a mapping rule with the OneFS command-line interface (CLI), you must
specify an operator with a symbol. The operator affects the direction in which the
mapping service processes a rule. For more information about creating a mapping rule,
see the white paper Managing identities with the Isilon OneFS user mapping service. The
following table describes the operators that you can use in a mapping rule.
A mapping rule can contain only one operator.
Operator

Web interface

CLI Direction

Description

append

Append fields
from a user

++

Left-to-right

Modifies an access token by adding fields to

it. The mapping service appends the fields
that are specified in the list of options (user,
group, groups) to the first identity in the
rule. The fields are copied from the second
identity in the rule. All appended identifiers
become members of the additional groups
list. An append rule without an option
performs only a lookup operation; you must
include an option to alter a token.

insert

Insert fields
from a user

+=

Left-to-right

Modifies an existing access token by adding

fields to it. Fields specified in the options
list (user, group, groups) are copied from
the new identity and inserted into the
identity in the token. When the rule inserts a
primary user or primary group, it become the
new primary user and primary group in the
token. The previous primary user and
primary group move to the additional
identifiers list. Modifying the primary user
leaves the tokens username unchanged.
When inserting the additional groups from
an identity, the service adds the new groups
to the existing groups.

replace

Replace one
user with a
different user

=>

Left-to-right

Removes the token and replaces it with the

new token that is identified by the second
username. If the second username is empty,
the mapping service removes the first
username in the token, leaving no
username. If a token contains no username,
OneFS denies access with a no such

user error.
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Operator

Web interface

CLI Direction

Description

remove
groups

Remove
supplemental
groups from a
user

--

Modifies a token by removing the

supplemental groups.

join

Join two users

together

&= Bidirectional Inserts the new identity into the token. If the
new identity is the second user, the
mapping service inserts it after the existing
identity; otherwise, the service inserts it
before the existing identity. The location of
the insertion point is relevant when the
existing identity is already the first in the list
because OneFS uses the first identity to
determine the ownership of new file system
objects.

Unary

Mapping rule operators

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CHAPTER 8
Home directories

This section contains the following topics:

l
l
l
l
l
l
l
l
l
l

Home directories overview.................................................................................. 166

Home directory permissions................................................................................166
Authenticating SMB users................................................................................... 166
Home directory creation through SMB................................................................. 166
Home directory creation through SSH and FTP..................................................... 170
Home directory creation in a mixed environment................................................. 173
Interactions between ACLs and mode bits........................................................... 173
Default home directory settings in authentication providers................................ 173
Supported expansion variables........................................................................... 174
Domain variables in home directory provisioning................................................ 176

Home directories

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Home directories

Home directories overview

When you create a local user, OneFS automatically creates a home directory for the user.
OneFS also supports dynamic home directory provisioning for users who access the
cluster by connecting to an SMB share or by logging in through FTP or SSH.
Regardless of the method by which a home directory was created, you can configure
access to the home directory through a combination of SMB, SSH, and FTP.

Home directory permissions

You can set up a user's home directory with a Windows ACL or with POSIX mode bits,
which are then converted into a synthetic ACL. The method by which a home directory is
created determines the initial permissions that are set on the home directory.
When you create a local user, the user's home directory is created with mode bits by
default.
For users who authenticate against external sources, you can specify settings to create
home directories dynamically at login time. If a home directory is created during a login
through SSH or FTP, it is set up with mode bits; if a home directory is created during an
SMB connection, it receives either mode bits or an ACL. For example, if an LDAP user first
logs in through SSH or FTP, the user's home directory is created with mode bits. If the
same user first connects through an SMB share, the home directory is created with the
permissions indicated by the configured SMB settings. If the --inheritable-pathacl option is enabled, an ACL is generated; otherwise, mode bits are used.

Authenticating SMB users

You can authenticate SMB users from authentication providers that can handle NT
hashes.
SMB sends an NT password hash to authenticate SMB users, so only users from
authentication providers that can handle NT hashes can log in over SMB. The following
OneFS-supported authentication providers can handle NT hashes:
l

Active Directory

Local

LDAPSAM (LDAP with Samba extensions enabled)

Home directory creation through SMB

You can create SMB shares by including expansion variables in the share path.
Expansion variables give users to access their home directories by connecting to the
share. You can also enable dynamic provisioning of home directories that do not exist at
SMB connection time.
Note

Share permissions are checked when files are accessed, before the underlying file
system permissions are checked. Either of these permissions can prevent access to the
file or directory.

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Create home directories with expansion variables

You can configure settings with expansion variables to create SMB share home
directories.
When users access the EMC Isilon cluster over SMB, home directory access is through
SMB shares. You can configure settings with a path that uses a variable expansion
syntax, allowing a user to connect to their home directory share.
Note

Home directory share paths must begin with /ifs/ and must be in the root path of the
access zone in which the home directory SMB share is created.
In the following commands, the --allow-variable-expansion option is enabled to
indicate that %U should be expanded to the user name, which is user411 in this
example. The --auto-create-directory option is enabled to create the directory if
it does not exist:
isi smb shares create HOMEDIR --path=/ifs/home/%U \
--allow-variable-expansion=yes --auto-create-directory=yes
isi smb shares permission modify HOMEDIR --wellknown Everyone \
--permission-type allow --permission full
isi smb shares view HOMEDIR

The system displays output similar to the following example:

Share Name: HOMEDIR
Path: /ifs/home/%U
Description:
Client-side Caching Policy: manual
Automatically expand user names or domain names: True
Automatically create home directories for users: True
Browsable: True
Permissions:
Account Account Type Run as Root Permission Type Permission
-----------------------------------------------------------Everyone wellknown
False
allow
full
-----------------------------------------------------------Total: 1
...

When user411 connects to the share with the net use command, the user's home
directory is created at /ifs/home/user411. On user411's Windows client, the net
use m: command connects /ifs/home/user411 through the HOMEDIR share:
net use m: \\cluster.company.com\HOMEDIR /u:user411

Procedure
1. Run the following commands on the cluster with the --allow-variableexpansion option enabled. The %U expansion variable expands to the user name,
and the --auto-create-directory option is enabled to create the directory if it
does not exist:
isi smb shares create HOMEDIR --path=/ifs/home/%U \
--allow-variable-expansion=yes --auto-create-directory=yes
isi smb shares permission modify HOMEDIR --wellknown Everyone \
--permission-type allow --permission full

Create home directories with expansion variables

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2. Run the following command to view the home directory settings:

isi smb shares view HOMEDIR

The system displays output similar to the following example:

Share Name: HOMEDIR
Path: /ifs/home/%U
Description:
Client-side Caching Policy: manual
Automatically expand user names or domain names: True
Automatically create home directories for users: True
Browsable: True
Permissions:
Account Account Type Run as Root Permission Type Permission
-----------------------------------------------------------Everyone wellknown
False
allow
full
-----------------------------------------------------------Total: 1
...

If user411 connects to the share with the net use command, user411's home
directory is created at /ifs/home/user411. On user411's Windows client, the net
use m: command connects /ifs/home/user411 through the HOMEDIR share,
mapping the connection similar to the following example:
net use m: \\cluster.company.com\HOMEDIR /u:user411

Create home directories with the --inheritable-path-acl option

You can enable the --inheritable-path-acl option on a share to specify that it is
to be inherited on the share path if the parent directory has an inheritable ACL.
Before you begin
To perform most configuration tasks, you must log on as a member of the SecurityAdmin
role.
By default, an SMB share's directory path is created with a synthetic ACL based on mode
bits. You can enable the --inheritable-path-acl option to use the inheritable ACL
on all directories that are created, either at share creation time or for those dynamically
provisioned when connecting to that share.
Procedure
1. Run commands similar to the following examples to enable the --inheritablepath-acl option on the cluster to dynamically provision a user home directory at
first connection to a share on the cluster:
isi smb shares create HOMEDIR_ACL --path=/ifs/home/%U \
--allow-variable-expansion=yes --auto-create-directory=yes \
--inheritable-path-acl=yes
isi smb shares permission modify HOMEDIR_ACL \
--wellknown Everyone \
--permission-type allow --permission full

2. Run a net use command, similar to the following example, on a Windows client to
map the home directory for user411:
net use q: \\cluster.company.com\HOMEDIR_ACL /u:user411

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3. Run a command similar to the following example on the cluster to view the inherited
ACL permissions for the user411 share:
cd /ifs/home/user411
ls -lde .

The system displays output similar to the following example:

drwx------ + 2 user411 Isilon Users 0 Oct 19 16:23 ./
OWNER: user:user411
GROUP: group:Isilon Users
CONTROL:dacl_auto_inherited,dacl_protected
0: user:user411 allow dir_gen_all,object_inherit,container_inherit

Create special home directories with the SMB share %U variable

The special SMB share name %U enables you to create a home-directory SMB share that
appears the same as a user's user name.
You typically set up a %U SMB share with a share path that includes the %U expansion
variable. If a user attempts to connect to a share matching the login name and it does not
exist, the user connects to the %U share instead and is directed to the expanded path for
the %U share.
Note

If another SMB share exists that matches the user's name, the user connects to the
explicitly named share rather than to the %U share.
Procedure
1. Run the following command to create a share that matches the authenticated user
login name when the user connects to the share:
isi smb share create %U /ifs/home/%U \
--allow-variable-expansion=yes --auto-create-directory=yes \
--zone=System

After running this command, user Zachary will see a share named 'zachary' rather
than '%U', and when Zachary tries to connect to the share named 'zachary', he will be
directed to /ifs/home/zachary. On a Windows client, if Zachary runs the
following commands, he sees the contents of his /ifs/home/zachary directory:
net use m: \\cluster.ip\zachary /u:zachary
cd m:
dir

Similarly, if user Claudia runs the following commands on a Windows client, she sees
the directory contents of /ifs/home/claudia:
net use m: \\cluster.ip\claudia /u:claudia
cd m:
dir

Zachary and Claudia cannot access one another's home directory because only the
share 'zachary' exists for Zachary and only the share 'claudia' exists for Claudia.

Create special home directories with the SMB share %U variable

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Home directories

Home directory creation through SSH and FTP

You can configure home directory support for users who access the cluster through SSH
or FTP by modifying authentication provider settings.

Set the SSH or FTP login shell

You can use the --login-shell option to set the default login shell for the user.
By default, the --login-shell option, if specified, overrides any login-shell
information provided by the authentication provider, except with Active Directory. If the
--login-shell option is specified with Active Directory, it simply represents the
default login shell if the Active Directory server does not provide login-shell information.
Procedure
1. Run the following command to set the login shell for all local users to /bin/bash:
isi auth local modify System --login-shell /bin/bash

2. Run the following command to set the default login shell for all Active Directory users
in your domain to /bin/bash:
isi auth ads modify YOUR.DOMAIN.NAME.COM --login-shell /bin/bash

Set SSH/FTP home directory permissions

You can specify home directory permissions for a home directory that is accessed
through SSH or FTP by setting a umask value.
Before you begin
To perform most configuration tasks, you must log on as a member of the SecurityAdmin
role.
When a user's home directory is created at login through SSH or FTP, it is created using
POSIX mode bits. The permissions setting on a user's home directory is set to 0755, then
masked according to the umask setting of the user's access zone to further limit
permissions. You can modify the umask setting for a zone with the --homedirectory-umask option, specifying an octal number as the umask value.
Procedure
1. Run the following command to view umask setting:
isi zone zones view System

The system displays output similar to the following example:

Name:
Path:
Cache Size:
Map Untrusted:
Auth Providers:
NetBIOS Name:
All Auth Providers:
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System
/ifs
4.77M
Yes

Home directories

User Mapping Rules: Home Directory Umask: 0077

Skeleton Directory: /usr/share/skel
Audit Success: create, delete, rename, set_security, close
Audit Failure: create, delete, rename, set_security, close
HDFS Authentication: all
HDFS Keytab: /etc/hdfs.keytab
HDFS Root Directory: /ifs
WebHDFS Enabled: Yes
Syslog Forwarding Enabled: No
Syslog Audit Events: create, delete, rename, set_security
Zone ID: 1

In the command result, you can see the default setting for Home Directory
Umask for the created home directory is 0700, which is equivalent to (0755 &
~(077)). You can modify the Home Directory Umask setting for a zone with the
--home-directory-umask option, specifying an octal number as the umask
value. This value indicates the permissions that are to be disabled, so larger mask
values indicate fewer permissions. For example, a umask value of 000 or 022 yields
created home directory permissions of 0755, whereas a umask value of 077 yields
created home directory permissions of 0700.
2. Run a command similar to the following example to allow a group/others write/
execute permission in a home directory:
isi zone zones modify System --home-directory-umask=022

In this example, user home directories will be created with mode bits 0755 masked
by the umask field, set to the value of 022. Therefore, user home directories will be
created with mode bits 0755, which is equivalent to (0755 & ~(022)).

Set SSH/FTP home directory creation options

You can configure home directory support for a user who accesses the cluster through
SSH or FTP by specifying authentication provider options.
Procedure
1. Run the following command to view settings for an Active Directory authentication
provider on the cluster:
isi auth ads list

The system displays output similar to the following example:

Name
Authentication Status DC Name Site
--------------------------------------------------------YOUR.DOMAIN.NAME.COM Yes
online SEA
--------------------------------------------------------Total: 1

2. Run the isi auth ads modify command with the --home-directorytemplate and --create-home-directory options.
isi auth ads modify YOUR.DOMAIN.NAME.COM \
--home-directory-template=/ifs/home/ADS/%D/%U \
--create-home-directory=yes

3. Run the isi auth ads view command with the --verbose option.

Set SSH/FTP home directory creation options

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The system displays output similar to the following example:

Name:
NetBIOS Domain:
...
Create Home Directory:
Home Directory Template:
Login Shell:

YOUR.DOMAIN.NAME.COM
YOUR
Yes
/ifs/home/ADS/%D/%U
/bin/sh

4. Run the id command.

The system displays output similar to the following example:
uid=1000008(<your-domain>\user_100) gid=1000000(<your-domain>
\domain users)
groups=1000000(<your-domain>\domain users),1000024(<your-domain>
\c1t),1545(Users)

5. (Optional) To verify this information from an external UNIX node, run the ssh
command from an external UNIX node.
For example, the following command would create /ifs/home/ADS/<yourdomain>/user_100 if it did not previously exist:
ssh <your-domain>\\[email protected]

Provision home directories with dot files

You can provision home directories with dot files.
Before you begin
To perform most configuration tasks, you must log on as a member of the SecurityAdmin
role.
The skeleton directory, which is located at /usr/share/skel by default, contains a set
of files that are copied to the user's home directory when a local user is created or when a
user home directory is dynamically created during login. Files in the skeleton directory
that begin with dot. are renamed to remove the dot prefix when they are copied to the
user's home directory. For example, dot.cshrc is copied to the user's home directory
as .cshrc. This format enables dot files in the skeleton directory to be viewable through
the command-line interface without requiring the ls -a command.
For SMB shares that might use home directories that were provisioned with dot files, you
can set an option to prevent users who connect to the share through SMB from viewing
the dot files.
Procedure
1. Run the following command to display the default skeleton directory in the System
access zone:
isi zone zones view System

The system displays output similar to the following example:

Name: System
...
Skeleton Directory: /usr/share/skel

2. Run the isi zone zones modify command to modify the default skeleton
directory.

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The following command modifies the default skeleton directory, /usr/share/skel,

in an access zone, where System is the value for the <zone> option and /usr/share/
skel2 is the value for the <path> option:
isi zone zones modify System --skeleton-directory=/usr/share/skel2

Home directory creation in a mixed environment

If a user logs in through both SMB and SSH, it is recommended that you configure home
directory settings so the path template is the same for the SMB share and each
authentication provider against which the user is authenticating through SSH.

Interactions between ACLs and mode bits

Home directory setup is determined by several factors, including how users authenticate
and the options that specify home directory creation.
A user's home directory may be set up with either ACLs or POSIX mode bits, which are
converted into a synthetic ACL. The directory of a local user is created when the local user
is created, and the directory is set up with POSIX mode bits by default. Directories can be
dynamically provisioned at log in for users who authenticate against external sources,
and in some cases for users who authenticate against the File provider. In this situation,
the user home directory is created according to how the user first logs in.
For example, if an LDAP user first logs in through SSH or FTP and the user home directory
is created, it is created with POSIX mode bits. If that same user first connects through an
SMB home directory share, the home directory is created as specified by the SMB option
settings. If the --inherited-path-acl option is enabled, ACLs are generated.
Otherwise, POSIX mode bits are used.

Default home directory settings in authentication providers

The default settings that affect how home directories are set up differ, based on the
authentication provider that the user authenticates against.
Authentication
provider
Local

File

Home directory

Home directory
creation

Enabled
--homedirectorytemplate=/ifs
/home/%U

--createhomedirectory=yes

--loginshell=/bin/sh

--homedirectorytemplate=""

Disabled

UNIX login shell

/bin/sh

None

Home directory creation in a mixed environment

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Authentication
provider

Home directory

Active Directory

Home directory
creation

UNIX login shell

--createhomedirectory=no
Disabled
--homedirectorytemplate=/ifs
/home/%D/%U

--createhomedirectory=no

--loginshell=/bin/sh

/bin/sh

Note

If available, provider
information overrides
this value.
LDAP

NIS

--homedirectorytemplate=""

--createhomedirectory=no

--homedirectorytemplate=""

--createhomedirectory=no

Disabled

None

Disabled

None

Supported expansion variables

You can include expansion variables in an SMB share path or in an authentication
provider's home directory template.
OneFS supports the following expansion variables. You can improve performance and
reduce the number of shares to be managed when you configure shares with expansion
variables. For example, you can include the %U variable for a share rather than create a
share for each user. When a %U is included in the name so that each user's path is
different, security is still ensured because each user can view and access only his or her
home directory.

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Note

When you create an SMB share through the web administration interface, you must select
the Allow Variable Expansion check box or the string is interpreted literally by the system.
Variable Value

Description

%U

User name (for example,

user_001)

Expands to the user name to allow different users

to use different home directories. This variable is
typically included at the end of the path. For
example, for a user named user1, the path /ifs/
home/%U is mapped to /ifs/home/user1.

%D

NetBIOS domain name (for

example, YORK for
YORK.EAST.EXAMPLE.COM)

Expands to the user's domain name, based on the

authentication provider:
l

For Active Directory users, %D expands to the

Active Directory NetBIOS name.

For local users, %D expands to the cluster

name in uppercase characters. For example,
for a cluster named cluster1, %D expands to
CLUSTER1.

For users in the System file provider, %D

expands to UNIX_USERS.

For users in other file providers, %D expands

to FILE_USERS.

For LDAP users, %D expands to LDAP_USERS.

For NIS users, %D expands to NIS_USERS.

%Z

Zone name (for example,

ZoneABC)

Expands to the access zone name. If multiple

zones are activated, this variable is useful for
differentiating users in separate zones. For
example, for a user named user1 in the System
zone, the path /ifs/home/%Z/%U is mapped
to /ifs/home/System/user1.

%L

Host name (cluster host name in

lowercase)

Expands to the host name of the cluster,

normalized to lowercase. Limited use.

%0

First character of the user name

Expands to the first character of the user name.

%1

Second character of the user

name

Expands to the second character of the user name.

%2

Third character of the user name

Expands to the third character of the user name.

Note

If the user name includes fewer than three characters, the %0, %1, and %2 variables
wrap around. For example, for a user named ab, the variables maps to a, b, and a,
respectively. For a user named a, all three variables map to a.

Supported expansion variables

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Domain variables in home directory provisioning

You can use domain variables to specify authentication providers when provisioning
home directories.
The domain variable (%D) is typically used for Active Directory users, but it has a value
set that can be used for other authentication providers. %D expands as described in the
following table for the various authentication providers.
Authenticated user %D expansion
Active Directory user

Active Directory NetBIOS namefor example, YORK for provider

YORK.EAST.EXAMPLE.COM.

Local user

The cluster name in all-uppercase charactersfor example, if the cluster

is named MyCluster, %D expands to MYCLUSTER.

File user

176

UNIX_USERS (for System file provider)

FILE_USERS (for all other file providers)

LDAP user

LDAP_USERS (for all LDAP authentication providers)

NIS user

NIS_USERS (for all NIS authentication providers)

OneFS 8.0.0 Web Administration Guide

CHAPTER 9
Data access control

This section contains the following topics:

l
l
l
l
l

Data access control overview.............................................................................. 178

ACLs....................................................................................................................178
UNIX permissions................................................................................................179
Mixed-permission environments......................................................................... 179
Managing access permissions.............................................................................180

Data access control

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Data access control overview

OneFS supports two types of permissions data on files and directories that control who
has access: Windows-style access control lists (ACLs) and POSIX mode bits (UNIX
permissions). You can configure global policy settings that enable you to customize
default ACL and UNIX permissions to best support your environment.
The OneFS file system installs with UNIX permissions as the default. You can give a file or
directory an ACL by using Windows Explorer or OneFS administrative tools. Typically, files
created over SMB or in a directory that has an ACL, receive an ACL. If a file receives an
ACL, OneFS stops enforcing the file's mode bits; the mode bits are provided for only
protocol compatibility, not for access control.
OneFS supports multiprotocol data access over Network File System (NFS) and Server
Message Block (SMB) with a unified security model. A user is granted or denied the same
access to a file when using SMB for Windows file sharing as when using NFS for UNIX file
sharing.
NFS enables Linux and UNIX clients to remotely mount any subdirectory, including
subdirectories created by Windows or SMB users. Linux and UNIX clients also can mount
ACL-protected subdirectories created by a OneFS administrator. SMB provides Windows
users access to files, directories and other file system resources stored by UNIX and Linux
systems. In addition to Windows users, ACLs can affect local, NIS, and LDAP users.
By default, OneFS maintains the same file permissions regardless of the clients
operating system, the users identity management system, or the file sharing protocol.
When OneFS must transform a files permissions from ACLs to mode bits or vice versa, it
merges the permissions into an optimal representation that uniquely balances user
expectations and file security.

ACLs
In Windows environments, file and directory permissions, referred to as access rights, are
defined in access control lists (ACLs). Although ACLs are more complex than mode bits,
ACLs can express much more granular sets of access rules. OneFS checks the ACL
processing rules commonly associated with Windows ACLs.
A Windows ACL contains zero or more access control entries (ACEs), each of which
represents the security identifier (SID) of a user or a group as a trustee. In OneFS, an ACL
can contain ACEs with a UID, GID, or SID as the trustee. Each ACE contains a set of rights
that allow or deny access to a file or folder. An ACE can optionally contain an inheritance
flag to specify whether the ACE should be inherited by child folders and files.
Note

Instead of the standard three permissions available for mode bits, ACLs have 32 bits of
fine-grained access rights. Of these, the upper 16 bits are general and apply to all object
types. The lower 16 bits vary between files and directories but are defined in a way that
allows most applications to apply the same bits for files and directories.
Rights grant or deny access for a given trustee. You can block user access explicitly
through a deny ACE or implicitly by ensuring that a user does not directly, or indirectly
through a group, appear in an ACE that grants the right.

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UNIX permissions
In a UNIX environment, file and directory access is controlled by POSIX mode bits, which
grant read, write, or execute permissions to the owning user, the owning group, and
everyone else.
OneFS supports the standard UNIX tools for viewing and changing permissions, ls,
chmod, and chown. For more information, run the man ls, man chmod, and man
chown commands.
All files contain 16 permission bits, which provide information about the file or directory
type and the permissions. The lower 9 bits are grouped as three 3-bit sets, called triples,
which contain the read, write, and execute (rwx) permissions for each class of users
owner, group, and other. You can set permissions flags to grant permissions to each of
these classes.
Unless the user is root, OneFS checks the class to determine whether to grant or deny
access to the file. The classes are not cumulative: The first class matched is applied. It is
therefore common to grant permissions in decreasing order.

Mixed-permission environments
When a file operation requests an objects authorization data, for example, with the ls l command over NFS or with the Security tab of the Properties dialog box in Windows
Explorer over SMB, OneFS attempts to provide that data in the requested format. In an
environment that mixes UNIX and Windows systems, some translation may be required
when performing create file, set security, get security, or access operations.

NFS access of Windows-created files

If a file contains an owning user or group that is a SID, the system attempts to map it to a
corresponding UID or GID before returning it to the caller.
In UNIX, authorization data is retrieved by calling stat(2) on a file and examining the
owner, group, and mode bits. Over NFSv3, the GETATTR command functions similarly. The
system approximates the mode bits and sets them on the file whenever its ACL changes.
Mode bit approximations need to be retrieved only to service these calls.
Note

SID-to-UID and SID-to-GID mappings are cached in both the OneFS ID mapper and the
stat cache. If a mapping has recently changed, the file might report inaccurate
information until the file is updated or the cache is flushed.

SMB access of UNIX-created files

No UID-to-SID or GID-to-SID mappings are performed when creating an ACL for a file; all
UIDs and GIDs are converted to SIDs or principals when the ACL is returned.
OneFS initiates a two-step process for returning a security descriptor, which contains
SIDs for the owner and primary group of an object:
1. The current security descriptor is retrieved from the file. If the file does not have a
discretionary access control list (DACL), a synthetic ACL is constructed from the files
lower 9 mode bits, which are separated into three sets of permission triplesone
UNIX permissions

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each for owner, group, and everyone. For details about mode bits, see the UNIX
permissions topic.
2. Two access control entries (ACEs) are created for each triple: the allow ACE contains
the corresponding rights that are granted according to the permissions; the deny ACE
contains the corresponding rights that are denied. In both cases, the trustee of the
ACE corresponds to the file owner, group, or everyone. After all of the ACEs are
generated, any that are not needed are removed before the synthetic ACL is returned.

Managing access permissions

The internal representation of identities and permissions can contain information from
UNIX sources, Windows sources, or both. Because access protocols can process the
information from only one of these sources, the system may need to make
approximations to present the information in a format the protocol can process.

View expected user permissions

You can view the expected permissions for user access to a file or directory.
This procedure must be performed through the command-line interface (CLI).
Procedure
1. Establish an SSH connection to any node in the cluster.
2. View expected user permissions by running the isi auth access command.
The following command displays permissions in /ifs/ for the user that you specify
in place of <username>:
isi auth access <username> /ifs/

The system displays output similar to the following example:

User
Name : <username>
UID : 2018
SID :
SID:S-1-5-21-2141457107-1514332578-1691322784-1018
File
Owner : user:root
Group : group:wheel
Mode : drwxrwxrwx
Relevant Mode : d---rwx--Permissions
Expected : user:<username> \
allow
dir_gen_read,dir_gen_write,dir_gen_execute,delete_child

3. View mode-bits permissions for a user by running the isi auth access command.
The following command displays verbose-mode file permissions information in /
ifs/ for the user that you specify in place of <username>:
isi auth access <username> /ifs/ -v

The system displays output similar to the following example:

User Name : <username> UID \
: 2018 SID : SID:S-1-5-21-2141457107-1514332578-1691322784-1018
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File Owner : user:root Group : group:wheel Mode : drwxrwxrwx

Relevant Mode : d---rwx--- Permissions Expected : user:<username>
allow dir_gen_read,dir_gen_write,dir_gen_execute,delete_child

4. View expected ACL user permissions on a file for a user by running the isi auth
access command.
The following command displays verbose-mode ACL file permissions for the file
file_with_acl.tx in /ifs/data/ for the user that you specify in place of
<username>:
isi auth access <username> /ifs/data/file_with_acl.tx -v

The system displays output similar to the following example:

User Name : <username> \
UID : 2097 SID :
SID:S-1-7-21-2141457107-1614332578-1691322789-1018
File Owner : user:<username> Group : group:wheel
Permissions Expected : user:<username>
allow file_gen_read,file_gen_write,std_write_dac
Relevant Acl: group:<group-name> Users allow file_gen_read
user:<username> allow std_write_dac,file_write,
append,file_write_ext_attr,file_write_attr
group:wheel allow file_gen_read,file_gen_write

Configure access management settings

Default access settings include whether to send NTLMv2 responses for SMB connections,
the identity type to store on disk, the Windows workgroup name for running in local
mode, and character substitution for spaces encountered in user and group names.
Procedure
1. Click Access > Settings.
2. Configure the following settings as needed.
Option

Description

Send NTLMv2

Specifies whether to send only NTLMv2 responses to SMB clients

with NTLM-compatible credentials.

On-Disk Identity Controls the preferred identity to store on disk. If OneFS is unable
to convert an identity to the preferred format, it is stored as is.
This setting does not affect identities that are currently stored on
disk. Select one of the following settings:
native
Allow OneFS to determine the identity to store on disk. This is
the recommended setting.
unix
Always store incoming UNIX identifiers (UIDs and GIDs) on
disk.
sid
Store incoming Windows security identifiers (SIDs) on disk,
unless the SID was generated from a UNIX identifier; in that

Configure access management settings

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Data access control

Option

Description
case, convert it back to the UNIX identifier and store it on
disk.

Workgroup

Specifies the NetBIOS workgroup. The default value is

WORKGROUP.

Space
Replacement

For clients that have difficulty parsing spaces in user and group
names, specifies a substitute character.

3. Click Save.
After you finish
If you changed the on-disk identity selection, it is recommended that you run the
PermissionRepair job with the Convert repair type to prevent potential permissions
errors. For more information, see Update cluster permissions on page 188.

Modify ACL policy settings

You can modify ACL policy settings but the default ACL policy settings are sufficient for
most cluster deployments.
CAUTION

Because ACL policies change the behavior of permissions throughout the system, they
should be modified only as necessary by experienced administrators with advanced
knowledge of Windows ACLs. This is especially true for the advanced settings, which are
applied regardless of the cluster's environment.
For UNIX, Windows, or balanced environments, the optimal permission policy settings are
selected and cannot be modified. However, you can choose to manually configure the
cluster's default permission settings if necessary to support your particular environment.
Procedure
1. Click Access > ACL Policy Settings.
2. In the Environment area, select the option that best describes your environment, or
select Custom environment to configure individual permission policies.
3. If you selected the Custom environment option, settings in the General ACL Settings
area as needed.
4. In the Advanced ACL Settings area, configure the settings as needed.

ACL policy settings options

You can configure an access control list (ACL) policy by choosing from the available
settings options.
Environment
Depending on the environment you select, the system will automatically select the
General ACL Settings and Advanced ACL Settings options that are optimal for that
environment. You also have the option to manually configure general and advanced
settings.
UNIX only
Enables EMC Isilon cluster permissions to operate with UNIX semantics, as opposed
to Windows semantics. Enabling this option prevents ACL creation on the system.
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Balanced
Enables Isilon cluster permissions to operate in a mixed UNIX and Windows
environment. This setting is recommended for most Isilon cluster deployments.
Windows only
Enables Isilon cluster permissions to operate with Windows semantics, as opposed
to UNIX semantics. Enabling this option causes the system to return an error on UNIX
chmod requests.
Configure permission policies manually
Allows you to configure General ACL Settings and Advanced ACL Settings options.
General ACL Settings
ACL Creation Through SMB
Specifies whether to allow or deny creation of ACLs over SMB. Select one of the
following options:
Do not allow ACLs to be created through SMB
Prevents ACL creation on the cluster.
Allow ACLs to be created through SMB
Allows ACL creation on the cluster.
Note

Inheritable ACLs on the system take precedence over this setting. If inheritable ACLs
are set on a folder, any new files and folders created in that folder will inherit the
folder's ACL. Disabling this setting does not remove ACLs currently set on files. If you
want to clear an existing ACL, run the chmod -b <mode> <file> command to remove
the ACL and set the correct permissions.
Use the chmod Command On Files With Existing ACLs
Specifies how permissions are handled when a chmod operation is initiated on a file
with an ACL, either locally or over NFS. This setting controls any elements that affect
UNIX permissions, including File System Explorer. Enabling this policy setting does
not change how chmod operations affect files that do not have ACLs. Select one of
the following options:
Remove the existing ACL and set UNIX permissions instead
For chmod operations, removes any existing ACL and instead sets the chmod
permissions. Select this option only if you do not need permissions to be set
from Windows.
Remove the existing ACL and create an ACL equivalent to the UNIX permissions
Stores the UNIX permissions in a new Windows ACL. Select this option only if
you want to remove Windows permissions but do not want files to have
synthetic ACLs.
Remove the existing ACL and create an ACL equivalent to the UNIX permissions, for
all users/groups referenced in old ACL
Stores the UNIX permissions in a new Windows ACL only for users and groups
referenced by the old ACL. Select this option only if you want to remove
Windows permissions but do not want files to have synthetic ACLs.

ACL policy settings options

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Merge the new permissions with the existing ACL

Merges permissions that are applied by chmod with existing ACLs. An ACE for
each identity (owner, group, and everyone) is either modified or created, but all
other ACEs are unmodified. Inheritable ACEs are also left unmodified to enable
Windows users to continue to inherit appropriate permissions. However, UNIX
users can set specific permissions for each of those three standard identities.
Deny permission to modify the ACL
Prevents users from making NFS and local chmod operations. Enable this
setting if you do not want to allow permission sets over NFS.
Ignore operation if file has an existing ACL
Prevents an NFS client from making changes to the ACL. Select this option if you
defined an inheritable ACL on a directory and want to use that ACL for
permissions.
CAUTION

If you attempt to run the chmod command on the same permissions that are
currently set on a file with an ACL, you may cause the operation to silently fail. The
operation appears to be successful, but if you were to examine the permissions on
the cluster, you would notice that the chmod command had no effect. As an
alternative, you can run the chmod command away from the current permissions
and then perform a second chmod command to revert to the original permissions.
For example, if your file shows 755 UNIX permissions and you want to confirm this
number, you could run chmod 700 file; chmod 755 file.
ACLs Created On Directories By the chmod Command
On Windows systems, the ACEs for directories can define detailed inheritance rules.
On a UNIX system, the mode bits are not inherited. Making ACLs that are created on
directories by the chmod command inheritable is more secure for tightly controlled
environments but may deny access to some Windows users who would otherwise
expect access. Select one of the following options:
l

Make ACLs inheritable

Do not make ACLs inheritable

Use the chown/chgrp On Files With Existing ACLs

Changes the user or group that has ownership of a file or folder. Select one of the
following options:
Modify only the owner and/or group
Enables the chown or chgrp operation to perform as it does in UNIX. Enabling
this setting modifies any ACEs in the ACL associated with the old and new
owner or group.
Modify the owner and/or group and ACL permissions
Enables the NFS chown or chgrp operation to function as it does in Windows.
When a file owner is changed over Windows, no permissions in the ACL are
changed.
Ignore operation if file has an existing ACL
Prevents an NFS client from making changes to the owner or group.
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Note

Over NFS, the chown or chgrp operation changes the permissions and user or
group that has ownership. For example, a file owned by user Joe with rwx------ (700)
permissions indicates rwx permissions for the owner, but no permissions for anyone
else. If you run the chown command to change ownership of the file to user Bob, the
owner permissions are still rwx but they now represent the permissions for Bob,
rather than for Joe, who lost all of his permissions. This setting does not affect UNIX
chown or chgrp operations performed on files with UNIX permissions, and it does
not affect Windows chown or chgrp operations, which do not change any
permissions.
Access checks (chmod, chown)
In UNIX environments, only the file owner or superuser has the right to run a chmod
or chown operation on a file. In Windows environments, you can implement this
policy setting to give users the right to perform chmod operations that change
permissions, or the right to perform chown operations that take ownership, but do
not give ownership away. Select one of the following options:
Allow only the file owner to change the mode or owner of the file (UNIX model)
Enables chmod and chown access checks to operate with UNIX-like behavior.
Allow the file owner and users with WRITE_DAC and WRITE_OWNER permissions to
change the mode or owner of the file (Windows model)
Enables chmod and chown access checks to operate with Windows-like
behavior.
Advanced ACL Settings
Treatment of 'rwx' permissions
In UNIX environments, rwx permissions indicate that a user or group has read, write,
and execute permissions and that a user or group has the maximum level of
permissions.
When you assign UNIX permissions to a file, no ACLs are stored for that file. Because
a Windows system processes only ACLs, the Isilon cluster must translate the UNIX
permissions into an ACL when you view a file's permissions on a Windows system.
This type of ACL is called a synthetic ACL. Synthetic ACLs are not stored anywhere;
instead, they are dynamically generated and discarded as needed. If a file has UNIX
permissions, you may notice synthetic ACLs when you run the ls file command to
view a files ACLs.
When you generate a synthetic ACL, the Isilon cluster maps UNIX permissions to
Windows rights. Windows supports a more granular permissions model than UNIX
does, and it specifies rights that cannot easily be mapped from UNIX permissions. If
the Isilon cluster maps rwx permissions to Windows rights, you must enable one of
the following options:
Retain 'rwx' permissions
Generates an ACE that provides only read, write, and execute permissions.
Treat 'rwx' permissions as Full Control
Generates an ACE that provides the maximum Windows permissions for a user
or a group by adding the change permissions right, the take ownership right,
and the delete right.
ACL policy settings options

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Group Owner Inheritance

Operating systems tend to work with group ownership and permissions in two
different ways: BSD inherits the group owner from the file's parent folder; Windows
and Linux inherit the group owner from the file creator's primary group. If you enable
a setting that causes the group owner to be inherited from the creator's primary
group, you can override it on a per-folder basis by running the chmod command to
set the set-gid bit. This inheritance applies only when the file is created. For more
information, see the manual page for the chmod command.
Select one of the following options:
When an ACL exists, use Linux and Windows semantics, otherwise use BSD
semantics
Specifies that if an ACL exists on a file, the group owner will be inherited from
the file creator's primary group. If there is no ACL, the group owner is inherited
from the parent folder.
BSD semantics - Inherit group owner from the parent folder
Specifies that the group owner be inherited from the file's parent folder.
Linux and Windows semantics - Inherit group owner from the creator's primary
group
Specifies that the group owner be inherited from the file creator's primary
group.
chmod (007) On Files With Existing ACLs
Specifies whether to remove ACLs when running the chmod (007) command.
Select one of the following options.
chmod(007) does not remove existing ACL
Sets 007 UNIX permissions without removing an existing ACL.
chmod(007) removes existing ACL and sets 007 UNIX permissions
Removes ACLs from files over UNIX file sharing (NFS) and locally on the cluster
through the chmod (007) command. If you enable this setting, be sure to run
the chmod command on the file immediately after using chmod (007) to
clear an ACL. In most cases, you do not want to leave 007 permissions on the
file.
Approximate Owner Mode Bits When ACL Exists
Windows ACLs are more complex than UNIX permissions. When a UNIX client
requests UNIX permissions for a file with an ACL over NFS, the client receives an
approximation of the file's actual permissions. Running the ls -l command from a
UNIX client returns a more open set of permissions than the user expects. This
permissiveness compensates for applications that incorrectly inspect the UNIX
permissions themselves when determining whether to attempt a file-system
operation. The purpose of this policy setting is to ensure that these applications
proceed with the operation to allow the file system to properly determine user
access through the ACL. Select one of the following options:
Approximate owner mode bits using all possible group ACEs in ACL
Causes the owner permissions appear more permissive than the actual
permissions on the file.

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Approximate owner mode bits using only the ACE with the owner ID
Causes the owner permissions appear more accurate, in that you see only the
permissions for a particular owner and not the more permissive set. This may
cause access-denied problems for UNIX clients, however.
Approximate Group Mode Bits When ACL Exists
Select one of the following options for group permissions:
Approximate group mode bits using all possible group ACEs in ACL
Makes the group permissions appear more permissive than the actual
permissions on the file.
Approximate group mode bits using only the ACE with the group ID
Makes the group permissions appear more accurate, in that you see only the
permissions for a particular group and not the more permissive set. This may
cause access-denied problems for UNIX clients, however.
Synthetic "deny" ACEs
The Windows ACL user interface cannot display an ACL if any deny ACEs are out of
canonical ACL order. To correctly represent UNIX permissions, deny ACEs may be
required to be out of canonical ACL order. Select one of the following options:
Do not modify synthetic ACLs and mode bit approximations
Prevents modifications to synthetic ACL generation and allows deny ACEs to
be generated when necessary.
CAUTION

This option can lead to permissions being reordered, permanently denying

access if a Windows user or an application performs an ACL get, an ACL
modification, and an ACL set to and from Windows.
Remove deny ACEs from ACLs. This setting can cause ACLs to be more
permissive than the equivalent mode bits
Does not include deny ACEs when generating synthetic ACLs.
Access check (utimes)
You can control who can change utimes, which are the access and modification
times of a file. Select one of the following options:
Allow only owners to change utimes to client-specific times (POSIX compliant)
Allows only owners to change utimes, which complies with the POSIX standard.
Allow owners and users with write access to change utimes to client-specific
times
Allows owners as well as users with write access to modify utimes, which is less
restrictive.
Read-only DOS attribute
Deny permission to modify files with DOS read-only attribute over Windows Files
Sharing (SMB)
Duplicates DOS-attribute permissions behavior over only the SMB protocol, so
that files use the read-only attribute over SMB.
ACL policy settings options

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Deny permission to modify files with DOS read-only attribute through NFS and
SMB
Duplicates DOS-attribute permissions behavior over both NFS and SMB
protocols. For example, if permissions are read-only on a file over SMB,
permissions are read-only over NFS.
Displayed mode bits
Use ACL to approximate mode bits
Displays the approximation of the NFS mode bits that are based on ACL
permissions.
Always display 777 if ACL exists
Displays 777 file permissions. If the approximated NFS permissions are less
permissive than those in the ACL, you may want to use this setting so the NFS
client does not stop at the access check before performing its operation. Use
this setting when a third-party application may be blocked if the ACL does not
provide the proper access.

Run the PermissionsRepair job

You can update file and directory permissions or ownership by running the
RepairPermissions job. To prevent permissions issues that can occur after changing the
on-disk identity, run this job with the Convert Permissions job to ensure that the changes
are fully propagated throughout the cluster.
Procedure
1. Click Cluster Management > Job Operations > Job Types.
2. (Optional) From the Job Types table, click View/Edit in the PermissionRepair row.
The View Job Type Details window appears.
3. Click Edit Job Type.
The Edit Job Type Details window appears.
4. Select Enable this job type.
5. From the Default Priority, list, select a priority number that specifies the job's priority
among all running jobs.
6. (Optional) From the Impact policy list, select an impact policy for the job to follow.
7. From the Schedule area, specify how the job should be started.
Option

Description

Manual

The job must be started manually.

Scheduled The job is regularly scheduled. Select the schedule option from the
drop-down list and specify the schedule details.
8. Click Save Changes, and then click Close.
9. (Optional) From the Job Types table, click Start Job in the PermissionRepair row.
The Start a Job window appears.
10. Select or deselect the Allow Duplicate Jobs checkbox.

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11. (Optional) From the Impact policy list, select an impact policy for the job to follow.
12. In the Paths field, type or browse to the directory in /ifs whose permissions you
want to repair.
13. (Optional) Click Add another directory path and in the added Paths field, type or
browse for an additional directory in /ifs whose permissions you want to repair.
You can repeat this step to add directory paths as needed.
14. From the Repair type list, select one of the following methods for updating
permissions:
Option

Description

Clone

Applies the permissions settings for the directory specified by the

Template File or Directory setting to the directory you set in the Paths
fields.

Inherit

Recursively applies the ACL of the directory that is specified by the

Template File or Directory setting to each file and subdirectory in the
specified Paths fields, according to standard inheritance rules.

Convert For each file and directory in the specified Paths fields, converts the owner,
group, and access control list (ACL) to the target on-disk identity based on
the Mapping Type setting.
The remaining settings options differ depending on the selected repair task.
15. In the Template File or Directory field, type or browse to the directory in /ifs that you
want to copy permissions from. This setting applies to only the Clone and Inherit
repair types.
16. (Optional) From the Mapping type list, select the preferred on-disk identity type to
apply. This setting applies to only the Convert permissions repair task.
Option

Description

Global

Applies the system's default identity.

SID (Windows) Applies the Windows identity.

UNIX

Applies the UNIX identity.

Native

If a user or group does not have an authoritative UNIX identifier (UID

or GID), applies the Windows identity (SID)

17. (Optional) Click Start Job.

Run the PermissionsRepair job

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File sharing

This section contains the following topics:

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File sharing overview........................................................................................... 192

SMB.................................................................................................................... 194
NFS..................................................................................................................... 211
FTP...................................................................................................................... 221
HTTP and HTTPS.................................................................................................. 222

File sharing

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File sharing overview

Multi-protocol support in OneFS enables files and directories on the Isilon cluster to be
accessed through SMB for Windows file sharing, NFS for UNIX file sharing, secure shell
(SSH), FTP, and HTTP. By default, only the SMB and NFS protocols are enabled.
OneFS creates the /ifs directory, which is the root directory for all file system data on
the cluster. The /ifs directory is configured as an SMB share and an NFS export by
default. You can create additional shares and exports within the /ifs directory tree.
Note

We recommend that you do not save data to the root /ifs file path but in directories
below /ifs. The design of your data storage structure should be planned carefully. A
well-designed directory structure optimizes cluster performance and administration.
You can set Windows- and UNIX-based permissions on OneFS files and directories. Users
who have the required permissions and administrative privileges can create, modify, and
read data on the cluster through one or more of the supported file sharing protocols.
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SMB. Allows Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X clients to access files that are stored
on the cluster.

NFS. Allows Linux and UNIX clients that adhere to the RFC1813 (NFSv3) and RFC3530
(NFSv4) specifications to access files that are stored on the cluster.

HTTP and HTTPS (with optional DAV). Allows clients to access files that are stored on
the cluster through a web browser.

FTP. Allows any client that is equipped with an FTP client program to access files that
are stored on the cluster through the FTP protocol.

Mixed protocol environments

The /ifs directory is the root directory for all file system data in the cluster, serving as
an SMB share, an NFS export, and a document root directory. You can create additional
shares and exports within the /ifs directory tree. You can configure your OneFS cluster
to use SMB or NFS exclusively, or both. You can also enable HTTP, FTP, and SSH.
Access rights are consistently enforced across access protocols on all security models. A
user is granted or denied the same rights to a file whether using SMB or NFS. Clusters
running OneFS support a set of global policy settings that enable you to customize the
default access control list (ACL) and UNIX permissions settings.
OneFS is configured with standard UNIX permissions on the file tree. Through Windows
Explorer or OneFS administrative tools, you can give any file or directory an ACL. In
addition to Windows domain users and groups, ACLs in OneFS can include local, NIS, and
LDAP users and groups. After a file is given an ACL, the mode bits are no longer enforced
and exist only as an estimate of the effective permissions.
Note

We recommend that you configure ACL and UNIX permissions only if you fully understand
how they interact with one another.

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Write caching with SmartCache

Write caching accelerates the process of writing data to the cluster. OneFS includes a
write-caching feature called SmartChache, which is enabled by default for all files and
directories.
If write caching is enabled, OneFS writes data to a write-back cache instead of
immediately writing the data to disk. OneFS can write the data to disk at a time that is
more convenient.
Note

We recommend that you keep write caching enabled. You should also enable write
caching for all file pool policies.
OneFS interprets writes to the cluster as either synchronous or asynchronous, depending
on a client's specifications. The impacts and risks of write caching depend on what
protocols clients use to write to the cluster, and whether the writes are interpreted as
synchronous or asynchronous. If you disable write caching, client specifications are
ignored and all writes are performed synchronously.
The following table explains how clients' specifications are interpreted, according to the
protocol.
Protocol Synchronous

Asynchronous

NFS

The stable field is set to data_sync or

file_sync.

The stable field is set to unstable.

SMB

The write-through flag has been

applied.

The write-through flag has not been

applied.

Write caching for asynchronous writes

Writing to the cluster asynchronously with write caching is the fastest method of writing
data to your cluster.
Write caching for asynchronous writes requires fewer cluster resources than write caching
for synchronous writes, and will improve overall cluster performance for most workflows.
However, there is some risk of data loss with asynchronous writes.
The following table describes the risk of data loss for each protocol when write caching
for asynchronous writes is enabled:
Protocol Risk
NFS

If a node fails, no data will be lost except in the unlikely event that a client of that
node also crashes before it can reconnect to the cluster. In that situation,
asynchronous writes that have not been committed to disk will be lost.

SMB

If a node fails, asynchronous writes that have not been committed to disk will be lost.

We recommend that you do not disable write caching, regardless of the protocol that you
are writing with. If you are writing to the cluster with asynchronous writes, and you decide
that the risks of data loss are too great, we recommend that you configure your clients to
use synchronous writes, rather than disable write caching.

Write caching with SmartCache

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Write caching for synchronous writes

Write caching for synchronous writes costs cluster resources, including a negligible
amount of storage space. Although it is not as fast as write caching with asynchronous
writes, unless cluster resources are extremely limited, write caching with synchronous
writes is faster than writing to the cluster without write caching.
Write caching does not affect the integrity of synchronous writes; if a cluster or a node
fails, none of the data in the write-back cache for synchronous writes is lost.

SMB
OneFS includes a configurable SMB service to create and manage SMB shares. SMB
shares provide Windows clients network access to file system resources on the cluster.
You can grant permissions to users and groups to carry out operations such as reading,
writing, and setting access permissions on SMB shares.
The /ifs directory is configured as an SMB share and is enabled by default. OneFS
supports both user and anonymous security modes. If the user security mode is enabled,
users who connect to a share from an SMB client must provide a valid user name with
proper credentials.
SMB shares act as checkpoints, and users must have access to a share in order to access
objects in a file system on a share. If a user has access granted to a file system, but not to
the share on which it resides, that user will not be able to access the file system
regardless of privileges. For example, assume a share named ABCDocs contains a file
named file1.txt in a path such as: /ifs/data/ABCDocs/file1.txt. If a user
attempting to access file1.txt does not have share privileges on ABCDocs, that user
cannot access the file even if originally granted read and/or write privileges to the file.
The SMB protocol uses security identifiers (SIDs) for authorization data. All identities are
converted to SIDs during retrieval and are converted back to their on-disk representation
before they are stored on the cluster.
When a file or directory is created, OneFS checks the access control list (ACL) of its parent
directory. If the ACL contains any inheritable access control entries (ACEs), a new ACL is
generated from those ACEs. Otherwise, OneFS creates an ACL from the combined file and
directory create mask and create mode settings.
OneFS supports the following SMB clients:
SMB version

Supported operating systems

3.0 - Multichannel only Windows 8 or later

Windows Server 2012 or later
2.1

Windows 7 or later
Windows Server 2008 R2 or later

2.0

Windows Vista or later

Windows Server 2008 or later
Mac OS X 10.9 or later

1.0

Windows 2000 or later

Windows XP or later
Mac OS X 10.5 or later

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SMB shares in access zones

You can create and manage SMB shares within access zones.
You can create access zones that partition storage on the EMC Isilon cluster into multiple
virtual containers. Access zones support all configuration settings for authentication and
identity management services on the cluster, so you can configure authentication
providers and provision SMB shares on a zone-by-zone basis. When you create an access
zone, a local provider is created automatically, which allows you to configure each access
zone with a list of local users and groups. You can also authenticate through a different
Active Directory provider in each access zone, and you can control data access by
directing incoming connections to the access zone from a specific IP address in a pool.
Associating an access zone with an IP address pool restricts authentication to the
associated access zone and reduces the number of available and accessible SMB shares.
Here are a few ways to simplify SMB management with access zones:
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Migrate multiple SMB servers, such as Windows file servers or NetApp filers, to a
single Isilon cluster, and then configure a separate access zone for each SMB server.

Configure each access zone with a unique set of SMB share names that do not
conflict with share names in other access zones, and then join each access zone to a
different Active Directory domain.

Reduce the number of available and accessible shares to manage by associating an

IP address pool with an access zone to restrict authentication to the zone.

Configure default SMB share settings that apply to all shares in an access zone.

The Isilon cluster includes a built-in access zone named System, where you manage all
aspects of the cluster and other access zones. If you don't specify an access zone when
managing SMB shares, OneFS will default to the System zone.

SMB Multichannel
SMB Multichannel supports establishing a single SMB session over multiple network
connections.
SMB Multichannel is a feature of the SMB 3.0 protocol that provides the following
capabilities:
Increased throughput
OneFS can transmit more data to a client through multiple connections over high
speed network adapters or over multiple network adapters.
Connection failure tolerance
When an SMB Multichannel session is established over multiple network
connections, the session is not lost if one of the connections has a network fault,
which enables the client to continue to work.
Automatic discovery
SMB Multichannel automatically discovers supported hardware configurations on
the client that have multiple available network paths and then negotiates and
establishes a session over multiple network connections. You are not required to
install components, roles, role services, or features.

SMB shares in access zones

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SMB Multichannel requirements

You must meet software and NIC configuration requirements to support SMB
Multichannel on the EMC Isilon cluster.
OneFS can only support SMB Multichannel when the following software requirements are
met:
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Windows Server 2012, 2012 R2 or Windows 8, 8.1 clients

SMB Multichannel must be enabled on both the EMC Isilon cluster and the Windows
client computer. It is enabled on the Isilon cluster by default.

SMB Multichannel establishes a single SMB session over multiple network connections
only on supported network interface card (NIC) configurations. SMB Multichannel
requires at least one of the following NIC configurations on the client computer:
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Two or more network interface cards.

One or more network interface cards that support Receive Side Scaling (RSS).

One or more network interface cards configured with link aggregation. Link
aggregation enables you to combine the bandwidth of multiple NICs on a node into a
single logical interface.

Client-side NIC configurations supported by SMB Multichannel

SMB Multichannel automatically discovers supported hardware configurations on the
client that have multiple available network paths.
Each node on the EMC Isilon cluster has at least one RSS-capable network interface card
(NIC). Your client-side NIC configuration determines how SMB Multichannel establishes
simultaneous network connections per SMB session.
Client-side NIC
Configuration

Description

Single RSS-capable
NIC

SMB Multichannel establishes a maximum of four network connections to

the Isilon cluster over the NIC. The connections are more likely to be
spread across multiple CPU cores, which reduces the likelihood of
performance bottleneck issues and achieves the maximum speed
capability of the NIC.

Multiple NICs

If the NICs are RSS-capable, SMB Multichannel establishes a maximum of

four network connections to the Isilon cluster over each NIC. If the NICs on
the client are not RSS-capable, SMB Multichannel establishes a single
network connection to the Isilon cluster over each NIC. Both configurations
allow SMB Multichannel to leverage the combined bandwidth of multiple
NICs and provides connection fault tolerance if a connection or a NIC fails.
Note

SMB Multichannel cannot establish more than eight simultaneous network

connections per session. In a multiple NIC configuration, this might limit
the number connections allowed per NIC. For example, if the configuration
contains three RSS-capable NICs, SMB Multichannel might establish three
connections over the first NIC, three connections over the second NIC and
two connections over the third NIC.
Aggregated NICs

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SMB Multichannel establishes multiple network connections to the Isilon

cluster over aggregated NICs, which results in balanced connections

File sharing

Client-side NIC
Configuration

Description
across CPU cores, effective consumption of combined bandwidth, and
connection fault tolerance.
Note

The aggregated NIC configuration inherently provides NIC fault tolerance

that is not dependent upon SMB.

SMB share management through MMC

OneFS supports the Shared Folders snap-in for the Microsoft Management Console
(MMC), which allows SMB shares on the EMC Isilon cluster to be managed using the MMC
tool.
Typically, you connect to the global System zone through the web administration
interface or the command line interface to manage and configure shares. If you configure
access zones, you can connect to a zone through the MMC Shared Folders snap-in to
directly manage all shares in that zone.
You can establish a connection through the MMC Shared Folders snap-in to an Isilon
node and perform the following SMB share management tasks:
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Create and delete shared folders

Configure access permission to an SMB share

View a list of active SMB sessions

Close open SMB sessions

View a list of open files

Close open files

When you connect to a zone through the MMC Shared Folders snap-in, you can view and
manage all SMB shares assigned to that zone; however, you can only view active SMB
sessions and open files on the specific node that you are connected to in that zone.
Changes you make to shares through the MMC Shared Folders snap-in are propagated
across the cluster.

MMC connection requirements

You can connect to an EMC Isilon cluster through the MMC Shared Folders snap-in if you
meet access requirements.
The following conditions are required to establish a connection through the MMC Shared
Folders snap-in:
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You must run the Microsoft Management Console (MMC) from a Windows workstation
that is joined to the domain of an Active Directory (AD) provider configured on the
cluster.

You must be a member of the local <cluster>\Administrators group.

Note

Role-based access control (RBAC) privileges do not apply to the MMC. A role with
SMB privileges is not sufficient to gain access.

SMB share management through MMC

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You must log in to a Windows workstation as an Active Directory user that is a

member of the local <cluster>\Administrators group.

SMB server-side copy

In order to increase system performance, SMB 2 and later clients can utilize the serverside copy feature in OneFS.
Windows clients making use of server-side copy support may experience performance
improvements for file copy operations, because file data no longer needs to traverse the
network. The server-side copy feature reads and writes files only on the server, avoiding
the network round-trip and duplication of file data. This feature only affects file copy or
partial copy operations in which the source and destination file handles are open on the
same share, and does not work for cross-share operations.
This feature is enabled by default across OneFS clusters, and can only be disabled
system-wide across all zones. Additionally, server-side copy in OneFS is incompatible
with the SMB continuous availability feature. If continuous availability is enabled for a
share and the client opens a persistent file handle, server-side copy is automatically
disabled for that file.
Note

You can only disable or enable SMB server-side copy for OneFS using the command line
interface (CLI).

Enable or disable SMB server-side copy

You can enable or disable the SMB server-side copy feature.
The SMB server-side copy feature is enabled in OneFS by default.
Procedure
1. Open a secure shell (SSH) connection to the EMC Isilon cluster.
2. Run the isi smb settings global modify command.
3. Modify the --server-side-copy option as necessary.
This feature is enabled by default.
For example, the following command disables SMB server-side copy:
isi smb settings global modify --server-side-copy=no

SMB continuous availability

If you are running OneFS in an SMB 3.0 environment, you allow certain Windows clients
to open files on a server with continuous availability enabled.
If a server is using Windows 8 or Windows Server 2012, clients can create persistent file
handles that can be reclaimed after an outage such as a network-related disconnection
or a server failure. You can specify how long the persistent handle is retained after a
disconnection or server failure, and also force strict lockouts on users attempting to open
a file belonging to another handle. Furthermore, through the OneFS command-line
interface (CLI), you can configure write integrity settings to control the stability of writes to
the share.
If continuous availability is enabled for a share and the client opens a persistent file
handle, server-side copy is automatically disabled for that file.
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Note

You can only enable continuous availability when creating a share, but you can update
timeout, lockout, and write integrity settings when creating or modifying a share.

Enable SMB continuous availability

You can enable SMB 3.0 continuous availability and configure settings when you create a
share.
You can also update continuous availability timeout, lockout, and write integrity settings
when you modify a share.
Procedure
1. Go to Protocols > Windows Sharing (SMB) > SMB Shares and create a share.
2. Check Enable continuous availability on the share.
3. (Optional) Click Show Advanced Settings.
4. (Optional) In the Continuous Availability Timeout field, specify the amount of time you
want a persistent handle to be retained after a client is disconnected or a server fails.
The default is two minutes.
5. (Optional) Set Strict Continuous Availability Lockout to yes to prevent a client from
opening a file if another client has an open but disconnected persistent handle for
that file. If set to no, OneFS issues persistent handles, but discards them if any client
other than the original opener attempts to access the file. The default is yes.
6. Click Create Share if you are creating a new share, or Save Changes if you are
modifying settings for an existing share.
7. If you want to configure write integrity settings:
a. Open a secure shell (SSH) connection for the OneFS command line interface (CLI).
b. Set the --ca-write-integrity parameter to one of the following:
none
Continuously available writes are not handled differently than other writes to
the cluster. If you specify none and a node fails, you may experience data
loss without notification. Therefore, we do not recommend this option.
write-read-coherent
Writes to the share are moved to persistent storage before a success message
is returned to the SMB client that sent the data. This is the default setting.
full
Writes to the share are moved to persistent storage before a success message
is returned to the SMB client that sent the data, and prevents OneFS from
granting SMB clients write-caching and handle-caching leases.

SMB file filtering

You can use SMB file filtering to allow or deny file writes to a share or access zone.
This feature enables you to deny certain types of files that might cause throughput
issues, security problems, storage clutter, or productivity disruptions. You can restrict
writes by allowing writes of certain file types to a share.
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If you choose to deny file writes, you can specify file types by extension that are not
allowed to be written. OneFS permits all other file types to be written to the share.
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If you choose to allow file writes, you can specify file types by extension that are
allowed to be written. OneFS denies all other file types to be written to the share.

You can add or remove file extensions if your restriction policies change.

Enable SMB file filtering

You can enable or disable SMB file filtering for a share.
Procedure
1. Click Protocols > Windows Sharing (SMB) > Default Share Settings.
2. Click the Enable file filters checkbox.
3. From the File Extensions drop-down list, select one of the following:
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Deny writes for list of file extensions. The file types that you specify cannot be
written to the share.

Allow writes for list of file extensions. The file types that you specify are the only
file types that are allowed to be written to the share.

4. Click Add File Extensions.

5. Enter a file type, such as .wav or .mpg, in the File Extensions field.
6. (Optional) To specify more file types, click Add another file extension.
7. Click Add Extensions to save the changes.
8. To remove a file type from the list of extensions, click the check box corresponding to
the extension, then click Delete.

Symbolic links and SMB clients

OneFS enables SMB2 clients to access symbolic links in a seamless manner. Many
administrators deploy symbolic links to virtually reorder file system hierarchies,
especially when crucial files or directories are scattered around an environment.
In an SMB share, a symbolic link (also known as a symlink or a soft link) is a type of file
that contains a path to a target file or directory. Symbolic links are transparent to
applications running on SMB clients, and they function as typical files and directories.
Support for relative and absolute links is enabled by the SMB client. The specific
configuration depends on the client type and version.
A symbolic link that points to a network file or directory that is not in the path of the
active SMB session is referred to as an absolute (or remote) link. Absolute links always
point to the same location on a file system, regardless of the present working directory,
and usually contain the root directory as part of the path. Conversely, a relative link is a
symbolic link that points directly to a user's or application's working directory, so you do
not have to specify the full absolute path when creating the link.
OneFS exposes symbolic links through the SMB2 protocol, enabling SMB2 clients to
resolve the links instead of relying on OneFS to resolve the links on behalf of the clients.
To transverse a relative or absolute link, the SMB client must be authenticated to the
SMB shares that the link can be followed through. However, if the SMB client does not
have permission to access the share, access to the target is denied and Windows will not
prompt the user for credentials.
SMB2 and NFS links are interoperable for relative links only. For maximum compatibility,
create these links from a POSIX client.

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Note

SMB1 clients (such as Windows XP or 2002) may still use relative links, but they are
traversed on the server side and referred to as "shortcut files." Absolute links do not work
in these environments.

Enabling symbolic links

Before you can fully use symbolic links in an SMB environment, you must enable them.
For Windows SMB clients to traverse each type of symbolic link, you must enable them on
the client. Windows supports the following link types:
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local to local

remote to remote

local to remote

remote to local

You must run the following Windows command to enable all four link types:
fsutil behavior set SymlinkEvaluation L2L:1 R2R:1 L2R:1 R2L:1

For POSIX clients using Samba, you must set the following options in the [global]
section of your Samba configuration file (smb.conf) to enable Samba clients to traverse
relative and absolute links:
follow symlinks=yes
wide links=yes

In this case, "wide links" in the smb.conf file refers to absolute links. The default
setting in this file is no.

Managing symbolic links

After enabling symbolic links, you can create or delete them from the Windows command
prompt or a POSIX command line.
Create symbolic links using the Windows mklink command on an SMB2 client or the ln
command from a POSIX command-line interface. For example, an administrator may want
to give a user named User1 access to a file named File1.doc in the /ifs/data/
directory without giving specific access to that directory by creating a link named Link1:
mklink \ifs\home\users\User1\Link1 \ifs\data\Share1\File1.doc

When you create a symbolic link, it is designated as a file link or directory link. Once the
link is set, the designation cannot be changed. You can format symbolic link paths as
either relative or absolute.
To delete symbolic links, use the del command in Windows, or the rm command in a
POSIX environment.
Keep in mind that when you delete a symbolic link, the target file or directory still exists.
However, when you delete a target file or directory, a symbolic link continues to exist and
still points to the old target, thus becoming a broken link.

Symbolic links and SMB clients

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Anonymous access to SMB shares

You can configure anonymous access to SMB shares by enabling the local Guest user and
allowing impersonation of the guest user.
For example, if you store files such as browser executables or other data that is public on
the internet, anonymous access allows any user to access the SMB share without
authenticating.

Managing SMB settings

You can enable or disable the SMB service, configure global settings for the SMB service,
and configure default SMB share settings that are specific to each access zone.

Configure SMB server settings

You can enable or disable the SMB server and configure global settings for SMB shares
and snapshot directories.
CAUTION

Modifying the advanced settings can result in operational problems. Be aware of the
potential consequences before committing changes to these settings.
Procedure
1. Click Protocols > Windows Sharing (SMB) > SMB Server Settings.
2. In the Service area, select Enable SMB Service.
3. In the Advanced Settings area, choose the system default or a custom configuration
for the following settings:
l

Visible at root

Accessible at root

Visible in subdirectories

Accessible in subdirectories

4. Click Save Changes.

Configure default SMB share settings

You can configure SMB share settings specific to each access zone.
The default settings are applied to all new shares that are added to the access zone.
CAUTION

If you modify the default settings, the changes are applied to all existing shares in the
access zone unless the setting was configured at the SMB share level.
Procedure
1. Click Protocols > Windows Sharing (SMB) > Default Share Settings.
2. From the Current Access Zones drop-down list, select the access zone that the default
settings will apply to.
3. In the File Filtering area, select Enable file filters to enable file filtering.
4. In the Advanced Settings area, choose the system default or a custom configuration
for the following settings:
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CA Timeout

Strict CA Lockout

Create Permissions

Directory Create Mask

Directory Create Mode

File Create Mask

File Create Mode

Change Notify

Oplocks

Impersonate Guest

Impersonate User

NTFS ACL

Access Based Enumeration

Host ACL

5. Click Save Changes.

Enable or disable SMB Multichannel

SMB Multichannel is required for multiple, concurrent SMB sessions from a Windows
client computer to a node in an EMC Isilon cluster. SMB Multichannel is enabled in the
Isilon cluster by default.
You can enable or disable SMB Multichannel only through the command-line interface.
Procedure
1. Open a secure shell (SSH) connection to any node in the cluster and log in.
2. Run the isi smb settings global modify command.
The following command enables SMB Multichannel on the EMC Isilon cluster:
isi smb settings global modify -support-multichannel=yes

The following command disables SMB Multichannel on the EMC Isilon cluster:
isi smb settings global modify -support-multichannel=no

Snapshots directory settings

You can view and configure the settings that control the snapshots directories in SMB.
CAUTION

These settings affect the behavior of the SMB service. Changes to these settings can
affect all current and future SMB shares.
Setting

Setting value

Visible at Root

Specifies whether to make the .snapshot directory visible at the root

of the share. The default value is Yes.

Accessible at Root

Specifies whether to make the .snapshot directory accessible at the

root of the share. The default value is Yes.
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Setting

Setting value

Visible in Subdirectories

Specifies whether to make the .snapshot directory visible in

subdirectories of the share root. The default value is No.

Accessible in
Subdirectories

Specifies whether to make the .snapshot directory accessible in

subdirectories of the share root. The default value is Yes.

File and directory permission settings

You can view and configure the default source permissions and UNIX create mask/mode
bits that are applied when a file or directory is created in an SMB share.
Note

Changes that are made directly to an SMB share override the default settings configured
from the Default SMB Share Settings tab.
If the mask and mode bits match the default values, a green check mark next to a setting
appears, indicating that the specified read (R), write (W), or execute (X) permission is
enabled at the user, group, or "other" level. The "other" level includes all users who are
not listed as the owner of the share, and are not part of the group level that the file
belongs to.
Setting

Setting value

CA Timeout

Specifies the amount of time you want a persistent handle to be retained

after a client is disconnected or a server fails. The default is two minutes.

Strict CA Lockout

Prevents a client from opening a file if another client has an open but
disconnected persistent handle for that file. If set to no, OneFS will issue
persistent handles, but discards them if any client other than the original
opener attempts to open the file. The default is no.

Create Permissions Sets the default source permissions to apply when a file or directory is
created. The default value is Default ACL.
Create Mask (Dir)

Specifies UNIX mode bits that are removed when a directory is created,
restricting permissions. Mask bits are applied before mode bits are applied.

Create Mode (Dir)

Specifies UNIX mode bits that are added when a directory is created,
enabling permissions. Mode bits are applied after mask bits are applied.

Create Mask (File)

Specifies UNIX mode bits that are removed when a file is created, restricting
permissions. Mask bits are applied before mode bits are applied.

Create Mode (File)

Specifies UNIX mode bits that are added when a file is created, enabling
permissions. Mode bits are applied after mask bits are applied.

SMB performance settings

You can view and configure the change notify and oplocks performance settings of an
SMB share.
Note

Changes that are made directly to an SMB share override the default settings configured
from the Default SMB Share Settings tab.
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Setting

Setting value

Change Notify Configures notification of clients when files or directories change. This helps
prevent clients from seeing stale content, but requires server resources. The
default value is Norecurse.
Oplocks

Indicates whether an opportunistic lock (oplock) request is allowed. An oplock

allows clients to provide performance improvements by using locally-cached
information. The default value is Yes.

SMB security settings

You can view and configure the security settings of an SMB share.
Note

Changes that are made directly to an SMB share override the default settings configured
from the Default SMB Share Settings tab.
Setting

Setting value

Impersonate Guest

Determines guest access to a share. The default value is Never.

Impersonate User

Allows all file access to be performed as a specific user. This must be a

fully qualified user name. The default value is No value.

NTFS ACL

Allows ACLs to be stored and edited from SMB clients. The default value
is Yes.

Access Based
Enumeration

Allows access based enumeration only on the files and folders that the
requesting user can access. The default value is No.

HOST ACL

The ACL that defines host access. The default is no value specified.

Managing SMB shares

You can configure the rules and other settings that govern the interaction between your
Windows network and individual SMB shares on the cluster.
OneFS supports %U, %D, %Z, %L, %0, %1, %2, and %3 variable expansion and
automatic provisioning of user home directories.
You can configure the users and groups that are associated with an SMB share, and view
or modify their share-level permissions.
Note

We recommend that you configure advanced SMB share settings only if you have a solid
understanding of the SMB protocol.

Create an SMB share

When you create an SMB share, you can override the default permissions, performance,
and access settings. You can configure SMB home directory provisioning by including

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expansion variables in the share path to automatically create and redirect users to their
own home directories.
Before you begin
Specify a directory path to use as the SMB share, and create the directory before you
create an SMB share. Shares are specific to access zones and the share path must exist
under the zone path. Create access zones before you create SMB shares.
Procedure
1. Click Protocols > Windows Sharing (SMB) > SMB Shares.
2. From the Current Access Zone drop-down list, select the access zone where you want
to create the share.
3. Click Add a share.
4. In the Name field, type a name for the share.
Share names can contain up to 80 characters, except for the following: " \ / [ ] :
| < > + = ; , * ?

Also, if the cluster character encoding is not set to UTF-8, SMB share names are casesensitive.
5. (Optional) In the Description field, type a comment about the share.
A description is optional, but can be helpful if you are managing multiple shares. This
field is limited to 255 characters.
6. In the Path field, type the full directory path of the share, beginning with /ifs, or
click Browse to locate the directory path.
Note

If you want to use any of the variables in the following table when you specify a
directory path, select the Allow Variable Expansion checkbox or the system interprets
the string literally.
Variable Expansion
%D

NetBIOS domain name.

%U

Usernamefor example, user_001.

%Z

Zone namefor example, System.

%L

Hostname of the cluster, normalized to lowercase.

%0

First character of the username.

%1

Second character of the username.

%2

Third character of the username.

For example, if a user is in a domain that is named DOMAIN and has a username of
user_1, the path /ifs/home/%D/%U expands to /ifs/home/DOMAIN/user_1.
7. Select the Create SMB share directory if it does not exist check
box to enable OneFS to create the directory path for the share if it did not previously
exist.
8. Apply the initial ACL settings for the directory. You can modify these settings later.
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To apply a default ACL to the shared directory, click Apply Windows default ACLs.
Note

If the Auto-Create Directories setting is enabled, OneFS creates an ACL with the
equivalent of UNIX 700 mode bit permissions for any directory that is created
automatically.
l

To maintain the existing permissions on the shared directory, click Do not change
existing permissions.

9. (Optional) Configure home directory provisioning settings.

l

To expand path variables such as %U in the share directory path, select Allow
Variable Expansion.

To automatically create home directories when users access the share for the first
time, select Auto-Create Directories. This option is available only if the Allow
Variable Expansion option is enabled.

10. Select the Share is continuously available check box to enable SMB continuous
availability for the share.
11. Click Add User or Group to edit the user and group settings.
The default permissions configuration is read-only access for the well-known Everyone
account. Modify settings to allow users to write to the share.
12. (Optional) Click Show Extra Options to apply advanced SMB share settings if needed.
13. Click Create Share.

Modify SMB share permissions, performance, or security

You can modify the permissions, performance, and access settings for individual SMB
shares.
You can configure SMB home directory provisioning by using directory path, or
expansion, variables to automatically create and redirect users to their own home
directories.
Note

Any changes made to these settings will only affect the settings for this share. If you need
to make changes to default SMB share values, that can be done from the Default SMB
Share Settings tab.
Procedure
1. Click Protocols > Windows Sharing (SMB) > SMB Shares.
2. From the Current Access Zone drop-down list, select the access zone that contains the
share you want to modify.
3. From the list of SMB shares, locate the share you want to modify and then click View/
Edit.
The settings for the share display.
4. Click Edit SMB Share.
5. Modify the desired settings.
6. (Optional) To modify the settings for file and directory permissions, performance, or
security, click Show Extra Options.
7. Click Save Changes.
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Delete an SMB share

You can delete SMB shares that are no longer needed.
Unused SMB shares do not hinder cluster performance. If you delete an SMB share, the
share path is deleted but the directory it referenced still exists. If you create a new share
with the same path as the share that was deleted, the directory that the previous share
referenced will be accessible again through the new share.
Procedure
1. Click Protocols > Windows Sharing (SMB) > SMB Shares.
2. From the Current Access Zone drop-down list, select the access zone that contains the
share that you want to delete.
3. From the list of SMB shares, select the share that you want to delete.
Note

You can delete multiple shares on the cluster by selecting the check boxes next to the
share name, and then clicking Delete.
4. In the confirmation dialog box, click Delete to confirm the deletion.

Limit access to /ifs share for the Everyone account

By default, the /ifs root directory is configured as an SMB share in the System access
zone. We recommend that you restrict the Everyone account of this share to read-only
access.
Procedure
1. Click Protocols > Windows Sharing (SMB) > SMB Shares.
2. From the Current Access Zone drop-down list, select System.
3. Select the check box corresponding to the /ifs share and click View/Edit.
The View SMB Share Details dialog appears.
4. Click Edit SMB Share.
The Edit SMB Share Details dialog appears.
5. In the Users and Groups area, select the checkbox corresponding to the Everyone
account, and click View/Edit.
The Edit Persona dialog appears.
6. Click Specify Permission Level and then select the Read check box.
The Full Control and Read-Write options should not be selected.
Note

You may have to click the Full Control check box to move the check to the
Read-Write check box, and then click the Read-Write check box to move the
check to the Read check box.
7. Click Apply.

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Configure anonymous access to a single SMB share

You can configure anonymous access to data stored on a single share through Guest user
impersonation.
Procedure
1. Click Access > Membership & Roles > Users.
2. From the Current Access Zone list, select the access zone that contains the share you
want to allow anonymous access.
3. From the Providers drop-down list, select Local.
a. Click View/Edit for the Guest account.
The View User Details dialog appears.
b. Click Edit User.
c. Select the Enable the account check box, and then click Save.
4. Click Protocols > Windows Sharing (SMB) > SMB Shares.
5. Click View/Edit next to the share you to allow anonymous access.
6. Click Edit SMB Share.
7. Click Show Extra Options.
8. At Impersonate Guest, select Use Custom.
9. From the drop-down list that appears, select Always.
10. Click Save Changes.

Configure anonymous access to all SMB shares in an access zone

You can configure anonymous access to data stored in an access zone through Guest
user impersonation.
Procedure
1. Click Access > Membership & Roles > Users.
2. From the Current Access Zone list, select the access zone you want to allow
anonymous access.
3. From the Users list, select Local.
a. Click View details for the Guest account.
b. Next to the Enable Account area, click Edit.
c. Select the Enable Account check box, and then click Save.
4. Click Protocols > Windows Sharing (SMB) > Default Share Settings.
5. From the Current Access Zone list, select the access zone you want to allow
anonymous access.
6. Click Show, and then click Security Settings.
7. At Impersonate Guest, click Use Custom.
8. From the drop-down list that appears, select Always.
9. Click Save Changes.

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Add a user or group to an SMB share

For each SMB share, you can add share-level permissions for specific users and groups.
Procedure
1. Click Protocols > Windows Sharing (SMB) > SMB Shares.
2. From the Current Access Zone drop-down list, select the access zone that contains the
share you want to add a user or group to.
3. From the list of SMB shares, locate the share you want to modify and then click View/
Edit.
4. Click Edit SMB Share.
5. At the Users and Groups section, click Add a User or Group.
The Add Persona dialog appears.
6. Click Select User.
The Select Persona dialog appears.
7. You can locate the user or group through one of the following methods:
l

Type the Username or Group Name you want to search for in the text field, and
then click Search.

Select the authentication provider you want to search in the text field, and then
click Search. Only providers that are currently configured and enabled on the
cluster are listed.

Type the Username or Group Name and select an authentication provider and click
Search.

8. If you selected Well-known SIDs, click Search.

9. In the search results, click the user, group, or SID that you want to add to the SMB
share and then click Select.
10. By default, the access rights of the new account are set to Deny All. To enable a
user or group to access the share, follow these additional steps:
a. Next to the user or group account you added, click Edit.
b. Select Run as Root or select Specify Permission Level and then select one or more
of the following permission levels: Full Control, Read-Write, and Read.
11. Click Save.

Configure multi-protocol home directory access

For users who will access this share through FTP or SSH, you can make sure that their
home directory path is the same whether they connect through SMB or they log in
through FTP or SSH. This task may only be performed at the OneFS command-line
interface.
This command directs the SMB share to use the home directory template that is specified
in the user's authentication provider. This procedure is available only through the
command-line interface.
Procedure
1. Establish an SSH connection to any node in the cluster.

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2. Run the following command, where <share> is the name of the SMB share and --path
is the directory path of the home directory template specified by the user's
authentication provider:
isi smb shares modify <share> --path=""

NFS
OneFS provides an NFS server so you can share files on your cluster with NFS clients that
adhere to the RFC1813 (NFSv3) and RFC3530 (NFSv4) specifications.
In OneFS, the NFS server is fully optimized as a multi-threaded service running in user
space instead of the kernel. This architecture load balances the NFS service across all
nodes of the cluster, providing the stability and scalability necessary to manage up to
thousands of connections across multiple NFS clients.
NFS mounts execute and refresh quickly, and the server constantly monitors fluctuating
demands on NFS services and makes adjustments across all nodes to ensure continuous,
reliable performance. Using a built-in process scheduler, OneFS helps ensure fair
allocation of node resources so that no client can seize more than its fair share of NFS
services.
The NFS server also supports access zones defined in OneFS, so that clients can access
only the exports appropriate to their zone. For example, if NFS exports are specified for
Zone 2, only clients assigned to Zone 2 can access these exports.
To simplify client connections, especially for exports with large path names, the NFS
server also supports aliases, which are shortcuts to mount points that clients can specify
directly.
For secure NFS file sharing, OneFS supports NIS and LDAP authentication providers.

NFS exports
You can manage individual NFS export rules that define mount-points (paths) available to
NFS clients and how the server should perform with these clients.
In OneFS, you can create, delete, list, view, modify, and reload NFS exports.
NFS export rules are zone-aware. Each export is associated with a zone, can only be
mounted by clients on that zone, and can only expose paths below the zone root. By
default, any export command applies to the client's current zone.
Each rule must have at least one path (mount-point), and can include additional paths.
You can also specify that all subdirectories of the given path or paths are mountable.
Otherwise, only the specified paths are exported, and child directories are not
mountable.
An export rule can specify a particular set of clients, enabling you to restrict access to
certain mount-points or to apply a unique set of options to these clients. If the rule does
not specify any clients, then the rule applies to all clients that connect to the server. If the
rule does specify clients, then that rule is applied only to those clients.

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NFS aliases
You can create and manage aliases as shortcuts for directory path names in OneFS. If
those path names are defined as NFS exports, NFS clients can specify the aliases as NFS
mount points.
NFS aliases are designed to give functional parity with SMB share names within the
context of NFS. Each alias maps a unique name to a path on the file system. NFS clients
can then use the alias name in place of the path when mounting.
Aliases must be formed as top-level Unix path names, having a single forward slash
followed by name. For example, you could create an alias named /q4 that maps
to /ifs/data/finance/accounting/winter2015 (a path in OneFS). An NFS
client could mount that directory through either of:
mount cluster_ip:/q4
mount cluster_ip:/ifs/data/finance/accounting/winter2015

Aliases and exports are completely independent. You can create an alias without
associating it with an NFS export. Similarly, an NFS export does not require an alias.
Each alias must point to a valid path on the file system. While this path is absolute, it
must point to a location beneath the zone root (/ifs on the System zone). If the alias
points to a path that does not exist on the file system, any client trying to mount the alias
would be denied in the same way as attempting to mount an invalid full pathname.
NFS aliases are zone-aware. By default, an alias applies to the client's current access
zone. To change this, you can specify an alternative access zone as part of creating or
modifying an alias.
Each alias can only be used by clients on that zone, and can only apply to paths below
the zone root. Alias names are unique per zone, but the same name can be used in
different zonesfor example, /home.
When you create an alias in the web administration interface, the alias list displays the
status of the alias. Similarly, using the --check option of the isi nfs aliases
command, you can check the status of an NFS alias (status can be: good, illegal path,
name conflict, not exported, or path not found).

NFS log files

OneFS writes log messages associated with NFS events to a set of files in /var/log.
With the log level option, you can now specify the detail at which log messages are
output to log files. The following table describes the log files associated with NFS.

212

Log file

Description

nfs.log

Primary NFS server functionality (v3, v4, mount)

rpc_lockd.log

NFS v3 locking events through the NLM protocol

rpc_statd.log

NFS v3 reboot detection through the NSM protocol

isi_netgroup_d.log

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Managing the NFS service

You can enable or disable the NFS service and specify the NFS versions to support,
including NFSv3 and NFSv4. NFS settings are applied across all nodes in the cluster.
Note

NFSv4 can be enabled non-disruptively on a OneFS cluster, and it will run concurrently
with NFSv3. Any existing NFSv3 clients will not be impacted by enabling NFSv4.

Configure NFS file sharing

You can enable or disable the NFS service, and set the lock protection level and security
type. These settings are applied across all node in the cluster. You can change the
settings for individual NFS exports that you define.
Procedure
1. Click Protocols > UNIX Sharing (NFS) > Global Settings.
2. Enable or disable the following settings:
l

NFS Export Service

NFSv3

NFSv4

3. Click the Reload button for the Cached Export Configuration setting.
The cached NFS export settings are reloaded to help ensure that changes to DNS or
NIS are applied.
4. Click Save.

Create a root-squashing rule for the default NFS export

By default, the NFS service implements a root-squashing rule for the default NFS export.
This prevents root users on NFS clients from exercising root privileges on the NFS server.
Procedure
1. Click Protocols > UNIX Sharing (NFS) > NFS Exports.
2. Select the default export in the NFS Exports list, and click View/Edit.
3. In the Root User Mapping area, verify that the default settings are selected. If so,
proceed to step 6.
4. Click Edit Export.
5. If Map Root User is set to Use Custom, click Use Default to reset to these
values:
User: Map root users to user nobody
Primary Group: No primary group
Secondary Groups: No secondary groups

6. Click Save Changes.

7. Click Close.
Results
With these settings, regardless of the users' credentials on the NFS client, they would not
be able to gain root privileges on the NFS server.
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NFS global settings

NFS global settings determine how the NFS service operates. You can modify these
settings according to your organization's needs.
The following table describes NFS global settings and their default values:
Setting

Description

NFS Export Service

Enables or disables the NFS service. This setting is enabled by default.

NFSv3

Enables or disables support for NFSv3. This setting is enabled by

default.

NFSv4

Enables or disables support for NFSv4. This setting is disabled by

default.

Cached Export
Configuration

Enables you to reload cached NFS exports to help ensure that any
domain or network changes take effect immediately.

Managing NFS exports

You can create NFS exports, view and modify export settings, and delete exports that are
no longer needed.
The /ifs directory is the top-level directory for data storage in OneFS, and is also the
path defined in the default export. By default, the /ifs export disallows root access, but
other enables UNIX clients to mount this directory and any subdirectories beneath it.
Note

We recommend that you modify the default export to limit access only to trusted clients,
or to restrict access completely. To help ensure that sensitive data is not compromised,
other exports that you create should be lower in the OneFS file hierarchy, and can be
protected by access zones or limited to specific clients with either root, read-write, or
read-only access, as appropriate.

Create an NFS export

You can create NFS exports to share files in OneFS with UNIX-based clients.
The NFS service runs in user space and distributes the load across all nodes in the
cluster. This enables the service to be highly scalable and support thousands of exports.
As a best practice, however, you should avoid creating a separate export for each client
on your network. It is more efficient to create fewer exports, and to use access zones and
user mapping to control access.
Procedure
1. Click Protocols > UNIX Sharing (NFS) > NFS Exports.
2. Click Create Export.
3. For the Directory Paths setting, type or browse to the directory that you want to export.
You can add multiple directory paths by clicking Add another directory path for each
additional path.
4. (Optional) In the Description field, type a comment that describes the export.
5. (Optional) Specify the NFS clients that are allowed to access the export.
You can specify NFS clients in any or all of the client fields, as described in the
following table. A client can be identified by host name, IPv4 or IPv6 address, subnet,
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or netgroup. IPv4 addresses mapped into the IPv6 address space are translated and
stored as IPv4 addresses to remove any possible ambiguities.
You can specify multiple clients in each field by typing one entry per line.
Note

If you do not specify any clients, all clients on your network are allowed access to the
export. If you specify clients in any of the rule fields, such as Always Read-Only
Clients, the applicable rule is only applied to those clients. However, simply adding
an entry to Root Clients will not stop other clients from accessing the export.
If you add the same client to more than one list and the client is entered in the same
format for each entry, the client is normalized to a single list in the following order of
priority:
l

Root Clients

Always Read-Write Clients

Always Read-Only Clients

Clients

Setting

Description

Clients

Specifies one or more clients to be allowed access to the export.

Access level is controlled through export permissions.

Always
Read-Write
Clients

Specifies one or more clients to be allowed read/write access to the

export regardless of the export's access-restriction setting. This is
equivalent to adding a client to the Clients list with the Restrict access
to read-only setting cleared.

Always
Read-Only
Clients

Specifies one or more clients to be allowed read-only access to the

export regardless of the export's access-restriction setting. This is
equivalent to adding a client to the Clients list with the Restrict access
to read-only setting selected.

Root Clients Specifies one or more clients to be mapped as root for the export. This
setting enables the following client to mount the export, present the
root identity, and be mapped to root. Adding a client to this list will not
prevent other clients from mounting if clients, read-only clients, and
read-write clients are unset.
6. Specify export permissions:
l

Restrict actions to read-only.

Enable mount access to subdirectories. Allow subdirectories below the path(s) to

be mounted.

7. Specify user/group mappings.

If you select the Use custom option, you can limit access by mapping root users or all
users to a specific user and group ID. For root squash, map root users to the user
name nobody.
8. Specify security flavor(s).
If you select the Use custom option, you can select one or more of the following
security types:

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UNIX (system)

Kerberos5

Kerberos5 Integrity

Kerberos5 Privacy

9. Click Show Extra Options to configure advanced NFS export settings.

We recommend that you do not change advanced settings unless it is necessary and
you fully understand the consequences of these changes.
10. Click Save.
Results
The new NFS export is created and shown at the top of the NFS Exports list.

Modify an NFS export

You can modify the settings for an existing NFS export.
CAUTION

Changing export settings may cause performance issues. Make sure you understand the
potential impact of any settings alterations prior to committing any changes.
Procedure
1. Select Protocols > UNIX Sharing (NFS) > NFS Exports.
2. In the NFS Exports list, select the check box corresponding to the export you want to
modify, and click View/Edit.
3. Click Edit Export.
4. Edit the desired export settings.
5. Click Show Extra Options to edit advanced export settings.
We recommend that you do not change advanced settings unless it is necessary and
you fully understand the consequences of these settings.
6. Click Save Changes.
7. Click Close.

Delete an NFS export

You can delete unneeded NFS exports. Any current NFS client connections to these
exports become invalid.
Note

You can delete all the exports on a cluster at once. Click the Export ID/Path check box at
the top of the NFS Exports list, and then select Delete from the drop-down list to the right.
Procedure
1. Select Protocols > UNIX Sharing (NFS) > NFS Exports.
2. In the NFS Exports list, click the check box to the left of the export that you want to
delete.
3. Click Delete.
4. In the confirmation dialog box, click Delete to confirm the operation.
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Check NFS exports for errors

You can check for errors in NFS exports, such as conflicting export rules, invalid paths,
and unresolvable hostnames and netgroups. This task may be performed only through
the OneFS command-line interface.
Procedure
1. Establish an SSH connection to any node in the cluster.
2. Run the isi nfs exports check command.
In the following example output, no errors were found:
ID Message
------------------Total: 0

In the following example output, export 1 contains a directory path that does not
currently exist:
ID
Message
----------------------------------1
'/ifs/test' does not exist
----------------------------------Total: 1

View and configure default NFS export settings

You can view and configure default NFS export settings. All new exports and any existing
exports using default values are affected by changes to the default settings.
Note

Changes to default export settings affect all current and future NFS exports that use
default settings, and, if specified incorrectly, could impact the availability of the NFS file
sharing service. We recommend that you not make changes to default settings,
particularly advanced settings, unless you have experience working with NFS. Instead,
you should change settings as needed for individual NFS exports as you create them.
Procedure
1. Select Protocols > UNIX Sharing (NFS) > Export Settings.
Four common NFS export settings are displayed in the Export Settings area: Map Root
User, Map Non Root User, Map Failure, and Security Flavors. Modify any of default
settings that you want to apply to all new NFS exports, or to existing exports that use
any of the default values.
2. In the Advanced Export Settings area, you can edit advanced settings.
We recommend that you do not change advanced settings unless it is necessary and
you fully understand the consequences of the changes.
3. When you are finished modifying settings, click Save Changes.

Basic NFS export settings

The basic NFS export settings are global settings that apply to any new NFS exports that
you create.
The basic NFS export settings are described in the following table.
Managing NFS exports

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Setting

Default values

Map Root User

User: Map root users to user nobody

Primary Group: No primary group
Secondary Groups: No secondary groups
Note

The default settings result in a root squashing rule whereby no user on the
NFS client, even a root user, can gain root privileges on the NFS server.
Non Root User
Mapping

User mapping is disabled by default. We recommend that you specify this

setting on a per-export basis, when appropriate.

Failed User
Mapping

User mapping is disabled by default. We recommend that you specify this

setting on a per-export basis, when appropriate.

Security Flavors

System default. Available options include UNIX (sys), Kerberos5,

Kerberos5 Integrity, and Kerberos5 Privacy.

NFS export performance settings

You can specify settings to control the performance of NFS exports.
The following table describes the performance category of settings for NFS exports:
Setting

Description

Block Size

The block size used to calculate block counts for NFSv3 FSSTAT and
NFSv4 GETATTR requests. The default value is 8192 bytes.

Commit Asynchronous

If set to yes, allows NFSv3 and NFSv4 COMMIT operations to be

asynchronous. The default value is No.

Directory Transfer Size

The preferred directory read transfer size reported to NFSv3 and NFSv4
clients. The default value is 131072 bytes.

Read Transfer Max Size The maximum read transfer size reported to NFSv3 and NFSv4 clients.
The default value is 1048576 bytes.

218

Read Transfer Multiple

The recommended read transfer size multiple reported to NFSv3 and

NFSv4 clients. The default value is 512 bytes.

Read Transfer Size

The preferred read transfer size reported to NFSv3 and NFSv4 clients.
The default value is 131072 bytes.

Setattr Asynchronous

If set to Yes, performs set attribute operations asynchronously. The

default value is No.

Write Datasync Action

The action to perform for DATASYNC writes. The default value is

DATASYNC.

Write Datasync Reply

The reply to send for DATASYNC writes. The default value is DATASYNC.

Write Filesync Action

The action to perform for FILESYNC writes. The default value is

FILESYNC.

Write Filesync Reply

The reply to send for FILESYNC writes. The default value is FILESYNC.

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Setting

Description

Write Transfer Max Size The maximum write transfer size reported to NFSv3 and NFSv4 clients.
The default value is 1048576 bytes.
Write Transfer Multiple

The recommended write transfer size reported to NFSv3 and NFSv4

clients. The default value is 512 bytes.

Write Transfer Size

The preferred write transfer size reported to NFSv3 and NFSv4 clients.
The default value is 524288.

Write Unstable Action

The action to perform for UNSTABLE writes. The default value is

UNSTABLE.

Write Unstable Reply

The reply to send for UNSTABLE writes. The default value is UNSTABLE.

NFS export client compatibility settings

The NFS export client compatibility settings affect the customization of NFS exports.
These settings are described in the following table.
Setting

Setting value

Max File Size

Specifies the maximum file size to allow. This setting is advisory in nature
and is returned to the client in a reply to an NFSv3 FSINFO or NFSv4 GETATTR
request. The default value is 9223372036854776000 bytes.

Readdirplus Enable Enables the use of NFSv3 readdirplus service whereby a client can send a
request and received extended information about the directory and files in
the export. The default is Yes.
Return 32 bit File
IDs

Specifies return 32-bit file IDs to the client. The default is No.

NFS export behavior settings

The NFS export behavior settings control whether NFS clients can perform certain
functions on the NFS server, such as setting the time.
The NFS export behavior settings are described in the following table.
Setting

Description

Can Set Time

When this setting is enabled, OneFS allows the NFS client to set various time
attributes on the NFS server. The default value is Yes.

Encoding

Overrides the general encoding settings the cluster has for the export. The
default value is DEFAULT.

Map Lookup UID Looks up incoming user identifiers (UIDs) in the local authentication database.
The default value is No.
Symlinks

Informs the NFS client that the file system supports symbolic link file types. The
default value is Yes.

Time Delta

Sets the server clock granularity. The default value is 1e-9 seconds
(0.000000001 second).

Managing NFS exports

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Managing NFS aliases

You can create NFS aliases to simplify exports that clients connect to. An NFS alias maps
an absolute directory path to a simple directory path.
For example, suppose you created an NFS export to /ifs/data/hq/home/archive/
first-quarter/finance. You could create the alias /finance1 to map to that
directory path.
NFS aliases can be created in any access zone, including the System zone.

Create an NFS alias

You can create an NFS alias to map a long directory path to a simple pathname.
Aliases must be formed as a simple Unix-style directory path, for example, /home.
Procedure
1. Select Protocols > UNIX Sharing (NFS) > NFS Aliases.
2. Click Create Alias.
3. In the Create an Alias dialog box, enter a name for the alias.
The alias name must be formed as a simple UNIX-style path with one element, for
example, /home.
4. Enter the full path that the alias is to be associated with, or click Browse to search for
the path.
If you have set up access zones in OneFS, the full path must begin with the root of the
current access zone.
5. Click Create Alias.
Results
The name, status, and path of the new alias are shown at the top of the NFS Aliases list.

Modify an NFS alias

You can modify an NFS alias.
Procedure
1. Select Protocols > UNIX Sharing (NFS) > NFS Aliases.
2. Select the check box corresponding to the alias that you intend to modify, and click
View/Edit.
3. In the View Alias Details dialog box, click Edit Alias.
4. Modify the alias name and the path that the alias represents.
The alias name must be formed as a simple UNIX-style path with one element, for
example, /home. The path must begin with the root of the current access zone. If you
are unsure of the path name, you can click Browse to navigate to the path in OneFS.
5. When you are finished modifying the alias, click Save Changes.
The View Alias Details dialog box is displayed, and a message at the top of the dialog
box indicates the operation was successful.
6. Click Close.

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Results
The modified alias name, status, and path are shown in the NFS Aliases list.

Delete an NFS alias

You can delete an NFS alias.
If an NFS alias is mapped to an NFS export, deleting the alias can disconnect clients that
used the alias to mount the export.
Procedure
1. Select Protocols > UNIX Sharing (NFS) > NFS Aliases.
2. Select the check box corresponding to the alias that you intend to delete, and click
More.
3. Click Delete.
The Confirm Delete dialog box appears.
4. Click Delete.
The alias is removed from the NFS Aliases list.

List NFS aliases

You can view a list of NFS aliases that have already been defined for a particular zone.
Aliases in the system zone are listed by default.
Procedure
l

Select Protocols > UNIX Sharing (NFS) > NFS Aliases.

The NFS Aliases list appears, displaying all aliases for the current access zone. The
names, states, and paths for all aliases are shown.

View an NFS alias

You can view the settings of an NFS alias.
Procedure
1. Select Protocols > UNIX Sharing (NFS) > NFS Aliases.
2. Select the check box corresponding to the alias that you want to view, and click View/
Edit.
The View Alias Details dialog box displays the settings associated with the alias.
3. When you are done viewing the alias, click Close.

FTP
OneFS includes a secure FTP service called vsftpd, which stands for Very Secure FTP
Daemon, that you can configure for standard FTP and FTPS file transfers.

Enable and configure FTP file sharing

You can set the FTP service to allow any node in the cluster to respond to FTP requests
through a standard user account.
You can enable the transfer of files between remote FTP servers and enable anonymous
FTP service on the root by creating a local user named anonymous or ftp.
FTP

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When configuring FTP access, make sure that the specified FTP root is the home directory
of the user who logs in. For example, the FTP root for local user jsmith should be ifs/
home/jsmith.
Procedure
1. Click Protocols > FTP Settings.
2. In the Service area, click the Enable FTP service check box.
3. In the Settings area, select one or more of the following:
Option

Description

Enable
anonymous
access

Enables users with "anonymous" or "ftp" as the user name to

access files and directories without requiring authentication.
This setting is disabled by default.

Enable local
access

Enables local users to access files and directories with their

local user name and password, allowing them to upload files
directly through the file system. This setting is enabled by
default.

Enable serverto-server
transfers

Enables the transfer of files between two remote FTP servers.

This setting is disabled by default.

4. Click Submit.

HTTP and HTTPS

OneFS includes a configurable Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) service, which is used
to request files that are stored on the cluster and to interact with the web administration
interface.
OneFS supports both HTTP and its secure variant, HTTPS. Each node in the cluster runs an
instance of the Apache HTTP Server to provide HTTP access. You can configure the HTTP
service to run in different modes.
Both HTTP and HTTPS are supported for file transfer, but only HTTPS is supported for
Platform API calls. The HTTPS-only requirement includes the web administration interface.
In addition, OneFS supports a form of the web-based DAV (WebDAV) protocol that
enables users to modify and manage files on remote web servers. OneFS performs
distributed authoring, but does not support versioning and does not perform security
checks. You can enable DAV in the web administration interface.

Enable and configure HTTP

You can configure HTTP and DAV to enable users to edit and manage files collaboratively
across remote web servers. You can only perform this task through the OneFS web
administration interface.
Procedure
1. Click Protocols > HTTP Settings.
2. In the Service area, select one of the following settings:

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Option

Description

Enable HTTP

Allows HTTP access for cluster administration and browsing

content on the cluster.

Disable HTTP and

redirect to the web
interface

Allows only administrative access to the web administration

interface. This is the default setting.

Disable HTTP

Closes the HTTP port used for file access. Users can continue
to access the web administration interface by specifying the
port number in the URL. The default port is 8080.

3. In the Protocol Settings area, in theDocument root directory field, type a path name or
click Browse to navigate to an existing directory in /ifs.
Note

The HTTP server runs as the daemon user and group. To properly enforce access
controls, you must grant the daemon user or group read access to all files under the
document root, and allow the HTTP server to traverse the document root.
4. In the Authentication Settings area, from the Authentication drop-down list, select an
authentication setting:
Option

Description

Off

Disables HTTP authentication.

Basic Authentication Only

Enables HTTP basic authentication. User credentials

are sent in plain text.

Integrated Authentication
Only

Enables HTTP authentication via NTLM, Kerberos, or

both.

Integrated and Basic

Authentication

Enables both basic and integrated authentication.

Basic Authentication with

Access Controls

Enables HTTP basic authentication and enables the

Apache web server to perform access checks.

Integrated Authentication
with Access Controls

Enables HTTP integrated authentication via NTLM

and Kerberos, and enables the Apache web server to
perform access checks.

Integrated and Basic Auth

with Access Controls

Enables HTTP basic authentication and integrated

authentication, and enables the Apache web server
to perform access checks.

5. Click the Enable WebDAV check box to allow multiple users to manage and modify
files collaboratively across remote web servers.
6. Click the Enable access logging check box.
7. Click Save Changes.

Enable and configure HTTP

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CHAPTER 11
File filtering

This section contains the following topics:

l
l
l
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File filtering in an access zone............................................................................. 226

Enable and configure file filtering in an access zone............................................226
Modify file filtering settings in an access zone.....................................................226
View file filtering settings.................................................................................... 227

File filtering

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File filtering in an access zone

In an access zone, you can use file filtering to allow or deny file writes based on file type.
If some file types might cause throughput issues, security problems, storage clutter, or
productivity disruptions on your EMC Isilon cluster, or if your organizations must adhere
to specific file policies, you can restrict writes to specified file types or only allow writes
to a specified list of file types. When you enable file filtering in an access zone, OneFS
applies file filtering rules only to files in that access zone.
l

If you choose to deny file writes, you can specify file types by extension that are not
allowed to be written. OneFS permits all other file types to be written.

If you choose to allow file writes, you can specify file types by extension that are
allowed to be written. OneFS denies all other file types to be written.

OneFS does not take into consideration which file sharing protocol was used to connect
to the access zone when applying file filtering rules; however, you can apply additional
file filtering at the SMB share level. See "SMB file filtering" in the File sharing chapter of
this guide.

Enable and configure file filtering in an access zone

You can enable file filtering per access zone and specify which file types users are denied
or allowed write access to within the access zone.
Procedure
1. Click Access > File Filter.
2. From the Current Access Zone drop-down list, select the access zone in which you
want to apply file filtering.
3. Select the Enable file filters checkbox.
4. From the File Extensions drop-down list, select one of the following filtering methods:
l

Deny writes for list of file extensions

Allow writes for list of file extensions

5. Next to the File Extensions table, click Add file extensions.

The Add File Extensions window appears.
6. In the File Extensions field, type the file extension of the file type you want to filter.
The extension must start with a "." such as .txt.
7. (Optional) Click Add another file extension to enter multiple extensions.
8. Click Add Extensions.
9. Click Save Changes.

Modify file filtering settings in an access zone

You can modify file filtering settings by changing the filtering method or editing file
extensions.
Procedure
1. Click Access > File Filter.
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2. From the Current Access Zone drop-down list, select the access zone in which you
want to modify.
3. To disable file filtering in the access zone, deselect the Enable file filters checkbox.
4. To change the file filtering method, select one of the following filtering methods from
the File Extensions drop-down list:
l

Deny writes for list of file extensions

Allow writes for list of file extensions

5. To add a new file extension, click Add file extensions next to the File Extensions table,
enter the extension, and then click Add Extensions.
6. To remove a file extension, click the Remove Filter button next to the extension you
would like to delete.
7. Click Save Changes.

View file filtering settings

You can view file filtering settings in an access zone.
Procedure
1. Click Access > File Filter.
2. From the Current Access Zone drop-down list, select the access zone in which you
want to modify.
The settings for the selected access zone are displayed on the File Filter Settings tab.

View file filtering settings

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CHAPTER 12
Auditing

This section contains the following topics:

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l
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l
l
l
l

Auditing overview................................................................................................230
Syslog................................................................................................................. 230
Protocol audit events.......................................................................................... 231
Supported event types........................................................................................ 231
Supported audit tools......................................................................................... 232
Sample audit log................................................................................................. 233
Managing audit settings......................................................................................233
Integrating with the EMC Common Event Enabler.................................................237

Auditing

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Auditing overview
You can audit system configuration changes and protocol activity on an EMC Isilon
cluster. All audit data is stored and protected in the cluster file system and organized by
audit topics.
Auditing can detect many potential sources of data loss, including fraudulent activities,
inappropriate entitlements, and unauthorized access attempts. Customers in industries
such as financial services, health care, life sciences, and media and entertainment, as
well as in governmental agencies, must meet stringent regulatory requirements
developed to protect against these sources of data loss.
System configuration auditing tracks and records all configuration events that are
handled by the application programming interface (API) through the command-line
interface (CLI). When you enable system configuration auditing, no additional
configuration is required. System configuration auditing events are stored in the config
audit topic directories.
Protocol auditing tracks and stores activity performed through SMB, NFS, and HDFS
protocol connections. You can enable and configure protocol auditing for one or more
access zones in a cluster. If you enable protocol auditing for an access zone, file-access
events through the SMB, NFS, and HDFS protocols are recorded in the protocol audit topic
directories. You can specify which events to log in each access zone. For example, you
might want to audit the default set of protocol events in the System access zone but
audit only successful attempts to delete files in a different access zone.
The audit events are logged on the individual nodes where the SMB, NFS, or HDFS client
initiated the activity. The events are then stored in a binary file under /ifs/.ifsvar/
audit/logs. The logs automatically roll over to a new file after the size reaches 1 GB.
The protocol audit log file is consumable by auditing applications that support the
EMC Common Event Enabler (CEE).

Syslog
Syslog is a protocol that is used to convey certain event notification messages. You can
configure an Isilon cluster to log audit events and forward them to syslog by using the
syslog forwarder.
By default, all protocol events that occur on a particular node are forwarded to
the /var/log/audit_protocol.log file, regardless of the access zone the event
originated from.
Syslog is configured with an identity of audit_protocol, a facility of syslog, and a
priority level of info.
To configure auditing on an Isilon cluster, you must either be a root user or you must be
assigned to an administrative role that includes auditing privileges (ISI_PRIV_AUDIT).

Syslog forwarding
The syslog forwarder is a daemon that, when enabled, retrieves configuration changes
and protocol audit events in an access zone and forwards the events to syslog. Only userdefined audit success and failure events are eligible for being forwarded to syslog.
On each node there is an audit syslog forwarder daemon running that will log audit
events to the same node's syslog daemon.
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Protocol audit events

By default, audited access zones track only certain events on the EMC Isilon cluster,
including successful and failed attempts to access files and directories.
The default tracked events are create, close, delete, rename, and set_security.
The names of generated events are loosely based on the Windows I/O request packet
(IRP) model in which all operations begin with a create event to obtain a file handle. A
create event is required before all I/O operations, including the following: close, create,
delete, get_security, read, rename, set_security, and write. A close event marks when the
client is finished with the file handle that was produced by a create event.
These internally stored events are translated to events that are forwarded through the
EMC CEE to the auditing application. The EMC CEE export facilities on OneFS perform this
mapping. The EMC CEE can be used to connect to any third party application that
supports the EMC CEE.
Note

The EMC CEE does not support forwarding HDFS protocol events to a third-party
application.
Different SMB, NFS, and HDFS clients issue different requests, and one particular version
of a platform such as Windows or Mac OS X using SMB might differ from another.
Similarly, different versions of an application such as Microsoft Word or Windows
Explorer might make different protocol requests. For example, a client with a Windows
Explorer window open might generate many events if an automatic or manual refresh of
that window occurs. Applications issue requests with the logged-in user's credentials,
but you should not assume that all requests are purposeful user actions.
When enabled, OneFS audit will track all changes that are made to the files and
directories in SMB shares, NFS exports, and HDFS data.

Supported event types

You can view or modify the event types that are audited in an access zone.
For the most current list of supported auditing tools, see the Isilon Third-Party Software &
Hardware Compatibility Guide.
Event name

create

close

Example protocol
activity

Create a file or
directory

Open a file,
directory, or
share

Mount a share

Delete a file

Close a directory

Audited by
default

Can be
exported
through CEE

Cannot be
exported
through CEE

Protocol audit events

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Event name

Example protocol
activity

Audited by
default

Can be
exported
through CEE

Cannot be
exported
through CEE

Close a modified
or unmodified file

rename

Rename a file or
directory

delete

Delete a file or
directory

set_security

Attempt to modify file

or directory
permissions

read

The first read request

on an open file
handle

write

The first write request

on an open file
handle

close

The client is finished

with an open file
handle

get_security

The client reads

security information
for an open file
handle

logon

SMB session create

request by a client

logoff

SMB session logoff

tree_connect

SMB first attempt to

access a share

Supported audit tools

You can configure OneFS to send protocol auditing logs to servers that support the EMC
Common Event Enabler (CEE).
CEE has been tested and verified to work on several third-party software vendors. For the
most current list of supported auditing tools, see the Isilon Third-Party Software &
Hardware Compatibility Guide.
Note

We recommend that you install and configure third-party auditing applications before you
enable the OneFS auditing feature. Otherwise, the large backlog consumed by this
feature may cause results to not be updated for a considerable amount of time.

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Sample audit log

You can view both configuration audit and protocol audit logs by running the
isi_audit_viewer command on any node in the Isilon cluster.
You can view protocol access audit logs by running isi_audit_viewer -t
protocol. You can view system configuration logs by running isi_audit_viewer t config. The following output is an example of a system configuration log:
[0: Fri Jan 23 16:17:03 2015] {"id":"524e0928a35e-11e4-9d0c-005056302134","timestamp":
1422058623106323,"payload":"PAPI config logging started."}
[1: Fri Jan 23 16:17:03 2015] {"id":"5249b99da35e-11e4-9d0c-005056302134","timestamp":1422058623112992,"payload":
{"user":{"token": {"UID":0, "GID":0, "SID": "SID:S-1-22-1-0", "GSID":
"SID:S-1-22-2-0", "GROUPS": ["SID:S-1-5-11", "GID:5", "GID:20", "GID:
70", "GID:10"], "protocol": 17, "zone id": 1, "client":
"10.7.220.97", "local": "10.7.177.176" }},"uri":"/1/protocols/smb/
shares","method":"POST","args":"","body":{"path": "/ifs/data",
"name": "Test"}}}
[2: Fri Jan 23 16:17:05 2015] {"id":"5249b99da35e-11e4-9d0c-005056302134","timestamp":1422058625144567,"payload":
{"status":201,"statusmsg":"Created","body":{"id":"Test"}}}
[3: Fri Jan 23 16:17:39 2015] {"id":"67e7ca62a35e-11e4-9d0c-005056302134","timestamp":1422058659345539,"payload":
{"user":{"token": {"UID":0, "GID":0, "SID": "SID:S-1-22-1-0", "GSID":
"SID:S-1-22-2-0", "GROUPS": ["SID:S-1-5-11", "GID:5", "GID:20", "GID:
70", "GID:10"], "protocol": 17, "zone id": 1, "client":
"10.7.220.97", "local": "10.7.177.176" }},"uri":"/1/audit/
settings","method":"PUT","args":"","body":{"config_syslog_enabled":
true}}}
[4: Fri Jan 23 16:17:39 2015] {"id":"67e7ca62a35e-11e4-9d0c-005056302134","timestamp":1422058659387928,"payload":
{"status":204,"statusmsg":"No Content","body":{}}}

Events come in pairs; a pre event is logged before the command is carried out and a post
event is logged after the event is triggered. These events can be correlated by matching
the id field. In the above logs, events 1 and 2 are paired, and events 3 and 4 are paired.
The pre event always comes first, and contains user token information, the PAPI path,
and whatever arguments were passed to the PAPI call. In event 1, a POST request was
made to /1/protocols/smb/shares with arguments path=/ifs/data and
name=Test. The post event contains the HTTP return status and any output returned
from the server.

Managing audit settings

You can enable and disable system configuration and protocol access audit settings, in
addition to configuring integration with the EMC Common Event Enabler.

Sample audit log

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Enable protocol access auditing

You can audit SMB, NFS, and HDFS protocol access on a per-access zone basis and
optionally forward the generated events to the EMC Common Event Enabler (CEE) for
export to third-party products.
Note

Because each audited event consumes system resources, we recommend that you only
configure zones for events that are needed by your auditing application. In addition, we
recommend that you install and configure third-party auditing applications before you
enable the OneFS auditing feature. Otherwise, the large backlog performed by this
feature may cause results to not be updated for a considerable amount of time.
Procedure
1. Click Cluster Management > Auditing.
2. In the Settings area, select the Enable Protocol Access Auditing checkbox.
3. In the Audited Zones area, click Add Zones.
4. In the Select Zones dialog box, select the checkbox for one or more access zones, and
then click Add Zones.
5. (Optional) In the Event Forwarding area, specify one or more CEE servers to forward
logged events to.
a. In the CEE Server URIs field, type the URI of each CEE server in the CEE server pool.
The OneFS CEE export service uses round-robin load balancing when exporting
events to multiple CEE servers. Valid URIs start with http:// and include the port
number and path to the CEE server if necessaryfor example, http://
example.com:12228/cee.
b. In the Storage Cluster Name field, specify the name of the storage cluster to use
when forwarding protocol events.
This name value is typically the SmartConnect zone name, but in cases where
SmartConnect is not implemented, the value must match the hostname of the
cluster as the third-party application recognizes it. If the field is left blank, events
from each node are filled with the node name (clustername + lnn). This setting is
required only if needed by your third-party audit application.
Note

Although this step is optional, be aware that a backlog of events will accumulate
regardless of whether CEE servers have been configured. When configured, CEE
forwarding begins with the oldest events in the backlog and moves toward newest
events in a first-in-first-out sequence.
6. Click Save Changes.
Results
The following protocol events are collected for audited access zones by default: create,
close, delete, rename, and set_security. You can modify the set of events that
are audited in an access zone by running the isi audit settings modify
command in the command-line interface. Because each audited event consumes system
resources, it is recommended that you only configure zones for events that are needed by
your auditing application.
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After you finish

You can modify the types of protocol access events to be audited by running the isi
audit settings modify command. You can also enable forwarding of protocol
access events to syslog by running the isi audit settings modify command
with the --syslog-forwarding-enabled option. These procedures are available
only through the command-line interface.

Forward protocol access events to syslog

You can enable or disable forwarding of audited protocol access events to syslog in each
access zone. Forwarding is not enabled by default when protocol access auditing is
enabled. This procedure is available only through the command-line interface.
Before you begin
To enable forwarding of protocol access events in an access zone, you must first enable
protocol access auditing in the access zone.
The --audit-success and --audit-failure options define the event types that
are audited, and the --syslog-audit-events option defines the event types that
are forwarded to syslog. Only the audited event types are eligible for forwarding to syslog.
If syslog forwarding is enabled, protocol access events are written to the /var/log/
audit_protocol.log file.
Procedure
1. Open a Secure Shell (SSH) connection to any node in the cluster and log in.
2. Run the isi audit settings modify command with the --syslogforwarding-enabled option to enable or disable audit syslog.
The following command enables forwarding of the audited protocol access events in
the zone3 access zone and specifies that the only event types forwarded are close,
create, and delete events:
isi audit settings modify --syslog-forwarding-enabled=yes --syslogaudit-events=close,create,delete --zone=zone3

The following command disables forwarding of audited protocol access events from
the zone3 access zone:
isi audit settings modify --syslog-forwarding-enabled=no -zone=zone3

Enable system configuration auditing

OneFS can audit system configuration events on your Isilon cluster. All configuration
events that are handled by the platform API including writes, modifications, and
deletions are tracked and recorded in the config audit topic directories. When you enable
or disable system configuration auditing, no additional configuration is required. If you
enable configuration auditing,
Configuration events are logged to /var/log/audit_config.log. Configuration
change logs are populated in the config topic in the audit back-end store under /
ifs/.ifsvar/audit.
Note

Configuration events are not forwarded to the Common Event Enabler (CEE).
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Procedure
1. Click Cluster Management > Auditing.
2. In the Settings area, select the Enable Configuration Change Auditing checkbox.
3. Click Save Changes.
After you finish
You can enable forwarding of system configuration changes to syslog by running theisi
audit settings global modify command with the --config-syslogenabled option. This procedure is available only through the command-line interface.

Forward system configuration changes to syslog

You can enable or disable forwarding of system configuration changes on the EMC Isilon
cluster to syslog, which is saved to /var/log/audit_config.log. This procedure is
available only through the command-line interface.
Before you begin
Forwarding is not enabled by default when system configuration auditing is enabled. To
enable forwarding of system configuration changes to syslog, you must first enable
system configuration auditing on the cluster.
Procedure
1. Open a Secure Shell (SSH) connection to any node in the cluster and log in.
2. Run the isi audit settings global modify command with the --configsyslog-enabled option to enable or disable forwarding of system configuration
changes.
The following command enables forwarding of system configuration changes to
syslog:
isi audit settings global modify --config-syslog-enabled=yes

The following command disables forwarding of system configuration changes to

syslog:
isi audit settings global modify --config-syslog-enabled=no

Configure protocol event filters

You can filter the types of protocol access events to be audited in an access zone. You
can create filters for successful events and failed events. The following protocol events
are collected for audited access zones by default: create, delete, rename, and
set_security. This procedure is available only through the command-line interface.
Before you begin
To create protocol event filters, you should first enable protocol access auditing in the
access zone.
Procedure
1. Open a Secure Shell (SSH) connection to any node in the cluster and log in.
2. Run the isi audit settings modify command

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The following command creates a filter that audits the failure of create, close, and
delete events in the zone3 access zone:
isi audit settings modify --audit-failure=create,close,delete -zone=zone3

The following command creates a filter that audits the success of create, close, and
delete events in the zone5 access zone:
isi audit settings modify --audit-success=create,close,delete -zone=zone5

Integrating with the EMC Common Event Enabler

OneFS integration with the EMC Common Event Enabler (CEE) enables third-party auditing
applications to collect and analyze protocol auditing logs.
For the most current list of supported auditing tools, see the Isilon Third-Party Software &
Hardware Compatibility Guide.
OneFS supports the Common Event Publishing Agent (CEPA) component of CEE for
Windows. For integration with OneFS, you must install and configure CEE for Windows on
a supported Windows client.
Note

We recommend that you install and configure third-party auditing applications before you
enable the OneFS auditing feature. Otherwise, the large backlog performed by this
feature may cause results to not be updated for a considerable time.

Install CEE for Windows

To integrate CEE with OneFS, you must first install CEE on a computer that is running the
Windows operating system.
Before you begin
Be prepared to extract files from the .iso file, as described in the following steps. If you
are not familiar with the process, consider choosing one of the following methods:
1. Install WinRAR or another suitable archival program that can open .iso files as an
archive, and copy the files.
2. Burn the image to a CD-ROM, and then copy the files.
3. Install SlySoft Virtual CloneDrive, which allows you to mount an ISO image as a drive
that you can copy files from.
Note

You should install a minimum of two servers. We recommend that you install CEE 6.6.0 or
later.
Procedure
1. Download the CEE framework software from EMC Online Support:
a. In a web browser, go to https://support.emc.com/search/.
b. In the search field, type Common Event Enabler for Windows, and then click
the Search icon.
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c. Click Common Event Enabler <Version> for Windows, where <Version> is 6.2 or later,
and then follow the instructions to open or save the .iso file.
2. From the .iso file, extract the 32-bit or 64-bit EMC_CEE_Pack executable file that
you need.
After the extraction completes, the EMC Common Event Enabler installation wizard
opens.
3. Click Next to proceed to the License Agreement page.
4. Select the I accept... option to accept the terms of the license agreement, and then
click Next.
5. On the Customer Information page, type your user name and organization, select your
installation preference, and then click Next.
6. On the Setup Type page, select Complete, and then click Next.
7. Click Install to begin the installation.
The Installing EMC Common Event Enabler page displays the progress of the
installation. When the installation is complete, the InstallShield Wizard Completed
page appears.
8. Click Finish to exit the wizard.
9. Restart the system.

Configure CEE for Windows

After you install CEE for Windows on a client computer, you must configure additional
settings through the Windows Registry Editor (regedit.exe).
Procedure
1. Open the Windows Registry Editor.
2. Configure the following registry keys, if supported by your audit application:
Setting

Registry location

Key

Value

CEE HTTP
listen port

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\EMC\CEE
\Configuration]

HttpPort

12228

Enable
audit
remote
endpoints

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\EMC\CEE\CEPP
\Audit\Configuration]

Enabled

Audit
remote
endpoints

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\EMC\CEE\CEPP
\Audit\Configuration]

EndPoint

<EndPoint>

Note
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The HttpPort value must match the port in the CEE URIs that you specify during
OneFS protocol audit configuration.

The EndPoint value must be in the format <EndPoint_Name>@<IP_Address>. You can

specify multiple endpoints by separating each value with a semicolon (;).

The following key specifies a single remote endpoint:

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[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\EMC\CEE\CEPP\Audit\Configuration] EndPoint =
[email protected]

The following key specifies multiple remote endpoints:

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\EMC\CEE\CEPP\Audit\Configuration] EndPoint =
[email protected];[email protected]

3. Close the Windows Registry Editor.

Configure CEE for Windows

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CHAPTER 13
Snapshots

This section contains the following topics:

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Snapshots overview............................................................................................ 242

Data protection with SnapshotIQ.........................................................................242
Snapshot disk-space usage................................................................................ 242
Snapshot schedules............................................................................................243
Snapshot aliases................................................................................................ 243
File and directory restoration............................................................................... 243
Best practices for creating snapshots.................................................................. 244
Best practices for creating snapshot schedules................................................... 244
File clones...........................................................................................................245
Snapshot locks................................................................................................... 246
Snapshot reserve................................................................................................ 247
SnapshotIQ license functionality.........................................................................247
Creating snapshots with SnapshotIQ...................................................................247
Managing snapshots .......................................................................................... 252
Restoring snapshot data..................................................................................... 254
Managing snapshot schedules............................................................................256
Managing snapshot aliases.................................................................................257
Managing with snapshot locks............................................................................ 259
Configure SnapshotIQ settings............................................................................ 261
Set the snapshot reserve.....................................................................................262
Managing changelists......................................................................................... 263

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Snapshots overview
A OneFS snapshot is a logical pointer to data that is stored on a cluster at a specific point
in time.
A snapshot references a directory on a cluster, including all data stored in the directory
and its subdirectories. If the data referenced by a snapshot is modified, the snapshot
stores a physical copy of the data that was modified. Snapshots are created according to
user specifications or are automatically generated by OneFS to facilitate system
operations.
To create and manage snapshots, you must activate a SnapshotIQ license on the cluster.
Some applications must generate snapshots to function but do not require you to
activate a SnapshotIQ license; by default, these snapshots are automatically deleted
when OneFS no longer needs them. However, if you activate a SnapshotIQ license, you
can retain these snapshots. You can view snapshots generated by other modules without
activating a SnapshotIQ license.
You can identify and locate snapshots by name or ID. A snapshot name is specified by a
user and assigned to the virtual directory that contains the snapshot. A snapshot ID is a
numerical identifier that OneFS automatically assigns to a snapshot.

Data protection with SnapshotIQ

You can create snapshots to protect data with the SnapShotIQ software module.
Snapshots protect data against accidental deletion and modification by enabling you to
restore deleted and modified files. To use SnapshotIQ, you must activate a SnapshotIQ
license on the cluster.
Snapshots are less costly than backing up your data on a separate physical storage
device in terms of both time and storage consumption. The time required to move data to
another physical device depends on the amount of data being moved, whereas
snapshots are always created almost instantaneously regardless of the amount of data
referenced by the snapshot. Also, because snapshots are available locally, end-users can
often restore their data without requiring assistance from a system administrator.
Snapshots require less space than a remote backup because unaltered data is
referenced rather than recreated.
Snapshots do not protect against hardware or file-system issues. Snapshots reference
data that is stored on a cluster, so if the data on the cluster becomes unavailable, the
snapshots will also be unavailable. Because of this, it is recommended that you back up
your data to separate physical devices in addition to creating snapshots.

Snapshot disk-space usage

The amount of disk space that a snapshot consumes depends on both the amount of
data stored by the snapshot and the amount of data the snapshot references from other
snapshots.
Immediately after OneFS creates a snapshot, the snapshot consumes a negligible
amount of disk space. The snapshot does not consume additional disk space unless the
data referenced by the snapshot is modified. If the data that a snapshot references is
modified, the snapshot stores read-only copies of the original data. A snapshot
consumes only the space that is necessary to restore the contents a directory to the state
it was in when the snapshot was taken.

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To reduce disk-space usage, snapshots that reference the same directory reference each
other, with older snapshots referencing newer snapshots. If a file is deleted, and several
snapshots reference the file, a single snapshot stores a copy the file, and the other
snapshots reference the file from the snapshot that stored the copy. The reported size of
a snapshot reflects only the amount of data stored by the snapshot and does not include
the amount of data referenced by the snapshot.
Because snapshots do not consume a set amount of storage space, there is no availablespace requirement for creating a snapshot. The size of a snapshot grows according to
how the data referenced by the snapshot is modified. A cluster cannot contain more than
20,000 snapshots.

Snapshot schedules
You can automatically generate snapshots according to a snapshot schedule.
With snapshot schedules, you can periodically generate snapshots of a directory without
having to manually create a snapshot every time. You can also assign an expiration
period that determines when SnapshotIQ deletes each automatically generated
snapshot.

Snapshot aliases
A snapshot alias is a logical pointer to a snapshot. If you specify an alias for a snapshot
schedule, the alias will always point to the most recent snapshot generated by that
schedule. Assigning a snapshot alias allows you to quickly identify and access the most
recent snapshot generated according to a snapshot schedule.
If you allow clients to access snapshots through an alias, you can reassign the alias to
redirect clients to other snapshots. In addition to assigning snapshot aliases to
snapshots, you can also assign snapshot aliases to the live version of the file system.
This can be useful if clients are accessing snapshots through a snapshot alias, and you
want to redirect the clients to the live version of the file system.

File and directory restoration

You can restore the files and directories that are referenced by a snapshot alias by
copying data from the snapshot, cloning a file from the snapshot, or reverting the entire
snapshot.
Copying a file from a snapshot duplicates the file, which roughly doubles the amount of
storage space consumed. Even if you delete the original file from the non-snapshot
directory, the copy of the file remains in the snapshot.
Cloning a file from a snapshot also duplicates the file. However, unlike a copy, which
immediately consumes additional space on the cluster, a clone does not consume any
additional space on the cluster unless the clone or cloned file is modified.
Reverting a snapshot replaces the contents of a directory with the data stored in the
snapshot. Before a snapshot is reverted, SnapshotIQ creates a snapshot of the directory
that is being replaced, which enables you to undo the snapshot revert later. Reverting a
snapshot can be useful if you want to undo a large number of changes that you made to
files and directories. If new files or directories have been created in a directory since a
snapshot of the directory was created, those files and directories are deleted when the
snapshot is reverted.

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Note

If you move a directory, you cannot revert snapshots of the directory that were taken
before the directory was moved.

Best practices for creating snapshots

Consider the following snapshot best practices when working with a large number of
snapshots.
It is recommended that you do not create more than 1,000 snapshots of a single directory
to avoid performance degradation. If you create a snapshot of a root directory, that
snapshot counts towards the total number of snapshots for any subdirectories of the root
directory. For example, if you create 500 snapshots of /ifs/data and 500 snapshots
of /ifs/data/media, you have created 1,000 snapshots of /ifs/data/media.
Avoid creating snapshots of directories that are already referenced by other snapshots.
It is recommended that you do not create more than 1,000 hard links per file in a
snapshot to avoid performance degradation. Always attempt to keep directory paths as
shallow as possible. The deeper the depth of directories referenced by snapshots, the
greater the performance degradation.
Creating snapshots of directories higher on a directory tree will increase the amount of
time it takes to modify the data referenced by the snapshot and require more cluster
resources to manage the snapshot and the directory. However, creating snapshots of
directories lower on directories trees will require more snapshot schedules, which can be
difficult to manage. It is recommended that you do not create snapshots of /ifs
or /ifs/data.
You can create up to 20,000 snapshots on a cluster at a time. If your workflow requires a
large number of snapshots on a consistent basis, you might find that managing
snapshots through the OneFS command-line interface is preferable to managing
snapshots through the OneFS web administration Interface. In the CLI, you can apply a
wide variety of sorting and filtering options and redirect lists into text files.
You should mark snapshots for deletion when they are no longer needed, and make sure
that the SnapshotDelete system job is enabled. Disabling the SnapshotDelete job
prevents unused disk space from being recaptured and can also cause performance
degradation over time.
If the system clock is set to a time zone other than Coordinated Universal Time (UTC),
SnapShotIQ modifies snapshot duration periods to match Daylight Savings Time (DST).
Upon entering DST, snapshot durations are increased by an hour to adhere to DST; when
exiting DST, snapshot durations are decreased by an hour to adhere to standard time.

Best practices for creating snapshot schedules

Snapshot schedule configurations can be categorized by how they delete snapshots:
ordered deletions and unordered deletions.
An ordered deletion is the deletion of the oldest snapshot of a directory. An unordered
deletion is the deletion of a snapshot that is not the oldest snapshot of a directory.
Unordered deletions take approximately twice as long to complete and consume more
cluster resources than ordered deletions. However, unordered deletions can save space
by retaining a smaller total number of snapshots.
The benefits of unordered deletions versus ordered deletions depend on how often the
data referenced by the snapshots is modified. If the data is modified frequently,
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unordered deletions will save space. However, if data remains unmodified, unordered
deletions will most likely not save space, and it is recommended that you perform
ordered deletions to free cluster resources.
To implement ordered deletions, assign the same duration period for all snapshots of a
directory. The snapshots can be created by one or multiple snapshot schedules. Always
ensure that no more than 1000 snapshots of a directory are created.
To implement unordered snapshot deletions, create several snapshot schedules for a
single directory, and then assign different snapshot duration periods for each schedule.
Ensure that all snapshots are created at the same time when possible.
The following table describes snapshot schedules that follow snapshot best practices:
Table 1 Snapshot schedule configurations

Deletion
type

Snapshot
frequency

Snapshot time

Snapshot
expiration

Max snapshots
retained

Ordered
Every hour
deletion
(for mostly
static
data)

Beginning at 12:00
AM Ending at 11:59
AM

1 month

720

Unordered Every other hour

deletion
(for
frequently
Every day
modified
data)
Every week

Beginning at 12:00
AM Ending at 11:59
PM

1 day

27

At 12:00 AM

1 week

Saturday at 12:00
AM

1 month

The first Saturday of

the month at 12:00
AM

3 months

Every month

File clones
SnapshotIQ enables you to create file clones that share blocks with existing files in order
to save space on the cluster. A file clone usually consumes less space and takes less
time to create than a file copy. Although you can clone files from snapshots, clones are
primarily used internally by OneFS.
The blocks that are shared between a clone and cloned file are contained in a hidden file
called a shadow store. Immediately after a clone is created, all data originally contained
in the cloned file is transferred to a shadow store. Because both files reference all blocks
from the shadow store, the two files consume no more space than the original file; the
clone does not take up any additional space on the cluster. However, if the cloned file or
clone is modified, the file and clone will share only blocks that are common to both of
them, and the modified, unshared blocks will occupy additional space on the cluster.
Over time, the shared blocks contained in the shadow store might become useless if
neither the file nor clone references the blocks. The cluster routinely deletes blocks that
are no longer needed. You can force the cluster to delete unused blocks at any time by
running the ShadowStoreDelete job.

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Clones cannot contain alternate data streams (ADS). If you clone a file that contains
alternate data streams, the clone will not contain the alternate data streams.

Shadow-store considerations
Shadow stores are hidden files that are referenced by cloned and deduplicated files. Files
that reference shadow stores behave differently than other files.
l

Reading shadow-store references might be slower than reading data directly.

Specifically, reading non-cached shadow-store references is slower than reading noncached data. Reading cached shadow-store references takes no more time than
reading cached data.

When files that reference shadow stores are replicated to another Isilon cluster or
backed up to a Network Data Management Protocol (NDMP) backup device, the
shadow stores are not transferred to the target Isilon cluster or backup device. The
files are transferred as if they contained the data that they reference from shadow
stores. On the target Isilon cluster or backup device, the files consume the same
amount of space as if they had not referenced shadow stores.

When OneFS creates a shadow store, OneFS assigns the shadow store to a storage
pool of a file that references the shadow store. If you delete the storage pool that a
shadow store resides on, the shadow store is moved to a pool occupied by another
file that references the shadow store.

OneFS does not delete a shadow-store block immediately after the last reference to
the block is deleted. Instead, OneFS waits until the ShadowStoreDelete job is run to
delete the unreferenced block. If a large number of unreferenced blocks exist on the
cluster, OneFS might report a negative deduplication savings until the
ShadowStoreDelete job is run.

Shadow stores are protected at least as much as the most protected file that
references it. For example, if one file that references a shadow store resides in a
storage pool with +2 protection and another file that references the shadow store
resides in a storage pool with +3 protection, the shadow store is protected at +3.

Quotas account for files that reference shadow stores as if the files contained the
data referenced from shadow stores; from the perspective of a quota, shadow-store
references do not exist. However, if a quota includes data protection overhead, the
quota does not account for the data protection overhead of shadow stores.

Snapshot locks
A snapshot lock prevents a snapshot from being deleted. If a snapshot has one or more
locks applied to it, the snapshot cannot be deleted and is referred to as a locked
snapshot. If the duration period of a locked snapshot expires, OneFS will not delete the
snapshot until all locks on the snapshot have been deleted.
OneFS applies snapshot locks to ensure that snapshots generated by OneFS applications
are not deleted prematurely. For this reason, it is recommended that you do not delete
snapshot locks or modify the duration period of snapshot locks.
A limited number of locks can be applied to a snapshot at a time. If you create snapshot
locks, the limit for a snapshot might be reached, and OneFS could be unable to apply a
snapshot lock when necessary. For this reason, it is recommended that you do not create
snapshot locks.

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Snapshot reserve
The snapshot reserve enables you to set aside a minimum percentage of the cluster
storage capacity specifically for snapshots. If specified, all other OneFS operations are
unable to access the percentage of cluster capacity that is reserved for snapshots.
Note

The snapshot reserve does not limit the amount of space that snapshots can consume on
the cluster. Snapshots can consume a greater percentage of storage capacity specified by
the snapshot reserve. It is recommended that you do not specify a snapshot reserve.

SnapshotIQ license functionality

You can create snapshots only if you activate a SnapshotIQ license on a cluster. However,
you can view snapshots and snapshot locks that are created for internal use by OneFS
without activating a SnapshotIQ license.
The following table describes what snapshot functionality is available depending on
whether the SnapshotIQ license is active:
Functionality

Inactive

Active

Create snapshots and

snapshot schedules

No

Yes

Configure SnapshotIQ
settings

No

Yes

View snapshot schedules

Yes

Yes

Delete snapshots

Yes

Yes

Access snapshot data

Yes

Yes

View snapshots

Yes

Yes

If you a SnapshotIQ license becomes inactive, you will no longer be able to create new
snapshots, all snapshot schedules will be disabled, and you will not be able to modify
snapshots or snapshot settings. However, you will still be able to delete snapshots and
access data contained in snapshots.

Creating snapshots with SnapshotIQ

To create snapshots, you must configure the SnapshotIQ licence on the cluster. You can
create snapshots either by creating a snapshot schedule or manually generating an
individual snapshot.
Manual snapshots are useful if you want to create a snapshot immediately, or at a time
that is not specified in a snapshot schedule. For example, if you plan to make changes to
your file system, but are unsure of the consequences, you can capture the current state of
the file system in a snapshot before you make the change.
Before creating snapshots, consider that reverting a snapshot requires that a SnapRevert
domain exist for the directory that is being reverted. If you intend on reverting snapshots
for a directory, it is recommended that you create SnapRevert domains for those
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directories while the directories are empty. Creating a domain for a directory that contains
less data takes less time.

Create a SnapRevert domain

Before you can revert a snapshot that contains a directory, you must create a SnapRevert
domain for the directory. It is recommended that you create SnapRevert domains for a
directory while the directory is empty.
The root path of the SnapRevert domain must be the same root path of the snapshot. For
example, a domain with a root path of /ifs/data/media cannot be used to revert a
snapshot with a root path of /ifs/data/media/archive. To revert /ifs/data/
media/archive, you must create a SnapRevert domain with a root path of /ifs/
data/media/archive.
Procedure
1. Click Cluster Management > Job Operations > Job Types.
2. In the Job Types area, in the DomainMark row, from the Actions column, select Start
Job.
3. In the Domain Root Path field, type the path of a snapshot root directory.
4. From the Type of domain list, select SnapRevert.
5. Ensure that the Delete this domain check box is cleared.
6. Click Start Job.

Create a snapshot schedule

You can create a snapshot schedule to continuously generate snapshots of directories.
Procedure
1. Click Data Protection > SnapshotIQ > Snapshot Schedules.
2. Click Create a snapshot schedule.
3. (Optional) In the Create a Snapshot Schedule area, in the Schedule Name field, type a
name for the snapshot schedule.
4. (Optional) In the Naming pattern for Generated Snapshots field, type a naming
pattern. Each snapshot generated according to this schedule is assigned a name
based on the pattern.
For example, the following naming pattern is valid:
WeeklyBackup_%m-%d-%Y_%H:%M

The example produces names similar to the following:

WeeklyBackup_07-13-2014_14:21

5. In the Directory Path field, specify the directory that you want to be contained in
snapshots that are generated according to this schedule.
6. From the Snapshot Frequency list, select how often you want to generate snapshots
according to the schedule.

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Option

Description

Generate snapshots every day, or skip

Select Daily, and specify how often
generating snapshots for a specified number you want to generate snapshots.
of days.
Generate snapshots on specific days of the
week, and optionally skip generating
snapshots for a specified number of weeks.

Select Weekly, and specify how

often you want to generate
snapshots.

Generate snapshots on specific days of the

Select Monthly, and specify how
month, and optionally skip generating
often you want to generate
snapshots for a specified number of months. snapshots.
Generate snapshots on specific days of the
year.

Select Yearly, and specify how

often you want to generate
snapshots.

Note

A snapshot schedule cannot span multiple days. For example, you cannot specify to
begin generating snapshots at 5:00 PM Monday and end at 5:00 AM Tuesday. To
continuously generate snapshots for a period greater than a day, you must create two
snapshot schedules. For example, to generate snapshots from 5:00 PM Monday to
5:00 AM Tuesday, create one schedule that generates snapshots from 5:00 PM to
11:59 PM on Monday, and another schedule that generates snapshots from 12:00 AM
to 5:00 AM on Tuesday.
7. (Optional) To assign an alternative name to the most recent snapshot generated by
the schedule, specify a snapshot alias.
a. Next to Create an Alias, click Yes.
b. To modify the default snapshot alias name, in the Alias Name field, type an
alternative name for the snapshot.
8. (Optional) To specify a length of time that snapshots generated according to the
schedule exist on the cluster before they are automatically deleted by OneFS, specify
an expiration period.
a. Next to Snapshot Expiration, click Snapshots expire.
b. Next to Snapshots expire, specify how long you want to retain the snapshots
generated according to the schedule.
9. Click Create.

Create a snapshot
You can create a snapshot of a directory.
Procedure
1. Click Data Protection > SnapshotIQ > Summary.
2. Click Capture a new snapshot.
3. (Optional) In the Capture a Snapshot area, in the Snapshot Name field, type a name.
4. In the Directory Path field, specify the directory that you want the snapshot to contain.
5. (Optional) To create an alternative name for the snapshot, specify a snapshot alias.
Create a snapshot

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a. Next to Create an Alias, click Yes.

b. To modify the default snapshot alias name, in the Alias Name field, type an
alternative name for the snapshot.
6. (Optional) To assign a time that OneFS will automatically delete the snapshot, specify
an expiration period.
a. Next to Snapshot Expiration, click Snapshot Expires on.
b. In the calendar, specify the day that you want the snapshot to be automatically
deleted.
7. Click Capture.

Snapshot naming patterns

If you schedule snapshots to be automatically generated, either according to a snapshot
schedule or a replication policy, you must assign a snapshot naming pattern that
determines how the snapshots are named. Snapshot naming patterns contain variables
that include information about how and when the snapshot was created.
The following variables can be included in a snapshot naming pattern:
Variable

Description

%A

The day of the week.

%a

The abbreviated day of the week. For example, if the snapshot is generated on a
Sunday, %a is replaced with Sun.

%B

The name of the month.

%b

The abbreviated name of the month. For example, if the snapshot is generated in
September, %b is replaced with Sep.

%C

The first two digits of the year. For example, if the snapshot is created in 2014,
%C is replaced with 20.

%c

The time and day. This variable is equivalent to specifying %a %b %e %T %Y.

%d

The two digit day of the month.

%e

The day of the month. A single-digit day is preceded by a blank space.

%F

The date. This variable is equivalent to specifying %Y-%m-%d.

%G

The year. This variable is equivalent to specifying %Y. However, if the snapshot is
created in a week that has less than four days in the current year, the year that
contains the majority of the days of the week is displayed. The first day of the
week is calculated as Monday. For example, if a snapshot is created on Sunday,
January 1, 2017, %G is replaced with 2016, because only one day of that week
is in 2017.

%g

The abbreviated year. This variable is equivalent to specifying %y. However, if

the snapshot was created in a week that has less than four days in the current
year, the year that contains the majority of the days of the week is displayed.
The first day of the week is calculated as Monday. For example, if a snapshot is
created on Sunday, January 1, 2017, %g is replaced with 16, because only one
day of that week is in 2017.

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Variable

Description

%H

The hour. The hour is represented on the 24-hour clock. Single-digit hours are
preceded by a zero. For example, if a snapshot is created at 1:45 AM, %H is
replaced with 01.

%h

The abbreviated name of the month. This variable is equivalent to specifying %b.

%I

The hour represented on the 12-hour clock. Single-digit hours are preceded by a
zero. For example, if a snapshot is created at 1:45 PM, %I is replaced with 01.

%j

The numeric day of the year. For example, if a snapshot is created on February 1,
%j is replaced with 32.

%k

The hour represented on the 24-hour clock. Single-digit hours are preceded by a
blank space.

%l

The hour represented on the 12-hour clock. Single-digit hours are preceded by a
blank space. For example, if a snapshot is created at 1:45 AM, %I is replaced
with 1.

%M

The two-digit minute.

%m

The two-digit month.

%p

AM or PM.

%{PolicyName} The name of the replication policy that the snapshot was created for. This
variable is valid only if you are specifying a snapshot naming pattern for a
replication policy.
%R

The time. This variable is equivalent to specifying %H:%M.

%r

The time. This variable is equivalent to specifying %I:%M:%S %p.

%S

The two-digit second.

%s

The second represented in UNIX or POSIX time.

%{SrcCluster}

The name of the source cluster of the replication policy that the snapshot was
created for. This variable is valid only if you are specifying a snapshot naming
pattern for a replication policy.

%T

The time. This variable is equivalent to specifying %H:%M:%S

%U

The two-digit numerical week of the year. Numbers range from 00 to 53. The
first day of the week is calculated as Sunday.

%u

The numerical day of the week. Numbers range from 1 to 7. The first day of the
week is calculated as Monday. For example, if a snapshot is created on Sunday,
%u is replaced with 7.

%V

The two-digit numerical week of the year that the snapshot was created in.
Numbers range from 01 to 53. The first day of the week is calculated as
Monday. If the week of January 1 is four or more days in length, then that week is
counted as the first week of the year.

%v

The day that the snapshot was created. This variable is equivalent to specifying
%e-%b-%Y.

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Variable

Description

%W

The two-digit numerical week of the year that the snapshot was created in.
Numbers range from 00 to 53. The first day of the week is calculated as
Monday.

%w

The numerical day of the week that the snapshot was created on. Numbers
range from 0 to 6. The first day of the week is calculated as Sunday. For
example, if the snapshot was created on Sunday, %w is replaced with 0.

%X

The time that the snapshot was created. This variable is equivalent to specifying
%H:%M:%S.

%Y

The year that the snapshot was created in.

%y

The last two digits of the year that the snapshot was created in. For example, if
the snapshot was created in 2014, %y is replaced with 14.

%Z

The time zone that the snapshot was created in.

%z

The offset from coordinated universal time (UTC) of the time zone that the
snapshot was created in. If preceded by a plus sign, the time zone is east of UTC.
If preceded by a minus sign, the time zone is west of UTC.

%+

The time and date that the snapshot was created. This variable is equivalent to
specifying %a %b %e %X %Z %Y.

%%

Escapes a percent sign. For example, 100%% is replaced with 100%.

Managing snapshots
You can delete and view snapshots. You can also modify the name, duration period, and
snapshot alias of an existing snapshot. However, you cannot modify the data contained
in a snapshot; the data contained in a snapshot is read-only.

Reducing snapshot disk-space usage

If multiple snapshots contain the same directories, deleting one of the snapshots might
not free the entire amount of space that the system reports as the size of the snapshot.
The size of a snapshot is the maximum amount of data that might be freed if the
snapshot is deleted.
Deleting a snapshot frees only the space that is taken up exclusively by that snapshot. If
two snapshots reference the same stored data, that data is not freed until both
snapshots are deleted. Remember that snapshots store data contained in all
subdirectories of the root directory; if snapshot_one contains /ifs/data/, and
snapshot_two contains /ifs/data/dir, the two snapshots most likely share data.
If you delete a directory, and then re-create it, a snapshot containing the directory stores
the entire re-created directory, even if the files in that directory are never modified.
Deleting multiple snapshots that contain the same directories is more likely to free data
than deleting multiple snapshots that contain different directories.
If multiple snapshots contain the same directories, deleting older snapshots is more
likely to free disk-space than deleting newer snapshots.

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Snapshots that are assigned expiration dates are automatically marked for deletion by
the snapshot daemon. If the daemon is disabled, snapshots will not be automatically
deleted by the system. It is recommended that you do not disable the snapshot daemon.

Delete snapshots
You can delete a snapshot if you no longer want to access the data contained in the
snapshot.
OneFS frees disk space occupied by deleted snapshots when the SnapshotDelete job is
run. Also, if you delete a snapshot that contains clones or cloned files, data in a shadow
store might no longer be referenced by files on the cluster; OneFS deletes unreferenced
data in a shadow store when the ShadowStoreDelete job is run. OneFS routinely runs
both the ShadowStoreDelete and SnapshotDelete jobs. However, you can also manually
run the jobs at any time.
Procedure
1. Click Data Protection > SnapshotIQ > Snapshots.
2. Specify the snapshots that you want to delete.
a. For each snapshot you want to delete, in the Saved File System Snapshots table,
in the row of a snapshot, select the check box.
b. From the Select an action list, select Delete.
c. In the confirmation dialog box, click Delete.
3. (Optional) To increase the speed at which deleted snapshot data is freed on the
cluster, run the SnapshotDelete job.
a. Click Cluster Management > Job Operations > Job Types.
b. In the Job Types area, in the SnapshotDelete row, from the Actions column, select
Start Job.
c. Click Start.
4. (Optional) To increase the speed at which deleted data shared between deduplicated
and cloned files is freed on the cluster, run the ShadowStoreDelete job.
Run the ShadowStoreDelete job only after you run the SnapshotDelete job.
a. Click Cluster Management > Job Operations > Job Types.
b. In the Job Types area, in the ShadowStoreDelete row, from the Actions column,
select Start Job.
c. Click Start.

Modify snapshot attributes

You can modify the name and expiration date of a snapshot.
Procedure
1. Click File System Management > SnapshotIQ > Snapshots.
2. In the Saved File System Snapshots table, in the row of a snapshot, click View
Details.
3. In the Snapshot Details area, modify snapshot attributes.
4. Next to each snapshot attribute that you modified, click Save.

Delete snapshots

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Assign a snapshot alias to a snapshot

You can assign a snapshot alias to a snapshot.
Procedure
1. Click Data Protection > SnapshotIQ > Snapshots.
2. Above the Saved File System Snapshots table, click View snapshot aliases.
3. In the Snapshot Aliases table, in the row of an alias, click View details.
4. In the Snapshot Alias Details pane, in the Alias Name area, click Edit.
5. In the Alias Name field, type a new alias name.
6. Click Save.

View snapshots
You can view a list of snapshots.
Procedure
1. Click Data Protection > SnapshotIQ > Snapshots.
The 50 most recently generated snapshots appear in the Saved File System
Snapshots table.
2. (Optional) To view additional snapshots, at the bottom of the Saved File System
Snapshots table, click Show 50 more.

Snapshot information
You can view information about snapshots, including the total amount of space
consumed by all snapshots.
The following information is displayed in the Saved Snapshots area:
SnapshotIQ Status
Indicates whether a SnapshotIQ license has been activated on the cluster.
Total Number of Saved Snapshots
Indicates the total number of snapshots that exist on the cluster.
Total Number of Snapshots Pending Deletion
Indicates the total number of snapshots that were deleted on the cluster since the
last snapshot delete job was run. The space consumed by the deleted snapshots is
not freed until the snapshot delete job is run again.
Total Number of Snapshot Aliases
Indicates the total number of snapshot aliases that exist on the cluster.
Capacity Used by Saved Snapshots
Indicates the total amount of space consumed by all snapshots.

Restoring snapshot data

You can restore snapshot data through various methods. You can revert a snapshot or
access snapshot data through the snapshots directory.
From the snapshots directory, you can either clone a file or copy a directory or a file. The
snapshots directory can be accessed through Windows Explorer or a UNIX command line.
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You can disable and enable access to the snapshots directory for any of these methods
through snapshots settings.

Revert a snapshot
You can revert a directory back to the state it was in when a snapshot was taken. Before
OneFS reverts a snapshot, OneFS generates a snapshot of the directory being reverted, so
that data stored in the directory is not lost. OneFS does not delete a snapshot after
reverting it.
Before you begin
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Create a SnapRevert domain for the directory.

Create a snapshot of a directory.

Procedure
1. Click Cluster Management > Job Operations > Job Types.
2. In the Job Types area, in the SnapRevert row, from the Actions column, select Start
Job.
3. (Optional) To specify a priority for the job, from the Priority list, select a priority.
Lower values indicate a higher priority. If you do not specify a priority, the job is
assigned the default snapshot revert priority.
4. (Optional) To specify the amount of cluster resources the job is allowed to consume,
from the Impact policy list, select an impact policy.
If you do not specify a policy, the job is assigned the default snapshot revert policy.
5. In the Snapshot ID to revert field, type the name or ID of the snapshot that you want to
revert, and then click Start.

Restore a file or directory using Windows Explorer

If the Microsoft Shadow Copy Client is installed on your computer, you can use it to
restore files and directories that are stored in snapshots.
This method of restoring files and directories does not preserve the original permissions.
Instead, this method assigns the file or directory the same permissions as the directory
you are copying that file or directory into. To preserve permissions while restoring data
from a snapshot, run the cp command with the -a option on a UNIX command line.
Note

You can access up to 64 snapshots of a directory through Windows explorer, starting with
the most recent snapshot. To access more than 64 snapshots for a directory, access the
cluster through a UNIX command line.
Procedure
1. In Windows Explorer, navigate to the directory that you want to restore or the directory
that contains the file that you want to restore.
If the directory has been deleted, you must recreate the directory.
2. Right-click the folder, and then click Properties.
3. In the Properties window, click the Previous Versions tab.
4. Select the version of the folder that you want to restore or the version of the folder
that contains the version of the file that you want to restore.
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5. Restore the version of the file or directory.

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To restore all files in the selected directory, click Restore.

To copy the selected directory to another location, click Copy, and then specify a
location to copy the directory to.

To restore a specific file, click Open, and then copy the file into the original
directory, replacing the existing copy with the snapshot version.

Restore a file or directory through a UNIX command line

You can restore a file or directory from a snapshot through a UNIX command line.
Procedure
1. Open a connection to the cluster through a UNIX command line.
2. (Optional) To view the contents of the snapshot you want to restore a file or directory
from, run the ls command for a directory contained in the snapshots root directory.
For example, the following command displays the contents of the /archive
directory contained in Snapshot2014Jun04:
ls /ifs/.snapshot/Snapshot2014Jun04/archive

3. Copy the file or directory by using the cp command.

For example, the following command creates a copy of the file1 file:
cp -a /ifs/.snapshot/Snapshot2014Jun04/archive/file1 \
/ifs/archive/file1_copy

Clone a file from a snapshot

You can clone a file from a snapshot.
Procedure
1. Open a secure shell (SSH) connection to any node in the cluster and log in.
2. To view the contents of the snapshot you want to restore a file or directory from, run
the ls command for a subdirectory of the snapshots root directory.
For example, the following command displays the contents of the /archive
directory contained in Snapshot2014Jun04:
ls /ifs/.snapshot/Snapshot2014Jun04/archive

3. Clone a file from the snapshot by running the cp command with the -c option.
For example, the following command clones test.txt from Snapshot2014Jun04:
cp -c /ifs/.snapshot/Snapshot2014Jun04/archive/test.txt \
/ifs/archive/test_clone.text

Managing snapshot schedules

You can modify, delete, and view snapshot schedules.

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Modify a snapshot schedule

Any changes to a snapshot schedule are applied only to snapshots that are generated
after the modifications are made. Existing snapshots are not affected by schedule
modifications.
If you modify the snapshot alias of a snapshot schedule, the alias is assigned to the next
snapshot generated based on the schedule. However, if you do this, the old alias is not
removed from the last snapshot that it was assigned to. Unless you manually remove the
old alias, the alias will remain attached to the last snapshot that it was assigned to.
Procedure
1. Click Data Protection > SnapshotIQ > Snapshot Schedules.
2. In the Snapshot Schedules table, in the row of the snapshot schedule that you want
to modify, click View details.
3. In the Snapshot Schedule Details area, modify snapshot schedule attributes.
4. Next to each snapshot schedule attribute that you modified, click Save.

Delete a snapshot schedule

You can delete a snapshot schedule. Deleting a snapshot schedule will not delete
snapshots that were previously generated according to the schedule.
Procedure
1. Click Data Protection > SnapshotIQ > Snapshot Schedules.
2. In the Snapshot Schedules table, in the row of the snapshot schedule you want to
delete, click Delete.
3. In the Confirm Delete dialog box, click Delete.

View snapshot schedules

You can view snapshot schedules.
Procedure
1. Click Data Protection > SnapshotIQ > Snapshot Schedules.
2. In the Snapshot Schedules table, view snapshot schedules.
3. (Optional) To view detailed information about a snapshot schedule, in the Snapshot
Schedules table, in the row of the snapshot schedule that you want to view, click View
details.
Snapshot schedule settings are displayed in the Snapshot Schedule Details area.
Snapshots that are scheduled to be generated according to the schedule are
displayed in the Snapshot Calendar area.

Managing snapshot aliases

You can configure snapshot schedules to assign a snapshot alias to the most recent
snapshot created by a snapshot schedule. You can also manually assign snapshot
aliases to specific snapshots or the live version of the file system.

Modify a snapshot schedule

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Configure a snapshot alias for a snapshot schedule

You can configure a snapshot schedule to assign a snapshot alias to the most recent
snapshot created by the schedule.
Procedure
1. Click Data Protection > SnapshotIQ > Snapshot Schedules
2. In the Snapshot Schedules table, in the row of the snapshot schedule you want to
configure, click View details.
3. Next to Snapshot Alias, click Create an Alias.
4. In the Snapshot Alias area, select Yes.
5. In the Alias Name field, type the name of the snapshot alias.
6. In the Snapshot Alias area, click Save.

Assign a snapshot alias to a snapshot

You can assign a snapshot alias to a snapshot.
Procedure
1. Click Data Protection > SnapshotIQ > Snapshots.
2. Above the Saved File System Snapshots table, click View snapshot aliases.
3. In the Snapshot Aliases table, in the row of an alias, click View details.
4. In the Snapshot Alias Details pane, in the Alias Name area, click Edit.
5. In the Alias Name field, type a new alias name.
6. Click Save.

Reassign a snapshot alias to the live file system

You can reassign a snapshot alias to redirect clients from a snapshot to the live file
system.
This procedure is available only through the command-line interface (CLI).
Procedure
1. Open a secure shell (SSH) connection to any node in the cluster and log in.
2. Run the isi snapshot aliases modify command.
The following command reassigns the latestWeekly alias to the live file system:
isi snapshot aliases modify latestWeekly --target LIVE

View snapshot aliases

You can view a list of all snapshot aliases.
This procedure is available only through the command-line interface (CLI).
Procedure
1. Open a secure shell (SSH) connection to any node in the cluster and log in.
2. View a list of all snapshot aliases by running the following command:
isi snapshot aliases list
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If a snapshot alias references the live version of the file system, the Target ID is
-1.
3. (Optional) View information about a specific snapshot by running the isi
snapshot aliases view command.
The following command displays information about latestWeekly:
isi snapshot aliases view latestWeekly

Snapshot alias information

You can view information about snapshot aliases through the output of the isi
snapshot aliases view command.
ID
The numerical ID of the snapshot alias.
Name
The name of the snapshot alias.
Target ID
The numerical ID of the snapshot that is referenced by the alias.
Target Name
The name of the snapshot that is referenced by the alias.
Created
The date that the snapshot alias was created.

Managing with snapshot locks

You can delete, create, and modify the expiration date of snapshot locks.
CAUTION

It is recommended that you do not create, delete, or modify snapshot locks unless you
are instructed to do so by Isilon Technical Support.
Deleting a snapshot lock that was created by OneFS might result in data loss. If you
delete a snapshot lock that was created by OneFS, it is possible that the corresponding
snapshot might be deleted while it is still in use by OneFS. If OneFS cannot access a
snapshot that is necessary for an operation, the operation will malfunction and data loss
might result. Modifying the expiration date of a snapshot lock created by OneFS can also
result in data loss because the corresponding snapshot can be deleted prematurely.

Create a snapshot lock

You can create snapshot locks that prevent snapshots from being deleted.
Although you can prevent a snapshot from being automatically deleted by creating a
snapshot lock, it is recommended that you do not create snapshot locks. To prevent a
snapshot from being automatically deleted, it is recommended that you extend the
duration period of the snapshot.
This procedure is available only through the command-line interface (CLI).

Snapshot alias information

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Procedure
1. Open a secure shell (SSH) connection to any node in the cluster and log in.
2. Create a snapshot lock by running the isi snapshot locks create command.
For example, the following command applies a snapshot lock to SnapshotApril2016,
sets the lock to expire in one month, and adds a description of "Maintenance Lock":
isi snapshot locks create SnapshotApril2016 --expires 1M \
--comment "Maintenance Lock"

Modify a snapshot lock expiration date

You can modify the expiration date of a snapshot lock.
CAUTION

It is recommended that you do not modify the expiration dates of snapshot locks.
This procedure is available only through the command-line interface (CLI).
Procedure
1. Open a secure shell (SSH) connection to any node in the cluster and log in.
2. Run the isi snapshot locks modify command.
The following command sets an expiration date two days from the present date for a
snapshot lock with an ID of 1 that is applied to a snapshot named
SnapshotApril2014:
isi snapshot locks modify SnapshotApril2014 1 --expires 2D

Delete a snapshot lock

You can delete a snapshot lock.
CAUTION

It is recommended that you do not delete snapshot locks.

This procedure is available only through the command-line interface (CLI).
Procedure
1. Open a secure shell (SSH) connection to any node in the cluster and log in.
2. Delete a snapshot lock by running the isi snapshot locks delete command.
The following command deletes a snapshot lock that is applied to SnapshotApril2014
and has a lock ID of 1:
isi snapshot locks delete Snapshot2014Apr16 1

The system prompts you to confirm that you want to delete the snapshot lock.
3. Type yes and then press ENTER.

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Snapshot lock information

You can view snapshot lock information through the isi snapshot locks view and
isi snapshot locks list commands.
ID
Numerical identification number of the snapshot lock.
Comment
Description of the snapshot lock. This can be any string specified by a user.
Expires
The date that the snapshot lock will be automatically deleted by OneFS.
Count
The number of times the snapshot lock is held.
The file clone operation can hold a single snapshot lock multiple times. If multiple
file clones are created simultaneously, the file clone operation holds the same lock
multiple times, rather than creating multiple locks. If you delete a snapshot lock that
is held more than once, you will delete only one of the instances that the lock is
held. In order to delete a snapshot lock that is held multiple times, you must delete
the snapshot lock the same number of times as displayed in the count field.

Configure SnapshotIQ settings

You can configure SnapshotIQ settings that determine how snapshots can be created and
the methods that users can access snapshot data.
Procedure
1. Click Data Protection > SnapshotIQ > Settings.
2. Modify SnapshotIQ settings, and then click Save.

SnapshotIQ settings
SnapshotIQ settings determine how snapshots behave and can be accessed.
The following SnapshotIQ settings can be configured:
Snapshot Scheduling
Determines whether snapshots can be generated.
Note

Disabling snapshot generation might cause some OneFS operations to fail. It is

recommended that you do not disable this setting.
Auto-create Snapshots
Determines whether snapshots are automatically generated according to
snapshot schedules.
Auto-delete Snapshots
Determines whether snapshots are automatically deleted according to their
expiration dates.

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NFS Visibility & Accessibility

Root Directory Accessible
Determines whether snapshot directories are accessible through NFS.
Root Directory Visible
Determines whether snapshot directories are visible through NFS.
Sub-directories Accessible
Determines whether snapshot subdirectories are accessible through NFS.
SMB Visibility & Accessible
Root Directory Accessible
Determines whether snapshot directories are accessible through SMB.
Root Directory Visible
Determines whether snapshot directories are visible through SMB.
Sub-directories Accessible
Determines whether snapshot subdirectories are accessible through SMB.
Local Visibility & Accessibility
Root Directory Accessible
Determines whether snapshot directories are accessible through the local file
system. You can access the local file system through an SSH connection or the
local console.
Root Directory Visible
Determines whether snapshot directories are visible through the local file
system. You can access the local file system through an SSH connection or the
local console.
Sub-directories Accessible
Determines whether snapshot subdirectories are accessible through the local
file system. You can access the local file system through an SSH connection or
the local console.

Set the snapshot reserve

You can specify a minimum percentage of cluster-storage capacity that you want to
reserve for snapshots.
The snapshot reserve does not limit the amount of space that snapshots are allowed to
consume on the cluster. Snapshots can consume more than the percentage of capacity
specified by the snapshot reserve. It is recommended that you do not specify a snapshot
reserve.
This procedure is available only through the command-line interface (CLI).
Procedure
1. Open a secure shell (SSH) connection to any node in the cluster and log in.
2. Set the snapshot reserve by running the isi snapshot settings modify
command with the --reserve option.
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For example, the following command sets the snapshot reserve to 20%:
isi snapshot settings modify --reserve 20

Managing changelists
You can create and view changelists that describe the differences between two
snapshots. You can create a changelist for any two snapshots that have a common root
directory.
Changelists are most commonly accessed by applications through the OneFS Platform
API. For example, a custom application could regularly compare the two most recent
snapshots of a critical directory path to determine whether to back up the directory, or to
trigger other actions.

Create a changelist
You can create a changelist to view the differences between two snapshots.
Procedure
1. (Optional) Record the IDs of the snapshots.
a. Click Data Protection > SnapshotIQ > Snapshots.
b. In the row of each snapshot that you want to create a changelist for, click View
Details, and record the ID of the snapshot.
2. Click Cluster Management > Job Operations > Job Types.
3. In the Job Types area, in the ChangelistCreate row, from the Actions column, select
Start Job.
4. In the Older Snapshot ID field, type the ID of the older snapshot.
5. In the Newer Snapshot ID field, type the ID of the newer snapshot.
6. Click Start Job.

Delete a changelist
You can delete a changelist
Procedure
1. Run the isi_changelist_mod command with the -k option.
The following command deletes changelist 22_24:
isi_changelist_mod -k 22_24

View a changelist
You can view a changelist that describes the differences between two snapshots. This
procedure is available only through the command-line interface (CLI).
Procedure
1. View the IDs of changelists by running the following command:
isi_changelist_mod -l

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Changelist IDs include the IDs of both snapshots used to create the changelist. If
OneFS is still in the process of creating a changelist, inprog is appended to the
changelist ID.
2. (Optional) View all contents of a changelist by running the isi_changelist_mod
command with the -a option.
The following command displays the contents of a changelist named 2_6:
isi_changelist_mod -a 2_6

Changelist information
You can view the information contained in changelists.
Note

The information contained in changelists is meant to be consumed by applications

through the OneFS Platform API.
The following information is displayed for each item in the changelist when you run the
isi_changelist_mod command:
st_ino
Displays the inode number of the specified item.
st_mode
Displays the file type and permissions for the specified item.
st_size
Displays the total size of the item in bytes.
st_atime
Displays the POSIX timestamp of when the item was last accessed.
st_mtime
Displays the POSIX timestamp of when the item was last modified.
st_ctime
Displays the POSIX timestamp of when the item was last changed.
cl_flags
Displays information about the item and what kinds of changes were made to the
item.
01
The item was added or moved under the root directory of the snapshots.
02
The item was removed or moved out of the root directory of the snapshots.
04
The path of the item was changed without being removed from the root directory
of the snapshot.
10
The item either currently contains or at one time contained Alternate Data
Streams (ADS).
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20
The item is an ADS.
40
The item has hardlinks.
Note

These values are added together in the output. For example, if an ADS was added,
the code would be cl_flags=021.
path
The absolute path of the specified file or directory.

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CHAPTER 14
Deduplication with SmartDedupe

This section contains the following topics:

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Deduplication overview....................................................................................... 268

Deduplication jobs.............................................................................................. 268
Data replication and backup with deduplication..................................................269
Snapshots with deduplication.............................................................................269
Deduplication considerations..............................................................................270
Shadow-store considerations.............................................................................. 270
SmartDedupe license functionality......................................................................271
Managing deduplication..................................................................................... 271

Deduplication with SmartDedupe

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Deduplication overview
SmartDedupe enables you to save storage space on your cluster by reducing redundant
data. Deduplication maximizes the efficiency of your cluster by decreasing the amount of
storage required to store multiple files with identical blocks.
The SmartDedupe software module deduplicates data by scanning an Isilon cluster for
identical data blocks. Each block is 8 KB. If SmartDedupe finds duplicate blocks,
SmartDedupe moves a single copy of the blocks to a hidden file called a shadow store.
SmartDedupe then deletes the duplicate blocks from the original files and replaces the
blocks with pointers to the shadow store.
Deduplication is applied at the directory level, targeting all files and directories
underneath one or more root directories. SmartDedupe not only deduplicates identical
blocks in different files, it also deduplicates identical blocks within a single file.
You can first assess a directory for deduplication and determine the estimated amount of
space you can expect to save. You can then decide whether to deduplicate the directory.
After you begin deduplicating a directory, you can monitor how much space is saved by
deduplication in real time.
For two or more files to be deduplicated, the files must have the same disk pool policy ID
and protection policy. If one or both of these attributes differs between two or more
identical files, or files with identical 8K blocks, the files are not deduplicated.
Because it is possible to specify protection policies on a per-file or per-directory basis,
deduplication can further be impacted. Consider the example of two files, /ifs/data/
projects/alpha/logo.jpg and /ifs/data/projects/beta/logo.jpg. Even
though the logo.jpg files in both directories are identical, if one has a different
protection policy from the other, the two files would not be deduplicated.
In addition, if you have activated a SmartPools license on your cluster, you can specify
custom file pool policies. These file pool polices might cause files that are identical or
have identical 8K blocks to be stored in different node pools. Consequently, those files
would have different disk pool policy IDs and would not be deduplicated.
SmartDedupe also does not deduplicate files that are 32 KB or smaller, because doing so
would consume more cluster resources than the storage savings are worth. The default
size of a shadow store is 2 GB. Each shadow store can contain up to 256,000 blocks.
Each block in a shadow store can be referenced up to 32,000 times.

Deduplication jobs
Deduplication is performed by a system maintenance job referred to as a deduplication
job. You can monitor and control deduplication jobs as you would any other maintenance
job on the cluster. Although the overall performance impact of deduplication is minimal,
the deduplication job consumes 400 MB of memory per node.
When a deduplication job runs for the first time on a cluster, SmartDedupe samples
blocks from each file and creates index entries for those blocks. If the index entries of
two blocks match, SmartDedupe scans the blocks adjacent to the matching pair and then
deduplicates all duplicate blocks. After a deduplication job samples a file once, new
deduplication jobs will not sample the file again until the file is modified.
The first deduplication job that you run might take significantly longer to complete than
subsequent deduplication jobs. The first deduplication job must scan all files under the
specified directories to generate the initial index. If subsequent deduplication jobs take a
long time to complete, this most likely indicates that a large amount of data is being
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deduplicated. However, it can also indicate that users are storing large amounts of new
data on the cluster. If a deduplication job is interrupted during the deduplication process,
the job will automatically restart the scanning process from where the job was
interrupted.
Note

You should run deduplication jobs when users are not modifying data on the cluster. If
users are continually modifying files on the cluster, the amount of space saved by
deduplication is minimal because the deduplicated blocks are constantly removed from
the shadow store.
How frequently you should run a deduplication job on your Isilon cluster varies,
depending on the size of your data set, the rate of changes, and opportunity. For most
clusters, we recommend that you start a deduplication job every 7-10 days. You can start
a deduplication job manually or schedule a recurring job at specified intervals. By
default, the deduplication job is configured to run at a low priority. However, you can
specify job controls, such as priority and impact, on deduplication jobs that run manually
or by schedule.
The permissions required to modify deduplication settings are not the same as those
needed to run a deduplication job. Although a user must have the maintenance job
permission to run a deduplication job, the user must have the deduplication permission
to modify deduplication settings. By default, the root user and SystemAdmin user have
the necessary permissions for all deduplication operations.

Data replication and backup with deduplication

When deduplicated files are replicated to another Isilon cluster or backed up to a tape
device, the deduplicated files no longer share blocks on the target Isilon cluster or
backup device. However, although you can deduplicate data on a target Isilon cluster,
you cannot deduplicate data on an NDMP backup device.
Shadows stores are not transferred to target clusters or backup devices. Because of this,
deduplicated files do not consume less space than non-deduplicated files when they are
replicated or backed up. To avoid running out of space, you must ensure that target
clusters and tape devices have enough free space to store deduplicated data as if the
data had not been deduplicated. To reduce the amount of storage space consumed on a
target Isilon cluster, you can configure deduplication for the target directories of your
replication policies. Although this will deduplicate data on the target directory, it will not
allow SyncIQ to transfer shadow stores. Deduplication is still performed by deduplication
jobs running on the target cluster.
The amount of cluster resources required to backup and replicate deduplicated data is
the same as for non-deduplicated data. You can deduplicate data while the data is being
replicated or backed up.

Snapshots with deduplication

You cannot deduplicate the data stored in a snapshot. However, you can create
snapshots of deduplicated data.
If you create a snapshot for a deduplicated directory, and then modify the contents of
that directory, the references to shadow stores will be transferred to the snapshot over
time. Therefore, if you enable deduplication before you create snapshots, you will save
more space on your cluster. If you implement deduplication on a cluster that already has
a significant amount of data stored in snapshots, it will take time before the snapshot
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data is affected by deduplication. Newly created snapshots can contain deduplicated

data, but snapshots created before deduplication was implemented cannot.
If you plan on reverting a snapshot, it is best to revert the snapshot before running a
deduplication job. Restoring a snapshot can overwrite many of the files on the cluster.
Any deduplicated files are reverted back to normal files if they are overwritten by a
snapshot revert. However, after the snapshot revert is complete, you can deduplicate the
directory and the space savings persist on the cluster.

Deduplication considerations
Deduplication can significantly increase the efficiency at which you store data. However,
the effect of deduplication varies depending on the cluster.
You can reduce redundancy on a cluster by running SmartDedupe. Deduplication creates
links that can impact the speed at which you can read from and write to files. In
particular, sequentially reading chunks smaller than 512 KB of a deduplicated file can be
significantly slower than reading the same small, sequential chunks of a nondeduplicated file. This performance degradation applies only if you are reading noncached data. For cached data, the performance for deduplicated files is potentially better
than non-deduplicated files. If you stream chunks larger than 512 KB, deduplication does
not significantly impact the read performance of the file. If you intend on streaming 8 KB
or less of each file at a time, and you do not plan on concurrently streaming the files, it is
recommended that you do not deduplicate the files.
Deduplication is most effective when applied to static or archived files and directories.
The less files are modified, the less negative effect deduplication has on the cluster. For
example, virtual machines often contain several copies of identical files that are rarely
modified. Deduplicating a large number of virtual machines can greatly reduce consumed
storage space.

Shadow-store considerations
Shadow stores are hidden files that are referenced by cloned and deduplicated files. Files
that reference shadow stores behave differently than other files.

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Reading shadow-store references might be slower than reading data directly.

Specifically, reading non-cached shadow-store references is slower than reading noncached data. Reading cached shadow-store references takes no more time than
reading cached data.

When files that reference shadow stores are replicated to another Isilon cluster or
backed up to a Network Data Management Protocol (NDMP) backup device, the
shadow stores are not transferred to the target Isilon cluster or backup device. The
files are transferred as if they contained the data that they reference from shadow
stores. On the target Isilon cluster or backup device, the files consume the same
amount of space as if they had not referenced shadow stores.

When OneFS creates a shadow store, OneFS assigns the shadow store to a storage
pool of a file that references the shadow store. If you delete the storage pool that a
shadow store resides on, the shadow store is moved to a pool occupied by another
file that references the shadow store.

OneFS does not delete a shadow-store block immediately after the last reference to
the block is deleted. Instead, OneFS waits until the ShadowStoreDelete job is run to
delete the unreferenced block. If a large number of unreferenced blocks exist on the
cluster, OneFS might report a negative deduplication savings until the
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Shadow stores are protected at least as much as the most protected file that
references it. For example, if one file that references a shadow store resides in a
storage pool with +2 protection and another file that references the shadow store
resides in a storage pool with +3 protection, the shadow store is protected at +3.

Quotas account for files that reference shadow stores as if the files contained the
data referenced from shadow stores; from the perspective of a quota, shadow-store
references do not exist. However, if a quota includes data protection overhead, the
quota does not account for the data protection overhead of shadow stores.

SmartDedupe license functionality

You can deduplicate data only if you activate a SmartDedupe license on a cluster.
However, you can assess deduplication savings without activating a SmartDedupe
license.
If you activate a SmartDedupe license, and then deduplicate data, the space savings are
not lost if the license becomes inactive. You can also still view deduplication savings
while the license is inactive. However, you will not be able to deduplicate additional data
until you re-activate the SmartDedupe license.

Managing deduplication
You can manage deduplication on a cluster by first assessing how much space you can
save by deduplicating individual directories. After you determine which directories are
worth deduplicating, you can configure SmartDedupe to deduplicate those directories
specifically. You can then monitor the actual amount of disk space you are saving.

Assess deduplication space savings

You can assess the amount of disk space you will save by deduplicating a directory.
Procedure
1. Click File System Management > Deduplication > Settings.
2. In the Assess Deduplication area, click Browse and select a directory that you want to
deduplicate.
If you assess multiple directories, disk savings are not differentiated by directory in
the deduplication report.
3. Click Cluster Management > Job Operations > Job Types.
4. In the Job Types table, in the row of the DedupeAssessment job, from the Actions
column, select Start Job.
5. Click Cluster Management > Job Operations > Job Summary.
6. Wait for the assessment job to complete.
When the DedupeAssessment job is complete, the job is removed from the Active
Jobs table.
7. Click File System Management > Deduplication > Summary.
In the Deduplication Assessment Reports table, in the row of the most recent
assessment job, click View Details.
8. View the amount of disk space that will be saved if you deduplicate the directory.

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The number of blocks that will be deduplicated is displayed in the Deduped blocks
field.

Specify deduplication settings

You can specify which directories you want to deduplicate.
Procedure
1. Click File System > Deduplication > Settings.
2. In the Deduplication Settings area, click Browse and select a directory that you want
to deduplicate.
3. (Optional) Specify additional directories.
a. Click Add another directory path.
b. Click Browse and select a directory that you want to deduplicate.
4. Click Save Changes.

Start or schedule a deduplication job

You can manually start a deduplication job or specify a repeating schedule for the job to
run automatically.
We recommend starting a deduplication job every 10 days. The first deduplication that
you run on your cluster might take significantly longer to complete than subsequent
deduplication jobs.
Procedure
1. Click Cluster Management > Job Operations > Job Types.
2. In the Job Types table, next to the Dedupe job, click View/Edit.
3. In the View Job Type Details dialog box, click Edit Job Type.
4. In the Edit Job Type Details dialog box, specify job controls as follows:
Option

Description

Enable this job Determines whether this job is enabled. Make sure this option is
type
selected.
Default Priority Determines the job priority as compared to other system
maintenance jobs that run at the same time. Select a priority value
from 1 to 10. The default value is 4.
Default Impact Determines the amount of system resources that the Dedupe job
Policy
uses compared to other system maintenance jobs that run at the
same time. Select a policy value of HIGH, MEDIUM, LOW, or OFFHOURS. The default is LOW.
Schedule

Determines whether the job must be manually started or runs on a

regularly scheduled basis. When you click Scheduled, you can
specify a daily, weekly, monthly, or yearly schedule. For most
clusters, we recommend running the Dedupe job once every 10
days.

5. Click Save Changes, and then click Close.

The new job controls are saved and the dialog box closes.
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6. Click Start Job to start the Dedupe job immediately, or wait until the next scheduled
runtime.
Results
The Dedupe job runs with the new job controls.

View deduplication space savings

You can view the amount of disk space that you are currently saving with deduplication.
Procedure
1. Click File System Management > Deduplication > Summary.
2. In the Deduplication Savings area, view the amount of disk space saved.

View a deduplication report

After a deduplication job completes, you can view information about the job in a
deduplication report.
Procedure
1. Click File System Management > Deduplication > Summary.
2. Select a deduplication report.
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To view a report about a deduplication job, in the Deduplication Reports table,

click View Report.

To view a report about a deduplication assessment job, in the Deduplication

Assessment Reports table, click View Report.

Deduplication job report information

You can view the following deduplication specific information in deduplication job
reports:
Start time
The time the deduplication job started.
End time
The time the deduplication job ended.
Iteration Count
The number of times that SmartDedupe interrupted the sampling process. If
SmartDedupe is sampling a large amount of data, SmartDedupe might interrupt
sampling in order to start deduplicating the data. After SmartDedupe finishes
deduplicating the sampled data, SmartDedupe will continue sampling the remaining
data.
Scanned blocks
The total number of blocks located underneath the specified deduplicated
directories.
Sampled blocks
The number of blocks that SmartDedupe created index entries for.
Deduped blocks
The number of blocks that were deduplicated.

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Dedupe percent
The percentage of scanned blocks that were deduplicated.
Created dedupe requests
The total number of deduplication requests created. A deduplication request is
created for each matching pair of data blocks. For example, if you have 3 data blocks
that all match, SmartDedupe creates 2 requests. One of the requests could pair file1
and file2 together and the other request could pair file2 and file3 together.
Successful dedupe requests
The number of deduplication requests that completed successfully.
Failed dedupe requests
The number of deduplication requests that failed. If a deduplication request fails, it
doesn't mean that the job failed too. A deduplication request can fail for any number
of reasons. For example, the file might have been modified since it was sampled.
Skipped files
The number of files that were not scanned by the deduplication job. SmartDedupe
skips files for a number of reasons. For example, SmartDedupe skips files that have
already been scanned and haven't been modified since. SmartDedupe also skips all
files that are smaller than 4 KB.
Index entries
The number of entries that currently exist in the index.
Index lookup attempts
The total number of lookups that have been done by earlier deduplication jobs plus
the number of lookups done by this deduplication job. A lookup is when the
deduplication job attempts to match a block that was indexed with a block that
hasn't been indexed.
Index lookup hits
The number of blocks that matched index entries.

Deduplication information
You can view the amount of disk space saved by deduplication in the Deduplication
Savings area:
Space Savings
The total amount of physical disk space saved by deduplication, including
protection overhead and metadata. For example, if you have three identical files that
are all 5 GB, the estimated physical saving would be greater than 10 GB, because
deduplication saved space that would have been occupied by file metadata and
protection overhead.
Deduplicated data
The amount of space on the cluster occupied by directories that were deduplicated.
Other data
The amount of space on the cluster occupied by directories that were not
deduplicated.

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CHAPTER 15
Data replication with SyncIQ

This section contains the following topics:

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SyncIQ data replication overview.........................................................................276

Replication policies and jobs.............................................................................. 276
Replication snapshots.........................................................................................282
Data failover and failback with SyncIQ.................................................................283
Recovery times and objectives for SyncIQ............................................................284
Replication policy priority....................................................................................285
SyncIQ license functionality................................................................................ 285
Creating replication policies................................................................................ 285
Managing replication to remote clusters..............................................................296
Initiating data failover and failback with SyncIQ.................................................. 298
Performing disaster recovery for SmartLock directories........................................300
Managing replication policies............................................................................. 302
Managing replication to the local cluster............................................................. 307
Managing replication performance rules............................................................. 309
Managing replication reports...............................................................................310
Managing failed replication jobs......................................................................... 312

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SyncIQ data replication overview

OneFS enables you to replicate data from one Isilon cluster to another through the SyncIQ
software module. You must activate a SyncIQ license on both Isilon clusters before you
can replicate data between them.
You can replicate data at the directory level while optionally excluding specific files and
sub-directories from being replicated. SyncIQ creates and references snapshots to
replicate a consistent point-in-time image of a root directory. Metadata such as access
control lists (ACL) and alternate data streams (ADS) are replicated along with data.
SyncIQ enables you to maintain a consistent backup copy of your data on another Isilon
cluster. SyncIQ offers automated failover and failback capabilities that enable you to
continue operations on another Isilon cluster if a primary cluster becomes unavailable.

Accessing SyncIQ with IsilonSD Edge

The SyncIQ software module is available only with a purchased license of IsilonSD Edge.
It is not packaged with the free license of this product. Therefore, you must purchase a
license of IsilonSD Edge to access the SyncIQ backup and replication functions.

Replication policies and jobs

Data replication is coordinated according to replication policies and replication jobs.
Replication policies specify what data is replicated, where the data is replicated to, and
how often the data is replicated. Replication jobs are the operations that replicate data
from one Isilon cluster to another. SyncIQ generates replication jobs according to
replication policies.
A replication policy specifies two clusters: the source and the target. The cluster on which
the replication policy exists is the source cluster. The cluster that data is being replicated
to is the target cluster. When a replication policy starts, SyncIQ generates a replication
job for the policy. When a replication job runs, files from a directory tree on the source
cluster are replicated to a directory tree on the target cluster; these directory trees are
known as source and target directories.
After the first replication job created by a replication policy finishes, the target directory
and all files contained in the target directory are set to a read-only state, and can be
modified only by other replication jobs belonging to the same replication policy. We
recommend that you do not create more than 1,000 policies on a cluster.
Note

To prevent permissions errors, make sure that ACL policy settings are the same across
source and target clusters.
You can create two types of replication policies: synchronization policies and copy
policies. A synchronization policy maintains an exact replica of the source directory on
the target cluster. If a file or sub-directory is deleted from the source directory, the file or
directory is deleted from the target cluster when the policy is run again.
You can use synchronization policies to fail over and fail back data between source and
target clusters. When a source cluster becomes unavailable, you can fail over data on a
target cluster and make the data available to clients. When the source cluster becomes
available again, you can fail back the data to the source cluster.

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A copy policy maintains recent versions of the files that are stored on the source cluster.
However, files that are deleted on the source cluster are not deleted from the target
cluster. Failback is not supported for copy policies. Copy policies are most commonly
used for archival purposes.
Copy policies enable you to remove files from the source cluster without losing those files
on the target cluster. Deleting files on the source cluster improves performance on the
source cluster while maintaining the deleted files on the target cluster. This can be useful
if, for example, your source cluster is being used for production purposes and your target
cluster is being used only for archiving.
After creating a job for a replication policy, SyncIQ must wait until the job completes
before it can create another job for the policy. Any number of replication jobs can exist on
a cluster at a given time; however, no more than 50 replication jobs can run on a source
cluster at the same time. If more than 50 replication jobs exist on a cluster, the first 50
jobs run while the others are queued to run.
There is no limit to the number of replication jobs that a target cluster can support
concurrently. However, because more replication jobs require more cluster resources,
replication will slow down as more concurrent jobs are added.
When a replication job runs, OneFS generates workers on the source and target cluster.
Workers on the source cluster read and send data while workers on the target cluster
receive and write data. OneFS generates no more than 8 workers per node per replication
job. For example, in a five node cluster, OneFS would create no more than 40 workers for
a replication job.
You can replicate any number of files and directories with a single replication job. You
can prevent a large replication job from overwhelming the system by limiting the amount
of cluster resources and network bandwidth that data synchronization is allowed to
consume. Because each node in a cluster is able to send and receive data, the speed at
which data is replicated increases for larger clusters.

Automated replication policies

You can manually start a replication policy at any time, but you can also configure
replication policies to start automatically based on source directory modifications or
schedules.
You can configure a replication policy to run according to a schedule, so that you can
control when replication is performed. You can also configure policies to replicate the
data captured in snapshots of a directory. You can also configure a replication policy to
start when SyncIQ detects a modification to the source directory, so that SyncIQ
maintains a more current version of your data on the target cluster.
Scheduling a policy can be useful under the following conditions:
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You want to replicate data when user activity is minimal

You can accurately predict when modifications will be made to the data

If a policy is configured to run according to a schedule, you can configure the policy not to
run if no changes have been made to the contents of the source directory since the job
was last run. However, if changes are made to the parent directory of the source directory
or a sibling directory of the source directory, and then a snapshot of the parent directory
is taken, SyncIQ will create a job for the policy, even if no changes have been made to the
source directory. Also, if you monitor the cluster through the File System Analytics (FSA)
feature of InsightIQ, the FSA job will create snapshots of /ifs, which will most likely
cause a replication job to start whenever the FSA job is run.
Replicating data contained in snapshots of a directory can be useful under the following
conditions:
Automated replication policies

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You want to replicate data according to a schedule, and you are already generating
snapshots of the source directory through a snapshot schedule
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You want to maintain identical snapshots on both the source and target cluster
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You want to replicate existing snapshots to the target cluster
To do this, you must enable archival snapshots on the target cluster. This setting can
only been enabled when the policy is created.
If a policy is configured to replicate snapshots, you can configure SyncIQ to replicate only
snapshots that match a specified naming pattern.
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Configuring a policy to start when changes are made to the source directory can be useful
under the following conditions:
You want to retain a up-to-date copy of your data at all times
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You are expecting a large number of changes at unpredictable intervals
For policies that are configured to start whenever changes are made to the source
directory, SyncIQ checks the source directories every ten seconds. SyncIQ checks all files
and directories underneath the source directory, regardless of whether those files or
directories are excluded from replication, so SyncIQ might occasionally run a replication
job unnecessarily. For example, assume that newPolicy replicates /ifs/data/media
but excludes /ifs/data/media/temp. If a modification is made to /ifs/data/
media/temp/file.txt, SyncIQ will run newPolicy, even though /ifs/data/
media/temp/file.txt will not be replicated.
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If a policy is configured to start whenever changes are made to the source directory, and
a replication job fails, SyncIQ waits one minute before attempting to run the policy again.
SyncIQ increases this delay exponentially for each failure up to a maximum of eight
hours. You can override the delay by running the policy manually at any time. After a job
for the policy completes successfully, SyncIQ will resume checking the source directory
every ten seconds.
If a policy is configured to start whenever changes are made to the source directory, you
can configure SyncIQ to wait a specified period of time after the source directory is
modified before starting a job.
Note

To avoid frequent synchronization of minimal sets of changes, and overtaxing system

resources, we strongly advise against configuring continuous replication when the source
directory is highly active. In such cases, it is often better to configure continuous
replication with a change-triggered delay of several hours to consolidate groups of
changes.

Source and target cluster association

SyncIQ associates a replication policy with a target cluster by marking the target cluster
when the job runs for the first time. Even if you modify the name or IP address of the
target cluster, the mark persists on the target cluster. When a replication policy is run,
SyncIQ checks the mark to ensure that data is being replicated to the correct location.
On the target cluster, you can manually break an association between a replication policy
and target directory. Breaking the association between a source and target cluster causes
the mark on the target cluster to be deleted. You might want to manually break a target
association if an association is obsolete. If you break the association of a policy, the
policy is disabled on the source cluster and you cannot run the policy. If you want to run
the disabled policy again, you must reset the replication policy.
Breaking a policy association causes either a full replication or differential replication to
occur the next time you run the replication policy. During a full or differential replication,
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SyncIQ creates a new association between the source and target clusters. Depending on
the amount of data being replicated, a full or differential replication can take a very long
time to complete.
CAUTION

Changes to the configuration of the target cluster outside of SyncIQ can introduce an
error condition that effectively breaks the association between the source and target
cluster. For example, changing the DNS record of the target cluster could cause this
problem. If you need to make significant configuration changes to the target cluster
outside of SyncIQ, make sure that your SyncIQ policies can still connect to the target
cluster.

Configuring SyncIQ source and target clusters with NAT

Source and target clusters can use NAT (network address translation) for SyncIQ failover
and failback purposes, but must be configured appropriately.
In this scenario, source and target clusters are typically at different physical locations,
use private, non-routable address space, and do not have direct connections to the
Internet. Each cluster typically is assigned a range of private IP addresses. For example, a
cluster with 12 nodes might be assigned IP addresses 192.168.10.11 to 192.168.10.22.
To communicate over the public Internet, source and target clusters must have all
incoming and outgoing data packets appropriately translated and redirected by a NATenabled firewall or router.
CAUTION

SyncIQ data is not encrypted. Running SyncIQ jobs over the public Internet provides no
protection against data theft.
SyncIQ enables you to limit replication jobs to particular nodes within your cluster. For
example, if your cluster was made up of 12 nodes, you could limit replication jobs to just
three of those nodes. For NAT support, you would need to establish a one-for-one
association between the source and target clusters. So, if you are limiting replication jobs
to three nodes on your source cluster, you must associate three nodes on your target
cluster.
In this instance, you would need to configure static NAT, sometimes referred to as
inbound mapping. On both the source and target clusters, for the private address
assigned to each node, you would associate a static NAT address. For example:
Source cluster

Target Cluster

Node name Private address NAT address Node name Private address NAT address
source-1

192.168.10.11

10.8.8.201

target-1

192.168.55.101

10.1.2.11

source-2

192.168.10.12

10.8.8.202

target-2

192.168.55.102

10.1.2.12

source-3

192.168.10.13

10.8.8.203

target-3

192.168.55.103

10.1.2.13

To configure static NAT, you would need to edit the /etc/local/hosts file on all six
nodes, and associate them with their counterparts by adding the appropriate NAT

Configuring SyncIQ source and target clusters with NAT

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address and node name. For example, in the /etc/local/hosts file on the three
nodes of the source cluster, the entries would look like:
10.1.2.11 target-1
10.1.2.12 target-2
10.1.2.13 target-3

Similarly, on the three nodes of the target cluster, you would edit the /etc/local/
hosts file, and insert the NAT address and name of the associated node on the source
cluster. For example, on the three nodes of the target cluster, the entries would look like:
10.8.8.201 source-1
10.8.8.202 source-2
10.8.8.203 source-3

When the NAT server receives packets of SyncIQ data from a node on the source cluster,
the NAT server replaces the packet headers and the node's port number and internal IP
address with the NAT server's own port number and external IP address. The NAT server
on the source network then sends the packets through the Internet to the target network,
where another NAT server performs a similar process to transmit the data to the target
node. The process is reversed when the data fails back.
With this type of configuration, SyncIQ can determine the correct addresses to connect
with, so that SyncIQ can send and receive data. In this scenario, no SmartConnect zone
configuration is required.
For information about the ports used by SyncIQ, see the OneFS Security Configuration
Guide for your OneFS version.

Full and differential replication

If a replication policy encounters an issue that cannot be fixed (for example, if the
association was broken on the target cluster), you might need to reset the replication
policy. If you reset a replication policy, SyncIQ performs either a full replication or a
differential replication the next time the policy is run. You can specify the type of
replication that SyncIQ performs.
During a full replication, SyncIQ transfers all data from the source cluster regardless of
what data exists on the target cluster. A full replication consumes large amounts of
network bandwidth and can take a very long time to complete. However, a full replication
is less strenuous on CPU usage than a differential replication.
During a differential replication, SyncIQ first checks whether a file already exists on the
target cluster and then transfers only data that does not already exist on the target
cluster. A differential replication consumes less network bandwidth than a full
replication; however, differential replications consume more CPU. Differential replication
can be much faster than a full replication if there is an adequate amount of available CPU
for the replication job to consume.

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Controlling replication job resource consumption

You can create rules that limit the network traffic created by replication jobs, the rate at
which files are sent by replication jobs, the percent of CPU used by replication jobs, and
the number of workers created for replication jobs.
If you limit the percentage of total workers that SyncIQ can create, the limit is applied to
the total amount of workers that SyncIQ could create, which is determined by cluster
hardware. Workers on the source cluster read and send data while workers on the target
cluster receive and write data.
Note

File-operation rules might not work accurately for files that can take more than a second
to transfer and for files that are not predictably similar in size.

Replication policy priority

When creating a replication policy, you can configure a policy to have priority over other
jobs.
If multiple replication jobs are queued to be run because the maximum number of jobs
are already running, jobs created by policies with priority will be run before jobs without
priorities. For example, assume that 50 jobs are currently running. A job without priority is
the created and queued to run; next, a job with priority is created and queued to run. The
job with priority will run next, even though the job without priority has been queued for a
longer period of time.
SyncIQ will also pause replication jobs without priority to allow jobs with priority to run.
For example, assume that 50 jobs are already running, and one of them does not have
priority. If a replication job with priority is created, SyncIQ will pause the replication job
without priority and run the job with priority.

Replication reports
After a replication job completes, SyncIQ generates a replication report that contains
detailed information about the job, including how long the job ran, how much data was
transferred, and what errors occurred.
If a replication report is interrupted, SyncIQ might create a subreport about the progress
of the job so far. If the job is then restarted, SyncIQ creates another subreport about the
progress of the job until the job either completes or is interrupted again. SyncIQ creates a
subreport each time the job is interrupted until the job completes successfully. If multiple
subreports are created for a job, SyncIQ combines the information from the subreports
into a single report.
SyncIQ routinely deletes replication reports. You can specify the maximum number of
replication reports that SyncIQ retains and the length of time that SyncIQ retains
replication reports. If the maximum number of replication reports is exceeded on a
cluster, SyncIQ deletes the oldest report each time a new report is created.
You cannot customize the content of a replication report.
Note

If you delete a replication policy, SyncIQ automatically deletes any reports that were
generated for that policy.

Controlling replication job resource consumption

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Replication snapshots
SyncIQ generates snapshots to facilitate replication, failover, and failback between Isilon
clusters. Snapshots generated by SyncIQ can also be used for archival purposes on the
target cluster.

Source cluster snapshots

SyncIQ generates snapshots on the source cluster to ensure that a consistent point-intime image is replicated and that unaltered data is not sent to the target cluster.
Before running a replication job, SyncIQ creates a snapshot of the source directory.
SyncIQ then replicates data according to the snapshot rather than the current state of the
cluster, allowing users to modify source directory files while ensuring that an exact pointin-time image of the source directory is replicated.
For example, if a replication job of /ifs/data/dir/ starts at 1:00 PM and finishes at
1:20 PM, and /ifs/data/dir/file is modified at 1:10 PM, the modifications are not
reflected on the target cluster, even if /ifs/data/dir/file is not replicated until
1:15 PM.
You can replicate data according to a snapshot generated with the SnapshotIQ software
module. If you replicate data according to a SnapshotIQ snapshot, SyncIQ does not
generate another snapshot of the source directory. This method can be useful if you want
to replicate identical copies of data to multiple Isilon clusters.
SyncIQ generates source snapshots to ensure that replication jobs do not transfer
unmodified data. When a job is created for a replication policy, SyncIQ checks whether it
is the first job created for the policy. If it is not the first job created for the policy, SyncIQ
compares the snapshot generated for the earlier job with the snapshot generated for the
new job.
SyncIQ replicates only data that has changed since the last time a snapshot was
generated for the replication policy. When a replication job is completed, SyncIQ deletes
the previous source-cluster snapshot and retains the most recent snapshot until the next
job is run.

Target cluster snapshots

When a replication job is run, SyncIQ generates a snapshot on the target cluster to
facilitate failover operations. When the next replication job is created for the replication
policy, the job creates a new snapshot and deletes the old one.
If a SnapshotIQ license has been activated on the target cluster, you can configure a
replication policy to generate additional snapshots that remain on the target cluster even
as subsequent replication jobs run.
SyncIQ generates target snapshots to facilitate failover on the target cluster regardless of
whether a SnapshotIQ license has been configured on the target cluster. Failover
snapshots are generated when a replication job completes. SyncIQ retains only one
failover snapshot per replication policy, and deletes the old snapshot after the new
snapshot is created.
If a SnapshotIQ license has been activated on the target cluster, you can configure
SyncIQ to generate archival snapshots on the target cluster that are not automatically
deleted when subsequent replication jobs run. Archival snapshots contain the same data
as the snapshots that are generated for failover purposes. However, you can configure

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how long archival snapshots are retained on the target cluster. You can access archival
snapshots the same way that you access other snapshots generated on a cluster.

Data failover and failback with SyncIQ

SyncIQ enables you to perform automated data failover and failback operations between
Isilon clusters. If a cluster is rendered unusable, you can fail over to another Isilon
cluster, enabling clients to continue accessing their data. If the unusable cluster
becomes accessible again, you can fail back to the original Isilon cluster.
For the purposes of explaining failover and failback procedures, the cluster originally
accessed by clients is referred to as the primary cluster, and the cluster that client data is
replicated to is referred to as the secondary cluster. Failover is the process that allows
clients to modify data on a secondary cluster. Failback is the process that allows clients
to access data on the primary cluster again. If changes were made to data on the
secondary cluster, those changes are replicated back to the primary cluster during
failback.
Failover and failback can be useful in disaster recovery procedures. For example, if a
primary cluster is damaged by a natural disaster, you can migrate clients to a secondary
cluster until the primary cluster is repaired and then migrate the clients back to the
primary cluster.
You can fail over and fail back to facilitate scheduled cluster maintenance. For example, if
you are upgrading the primary cluster, you might want to migrate clients to a secondary
cluster until the upgrade is complete and then migrate clients back to the primary cluster.
Note

Data failover and failback is not supported for compliance SmartLock directories.
However, data failover and failback is supported for enterprise SmartLock directories.

Data failover
Data failover is the process of preparing data on a secondary cluster to be modified by
clients. After you fail over to a secondary cluster, you can redirect clients to modify their
data on the secondary cluster.
Before failover is performed, you must create and run a replication policy on the primary
cluster. You initiate the failover process on the secondary cluster. Failover is performed
per replication policy; to migrate data that is spread across multiple replication policies,
you must initiate failover for each replication policy.
You can use any replication policy to fail over. However, if the action of the replication
policy is set to copy, any file that was deleted on the primary cluster will be present on
the secondary cluster. When the client connects to the secondary cluster, all files that
were deleted on the primary cluster will be available to the client.
If you initiate failover for a replication policy while an associated replication job is
running, the failover operation completes but the replication job fails. Because data
might be in an inconsistent state, SyncIQ uses the snapshot generated by the last
successful replication job to revert data on the secondary cluster to the last recovery
point.
If a disaster occurs on the primary cluster, any modifications to data that were made after
the last successful replication job started are not reflected on the secondary cluster.
When a client connects to the secondary cluster, their data appears as it was when the
last successful replication job was started.

Data failover and failback with SyncIQ

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Data failback
Data failback is the process of restoring clusters to the roles they occupied before a
failover operation. After data failback is complete, the primary cluster hosts clients and
replicates data to the secondary cluster for backup.
The first step in the failback process is updating the primary cluster with all of the
modifications that were made to the data on the secondary cluster. The next step in the
failback process is preparing the primary cluster to be accessed by clients. The final step
in the failback process is resuming data replication from the primary to the secondary
cluster. At the end of the failback process, you can redirect users to resume accessing
their data on the primary cluster.
To update the primary cluster with the modifications that were made on the secondary
cluster, SyncIQ must create a SyncIQ domain for the source directory.
You can fail back data with any replication policy that meets all of the following criteria:
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The source directory is not a compliance SmartLock directory.

The policy has been failed over.

The policy is a synchronization policy.

The policy does not exclude any files or directories from replication.

Recovery times and objectives for SyncIQ

The Recovery Point Objective (RPO) and the Recovery Time Objective (RTO) are
measurements of the impacts that a disaster can have on business operations. You can
calculate your RPO and RTO for a disaster recovery with replication policies.
RPO is the maximum amount of time for which data is lost if a cluster suddenly becomes
unavailable. For an Isilon cluster, the RPO is the amount of time that has passed since
the last completed replication job started. The RPO is never greater than the time it takes
for two consecutive replication jobs to run and complete.
If a disaster occurs while a replication job is running, the data on the secondary cluster is
reverted to the state it was in when the last replication job completed. For example,
consider an environment in which a replication policy is scheduled to run every three
hours, and replication jobs take two hours to complete. If a disaster occurs an hour after
a replication job begins, the RPO is four hours, because it has been four hours since a
completed job began replicating data.
RTO is the maximum amount of time required to make backup data available to clients
after a disaster. The RTO is always less than or approximately equal to the RPO,
depending on the rate at which replication jobs are created for a given policy.
If replication jobs run continuously, meaning that another replication job is created for
the policy before the previous replication job completes, the RTO is approximately equal
to the RPO. When the secondary cluster is failed over, the data on the cluster is reset to
the state it was in when the last job completed; resetting the data takes an amount of
time proportional to the time it took users to modify the data.
If replication jobs run on an interval, meaning that there is a period of time after a
replication job completes before the next replication job for the policy starts, the
relationship between RTO and RPO depends on whether a replication job is running when
the disaster occurs. If a job is in progress when a disaster occurs, the RTO is roughly
equal to the RPO. However, if a job is not running when a disaster occurs, the RTO is
negligible because the secondary cluster was not modified since the last replication job
ran, and the failover process is almost instantaneous.
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RPO Alerts
You can configure SyncIQ to create OneFS events that alert you to the fact that a specified
Recovery Point Objective (RPO) has been exceeded. You can view these events through
the same interface as other OneFS events.
The events have an event ID of 400040020. The event message for these alerts follows
the following format:
SW_SIQ_RPO_EXCEEDED: SyncIQ RPO exceeded for policy
<replication_policy>

For example, assume you set an RPO of 5 hours; a job starts at 1:00 PM and completes at
3:00 PM; a second job starts at 3:30 PM; if the second job does not complete by 6:00
PM, SyncIQ will create a OneFS event.

Replication policy priority

When creating a replication policy, you can configure a policy to have priority over other
jobs.
If multiple replication jobs are queued to be run because the maximum number of jobs
are already running, jobs created by policies with priority will be run before jobs without
priorities. For example, assume that 50 jobs are currently running. A job without priority is
the created and queued to run; next, a job with priority is created and queued to run. The
job with priority will run next, even though the job without priority has been queued for a
longer period of time.
SyncIQ will also pause replication jobs without priority to allow jobs with priority to run.
For example, assume that 50 jobs are already running, and one of them does not have
priority. If a replication job with priority is created, SyncIQ will pause the replication job
without priority and run the job with priority.

SyncIQ license functionality

You can replicate data to another Isilon cluster only if you activate a SyncIQ license on
both the local cluster and the target cluster.
If a SyncIQ license becomes inactive, you cannot create, run, or manage replication
policies. Also, all previously created replication policies are disabled. Replication policies
that target the local cluster are also disabled. However, data that was previously
replicated to the local cluster is still available.

Creating replication policies

You can create replication policies that determine when data is replicated with SyncIQ.

Excluding directories in replication

You can exclude directories from being replicated by replication policies even if the
directories exist under the specified source directory.
Note

Failback is not supported for replication policies that exclude directories.

RPO Alerts

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By default, all files and directories under the source directory of a replication policy are
replicated to the target cluster. However, you can prevent directories under the source
directory from being replicated.
If you specify a directory to exclude, files and directories under the excluded directory are
not replicated to the target cluster. If you specify a directory to include, only the files and
directories under the included directory are replicated to the target cluster; any
directories that are not contained in an included directory are excluded.
If you both include and exclude directories, any excluded directories must be contained
in one of the included directories; otherwise, the excluded-directory setting has no effect.
For example, consider a policy with the following settings:
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The root directory is /ifs/data

The included directories are /ifs/data/media/music and /ifs/data/

media/movies

The excluded directories are /ifs/data/archive and /ifs/data/media/

music/working

In this example, the setting that excludes the /ifs/data/archive directory has no
effect because the /ifs/data/archive directory is not under either of the included
directories. The /ifs/data/archive directory is not replicated regardless of whether
the directory is explicitly excluded. However, the setting that excludes the /ifs/data/
media/music/working directory does have an effect, because the directory would be
replicated if the setting was not specified.
In addition, if you exclude a directory that contains the source directory, the excludedirectory setting has no effect. For example, if the root directory of a policy is /ifs/
data, explicitly excluding the /ifs directory does not prevent /ifs/data from being
replicated.
Any directories that you explicitly include or exclude must be contained in or under the
specified root directory. For example, consider a policy in which the specified root
directory is /ifs/data. In this example, you could include both the /ifs/data/
media and the /ifs/data/users/ directories because they are under /ifs/data.
Excluding directories from a synchronization policy does not cause the directories to be
deleted on the target cluster. For example, consider a replication policy that
synchronizes /ifs/data on the source cluster to /ifs/data on the target cluster. If
the policy excludes /ifs/data/media from replication, and /ifs/data/media/
file exists on the target cluster, running the policy does not cause /ifs/data/
media/file to be deleted from the target cluster.

Excluding files in replication

If you do not want specific files to be replicated by a replication policy, you can exclude
them from the replication process through file-matching criteria statements. You can
configure file-matching criteria statements during the replication-policy creation process.
Note

You cannot fail back replication policies that exclude files.

A file-criteria statement can include one or more elements. Each file-criteria element
contains a file attribute, a comparison operator, and a comparison value. You can
combine multiple criteria elements in a criteria statement with Boolean "AND" and "OR"
operators. You can configure any number of file-criteria definitions.

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Configuring file-criteria statements can cause the associated jobs to run slowly. It is
recommended that you specify file-criteria statements in a replication policy only if
necessary.
Modifying a file-criteria statement will cause a full replication to occur the next time that a
replication policy is started. Depending on the amount of data being replicated, a full
replication can take a very long time to complete.
For synchronization policies, if you modify the comparison operators or comparison
values of a file attribute, and a file no longer matches the specified file-matching criteria,
the file is deleted from the target the next time the job is run. This rule does not apply to
copy policies.

File criteria options

You can configure a replication policy to exclude files that meet or do not meet specific
criteria.
You can specify file criteria based on the following file attributes:
Date created
Includes or excludes files based on when the file was created. This option is
available for copy policies only.
You can specify a relative date and time, such as "two weeks ago", or specific date
and time, such as "January 1, 2012." Time settings are based on a 24-hour clock.
Date accessed
Includes or excludes files based on when the file was last accessed. This option is
available for copy policies only, and only if the global access-time-tracking option of
the cluster is enabled.
You can specify a relative date and time, such as "two weeks ago", or specific date
and time, such as "January 1, 2012." Time settings are based on a 24-hour clock.
Date modified
Includes or excludes files based on when the file was last modified. This option is
available for copy policies only.
You can specify a relative date and time, such as "two weeks ago", or specific date
and time, such as "January 1, 2012." Time settings are based on a 24-hour clock.
File name
Includes or excludes files based on the file name. You can specify to include or
exclude full or partial names that contain specific text.
The following wildcard characters are accepted:
Note

Alternatively, you can filter file names by using POSIX regular-expression (regex) text.
Isilon clusters support IEEE Std 1003.2 (POSIX.2) regular expressions. For more
information about POSIX regular expressions, see the BSD man pages.
Table 2 Replication file matching wildcards

Wildcard
character

Description

Matches any string in place of the asterisk.

File criteria options

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Table 2 Replication file matching wildcards (continued)

Wildcard
character

Description
For example, m* matches movies and m123.

[ ]

Matches any characters contained in the brackets, or a range of characters

separated by a dash.
For example, b[aei]t matches bat, bet, and bit.
For example, 1[4-7]2 matches 142, 152, 162, and 172.
You can exclude characters within brackets by following the first bracket with
an exclamation mark.
For example, b[!ie] matches bat but not bit or bet.
You can match a bracket within a bracket if it is either the first or last
character.
For example, [[c]at matches cat and [at.
You can match a dash within a bracket if it is either the first or last character.
For example, car[-s] matches cars and car-.
Matches any character in place of the question mark.
For example, t?p matches tap, tip, and top.

Path
Includes or excludes files based on the file path. This option is available for copy
policies only.
You can specify to include or exclude full or partial paths that contain specified text.
You can also include the wildcard characters *, ?, and [ ].
Size
Includes or excludes files based on their size.
Note

File sizes are represented in multiples of 1024, not 1000.

Type
Includes or excludes files based on one of the following file-system object types:

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Soft link

Regular file

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Configure default replication policy settings

You can configure default settings for replication policies. If you do not modify these
settings when creating a replication policy, the specified default settings are applied.
Procedure
1. Click Data Protection > SyncIQ > Settings.
2. In the Default Policy Settings section, if you want policies to connect only to nodes in
a specified SmartConnect zone, select Connect only to the nodes within the target
cluster SmartConnect zone.
Note

This option will affect only policies that specify the target cluster as a SmartConnect
zone.
3. Specify which nodes you want replication policies to connect to when a policy is run.
Option

Description

Connect policies to all nodes on

a source cluster.

Click Run the policy on all nodes in this cluster.

Connect policies only to nodes

contained in a specified subnet
and pool.

a. Click Run the policy only on nodes in the

specified subnet and pool.
b. From the Subnet and pool list, select the
subnet and pool .

Note

SyncIQ does not support dynamically allocated IP address pools. If a replication job
connects to a dynamically allocated IP address, SmartConnect might reassign the
address while a replication job is running, which would disconnect the job and cause
it to fail.
4. Click Submit.

Create a replication policy

You can create a replication policy with SyncIQ that defines how and when data is
replicated to another Isilon cluster. Configuring a replication policy is a five-step process.
Configure replication policies carefully. If you modify any of the following policy settings
after the policy is run, OneFS performs either a full or differential replication the next time
the policy is run:
l

Source directory

Included or excluded directories

File-criteria statement

Target cluster name or address

This applies only if you target a different cluster. If you modify the IP or domain name
of a target cluster, and then modify the replication policy on the source cluster to
match the new IP or domain name, a full replication is not performed.
Configure default replication policy settings

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Target directory

Note

If you create a replication policy for a SmartLock compliance directory, the SyncIQ and
SmartLock compliance domains must be configured at the same root level. A SmartLock
compliance domain cannot be nested inside a SyncIQ domain.

Configure basic policy settings

You must configure basic settings for a replication policy.
Procedure
1. Click Data Protection > SyncIQ > Policies.
2. Click Create a SyncIQ policy.
3. In the Settings area, in the Policy name field, type a name for the replication policy.
4. (Optional) In the Description field, type a description for the replication policy.
5. In the Action area, specify the type of replication policy.
l

To copy all files from the source directory to the target directory, click Copy.
Note

Failback is not supported for copy policies.

l

To copy all files from the source directory to the target directory and delete any
files on the target directory that are not in the source directory, click Synchronize.

6. In the Run job area, specify whether replication jobs will be run.
Option

Description

Run jobs only when

manually initiated by
a user.

Click Only manually.

Run jobs
automatically
according to a
schedule.

a. Click On a schedule.
b. Specify a schedule.
If you configure a replication policy to run more than once
a day, you cannot configure the interval to span across
two calendar days. For example, you cannot configure a
replication policy to run every hour starting at 7:00 PM
and ending at 1:00 AM.
c. To prevent the policy from being run when the contents of
the source directory have not been modified, click Only
run if source directory contents are modified.
d. To create OneFS events if a specified RPO is exceeded,
click Send RPO alerts after... and then specify an RPO.
For example, assume you set an RPO of 5 hours; a job
starts at 1:00 PM and completes at 3:00 PM; a second
job starts at 3:30 PM; if the second job does not
complete by 6:00 PM, SyncIQ will create a OneFS event.

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Option

Description
Note

This option is valid only if RPO alerts have been globally

enabled through SyncIQ settings. The events have an
event ID of 400040020.
Run jobs
automatically every
time that a change is
made to the source
directory.
Runs jobs
automatically every
time that a snapshot
is taken of the source
directory.

a. Click Whenever the source is modified.

b. To configure SyncIQ to wait a specified amount of time
after the source directory is modified before starting a
replication job, click Change-Triggered Sync Job Delay
and then specify a delay.
a. Click Whenever a snapshot of the source directory is
taken.
b. To only replicate only data contained in snapshots that
match a specific naming pattern, type a snapshot naming
pattern into the Run job if snapshot name matches the
following pattern box.
c. To replicate data contained in all snapshots that were
taken of the source directory before the policy was
created, click Sync existing snapshots before policy
creation time.

After you finish

The next step in the process of creating a replication policy is specifying source
directories and files.

Specify source directories and files

You must specify the directories and files you want to replicate.
CAUTION

In a SyncIQ replication policy, OneFS enables you to specify a source directory that is a
target directory, or is contained within a target directory, from a different replication
policy. Referred to as cascading replication, this use case is specifically for backup
purposes, and should be used carefully. OneFS does not allow failback in such cases.
Procedure
1. In the Source Cluster area, in the Source Root Directory field, type the full path of the
source directory that you want to replicate to the target cluster.
You must specify a directory contained in /ifs. You cannot specify the directory /
ifs/.snapshot or a subdirectory of it.
2. (Optional) Prevent specific subdirectories of the source directory from being
replicated.
l

To include a directory, in the Included Directories area, click Add a directory path.

To exclude a directory, in the Excluded Directories area, click Add a directory path.

3. (Optional) Prevent specific files from being replicated by specifying file matching
criteria.
Create a replication policy

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a. In the File Matching Criteria area, select a filter type.

b. Select an operator.
c. Type a value.
Files that do not meet the specified criteria will not be replicated to the target cluster.
For example, if you specify File Type doesn't match .txt, SyncIQ will not
replicate any files with the .txt file extension. If you specify Created after
08/14/2013, SyncIQ will not replicate any files created before August 14th, 2013.
If you want to specify more than one file matching criterion, you can control how the
criteria relate to each other by clicking either Add an "Or" condition or Add an "And"
condition.
4. Specify which nodes you want the replication policy to connect to when the policy is
run.
Option

Description

Connect the policy to all nodes in

the source cluster.

Click Run the policy on all nodes in this cluster.

Connect the policy only to nodes

contained in a specified subnet
and pool.

a. Click Run the policy only on nodes in the

specified subnet and pool.
b. From the Subnet and pool list, select the
subnet and pool.

Note

SyncIQ does not support dynamically allocated IP address pools. If a replication job
connects to a dynamically allocated IP address, SmartConnect might reassign the
address while a replication job is running, which would disconnect the job and cause
it to fail.
After you finish
The next step in the process of creating a replication policy is specifying the target
directory.

Specify the policy target directory

You must specify a target cluster and directory to replicate data to.
Procedure
1. In the Target Cluster area, in the Target Host field, type one of the following:
l

The fully qualified domain name (FQDN) of any node in the target cluster.

The host name of any node in the target cluster.

The name of a SmartConnect zone in the target cluster.

The IPv4 or IPv6 address of any node in the target cluster.

localhost

This will replicate data to another directory on the local cluster.

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Note

SyncIQ does not support dynamically allocated IP address pools. If a replication job
connects to a dynamically allocated IP address, SmartConnect might reassign the
address while a replication job is running, which would disconnect the job and cause
it to fail.
2. In the Target Directory field, type the absolute path of the directory on the target
cluster that you want to replicate data to.
CAUTION

If you specify an existing directory on the target cluster, make sure that the directory
is not the target of another replication policy. If this is a synchronization policy, make
sure that the directory is empty. All files are deleted from the target of a
synchronization policy the first time that the policy is run.
If the specified target directory does not already exist on the target cluster, the
directory is created the first time that the job is run. We recommend that you do not
specify the /ifs directory. If you specify the /ifs directory, the entire target cluster
is set to a read-only state, which prevents you from storing any other data on the
cluster.
If this is a copy policy, and files in the target directory share the same name as files in
the source directory, the target directory files are overwritten when the job is run.
3. If you want replication jobs to connect only to the nodes included in the SmartConnect
zone specified by the target cluster, click Connect only to the nodes within the target
cluster SmartConnect Zone.
After you finish
The next step in the process of creating a replication policy is to specify policy target
snapshot settings.

Configure policy target snapshot settings

You can optionally specify how archival snapshots are generated on the target cluster.
You can access archival snapshots the same way that you access SnapshotIQ snapshots.
SyncIQ always retains one snapshot on the target cluster to facilitate failover, regardless
of these settings.
Procedure
1. To create archival snapshots on the target cluster, in the Target Snapshots area, click
Capture snapshots on the target cluster.
2. (Optional) To modify the default alias of the last snapshot created according to the
replication policy, in the Snapshot Alias Name field, type a new alias.
You can specify the alias name as a snapshot naming pattern. For example, the
following naming pattern is valid:
%{PolicyName}-on-%{SrcCluster}-latest

The previous example produces names similar to the following:

newPolicy-on-Cluster1-latest

3. (Optional) To modify the snapshot naming pattern for snapshots created according to
the replication policy, in the Snapshot Naming Pattern field, type a naming pattern.
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Each snapshot generated for this replication policy is assigned a name based on this
pattern.
For example, the following naming pattern is valid:
%{PolicyName}-from-%{SrcCluster}-at-%H:%M-on-%m-%d-%Y

The example produces names similar to the following:

newPolicy-from-Cluster1-at-10:30-on-7-12-2012

4. Select one of the following options:

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Click Snapshots do not expire.

Click Snapshots expire after... and specify an expiration period.

After you finish

The next step in the process of creating a replication policy is configuring advanced
policy settings.

Configure advanced policy settings

You can optionally configure advanced settings for a replication policy.
Procedure
1. (Optional) In the Priority field, specify whether the policy has priority.
Selecting Normal will cause jobs created by the policy not to have priority. Selecting
High will give priority to jobs created by the replication policy.
2. (Optional) From the Log Level list, select the level of logging you want SyncIQ to
perform for replication jobs.
The following log levels are valid, listed from least to most verbose:
l

Fatal

Error

Notice

Info

Copy

Debug

Trace

Replication logs are typically used for debugging purposes. If necessary, you can log
in to a node through the command-line interface and view the contents of
the /var/log/isi_migrate.log file on the node.
Note

The recommended log level is Notice.

3. (Optional) If you want SyncIQ to perform a checksum on each file data packet that is
affected by the replication policy, select the Validate File Integrity check box.
If you enable this option, and the checksum values for a file data packet do not
match, SyncIQ retransmits the affected packet.
4. (Optional) To increase the speed of failback for the policy, click Prepare policy for
accelerated failback performance.
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Selecting this option causes SyncIQ to perform failback configuration tasks the next
time that a job is run, rather than waiting to perform those tasks during the failback
process. This will reduce the amount of time needed to perform failback operations
when failback is initiated.
5. (Optional) To modify the length of time SyncIQ retains replication reports for the
policy, in the Keep Reports For area, specify a length of time.
After the specified expiration period has passed for a report, SyncIQ automatically
deletes the report.
Some units of time are displayed differently when you view a report than how they
were originally entered. Entering a number of days that is equal to a corresponding
value in weeks, months, or years results in the larger unit of time being displayed. For
example, if you enter a value of 7 days, 1 week appears for that report after it is
created. This change occurs because SyncIQ internally records report retention times
in seconds and then converts them into days, weeks, months, or years.
6. (Optional) Specify whether to record information about files that are deleted by
replication jobs by selecting one of the following options:
l

Click Record when a synchronization deletes files or directories.

Click Do not record when a synchronization deletes files or directories.

This option is applicable for synchronization policies only.

7. Specify how the policy replicates CloudPools SmartLink files.
If set to Deny, SyncIQ replicates all CloudPools SmartLink files to the target cluster as
SmartLink files; if the target cluster does not support CloudPools, the job will fail. If
set to Force, SyncIQ replicates all SmartLink files to the target cluster as regular files.
If set to Allow, SyncIQ will attempt to replicate SmartLink files to the target cluster as
SmartLink files; if the target cluster does not support CloudPools, SyncIQ will replicate
the SmartLink files as regular files.
After you finish
The next step in the process of creating a replication policy is saving the replication
policy settings.

Save replication policy settings

SyncIQ does not create replication jobs for a replication policy until you save the policy.
Before you begin
Review the current settings of the replication policy. If necessary, modify the policy
settings.
Procedure
1. In the Create SyncIQ Policy dialog box, after all policy settings are as intended, click
Create Policy.

Create a replication policy

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Assess a replication policy

Before running a replication policy for the first time, you can view statistics on the files
that would be affected by the replication without transferring any files. This can be useful
if you want to preview the size of the data set that will be transferred if you run the policy.
Note

You can assess only replication policies that have never been run before.
Procedure
1. Click Data Protection > SyncIQ > Policies.
2. In the SyncIQ Policies table, in the row of a replication policy, from the Actions
column, select Assess Sync.
3. Click Data Protection > SyncIQ > Summary.
4. After the job completes, in the SyncIQ Recent Reports table, in the row of the
replication job, click View Details.
The report displays the total amount of data that would have been transferred in the
Total Data field.

Managing replication to remote clusters

You can manually run, view, assess, pause, resume, cancel, resolve, and reset replication
jobs that target other clusters.
After a policy job starts, you can pause the job to suspend replication activities.
Afterwards, you can resume the job, continuing replication from the point where the job
was interrupted. You can also cancel a running or paused replication job if you want to
free the cluster resources allocated for the job. A paused job reserves cluster resources
whether or not the resources are in use. A cancelled job releases its cluster resources and
allows another replication job to consume those resources. No more than five running
and paused replication jobs can exist on a cluster at a time. However, an unlimited
number of canceled replication jobs can exist on a cluster. If a replication job remains
paused for more than a week, SyncIQ automatically cancels the job.

Start a replication job

You can manually start a replication job for a replication policy at any time.
If you want to replicate data according to an existing snapshot, at the OneFS command
prompt, run the isi sync jobs start command with the --source-snapshot
option. You cannot replicate data according to snapshots generated by SyncIQ.
Procedure
1. Click Data Protection > SyncIQ > Policies.
2. In the SyncIQ Policies table, in the Actions column for a job, select Start Job.

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Pause a replication job

You can pause a running replication job and then resume the job later. Pausing a
replication job temporarily stops data from being replicated, but does not free the cluster
resources replicating the data.
Procedure
1. Click Data Protection > SyncIQ > Summary.
2. In the Active Jobs table, in the Actions column for a job, click Pause Running Job.

Resume a replication job

You can resume a paused replication job.
Procedure
1. Click Data Protection > SyncIQ > Summary.
2. In the Currently Running table, in the Actions column for a job, click Resume Running
Job.

Cancel a replication job

You can cancel a running or paused replication job. Cancelling a replication job stops
data from being replicated and frees the cluster resources that were replicating data. You
cannot resume a cancelled replication job. To restart replication, you must start the
replication policy again.
Procedure
1. Click Data Protection > SyncIQ > Summary.
2. In the Active Jobs table, in the Actions column for a job, click Cancel Running Job.

View active replication jobs

You can view information about replication jobs that are currently running or paused.
Procedure
1. Click Data Protection > SyncIQ > Policies.
2. In the Active Jobs table, review information about active replication jobs.

Replication job information

You can view information about replication jobs through the Active Jobs table.
Status
The status of the job. The following job statuses are possible:
Running
The job is currently running without error.
Paused
The job has been temporarily paused.
Policy Name
The name of the associated replication policy.
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Started
The time the job started.
Elapsed
How much time has elapsed since the job started.
Transferred
The number of files that have been transferred, and the total size of all transferred
files.
Source Directory
The path of the source directory on the source cluster.
Target Host
The target directory on the target cluster.
Actions
Displays any job-related actions that you can perform.

Initiating data failover and failback with SyncIQ

You can fail over from one Isilon cluster to another if, for example, your primary cluster
becomes unavailable. You can fail back when the primary cluster becomes available
again. You can revert failover if you decide that the failover was unnecessary, or if you
failed over for testing purposes.
Note

Data failover and failback are not supported for compliance SmartLock directories.
However, failover and failback are supported for enterprise SmartLock directories.
Although you cannot fail over compliance SmartLock directories, you can recover them on
a target cluster. Also, although you cannot fail back compliance SmartLock directories,
you can migrate them back to the source cluster.

Fail over data to a secondary cluster

You can fail over to a secondary Isilon cluster if, for example, your primary cluster
becomes unavailable.
Before you begin
You must have created and successfully run a replication policy on the primary cluster.
This action replicates data to the secondary cluster.
Note

Data failover is not supported for compliance SmartLock directories. However, data
failover is supported for enterprise SmartLock directories.
Complete the following procedure for each replication policy that you want to fail over.
Procedure
1. If your primary cluster is still online, complete the following steps:
a. Stop all writes to the replication policy's path.
This ensures that new data will not be written to the policy path.
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b. Modify the replication policy so that it is set to run only manually.

This prevents the policy on the primary cluster from automatically running a
replication job. If the policy on the primary cluster runs a replication job while
writes are allowed to the target directory, the job will fail and the replication policy
will be deactivated. If this happens, modify the policy so that it is set to run only
manually, resolve the policy, and complete the failback process. After you
complete the failback process, you can modify the policy to run according to a
schedule again.
2. On the secondary Isilon cluster, click Data Protection > SyncIQ > Local Targets.
3. In the SyncIQ Local Targets table, in the row for a replication policy, from the Actions
column, select Allow Writes.
4. Direct clients to begin accessing the secondary cluster.

Revert a failover operation

Reverting a failover operation on a secondary cluster enables you to replicate data from
the primary cluster to the secondary cluster again. Failover reversion is useful if the
primary cluster becomes available before data is modified on the secondary cluster or if
you failed over to a secondary cluster for testing purposes.
Before you begin
Fail over by executing a replication policy.
Reverting a failover operation does not migrate modified data back to the primary cluster.
To migrate data that clients have modified on the secondary cluster, you must fail back to
the primary cluster.
Complete the following procedure for each replication policy that you want to fail over:
Procedure
1. Click Data Protection > SyncIQ > Local Targets.
2. In the SyncIQ Local Targets table, in the row for a replication policy, from the Actions
column, select Disallow Writes.

Fail back data to a primary cluster

After you fail over data to a secondary cluster, you can fail back to the primary cluster.
Before you begin
Fail over by executing a replication policy from the primary cluster. Also, ensure that your
primary cluster is back online.
Note

Data failback is not supported for compliance SmartLock directories. However, data
failback is supported for enterprise SmartLock directories.
Procedure
1. On the primary cluster, click Data Protection > SyncIQ > Policies.
2. In the SyncIQ Policies list, for a replication policy, click More > Resync-prep.
This action causes SyncIQ to create a mirror policy for the replication policy on the
secondary cluster. The mirror policy is placed under Data Protection > SyncIQ > Local
Targets on the secondary cluster.
Revert a failover operation

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SyncIQ names mirror policies according to the following pattern:

<replication-policy-name>_mirror

3. Before beginning the failback process, prevent clients from accessing the secondary
cluster.
This action ensures that SyncIQ fails back the latest data set, including all changes
that users made to data on the secondary cluster while the primary cluster was out of
service. We recommend that you wait until client activity is low before preventing
access to the secondary cluster.
4. On the secondary cluster, click Data Protection > SyncIQ > Policies.
5. In the SyncIQ Policies list, for the mirror policy, click More > Start Job.
Alternatively, you can edit the mirror policy on the secondary cluster, and specify a
schedule for the policy to run.
6. On the primary cluster, click Data Protection > SyncIQ > Local Targets.
7. In the SyncIQ Local Targets list, for the mirror policy, select More > Allow Writes.
8. On the secondary cluster, click Data Protection > SyncIQ > Policies.
9. In the SyncIQ Policies list, click More > Resync-prep for the mirror policy.
This puts the secondary cluster back into read-only mode and ensures that the data
sets are consistent on both the primary and secondary clusters.
After you finish
Redirect clients to begin accessing the primary cluster. Although not required, it is safe to
remove a mirror policy after failback has completed successfully.

Performing disaster recovery for SmartLock directories

Although you cannot fail over or fail back compliance SmartLock directories, you can
recover compliance directories on a target cluster and migrate them back to the source
cluster.
Note

Data failover and failback is supported for SmartLock enterprise directories.

Recover SmartLock compliance directories on a target cluster

You can recover compliance SmartLock directories that you have replicated to a target
cluster.
Before you begin
Create and successfully run a replication policy.
Complete the following procedure for each compliance SmartLock directory that you want
to recover.
Procedure
1. On the target cluster, click Data Protection > SyncIQ > Local Targets.
2. In the SyncIQ Local Targets table, in the row of the replication policy, enable writes to
the target directory of the policy.
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If the last replication job completed successfully and a replication job is not
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If a replication job is currently running, wait until the replication job completes,
and then select Allow Writes.

If the primary cluster became unavailable while a replication job was running,
select Break Association.

3. If you clicked Break Association, recover any files that are left in an inconsistent state.
a. Delete all files that are not committed to a WORM state from the target directory.
b. Copy all files from the failover snapshot to the target directory.
Failover snapshots are named according to the following naming pattern:
SIQ-Failover-<policy-name>-<year>-<month>-<day>_<hour>-<minute><second>

Snapshots are stored in the /ifs/.snapshot directory.

4. If any SmartLock directory configuration settings, such as an autocommit time period,
were specified for the source directory of the replication policy, apply those settings to
the target directory.
Because autocommit information is not transferred to the target cluster, files that
were scheduled to be committed to a WORM state on the source cluster will not be
scheduled to be committed at the same time on the target cluster. To ensure that all
files are retained for the appropriate time period, you can commit all files in target
SmartLock directories to a WORM state.
For example, the following command automatically commits all files in /ifs/data/
smartlock to a WORM state after one minute:
isi worm domains modify /ifs/data/smartlock --autocommit-offset 1m

After you finish

Redirect clients to begin accessing the target cluster.

Migrate SmartLock compliance directories

You might want to migrate compliance SmartLock directories if you recovered the
compliance directories on a target cluster and want to transfer those directories either
back to the source cluster or to a new cluster.
Procedure
1. On a cluster, create a replication policy for each directory that you want to migrate.
The policies must meet the following requirements:
l

The source directory is the SmartLock directory that you are migrating.

The target directory is an empty SmartLock directory. The source and target
directories must be of the same SmartLock type. For example, if the target
directory is a compliance directory, the source must also be a compliance
directory.

2. Replicate data to the target cluster by running the policies you created.
You can replicate data either by manually starting the policies or by specifying a policy
schedule.
3. (Optional) To ensure that SmartLock protection is enforced for all files, commit all files
in the SmartLock source directory to a WORM state.
Migrate SmartLock compliance directories

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Because autocommit information is not transferred to the target cluster, files that
were scheduled to be committed to a WORM state on the source cluster will not be
scheduled to be committed at the same time on the target cluster. To ensure that all
files are retained for the appropriate time period, you can commit all files in target
SmartLock directories to a WORM state.
For example, the following command automatically commits all files in /ifs/data/
smartlock to a WORM state after one minute:
isi worm domains modify /ifs/data/smartlock --autocommit-offset 1m

This step is unnecessary if you have not configured an autocommit time period for the
SmartLock directory being replicated.
4. Prevent clients from accessing the source cluster and run the policy that you created.
To minimize impact to clients, it is recommended that you wait until client access is
low before preventing client access to the cluster.
5. On the target cluster, click Data Protection > SyncIQ > Local Targets.
6. In the SyncIQ Local Targets table, in the row of each replication policy, from the
Actions column, select Allow Writes.
7. (Optional) If any SmartLock directory configuration settings, such as an autocommit
time period, were specified for the source directories of the replication policies, apply
those settings to the target directories.
8. (Optional) Delete the copy of your SmartLock data on the source cluster.
If the SmartLock directories are compliance directories or enterprise directories with
the privileged delete functionality permanently disabled, you cannot recover the
space consumed by the source SmartLock directories until all files are released from a
WORM state. If you want to free the space before files are released from a WORM
state, contact Isilon Technical Support for information about reformatting your cluster.

Managing replication policies

You can modify, view, enable, and disable replication policies.

Modify a replication policy

You can modify the settings of a replication policy.
If you modify any of the following policy settings after a policy runs, OneFS performs
either a full or differential replication the next time the policy runs:

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Source directory

Included or excluded directories

File-criteria statement

Target cluster
This applies only if you target a different cluster. If you modify the IP or domain name
of a target cluster, and then modify the replication policy on the source cluster to
match the new IP or domain name, a full replication is not performed.

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Procedure
1. Click Data Protection > SyncIQ > Policies.
2. In the SyncIQ Policies table, in the row for a policy, click View/Edit.
3. In the View SyncIQ Policy Details dialog box, click Edit Policy.
4. Modify the settings of the replication policy, and then click Save Changes.

Delete a replication policy

You can delete a replication policy. After a policy is deleted, SyncIQ no longer creates
replication jobs for the policy. Deleting a replication policy breaks the target association
on the target cluster, and allows writes to the target directory.
If you want to temporarily suspend a replication policy from creating replication jobs, you
can disable the policy, and then enable the policy again later.
Procedure
1. Click Data Protection > SyncIQ > Policies.
2. In the SyncIQ Policies table, in the row for a policy, select Delete Policy.
3. In the confirmation dialog box, click Delete.
Note

The operation will not succeed until SyncIQ can communicate with the target cluster;
until then, the policy will not be removed from the SyncIQ Policies table. After the
connection between the source cluster and target cluster is reestablished, SyncIQ will
delete the policy the next time that the job is scheduled to run; if the policy is
configured to run only manually, you must manually run the policy again. If SyncIQ is
permanently unable to communicate with the target cluster, run the isi sync
policies delete command with the --local-only option. This will delete the
policy from the local cluster only and not break the target association on the target
cluster. For more information, see the OneFS CLI Administration Guide.

Enable or disable a replication policy

You can temporarily suspend a replication policy from creating replication jobs, and then
enable it again later.
Note

If you disable a replication policy while an associated replication job is running, the
running job is not interrupted. However, the policy will not create another job until the
policy is enabled.
Procedure
1. Click Data Protection > SyncIQ > Policies.
2. In the SyncIQ Policies table, in the row for a replication policy, select either Enable
Policy or Disable Policy.
If neither Enable Policy nor Disable Policy appears, verify that a replication job is not
running for the policy. If an associated replication job is not running, ensure that the
SyncIQ license is active on the cluster.

Delete a replication policy

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View replication policies

You can view information about replication policies.
Procedure
1. Click Data Protection > SyncIQ > Policies.
2. In the SyncIQ Policies table, review information about replication policies.

Replication policy information

You can view information about replication policies through the SyncIQ Policies table.
Policy Name
The name of the policy.
State
Whether the policy is enabled or disabled.
Last Known Good
When the last successful job ran.
Schedule
When the next job is scheduled to run. A value of Manual indicates that the job can
be run only manually. A value of When source is modified indicates that the job will
be run whenever changes are made to the source directory.
Source Directory
The path of the source directory on the source cluster.
Target Host : Directory
The IP address or fully qualified domain name of the target cluster and the full path
of the target directory.
Actions
Any policy-related actions that you can perform.

Replication policy settings

You configure replication policies to run according to replication policy settings.
Policy name
The name of the policy.
Description
Describes the policy. For example, the description might explain the purpose or
function of the policy.
Enabled
Determines whether the policy is enabled.
Action
Determines the how the policy replicates data. All policies copy files from the source
directory to the target directory and update files in the target directory to match files
on the source directory. The action determines how deleting a file on the source
directory affects the target. The following values are valid:
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Copy
If a file is deleted in the source directory, the file is not deleted in the target
directory.
Synchronize
Deletes files in the target directory if they are no longer present on the source.
This ensures that an exact replica of the source directory is maintained on the
target cluster.
Run job
Determines whether jobs are run automatically according to a schedule or only when
manually specified by a user.
Last Successful Run
Displays the last time that a replication job for the policy completed successfully.
Last Started
Displays the last time that the policy was run.
Source Root Directory
The full path of the source directory. Data is replicated from the source directory to
the target directory.
Included Directories
Determines which directories are included in replication. If one or more directories
are specified by this setting, any directories that are not specified are not replicated.
Excluded Directories
Determines which directories are excluded from replication. Any directories specified
by this setting are not replicated.
File Matching Criteria
Determines which files are excluded from replication. Any files that do not meet the
specified criteria are not replicated.
Restrict Source Nodes
Determines whether the policy can run on all nodes on the source cluster or run only
on specific nodes.
Target Host
The IP address or fully qualified domain name of the target cluster.
Target Directory
The full path of the target directory. Data is replicated to the target directory from the
source directory.
Restrict Target Nodes
Determines whether the policy can connect to all nodes on the target cluster or can
connect only to specific nodes.
Capture Snapshots
Determines whether archival snapshots are generated on the target cluster.
Snapshot Alias Name
Specifies a snapshot alias for the latest archival snapshot taken on the target
cluster.
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Snapshot Naming Pattern

Specifies how archival snapshots are named on the target cluster.
Snapshot Expiration
Specifies how long archival snapshots are retained on the target cluster before they
are automatically deleted by the system.
Workers Threads Per Node
Specifies the number of workers per node that are generated by OneFS to perform
each replication job for the policy.
Log Level
Specifies the amount of information that is recorded for replication jobs.
More verbose options include all information from less verbose options. The
following list describes the log levels from least to most verbose:
l

Fatal

Error

Notice

Info

Copy

Debug

Trace

Replication logs are typically used for debugging purposes. If necessary, you can log
in to a node through the command-line interface and view the contents of
the /var/log/isi_migrate.log file on the node.
Note

Notice is the recommended log level.

Validate File Integrity
Determines whether OneFS performs a checksum on each file data packet that is
affected by a replication job. If a checksum value does not match, OneFS retransmits
the affected file data packet.
Keep Reports For
Specifies how long replication reports are kept before they are automatically deleted
by OneFS.
Log Deletions on Synchronization
Determines whether OneFS records when a synchronization job deletes files or
directories on the target cluster.
The following replication policy fields are available only through the OneFS command-line
interface.
Source Subnet
Specifies whether replication jobs connect to any nodes in the cluster or if jobs can
connect only to nodes in a specified subnet.

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Source Pool
Specifies whether replication jobs connect to any nodes in the cluster or if jobs can
connect only to nodes in a specified pool.
Password Set
Specifies a password to access the target cluster.
Report Max Count
Specifies the maximum number of replication reports that are retained for this
policy.
Target Compare Initial Sync
Determines whether full or differential replications are performed for this policy. Full
or differential replications are performed the first time a policy is run and after a
policy is reset.
Source Snapshot Archive
Determines whether snapshots generated for the replication policy on the source
cluster are deleted when the next replication policy is run. Enabling archival source
snapshots does not require you to activate the SnapshotIQ license on the cluster.
Source Snapshot Pattern
If snapshots generated for the replication policy on the source cluster are retained,
renames snapshots according to the specified rename pattern.
Source Snapshot Expiration
If snapshots generated for the replication policy on the source cluster are retained,
specifies an expiration period for the snapshots.
Restrict Target Network
Determines whether replication jobs connect only to nodes in a given SmartConnect
zone. This setting applies only if the Target Host is specified as a SmartConnect
zone.
Target Detect Modifications
Determines whether SyncIQ checks the target directory for modifications before
replicating files. By default, SyncIQ always checks for modifications.
Note

Disabling this option could result in data loss. It is recommended that you consult
Isilon Technical Support before disabling this option.
Resolve
Determines whether you can manually resolve the policy if a replication job
encounters an error.

Managing replication to the local cluster

You can interrupt replication jobs that target the local cluster.
You can cancel a currently running job that targets the local cluster, or you can break the
association between a policy and its specified target. Breaking a source and target
cluster association causes SyncIQ to perform a full replication the next time the policy is
run.
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Cancel replication to the local cluster

You can cancel a replication job that is targeting the local clusters.
Procedure
1. Click Data Protection > SyncIQ > Local Targets.
2. In the SyncIQ Local Targets table, specify whether to cancel a specific replication job
or all replication jobs targeting the local cluster.
l

To cancel a specific job, in the row for a replication job, select Cancel Running Job.

To cancel all jobs targeting the local cluster, select the check box to the left of
Policy Name and then select Cancel Selection from the Select a bulk action list.

Break local target association

You can break the association between a replication policy and the local cluster.
Breaking the target association allows writes to the target directory but also requires you
to reset the replication policy before you can run the policy again.
CAUTION

After a replication policy is reset, SyncIQ performs a full or differential replication the
next time the policy is run. Depending on the amount of data being replicated, a full or
differential replication can take a very long time to complete.
Procedure
1. Click Data Protection > SyncIQ > Local Targets.
2. In the SyncIQ Local Targets table, in the row for a replication policy, select Break
Association.
3. In the Confirm dialog box, click Yes.

View replication policies targeting the local cluster

You can view information about replication policies that are currently replicating data to
the local cluster.
Procedure
1. Click Data Protection > SyncIQ > Local Targets.
2. In the SyncIQ Local Targets table, view information about replication policies.

Remote replication policy information

You can view information about replication policies that are currently targeting the local
cluster.
The following information is displayed in the SyncIQ Local Targets table:
ID
The ID of the replication policy.
Policy Name
The name of the replication policy.
Source Host
The name of the source cluster.
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Source Cluster GUID

The GUID of the source cluster.
Coordinator IP
The IP address of the node on the source cluster that is acting as the job coordinator.
Updated
The time when data about the policy or job was last collected from the source
cluster.
Target Path
The path of the target directory on the target cluster.
Status
The current status of the replication job.
Actions
Displays any job-related actions that you can perform.

Managing replication performance rules

You can manage the impact of replication on cluster performance by creating rules that
limit the network traffic created and the rate at which files are sent by replication jobs.

Create a network traffic rule

You can create a network traffic rule that limits the amount of network traffic that
replication policies are allowed to generate during a specified time period.
Procedure
1. Click Data Protection > SyncIQ > Performance Rules.
2. Click Create a SyncIQ Performance Rule.
3. From the Rule Type list, select Bandwidth.
4. In the Limit field, specify the maximum number of kilobits per second that replication
policies are allowed to send.
5. In the Schedule area, specify the time and days of the week that you want to apply the
rule.
6. Click Create Performance Rule.

Create a file operations rule

You can create a file-operations rule that limits the number of files that replication jobs
can send per second.
Procedure
1. Click Data Protection > SyncIQ > Performance Rules.
2. Click Create a SyncIQ Performance Rule.
3. From the Rule Type list, select Bandwidth.
4. In the Limit field, specify the maximum number of files per second that replication
policies are allowed to send.

Managing replication performance rules

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5. In the Schedule area, specify the time and days of the week that you want to apply the
rule.
6. Click Create Performance Rule.

Modify a performance rule

You can modify a performance rule.
Procedure
1. Click Data Protection > SyncIQ > Performance Rules.
2. In the SyncIQ Performance Rules, in the row for the rule you want to modify, click
View/Edit.
3. Click Edit Performance Rule.
4. Modify rule settings, and then click Save Changes.

Delete a performance rule

You can delete a performance rule.
Procedure
1. Click Data Protection > SyncIQ > Performance Rules.
2. In the SyncIQ Performance Rules table, in the row for the rule you want to delete,
select Delete Rule.
3. In the Confirm Delete dialog box, click Delete.

Enable or disable a performance rule

You can disable a performance rule to temporarily prevent the rule from being enforced.
You can also enable a performance rule after it has been disabled.
Procedure
1. Click Data Protection > SyncIQ > Performance Rules.
2. In the SyncIQ Performance Rules table, in the row for a rule you want to enable or
disable, select either Enable Rule or Disable Rule.

View performance rules

You can view information about replication performance rules.
Procedure
1. Click Data Protection > SyncIQ > Performance Rules.
2. In the SyncIQ Performance Rules table, view information about performance rules.

Managing replication reports

In addition to viewing replication reports, you can configure how long reports are retained
on the cluster. You can also delete any reports that have passed their expiration period.

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Configure default replication report settings

You can configure the default amount of time that SyncIQ retains replication reports for.
You can also configure the maximum number of reports that SyncIQ retains for each
replication policy.
Procedure
1. Click Data Protection > SyncIQ > Settings.
2. In the Report Settings area, in the Keep Reports For area, specify how long you want
to retain replication reports for.
After the specified expiration period has passed for a report, SyncIQ automatically
deletes the report.
Some units of time are displayed differently when you view a report than how you
originally enter them. Entering a number of days that is equal to a corresponding
value in weeks, months, or years results in the larger unit of time being displayed. For
example, if you enter a value of 7 days, 1 week appears for that report after it is
created. This change occurs because SyncIQ internally records report retention times
in seconds and then converts them into days, weeks, months, or years for display.
3. In the Number of Reports to Keep Per Policy field, type the maximum number of
reports you want to retain at a time for a replication policy.
4. Click Submit.

Delete replication reports

Replication reports are routinely deleted by SyncIQ after the expiration date for the
reports has passed. SyncIQ also deletes reports after the number of reports exceeds the
specified limit. Excess reports are periodically deleted by SyncIQ; however, you can
manually delete all excess replication reports at any time. This procedure is available
only through the command-line interface (CLI).
Procedure
1. Open a secure shell (SSH) connection to any node in the cluster, and log in.
2. Delete excess replication reports by running the following command:
isi sync reports rotate

View replication reports

You can view replication reports and subreports.
Procedure
1. Click Data Protection > SyncIQ > Reports.
2. In the SyncIQ Reports table, in the row for a report, click View Details.
If a report is composed of subreports, the report is displayed as a folder. Subreports
are displayed as files within report folders.

Configure default replication report settings

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Replication report information

You can view information about replication jobs through the Reports table.
Policy Name
The name of the associated policy for the job. You can view or edit settings for the
policy by clicking the policy name.
Status
Displays the status of the job. The following job statuses are possible:
Running
The job is currently running without error.
Paused
The job has been temporarily paused.
Finished
The job completed successfully.
Failed
The job failed to complete.
Started
Indicates when the job started.
Ended
Indicates when the job ended.
Duration
Indicates how long the job took to complete.
Transferred
The total number of files that were transferred during the job run, and the total size
of all transferred files. For assessed policies, Assessment appears.
Source Directory
The path of the source directory on the source cluster.
Target Host
The IP address or fully qualified domain name of the target cluster.
Action
Displays any report-related actions that you can perform.

Managing failed replication jobs

If a replication job fails due to an error, SyncIQ might disable the corresponding
replication policy. For example SyncIQ might disable a replication policy if the IP or
hostname of the target cluster is modified. If a replication policy is disabled, the policy
cannot be run.
To resume replication for a disabled policy, you must either fix the error that caused the
policy to be disabled, or reset the replication policy. It is recommended that you attempt
to fix the issue rather than reset the policy. If you believe you have fixed the error, you
can return the replication policy to an enabled state by resolving the policy. You can then
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run the policy again to test whether the issue was fixed. If you are unable to fix the issue,
you can reset the replication policy. However, resetting the policy causes a full or
differential replication to be performed the next time the policy is run.
Note

Depending on the amount of data being synchronized or copied, full and differential
replications can take a very long time to complete.

Resolve a replication policy

If SyncIQ disables a replication policy due to a replication error, and you fix the issue that
caused the error, you can resolve the replication policy. Resolving a replication policy
enables you to run the policy again. If you cannot resolve the issue that caused the error,
you can reset the replication policy.
Procedure
1. Click Data Protection > SyncIQ > Policies.
2. In the Policies table, in the row for a policy, select Resolve.

Reset a replication policy

If a replication job encounters an error that you cannot resolve, you can reset the
corresponding replication policy. Resetting a policy causes OneFS to perform a full or
differential replication the next time the policy is run. Resetting a replication policy
deletes the latest snapshot generated for the policy on the source cluster.
CAUTION

Depending on the amount of data being replicated, a full or differential replication can
take a very long time to complete. Reset a replication policy only if you cannot fix the
issue that caused the replication error. If you fix the issue that caused the error, resolve
the policy instead of resetting the policy.
Procedure
1. Click Data Protection > SyncIQ > Policies.
2. In the SyncIQ Policies table, in the row for a policy, select Reset Sync State.

Perform a full or differential replication

After you reset a replication policy, you must perform either a full or differential
replication. You can do this only from the CLI.
Before you begin
Reset a replication policy.
Procedure
1. Open a secure shell (SSH) connection to any node in the cluster and log in through the
root or compliance administrator account.
2. Specify the type of replication you want to perform by running the isi sync
policies modify command.
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To perform a full replication, disable the --target-compare-initial-sync

option.

Resolve a replication policy

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For example, the following command disables differential synchronization for

newPolicy:
isi sync policies modify newPolicy \
--target-compare-initial-sync off
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To perform a differential replication, enable the --target-compareinitial-sync option.

For example, the following command enables differential synchronization for
newPolicy:
isi sync policies modify newPolicy \
--target-compare-initial-sync on

3. Run the policy by running the isi sync jobs start command.
For example, the following command runs newPolicy:
isi sync jobs start newPolicy

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CHAPTER 16
Data layout with FlexProtect

This section contains the following topics:

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FlexProtect overview............................................................................................316
File striping......................................................................................................... 316
Requested data protection.................................................................................. 316
FlexProtect data recovery.....................................................................................317
Requesting data protection................................................................................. 318
Requested protection settings.............................................................................318
Requested protection disk space usage.............................................................. 319

Data layout with FlexProtect

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Data layout with FlexProtect

FlexProtect overview
An Isilon cluster is designed to continuously serve data, even when one or more
components simultaneously fail. OneFS ensures data availability by striping or mirroring
data across the cluster. If a cluster component fails, data stored on the failed component
is available on another component. After a component failure, lost data is restored on
healthy components by the FlexProtect proprietary system.
Data protection is specified at the file level, not the block level, enabling the system to
recover data quickly. Because all data, metadata, and parity information is distributed
across all nodes, the cluster does not require a dedicated parity node or drive. This
ensures that no single node limits the speed of the rebuild process.

File striping
OneFS uses the internal network to automatically allocate and stripe data across nodes
and disks in the cluster. OneFS protects data as the data is being written. No separate
action is necessary to stripe data.
OneFS breaks files into smaller logical chunks called stripes before writing the files to
disk; the size of each file chunk is referred to as the stripe unit size. Each OneFS block is
8 KB, and a stripe unit consists of 16 blocks, for a total of 128 KB per stripe unit. During a
write, OneFS breaks data into stripes and then logically places the data in a stripe unit.
As OneFS stripes data across the cluster, OneFS fills the stripe unit according to the
number of nodes and protection level.
OneFS can continuously reallocate data and make storage space more usable and
efficient. As the cluster size increases, OneFS stores large files more efficiently.

Requested data protection

The requested protection of data determines the amount of redundant data created on
the cluster to ensure that data is protected against component failures. OneFS enables
you to modify the requested protection in real time while clients are reading and writing
data on the cluster.
OneFS provides several data protection settings. You can modify these protection
settings at any time without rebooting or taking the cluster or file system offline. When
planning your storage solution, keep in mind that increasing the requested protection
reduces write performance and requires additional storage space for the increased
number of nodes.
OneFS uses the Reed Solomon algorithm for N+M protection. In the N+M data protection
model, N represents the number of data-stripe units, and M represents the number of
simultaneous node or drive failuresor a combination of node and drive failuresthat
the cluster can withstand without incurring data loss. N must be larger than M.
In addition to N+M data protection, OneFS also supports data mirroring from 2x to 8x,
allowing from two to eight mirrors of data. In terms of overall cluster performance and
resource consumption, N+M protection is often more efficient than mirrored protection.
However, because read and write performance is reduced for N+M protection, data
mirroring might be faster for data that is updated often and is small in size. Data
mirroring requires significant overhead and might not always be the best data-protection
method. For example, if you enable 3x mirroring, the specified content is duplicated three
times on the cluster; depending on the amount of content mirrored, this can consume a
significant amount of storage space.
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FlexProtect data recovery

OneFS uses the FlexProtect proprietary system to detect and repair files and directories
that are in a degraded state due to node or drive failures.
OneFS protects data in the cluster based on the configured protection policy. OneFS
rebuilds failed disks, uses free storage space across the entire cluster to further prevent
data loss, monitors data, and migrates data off of at-risk components.
OneFS distributes all data and error-correction information across the cluster and ensures
that all data remains intact and accessible even in the event of simultaneous component
failures. Under normal operating conditions, all data on the cluster is protected against
one or more failures of a node or drive. However, if a node or drive fails, the cluster
protection status is considered to be in a degraded state until the data is protected by
OneFS again. OneFS reprotects data by rebuilding data in the free space of the cluster.
While the protection status is in a degraded state, data is more vulnerable to data loss.
Because data is rebuilt in the free space of the cluster, the cluster does not require a
dedicated hot-spare node or drive in order to recover from a component failure. Because
a certain amount of free space is required to rebuild data, it is recommended that you
reserve adequate free space through the virtual hot spare feature.
As you add more nodes, the cluster gains more CPU, memory, and disks to use during
recovery operations. As a cluster grows larger, data restriping operations become faster.

Smartfail
OneFS protects data stored on failing nodes or drives through a process called
smartfailing.
During the smartfail process, OneFS places a device into quarantine. Data stored on
quarantined devices is read only. While a device is quarantined, OneFS reprotects the
data on the device by distributing the data to other devices. After all data migration is
complete, OneFS logically removes the device from the cluster, the cluster logically
changes its width to the new configuration, and the node or drive can be physically
replaced.
OneFS smartfails devices only as a last resort. Although you can manually smartfail
nodes or drives, it is recommended that you first consult Isilon Technical Support.
Occasionally a device might fail before OneFS detects a problem. If a drive fails without
being smartfailed, OneFS automatically starts rebuilding the data to available free space
on the cluster. However, because a node might recover from a failure, if a node fails,
OneFS does not start rebuilding data unless the node is logically removed from the
cluster.

Node failures
Because node loss is often a temporary issue, OneFS does not automatically start
reprotecting data when a node fails or goes offline. If a node reboots, the file system does
not need to be rebuilt because it remains intact during the temporary failure.
If you configure N+1 data protection on a cluster, and one node fails, all of the data is still
accessible from every other node in the cluster. If the node comes back online, the node
rejoins the cluster automatically without requiring a full rebuild.
To ensure that data remains protected, if you physically remove a node from the cluster,
you must also logically remove the node from the cluster. After you logically remove a
node, the node automatically reformats its own drives, and resets itself to the factory
FlexProtect data recovery

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default settings. The reset occurs only after OneFS has confirmed that all data has been
reprotected. You can logically remove a node using the smartfail process. It is important
that you smartfail nodes only when you want to permanently remove a node from the
cluster.
If you remove a failed node before adding a new node, data stored on the failed node
must be rebuilt in the free space in the cluster. After the new node is added, OneFS
distributes the data to the new node. It is more efficient to add a replacement node to the
cluster before failing the old node because OneFS can immediately use the replacement
node to rebuild the data stored on the failed node.

Requesting data protection

You can specify the protection of a file or directory by setting its requested protection.
This flexibility enables you to protect distinct sets of data at higher than default levels.
Requested protection of data is calculated by OneFS and set automatically on storage
pools within your cluster. The default setting is referred to as suggested protection, and
provides the optimal balance between data protection and storage efficiency. For
example, a suggested protection of N+2:1 means that two drives or one node can fail
without causing any data loss.
For best results, we recommend that you accept at least the suggested protection for data
on your cluster. You can always specify a higher protection level than suggested
protection on critical files, directories, or node pools.
OneFS allows you to request protection that the cluster is currently incapable of
matching. If you request an unmatchable protection, the cluster will continue trying to
match the requested protection until a match is possible. For example, in a four-node
cluster, you might request a mirror protection of 5x. In this example, OneFS would mirror
the data at 4x until you added a fifth node to the cluster, at which point OneFS would
reprotect the data at 5x.
If you set requested protection to a level below suggested protection, OneFS warns you of
this condition.
Note

For 4U Isilon IQ X-Series and NL-Series nodes, and IQ 12000X/EX 12000 combination
platforms, the minimum cluster size of three nodes requires a minimum protection of N
+2:1.

Requested protection settings

Requested protection settings determine the level of hardware failure that a cluster can
recover from without suffering data loss.

318

Requested protection
setting

Minimum number of
nodes required

Definition

[+1n]

The cluster can recover from one

drive or node failure without
sustaining any data loss.

[+2d:1n]

The cluster can recover from two

simultaneous drive failures or one
node failure without sustaining any
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Requested protection
setting

Minimum number of
nodes required

Definition

[+2n]

The cluster can recover from two

simultaneous drive or node failures
without sustaining any data loss.

[+3d:1n]

The cluster can recover from three

simultaneous drive failures or one
node failure without sustaining any
data loss.

[+3d:1n1d]

The cluster can recover from three

simultaneous drive failures or
simultaneous failures of one node
and one drive without sustaining any
data loss.

[+3n]

The cluster can recover from three

simultaneous drive or node failures
without sustaining any data loss.

[+4d:1n]

The cluster can recover from four

simultaneous drive failures or one
node failure without sustaining any
data loss.

[+4d:2n]

The cluster can recover from four

simultaneous drive failures or two
node failures without sustaining any
data loss.

[+4n]

The cluster can recover from four

simultaneous drive or node failures
without sustaining any data loss.

Nx (Data mirroring)

N
The cluster can recover from N - 1
For example, 5x requires drive or node failures without
a minimum of five nodes. sustaining data loss. For example, 5x
protection means that the cluster can
recover from four drive or node
failures.

Requested protection disk space usage

Increasing the requested protection of data also increases the amount of space
consumed by the data on the cluster.
The parity overhead for N + M protection depends on the file size and the number of
nodes in the cluster. The percentage of parity overhead declines as the cluster gets
larger.
The following table describes the estimated percentage of overhead depending on the
requested protection and the size of the cluster or node pool. The table does not show
recommended protection levels based on cluster size.

Requested protection disk space usage

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Number
of nodes

[+1n]

[+2d:1n]

[+2n]

[+3d:1n]

[+3d:1n1d]

[+3n]

[+4d:1n]

[+4d:2n]

[+4n]

2 +1 (33%) 4 + 2
(33%)

6+3
(33%)

3 + 3 (50%)

8+4
(33%)

3 +1 (25%) 6 + 2
(25%)

2+2
(50%)

9+3
(25%)

5 + 3 (38%)

12 + 4
(25%)

4+4
(50%)

4 +1 (20%) 8 + 2
(20%)

3+2
(40%)

12 + 3
(20%)

7 + 3 (30%)

16 + 4
(20%)

6+4
(40%)

5 +1 (17%) 10 + 2
(17%)

4+2
(33%)

15 + 3
(17%)

9 + 3 (25%)

3+3
(50%)

16 + 4
(20%)

8+4
(33%)

6 +1 (14%) 12 + 2
(14%)

5+2
(29%)

15 + 3
(17%)

11 + 3 (21%)

4+3
(43%)

16 + 4
(20%)

10 + 4
(29%)

7 +1 (13%) 14 + 2
(12.5%)

6+2
(25%)

15 + 3
(17%)

13 + 3 (19%)

5+3
(38%)

16 + 4
(20%)

12 + 4
(25% )

4+4
(50%)

8 +1 (11%) 16 + 2
(11%)

7+2
(22%)

15 + 3
(17%)

15+3 (17%)

6+3
(33%)

16 + 4
(20%)

14 + 4
(22%)

5+4
(44%)

10

9 +1 (10%) 16 + 2
(11%)

8+2
(20%)

15 + 3
(17%)

15+3 (17%)

7+3
(30%)

16 + 4
(20%)

16 + 4
(20%)

6+4
(40%)

12

11 +1 (8%) 16 + 2
(11%)

10 + 2
(17%)

15 + 3
(17%)

15+3 (17%)

9+3
(25%)

16 + 4
(20%)

16 + 4
(20%)

8+4
(33%)

14

13 + 1
(7%)

16 + 2
(11%)

12 + 2
(14%)

15 + 3
(17%)

15+3 (17%)

11 + 3
(21%)

16 + 4
(20%)

16 + 4
(20%)

10 + 4
(29%)

16

15 + 1
(6%)

16 + 2
(11%)

14 + 2
(13%)

15 + 3
(17%)

15+3 (17%)

13 + 3
(19%)

16 + 4
(20%)

16 + 4
(20%)

12 + 4
(25%)

18

16 + 1
(6%)

16 + 2
(11%)

16 + 2
(11%)

15 + 3
(17%)

15+3 (17%)

15 + 3
(17%)

16 + 4
(20%)

16 + 4
(20%)

14 + 4
(22%)

20

16 + 1
(6%)

16 + 2
(11%)

16 + 2
(11%)

16 + 3
(16%)

16 + 3 (16%)

16 + 3
(16%)

16 + 4
(20%)

16 + 4
(20% )

16 + 4
(20%)

30

16 + 1
(6%)

16 + 2
(11%)

16 + 2
(11%)

16 + 3
(16%)

16 + 3 (16%)

16 + 3
(16%)

16 + 4
(20%)

16 + 4
(20%)

16 + 4
(20%)

The parity overhead for mirrored data protection is not affected by the number of nodes in
the cluster. The following table describes the parity overhead for requested mirrored
protection.
2x

3x

4x

5x

6x

7x

8x

50% 67% 75% 80% 83% 86% 88%

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CHAPTER 17
NDMP backup and recovery overview

This section contains the following topics:

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NDMP backup and recovery overview.................................................................. 322

NDMP two-way backup........................................................................................322
NDMP three-way backup..................................................................................... 323
NDMP multi-stream backup and recovery............................................................ 323
Snapshot-based incremental backups................................................................ 323
NDMP protocol support....................................................................................... 324
Supported DMAs................................................................................................. 325
NDMP hardware support..................................................................................... 325
NDMP backup limitations.................................................................................... 325
NDMP performance recommendations................................................................ 326
Excluding files and directories from NDMP backups............................................ 327
Configuring basic NDMP backup settings............................................................ 328
Managing NDMP user accounts........................................................................... 329
NDMP environment variables overview................................................................331
Managing NDMP contexts....................................................................................338
Managing NDMP sessions................................................................................... 339
Managing NDMP Fibre Channel ports...................................................................342
Managing NDMP backup devices.........................................................................344
NDMP dumpdates overview.................................................................................346
NDMP restore operations.................................................................................... 347
Sharing tape drives between clusters.................................................................. 348
Managing snapshot based incremental backups.................................................349

NDMP backup and recovery overview

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NDMP backup and recovery overview

In OneFS, you can back up and recover file-system data through the Network Data
Management Protocol (NDMP). From a backup server, you can direct backup and recovery
processes between an EMC Isilon cluster and backup devices such as tape devices,
media servers, and virtual tape libraries (VTLs).
OneFS supports both three-way and two-way NDMP backup models.
Two-way NDMP backup is significantly faster than the three-way NDMP backup. It is also
the most efficient method in terms of cluster resource consumption. However, a two-way
NDMP backup requires that you attach one or more Backup Accelerator nodes to the
cluster.
In both the two-way and three-way NDMP backup models, file history data is transferred
from the cluster to the backup server. Before a backup begins, OneFS creates a snapshot
of the targeted directory, then backs up the snapshot, which ensures that the backup
image represents a specific point in time.
You do not need to activate a SnapshotIQ license on the cluster to perform NDMP
backups. If you have activated a SnapshotIQ license on the cluster, you can generate a
snapshot through the SnapshotIQ tool, and then back up the same snapshot. If you back
up a SnapshotIQ snapshot, OneFS does not create another snapshot for the backup.
Note

If you are recovering SmartLock directories, we recommend that you do not specify
autocommit time periods for them.
You can also back up WORM domains through NDMP.

NDMP backup and recovery for IsilonSD Edge

IsilonSD Edge supports only the three-way NDMP backup model. Two-way NDMP backups
require a Backup Accelerator node on the IsilonSD cluster which is not supported.

NDMP two-way backup

The NDMP two-way backup is also known as the local or direct NDMP backup. To perform
NDMP two-way backups, you must connect your EMC Isilon cluster to a Backup
Accelerator node and attach a tape device to the Backup Accelerator node. You must then
use OneFS to detect the tape device before you can back up to that device.
You can connect supported tape devices directly to the Fibre Channel ports of a Backup
Accelerator node. Alternatively, you can connect Fibre Channel switches to the Fibre
Channel ports on the Backup Accelerator node, and connect tape and media changer
devices to the Fibre Channel switches. For more information, see your Fibre Channel
switch documentation about zoning the switch to allow communication between the
Backup Accelerator node and the connected tape and media changer devices.
If you attach tape devices to a Backup Accelerator node, the cluster detects the devices
when you start or restart the node or when you re-scan the Fibre Channel ports to
discover devices. If a cluster detects tape devices, the cluster creates an entry for the
path to each detected device.
If you connect a device through a Fibre Channel switch, multiple paths can exist for a
single device. For example, if you connect a tape device to a Fibre Channel switch, and

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then connect the Fibre Channel switch to two Fibre Channel ports, OneFS creates two
entries for the device, one for each path.
Note

NDMP two-way backup is not supported with IsilonSD Edge.

NDMP three-way backup

The NDMP three-way backup is also known as the remote NDMP backup.
During a three-way NDMP backup operation, a data management application (DMA) on a
backup server instructs the cluster to start backing up data to a tape media server that is
either attached to the LAN or directly attached to the DMA. The NDMP service runs on one
NDMP Server and the NDMP tape service runs on a separate server. Both the servers are
connected to each other across the network boundary.

NDMP multi-stream backup and recovery

You can use the NDMP multi-stream backup feature, in conjunction with certain data
management applications (DMAs), to speed up backups.
With multi-stream backup, you can use your DMA to specify multiple streams of data to
back up concurrently. OneFS considers all streams in a specific multi-stream backup
operation to be part of the same backup context. A multi-stream backup context is
retained for five minutes after a backup operation completes.
If you used the NDMP multi-stream backup feature to back data up to tape drives, you
can also recover that data in multiple streams, depending on the DMA. In OneFS 8.0.0,
multi-stream backups are supported with CommVault Simpana version 11.0 Service Pack
3 and EMC NetWorker version 9.0.1. If you back up data using CommVault Simpana, a
multi-stream context is created, but data is recovered one stream at a time.
Note

OneFS multi-stream backups are not supported by the NDMP restartable backup feature.

Snapshot-based incremental backups

You can implement snapshot-based incremental backups to increase the speed at which
these backups are performed.
During a snapshot-based incremental backup, OneFS checks the snapshot taken for the
previous NDMP backup operation and compares it to a new snapshot. OneFS then backs
up all files that was modified since the last snapshot was made.
If the incremental backup does not involve snapshots, OneFS must scan the directory to
discover which files were modified. OneFS can perform incremental backups significantly
faster if the change rate is low.
You can perform incremental backups without activating a SnapshotIQ license on the
cluster. Although SnapshotIQ offers a number of useful features, it does not enhance
snapshot capabilities in NDMP backup and recovery.
Set the BACKUP_MODE environment variable to SNAPSHOT to enable snapshot-based
incremental backups. If you enable snapshot-based incremental backups, OneFS retains
each snapshot taken for NDMP backups until a new backup of the same or lower level is
performed. However, if you do not enable snapshot-based incremental backups, OneFS
NDMP three-way backup

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automatically deletes each snapshot generated after the corresponding backup is

completed or canceled.
After setting the BACKUP_MODE environment variable, snapshot-based incremental
backup works with certain data management applications (DMAs) as listed in the next
table.
Table 3 DMA support for snapshot-based incremental backups

DMA

Supported

Symantec NetBackup

Yes

EMC Networker

Yes

EMC Avamar

Yes

CommVault Simpana

No

IBM Tivoli Storage Manager No

Symantec Backup Exec

No

Dell NetVault

No

ASG-Time Navigator

No

NDMP protocol support

You can back up the EMC Isilon cluster data through version 3 or 4 of the NDMP protocol.
OneFS supports the following features of NDMP versions 3 and 4:
l

Full (level 0) NDMP backups

Incremental (levels 1-9) NDMP backups and Incremental Forever (level 10)
Note

In a level 10 NDMP backup, only data changed since the most recent incremental
(level 1-9) backup or the last level 10 backup is copied. By repeating level 10
backups, you can be assured that the latest versions of files in your data set are
backed up without having to run a full backup.

324

Token-based NDMP backups

NDMP TAR backup type

Dump backup type

Path-based and dir/node file history format

Direct Access Restore (DAR)

Directory DAR (DDAR)

Including and excluding specific files and directories from backup

Backup of file attributes

Backup of Access Control Lists (ACLs)

Backup of Alternate Data Streams (ADSs)

Backup Restartable Extension (BRE)

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OneFS supports connecting to clusters through IPv4 or IPv6.

Supported DMAs
NDMP backups are coordinated by a data management application (DMA) that runs on a
backup server.
OneFS supports all the DMAs that are listed in the Isilon Third-Party Software and
Hardware Compatibility Guide.
Note

All supported DMAs can connect to an EMC Isilon cluster through the IPv4 protocol.
However, only some of the DMAs support the IPv6 protocol for connecting to an EMC
Isilon cluster.

NDMP hardware support

OneFS can back up data to and recover data from tape devices and virtual tape libraries
(VTLs).
Supported tape devices
See the OneFS and NDMP hardware compatibility section in the Isilon Third-Party
Software and Hardware Compatibility Guide for a list of supported tape devices for
two-way NDMP backups. For NDMP three-way backups, the data management
application (DMA) determines the tape devices that are supported.
Supported tape libraries
For both the two-way and three-way NDMP backups, OneFS supports all of the tape
libraries that are supported by the DMA.
Supported virtual tape libraries
See the OneFS and NDMP hardware compatibility section in the Isilon Third-Party
Software and Hardware Compatibility Guide for a list of supported virtual tape
libraries. For three-way NDMP backups, the DMA determines the virtual tape libraries
that will be supported.

NDMP backup limitations

NDMP backups have the following limitations.
l

Does not support more than 4 KB path length.

Does not back up file system configuration data, such as file protection level policies
and quotas.

Does not back up tape blocks larger than 256 KB.

Does not support recovering data from a file system other than OneFS. However, you
can migrate data through the NDMP protocol from a NetApp or EMC VNX storage
system to OneFS through the isi_vol_copy tools. For more information on these tools,
see the OneFS Migration Tools Guide.

Backup accelerator nodes cannot interact with more than 4096 tape paths.

Supported DMAs

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NDMP performance recommendations

Consider the following recommendations to optimize OneFS NDMP backups.
General performance recommendations
l

Install the latest patches for OneFS and your data management application (DMA).

Run a maximum of eight NDMP concurrent sessions per A100 Backup Accelerator
node and four NDMP concurrent sessions per Isilon IQ Backup Accelerator node to
obtain optimal throughput per session.

NDMP backups result in very high Recovery Point Objectives (RPOs) and Recovery
Time Objectives (RTOs). You can reduce your RPO and RTO by attaching one or more
Backup Accelerator nodes to the cluster and then running two-way NDMP backups.

The throughput for an Isilon cluster during the backup and recovery operations is
dependent on the dataset and is considerably reduced for small files.

If you are backing up large numbers of small files, set up a separate schedule for
each directory.

If you are performing NDMP three-way backups, run multiple NDMP sessions on
multiple nodes in your Isilon cluster.

Recover files through Direct Access Restore (DAR), especially if you recover files
frequently. However, it is recommended that you do not use DAR to recover a full
backup or a large number of files, as DAR is better suited to restoring smaller
numbers of files.

Recover files through Directory DAR (DDAR) if you recover large numbers of files
frequently.

Use the largest tape record size available for your version of OneFS to increase
throughput.

If possible, do not include or exclude files from backup. Including or excluding files
can affect backup performance, due to filtering overhead.

Limit the depth of nested subdirectories in your file system.

Limit the number of files in a directory. Distribute files across multiple directories
instead of including a large number of files in a single directory.

SmartConnect recommendations

326

A two-way NDMP backup session with SmartConnect requires backup accelerators for
backup and recovery operations. However, a three-way NDMP session with
SmartConnect does not require backup accelerators for these operations.

For a NDMP two-way backup session with SmartConnect, connect to the NDMP
session through a dedicated SmartConnect zone consisting of a pool of Network
Interface Cards (NICs) on the backup accelerator nodes.

For a two-way NDMP backup session without SmartConnect, initiate the backup
session through a static IP address or fully qualified domain name of the backup
accelerator node.

For a three-way NDMP backup operation, the front-end Ethernet network or the
interfaces of the nodes are used to serve the backup traffic. Therefore, it is
recommended that you configure a DMA to initiate an NDMP session only using the
nodes that are not already overburdened serving other workloads or connections.

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For a three-way NDMP backup operation with or without SmartConnect, initiate the
backup session using the IP addresses of the nodes that are identified for running
the NDMP sessions.

Backup Accelerator recommendations

l

Assign static IP addresses to Backup Accelerator nodes.

Attach more Backup Accelerator nodes to larger clusters. The recommended number
of Backup Accelerator nodes is listed in the following table.
Table 4 Nodes per Backup Accelerator node

Node type Recommended number of nodes per Backup Accelerator node

X-Series

NL-Series

S-Series

HD-Series

Attach more Backup Accelerator nodes if you are backing up to more tape devices.

DMA-specific recommendations
l

Enable parallelism for the DMA if the DMA supports this option. This allows OneFS to
back up data to multiple tape devices at the same time.

Excluding files and directories from NDMP backups

You can exclude files and directories from NDMP backup operations by specifying NDMP
environment variables through a data management application (DMA). If you include a
file or directory, all other files and directories are automatically excluded from backup
operations. If you exclude a file or directory, all files and directories except the excluded
one are backed up.
You can include or exclude files and directories by specifying the following character
patterns. The examples given in the table are valid only if the backup path is /ifs/
data.
Table 5 NDMP file and directory matching wildcards

Character

Description

Example

Includes or excludes the following

directories

Takes the place of

any character or
characters

archive*

archive1
src/archive42_a/media

[]

Takes the place of data_store_[a-f]

a range of letters or data_store_[0-9]
numbers

/ifs/data/data_store_a
/ifs/data/data_store_c

Takes the place of

any single
character

/ifs/data/user_1
/ifs/data/user_2

user_?

/ifs/data/data_store_8

Excluding files and directories from NDMP backups

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Table 5 NDMP file and directory matching wildcards (continued)

Character

Description

Example

Includes or excludes the following

directories

Includes a blank
space

user\ 1

/ifs/data/user 1

//

Takes the place of

a single slash (/)

ifs//data//archive

/ifs/data/archive

***

Takes the place of

a single asterisk (*)

..

Ignores the pattern ../home/john

if it is at the
beginning of a path

home/john

Note

" " are required for Symantec NetBackup when multiple patterns are specified. The
patterns are not limited to directories.
Unanchored patterns such as home or user1 target a string of text that might belong to
many files or directories. If a pattern contains '/', it is an anchored pattern. An anchored
pattern is always matched from the beginning of a path. A pattern in the middle of a path
is not matched. Anchored patterns target specific file pathnames, such as ifs/data/
home. You can include or exclude either types of patterns.
If you specify both the include and exclude patterns, the include pattern is first processed
followed by the exclude pattern.
If you specify both the include and exclude patterns, any excluded files or directories
under the included directories would not be backed up. If the excluded directories are not
found in any of the included directories, the exclude specification would have no effect.
Note

Specifying unanchored patterns can degrade the performance of backups. It is

recommended that you avoid unanchored patterns whenever possible.

Configuring basic NDMP backup settings

You can configure NDMP backup settings to control how these backups are performed on
the EMC Isilon cluster. You can also configure OneFS to interact with a specific data
management application (DMA) for NDMP backups.

NDMP backup settings

You can configure the following settings to control how NDMP backups are performed on
the EMC Isilon cluster.
Port number
The number of the port through which the data management application (DMA) can
connect to the cluster.

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DMA vendor
The DMA vendor that the cluster is configured to interact with.

Configure and enable NDMP backup

OneFS prevents NDMP backups by default. Before you can perform NDMP backups, you
must enable NDMP backups and configure NDMP settings.
Procedure
1. Click Data Protection > NDMP > NDMP Settings.
2. In the Service area, click Enable NDMP Service.
3. In the Port number field, type a port number to specify which port data management
applications (DMAs) use to access the EMC Isilon cluster. The default is port 10000.
4. (Optional) From the DMA vendor list, select the name of the DMA vendor to manage
backup operations. If your DMA vendor is not included in the list, select generic.
However, note that any vendors not included on the list are not officially supported
and might not function as expected.
5. In the NDMP Administrators area, click Add an NDMP Administrator to add an
administrator name.
The Add NDMP Administrator dialog appears.
6. Enter an administrator name and password, confirm the password, and click Add
NDMP Administrator.

Disable NDMP backup

You can disable NDMP backup if you no longer want to use this backup method.
Procedure
1. Click Data Protection > NDMP > NDMP Settings.
2. In the Service area, clear the Enable NDMP service check box.

View NDMP backup settings

You can view current NDMP backup settings. These settings define whether NDMP
backup is enabled, the port through which your data management application (DMA)
connects to the EMC Isilon cluster, and the DMA vendor that OneFS is configured to
interact with.
Procedure
1. Click Data Protection > NDMP > NDMP Settings and view NDMP backup settings.
2. In the Settings area, review NDMP backup settings.

Managing NDMP user accounts

You can create, delete, and modify the passwords of NDMP user accounts.

Configure and enable NDMP backup

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Create an NDMP administrator account

Before you can perform NDMP backups, you must create an NDMP administrator account
through which your data management application (DMA) can access the EMC Isilon
cluster.
Procedure
1. Click Data Protection > NDMP > NDMP Settings.
2. In the NDMP Administrators area, click Add an NDMP Administrator.
The Add NDMP Administrator dialog appears.
3. In the Add NDMP Administrator dialog box, in the Name field, type a name for the
account.
4. In the Password and Confirm password fields, type the password for the account.
5. Click Add NDMP Administrator.

View NDMP user accounts

You can view information about NDMP user accounts.
Procedure
1. Click Data Protection > NDMP > NDMP Settings.
2. In the NDMP Administrators area, review information about an NDMP administrator by
selecting the check box corresponding to an administrator and clicking View/Edit.

Modify the password of an NDMP administrator account

You can modify the password of an NDMP administrator account.
Procedure
1. Click Data Protection > NDMP > NDMP Settings.
2. In the NDMP Administrators area, select the check box next to the desired
administrator name and click View/Edit.
The View NDMP Administrator Details dialog box appears.
3. Click Edit.
The Edit NDMP Administrator Details dialog box appears.
4. Type a new password, confirm the password, and then click Save Changes.

Delete an NDMP administrator account

You can delete an NDMP administrator account.
Procedure
1. Click Data Protection > NDMP > NDMP Settings.
2. In the NDMP Administrators area, select the check box next to the desired
administrator name and click Delete.
The administrator name is removed from the list of NDMP administrators.

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NDMP environment variables overview

NDMP environment variables are associated with paths. When an environment variable
path matches with the path of a backup or a recovery operation, the environment variable
is applied to that operation.
All the environment variables reside under the /ifs directory. There are two other virtual
paths, namely, /BACKUP and /RESTORE that contain environment variables. The
environment variables under this path can be applied globally. The environment
variables under /BACKUP are applied to all the backup operations. The environment
variables under /RESTORE are applied to all the recovery operations. The global
environment variables are applied only after the path-specific environment variables are
applied. So, the path-specific variables take precedence over the global variables.

Managing NDMP environment variables

In OneFS, you can manage NDMP backup and recovery operations by specifying default
NDMP environment variables. You can also override default NDMP environment variables
through your data management application (DMA).
You can add, view, edit, and delete environment variables. The environment variables
can be managed on a per-backup-path basis. They are appended to the environment
variables passed from a DMA in a backup or recovery session.
The following table lists the DMAs that allow you to directly set environment variables:
Table 6 DMA support for environment variable setting

DMA

Supported directly on
the DMA

Supported through OneFS

command-line interface

Symantec NetBackup

Yes

Yes

EMC Networker

Yes

Yes

EMC Avamar

No

Yes

CommVault Simpana

No

Yes

IBM Tivoli Storage

Manager

No

Yes

Symantec Backup Exec

No

Yes

Dell NetVault

No

Yes

ASG-Time Navigator

No

Yes

In case you cannot set an environment variable directly on a DMA for your NDMP backup
or recovery operation, log in to an EMC Isilon cluster through an SSH client and set the
environment variable on the cluster through the isi ndmp settings variables
set command.

NDMP environment variable settings

You can view the NDMP environment variable settings and manage them as necessary.
The following settings appear in the Variables table:
NDMP environment variables overview

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Setting

Description

Add Variables

Add new path environment variables along with their values.

Path

The path under the /ifs directory to store new environment variables.

Add Name/Value Add a name and value for the new environment variable.
Name

Name of the environment variable.

Value

Value set for the environment variable

Action

Edit, view, or delete an environment variable at a specified path.

Add an NDMP environment variable

You can add environment variables at a specified path that can be applied per-backuppath or globally.
Procedure
1. Click Data Protection > NDMP > Environment Settings.
2. Click Add Variables to open the Add Path Variables dialog box.
3. In the Variable Settings area, specify the following parameters:
a. Specify or browse to a path under /ifs to store the environment variable.
Note
l

To set a global environment variable for backup and recovery operations,

specify the /BACKUP path for a backup operation and the /RESTORE path for
a recovery operation.

The backup path must include .snapshot/<snapshot name> when

running a backup of a user-created snapshot.

b. Click Add Name/Value, specify an environment variable name and value, and then
click Create Variable.

View NDMP environment variables

You can view details about the NDMP environment variables
Procedure
1. Click Data Protection > NDMP > Environment Settings.
2. In the Variables table, click the check box corresponding to an environment variable
and then click View/Edit.
3. In the Display Path Variables dialog box, review the details.

Edit an NDMP environment variable

You can edit an NDMP environment variable.
Procedure
1. Click Data Protection > NDMP > Environment Settings.
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2. In the Variables table, click the check box corresponding to an environment variable
and then click View/Edit.
3. In the Display Path Variables dialog box, click Edit Path Variables.
4. In the Edit Variables dialog box, click Add Name/Value and specify a new name and
value for the environment variable.

Delete an NDMP environment variable

You can delete an NDMP environment variable.
Procedure
1. Click Data Protection > NDMP > Environment Settings.
2. In the Variables table, click the check box corresponding to an environment variable
and then click Delete.
3. In the confirmation dialog box, click Delete.
Results
You can also delete an NDMP environment variable through the Edit Variables dialog box
that appears when you click View/Edit and then click Edit Path Variables.

NDMP environment variables

You can specify default settings of NDMP backup and recovery operations through NDMP
environment variables. You can also specify NDMP environment variables through your
data management application (DMA).
Symantec NetBackup and EMC NetWorker are the only two DMAs that allow you to
directly set environment variables and propagate them to OneFS.
Table 7 NDMP environment variables

Environment variable

Valid values

Default

Description

BACKUP_FILE_LIST

<file-path>

None

Triggers a file list backup.

Currently, only EMC
Networker and Symantec
NetBackup can pass
environment variables to
OneFS.

BACKUP_MODE

TIMESTAMP
SNAPSHOT

TIMESTAMP

Enables or disables
snapshot-based
incremental backups. To
enable snapshot-based
incremental backups,
specify SNAPSHOT.

BACKUP_OPTIONS

0x00000100
0x00000200

This environment variable

is specific only to dataset
containing CloudPools stub
files.
Controls the behavior of
the backup.

0x00000400

Delete an NDMP environment variable

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Table 7 NDMP environment variables (continued)

Environment variable

Valid values

Default

Description
0
Backs up modified
cache data.

0x00000100
Reads stub file data
from the cloud and
backs up the stub
files as regular files.

0x00000200 Backs up all the

cached data that is
stored in the stub
files.

0x00000400
Recalls and backs up
data stored in stub
files.
BASE_DATE

DIRECT

Enables a token-based
incremental backup.
Dumpdates file will not be
updated in this case.
Y
N

Enables or disables Direct

Access Restore (DAR) and
Directory DAR (DDAR). The
following values are valid:

Y
Enables DAR and
DDAR.

N
Disables DAR and
DDAR.

334

EXCLUDE

<file-matchingpattern>

None

If you specify this option,

OneFS does not back up
files and directories that
meet the specified pattern.
Separate multiple patterns
with a space.

FILES

<file-matchingpattern>

None

If you specify this option,

OneFS backs up only files
and directories that meet
the specified pattern.
Separate multiple patterns
with a space.

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Table 7 NDMP environment variables (continued)

Environment variable

Valid values

Default

Description
Note

As a rule, files are matched

first and then the EXCLUDE
pattern is applied.
HIST

<file-history-format> Y

Specifies the file history

format.
The following values are
valid:

D
Specifies directory or
node file history.

F
Specifies path-based
file history.

Y
Specifies the default
file history format
determined by your
NDMP backup
settings.

N
Disables file history.
LEVEL

<integer>

Specifies the level of NDMP

backup to perform. The
following values are valid:

0
Performs a full NDMP
backup.

1-9
Performs an
incremental backup at
the specified level.

10
Performs Incremental
Forever backups.
MSB_RETENTION_PERIOD

Integer

300 sec

Specifies the backup

context retention period.

MSR_RETENTION_PERIOD

0 through
60*60*24

600 sec

Specifies the recovery

context retention period

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Table 7 NDMP environment variables (continued)

Environment variable

Valid values

Default

Description
within which a recovery
session can be retried.

RECURSIVE

Y
N

Specifies that the backup

session is recursive.

RESTORE_BIRTHTIME

Y
N

Specifies whether to
recover the birth time for a
recovery session.

RESTORE_HARDLINK
_BY_TABLE

Y
N

For a single-threaded
restore session,
determines whether OneFS
recovers hard links by
building a hard-link table
during recovery operations.
Specify this option if hard
links are incorrectly backed
up and recovery operations
are failing.
If a recovery operation fails
because hard links were
incorrectly backed up, the
following message appears
in the NDMP backup logs:
Bad hardlink path
for <path>

Note

This variable is not

effective for a parallel
restore operation.
RESTORE_OPTIONS

0
1
0x00000002
0x00000004

The restore operation, by

default, is multi-threaded
to improve performance. To
change the restore
operation to singlethreaded, specify
RESTORE_OPTIONS=1
The following options are
applicable only for parallel
restore:

0
The restore operation
does not overwrite the
permissions of the
existing directories.

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Table 7 NDMP environment variables (continued)

Environment variable

Valid values

Default

Description
0x00000002
Forces the restore
operation to overwrite
the permissions of
existing directories
using the information
from the restore
stream. This option is
applicable only to
directories in nlist.

0x00000004
In releases prior to
OneFS 8.0.0,
intermediate
directories created
during a restore
operation have their
default permissions
set. In OneFS 8.0.0
and later releases,
permissions of an
intermediate directory
is the same as the
first file restored
within that directory.
0x00000004 reverts
back to the former
restore method, and
sets the permissions
of the intermediate
directories to 0700
and sets UID/GID to 0.
UPDATE

Y
N

Determines whether OneFS

updates the dump dates
file.

Y
OneFS updates the
dump dates file.

N
OneFS does not
update the dump
dates file.

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Setting environment variables for backup operations

The BASE_DATE, LEVEL, BACKUP_MODE, and BACKUP_OPTIONS environment
variables determine the type of the NDMP backup operations to perform and the level of
those operations.
l

If the BASE_DATE environment variable is set to any value and if you set the
BACKUP_MODE environment variable to SNAPSHOT, the LEVEL environment variable
is automatically set to 10 and an Incremental Forever backup is performed.

If the BASE_DATE environment variable is set to 0, a full backup is performed.

If the BASE_DATE environment variable is not set to 0, the entries in the dump dates
file are read and compared with the BASE_DATE environment variable. If an entry is
found and a prior valid snapshot is found, a faster incremental backup is performed.

If the BASE_DATE environment variable is not set to 0 and if no entries are found in
the dump dates file and no prior valid snapshots are found, a token-based backup is
performed using the value of the BASE_DATE environment variable.

If the BASE_DATE environment variable is set, the BACKUP_OPTIONS environment

variable is set to 0x00000001 by default.

If the BACKUP_MODE environment variable is set to snapshot, the

BACKUP_OPTIONS environment variable is set to 0x00000002 by default.

If the BACKUP_OPTIONS environment variable is set to 0x00000004, the snapshot

is saved and maintained by the application used for the backup process.

In order to run an Incremental Forever backup with faster incremental backups, you
must set the following environment variables:
n

BASE_DATE=<time>

BACKUP_MODE=snapshot

BACKUP_OPTIONS=7

Managing NDMP contexts

Each NDMP backup, restore, restartable backup, and multi-stream backup process
creates a context. The NDMP server stores the corresponding working files in the context.
You can view or delete a context.
Note

If you delete a restartable backup context, you cannot restart the corresponding backup
session.

NDMP context settings

You can view the details of NDMP contexts and manage those contexts.
The following settings appear in the Contexts table:

338

Setting

Description

Type

The context type. It can be one of backup, restartable backup, or restore.

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Setting

Description

ID

An identifier for a backup or restore job. A backup or restore job consists of

one or more streams all of which are identified by this identifier. This
identifier is generated by the NDMP backup daemon.

Start Time

The time when the context started in month date time year format.

Actions

View or delete a selected context.

Status

Status of the context. The status shows up as active if a backup or restore job
is initiated and continues to remain active until the backup stream has
completed or errored out.

Path

The path where all the working files for the selected context are stored.

MultiStream

Specifies whether the multistream backup process is enabled.

Lead Session ID The identifier of the first backup or restore session corresponding to a backup
or restore operation.

Sessions

A table with a list of all the sessions that are associated with the selected
context.

View NDMP contexts

You can view information about the NDMP backup, restartable backup, and recovery
contexts.
Procedure
1. Click Data Protection > NDMP > Contexts.
2. In the Contexts table, click the check box corresponding to a context that you want to
review and click View Details.
3. Review the information about the context in the Display Backup Context dialog box.

Delete an NDMP context

You can delete an NDMP context.
Backup and restore contexts have retention periods beyond which the contexts are
deleted automatically. However, you can choose to delete a context before its retention
period to free up resources. You cannot delete contexts with active sessions. Also, you
cannot delete backup contexts with active BRE contexts. You can delete BRE contexts
only if they are not a part of active sessions.
Procedure
1. Click Data Protection > NDMP > Contexts.
2. In the Contexts table, select a context and click Delete.
3. In the confirmation dialog box, click Delete.

Managing NDMP sessions

You can view the status of NDMP sessions or terminate a session that is in progress.

View NDMP contexts

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NDMP session information

Data management applications (DMAs) establish sessions with the NDMP daemon
running on the Backup Accelerator node. The communication from the DMA with the
NDMP daemon is managed under the context of a session.
The following information is included in the Sessions table:
Item

Description

Session

Specifies the unique identification number that OneFS assigns to

the session.

Elapsed

Specifies the time that has elapsed since the session started.

Transferred

Specifies the amount of data that was transferred during the

session.

Throughput

Specifies the average throughput of the session over the past five
minutes.

Client/Remote

Specifies the IP address of the backup server that the data

management application (DMA) is running on. If a NDMP three-way
backup or restore operation is currently running, the IP address of
the remote tape media server also appears.

Mover/Data

Specifies the current state of the data mover and the data server.
The first word describes the activity of the data mover. The second
word describes the activity of the data server.
The data mover and data server send data to and receive data from
each other during backup and restore operations. The data mover is
a component of the backup server that receives data during
backups and sends data during restore operations. The data server
is a component of OneFS that sends data during backups and
receives information during restore operations.
The following states might appear:

Active
The data mover or data server is currently sending or receiving
data.

Paused
The data mover is temporarily unable to receive data. While the
data mover is paused, the data server cannot send data to the
data mover. The data server cannot be paused.

Idle
The data mover or data server is not sending or receiving data.

Listen
The data mover or data server is waiting to connect to the data
server or data mover.

Operation

Specifies the type of operation (backup or restore) that is currently

in progress. If no operation is in progress, this field is blank.

B ({M} {F} [L[0-10] | T0 | Ti | S[0-10]] {r | R})

Where:
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Item

Description
[ a ]a is required
{ a }a is optional
a | ba or b but not at the same time
MMulti-stream backup
FFile list
LLevel-based
TToken-based
SSnapshot mode
sSnapshot mode and a full backup (when root dir is new)
rRestartable backup
RRestarted backup
0-10Dump Level

R ({M|s}[F | D | S]{h})
Where:
MMulti-stream restore
sSingle-threaded restore (when RESTORE_OPTIONS=1)
FFull restore
DDAR
SSelective restore
hRestore hardlinks by table

Source/Destination

If an operation is currently in progress, specifies the /ifs

directories that are affected by the operation. If a backup is in
progress, displays the path of the source directory that is being
backed up. If a restore operation is in progress, displays the path of
the directory that is being restored along with the destination
directory to which the tape media server is restoring data. If you are
restoring data to the same location that you backed up your data
from, the same path appears twice.

Device

Specifies the name of the tape or media changer device that is

communicating with the EMC Isilon cluster.

Mode

Specifies how OneFS is interacting with data on the backup media

server through the following options:

Read/Write
OneFS is reading and writing data during a backup operation.

Read
OneFS is reading data during a restore operation.

Raw
The DMA has access to tape drives, but the drives do not
contain writable tape media.

NDMP session information

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Example 1 NDMP backup and restore sessions

Examples of active NDMP backup sessions are as follows:

B(T0): Token based full backup
B(Ti): Token based incremental backup
B(L0): Level based full backup
B(L5): Level 5 incremental backup
B(S0): Snapshot based full backup
B(S3): Snapshot based level 3 backup
B(FT0): Token based full filelist backup
B(FL4): Level 4 incremental filelist backup
B(L0r): Restartable level based full backup
B(S4r): Restartable snapshot based level 4 incremental backup
B(L7R): Restarted level 7 backup
B(FT1R): Restarted token based incremental filelist backup
B(ML0): Multi-stream full backup

Examples of active NDMP restore sessions are as follows:

R(F): Full restore
R(D): DAR
R(S): Selective restore
R(MF): Multi-stream full restore
R(sFh): single threaded full restore with restore hardlinks by table
option

View NDMP sessions

You can view information about active NDMP sessions.
Procedure
1. Click Data Protection > NDMP > Sessions.
2. In the Sessions table, review information about NDMP sessions.

Abort an NDMP session

You can abort an NDMP backup or restore session at any time.
Procedure
1. Click Data Protection > NDMP > Sessions.
2. In the Sessions table, click the check box corresponding to the session you want to
abort, and click Delete.
3. In the confirmation dialog box, click Delete.

Managing NDMP Fibre Channel ports

You can manage the Fibre Channel ports that connect tape and media changer devices to
a Backup Accelerator node. You can also enable, disable, or modify the settings of an
NDMP Fibre Channel port.

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NDMP backup port settings

OneFS assigns default settings to each Fibre Channel port on the Backup Accelerator
node attached to the EMC Isilon cluster. These settings identify the port and determine
how the port interacts with the NDMP backup devices.
The following settings appear in the Ports table:
Setting

Description

Port

Specifies the name and port number of the Backup Accelerator node.

Topology

Specifies the type of Fibre Channel topology that is supported by the port.
Options are:

Point to Point
A single backup device or Fibre Channel switch directly connected to
the port.

Loop
Multiple backup devices connected to a single port in a circular
formation.

Auto
Automatically detects the topology of the connected device. This is the
recommended setting and is required for a switched-fabric topology.

WWNN

Specifies the world wide node name (WWNN) of the port. This name is the
same for each port on a given node.

WWPN

Specifies the world wide port name (WWPN) of the port. This name is unique
to the port.

Rate

Specifies the rate at which data is sent through the port. The rate can be set
to 1 Gb/s, 2 Gb/s, 4 Gb/s, 8 Gb/s, and Auto. 8 Gb/s is available for
A100 nodes only. If set to Auto, the Fibre Channel chip negotiates with
connected Fibre Channel switch or Fibre Channel devices to determine the
rate. Auto is the recommended setting.

State

Specifies whether a port is enabled or disabled.

Enable or disable an NDMP backup port

You can enable or disable an NDMP backup port.
Procedure
1. Click Data Protection > NDMP > Ports.
2. In the row of a port, click View/Edit.
The View Port dialog box appears.
3. Click the Edit Port button.
The Edit Port dialog box appears.
4. From the State drop-down list, select Enable or Disable.
5. Click the Save Changes button.
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View NDMP backup ports

You can view information about Fibre Channel ports of Backup Accelerator nodes
attached to an EMC Isilon cluster.
Procedure
1. Click Data Protection > NDMP > Ports.
2. In the Ports table, review information about NDMP backup ports. For more detailed
information about a specific port, click the View/Edit button corresponding to that
port.

Modify NDMP backup port settings

You can modify the settings of an NDMP backup port.
Procedure
1. Click Data Protection > NDMP > Ports.
2. Click the View/Edit button corresponding to the port you want to modify.
The View Port dialog box appears.
3. Click the Edit Port button.
The Edit Port dialog box appears.
4. Edit the settings in the Edit Port dialog box, and click Save Changes when finished.

Managing NDMP backup devices

After you attach a tape or media changer device to a Backup Accelerator node, you must
configure OneFS to detect and establish a connection to the device. After the connection
between the cluster and the backup device is established, you can modify the name that
the cluster has assigned to the device, or disconnect the device from the cluster.
In case the device has multiple LUNs, you must configure LUN0 so that all the LUNs are
detected properly.

NDMP backup device settings

OneFS creates a device entry for each device you attach to the cluster through a Backup
Accelerator node.
The following table describes the settings you can review for a tape or media changer
device in the Devices table and also through the View Tape Devices dialog box that
appears when you select a device and click View/Edit:
Setting

Description

Name

Specifies a device name assigned by OneFS.

State

Indicates whether the device is in use. If data is currently being backed up to

or restored from the device, Read/Write appears. If the device is not in
use, Closed appears.

World Wide
Node Name

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Specifies the world wide node name (WWNN) of the device.

NDMP backup and recovery overview

Setting

Description

Vendor/Model/
Revision

Specifies the name of the device vendor and the model name or number of
the device.

Serial

Specifies the serial number of the device.

Path

Specifies the name of the Backup Accelerator node that is attached to the
device and the port numbers to which the device is connected.

LUN

Specifies the logical unit number (LUN) of the device.

State

Specifies whether the device is active or inactive.

WWPN

Specifies the world wide port name (WWPN) of the port on the tape or media
changer device.

Port ID

Specifies the port ID of the device that binds the logical device to the
physical device.

Open Count

A counter of the active and open connections to the device.

Device Name

Specifies the regular device name that appears under the FreeBSD operating
system.

Pass Name

Specifies the pass-thru device name that appears under the FreeBSD
operating system.

Detect NDMP backup devices

If you connect a tape device or media changer to a Backup Accelerator node, you must
configure OneFS to detect the device. Only then can OneFS back up data to and restore
data from the device. In OneFS, you can scan a specific EMC Isilon node, a specific port,
or all ports on all nodes.
Procedure
1. Click Data Protection > NDMP > Devices.
2. Click the Discover devices link.
The Discover Devices dialog appears.
3. (Optional) To scan only a specific node for NDMP devices, from the Node list, select a
node.
4. (Optional) To scan only a specific port for NDMP devices, from the Ports list, select a
port.
If you specify a port and a node, only the specified port on the node is scanned.
However, if you specify only a port, the specified port will be scanned on all nodes.
5. (Optional) To remove entries for devices or paths that have become inaccessible,
select the Delete inaccessible paths or devices check box.
6. Click Submit.
Results
For each device that is detected, an entry is added to either the Tape Devices or Media
Changers tables.

Detect NDMP backup devices

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View NDMP backup devices

You can view information about tape and media changer devices that are currently
attached to your EMC Isilon cluster.
Procedure
1. Click Data Protection > NDMP > Devices.
2. In the Tape Devices and Media Changers tables, review information about NDMP
backup devices.

Modify the name of an NDMP backup device

You can modify the name of an NDMP backup device in OneFS.
Procedure
1. Click Data Protection > NDMP > Devices.
2. In the Tape Devices table, or the Media Changer Devices table, click the check box
corresponding to the name of a backup device entry.
3. Click View/Edit.
The View Tape Devices or View Media Changers dialog box appears.
4. Click Edit Tape Device.
The Edit Tape Devices or Edit Media Changers dialog box appears.
5. Edit the device name.
6. Click Save Changes.

Delete an entry for an NDMP backup device

If you physically remove an NDMP device from an EMC Isilon cluster, OneFS retains the
entry for the device. You can delete a device entry for a removed device. You can also
remove the device entry for a device that is still physically attached to the cluster; this
causes OneFS to disconnect from the device.
If you remove a device entry for a device that is connected to the cluster, and you do not
physically disconnect the device, OneFS will detect the device the next time it scans the
ports. You cannot remove a device entry for a device that is currently in use.
Procedure
1. Click Data Protection > NDMP > Devices.
2. In the Tape Devices table or the Media Changer Devices table, click the check box
corresponding to the device that you want to remove.
3. Click Delete.
4. In the Confirm dialog box, click Yes.

NDMP dumpdates overview

When you set the UPDATE environment variable to Y, the NDMP daemon maintains a
dumpdates file to record all but the token-based backup sessions. The timestamp within
the dumpdates entries helps identify the changed files for the next level-based backup.
The dumpdates entries also provide information about the last backup session at a given
path and the type of backup session which can be a full, level-based incremental, or
snapshot-based backup. This information determines the type of incremental backup you
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must run subsequently. Dumpdates entries may be obsolete when the backup path is
removed. In such a case, all the obsolete entries can be removed from the dumpdates
file.

Managing NDMP dumpdate entries

You can view or delete NDMP dumpdate entries.

NDMP dumpdate settings

You can view the NDMP dumpdate settings and delete them as necessary.
The following settings appear in the Dumpdates table:
Setting

Description

Date

Specifies the date when the dumpdate entry was added to the dumpdates file.

ID

The identifier for the dumpdate entry.

Level

Specifies the backup level.

Path

Specifies the path where the dumpdate entry is saved.

Snapshot ID Identifies changed files for the next level of backup. This ID is applicable only for
snapshot-based backups. In all the other cases, the value is 0.
Actions

Deletes a dumpdate entry.

View NDMP dumpdate entries

You can view all the NDMP dumpdate entries.
Procedure
1. Click Data Protection > NDMP > Environment Settings.
2. In the Dumpdates table, view information about the NDMP dumpdate entries.

Delete NDMP dumpdate entries

You can delete NDMP dumpdate entries.
Procedure
1. Click Data Protection > NDMP > Environment Settings.
2. In the Dumpdates table, click the check box corresponding to a dumpdate entry and
then click Delete.
3. In the confirmation dialog box, click Delete.

NDMP restore operations

NDMP supports the following types of restore operations:
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NDMP parallel restore (multi-threaded process)

NDMP serial restore (single-threaded process)

Managing NDMP dumpdate entries

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NDMP parallel restore operation

Parallel (multi-threaded) restore enables faster full or partial restore operations by writing
data to the cluster as fast as the data can be read from the tape. Parallel restore is the
default restore mechanism in OneFS.
You can restore multiple files concurrently through the parallel restore mechanism.

NDMP serial restore operation

For troubleshooting or for other purposes, you can run a serial restore operation which
uses fewer system resources. The serial restore operation runs as a single-threaded
process and restores one file at a time to the specified path.

Specify a NDMP serial restore operation

You can use the RESTORE_OPTIONS environment variable to specify a serial (singlethreaded) restore operation.
Procedure
1. In your data management application, configure a restore operation as you normally
would.
2. Make sure that the RESTORE_OPTIONS environment variable is set to 1 on your data
management application.
If the RESTORE_OPTIONS environment variable is not already set to 1, specify the
isi ndmp settings variables modify command from the OneFS command
line. The following command specifies serial restore for the /ifs/data/projects
directory:
isi ndmp settings variables modify /ifs/data/projects
RESTORE_OPTIONS 1

The value of the path option is the FILESYSTEM environment variable set during the
backup operation. The value that you specify for the name option is case sensitive.
3. Start the restore operation.

Sharing tape drives between clusters

Multiple Isilon clusters, or an EMC Isilon cluster and a third-party NAS system, can be
configured to share a single tape drive. This helps to maximize the use of the tape
infrastructure in your data center.
In your data management application (DMA), you must configure NDMP to control the
tape drive and ensure that it is shared properly. The following configurations are
supported.
OneFS Versions

Tested configurations

7.1.1

EMC NetWorker 8.0 and later

7.1.0.1 (and
later)*

Symantec NetBackup 7.5

and later

Isilon Backup Accelerator node with

a second Backup Accelerator

Isilon Backup Accelerator node with

a NetApp storage system

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OneFS Versions

Supported DMAs

Tested configurations

* The tape drive sharing function is not supported in the OneFS 7.0.1 release.

EMC NetWorker refers to the tape drive sharing capability as DDS (dynamic drive sharing).
Symantec NetBackup uses the term SSO (shared storage option). Consult your DMA
vendor documentation for configuration instructions.

Managing snapshot based incremental backups

After you enable snapshot-based incremental backups, you can view and delete the
snapshots created for these backups.

Enable snapshot-based incremental backups for a directory

You can configure OneFS to perform snapshot-based incremental backups for a directory
by default. You can also override the default setting in your data management application
(DMA).
Procedure
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Run the isi ndmp settings variable create command.

The following command enables snapshot-based incremental backups for /ifs/
data/media:
isi ndmp settings variables create /ifs/data/media BACKUP_MODE
SNAPSHOT

View snapshots for snapshot-based incremental backups

You can view snapshots generated for snapshot-based incremental backups.
Procedure
l

Run the following command:

isi ndmp dumpdates list

Delete snapshots for snapshot-based incremental backups

You can delete snapshots created for snapshot-based incremental backups.
Note

It is recommended that you do not delete snapshots created for snapshot-based

incremental backups. If all snapshots are deleted for a path, the next backup performed
for the path is a full backup.
Procedure
l

Run the isi ndmp dumpdates delete command.

Managing snapshot based incremental backups

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The following command deletes all snapshots created for backing up /ifs/data/
media:
isi ndmp dumpdates delete /ifs/data/media

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CHAPTER 18
File retention with SmartLock

This section contains the following topics:

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SmartLock overview............................................................................................ 352

Compliance mode............................................................................................... 352
SmartLock directories..........................................................................................352
Accessing SmartLock with IsilonSD Edge.............................................................353
Replication and backup with SmartLock.............................................................. 353
SmartLock license functionality...........................................................................354
SmartLock considerations................................................................................... 355
Set the compliance clock.................................................................................... 355
View the compliance clock.................................................................................. 356
Creating a SmartLock directory............................................................................ 356
Managing SmartLock directories......................................................................... 358
Managing files in SmartLock directories.............................................................. 360

File retention with SmartLock

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SmartLock overview
With the SmartLock software module, you can prevent users from modifying and deleting
files on an EMC Isilon cluster. To protect data in this manner, you must activate a
SmartLock license.
With SmartLock, you can identify a directory in OneFS as a WORM domain. WORM stands
for write once, read many. All files within the WORM domain will be committed to a
WORM state, meaning that those files cannot be overwritten, modified, or deleted.
After a file is removed from a WORM state, you can delete the file. However, you can never
modify a file that has been committed to a WORM state, even after it is removed from a
WORM state.
In OneFS, SmartLock can be configured as one of two modes: compliance mode or
enterprise mode.

Compliance mode
SmartLock compliance mode enables you to protect your data in compliance with the
regulations defined by U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission rule 17a-4.
Note

You can upgrade an EMC Isilon cluster to SmartLock compliance mode only during the
initial cluster configuration process, prior to activating a SmartLock license. A cluster
cannot be converted to SmartLock compliance mode after the cluster is initially
configured and put into production.
If you upgrade a cluster to SmartLock compliance mode, the root user is removed and you
are not able to log in to that cluster through the root user account. Instead, you can log in
to the cluster through the compliance administrator account that is configured during
initial cluster configuration.
When you are logged in to a SmartLock compliance mode cluster through the compliance
administrator account, you can perform administrative tasks through the sudo
command.

SmartLock directories
In a SmartLock directory, you can commit a file to a WORM state manually or you can
configure SmartLock to automatically commit the file. Before you can create SmartLock
directories, you must activate a SmartLock license on the cluster.
You can create two types of SmartLock directories: enterprise and compliance. However,
you can create compliance directories only if the EMC Isilon cluster has been set up in
SmartLock compliance mode during initial configuration.
Enterprise directories enable you to protect your data without restricting your cluster to
comply with regulations defined by U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission rule 17a-4.
If you commit a file to a WORM state in an enterprise directory, the file can never be
modified and cannot be deleted until the retention period passes.
However, if you own a file and have been assigned the ISI_PRIV_IFS_WORM_DELETE
privilege, or you are logged in through the root user account, you can delete the file
through the privileged delete feature before the retention period passes. The privileged
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delete feature is not available for compliance directories. Enterprise directories reference
the system clock to facilitate time-dependent operations, including file retention.
Compliance directories enable you to protect your data in compliance with the
regulations defined by U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission rule 17a-4. If you
commit a file to a WORM state in a compliance directory, the file cannot be modified or
deleted before the specified retention period has expired. You cannot delete committed
files, even if you are logged in to the compliance administrator account. Compliance
directories reference the compliance clock to facilitate time-dependent operations,
including file retention.
You must set the compliance clock before you can create compliance directories. You can
set the compliance clock only once. After you set the compliance clock, you cannot
modify the compliance clock time. The compliance clock is controlled by the compliance
clock daemon. Because root and compliance administrator users can disable the
compliance clock daemon, it is possible for those users to increase the retention period
of WORM committed files in compliance mode. However, it is not possible to decrease
the retention period of a WORM committed file.

Accessing SmartLock with IsilonSD Edge

The SmartLock software module is available only with a purchased license of IsilonSD
Edge. It is not packaged with the free license of this product.
Make note of the following considerations before using SmartLock with IsilonSD Edge:
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IsilonSD Edge supports SmartLock in both enterprise and compliance modes.

However, an IsilonSD cluster might not comply with the regulations defined by U.S.
Securities and Exchange Commission rule 17a-4, even though it might comply with
this regulation on hardware appliances.

When an IsilonSD cluster is placed in compliance mode, you cannot add new nodes
to the cluster. Therefore, you must add as many nodes as necessary before upgrading
the cluster to SmartLock compliance mode.

Replication and backup with SmartLock

You must ensure that SmartLock directories on the EMC Isilon cluster remain protected
during replication and backup operations.
If you are replicating SmartLock directories with SyncIQ, it is recommended that you
configure all nodes on the source and target clusters into Network Time Protocol (NTP)
peer mode to ensure that the node clocks are synchronized. For compliance clusters, it is
recommended that you configure all nodes on the source and target clusters into NTP
peer mode before you set the compliance clock to ensure that the compliance clocks are
initially set to the same time.
Note

If you replicate data to a SmartLock directory, do not configure SmartLock settings for that
directory until you are no longer replicating data to the directory. Configuring an
autocommit time period for a SmartLock directory that you are replicating to can cause
replication jobs to fail. If the target directory commits a file to a WORM state, and the file
is modified on the source cluster, the next replication job will fail because it cannot
update the file.

Accessing SmartLock with IsilonSD Edge

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SmartLock replication and backup limitations

Be aware of the limitations of replicating and backing up SmartLock directories with
SyncIQ and NDMP.
If the source directory or target directory of a SyncIQ policy is a SmartLock directory,
replication might not be allowed. For more information, see the following table:
Source directory type

Target directory type

Allowed

Non-SmartLock

Non-SmartLock

Yes

Non-SmartLock

SmartLock enterprise

Yes

Non-SmartLock

SmartLock compliance

No

SmartLock enterprise

Non-SmartLock

Yes; however, retention

dates and commit status
of files will be lost.

SmartLock enterprise

SmartLock enterprise

Yes

SmartLock enterprise

SmartLock compliance

No

SmartLock compliance

Non-SmartLock

No

SmartLock compliance

SmartLock enterprise

No

SmartLock compliance

SmartLock compliance

Yes

If you are replicating a SmartLock directory to another SmartLock directory, you must
create the target SmartLock directory prior to running the replication policy. Although
OneFS will create a target directory automatically if a target directory does not already
exist, OneFS will not create a target SmartLock directory automatically. If you attempt to
replicate an enterprise directory before the target directory has been created, OneFS will
create a non-SmartLock target directory and the replication job will succeed. If you
replicate a compliance directory before the target directory has been created, the
replication job will fail.
If you replicate SmartLock directories to another EMC Isilon cluster with SyncIQ, the
WORM state of files is replicated. However, SmartLock directory configuration settings are
not transferred to the target directory.
For example, if you replicate a directory that contains a committed file that is set to expire
on March 4th, the file is still set to expire on March 4th on the target cluster. However, if
the directory on the source cluster is set to prevent files from being committed for more
than a year, the target directory is not automatically set to the same restriction.
If you back up data to an NDMP device, all SmartLock metadata relating to the retention
date and commit status is transferred to the NDMP device. If you recover data to a
SmartLock directory on the cluster, the metadata persists on the cluster. However, if the
directory that you recover data to is not a SmartLock directory, the metadata is lost. You
can recover data to a SmartLock directory only if the directory is empty.

SmartLock license functionality

You must activate a SmartLock license on an EMC Isilon cluster before you can create
SmartLock directories and commit files to a WORM state.
If a SmartLock license becomes inactive, you will not be able to create new SmartLock
directories on the cluster, modify SmartLock directory configuration settings, or delete
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files committed to a WORM state in enterprise directories before their expiration dates.
However, you can still commit files within existing SmartLock directories to a WORM
state.
If a SmartLock license becomes inactive on a cluster that is running in SmartLock
compliance mode, root access to the cluster is not restored.

SmartLock considerations
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If a file is owned exclusively by the root user, and the file exists on an EMC Isilon
cluster that is in SmartLock compliance mode, the file will be inaccessible, because
the root user account is disabled in compliance mode. For example, this can happen
if a file is assigned root ownership on a cluster that has not been configured in
compliance mode, and then the file is replicated to a cluster in compliance mode.
This can also occur if a root-owned file is restored onto a compliance cluster from a
backup.

It is recommended that you create files outside of SmartLock directories and then
transfer them into a SmartLock directory after you are finished working with the files.
If you are uploading files to a cluster, it is recommended that you upload the files to a
non-SmartLock directory, and then later transfer the files to a SmartLock directory. If a
file is committed to a WORM state while the file is being uploaded, the file will
become trapped in an inconsistent state.

Files can be committed to a WORM state while they are still open. If you specify an
autocommit time period for a directory, the autocommit time period is calculated
according to the length of time since the file was last modified, not when the file was
closed. If you delay writing to an open file for more than the autocommit time period,
the file is automatically committed to a WORM state, and you will not be able to write
to the file.

In a Microsoft Windows environment, if you commit a file to a WORM state, you can
no longer modify the hidden or archive attributes of the file. Any attempt to modify
the hidden or archive attributes of a WORM committed file generates an error. This
can prevent third-party applications from modifying the hidden or archive attributes.

Set the compliance clock

Before you can create SmartLock compliance directories, you must set the compliance
clock.
Setting the compliance clock configures the clock to the same time as the EMC Isilon
cluster system clock. Before you set the compliance clock, ensure that the system clock is
set to the correct time. If the compliance clock later becomes unsynchronized with the
system clock, the compliance clock will slowly correct itself to match the system clock.
The compliance clock corrects itself at a rate of approximately one week per year.
Procedure
1. Click File System > SmartLock > WORM.
2. Click Start Compliance Clock.

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View the compliance clock

You can view the current time of the compliance clock.
Procedure
1. Click File System > SmartLock > WORM.
2. In the Compliance Clock area, view the compliance clock.

Creating a SmartLock directory

You can create a SmartLock directory and configure settings that control how long files
are retained in a WORM state and when files are automatically committed to a WORM
state. You cannot move or rename a directory that contains a SmartLock directory.

Retention periods
A retention period is the length of time that a file remains in a WORM state before being
released from a WORM state. You can configure SmartLock directory settings that enforce
default, maximum, and minimum retention periods for the directory.
If you manually commit a file, you can optionally specify the date that the file is released
from a WORM state. You can configure a minimum and a maximum retention period for a
SmartLock directory to prevent files from being retained for too long or too short a time
period. It is recommended that you specify a minimum retention period for all SmartLock
directories.
For example, assume that you have a SmartLock directory with a minimum retention
period of two days. At 1:00 PM on Monday, you commit a file to a WORM state, and
specify the file to be released from a WORM state on Tuesday at 3:00 PM. The file will be
released from a WORM state two days later on Wednesday at 1:00 PM, because releasing
the file earlier would violate the minimum retention period.
You can also configure a default retention period that is assigned when you commit a file
without specifying a date to release the file from a WORM state.

Autocommit time periods

You can configure an autocommit time period for SmartLock directories. An autocommit
time period causes files that have been in a SmartLock directory for a period of time
without being modified to be automatically committed to a WORM state.
If you modify the autocommit time period of a SmartLock directory that contains
uncommitted files, the new autocommit time period is immediately applied to the files
that existed before the modification. For example, consider a SmartLock directory with an
autocommit time period of 2 hours. If you modify a file in the SmartLock directory at 1:00
PM, and you decrease the autocommit time period to 1 hour at 2:15 PM, the file is
instantly committed to a WORM state.
If a file is manually committed to a WORM state, the read-write permissions of the file are
modified. However, if a file is automatically committed to a WORM state, the read-write
permissions of the file are not modified.

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Create an enterprise directory for a non-empty directory

You can make a non-empty directory into a SmartLock enterprise directory. This
procedure is available only through the command-line interface (CLI).
Before creating a SmartLock directory, be aware of the following conditions and
requirements:
l

You cannot create a SmartLock directory as a subdirectory of an existing SmartLock

directory.

Hard links cannot cross SmartLock directory boundaries.

Creating a SmartLock directory causes a corresponding SmartLock domain to be

created for that directory.

Procedure
1. Run the isi job jobs start command.
The following command creates a SmartLock enterprise domain for /ifs/data/
smartlock:
isi job jobs start DomainMark --root /ifs/data/smartlock --dm-type
Worm

Create a SmartLock directory

You can create a SmartLock directory and commit files in that directory to a WORM state.
Before creating a SmartLock directory, be aware of the following conditions and
requirements:
l

You cannot create a SmartLock directory as a subdirectory of an existing SmartLock

directory.

Hard links cannot cross SmartLock directory boundaries.

Creating a SmartLock directory causes a corresponding SmartLock domain to be

created for that directory.

Procedure
1. Click File System > SmartLock > WORM.
2. Click Create Domain.
3. From the Type list, specify whether the directory is an enterprise directory or a
compliance directory.
Compliance directories enable you to protect your data in compliance with the
regulations defined by U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission rule 17a-4.
Enterprise directories enable you to protect your data without complying with those
restrictions.
This option is available only if the cluster is in SmartLock compliance mode. If the
cluster is not in compliance mode, all SmartLock directories are enterprise directories.
4. From the Privileged Delete list, specify whether to enabled the root user to delete files
that are currently committed to a WORM state.

Create an enterprise directory for a non-empty directory

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File retention with SmartLock

Note

This functionality is available only for SmartLock enterprise directories.

5. In the Path field, type the full path of the directory you want to make into a SmartLock
directory.
The specified path must belong to an empty directory on the cluster.
6. (Optional) To specify a default retention period for the directory, click Apply a default
retention span and then specify a time period.
The default retention period will be assigned if you commit a file to a WORM state
without specifying a day to release the file from the WORM state.
7. (Optional) To specify a minimum retention period for the directory, click Apply a
minimum retention span and then specify a time period.
The minimum retention period ensures that files are retained in a WORM state for at
least the specified period of time.
8. (Optional) To specify a maximum retention period for the directory, click Apply a
maximum retention span and then specify a time period.
The maximum retention period ensures that files are not retained in a WORM state for
more than the specified period of time.
9. Click Create Domain.
10. Click Create.

Managing SmartLock directories

You can modify SmartLock directory settings, including the default, minimum, maximum
retention period and the autocommit time period.
A SmartLock directory can be renamed only if the directory is empty.

Modify a SmartLock directory

You can modify the SmartLock configuration settings for a SmartLock directory.
Procedure
1. Click File System > SmartLock > WORM.
2. In the Write Once Read many (WORM) Domains table, in the row of a SmartLock
directory, click View / Edit.
3. Click Edit Domain.
4. Modify settings and then click Save Changes.

View SmartLock directory settings

You can view settings for SmartLock directory.
Procedure
1. Click File System > SmartLock > WORM.
2. In the Write Once Read many (WORM) Domains table, in the row of a SmartLock
directory, click View / Edit.

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3. In the View WORM Domain Details dialog box, view SmartLock directory settings.

SmartLock directory configuration settings

You can configure SmartLock directory settings that determine when files are committed
to and how long files are retained in a WORM state.
Path
The path of the directory.
Root Logical Inode (LIN)
The LIN of the directory.
ID
The numerical ID of the corresponding SmartLock domain.
Type
The type of SmartLock directory.
Enterprise
Enterprise directories enable you to protect your data without restricting your
cluster to comply with regulations defined by U.S. Securities and Exchange
Commission rule 17a-4
Compliance
Compliance directories enable you to protect your data in compliance with the
regulations defined by U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission rule 17a-4.
Privileged Delete
Indicates whether files committed to a WORM state in the directory can be deleted
through the privileged delete functionality. To access the privilege delete
functionality, you must either be assigned the ISI_PRIV_IFS_WORM_DELETE privilege
and own the file you are deleting. You can also access the privilege delete
functionality for any file if you are logged in through the root or compadmin user
account.
on
Files committed to a WORM state can be deleted through the isi worm
files delete command.
off
Files committed to a WORM state cannot be deleted, even through the isi
worm files delete command.
disabled
Files committed to a WORM state cannot be deleted, even through the isi
worm files delete command. After this setting is applied, it cannot be
modified.
Apply a default retention span
The default retention period for the directory. If a user does not specify a date to
release a file from a WORM state, the default retention period is assigned.
Enforce a minimum retention time span
The minimum retention period for the directory. Files are retained in a WORM state
for at least the specified amount of time, even if a user specifies an expiration date
that results in a shorter retention period.
SmartLock directory configuration settings

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File retention with SmartLock

Enforce a maximum retention time span

The maximum retention period for the directory. Files cannot be retained in a WORM
state for more than the specified amount of time, even if a user specifies an
expiration date that results in a longer retention period.
Automatically commit files after a specific period of time
The autocommit time period for the directory. After a file exists in this SmartLock
directory without being modified for the specified time period, the file is
automatically committed to a WORM state.
Override retention periods and protect all files until a specific date
The override retention date for the directory. Files committed to a WORM state are
not released from a WORM state until after the specified date, regardless of the
maximum retention period for the directory or whether a user specifies an earlier
date to release a file from a WORM state.

Managing files in SmartLock directories

You can commit files in SmartLock directories to a WORM state by removing the readwrite privileges of the file. You can also set a specific date at which the retention period
of the file expires. Once a file is committed to a WORM state, you can increase the
retention period of the file, but you cannot decrease the retention period of the file. You
cannot move a file that has been committed to a WORM state, even after the retention
period for the file has expired.
The retention period expiration date is set by modifying the access time of a file. In a
UNIX command line, the access time can be modified through the touch command.
Although there is no method of modifying the access time through Windows Explorer, you
can modify the access time through Windows Powershell. Accessing a file does not set
the retention period expiration date.
If you run the touch command on a file in a SmartLock directory without specifying a
date on which to release the file from a SmartLock state, and you commit the file, the
retention period is automatically set to the default retention period specified for the
SmartLock directory. If you have not specified a default retention period for the
SmartLock directory, the file is assigned a retention period of zero seconds. It is
recommended that you specify a minimum retention period for all SmartLock directories.

Set a retention period through a UNIX command line

You can specify when a file will be released from a WORM state through a UNIX command
line.
Procedure
1. Open a connection to any node in the EMC Isilon cluster through a UNIX command line
and log in.
2. Set the retention period by modifying the access time of the file through the touch
command.
The following command sets an expiration date of June 1, 2015 for /ifs/data/
test.txt:
touch -at 201506010000 /ifs/data/test.txt

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Set a retention period through Windows Powershell

You can specify when a file will be released from a WORM state through Microsoft
Windows Powershell.
Procedure
1. Open the Windows PowerShell command prompt.
2. (Optional) Establish a connection to the EMC Isilon cluster by running the net use
command.
The following command establishes a connection to the /ifs directory on
cluster.ip.address.com:
net use "\\cluster.ip.address.com\ifs" /user:root password

3. Specify the name of the file you want to set a retention period for by creating an
object.
The file must exist in a SmartLock directory.
The following command creates an object for /smartlock/file.txt:
$file = Get-Item "\\cluster.ip.address.com\ifs\smartlock\file.txt"

4. Specify the retention period by setting the last access time for the file.
The following command sets an expiration date of July 1, 2015 at 1:00 PM:
$file.LastAccessTime = Get-Date "2015/7/1 1:00 pm"

Commit a file to a WORM state through a UNIX command line

You can commit a file to a WORM state through a UNIX command line.
To commit a file to a WORM state, you must remove all write privileges from the file. If a
file is already set to a read-only state, you must first add write privileges to the file, and
then return the file to a read-only state.
Procedure
1. Open a connection to the EMC Isilon cluster through a UNIX command line interface
and log in.
2. Remove write privileges from a file by running the chmod command.
The following command removes write privileges of /ifs/data/smartlock/
file.txt:
chmod ugo-w /ifs/data/smartlock/file.txt

Commit a file to a WORM state through Windows Explorer

You can commit a file to a WORM state through Microsoft Windows Explorer. This
procedure describes how to commit a file through Windows 7.
To commit a file to a WORM state, you must apply the read-only setting. If a file is already
set to a read-only state, you must first remove the file from a read-only state and then
return it to a read-only state.

Set a retention period through Windows Powershell

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File retention with SmartLock

Procedure
1. In Windows Explorer, navigate to the file you want to commit to a WORM state.
2. Right-click the folder and then click Properties.
3. In the Properties window, click the General tab.
4. Select the Read-only check box, and then click OK.

Override the retention period for all files in a SmartLock directory

You can override the retention period for files in a SmartLock directory. All files
committed to a WORM state within the directory will remain in a WORM state until after
the specified day.
If files are committed to a WORM state after the retention period is overridden, the
override date functions as a minimum retention date. All files committed to a WORM state
do not expire until at least the given day, regardless of user specifications.
Procedure
1. Click File System > SmartLock > WORM.
2. In the Write Once Read many (WORM) Domains table, in the row of a SmartLock
directory, click View / Edit.
3. Click Edit Domain.
4. Click Override retention periods and protect all files until a specific date and then
specify a date.
5. Click Save Changes.

Delete a file committed to a WORM state

You can delete a WORM committed file before the expiration date through the privileged
delete functionality. This procedure is available only through the command-line interface
(CLI).
Before you begin
l

Privileged delete functionality must not be permanently disabled for the SmartLock
directory that contains the file.

You must either be the owner of the file and have the ISI_PRIV_IFS_WORM_DELETE
and ISI_PRIV_NS_IFS_ACCESS privileges, or be logged in through the root user
account.

Procedure
1. Open a connection to the EMC Isilon cluster through a UNIX command line and log in.
2. If privileged delete functionality was disabled for the SmartLock directory, modify the
directory by running the isi worm domains modify command with the -privileged-delete option.
The following command enables privileged delete for /ifs/data/SmartLock/
directory1:
isi worm domains modify /ifs/data/SmartLock/directory1 \
--privileged-delete true

3. Delete the WORM committed file by running the isi worm files delete
command.

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The following command deletes /ifs/data/SmartLock/directory1/file:

isi worm files delete /ifs/data/SmartLock/directory1/file

The system displays output similar to the following:

Are you sure? (yes, [no]):

4. Type yes and then press ENTER.

View WORM status of a file

You can view the WORM status of an individual file. This procedure is available only
through the command-line interface (CLI).
Procedure
1. Open a connection to the EMC Isilon cluster through a UNIX command line.
2. View the WORM status of a file by running the isi worm files view command.
For example, the following command displays the WORM status of a file:
isi worm files view /ifs/data/SmartLock/directory1/file

The system displays output similar to the following:

WORM Domains
ID
Root Path
-----------------------------------65539 /ifs/data/SmartLock/directory1
WORM State: COMMITTED
Expires: 2015-06-01T00:00:00

View WORM status of a file

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CHAPTER 19
Protection domains

This section contains the following topics:

l
l
l
l

Protection domains overview.............................................................................. 366

Protection domain considerations.......................................................................366
Create a protection domain................................................................................. 367
Delete a protection domain................................................................................. 367

Protection domains

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Protection domains

Protection domains overview

Protection domains are markers that prevent modifications to files and directories. If a
domain is applied to a directory, the domain is also applied to all of the files and
subdirectories under the directory. You can specify domains manually; however, OneFS
usually creates domains automatically.
There are three types of domains: SyncIQ domains, SmartLock domains, and SnapRevert
domains. SyncIQ domains can be assigned to source and target directories of replication
policies. OneFS automatically creates a SyncIQ domain for the target directory of a
replication policy the first time that the policy is run. OneFS also automatically creates a
SyncIQ domain for the source directory of a replication policy during the failback process.
You can manually create a SyncIQ domain for a source directory before you initiate the
failback process by configuring the policy for accelerated failback, but you cannot delete
a SyncIQ domain that marks the target directory of a replication policy.
SmartLock domains are assigned to SmartLock directories to prevent committed files
from being modified or deleted. OneFS automatically creates a SmartLock domain when a
SmartLock directory is created. You cannot delete a SmartLock domain. However, if you
delete a SmartLock directory, OneFS automatically deletes the SmartLock domain
associated with the directory.
SnapRevert domains are assigned to directories that are contained in snapshots to
prevent files and directories from being modified while a snapshot is being reverted.
OneFS does not automatically create SnapRevert domains. You cannot revert a snapshot
until you create a SnapRevert domain for the directory that the snapshot contains. You
can create SnapRevert domains for subdirectories of directories that already have
SnapRevert domains. For example, you could create SnapRevert domains for both /ifs/
data and /ifs/data/archive. You can delete a SnapRevert domain if you no longer
want to revert snapshots of a directory.

Protection domains for IsilonSD Edge

With a purchased license of IsilonSD Edge, you can access the SyncIQ and SmartLock
protection domains.

Protection domain considerations

You can manually create protection domains before they are required by OneFS to
perform certain actions. However, manually creating protection domains can limit your
ability to interact with the data marked by the domain.

366

Copying a large number of files into a protection domain might take a very long time
because each file must be marked individually as belonging to the protection
domain.

You cannot move directories in or out of protection domains. However, you can move
a directory contained in a protection domain to another location within the same
protection domain.

Creating a protection domain for a directory that contains a large number of files will
take more time than creating a protection domain for a directory with fewer files.
Because of this, it is recommended that you create protection domains for directories
while the directories are empty, and then add files to the directory.

If a domain is currently preventing the modification or deletion of a file, you cannot

create a protection domain for a directory that contains that file. For example,

OneFS 8.0.0 Web Administration Guide

Protection domains

if /ifs/data/smartlock/file.txt is set to a WORM state by a SmartLock

domain, you cannot create a SnapRevert domain for /ifs/data/.
Note

If you use SyncIQ to create a replication policy for a SmartLock compliance directory, the
SyncIQ and SmartLock compliance domains must be configured at the same root
directory level. A SmartLock compliance domain cannot be nested inside a SyncIQ
domain.

Create a protection domain

You can create SyncIQ domains or SnapRevert domains to facilitate snapshot revert and
failover operations. You cannot create a SmartLock domain. OneFS automatically creates
a SmartLock domain when you create a SmartLock directory.
Procedure
1. Click Cluster Management > Job Operations > Job Types.
2. In the Job Types area, in the DomainMark row, from the Actions column, select Start
Job.
3. In the Domain Root Path field, type the path of the directory you want to create a
protection domain for.
4. From the Type of domain list, specify the type of domain you want to create.
5. Ensure that the Delete this domain check box is cleared.
6. Click Start Job.

Delete a protection domain

You can delete SyncIQ domains or SnapRevert domains if you want to move directories
out of the domain. You cannot delete a SmartLock domain. OneFS automatically deletes a
SmartLock domain when you delete a SmartLock directory.
Procedure
1. Click Cluster Management > Job Operations > Job Types.
2. In the Job Types area, in the DomainMark row, from the Actions column, select Start
Job.
3. In the Domain Root Path field, type the path of the directory you want to delete a
protection domain for.
4. From the Type of domain list, specify the type of domain you want to delete.
5. Select Delete this domain.
6. Click Start Job.

Create a protection domain

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Protection domains

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CHAPTER 20
Data-at-rest-encryption

This section contains the following topics:

l
l
l
l
l
l
l

Data-at-rest encryption overview......................................................................... 370

Self-encrypting drives..........................................................................................370
Data security on self-encrypted drives................................................................. 370
Data migration to a cluster with self-encrypted drives..........................................371
Chassis and drive states..................................................................................... 371
Smartfailed drive REPLACE state..........................................................................374
Smartfailed drive ERASE state............................................................................. 375

Data-at-rest-encryption

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Data-at-rest-encryption

Data-at-rest encryption overview

You can enhance data security with a EMC Isilon cluster that contains only selfencrypting-drive nodes, providing data-at-rest protection.
The OneFS system is available as a cluster that is composed of Isilon OneFS nodes that
contain only self-encrypting drives (SEDs). The system requirements and management of
data at rest on self-encrypting nodes are identical to that of nodes that do not contain
self-encrypting drives. Clusters of mixed node types are not supported.

Data-at-rest encryption for IsilonSD Edge

IsilonSD Edge does not support data-at-rest encryption because the IsilonSD nodes do
not support the self-encrypting drive type.

Self-encrypting drives
Self-encrypting drives store data on a EMC Isilon cluster that is specially designed for
data-at-rest encryption.
Data-at-rest- encryption on self-encrypted drives occurs when data that is stored on a
device is encrypted to prevent unauthorized data access. All data written to the storage
device is encrypted when it is stored, and all data read from the storage device is
decrypted when it is read. The stored data is encrypted with a 256-bit data AES
encryption key and decrypted in the same manner. OneFS controls data access by
combining the drive authentication key with on-disk data-encryption keys.
Note

All nodes in a cluster must be of the self-encrypting drive type. Mixed nodes are not
supported.

Data security on self-encrypted drives

Smartfailing self-encrypted drives guarantees data security after removal.
Data on self-encrypted drives is protected from unauthorized access by authenticating
encryption keys. Encryption keys never leave the drive. When a drive is locked, successful
authentication unlocks the drive for data access.
The data on self-encrypted drives is rendered inaccessible in the following conditions:
l

When a self-encrypting drive is smartfailed, drive authentication keys are deleted

from the node. The data on the drive cannot be decrypted and is therefore
unreadable, which secures the drive.

When a drive is smartfailed and removed from a node, the encryption key on the drive
is removed. Because the encryption key for reading data from the drive must be the
same key that was used when the data was written, it is impossible to decrypt data
that was previously written to the drive. When you smartfail and then remove a drive,
it is cryptographically erased.
Note

Smartfailing a drive is the preferred method for removing a self-encrypted drive.

Removing a node that has been smartfailed guarantees that data is inaccessible.
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Data-at-rest-encryption

When a self-encrypting drive loses power, the drive locks to prevent unauthorized
access. When power is restored, data is again accessible when the appropriate drive
authentication key is provided.

Data migration to a cluster with self-encrypted drives

You can have data from your existing cluster migrated to a cluster of nodes made up of
self-encrypted drives (SEDs). As a result, all migrated and future data on the new cluster
will be encrypted.
Note

Data migration to a cluster with SEDs must be performed by Isilon Professional Services.
For more information, contact your EMC Isilon representative.

Chassis and drive states

You can view chassis and drive state details.
In a cluster, the combination of nodes in different degraded states determines whether
read requests, write requests, or both work. A cluster can lose write quorum but keep
read quorum. OneFS provides details about the status of chassis and drives in your
cluster. The following table describes all the possible states that you may encounter in
your cluster.
Note

If you are running IsilonSD Edge, you can view and manage the chassis and drive state
details through the IsilonSD Management Plug-in. For more information, see the IsilonSD
Edge Installation and Administration Guide.
State

Description

Interface

HEALTHY

All drives in the node are functioning

correctly.

Command-line
interface, web
administration
interface

L3

A solid state drive (SSD) was

deployed as level 3 (L3) cache to
increase the size of cache memory
and improve throughput speeds.

Command-line
interface

SMARTFAIL or
Smartfail or
restripe in
progress

The drive is in the process of being

removed safely from the file system,
either because of an I/O error or by
user request. Nodes or drives in a
smartfail or read-only state affect only
write quorum.

Command-line
interface, web
administration
interface

NOT AVAILABLE

A drive is unavailable for a variety of

reasons. You can click the bay to view
detailed information about this
condition.

Command-line
interface, web
administration
interface

Data migration to a cluster with self-encrypted drives

Error
state

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Data-at-rest-encryption

State

Description

Interface

Note

In the web administration interface,

this state includes the ERASE and

SED_ERROR command-line interface

states.

372

SUSPENDED

This state indicates that drive activity

is temporarily suspended and the
drive is not in use. The state is
manually initiated and does not occur
during normal cluster activity.

Command-line
interface, web
administration
interface

NOT IN USE

A node in an offline state affects both

read and write quorum.

Command-line
interface, web
administration
interface

REPLACE

The drive was smartfailed successfully Command-line

and is ready to be replaced.
interface only

STALLED

The drive is stalled and undergoing

Command-line
stall evaluation. Stall evaluation is the interface only
process of checking drives that are
slow or having other issues.
Depending on the outcome of the
evaluation, the drive may return to
service or be smartfailed. This is a
transient state.

NEW

The drive is new and blank. This is the Command-line

state that a drive is in when you run
interface only
the isi dev command with the -a
add option.

USED

The drive was added and contained

Command-line
an Isilon GUID but the drive is not
interface only
from this node. This drive likely will be
formatted into the cluster.

PREPARING

The drive is undergoing a format

operation. The drive state changes to
HEALTHY when the format is
successful.

Command-line
interface only

EMPTY

No drive is in this bay.

Command-line
interface only

WRONG_TYPE

The drive type is wrong for this node. Command-line

For example, a non-SED drive in a SED interface only
node, SAS instead of the expected
SATA drive type.

BOOT_DRIVE

Unique to the A100 drive, which has

boot drives in its bays.

OneFS 8.0.0 Web Administration Guide

Command-line
interface only

Error
state

Data-at-rest-encryption

State

Description

Interface

Error
state

SED_ERROR

The drive cannot be acknowledged by

the OneFS system.

Command-line
interface, web
administration
interface

Note

In the web administration interface,

this state is included in Not

available.
ERASE

The drive is ready for removal but

needs your attention because the
data has not been erased. You can
erase the drive manually to guarantee
that data is removed.

Command-line
interface only

Note

In the web administration interface,

this state is included in Not

available.
INSECURE

Data on the self-encrypted drive is

accessible by unauthorized
personnel. Self-encrypting drives
should never be used for nonencrypted data purposes.

Command-line
interface only

Web
administration
interface only

Note

In the web administration interface,

this state is labeled Unencrypted

SED.
UNENCRYPTED SED

Data on the self-encrypted drive is

accessible by unauthorized
personnel. Self-encrypting drives
should never be used for nonencrypted data purposes.
Note

In the command-line interface, this

state is labeled INSECURE.

Chassis and drive states

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Data-at-rest-encryption

Smartfailed drive REPLACE state

You can see different drive states during the smartfail process.
If you run the isi dev command while the drive in bay 1 is being smartfailed, the
system displays output similar to the following example:
Node 1, [ATTN]
Bay 1
000093172YE04
Bay 2
00009330EYE03
Bay 3
00009330EYE03
Bay 4
00009327BYE03
Bay 5
00009330KYE03
Bay 6
000093172YE03
Bay 7
00009330KYE03
Bay 8
00009330EYE03
Bay 9
00009330EYE03
Bay 10
00009330EYE03
Bay 11
00009330EYE04
Bay 12
00009330JYE03

Lnum 11
/dev/da1
Lnum 10
/dev/da2
Lnum 9
/dev/da3
Lnum 8
/dev/da4
Lnum 7
/dev/da5
Lnum 6
/dev/da6
Lnum 5
/dev/da7
Lnum 4
/dev/da8
Lnum 3
/dev/da9
Lnum 2
/dev/da10
Lnum 1
/dev/da11
Lnum 0
/dev/da12

[SMARTFAIL]

SN:Z296M8HK

[HEALTHY]

SN:Z296M8N5

[HEALTHY]

SN:Z296LBP4

[HEALTHY]

SN:Z296LCJW

[HEALTHY]

SN:Z296M8XB

[HEALTHY]

SN:Z295LXT7

[HEALTHY]

SN:Z296M8ZF

[HEALTHY]

SN:Z296M8SD

[HEALTHY]

SN:Z296M8QA

[HEALTHY]

SN:Z296M8Q7

[HEALTHY]

SN:Z296M8SP

[HEALTHY]

SN:Z296M8QZ

If you run the isi dev command after the smartfail completes successfully, the system
displays output similar to the following example, showing the drive state as REPLACE:
Node 1, [ATTN]
Bay 1
000093172YE04
Bay 2
00009330EYE03
Bay 3
00009330EYE03
Bay 4
00009327BYE03
Bay 5
00009330KYE03
Bay 6
000093172YE03
Bay 7
00009330KYE03
Bay 8
00009330EYE03
Bay 9
00009330EYE03
Bay 10
00009330EYE03
Bay 11
00009330EYE04
Bay 12
00009330JYE03

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Lnum 11
/dev/da1
Lnum 10
/dev/da2
Lnum 9
/dev/da3
Lnum 8
/dev/da4
Lnum 7
/dev/da5
Lnum 6
/dev/da6
Lnum 5
/dev/da7
Lnum 4
/dev/da8
Lnum 3
/dev/da9
Lnum 2
/dev/da10
Lnum 1
/dev/da11
Lnum 0
/dev/da12

[REPLACE]

SN:Z296M8HK

[HEALTHY]

SN:Z296M8N5

[HEALTHY]

SN:Z296LBP4

[HEALTHY]

SN:Z296LCJW

[HEALTHY]

SN:Z296M8XB

[HEALTHY]

SN:Z295LXT7

[HEALTHY]

SN:Z296M8ZF

[HEALTHY]

SN:Z296M8SD

[HEALTHY]

SN:Z296M8QA

[HEALTHY]

SN:Z296M8Q7

[HEALTHY]

SN:Z296M8SP

[HEALTHY]

SN:Z296M8QZ

Data-at-rest-encryption

If you run the isi dev command while the drive in bay 3 is being smartfailed, the
system displays output similar to the following example:
Node 1, [ATTN]
Bay 1
000093172YE04
Bay 2
00009330EYE03
Bay 3
00009330EYE03
Bay 4
00009327BYE03
Bay 5
00009330KYE03
Bay 6
000093172YE03
Bay 7
00009330KYE03
Bay 8
00009330EYE03
Bay 9
00009330EYE03
Bay 10
00009330EYE03
Bay 11
00009330EYE04
Bay 12
00009330JYE03

Lnum 11
/dev/da1
Lnum 10
/dev/da2
Lnum 9
N/A
Lnum 8
/dev/da4
Lnum 7
/dev/da5
Lnum 6
/dev/da6
Lnum 5
/dev/da7
Lnum 4
/dev/da8
Lnum 3
/dev/da9
Lnum 2
/dev/da10
Lnum 1
/dev/da11
Lnum 0
/dev/da12

[REPLACE]

SN:Z296M8HK

[HEALTHY]

SN:Z296M8N5

[SMARTFAIL]

SN:Z296LBP4

[HEALTHY]

SN:Z296LCJW

[HEALTHY]

SN:Z296M8XB

[HEALTHY]

SN:Z295LXT7

[HEALTHY]

SN:Z296M8ZF

[HEALTHY]

SN:Z296M8SD

[HEALTHY]

SN:Z296M8QA

[HEALTHY]

SN:Z296M8Q7

[HEALTHY]

SN:Z296M8SP

[HEALTHY]

SN:Z296M8QZ

Smartfailed drive ERASE state

At the end of a smartfail process, OneFS attempts to delete the authentication key on a
drive if it is unable to reset the key.
Note
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To securely delete the authentication key on a single drive, smartfail the individual
drive.

To securely delete the authentication key on a single node, smartfail the node.

To securely delete the authentication keys on an entire cluster, smartfail each node
and run the isi_reformat_node command on the last node.

Upon running the isi dev command, the system displays output similar to the
following example, showing the drive state as ERASE:
Node 1, [ATTN]
Bay 1
000093172YE04
Bay 2
00009330EYE03
Bay 3
00009330EYE03

Lnum 11
/dev/da1
Lnum 10
/dev/da2
Lnum 9
/dev/da3

[REPLACE]

SN:Z296M8HK

[HEALTHY]

SN:Z296M8N5

[ERASE]

SN:Z296LBP4

Drives showing the ERASE state can be safely retired, reused, or returned.
Any further access to a drive showing the ERASE state requires the authentication key of
the drive to be set to its default manufactured security ID (MSID). This action erases the
data encryption key (DEK) on the drive and renders any existing data on the drive
permanently unreadable.
Smartfailed drive ERASE state

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CHAPTER 21
SmartQuotas

This section contains the following topics:

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SmartQuotas overview........................................................................................ 378

Quota types........................................................................................................ 378
Default quota type...............................................................................................379
Usage accounting and limits............................................................................... 381
Disk-usage calculations...................................................................................... 382
Quota notifications............................................................................................. 383
Quota notification rules.......................................................................................384
Quota reports......................................................................................................384
Creating quotas...................................................................................................385
Managing quotas................................................................................................ 386
Managing quota notifications..............................................................................389
Email quota notification messages......................................................................391
Managing quota reports...................................................................................... 394
Basic quota settings............................................................................................396
Advisory limit quota notification rules settings.................................................... 396
Soft limit quota notification rules settings........................................................... 397
Hard limit quota notification rules settings.......................................................... 398
Limit notification settings....................................................................................398
Quota report settings.......................................................................................... 399

SmartQuotas

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SmartQuotas overview
The SmartQuotas module is an optional quota-management tool that monitors and
enforces administrator-defined storage limits. Using accounting and enforcement quota
limits, reporting capabilities, and automated notifications, SmartQuotas manages
storage use, monitors disk storage, and issues alerts when disk-storage limits are
exceeded.
Quotas help you manage storage usage according to criteria that you define. Quotas are
used for trackingand sometimes limitingthe amount of storage that a user, group, or
project consumes. Quotas help ensure that a user or department does not infringe on the
storage that is allocated to other users or departments. In some quota implementations,
writes beyond the defined space are denied, and in other cases, a simple notification is
sent.
Note

Do not apply quotas to /ifs/.ifsvar/ or its subdirectories. If you limit the size of
the /ifs/.ifsvar/ directory through a quota, and the directory reaches its limit, jobs
such as File-System Analytics fail. A quota blocks older job reports from being deleted
from the /ifs/.ifsvar/ subdirectories to make room for newer reports.
The SmartQuotas module requires a separate license. For more information about the
SmartQuotas module or to activate the module, contact your EMC Isilon sales
representative.

Quota types
OneFS uses the concept of quota types as the fundamental organizational unit of storage
quotas. Storage quotas comprise a set of resources and an accounting of each resource
type for that set. Storage quotas are also called storage domains.
Storage quotas creation requires three identifiers:
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The directory to monitor

Whether snapshots are tracked against the quota limit

The quota type (directory, user, or group)

Note

Do not create quotas of any type on the OneFS root (/ifs). A root-level quota may
significantly degrade performance.
You can choose a quota type from the following entities:
Directory
A specific directory and its subdirectories.
User
Either a specific user or default user (every user). Specific-user quotas that you
configure take precedence over a default user quota.

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Group
All members of a specific group or all members of a default group (every group). Any
specific-group quotas that you configure take precedence over a default group
quota. Associating a group quota with a default group quota creates a linked quota.
You can create multiple quota types on the same directory, but they must be of a different
type or have a different snapshot option. You can specify quota types for any directory in
OneFS and nest them within each other to create a hierarchy of complex storage-use
policies.
Nested storage quotas can overlap. For example, the following quota settings ensure that
the finance directory never exceeds 5 TB, while limiting the users in the finance
department to 1 TB each:
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Set a 5 TB hard quota on /ifs/data/finance.

Set 1 TB soft quotas on each user in the finance department.

Default quota type

Default quotas automatically create other quotas for users or groups in a specified
directory.
A default quota specifies a policy for new entities that match a trigger. The defaultuser@/ifs/cs becomes specific-user@/ifs/cs for each specific-user that is not otherwise
defined.
For example, you can create a default-user quota on the /ifs/dir-1 directory, where
that directory is owned by the root user. The default-user type automatically creates a
domain on that directory for root and adds the usage there:
my-OneFS-1# mkdir /ifs/dir-1
my-OneFS-1# isi quota quotas create /ifs/dir-1 default-user
my-OneFS-1# isi quota quotas ls --path=/ifs/dir-1
Type
AppliesTo Path
Snap Hard Soft Adv Used
--------------------------------------------------------------default-user DEFAULT
/ifs/dir-1 No
0b
user
root
/ifs/dir-1 No
0b
---------------------------------------------------------------

Now add a file owned by a different user (admin):

my-OneFS-1# touch /ifs/dir-1/somefile
my-OneFS-1# chown admin /ifs/dir-1/somefile
my-OneFS-1# isi quota quotas ls --path=/ifs/dir-1
Type
AppliesTo Path
Snap Hard Soft Adv Used
--------------------------------------------------------------default-user DEFAULT
/ifs/dir-1 No
0b
user
root
/ifs/dir-1 No
26b
user
admin
/ifs/dir-1 No
0b
--------------------------------------------------------------Total: 3

In this example, the default-user type created a specific-user type automatically

(user:admin) and added the new usage to it. Default-user does not have any usage
because it is used only to generate new quotas automatically. Default-user enforcement
is copied to a specific-user (user:admin), and the inherited quota is called a linked quota.
In this way, each user account gets its own usage accounting.
Defaults can overlap. For example, default-user@/ifs/dir-1 and default-user@/ifs/cs
both may be defined. If the default enforcement changes, OneFS storage quotas
propagate the changes to the linked quotas asynchronously. Because the update is
Default quota type

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SmartQuotas

asynchronous, there is some delay before updates are in effect. If a default type, such as
every user or every group, is deleted, OneFS deletes all children that are marked as
inherited. As an option, you can delete the default without deleting the children, but it is
important to note that this action breaks inheritance on all inherited children.
Continuing with the example, add another file owned by the root user. Because the root
type exists, the new usage is added to it.
my-OneFS-1# touch /ifs/dir-1/anotherfile
my-OneFS-1# isi quota ls -v --path=/ifs/dir-1 --format=list
Type: default-user
AppliesTo: DEFAULT
Path: /ifs/dir-1
Snap: No
Thresholds
Hard : Soft : Adv : Grace : Usage
Files : 0
With Overhead : 0.00b
W/O Overhead : 0.00b
Over: Enforced: No
Container: No
Linked: ---------------------------------------------------------------------Type: user
AppliesTo: root
Path: /ifs/dir-1
Snap: No
Thresholds
Hard : Soft : Adv : Grace : Usage
Files : 2
With Overhead : 3.50K
W/O Overhead : 55.00b
Over: Enforced: No
Container: No
Linked: Yes
---------------------------------------------------------------------Type: user
AppliesTo: admin
Path: /ifs/dir-1
Snap: No
Thresholds
Hard : Soft : Adv : Grace : Usage
Files : 1
With Overhead : 1.50K
W/O Overhead : 0.00b
Over: Enforced: No
Container: No
Linked: Yes

The enforcement on default-user is copied to the specific-user when the specific-user

allocates within the type, and the new inherited quota type is also a linked quota.

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Note

Configuration changes for linked quotas must be made on the parent quota that the
linked quota is inheriting from. Changes to the parent quota are propagated to all
children. To override configuration from the parent quota, unlink the quota first.

Usage accounting and limits

Storage quotas support two usage types that you can create to manage storage space:
usage accounting and enforcement limits.
You can configure OneFS quotas by usage type to track or limit storage use. The
accounting option, which monitors disk-storage use, is useful for auditing, planning, and
billing. Enforcement limits set storage limits for users, groups, or directories.
Accounting
The accounting option tracks but does not limit disk-storage use. Using the
accounting option for a quota, you can monitor inode count and physical and logical
space resources. Physical space refers to all of the space used to store files and
directories, including data and metadata in the domain. Logical space refers to the
sum of all files sizes, excluding file metadata and sparse regions. User data storage
is tracked using logical-space calculations, which do not include protection
overhead. As an example, by using the accounting option, you can do the following:
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Track the amount of disk space used by various users or groups to bill each user,
group, or directory for only the disk space used.
Review and analyze reports that help you identify storage usage patterns and
define storage policies.
Plan for capacity and other storage needs.

Enforcement limits
Enforcement limits include all of the functionality of the accounting option, plus the
ability to limit disk storage and send notifications. Using enforcement limits, you can
logically partition a cluster to control or restrict how much storage that a user, group,
or directory can use. For example, you can set hard- or soft-capacity limits to ensure
that adequate space is always available for key projects and critical applications and
to ensure that users of the cluster do not exceed their allotted storage capacity.
Optionally, you can deliver real-time email quota notifications to users, group
managers, or administrators when they are approaching or have exceeded a quota
limit.

Note

If a quota type uses the accounting-only option, enforcement limits cannot be used for
that quota.
The actions of an administrator logged in as root may push a domain over a quota
threshold. For example, changing the protection level or taking a snapshot has the
potential to exceed quota parameters. System actions such as repairs also may push a
quota domain over the limit.
The system provides three types of administrator-defined enforcement thresholds.

Usage accounting and limits

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Threshold
type

Description

Hard

Limits disk usage to a size that cannot be exceeded. If an operation, such as a file
write, causes a quota target to exceed a hard quota, the following events occur:
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the operation fails

an alert is logged to the cluster

a notification is issued to specified recipients.

Writes resume when the usage falls below the threshold.

Soft

Allows a limit with a grace period that can be exceeded until the grace period
expires. When a soft quota is exceeded, an alert is logged to the cluster and a
notification is issued to specified recipients; however, data writes are permitted
during the grace period.
If the soft threshold is still exceeded when the grace period expires, data writes
fail, and a hard-limit notification is issued to the recipients you have specified.
Writes resume when the usage falls below the threshold.

Advisory

An informational limit that can be exceeded. When an advisory quota threshold is

exceeded, an alert is logged to the cluster and a notification is issued to specified
recipients. Advisory thresholds do not prevent data writes.

Disk-usage calculations
For each quota that you configure, you can specify whether data protection overhead is
included in future disk usage calculations.
Most quota configurations do not need to include overhead calculations. If you do not
include data protection overhead in usage calculations for a quota, future disk usage
calculations for the quota include only the space that is required to store files and
directories. Space that is required for the data protection setting of the cluster is not
included.
Consider the same example user, who is now restricted by a 40 GB quota that does not
include data protection overhead in its disk usage calculations. If your cluster is
configured with a 2x data protection level and the user writes a 10 GB file to the cluster,
that file consumes 20 GB of space but the 10GB for the data protection overhead is not
counted in the quota calculation. In this example, the user has reached 25 percent of the
40 GB quota by writing a 10 GB file to the cluster. This method of disk usage calculation
is recommended for most quota configurations.
If you include data protection overhead in usage calculations for a quota, future disk
usage calculations for the quota include the total amount of space that is required to
store files and directories, in addition to any space that is required to accommodate your
data protection settings, such as parity or mirroring. For example, consider a user who is
restricted by a 40 GB quota that includes data protection overhead in its disk usage
calculations. If your cluster is configured with a 2x data protection level (mirrored) and
the user writes a 10 GB file to the cluster, that file actually consumes 20 GB of space: 10
GB for the file and 10 GB for the data protection overhead. In this example, the user has
reached 50 percent of the 40 GB quota by writing a 10 GB file to the cluster.

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Note

Cloned and deduplicated files are treated as ordinary files by quotas. If the quota
includes data protection overhead, the data protection overhead for shared data is not
included in the usage calculation.
You can configure quotas to include the space that is consumed by snapshots. A single
path can have two quotas applied to it: one without snapshot usage, which is the default,
and one with snapshot usage. If you include snapshots in the quota, more files are
included in the calculation than are in the current directory. The actual disk usage is the
sum of the current directory and any snapshots of that directory. You can see which
snapshots are included in the calculation by examining the .snapshot directory for the
quota path.
Note

Only snapshots created after the QuotaScan job finishes are included in the calculation.

Quota notifications
Quota notifications are generated for enforcement quotas, providing users with
information when a quota violation occurs. Reminders are sent periodically while the
condition persists.
Each notification rule defines the condition that is to be enforced and the action that is to
be executed when the condition is true. An enforcement quota can define multiple
notification rules. When thresholds are exceeded, automatic email notifications can be
sent to specified users, or you can monitor notifications as system alerts or receive
emails for these events.
Notifications can be configured globally, to apply to all quota domains, or be configured
for specific quota domains.
Enforcement quotas support the following notification settings. A given quota can use
only one of these settings.
Limit notification settings

Description

Turn Off Notifications for this

Quota

Disables all notifications for the quota.

Use Default Notification Rules

Uses the global default notification for the specified type of

quota.

Use Custom Notification Rules

Enables the creation of advanced, custom notifications that

apply to the specific quota. Custom notifications can be
configured for any or all of the threshold types (hard, soft, or
advisory) for the specified quota.

Quota notifications

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Quota notification rules

You can write quota notification rules to generate alerts that are triggered by event
thresholds.
When an event occurs, a notification is triggered according to your notification rule. For
example, you can create a notification rule that sends an email when a disk-space
allocation threshold is exceeded by a group.
You can configure notification rules to trigger an action according to event thresholds (a
notification condition). A rule can specify a schedule, such as "every day at 1:00 AM," for
executing an action or immediate notification of certain state transitions. When an event
occurs, a notification trigger may execute one or more actions, such as sending an email
or sending a cluster alert to the interface. The following examples demonstrate the types
of criteria that you can use to configure notification rules.
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Notify when a threshold is exceeded; at most, once every 5 minutes

Notify when allocation is denied; at most, once an hour

Notify while over threshold, daily at 2 AM

Notify while grace period expired weekly, on Sundays at 2 AM

Notifications are triggered for events grouped by the following categories:

Instant notifications
Includes the write-denied notification, triggered when a hard threshold denies a
write, and the threshold-exceeded notification, triggered at the moment a hard, soft,
or advisory threshold is exceeded. These are one-time notifications because they
represent a discrete event in time.
Ongoing notifications
Generated on a scheduled basis to indicate a persisting condition, such as a hard,
soft, or advisory threshold being over a limit or a soft threshold's grace period being
expired for a prolonged period.

Quota reports
The OneFS SmartQuotas module provides reporting options that enable administrators to
manage cluster resources and analyze usage statistics.
Storage quota reports provide a summarized view of the past or present state of the
quota domains. After raw reporting data is collected by OneFS, you can produce data
summaries by using a set of filtering parameters and sort types. Storage-quota reports
include information about violators, grouped by threshold types. You can generate
reports from a historical data sample or from current data. In either case, the reports are
views of usage data at a given time. OneFS does not provide reports on data aggregated
over time, such as trending reports, but you can use raw data to analyze trends. There is
no configuration limit on the number of reports other than the space needed to store
them.
OneFS provides the following data-collection and reporting methods:
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Scheduled reports are generated and saved on a regular interval.

Ad hoc reports are generated and saved at the request of the user.

Live reports are generated for immediate and temporary viewing.

Scheduled reports are placed by default in the /ifs/.isilon/smartquotas/

reports directory, but the location is configurable to any directory under /ifs. Each
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generated report includes quota domain definition, state, usage, and global
configuration settings. By default, ten reports are kept at a time, and older reports are
purged. You can create ad hoc reports at any time to view the current state of the storage
quotas system. These live reports can be saved manually. Ad hoc reports are saved to a
location that is separate from scheduled reports to avoid skewing the timed-report sets.

Creating quotas
You can create two types of storage quotas to monitor data: accounting quotas and
enforcement quotas. Storage quota limits and restrictions can apply to specific users,
groups, or directories.
The type of quota that you create depends on your goal.
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Enforcement quotas monitor and limit disk usage. You can create enforcement
quotas that use any combination of hard limits, soft limits, and advisory limits.
Note

Enforcement quotas are not recommended for snapshot-tracking quota domains.

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Accounting quotas monitor, but do not limit, disk usage.

Note

Before using quota data for analysis or other purposes, verify that no QuotaScan jobs are
running.

Create an accounting quota

You can create an accounting quota to monitor but not limit disk usage.
Optionally, you can include snapshot data, data-protection overhead, or both, in the
accounting quota.
Procedure
1. Click File System > SmartQuotas > Quotas & Usage.
2. On the Storage Quotas & Usage page, click Create a storage quota.
3. From the Quota Type list, select the target for this quota: a directory, user, or group.
4. Depending on the target that you selected, select the entity that you want to apply the
quota to. For example, if you selected User from the Quota Type list, you can target
either all users or a specific user.
5. In the Directory path field, type the path and directory for the quota, or click Browse,
and then select a directory.
6. (Optional) In the Usage Accounting area, select the options that you want.
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To include snapshot data in the accounting quota, select the Include Snapshot
Data check box.

To include the data-protection overhead in the accounting quota, select the

Include Data-Protection Overhead check box.

To include snapshot data in the accounting quota, select the Include Snapshot
Data check box.

7. In the Usage Limits area, click No Usage Limit (Accounting Only).

8. Click Create Quota.
Creating quotas

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After you finish

Before using quota data for analysis or other purposes, verify that no QuotaScan jobs are
in progress by checking Cluster Management > Job Operations > Job Summary.

Create an enforcement quota

You can create an enforcement quota to monitor and limit disk usage.
You can create enforcement quotas that set hard, soft, and advisory limits.
Procedure
1. Click File System > SmartQuotas > Quotas & Usage.
2. On the Storage Quotas & Usage page, click Create a storage quota.
3. From the Quota Type list, select the target for this quota: a directory, user, or group.
4. Depending on the target that you selected, select the entity that you want to apply the
quota to. For example, if you selected User from the Quota Type list, you can target all
users or a specific user.
5. In the Directory path field, type the path and directory for the quota, or click Browse,
and then select a directory.
6. (Optional) In the Usage Accounting area, click the Include Snapshot Data check box,
the Include Data-Protection Overhead check box, or both, to include them in the
quota.
7. In the Usage Limits area, click Specify Usage Limits.
8. Click the check box next to the option for each type of limit that you want to enforce.
9. Type numerals in the fields and select from the lists the values that you want to use
for the quota.
10. In the Limit Notifications area, click the notification option that you want to apply to
the quota.
11. To generate an event notification, select the Create cluster event check box.
12. (Optional) If you selected the option to use custom notification rules, click the link to
expand the custom notification type that applies to the usage-limit selections.
13. Click Create Quota.
After you finish
Before using quota data for analysis or other purposes, verify that no QuotaScan jobs are
in progress by checking Cluster Management > Job Operations > Job Summary.

Managing quotas
You can modify the configured values of a storage quota, and you can enable or disable a
quota. You can also create quota limits and restrictions that apply to specific users,
groups, or directories.
Quota management in OneFS is simplified by the quota search feature, which helps you
locate a quota or quotas by using filters. You can unlink quotas that are associated with a
parent quota, and configure custom notifications for quotas. You can also disable a
quota temporarily and then enable it when needed.
Note

Moving quota directories across quota domains is not supported.

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Search for quotas

You can search for a quota using a variety of search criteria.
By default, all storage quotas and display options are listed on this page before you
apply report or search filters. If the Quotas & Storage section is collapsed, click Define
quota display.
Procedure
1. Click File System > SmartQuotas > Quotas & Usage.
2. In the Quotas & Usage area, for Report Filters, select Search for specific quotas within
this report.
3. In the Quota Type list, select the quota type that you want to find.
4. If you selected User Quota or Group quota for a quota type, type a full or partial user
or group name in the User or Group field.
You can use the wildcard character (*) in the User or Group field.
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To search for only default users, select the Only show default users checkbox.

To search for only default groups, select the Only show default groups check box.

5. In the Directory Path field, type a full or partial path.

You can use the wildcard character (*) in the Directory Path field.
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To search subdirectories, select the Include subdirectories check box.

To search for only quotas that are in violations, select the Only show quotas for
which usage limits are currently in violation check box.

6. (Optional) Click Update Display.

Quotas that match the search criteria appear in the sections where quotas are listed.
Results
An accounting or enforcement quota with a threshold value of zero is indicated by a dash
(). You can click the column headings to sort the result set.
Note

To clear the result set and display all storage quotas, in the Quotas & Usage area, select
Show all quotas and usage for this report for Report Filters, and then click Update
Display.

Manage quotas
Quotas help you monitor and analyze the current or historical use of disk storage. You
can search for quotas, and you can view, modify, delete, and unlink a quota.
You must run an initial QuotaScan job for the default or scheduled quotas, or the data
displayed may be incomplete.
Before you modify a quota, consider how the changes will affect the file system and end
users.

Search for quotas

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Note
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The options to edit or delete a quota display only when the quota is not linked to a
default quota.

The option to unlink a quota is available only when the quota is linked to a default
quota.

Procedure
1. Click File System > SmartQuotas > Generated Reports Archive.
2. From the Quota Report options, select the type of quota report that you want to view
or manage.
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To monitor and analyze current disk storage use, click Show current quotas and
usage (Live Report).

To monitor and analyze historical disk storage use, click Show archived quota
report to select from the list of archived scheduled and manually generated quota
reports.

3. For Report Filters, select the filters to be used for this quota report.
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To view all information in the quota report, click Show all quotas and usage for
this report.

To filter the quota report, click Search for specific quotas within this report, and
then select the filters that you want to apply.

4. Click Update Display.

5. (Optional) Select a quota to view its settings or to perform the following management
actions.
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To review or edit this quota, click View details.

To delete this quota, click Delete.

To unlink a linked quota, click Unlink.

Note

Configuration changes for linked quotas must be made on the parent (default)
quota that the linked quota is inheriting from. Changes to the parent quota are
propagated to all children. If you want to override configuration from the parent
quota, you must first unlink the quota.

Export a quota configuration file

You can export quota settings as a configuration file, which can then be imported for
reuse to another Isilon cluster. You can also store the exported quota configurations in a
location outside of the cluster. This task may only be performed from the OneFS
command line interface.
You can pipe the XML report to a file or directory. The file can then be imported to another
cluster.
Procedure
1. Open a secure shell (SSH) connection to any node in the cluster and log in.
2. At the command prompt, run the following command:
isi_classic quota list --export

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The quota configuration file displays as raw XML.

Import a quota configuration file

You can import quota settings in the form of a configuration file that has been exported
from another Isilon cluster. This task can only be performed from the OneFS commandline interface.
Procedure
1. Open a secure shell (SSH) connection to any node in the cluster and log in.
2. Navigate to the location of the exported quota configuration file.
3. At the command prompt, run the following command, where <filename> is the name of
an exported configuration file:
isi_classic quota import --from-file=<filename>

The system parses the file and imports the quota settings from the configuration file.
Quota settings that you configured before importing the quota configuration file are
retained, and the imported quota settings are effective immediately.

Managing quota notifications

Quota notifications can be enabled or disabled, modified, and deleted.
By default, a global quota notification is already configured and applied to all quotas.
You can continue to use the global quota notification settings, modify the global
notification settings, or disable or set a custom notification for a quota.
Enforcement quotas support four types of notifications and reminders:
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Threshold exceeded

Over-quota reminder

Grace period expired

Write access denied

If a directory service is used to authenticate users, you can configure notification

mappings that control how email addresses are resolved when the cluster sends a quota
notification. If necessary, you can remap the domain that is used for quota email
notifications and you can remap Active Directory domains, local UNIX domains, or both.

Configure default quota notification settings

You can configure default global quota notification settings that apply to all quotas of a
specified threshold type.
The custom notification settings that you configure for a quota take precedence over the
default global notification settings.
Procedure
1. Click File System > SmartQuotas > Settings.
2. (Optional) On the Quota Settings page, for Scheduled Reporting, select On.
3. Click Change Schedule, and then select a report frequency from the list.
4. Select the reporting schedule options that you want, and then click Select.

Import a quota configuration file

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5. In the Scheduled Report Archiving area, you can configure the following size and
directory options:
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To configure the number of live reports that you want to archive, type the number
of reports in the Limit archive size field.

To specify an archive directory that is different from the default, in the Archive
Directory field, type the path or click Browse to select the path.

6. In the Manual Report Archiving area, you can configure the following size and
directory options:
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To configure the number of live reports that you want to archive, type the number
of reports in the Limit archive size field.

To specify an archive directory that is different from the default, in the Archive
Directory field, type the path or click Browse to select the path.

7. In the Email Mapping Rules area, choose each mapping rule that you want to use by
selecting the check box in the Provider Type column.
8. In the Notification Rules area, define default notification rules for each rule type.
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To expand the list of limit notifications rules types, click Default Notifications
Settings.

To display default settings options for advisory-limit notification rules, click

Advisory Limit Notification Rules.

To set the advisory-limit options that you want, click Event: Advisory Limit Value
Exceeded and Event: While Advisory Limit Remains Exceeded.

To display default settings for soft-limit notifications, click Soft Limit Notification
Rules.

To set the soft-limit options that you want, click Event: Soft Limit Value Exceeded,
Event: While Soft Limit Remains Exceeded, Event: Soft Limit Grace Period Expired,
and Event: Soft Limit Write Access Denied.

To display the options for a hard-limit notification rule, click Hard Limit
Notification Rules .

To set the hard-limit options that you want, click Event: Hard Limit Write Access
Denied and Event: While Hard Limit Remains Exceeded.

9. Click Save.
After you finish
Before using quota data for analysis or other purposes, verify that no QuotaScan jobs are
in progress by checking Cluster Management > Job Operations > Job Summary.

Configure custom quota notification rules

You can configure custom quota notification rules that apply only to a specified quota.
Before you begin
To configure a custom notification rule, an enforcement quota must exist or be in the
process of being created. To configure notifications for an existing enforcement quota,
follow the procedure to modify a quota and then use these steps from the Quota Details
pane of the specific quota.
Quota-specific custom notification rules must be configured for that quota. If notification
rules are not configured for a quota, the default event notification configuration is used.
For more information about configuring default notification rules, see Create an event
notification rule.
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Procedure
1. In the Limit Notifications area, click Use Custom Notification Rules.
The links display for the rules options that are available for the type of notification
that you have selected for this quota.
2. Click the link for the limit notification type that you want to configure for this quota.
From the list, select the target for this quota: a directory, user, or group.
The Limit Notification Rules options display for the selection type.
3. Select or type the values to configure the custom notification rule for this quota.
4. Click Create quota when you have completed configuring the settings for this
notification rule.
Results
The quota appears in the Quotas & Usage list.
After you finish
Before using quota data for analysis or other purposes, verify that no QuotaScan jobs are
in progress by checking Cluster Management > Job Operations > Job Summary.

Map an email notification rule for a quota

Email notification mapping rules control how email addresses are resolved when the
cluster sends a quota notification.
If necessary, you can remap the domain used for SmartQuotas email notifications. You
can remap Active Directory Windows domains, local UNIX domains, or NIS domains.
Note

You must be logged in to the web administration interface to perform this task.
Procedure
1. Click File System Management > SmartQuotas > Settings.
2. (Optional) In the Email Mapping area, click Create an email mapping rule.
3. From the Provider Type list, select the authentication provider type for this notification
rule. The default is Local. To determine which authentication providers are available
on your cluster, navigate to Access > Authentication Providers.
4. From the Current Domain list, select the domain that you want to use for the mapping
rule. If the list is blank, navigate to Cluster Management > Network Configuration, and
then click Edit in the DNS Settings area to specify the domains that you want to use
for mapping.
5. In the Map-to-Domain field, type the name of the domain that you want to map email
notifications to. This can be the same domain name you selected from the Current
Domain list. To specify multiple domains, separate the domain names with commas.
6. Click Save Rule.

Email quota notification messages

If email notifications for exceeded quotas are enabled, you can customize Isilon
templates for email notifications or create your own.
There are three email notification templates provided with OneFS. The templates are
located in /etc/ifs and are described in the following table:
Map an email notification rule for a quota

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Template

Description

quota_email_template.txt

A notification that disk quota has been exceeded.

quota_email_grace_template.txt A notification that disk quota has been exceeded

(also includes a parameter to define a grace period in
number of days).
quota_email_test_template.txt

A notification test message you can use to verify that

a user is receiving email notifications.

If the default email notification templates do not meet your needs, you can configure your
own custom email notification templates by using a combination of text and SmartQuotas
variables. Whether you choose to create your own templates or modify the existing ones,
make sure that the first line of the template file is a Subject: line. For example:
Subject: Disk quota exceeded

If you want to include information about the message sender, include a From: line
immediately under the subject line. If you use an email address, include the full domain
name for the address. For example:
From:

[email protected]

In this example of the quota_email_template.txt file, a From: line is included.

Additionally, the default text "Contact your system administrator for details" at the end of
the template is changed to name the administrator:
Subject: Disk quota exceeded
From: [email protected]
The <ISI_QUOTA_TYPE> disk quota on directory <ISI_QUOTA_PATH>
owned by <ISI_QUOTA_OWNER> on <ISI_QUOTA_NODE> was exceeded.
The quota limit is <ISI_QUOTA_THRESHOLD>, and <ISI_QUOTA_USAGE>
is currently in use. You may be able to free some disk space by
deleting unnecessary files. If your quota includes snapshot usage,
your administrator may be able to free some disk space by deleting
one or more snapshots. Contact Jane Anderson ([email protected])
for details.

This is an example of a what a user will see as an emailed notification (note that the
SmartQuotas variables are resolved):
Subject: Disk quota exceeded
From: [email protected]
The advisory disk quota on directory /ifs/data/sales_tools/collateral
owned by jsmith on production-Boris was exceeded.
The quota limit is 10 GB, and 11 GB is in use. You may be able
to free some disk space by deleting unnecessary files. If your
quota includes snapshot usage, your administrator may be able
to free some disk space by deleting one or more snapshots.
Contact Jane Anderson ([email protected]) for details.

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Custom email notification template variable descriptions

An email template contains text, and, optionally, variables that represent values. You can
use any of the SmartQuotas variables in your templates.
Variable

Description

Example

ISI_QUOTA_PATH

Path of quota domain

/ifs/data

ISI_QUOTA_THRESHOLD Threshold value

20 GB

ISI_QUOTA_USAGE

Disk space in use

10.5 GB

ISI_QUOTA_OWNER

Name of quota domain owner

jsmith

ISI_QUOTA_TYPE

Threshold type

Advisory

ISI_QUOTA_GRACE

Grace period, in days

5 days

ISI_QUOTA_EXPIRATION Expiration date of grace period

Fri May 22 14:23:19 PST

2015

ISI_QUOTA_NODE

someHost-prod-wf-1

Hostname of the node on which the

quota event occurred

Customize email quota notification templates

You can customize Isilon templates for email notifications. This task can be performed
only from the OneFS command line interface.
This procedure assumes that you are using the Isilon templates, which are located in
the /etc/ifs directory.
Note

We recommend that you do not edit the templates directly. Instead, copy them to another
directory to edit and deploy them.
Procedure
1. Open a secure shell (SSH) connection to any node in the cluster and log in.
2. Copy one of the default templates to a directory in which you will edit the file and later
access it through the OneFS web administration interface. For example:
cp /etc/ifs/quota_email_template.txt /ifs/data/quotanotifiers/
quota_email_template_copy.txt

3. Open the template file in a text editor. For example:

edit /ifs/data/quotanotifiers/quota_email_template_copy.txt

The template appears in the editor.

4. Edit the template. If you are using or creating a customized template, make sure the
template has a Subject: line.
5. Save your changes. Template files must be saved as .txt files.
6. In the web administration interface, navigate to File System > SmartQuotas > Quotas &
Usage.

Custom email notification template variable descriptions

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7. Select the quota that you want to set a notification rule for.
8. Click the Settings tab.
9. Select the notification rule that you want to use with the template that you created (for
example, Advisory Limit Notification Rules). For more information about setting
notification rules, see the instructions for configuring default quota notification
settings and configuring custom quota notification rules in this chapter.
10. Select the event for the template (for example, Event: Advisory Limit Value Exceeded).
11. In the Send Email area, select one of the owner notification type check boxes.
12. In the Message Template field, enter or browse to find the template that you copied or
customized.
13. (Optional) In the Event area, select Create Cluster Event to generate an event
notification in addition to the email notification.
14. (Optional) In the Delay area, select the desired amount of time to wait before
generating a notification. The default is zero minutes.
Repeat steps 9 through 14 to specify an email notification template for each
notification rule you wish to create for the quota.
15. Click Save.

Managing quota reports

You can configure and schedule reports to help you monitor, track, and analyze storage
use on an Isilon cluster.
You can view and schedule reports and customize report settings to track, monitor, and
analyze disk storage use. Quota reports are managed by configuring settings that give
you control over when reports are scheduled, how they are generated, where and how
many are stored, and how they are viewed. The maximum number of scheduled reports
that are available for viewing in the web-administration interface can be configured for
each report type. When the maximum number of reports are stored, the system deletes
the oldest reports to make space for new reports as they are generated.

Create a quota report schedule

You can configure quota report settings to generate the quota report on a specified
schedule.
These settings determine whether and when scheduled reports are generated, and where
and how the reports are stored. If you disable a scheduled report, you can still run
unscheduled reports at any time.
Procedure
1. Click File System > SmartQuotas > Settings.
2. (Optional) On the Quota settings page, for Scheduled Reporting, click On.
The Report Frequency option appears.
3. Click Change schedule, and select the report frequency that you want to set from the
list.
4. Select the reporting schedule options that you want.
5. Click Save.

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Results
Reports are generated according to your criteria and can be viewed in the Generated
Reports Archive.

Generate a quota report

In addition to scheduled quota reports, you can generate a report to capture usage
statistics at a point in time.
Before you begin
Before you can generate a quota report, quotas must exist and no QuotaScan jobs can be
running.
Procedure
1. Click File System > SmartQuotas > Generated Reports Archive.
2. In the Generated Quota Reports Archive area, click Generate a quota report.
3. Click Generate Report.
Results
The new report appears in the Quota Reports list.

Locate a quota report

You can locate quota reports, which are stored as XML files, and use your own tools and
transforms to view them. This task can only be performed from the OneFS command-line
interface.
Procedure
1. Open a secure shell (SSH) connection to any node in the cluster and log in.
2. Navigate to the directory where quota reports are stored. The following path is the
default quota report location:
/ifs/.isilon/smartquotas/reports
Note

If quota reports are not in the default directory, you can run the isi quota
settings command to find the directory where they are stored.
3. At the command prompt, run the ls command.
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To view a list of all quota reports in the directory, run the following command:
ls -a *.xml

To view a specific quota report in the directory, run the following command:
ls <filename>.xml

Generate a quota report

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Basic quota settings

When you create a storage quota, the following attributes must be defined, at a
minimum. When you specify usage limits, additional options are available for defining
your quota.
Option

Description

Directory Path

The directory that the quota is on.

User Quota

Select to automatically create a quota for

every current or future user that stores data in
the specified directory.

Group Quota

Select to automatically create a quota for

every current or future group that stores data
in the specified directory.

Include Snapshot Data

Select to count all snapshot data in usage

limits; cannot be changed after the quota is
created.

Include Data-Protection Overhead

Select to count protection overhead in usage

limits.

No Usage Limit

Select to account for usage only.

Specify Usage Limits

Select to enforce advisory, soft, or absolute

limits.

Advisory limit quota notification rules settings

You can configure custom quota notification rules for advisory limits for a quota. These
settings are available when you select the option to use custom notification rules.
Option

Description

Exceeded Remains
exceeded

Send email

Specify the type of email to use.

Yes

Yes

Notify owner

Select to send an email notification to the owner of the entity.

Yes

Yes

Notify another

Select to send an email notification to another recipient and type the

recipient's email address.

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Note

You can only enter one email address. If you want to notify more than one
person, consider creating a distribution list and specifying that as the email
address.
Message template Select from the following template types for use in formatting email
notifications:
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Option

Description

Exceeded Remains
exceeded

Custom

Create cluster
event

Select to generate an event notification for the quota when exceeded.

Yes

Yes

Delay

Specify the length of time (hours, days, weeks) to delay before generating a
notification.

Yes

No

Frequency

Specify the notification and alert frequency: daily, weekly, monthly, yearly;
depending on selection, specify intervals, day to send, time of day, multiple
emails per rule.

No

Yes

Soft limit quota notification rules settings

You can configure custom soft limit notification rules for a quota. These settings are
available when you select the option to use custom notification rules.
Option

Description

Exceeded Remains
exceeded

Grace
period
expired

Write
access
denied

Send email

Specify the recipient of the email notification.

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Notify owner

Select to send an email notification to the owner of the

entity.

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Notify another

Select to send an email notification to another

recipient and type the recipient's email address.

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Note

You can only enter one email address. If you want to

notify more than one person, consider creating a
distribution list and specifying that as the email
address.
Message
template

Select from the following template types for use in

formatting email notifications:
l

Default (leave Message Template field blank to

use default)

Custom

Create cluster
event

Select to generate an event notification for the quota.

Delay

Specify the length of time (hours, days, weeks) to delay Yes

before generating a notification.

No

No

Yes

Frequency

Specify the notification and alert frequency: daily,

weekly, monthly, yearly; depending on selection,
specify intervals, day to send, time of day, multiple
emails per rule.

Yes

Yes

No

No

Soft limit quota notification rules settings

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Hard limit quota notification rules settings

You can configure custom quota notification rules for hard limits for a quota. These
settings are available when you select the option to use custom notification rules.
Option

Description

Write access Exceeded

denied

Send email

Specify the recipient of the email notification.

Yes

Yes

Notify owner

Select to send an email notification to the owner of the entity.

Yes

Yes

Notify another

Select to send an email notification to another recipient and type the recipient's
email address.

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Note

You can only type one email address. If you want to notify more than one person,
consider creating a distribution list and specifying that as the email address.
Message template

Select from the following template types for use in formatting email
notifications:
l

Default (leave Message Template field blank to use default)

Custom

Create cluster
event

Select to generate an event notification for the quota when exceeded.

Yes

Yes

Delay

Specify the length of time (hours, days, weeks) to delay before generating a
notification.

Yes

No

Frequency

Specify the notification and alert frequency: daily, weekly, monthly, yearly.
Depending on selection, specify intervals, day to send, time of day, multiple
email messages per rule.

No

Yes

Limit notification settings

You have three notification options when you create an enforcement quota: use default
notification rules, turn off notifications, or use custom notification rules. Enforcement
quotas support the following notification settings for each threshold type. A quota can
use only one of these settings.
Notification setting

Description

Use Default Notification Rules

Uses the default notification rules that you configured for

the specified threshold type.

Turn Off Notifications for this Quota Disables all notifications for the quota.
Use Custom Notification Rules

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Provides settings to create basic custom notifications that

apply to only this quota.

SmartQuotas

Quota report settings

You can configure quota report settings that track disk usage. These settings determine
whether and when scheduled reports are generated, and where and how reports are
stored. When the maximum number of reports are stored, the system deletes the oldest
reports to make space for new reports as they are generated.
Setting

Description

Scheduled
reporting

Enables or disables the scheduled reporting feature.

Report
frequency

Off. Manually generated on-demand reports can be run at any time.

On. Reports run automatically according to the schedule that you specify.

Specifies the interval for this report to run: daily, weekly, monthly, or yearly. You can use the following options to
further refine the report schedule.

Generate report every. Specify the numeric value for the selected report frequency; for example, every 2
months.

Generate reports on. Select the day or multiple days to generate reports.
Select report day by. Specify date or day of the week to generate the report.
Generate one report per specified by. Set the time of day to generate this report.
Generate multiple reports per specified day. Set the intervals and times of day to generate the report for
that day.
Scheduled
Determines the maximum number of scheduled reports that are available for viewing on the SmartQuotas
report archiving Reports page.

Limit archive size for scheduled reports to a specified number of reports. Type the integer to specify the
maximum number of reports to keep.

Archive Directory. Browse to the directory where you want to store quota reports for archiving.
Manual report
archiving

Determines the maximum number of manually generated (on-demand) reports that are available for viewing on
the SmartQuotas Reports page.

Limit archive size for live reports to a specified number of reports. Type the integer to specify the maximum
number of reports to keep.
Archive Directory. Browse to the directory where you want to store quota reports for archiving.

Quota report settings

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CHAPTER 22
Storage Pools

This section contains the following topics:

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Storage pools overview....................................................................................... 402

Storage pool functions........................................................................................ 402
Autoprovisioning.................................................................................................404
Node pools......................................................................................................... 405
Virtual hot spare..................................................................................................407
Spillover..............................................................................................................408
Suggested protection.......................................................................................... 408
Protection policies.............................................................................................. 408
SSD strategies.....................................................................................................409
Global namespace acceleration.......................................................................... 410
L3 cache overview............................................................................................... 410
Tiers....................................................................................................................412
File pool policies................................................................................................. 412
Managing node pools in the web administration interface...................................413
Managing L3 cache from the web administration interface.................................. 418
Managing tiers.................................................................................................... 419
Creating file pool policies.................................................................................... 421
Managing file pool policies................................................................................. 427
Monitoring storage pools.................................................................................... 432

Storage Pools

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Storage pools overview

OneFS organizes different node types into separate node pools. In addition, you can
organize these node pools into logical tiers of storage. By activating a SmartPools
license, you can create file pool policies that store files in these tiers automatically,
based on file-matching criteria that you specify.
Without an active SmartPools license, OneFS manages all node pools as a single pool of
storage. File data and metadata is striped across the entire cluster so that data is
protected, secure, and readily accessible. All files belong to the default file pool and are
governed by the default file pool policy. In this mode, OneFS provides functions such as
autoprovisioning, compatibilities, virtual hot spare (VHS), SSD strategies, global
namespace acceleration (GNA), L3 cache, and storage tiers.
When you activate a SmartPools license, additional functions become available,
including custom file pool policies and spillover management. With a SmartPools license,
you can manage your data set with more granularity to improve the performance of your
cluster.
The following table summarizes storage pool functions based on whether a SmartPools
license is active.
Function

Inactive SmartPools
license

Active SmartPools
license

Automatic storage pool provisioning

Yes

Yes

Node class compatibilities (node

equivalency)

Yes

Yes

SSD capacity compatibilities

Yes

Yes

SSD count compatibilities

Yes

Yes

Virtual hot spare

Yes

Yes

SSD strategies

Yes

Yes

L3 cache

Yes

Yes

Tiers

Yes

Yes

GNA

Yes

Yes

File pool policies

No

Yes

Spillover management

No

Yes

Storage pool functions

When a cluster is installed, and whenever nodes are added to the cluster, OneFS
automatically groups nodes into node pools. Autoprovisioning of nodes into node pools
enables OneFS to optimize performance, reliability, and data protection on the cluster.
Without an active SmartPools license, OneFS applies a default file pool policy to organize
all data into a single file pool. With this policy, OneFS distributes data across the entire
cluster so that data is protected and readily accessible. When you activate a SmartPools
license, additional functions become available.
OneFS provides the following functions, with or without an active SmartPools license:
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Autoprovisioning of node pools

Automatically groups equivalence-class nodes into node pools for optimal storage
efficiency and protection. At least three nodes of an equivalence class are required
for autoprovisioning to work.
Node class compatibilities (node equivalency)
Enables certain nodes that are not equivalence-class to join existing node pools.
OneFS supports node class compatibilities between Isilon S200 and S210 nodes,
X200 and X210 nodes, X400 and X410 nodes, and NL400 and NL410 nodes. L3
cache must be enabled on the node pools for node class compatibilities to work.
SSD capacity compatibilities
Enables nodes with different SSD capacities to be provisioned to an existing
compatible node pool. Otherwise, compatible nodes that have different SSD
capacities cannot join the same node pool. If you have fewer than three nodes with
differences in SSD capacity, these nodes remain unprovisioned, and, therefore, not
functional. L3 cache must be enabled on node pools for SSD capacity compatibilities
to work.
SSD count compatibilities
Enables nodes with different numbers of SSDs to be provisioned to the same node
pool. Otherwise, compatible nodes that have different SSD counts cannot join the
same node pool. If you have fewer than three nodes with a particular SSD count,
these nodes remain unprovisioned, and, therefore, not functional until you create an
SSD count compatibility. L3 cache must be enabled on node pools for SSD count
compatibilities to work.
Tiers
Groups node pools into logical tiers of storage. If you activate a SmartPools license
for this feature, you can create custom file pool policies and direct different file
pools to appropriate storage tiers.
Default file pool policy
Governs all file types and can store files anywhere on the cluster. Custom file pool
policies, which require a SmartPools license, take precedence over the default file
pool policy.
Requested protection
Specifies a requested protection setting for the default file pool, per node pool, or
even on individual files. You can leave the default setting in place, or choose the
suggested protection calculated by OneFS for optimal data protection.
Virtual hot spare
Reserves a portion of available storage space for data repair in the event of a disk
failure.
SSD strategies
Defines the type of data that is stored on SSDs in the cluster. For example, storing
metadata for read/write acceleration.
L3 cache
Specifies that SSDs in nodes are used to increase cache memory and speed up file
system performance across larger working file sets.

Storage pool functions

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Global namespace acceleration

Activates global namespace acceleration (GNA), which enables data stored on node
pools without SSDs to access SSDs elsewhere in the cluster to store extra metadata
mirrors. Extra metadata mirrors accelerate metadata read operations.
When you activate a SmartPools license, OneFS provides the following additional
functions:
Custom file pool policies
Creates custom file pool policies to identify different classes of files, and stores
these file pools in logical storage tiers. For example, you can define a highperformance tier of Isilon S-series node pools and an archival tier of high-capacity
Isilon NL400 and HD400 node pools. Then, with custom file pool policies, you can
identify file pools based on matching criteria, and you can define actions to perform
on these pools. For example, one file pool policy can identify all JPEG files older than
a year and store them in an archival tier. Another policy can move all files that were
created or modified within the last three months to a performance tier.
Storage pool spillover
Enables automated capacity overflow management for storage pools. Spillover
defines how to handle write operations when a storage pool is not writable. If
spillover is enabled, data is redirected to a specified storage pool. If spillover is
disabled, new data writes fail and an error message is sent to the client that is
attempting the write operation.

Storage pool functions supported with IsilonSD Edge

IsilonSD Edge supports only the default file pool policy, requested protection, and virtual
hot spare storage pool functions.
Make note of the following considerations before using storage pools with IsilonSD Edge:
l

The drives on the IsilonSD nodes are always recognized by IsilonSD Edge as HDDs
irrespective of the storage pool that they are hosted on.

You cannot create heterogeneous nodes within the same IsilonSD cluster.

Autoprovisioning
When you add a node to an Isilon cluster, OneFS attempts to assign the node to a node
pool. This process is known as autoprovisioning, which helps OneFS to provide optimal
performance, load balancing, and file system integrity across a cluster.
A node is not autoprovisioned to a node pool and made writable until at least three
nodes of the same equivalence class are added to the cluster. If you add only two nodes
of an equivalence class, no data is stored on these nodes until a third node of the same
class is added.
Similarly, if a node goes down or is removed from the cluster so that fewer than three
equivalence-class nodes remain, the node pool becomes under-provisioned. In this case,
the two remaining nodes are still writable. However, if only one node of an equivalence
class remains, this node is not writable, but remains readable.
Over time, as you add new Isilon nodes to your cluster, the new nodes will likely be
different from the older nodes in certain ways. For example, the new nodes can be of a
different generation, or have different drive configurations. Unless you add three new
nodes of the same equivalence class each time you upgrade your cluster, the new nodes
will not be autoprovisioned.
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To work around those restrictions, OneFS enables you to create three types of
compatibilities: node class, SSD capacity, and SSD count. With the appropriate
compatibilities in place, new node types can be provisioned to existing node pools. You
can add nodes one at a time to your cluster, and the new nodes can become fully
functioning peers within existing node pools.
For example, suppose a cluster had a node pool made up of three S200 nodes, and you
purchase an S210 node. In addition to being a different node generation, the S210 node
could have a different number and capacity of SSDs. With the appropriate
compatibilities, the new S210 node can be provisioned to the S200 node pool.

Node pools
A node pool is a group of three or more Isilon nodes that forms a single pool of storage.
As you add nodes to your Isilon cluster, OneFS attempts to automatically provision the
new nodes into node pools.
To autoprovision a node, OneFS requires that the new node be of the same equivalence
class as the other nodes in the node pool. OneFS uses the following criteria to determine
if the new node is of the same equivalence class:
l

Family code

Chassis code

Generation code

Drive configuration

RAM capacity

If the new node matches all criteria, OneFS provisions the new node to the node pool. All
nodes in a node pool are peers, and data is distributed across nodes in the pool. Each
provisioned node increases the aggregate disk, cache, CPU, and network capacity of the
cluster.
We strongly recommend that you let OneFS handle node provisioning. However, if you
have a special requirement or use case, you can move nodes from an autoprovisioned
node pool into a node pool that you define manually. The capability to create manuallydefined node pools is available only through the OneFS command-line interface, and
should be deployed only after consulting with EMC Isilon customer support.
If you try to remove a node from a node pool for the purpose of adding it to a manual
node pool, and the result would leave fewer than three nodes in the original node pool,
the removal fails. When you remove a node from a manually-defined node pool, OneFS
attempts to autoprovision the node back into a node pool of the same equivalence class.
If you add fewer than three nodes of an equivalence class to your cluster, OneFS cannot
autoprovision these nodes. In these cases, you can often create one or more
compatibilities to enable OneFS to provision the newly added nodes to a compatible
node pool.
Types of compatibilities include node class, SSD capacity, and SSD count.

Node class compatibilities

To be autoprovisioned, a node must be of the same equivalence class as the other nodes
in the node pool. If a new node is not of the same equivalence class, you can enable the
node to be provisioned to an existing node pool often by defining a node class
compatibility.
If you have existing S200, X200, X400, or NL400 node pools, and you add fewer than
three Isilon S210, X210, X410, or NL410 nodes, you can create node class
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compatibilities to provision the new nodes and make them functional within the cluster.
Only S210, X210, X410, and NL410 nodes are currently eligible for node class
compatibility with older node generations.
To be provisioned, the new nodes should have the same drive configurations as their
older-generation counterparts and must have compatible RAM amounts, as shown in the
following table:
S200/S210
Compatibility
S200
RAM

S210
RAM

X200/X210
Compatibility
X200
RAM

24 GB

32 GB

6 GB

48 GB

64 GB

12 GB

96 GB

128 GB

24 GB

256 GB

48 GB

X210 RAM
Not
available

X400/X410
Compatibility
X400
RAM

NL400/NL410
Compatibility

X410
RAM

NL400
RAM

NL410
RAM

24 GB

32 GB

12 GB

Not
available

48 GB

64 GB

24 GB

24 GB

24 GB

96 GB

128 GB

48 GB

48 GB

48 GB

192 GB

256 GB

If the new nodes have different drive configurations by virtue of having SSDs of varying
capacities or counts, you need to create SSD capacity or SSD count compatibilities, in
addition to node class compatibilities.
Note

After you have added three or more newer-generation nodes of a particular equivalence
class to your cluster, you might want to remove the node class compatibilities that you
have created. This step enables OneFS to autoprovision new S210, X210, X410, or NL410
nodes to their own node pools and take advantage of the higher performance
specifications of the new node types. However, because larger node pools store data
more efficiently, removing compatibilities can also reduce the amount of available
storage on your cluster. If you are unsure whether to remove compatibilities, we
recommend that you first consult with your EMC Isilon representative.

SSD compatibilities
For autoprovisioning to work, OneFS requires that all nodes in a node pool have the same
HDD and SSD layouts. OneFS cannot autoprovision new nodes if they have different SSD
capacities or SSD counts from the nodes in the existing node pool. To enable new nodes
with different SSD capacities or counts to join a compatible node pool, you can create
SSD compatibilities.
For example, if your cluster already has an S200 node pool, and you add a new S200
node, OneFS would attempt to autoprovision the new node to the S200 node pool.
However, if the new S200 node has higher-capacity SSDs, or a different number of SSDs,
than the older S200 nodes, OneFS cannot autoprovision the new node. To enable the
new node to be autoprovisioned, you can create SSD compatibilities for the S200 node
type.
As with node class compatibilities, SSD compatibilities require the nodes to be
compatible, as shown in the following table:
Existing node pool
S200

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SSD compatibilities that can be created

S200

S210*

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Existing node pool

SSD compatibilities that can be created

X200

X200

X210*

X400

X400

X410*

NL400

NL400

NL410*

S210

S210

S200*

X210

X210

X200*

X410

X410

X400*

NL410

NL410

NL400*

* Also requires a node class compatibility with the existing node pool class.

Note

For SSD compatibilities to be created, all nodes must have L3 cache enabled. If you
attempt to create a node class compatibility and appropriate SSD compatibilities, and
the process fails with an error message, make sure that the existing node pool has L3
cache enabled. Then try again to create the compatibility. L3 cache can only be enabled
on nodes that have fewer than 16 SSDs.

Manual node pools

If the node pools automatically provisioned by OneFS do not meet your needs, you can
configure node pools manually. You do this by moving nodes from an existing node pool
into the manual node pool.
This capability enables you to store data on specific nodes according to your purposes,
and is available only through the OneFS command-line interface.
CAUTION

It is recommended that you enable OneFS to provision nodes automatically. Manually

created node pools might not provide the same performance and efficiency as
automatically managed node pools, particularly if your changes result in fewer than 20
nodes in the manual node pool.

Virtual hot spare

Virtual hot spare (VHS) settings enable you to reserve disk space to rebuild the data in
the event that a drive fails.
You can specify both a number of virtual drives to reserve and a percentage of total
storage space. For example, if you specify two virtual drives and 15 percent, each node
pool reserves virtual drive space equivalent to two drives or 15 percent of their total
capacity (whichever is larger).
You can reserve space in node pools across the cluster for this purpose by specifying the
following options:
At least 14 virtual drives.
At least 020% of total storage.
OneFS calculates the larger number of the two factors to determine the space that is
allocated. When configuring VHS settings, be sure to consider the following information:

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If you deselect the option to Ignore reserved space when calculating available free
space (the default), free-space calculations include the space reserved for VHS.

If you deselect the option to Deny data writes to reserved disk space (the default),
OneFS can use VHS for normal data writes. We recommend that you leave this option
selected, or data repair can be compromised.

If Ignore reserved space when calculating available free space is enabled while Deny
data writes to reserved disk space is disabled, it is possible for the file system to
report utilization as more than 100 percent.

Note

VHS settings affect spillover. If the VHS option Deny data writes to reserved disk space is
enabled while Ignore reserved space when calculating available free space is disabled,
spillover occurs before the file system reports 100% utilization.

Spillover
When you activate a SmartPools license, you can designate a node pool or tier to receive
spillover data when the hardware specified by a file pool policy is full or otherwise not
writable.
If you do not want data to spill over to a different location because the specified node
pool or tier is full or not writable, you can disable this feature.
Note

Virtual hot spare reservations affect spillover. If the setting Deny data writes to reserved
disk space is enabled, while Ignore reserved space when calculating available free space
is disabled, spillover occurs before the file system reports 100% utilization.

Suggested protection
Based on the configuration of your Isilon cluster, OneFS automatically calculates the
amount of protection that is recommended to maintain EMC Isilon's stringent data
protection requirements.
OneFS includes a function to calculate the suggested protection for data to maintain a
theoretical mean-time to data loss (MTTDL) of 5000 years. Suggested protection provides
the optimal balance between data protection and storage efficiency on your cluster.
By configuring file pool policies, you can specify one of multiple requested protection
settings for a single file, for subsets of files called file pools, or for all files on the cluster.
It is recommended that you do not specify a setting below suggested protection. OneFS
periodically checks the protection level on the cluster, and alerts you if data falls below
the recommended protection.

Protection policies
OneFS provides a number of protection policies to choose from when protecting a file or
specifying a file pool policy.
The more nodes you have in your cluster, up to 20 nodes, the more efficiently OneFS can
store and protect data, and the higher levels of requested protection the operating
system can achieve. Depending on the configuration of your cluster and how much data
is stored, OneFS might not be able to achieve the level of protection that you request. For
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example, if you have a three-node cluster that is approaching capacity, and you request
+2n protection, OneFS might not be able to deliver the requested protection.
The following table describes the available protection policies in OneFS.
Protection policy

Summary

+1n

Tolerate the failure of 1 drive or the failure of 1 node

+2d:1n

Tolerate the failure of 2 drives or the failure of 1 node

+2n

Tolerate the failure of 2 drives or the failure of 2 nodes

+3d:1n

Tolerate the failure of 3 drives or the failure of 1 node

+3d:1n1d

Tolerate the failure of 3 drives or the failure of 1 node and 1 drive

+3n

Tolerate the failure of 3 drives or the failure of 3 nodes

+4d:1n

Tolerate the failure of 4 drives or the failure of 1 node

+4d:2n

Tolerate the failure of 4 drives or the failure of 2 nodes

+4n

Tolerate the failure of 4 drives or the failure of 4 nodes

Mirrors:
2x

Duplicates, or mirrors, data over the specified number of nodes. For

example, 2x results in two copies of each data block.

3x

Note

4x

Mirrors can use more data than the other protection policies, but
might be an effective way to protect files that are written nonsequentially or to provide faster access to important files.

5x
6x
7x
8x

SSD strategies
OneFS clusters can contain nodes that include solid-state drives (SSD). OneFS
autoprovisions equivalence-class nodes with SSDs into one or more node pools. The SSD
strategy defined in the default file pool policy determines how SSDs are used within the
cluster, and can be set to increase performance across a wide range of workflows.
You can configure file pool policies to apply specific SSD strategies as needed. When you
select SSD options during the creation of a file pool policy, you can identify the files in
the OneFS cluster that require faster or slower performance. When the SmartPools job
runs, OneFS uses file pool policies to move this data to the appropriate storage pool and
drive type.
The following SSD strategy options that you can set in a file pool policy are listed in order
of slowest to fastest choices:
Avoid SSDs
Writes all associated file data and metadata to HDDs only.
CAUTION

Use this option to free SSD space only after consulting with Isilon Technical Support
personnel. Using this strategy can negatively affect performance.

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Metadata read acceleration

Writes both file data and metadata to HDDs. This is the default setting. An extra
mirror of the file metadata is written to SSDs, if available. The SSD mirror is in
addition to the number of mirrors, if any, required to satisfy the requested
protection.
Metadata read/write acceleration
Writes file data to HDDs and metadata to SSDs, when available. This strategy
accelerates metadata writes in addition to reads but requires about four to five times
more SSD storage than the Metadata read acceleration setting. Enabling GNA does
not affect read/write acceleration.
Data on SSDs
Uses SSD node pools for both data and metadata, regardless of whether global
namespace acceleration is enabled. This SSD strategy does not result in the creation
of additional mirrors beyond the normal requested protection but requires
significantly increased storage requirements compared with the other SSD strategy
options.

Global namespace acceleration

Global namespace acceleration (GNA) enables data on node pools without SSDs to have
additional metadata mirrors on SSDs elsewhere in the cluster. Metadata mirrors on SSDs
can improve file system performance by accelerating metadata read operations.
You can enable GNA only if 20 percent or more of the nodes in the cluster contain at least
one SSD and 1.5 percent or more of total cluster storage is SSD-based. For best results,
before enabling GNA, make sure that at least 2.0 percent of total cluster storage is SSDbased.
Even when enabled, GNA becomes inactive if the ratio of SSDs to HDDs falls below the
1.5 percent threshold, or if the percentage of nodes containing at least one SSD falls
below 20 percent. GNA is reactivated when those requirements are met again. While GNA
is inactive in such cases, existing SSD mirrors are readable, but newly written metadata
does not get the extra SSD mirror.
Note

Node pools with L3 cache enabled are effectively invisible for GNA purposes. All ratio
calculations for GNA are done exclusively for node pools without L3 cache enabled. So,
for example, if you have six node pools on your cluster, and three of them have L3 cache
enabled, GNA is applied only to the three remaining node pools without L3 cache
enabled. On node pools with L3 cache enabled, metadata does not need an additional
GNA mirror, because metadata access is already accelerated by L3 cache.

L3 cache overview
You can configure nodes with solid-state drives (SSDs) to increase cache memory and
speed up file system performance across larger working file sets.
OneFS caches file data and metadata at multiple levels. The following table describes the
types of file system cache available on an Isilon cluster.

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Name

Type

Profile

Scope

Description

L1 cache

RAM

Volatile

Local
node

Also known as front-end cache, holds copies

of file system metadata and data requested by
the front-end network through NFS, SMB,
HTTP, and so on.

L2 cache

RAM

Volatile

Global

Also known as back-end cache, holds copies

of file system metadata and data on the node
that owns the data.

SmartCache

Variable

Nonvolatile

Local
node

Holds any pending changes to front-end files

waiting to be written to storage. This type of
cache protects write-back data through a
combination of RAM and stable storage.

L3 cache

SSD

Nonvolatile

Global

Holds file data and metadata released from L2

cache, effectively increasing L2 cache
capacity.

OneFS caches frequently accessed file and metadata in available random access memory
(RAM). Caching enables OneFS to optimize data protection and file system performance.
When RAM cache reaches capacity, OneFS normally discards the oldest cached data and
processes new data requests by accessing the storage drives. This cycle is repeated each
time RAM cache fills up.
You can deploy SSDs as L3 cache to reduce the cache cycling issue and further improve
file system performance. L3 cache adds significantly to the available cache memory and
provides faster access to data than hard disk drives (HDD).
As L2 cache reaches capacity, OneFS evaluates data to be released and, depending on
your workflow, moves the data to L3 cache. In this way, much more of the most frequently
accessed data is held in cache, and overall file system performance is improved.
For example, consider a cluster with 128GB of RAM. Typically the amount of RAM
available for cache fluctuates, depending on other active processes. If 50 percent of RAM
is available for cache, the cache size would be approximately 64GB. If this same cluster
had three nodes, each with two 200GB SSDs, the amount of L3 cache would be 1.2TB,
approximately 18 times the amount of available L2 cache.
L3 cache is enabled by default for new node pools. A node pool is a collection of nodes
that are all of the same equivalence class, or for which compatibilities have been created.
L3 cache applies only to the nodes where the SSDs reside. For the HD400 node, which is
primarily for archival purposes, L3 cache is on by default and cannot be turned off. On the
HD400, L3 cache is used only for metadata.
If you enable L3 cache on a node pool, OneFS manages all cache levels to provide
optimal data protection, availability, and performance. In addition, in case of a power
failure, the data on L3 cache is retained and still available after power is restored.
Note

Although some benefit from L3 cache is found in workflows with streaming and
concurrent file access, L3 cache provides the most benefit in workflows that involve
random file access.

Migration to L3 cache
L3 cache is enabled by default on new nodes. If you are upgrading your cluster from an
older release (pre-OneFS 7.1.1), you must enable L3 cache manually on node pools that
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have SSDs. When you enable L3 cache, OneFS activates a process that migrates SSDs
from storage disks to cache. File data currently on SSDs is moved elsewhere in the
cluster.
You can enable L3 cache as the default for all new node pools or manually for a specific
node pool, either through the command line or from the web administration interface.
You can enable L3 cache only on node pools whose nodes have SSDs.
Depending on the amount of data stored in your SSDs, the migration process can take
some time. OneFS displays a message informing you that the migration is about to begin:
WARNING: Changes to L3 cache configuration can have a long completion
time. If this is a concern, please contact EMC Isilon Support for
more information.

You must confirm whether OneFS should proceed with the migration. After you do, OneFS
handles the migration intelligently as a background process. You can continue to
administer your cluster during the migration.
If you choose to disable L3 cache on a node pool, the migration process is very fast.

L3 cache on NL-series and HD-series node pools

The HD-series and NL-series nodes are high-capacity units designed primarily for archival
workflows. Archival workflows feature a higher percentage of data writes compared to
data reads, and L3 cache with SSDs can improve significantly the speed of file system
traversal activities such as directory lookup.
L3 cache is turned on by default on HD-series and NL-series node pools.
For NL-series nodes with hard-disk drives (HDD) smaller than 4 TB in capacity, L3 cache
stores both data and metadata in SSDs by default. You can turn off L3 cache on NL-series
nodes with 4 TB or smaller HDDs. However, we recommend that you leave L3 cache
enabled, as NL-series nodes typically do not have large numbers of SSDs. From a
performance perspective, the benefits of L3 cache outweigh the benefits of using SSDs as
storage drives on these nodes.
For NL-series nodes with HDDs greater than 4 TB in capacity, and for all HD-series nodes,
L3 cache stores metadata only in SSDs and cannot be disabled. L3 cache with metadata
only stored in SSDs provides the best performance for archiving data on these highcapacity nodes.

Tiers
A tier is a user-defined collection of node pools that you can specify as a storage pool for
files. A node pool can belong to only one tier.
You can create tiers to assign your data to any of the node pools in the tier. For example,
you can assign a collection of node pools to a tier specifically created to store data that
requires high availability and fast access. In a three-tier system, this classification may
be Tier 1. You can classify data that is used less frequently or that is accessed by fewer
users as Tier-2 data. Tier 3 usually comprises data that is seldom used and can be
archived for historical or regulatory purposes.

File pool policies

File pool policies define sets of filesfile poolsand where and how they are stored on
your cluster. You can configure multiple file pool policies with filtering rules that identify

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specific file pools and the requested protection and I/O optimization settings for these
file pools. Creating custom file pool policies requires an active SmartPools license.
The initial installation of OneFS places all files into a single file pool, which is subject to
the default file pool policy. Without an active SmartPools license, you can configure only
the default file pool policy, which controls all files and stores them anywhere on the
cluster.
With an active SmartPools license, OneFS augments basic storage functions by enabling
you to create custom file pool policies that identify, protect, and control multiple file
pools. With a custom file pool policy, for example, you can define and store a file pool on
a specific node pool or tier for fast access or archival purposes.
When you create a file pool policy, flexible filtering criteria enable you to specify timebased attributes for the dates that files were last accessed, modified, or created. You can
also define relative time attributes, such as 30 days before the current date. Other
filtering criteria include file type, name, size, and custom attributes. The following
examples demonstrate a few ways you can configure file pool policies:
l

A file pool policy to set stronger protection on a specific set of important files.

A file pool policy to store frequently accessed files in a node pool that provides the
fastest reads or read/writes.

A file pool policy to evaluate the last time files were accessed, so that older files are
stored in a node pool best suited for regulatory archival purposes.

When the SmartPools job runs, typically once a day, it processes file pool policies in
priority order. You can edit, reorder, or remove custom file pool policies at any time. The
default file pool policy, however, is always last in priority order. Although you can edit the
default file pool policy, you cannot reorder or remove it. When custom file pool policies
are in place, the settings in the default file pool policy apply only to files that are not
covered by another file pool policy.
When a new file is created, OneFS chooses a storage pool based on the default file pool
policy, or, if it exists, a higher-priority custom file pool policy that matches the file. If a
new file was originally matched by the default file pool policy, and you later create a
custom file pool policy that matches the file, the file will be controlled by the new custom
policy. As a result, the file could be placed in a different storage pool the next time the
SmartPools job runs.

Managing node pools in the web administration interface

You can manage node pools through the OneFS web administration interface. You must
have the SmartPools or higher administrative privilege.

Add node pools to a tier

You can group available node pools into tiers.
A node pool can only be added to one tier at a time. If no node pools are listed as
available, they already belong to other tiers.
Procedure
1. Click File System > Storage Pools > SmartPools.
The SmartPools page displays two groups: Tiers & Node Pools and Compatibilities
2. In the Tiers & Node Pools area, click View/Edit next to the tier.
3. In the View Tier Details page, click Edit Tier.
The Edit Tier Details page is displayed.
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4. In the Available Node Pools list, select a node pool and click Add.
The node pool moves to the Selected Node Pools for this Tier list.
5. Repeat step 4 for each node pool you intend to add. When all node pools have been
added, click Save Changes.
A message informs you that the operation was successful. The View Tier Details page
remains open.
6. Click Close.
The Tiers & Node Pools group now shows that the node pools are part of the tier.

Change the name or requested protection of a node pool

You can change the name or the requested protection of a node pool.
Procedure
1. Click File System > Storage Pools > SmartPools.
2. In the Tiers & Node Pools group, in the row of the node pool that you want to modify,
click View/Edit.
The View Node Pools Details page appears.
3. Click Edit.
The Edit Node Pools Details page appears.
4. Enter a new name for the node pool, or specify a new requested protection level from
the list, or do both.
A node pool name can start only with a letter or underscore character, and otherwise
can contain only letters, numbers, hyphens, underscores, or periods.
5. Click Save Changes in the Edit Node Pools Details page.
6. Click Close in the View Node Pools Details page.

Create a node class compatibility

OneFS automatically adds a new node of the same equivalence class to an existing node
pool. For new nodes that are not equivalence-class, you can create a node class
compatibility to add these nodes to an existing node pool.
The following compatibilities are currently supported: S200/S210, X200/X210, X400/
X410, and NL400/NL410. For example, if you have a node pool made up of three or more
S200 nodes, you can create a compatibility so that new S210 nodes are automatically
added to the S200 node pool.
Note

New nodes must have compatible RAM and the same drive configurations as their older
counterparts to be provisioned into existing node pools. If drive configurations are not
the same because of SSD capacity or SSD count differences, you can create SSD
compatibilities, as well.
Procedure
1. Select File System > Storage Pools > SmartPools.
The SmartPools tab displays two lists: Tiers & Node Pools and Compatibilities.
2. Click Create a compatibility.
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The Create a Compatibility dialog box displays a drop-down list of compatibility types.
3. From the Compatibility Type list, select Node Class.
Two additional drop-down lists are added, First Node Class and Second Node Class.
4. In the First Node Class list, accept the current selection, or make a new selection.
5. In the Second Node Class list, accept the current selection, or make a new selection.
6. Click Create Compatibility.
A Confirm Create Compatibility dialog box appears, with one or more check boxes
that you must select before proceeding. The check boxes describe the results of the
operation.
7. Select all check boxes, and then click Confirm.
Results
The node class compatibility is created, and is also described in the Compatibilities list.
For example, a message such as "The S200 Node Class is now considered compatible
with the S210 Node Class" is displayed. The result of the new compatibility appears in
the Tiers & Node Pools list. If the new nodes are node-class compatible, but remain
unprovisioned, you still need to create an SSD compatibility for the new nodes. If L3
cache is disabled on the targeted node pool, the new nodes remain unprovisioned, and
an error message is generated.

Merge compatible node pools

You can create a node class compatibility to merge multiple compatible node pools.
Larger node pools, up to 20 nodes, enable OneFS to protect data more efficiently,
therefore providing more storage space for new data.
For example, if you have six S200 nodes in one node pool and three S210 nodes in a
second node pool, you can create a compatibility to merge the two node pools into one
nine-node pool.
Note

Newer node types typically have better performance specifications than older node types,
so merging them with older node types can reduce overall performance. Also, when two
node pools are merged, OneFS restripes the data, which can take considerable time,
depending on the size of your data set.
Procedure
1. Click File System > Storage Pools > SmartPools.
The SmartPools tab displays two lists: Tiers & Node Pools and Compatibilities.
2. Click Create a compatibility.
The Create a Compatibility dialog box displays a drop-down list of compatibility types.
3. From the Compatibility Type list, select Node Class.
Two additional drop-down lists are added, First Node Class and Second Node Class.
4. In the First Node Class list, accept the current selection, or make a new selection.
5. In the Second Node Class list, accept the current selection, or make a new selection.
6. Click Create Compatibility.
A Confirm Create Compatibility dialog box appears, with one or more check boxes
that you must select before proceeding. The check boxes describe the results of the
operation.
Merge compatible node pools

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7. Select all check boxes, and then click Confirm.

Results
The node class compatibility is created, and is also described in the Compatibilities list.
For example, a message such as "The S200 Node Class is now considered compatible
with the S210 Node Class" is displayed. The result of the new compatibility appears in
the Tiers & Node Pools list. If compatibility creation succeeds, but the node pools are not
merged, you probably need to create an SSD compatibility between the two node pools. If
compatibility creation fails with an error message, L3 cache is disabled on one or both of
the node pools.

Delete a node class compatibility

You can delete a node class compatibility. As a result, any nodes that were provisioned to
a node pool because of this compatibility are removed from the node pool.
CAUTION

Deleting a node class compatibility could result in unintended consequences. For

example, if you delete a compatibility, and fewer than three compatible nodes are
removed from the node pool, those nodes will be removed from your cluster's available
pool of storage. The next time the SmartPools job runs, data on those nodes would be
restriped elsewhere on the cluster, which could be a time-consuming process. If three or
more compatible nodes are removed from the node pool, these nodes will form their own
node pool, and data will be restriped. Any file pool policy pointing to the original node
pool will now point to the node pool's tier, if one existed, or, otherwise, to a new tier
created by OneFS.
Procedure
1. Click File System > Storage Pools > SmartPools.
The SmartPools tab displays two lists: Tiers & Node Pools and Compatibilities.
2. In the Compatibilities list, next to the compatibility that you want to delete, click
Delete.
The Confirm Delete Compatibility dialog box appears with one or more check boxes
that you must select before proceeding.
3. Select all check boxes in the dialog box, and click Confirm.
Results
The compatibility is deleted, and the new state of the affected nodes appears in the Tiers
& Node Pools list.

Create an SSD compatibility

You can create SSD compatibilities both for capacity and count to enable new nodes to
be provisioned to node pools with different SSD specifications. SSD compatibilities can
be created for the following node types: S200, S210, X200, X210, X400, X410, NL400,
and NL410.
For example, if you have a node pool made up of three S200 nodes with 100GB SSDs,
and you install an S200 node with an equal number of 200GB SSDs, the new S200 node
is not autoprovisioned to the S200 node pool until you create an SSD compatibility. If the
nodes of the S200 node pool each have six SSDs, and the new S200 node has eight
SSDs, you must also create an SSD count compatibility to enable the new S200 node to
be provisioned to the S200 node pool.
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Similarly, if you have different generation nodes that are class-compatible, such as S200
and S210 nodes, you can create SSD compatibilities between those node types.
Procedure
1. Select File System > Storage Pools > SmartPools.
The SmartPools tab displays two lists: Tiers & Node Pools and Compatibilities.
2. Click Create a compatibility.
The Create a Compatibility dialog box displays a drop-down list of compatibility types.
3. From the Compatibility Type list, select SSD.
An additional drop-down list, Node Class, is added.
4. In the Node Class list, accept the current selection, or make a new selection, as
appropriate.
5. If appropriate, also select the SSD Count Compatibility check box.
6. Click Create Compatibility.
A Confirm Create Compatibility dialog box appears, with one or more check boxes
that you must select before proceeding. The check boxes describe the results of the
operation.
7. Select all check boxes, and then click Confirm.
Results
The SSD compatibility is created and is also described in the Compatibilities list. For
example, a message such as "S200 and S210 nodes are SSD compatible" is displayed.
The result of the SSD compatibility appears in the Tiers & Node Pools list, as well. If L3
cache is turned off on any node pools that would be affected by the SSD compatibility,
the SSD compatibility is not created, and an error message is generated. To correct the
situation, turn on L3 cache for those node pools.

Delete an SSD compatibility

You can delete an SSD compatibility. If you do this, any nodes that are part of a node pool
because of this compatibility are removed from the node pool.
CAUTION

Deleting an SSD compatibility could result in unintended consequences. For example, if

you delete an SSD compatibility, and fewer than three compatible nodes are removed
from a node pool as a result, these nodes are removed from your cluster's available pool
of storage. The next time the SmartPools job runs, data on those nodes is restriped
elsewhere on the cluster, which could be a time-consuming process. If three or more
compatible nodes are removed from the node pool, these nodes form their own node
pool, but data is restriped. Any file pool policy pointing to the original node pool points
instead to the node pool's tier, if one existed, or, otherwise, to a new tier created by
OneFS.
Procedure
1. Click File System > Storage Pools > SmartPools.
The SmartPools tab displays two lists: Tiers & Node Pools and Compatibilities.
2. In the Compatibilities list, next to the SSD compatibility that you want to delete, click
Delete.
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The Confirm Delete Compatibility dialog box appears with one or more check boxes
that you must select before proceeding. The check boxes describe the result of the
operation.
3. Select all check boxes in the dialog box, and click Confirm.
Results
The SSD compatibility is deleted, and the new state of the affected nodes appears in the
Tiers & Node Pools list. For example, a previously provisioned node is now
unprovisioned.

Managing L3 cache from the web administration interface

You can manage L3 cache globally or on specific node pools from the web administration
interface. You must have the SmartPools or higher administrative privilege. On HD400
nodes, L3 cache is turned on by default and cannot be turned off.

Set L3 cache as the default for node pools

You can set L3 cache as the default, so that when new node pools are created, L3 cache
is enabled automatically.
Before you begin
L3 cache is only effective on nodes that include SSDs. If none of your clusters have SSD
storage, there is no need to enable L3 cache as the default.
Procedure
1. Click File System > Storage Pools > SmartPools Settings.
The Edit SmartPools Settings page appears.
2. Under Local Storage Settings, click Use SSDs as L3 Cache by default for new node
pools.
3. Click Save Changes.
Results
As you add new nodes with SSDs to your cluster, and OneFS designates new node pools,
these node pools automatically have L3 cache enabled. New node pools without SSDs do
not have L3 cache enabled by default.

Set L3 cache on a specific node pool

You can turn on L3 cache for a specific node pool.
Procedure
1. Click File System > Storage Pools > SmartPools.
The SmartPools page, showing a list of tiers and node pools, appears.
2. In the Tiers & Node Pools list, click View/Edit next to the target node pool.
The View Node Pool Details dialog box appears, showing the current settings of the
node pool.
3. Click Edit.
The Edit Node Pool Details dialog box appears.
4. Click the Enable L3 cache check box.
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The check box is grayed out for node pools that do not have SSDs, or for which the
setting cannot be changed.
5. Click Save Changes.
The Confirm Change to L3 Cache Setting message box appears.
6. Click the Continue button.
The migration process to L3 cache begins and can take awhile, depending on the
number and size of the SSDs in the node pool. When the migration process is
complete, the View Node Pool Details dialog box appears.
7. Click Close.

Restore SSDs to storage drives for a node pool

You can disable L3 cache for SSDs on a node pool and restore those SSDs to storage
drives.
Note

On HD400 node pools, SSDs are only used for L3 cache, which is turned on by default
and cannot be turned off. All other node pools with SSDs for L3 cache can have their
SSDs migrated back to storage drives.
Procedure
1. Click File System > Storage Pools > SmartPools.
2. In the Tiers & Node Pools area of the SmartPools tab, select View/Edit next to the
target node pool.
The View Node Pool Details dialog box appears, showing the current settings of the
node pool.
3. Click Edit.
The Edit Node Pool Details dialog box appears.
4. Clear the Enable L3 cache check box.
The setting is grayed out for node pools without SSDs, or for which the setting cannot
be changed.
5. Click Save Changes.
The Confirm Change to L3 Cache Setting message box appears.
6. Click Continue.
The migration process to disable L3 cache begins and can take awhile, depending on
the number and size of the SSDs in the node pool. When the migration process is
complete, the View Node Pool Details dialog box appears.
7. Click Close.

Managing tiers
You can move node pools into tiers to optimize file and storage management. Managing
tiers requires the SmartPools or higher administrative privilege.

Restore SSDs to storage drives for a node pool

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Create a tier
You can group create a tier that contains one or more node pools. You can use the tier to
store specific categories of files.
Procedure
1. Click File System > Storage Pools > SmartPools.
The SmartPools tab appears with two sections: Tiers & Node Pools and
Compatibilities.
2. In the Tiers & Node Pools section, click Create a Tier.
3. In the Create a Tier page that appears, enter a name for the tier.
4. For each node pool that you want to add to the tier, select a node pool from the
Available Node Pools list, and click Add.
The node pool is moved into the Selected Node Pools for this Tier list.
5. Click Create Tier.
The Create a Tier page closes, and the new tier is added to the Tiers & Node Pools
area. The node pools that you added are shown below the tier name.

Edit a tier
You can modify the name and change the node pools that are assigned to a tier.
A tier name can contain alphanumeric characters and underscores but cannot begin with
a number.
Procedure
1. Click File System > Storage Pools > SmartPools.
The SmartPools tab displays two groups: Tiers & Node Pools and Compatibilities.
2. In the Tiers & Node Pools area, next to the tier you want to edit, click View/Edit.
3. In the View Tier Details dialog box, click Edit Tier.
4. In the Edit Tier Details dialog box, modify the following settings as needed:
Option

Description

Tier Name

To change the name of the tier, select and type over the
existing name.

Node Pool
Selection

To change the node pool selection, select a node pool, and

click either Add or Remove.

5. When you have finished editing tier settings, click Save Changes.
6. In the View Tier Details dialog box, click Close.

Delete a tier
You can delete a tier that has no assigned node pools.
Before you begin
If you want to delete a tier that does have assigned node pools, you must first remove the
node pools from the tier.
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Procedure
1. Click File System > Storage Pools > SmartPools.
The SmartPools tab displays two lists: Tiers & Node Pools and Compatibilities.
2. In the Tiers & Node Pools list, next to the tier that you want to delete, click More >
Delete Tier.
A message box asks you to confirm or cancel the operation.
3. Click Delete Tier to confirm the operation.
Results
The tier is removed from the Tiers & Node Pools list.

Creating file pool policies

You can configure file pool policies to identify logical groups of files called file pools, and
you can specify storage operations for these files.
Before you can create file pool policies, you must activate a SmartPools license, and you
must have the SmartPools or higher administrative privilege.
File pool policies have two parts: file-matching criteria that define a file pool, and the
actions to be applied to the file pool. You can define file pools based on characteristics,
such as file type, size, path, birth, change, and access timestamps, and combine these
criteria with Boolean operators (AND, OR).
In addition to file-matching criteria, you can identify a variety of actions to apply to the
file pool. These actions include:
l

Setting requested protection and data-access optimization parameters

Identifying data and snapshot storage targets

Defining data and snapshot SSD strategies

Enabling or disabling SmartCache

For example, to free up disk space on your performance tier (S-series node pools), you
could create a file pool policy to match all files greater than 25 MB in size, which have not
been accessed or modified for more than a month, and move them to your archive tier
(NL-series node pools).
You can configure and prioritize multiple file pool policies to optimize file storage for your
particular work flows and cluster configuration. When the SmartPools job runs, by default
once a day, it applies file pool policies in priority order. When a file pool matches the
criteria defined in a policy, the actions in that policy are applied, and lower-priority
custom policies are ignored for the file pool.
After the list of custom file pool policies is traversed, if any of the actions are not applied
to a file, the actions in the default file pool policy are applied. In this way, the default file
pool policy ensures that all actions apply to every file.
Note

You can reorder the file pool policy list at any time, but the default file pool policy is
always last in the list of file pool policies.
OneFS also provides customizable template policies that you can copy to make your own
policies. These templates, however, are only available from the OneFS web
administration interface.

Creating file pool policies

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Create a file pool policy

You can create a file pool policy to define a specific file set and specify SmartPools
actions to be applied to the matched files. These SmartPools actions include moving files
to certain tiers or node pools, changing the requested protection levels, and optimizing
write performance and data access.
CAUTION

If existing file pool policies direct data to a specific storage pool, do not configure other
file pool policies with anywhere for the Data storage target option. Because the
specified storage pool is included when you use anywhere, target specific storage
pools to avoid unexpected results.
Procedure
1. Click File System > Storage Pools > File Pool Policies.
2. Click Create a File Pool Policy.
3. In the Create a File Pool Policy dialog box, enter a policy name and, optionally, a
description.
4. Specify the files to be managed by the file pool policy.
To define the file pool, you can specify file matching criteria by combining IF, AND, and
OR conditions. You can define these conditions with a number of file attributes, such
as name, path, type, size, and timestamp information.
5. Specify SmartPools actions to be applied to the selected file pool.
You can specify storage and I/O optimization settings to be applied.
6. Click Create Policy.
Results
The file pool policy is created and applied when the next scheduled SmartPools system
job runs. By default, this job runs once a day, but you also have the option to start the job
immediately.

File-matching options for file pool policies

You can configure a file pool policy for files that match specific criteria.
The following file-matching options can be specified when you create or edit a file pool
policy.
Note

OneFS supports UNIX shell-style (glob) pattern matching for file name attributes and
paths.
The following table lists the file attributes that you can use to define a file pool policy.

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File attribute

Specifies

Name

Includes or excludes files based on the file name.

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File attribute

Specifies
You can specify whether to include or exclude full or partial
names that contain specific text. Wildcard characters are
allowed.

Path

Includes or excludes files based on the file path.

You can specify whether to include or exclude full or partial
paths that contain specified text. You can also include the
wildcard characters *, ?, and [ ].

File type

Size

Includes or excludes files based on one of the following filesystem object types:
l

File

Directory

Other

Includes or excludes files based on their size.

Note

File sizes are represented in multiples of 1024, not 1000.

Modified

Includes or excludes files based on when the file was last

modified.
In the web administration interface, you can specify a relative
date and time, such as "older than 2 weeks," or a specific
date and time, such as "before January 1, 2012." Time
settings are based on a 24-hour clock.

Created

Includes or excludes files based on when the file was created.

In the web administration interface, you can specify a relative
date and time, such as "older than 2 weeks," or a specific
date and time, such as "before January 1, 2012." Time
settings are based on a 24-hour clock.

Metadata changed

Includes or excludes files based on when the file metadata

was last modified. This option is available only if the global
access-time-tracking option of the cluster is enabled.
In the web administration interface, you can specify a relative
date and time, such as "older than 2 weeks," or a specific
date and time, such as "before January 1, 2012." Time
settings are based on a 24-hour clock.

Accessed

Includes or excludes files based on when the file was last

accessed based on the following units of time:
In the web administration interface, you can specify a relative
date and time, such as "older than 2 weeks," or a specific
date and time, such as "before January 1, 2012." Time
settings are based on a 24-hour clock.

File-matching options for file pool policies

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File attribute

Specifies
Note

Because it affects performance, access time tracking as a file

pool policy criterion is disabled by default.
File attribute

Includes or excludes files based on a custom user-defined

attribute.

Valid wildcard characters

You can combine wildcard characters with file-matching options to define a file pool
policy.
OneFS supports UNIX shell-style (glob) pattern matching for file name attributes and
paths.
The following table lists the valid wildcard characters that you can combine with filematching options to define a file pool policy.
Wildcard

Description

Matches any string in place of the asterisk.

For example, m* matches movies and m123.

[a-z]

Matches any characters contained in the brackets, or a range of

characters separated by a hyphen. For example, b[aei]t matches

bat, bet, and bit, and 1[4-7]2 matches 142, 152, 162, and
172.
You can exclude characters within brackets by following the first
bracket with an exclamation mark. For example, b[!ie] matches

bat but not bit or bet.

You can match a bracket within a bracket if it is either the first or last
character. For example, [[c]at matches cat and [at.
You can match a hyphen within a bracket if it is either the first or last
character. For example, car[-s] matches cars and car-.
?

Matches any character in place of the question mark. For example, t?p
matches tap, tip, and top.

SmartPools settings
SmartPools settings include directory protection, global namespace acceleration, L3
cache, virtual hot spare, spillover, requested protection management, and I/O
optimization management.
Settings in Web Admin

Settings in CLI

Description

Notes

Increase directory
protection to a higher
level than its contents

--protect-directories-onelevel-higher

Increases the amount of

protection for directories at a
higher level than the directories
and files that they contain, so that

This setting should be enabled

(the default).
When this setting is disabled, the
directory that contains a file pool

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Settings in Web Admin

Settings in CLI

Description

Notes

data that is not lost can still be

accessed.
When device failures result in data
loss (for example, three drives or
two nodes in a +2:1 policy),
enabling this setting ensures that
intact data is still accessible.

is protected according to your

protection-level settings, but the
devices used to store the directory
and the file may not be the same.
There is potential to lose nodes
with file data intact but not be able
to access the data because those
nodes contained the directory.
As an example, consider a cluster
that has a +2 default file pool
protection setting and no
additional file pool policies. OneFS
directories are always mirrored, so
they are stored at 3x, which is the
mirrored equivalent of the +2
default.
This configuration can sustain a
failure of two nodes before data
loss or inaccessibility. If this
setting is enabled, all directories
are protected at 4x. If the cluster
experiences three node failures,
although individual files may be
inaccessible, the directory tree is
available and provides access to
files that are still accessible.
In addition, if another file pool
policy protects some files at a
higher level, these too are
accessible in the event of a threenode failure.

--global-namespaceEnable global
namespace acceleration acceleration-enabled

Specifies whether to allow per-file

metadata to use SSDs in the node
pool.
l

This setting is available only if 20

percent or more of the nodes in the
cluster contain SSDs and at least
1.5 percent of the total cluster
storage is SSD-based.
This setting is not applicable for
IsilonSD Edge.

When disabled, restricts perfile metadata to the storage

pool policy of the file, except
in the case of spillover. This is
If nodes are added to or removed
the default setting.
from a cluster, and the SSD
When enabled, allows per-file
thresholds are no longer satisfied,
metadata to use the SSDs in
GNA becomes inactive. GNA
any node pool.
remains enabled, so that when the
SSD thresholds are met again,
GNA is reactivated.

SmartPools settings

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Settings in Web Admin

Settings in CLI

Description

Notes
Note

Node pools with L3 cache enabled

are effectively invisible for GNA
purposes. All ratio calculations for
GNA are done exclusively for node
pools without L3 cache enabled.

Use SSDs as L3 Cache

by default for new node
pools

--ssd-l3-cache-defaultenabled

For node pools that include solidstate drives, deploy the SSDs as
L3 cache. L3 cache extends L2
cache and speeds up file system
performance across larger working
file sets.

L3 cache is enabled by default on

new node pools. When you enable
L3 cache on an existing node pool,
OneFS performs a migration,
moving any existing data on the
SSDs to other locations on the
cluster.
This setting is not applicable for
IsilonSD Edge.
OneFS manages all cache levels to
provide optimal data protection,
availability, and performance. In
case of a power failure, the data
on L3 cache is retained and still
available after power is restored.

Virtual Hot Spare

--virtual-hot-spare-denywrites
--virtual-hot-spare-hidespare

Reserves a minimum amount of

space in the node pool that can be
used for data repair in the event of
a drive failure.

--virtual-hot-spare-limitdrives

To reserve disk space for use as a

virtual hot spare, select from the
following options:

--virtual-hot-spare-limitpercent

If this setting is enabled and Deny

Ignore reserved disk space
new data writes is disabled, it is
when calculating available
possible for the file system
free space. Subtracts the
space reserved for the virtual
hot spare when calculating
available free space.

Deny data writes to

reserved disk space.
Prevents write operations
from using reserved disk
space.

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If you configure both the minimum

number of virtual drives and a
minimum percentage of total disk
space when you configure
reserved VHS space, the enforced
minimum value satisfies both
requirements.

VHS Space Reserved. You

can reserve a minimum
number of virtual drives (1-4),
as well as a minimum
percentage of total disk space
(0-20%).

utilization to be reported at more

than 100%.

Storage Pools

Settings in Web Admin

Settings in CLI

Description

Enable global spillover

--no-spillover

Specifies how to handle write

operations to a node pool that is
not writable.

Notes
l

When enabled, redirects write

operations from a node pool
that is not writable either to
another node pool or
anywhere on the cluster (the
default).

When disabled, returns a disk

space error for write
operations to a node pool that
is not writable.

Spillover Data Target

--spillover-target
--spillover-anywhere

Specifies another storage pool to

target when a storage pool is not
writable.

When spillover is enabled, but it is

important that data writes do not
fail, select anywhere for the
Spillover Data Target setting,
even if file pool policies send data
to specific pools.

Manage protection
settings

--automatically-manageprotection

When this setting is enabled,

SmartPools manages requested
protection levels automatically.

When Apply to files with

Manage I/O
optimization settings

--automatically-manage-iooptimization

When enabled, uses SmartPools

technology to manage I/O
optimization.

manually-managed protection
is enabled, overwrites any
protection settings that were
configured through File System
Explorer or the command-line
interface.
When Apply to files with

manually-managed I/O
optimization settings is
enabled, overwrites any I/O
optimization settings that were
configured through File System
Explorer or the command-line
interface

Managing file pool policies

You can modify, reorder, copy, and remove custom file pool policies. Although you can
modify the default file pool policy, you cannot reorder or remove it.
To manage file pool policies, you can perform the following tasks:
l

Modify file pool policies

Modify the default file pool policy

Copy file pool policies

Use a file pool policy template

Reorder file pool policies

Delete file pool policies

Managing file pool policies

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Configure default file pool protection settings

You can configure default file pool protection settings. The default settings are applied to
any file that is not covered by another file pool policy.
CAUTION

If existing file pool policies direct data to a specific storage pool, do not add or modify a
file pool policy to the anywhere option for the Data storage target option. Target a
specific file pool instead.
Procedure
1. Click File System > Storage Pools > File Pool Policies.
2. In the File Pool Policies tab, next to Default Policy in the list, click View/Edit.
The View Default Policy Details dialog box is displayed.
3. Click Edit Policy.
The Edit Default Policy Details dialog box is displayed.
4. In the Apply SmartPools Actions to Selected Files section, choose the storage settings
that you want to apply as the default for Storage Target, Snapshot Storage Target,
and Requested Protection Level.
5. Click Save Changes, and then click Close.
Results
The next time the SmartPools job runs, the settings that you selected are applied to any
file that is not covered by another file pool policy.

Default file pool requested protection settings

Default protection settings include specifying the data storage target, snapshot storage
target, requested protection, and SSD strategy for files that are filtered by the default file
pool policy.
Settings (Web
Admin)

Settings (CLI)

Description

Storage Target

--data-storage-target
--data-ssd-strategy

Specifies the storage pool (node pool or tier) that you

Note
want to target with this file pool policy.
If GNA is not enabled and the
CAUTION
storage pool that you choose
to target does not contain
If existing file pool policies direct data to a specific
SSDs, you cannot define an
storage pool, do not configure other file pool
SSD strategy.
policies with anywhere for the Data storage

Notes

target option. Because the specified storage pool is Use SSDs for metadata
included when you use anywhere, target specific
read acceleration writes
storage pools to avoid unintentional file storage
locations.

Select one of the following options to define your

SSD strategy:

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both file data and metadata

to HDD storage pools but
adds an additional SSD
mirror if possible to
accelerate read performance.
Uses HDDs to provide
reliability and an extra

Storage Pools

Settings (Web
Admin)

Settings (CLI)

Description

Notes

Use SSDs for metadata read acceleration

Default. Write both file data and metadata to
HDDs and metadata to SSDs. Accelerates
metadata reads only. Uses less SSD space than
the Metadata read/write acceleration
setting.

Use SSDs for metadata read/write

acceleration
Write metadata to SSD pools. Uses significantly
more SSD space than Metadata read
acceleration, but accelerates metadata reads
and writes.

metadata mirror to SSDs, if

available, to improve read
performance. Recommended
for most uses.
When you select Use SSDs
for metadata read/write
acceleration , the strategy
uses SSDs, if available in the
storage target, for
performance and reliability.
The extra mirror can be from
a different storage pool
using GNA enabled or from
the same node pool.

Use SSDs for data & metadata

Neither the Use SSDs for

data & metadata strategy
Use SSDs for both data and metadata.
nor the Use SSDs for data
Regardless of whether global namespace
acceleration is enabled, any SSD blocks reside & metadata strategy result
on the storage target if there is room.
in the creation of additional
mirrors beyond the normal
requested protection. Both
Avoid SSDs
file data and metadata are
Write all associated file data and metadata to
stored on SSDs if available
HDDs only.
within the file pool policy.
This option requires a
CAUTION
significant amount of SSD
Use this to free SSD space only after consulting storage.
with Isilon Technical Support personnel; the
setting can negatively affect performance.

Snapshot storage
target

--snapshot-storagetarget
--snapshot-ssdstrategy

Specifies the storage pool that you want to target for

snapshot storage with this file pool policy. The
settings are the same as those for data storage
target, but apply to snapshot data.

Notes for data storage target

apply to snapshot storage
target

Requested
protection

--set-requestedprotection

Default of storage pool. Assign the default

To change the requested

protection , select a new
value from the list.

requested protection of the storage pool to the

filtered files.

Specific level. Assign a specified requested

protection to the filtered files.

Configure default I/O optimization settings

You can configure default I/O optimization settings.
Procedure
1. Click File System > Storage Pools > File Pool Policies.
2. In the File Pool Policies tab, next to Default Policy in the list, click View/Edit.
The View Default Policy Details dialog box is displayed.
Configure default I/O optimization settings

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3. Click Edit Policy.

The Edit Default Policy Details dialog box is displayed.
4. In the Apply SmartPools Actions to Selected Files section, under I/O Optimization
Settings,choose the settings that you want to apply as the default for Write
Performance and Data Access Pattern.
5. Click Save Changes, and then click Close.
Results
The next time the SmartPools job runs, the settings that you selected are applied to any
file that is not covered by another file pool policy.

Default file pool I/O optimization settings

You can manage the I/O optimization settings that are used in the default file pool policy,
which can include files with manually managed attributes.
To allow SmartPools to overwrite optimization settings that were configured using File
System Explorer or the isi set command, select the Including files with manuallymanaged I/O optimization settings option in the Default Protection Settings group. In
the CLI, use the --automatically-manage-io-optimization option with the
isi storagepool settings modify command.
Setting (Web
Admin)

Setting (CLI)

Description

Notes

Write Performance

--enable-coalescer

Enables or disables
SmartCache (also referred
to as the coalescer).

Enable SmartCache is the recommended setting for

optimal write performance. With asynchronous writes,
the Isilon server buffers writes in memory. However, if
you want to disable this buffering, we recommend that
you configure your applications to use synchronous
writes. If that is not possible, disable SmartCache.

Defines the optimization

settings for accessing
concurrent, streaming, or
random data types.

Files and directories use a concurrent access pattern by

default. To optimize performance, select the pattern
dictated by your workflow. For example, a workflow
heavy in video editing should be set to Optimize for
streaming access. That workflow would suffer if the
data access pattern was set to Optimize for random
access.

Data Access Pattern --data-accesspattern

Modify a file pool policy

You can modify a file pool policy.
CAUTION

If existing file pool policies direct data to a specific storage pool, do not configure other
file pool policies with anywhere for the Data storage target option. Because the
specified storage pool is included when you use anywhere, target specific storage
pools to avoid unintentional file storage locations.
Procedure
1. Click File System > Storage Pools > File Pool Policies.
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2. In the File Pool Policies list, next to the policy you want to modify, click View/Edit.
The View File Pool Policy Details dialog box is displayed.
3. Click Edit Policy.
The Edit File Pool Policy Details dialog box is displayed.
4. Modify the policy settings, and then click Save Changes.
5. Click Close in the View File Pool Policy Details dialog box.
Results
Changes to the file pool policy are applied when the next SmartPools job runs. You can
also start the SmartPools job manually to execute the policy immediately.

Prioritize a file pool policy

You can change the priority of custom file pool policies. File pool policies are evaluated in
descending order according to their position in the file pool policies list.
By default, new policies are inserted immediately above the default file pool policy,
which is always last in the list and therefore lowest in priority. You can give a custom
policy higher or lower priority by moving it up or down in the list.
Procedure
1. Click File System > Storage Pools > File Pool Policies.
The File Pool Policies tab displays two lists: File Pool Policies and Policy Templates.
2. In the File Pool Policies list, in the Order column, click an arrow icon next to a policy to
move it up or down in the priority order.
3. Repeat the above step for each policy whose priority you want to change.
Results
When the SmartPools system job runs, it processes the file pool policies in priority order.
The default file pool policy is applied to all files that are not matched by any other file
pool policy.

Create a file pool policy from a template

You can create a new file pool policy from a policy template. The templates are preconfigured for typical work flows, such as archiving older files or managing virtual
machines (.vmdk files).
Procedure
1. Click File System > Storage Pools > File Pool Policies.
The File Pool Policies tab provides two lists: File Pool Policies and Policy Templates.
2. In the Policy Templates list, next to the template name that you want to use, click
View/Use Template.
The View File Pool Policy Template Details dialog box opens.
3. Click Use Template.
The Create a File Pool Policy dialog box opens.
4. (Required) Specify a policy name and description, and modify any of the policy
settings.
5. Click Create Policy.
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Results
The new custom policy is added to the File Pool Policies list directly above the default
policy.

Delete a file pool policy

You can delete any file pool policy except the default policy.
When you delete a file pool policy, its file pool is controlled either by another file pool
policy or by the default policy the next time the SmartPools job runs.
Procedure
1. Click File System > Storage Pools > File Pool Policies.
The File Pool Policies tab displays two lists: File Pool Policies and Policy Templates.
2. In the File Pool Policies list, next to the policy that you want to delete, click More >
Delete Policy.
3. In the Confirm Delete dialog box, click Delete.
Results
The file pool policy is removed from the File Pool Policies list.

Monitoring storage pools

You can access information on storage pool health and usage.
The following information is available:
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File pool policy health

SmartPools health, including tiers, node pools, and subpools

For each storage pool, percentage of HDD and SSD disk space usage

SmartPools job status

Monitor storage pools

You can view the status of file pool policies, SmartPools, and settings.
Procedure
1. Click File System > Storage Pools > Summary.
The Summary tab displays two areas: the Status list and the Local Storage Usage
graph.
2. In the Status list, check the status of policies, SmartPools, and SmartPools settings.
3. (Optional) If the status of an item is other than Good, you can click View Details to
view and fix any issues.
4. In the Local Storage Usage area, view the statistics associated with each node pool.
If node pool usage is unbalanced, for example, you might want to consider whether to
modify your file pool policies.

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View subpools health

OneFS exposes unhealthy subpools in a list so that you can correct any issues.
A subpool is otherwise known as a disk pool, a collection of disks that is part of a node
pool.
Procedure
1. Click File System > Storage Pools > SmartPools.
The SmartPools tab displays three groupings: Tiers & Node Pools, Compatibilities,
and Subpools Health.
2. In the Subpools Health area, review details of, and mitigate, any unhealthy subpools.

View the results of a SmartPools job

You can review detailed results from the last time the SmartPools job ran.
Procedure
1. Click Cluster Management > Job Operations > Job Reports.
The Jobs Reports tab displays a list of job reports.
2. In the Job Reports list, in the Type column, find the latest SmartPools job, and click
View Details.
The View Job Report Details dialog box opens, displaying the job report.
3. Scroll through the report to see the results of each file pool policy.
4. Click Close in the View Job Report Details dialog box when you are finished.

View subpools health

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CHAPTER 23
CloudPools

This section contains the following topics:

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CloudPools overview........................................................................................... 436

Supported cloud providers.................................................................................. 436
CloudPools concepts...........................................................................................438
CloudPools file processing.................................................................................. 440
Archiving files with file pool policies....................................................................441
Retrieving file data from the cloud....................................................................... 447
CloudPools interoperability with other OneFS functions...................................... 448
CloudPools best practices................................................................................... 453
CloudPools troubleshooting................................................................................ 454
Managing cloud storage accounts....................................................................... 457
Managing CloudPools......................................................................................... 458
Managing cloud policies..................................................................................... 460

CloudPools

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CloudPools overview
CloudPools extends the capabilities of OneFS by enabling you to specify data to be
moved to lower-cost cloud storage. CloudPools can seamlessly connect to EMC-based
cloud storage systems and to popular third-party providers, Amazon S3 and Microsoft
Azure.
CloudPools is a licensed module built on the SmartPools file pool policy framework,
which gives you granular control of file storage on your cluster. CloudPools extends this
file storage control to one or more cloud repositories, which act as additional tiers of
OneFS storage.
Prior to the introduction of CloudPools, SmartPools enabled the grouping of nodes into
storage pools called node pools, and the classification of node pools as different storage
tiers. SmartPools includes a policy framework that allows you to segregate files into
logical groups called file pools, and to store those file pools in specific storage tiers.
CloudPools expands the SmartPools framework by treating a cloud repository as an
additional storage tier. This enables you to move older or seldom-used data to cloud
storage and free up space on your cluster.
As with SmartPools, you define files to be stored in the cloud by creating file pool
policies. These policies use file matching criteria to determine which file pools are to be
moved to the cloud.
File pool policies are applied when the SmartPools system job runs, by default on a daily
basis. For each policy, all matched files on the cluster are handled according to policy
specifications.
When files match a file pool policy that contains CloudPools actions, OneFS moves the
file data of matched files to the cloud. Only metadata and a proxy file remain on the
cluster, thus freeing up storage space.
Although file data is moved to remote storage, the files remain visible in the OneFS file
system. CloudPools accomplishes this by retaining a local SmartLink file, which is a
pointer to the location of data in the cloud. You can read, write, archive, and recall files
from the cloud as needed.
When a user accesses a cluster and views the OneFS file system through a supported
protocol (SMB, NFS, Swift, or HDFS), SmartLink files appear to be the original files. When
the user opens a SmartLink file, OneFS automatically retrieves and caches as much data
as needed from the cloud. This operation is called inline access. Any modifications the
user makes to a file during inline access are updated in the file data stored in the cloud.
In addition to inline access, CloudPools also provides a CLI command to enable full recall
of files from the cloud, in which case the SmartLink files are replaced by the actual files.

Accessing CloudPools with IsilonSD Edge

The CloudPools software module is available only with a purchased license of IsilonSD
Edge. It is not packaged with the free license of this product.

Supported cloud providers

With CloudPools, OneFS supports these cloud providers: EMC Isilon, EMC ECS Appliance,
Virtustream Storage Cloud, Amazon S3, and Microsoft Windows Azure.

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EMC Isilon
CloudPools enables an EMC Isilon cluster to function as a cloud storage provider.
In this scenario, a secondary EMC Isilon cluster provides a private cloud solution. The
secondary cluster archive files from your primary cluster, and is managed in your
corporate data center.
To act as a cloud storage provider, an EMC Isilon cluster uses a set of APIs that include
the capabilities to configure CloudPools policies, define cloud storage accounts, and
retrieve cloud storage usage reports. These APIs are known collectively as the Isilon
Platform API, and are described in the OneFS 8.0 API Reference.
The secondary cluster must be running the same version of OneFS as the primary cluster
and must have active SmartPools and CloudPools licenses.
To configure a secondary EMC Isilon cluster as the cloud storage repository, you need to
complete several tasks:
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On the secondary cluster, log on with system administrator privileges, and create a
new user.

On the secondary cluster, create a role with access to Console, Platform API, HTTP,
License, Namespace Traverse, and Namespace Access privileges, and make the new
user a member of this role.

On the secondary cluster, log on as the new user, and create the directory where
cloud data should be stored. For example: /ifs/data/HQ-Archive.

On the primary cluster, set up the EMC Isilon cloud storage account, specifying the
new user's credentials and the appropriate URI for the secondary cluster. Because the
secondary cluster is within your corporate network, the URI would look similar to the
following example:
https://10.1.210.310:8080/namespace/ifs/data/HQ-Archive

On the primary cluster, create a CloudPool that contains the EMC Isilon cloud storage
account.

EMC ECS Appliance

CloudPools supports EMC ECS (Elastic Cloud Service) appliance as a cloud provider.
ECS is a complete software-defined cloud storage platform deployed on a turn-key
appliance from EMC. It supports the storage, manipulation, and analysis of unstructured
data on a massive scale.
The ECS appliance is specifically designed to support mobile, cloud, big data, and nextgeneration applications. As an appliance, it is simple to install and deploy with support
for multi-tenancy, self-service access, usage metering, on-demand cloud storage-as-aservice and dynamic application provisioning.

Virtustream Storage Cloud

CloudPools supports Virtustream Storage Cloud as a cloud provider.
Virtustream Storage Cloud (VSC) is a managed cloud computing service from EMC that
offers benefits associated both with a dedicated private cloud and a public multi-tenant
cloud.
VSC enables enterprises to run complex, mission-critical applications with full cloud
agility, economy, and automation, and to achieve enterprise-class service-level
agreements for both application performance and availability. In addition, Virtustream
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provides a foundation for meeting national and industry-level security, compliance and
auditing requirements.
Virtustream Storage Cloud can be managed in your own data center, or provided as a
solution from a third party.

Amazon S3
CloudPools can be configured to store data on Amazon S3 (Simple Storage System), a
public cloud provider.
When you configure CloudPools to use Amazon S3 for cloud storage, in addition to URI,
username, and passkey, you must specify the following additional attributes.
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S3 Account ID

S3 Telemetry Reporting Bucket

S3 Storage Region

When you first establish an account with Amazon S3, the cloud provider gives you an
account ID and allows you to choose a storage region. Amazon S3 offers multiple storage
regions in the U.S. and other regions of the world.
Note

CloudPools supports Amazon Web Services Signature V2 to authenticate queries to its

cloud storage. CloudPools does not support Signature V4.
To work with CloudPools, you must also identify an S3 telemetry reporting bucket. This is
where billing reports are stored on Amazon S3. This bucket must be accessible to
CloudPools.
To set up an S3 telemetry reporting bucket, navigate to Billing & Cost Management
preferences in the S3 console. There you can indicate that you want to receive billing
reports, and specify the bucket to which these reports should be saved. Use this bucket
name as the telemetry reporting bucket when setting up an S3 cloud storage account in
CloudPools.

Microsoft Azure
You can configure CloudPools to store data on Microsoft Azure, a public cloud provider
When you first establish an account with Microsoft Azure, you create a user name, and
Microsoft provides you with a URI and a passkey. When you configure CloudPools to use
Azure, you must specify the same URI, username and passkey.

CloudPools concepts
CloudPools is a licensed module that enables you to move file data on your Isilon cluster
to the cloud, and to access or recall these files when needed. Taking advantage of
CloudPools requires you to configure cloud storage accounts and file pool policies that
specify cloud storage targets.
You can configure CloudPools to move files to the cloud automatically, based on file pool
policies. You can also use a OneFS command to archive individual files to, or recall files
from, the cloud.
CloudPools uses a similar workflow to OneFS SmartPools. To store files in the cloud, you
must have at least one account with a cloud storage provider. In addition, you must
configure OneFS for cloud storage, and create file pool policies that identify and move
files to the cloud.
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When the SmartPools job runs, typically once a day, file pool policies are executed, and
matched files are sent to the cloud storage target. To access file data stored in the cloud,
you can open its related SmartLink file through any supported protocol (SMB, NFS, Swift,
or HDFS). This is referred to as inline access. To fully recall a file from the cloud, you can
issue an isi cloud recall command from the OneFS command-line interface.
Following are descriptions of key CloudPools concepts:
Archive
The CloudPools process of moving file data to the cloud. This process involves
extracting the data from the file and placing it in one or more cloud objects.
CloudPools then moves these objects to cloud storage, and leaves in place on the
local cluster a representative file called a SmartLink.
Recall
The CloudPools process of reversing the archival process. When you recall a file from
the cloud, CloudPools replaces the SmartLink file by restoring the original file data
on OneFS and removing the cloud objects from cloud storage.
SmartLink file
For every file archived to the cloud, OneFS maintains an associated SmartLink file on
the cluster. A SmartLink file contains metadata and map information so the data in
the cloud can be accessed or fully recalled. If allowed by a SmartLink file's archiving
policy, accessing the SmartLink file on the cluster automatically retrieves and caches
data from the cloud. Like other files, SmartLink files can be backed up through
NDMP or synchronized to other clusters with SyncIQ. When SmartLink files are
retrieved from a backup or SyncIQ operation, CloudPools maintains their links to
related file data in the cloud.
File pool policies
File pool policies are the essential control mechanism for both SmartPools and
CloudPools. OneFS runs all file pool policies on a regular basis. Each file pool policy
specifies the files to be managed, actions to take on the files, protection levels, and
I/O optimization settings.
If CloudPools has been enabled, each file pool policy can also contain cloud-specific
parameters that specify the remote cloud account to archive files to, and how to
handle files prior to archiving them. Moreover, a policy can also specify SmartPools
targets that specify where to store the locally-retained SmartLink files related to the
stored cloud data.
Cloud provider accounts
Making use of cloud storage requires you to set up one or more accounts with a
cloud provider. The types of cloud storage that are currently supported are EMC
Isilon, EMC ECS Appliance, Virtustream Storage Cloud, Amazon S3, and Microsoft
Azure. The account information from the cloud provider must match the information
you use when configuring cloud accounts on your Isilon cluster.
Cloud storage accounts
A cloud storage account is a OneFS entity that defines access to a specific cloud
provider account. The cloud storage account settings must match the account
credentials provided by the cloud provider.
CloudPool
A CloudPool is a OneFS entity that contains a single cloud storage account and
provides a conduit between OneFS and the cloud storage repository. Creating a
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CloudPool requires the availability of at least one cloud storage account. The cloud
storage account must be of the same type as the CloudPool.
Inline access
CloudPools enables users connecting to a cluster through supported protocols to
access cloud data by opening associated SmartLink files. This process is referred to
as inline access. To the user connecting to OneFS through a supported protocol, a
SmartLink file appears to be the original file. When the user opens a SmartLink file,
CloudPools retrieves and caches cloud data locally. The user can view and edit the
file as usual. CloudPools automatically retrieves and sends any updated file data
back to the cloud so that the cloud contains the latest version.
Note

CloudPools offers inline access as a user convenience. However, CloudPools is

designed mainly as an archival solution, and is not intended for storing data that is
frequently updated. Such data should be left on the local cluster until it stabilizes
and is ready for archival.

CloudPools file processing

CloudPools archives file data to the cloud, and enables you to access or fully recall this
data whenever needed.
You can create file pool policies that identify the files to be archived to the cloud. When a
file pool policy that contains cloud actions is run, CloudPools moves file data to the cloud
and stores it in specialized cloud data objects, collectively referred to as cloud data. File
data can be encrypted and compressed before it is archived to the cloud.
In place of each file that is archived, CloudPools retains a local proxy called a SmartLink
file. SmartLink files include special metadata and maps to the actual file data in the
cloud.
When a user browses OneFS, typically through an SMB connection or NFS export,
SmartLink files appear in place as the files they link to. When a user opens a SmartLink
file, a process referred to as inline access, CloudPools retrieves file data from the cloud
and caches it locally.
The user can view the file, and CloudPools continues caching as much of the data as
needed by the application. If the user modifies and saves the file, the changes are also
held in cache. Periodically, CloudPools scans SmartLink files for pending data changes
and writes them to the appropriate objects in the cloud. In this way, the archived data is
kept up to date.
You can also recall archived files from the cloud. When you do, SmartLink files are fully
replaced by the recalled files.
Like any file in OneFS, SmartLink files are controlled either by the default file pool policy
or by parameters included in a custom file pool policy. If you configure additional file
pool policies, these policies have priority over the default file pool policy.
File pool policies contain instructions that determine how OneFS manages files across a
cluster and in the cloud.
Because SmartLink files produced by CloudPools are retained on the cluster, OneFS
applies file pool policies to these files, as well.
When file pool policies run, the system compares each file on the system with each file
pool policy. A file can match only some aspects of a custom file pool policy (for example,
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SSD strategy and snapshot configuration). In this case, those aspects of file handling are
governed by the custom file pool policy, and all other aspects are governed by the default
file pool policy.
Refer to the SmartPools chapter for complete information about file pool polices.

Archiving files with file pool policies

You can configure a file pool policy to identify the files you want to archive to the cloud
and the CloudPools actions to apply to these files.
Specifying a file pool policy, you can archive files using either the OneFS web
administration interface or the command-line interface. A file pool policy that archives
files to the cloud must specify the following information:
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Files to manage: These can be files of a certain type, files in a specified path, or files
that match specified criteria, such as size, creation date, or last modified date.

CloudPools actions: The cloud storage pool to send file data to, and whether the data
should be compressed or encrypted.

Sample policies with CloudPools actions

Each file pool policy identifies a set of files and the CloudPools actions to apply to the file
pool. You can identify files to be archived based on multiple criteria, including file type,
size, directory path, time of file creation, time of last file access, and time of last file
modification.
File-matching criteria in a file pool policy enable you to define a logical group of files
referred to as a file pool. After defining a file pool, you specify CloudPools actions to
perform on the files, including the cloud storage target, compression, and encryption.
For example, you might define file pool policies that specify files to be archived based on
criteria similar to the following:
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Files of <type>, last accessed before <date>

Files older than <date>, last accessed after <date>, and of <type>

Files in <directory> that are older than <date>

Files marked with <custom attribute>, that are older than <date>

You can specify file-matching criteria on a per-policy basis. Each file pool policy allows
you to combine multiple criteria using AND statements and OR statements, providing
significant flexibility and control for your workflow.

About file pool policy order

OneFS compares all files to file pool policies in order. The first custom policy that
matches a file controls how that file is handled. All other custom file pool policies in the
ordered list are ignored. For any of the attributes that the matching custom policy does
not specify, the value from the default policy is applied.
This makes the order of file pool policies important. If two or more file pool policies would
match the same file, you must ensure that the policy order delivers your preferred file
handling instructions.
After a file match with a file pool policy occurs, the system uses the settings in the
matching policy to store and protect the file. However, a matching policy might not
specify all settings for the match file. In this case, the default policy is used for those
settings not specified in the custom policy. For each file stored on the OneFS cluster, the
system needs to determine the following:
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Requested protection level

Data storage target for local data cache

SSD strategy for metadata and data

Protection level for local data cache

Configuration for snapshots

SmartCache setting

L3 cache setting

Data access pattern

CloudPools actions (if any)

If no custom policy matches a file, the default policy specifies all storage settings for the
file. The default policy, in effect, matches all files not matched by any other SmartPools
policy. For this reason, the default policy is the last in the file pool policy list, and always
the last policy the system applies.
Files that have been archived to the cloud are always governed by the original policy.

File pool policy cloud archive parameters

CloudPools provides a specific set of file pool parameters that support archiving files to
the cloud. The following table lists and describes these parameters.
Web admin parameter

CLI parameter

Description

Usage notes

CloudPool Storage Target

cloud-pool

An Isilon
administrative
container for a
cloud storage
account.

Each CloudPool can

contain only one
cloud storage
account with a cloud
provider. You must
create a cloud
storage account
before creating and
configuring a
CloudPool. A
CloudPool and its
contained cloud
storage account must
be of the same type:
EMC Isilon, EMC ECS
Appliance,
Virtustream Storage
Cloud, Amazon S3, or
Microsoft Azure.

Encrypt data before

transfer

cloud-encryption-enabled

Specifies
whether
CloudPools
encrypts data
prior to
archiving it

Specifies whether
data is encrypted
prior to archiving to
the cloud. Cloud data
is decrypted when
accessed or recalled.

The default
value is
disabled

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Web admin parameter

CLI parameter

Description

Usage notes

Compress data before

transfer

cloud-compressionenabled

Specifies
whether
CloudPools
compresses
data prior to
archiving it.

Specifies whether
data is compressed
prior to archiving to
the cloud. Cloud data
is decompressed
when accessed or
recalled.

The default
value is
disabled
Cloud Data Retention
Period

cloud-data-retention

The length of
time cloud files
are retained
after the files
have been fully
recalled.
The default
value is 1
week.

Specifies how long

cloud objects are
retained after a
SmartLink file has
been replaced by the
recalled file. When
this happens,
CloudPools cleans up
local resources
allocated for the
SmartLink files, and
also removes the
associated cloud
objects. This work is
performed weekly by
the cloud objects
garbage collector job.
Note

The system removes

(garbage-collects)
cloud objects when
their SmartLink files
and all local
references to them
have been removed.
If a SmartLink file has
been backed up and
the original
SmartLink file is
subsequently
deleted, associated
cloud objects are
deleted only after the
retention time of the
backed-up SmartLink
file has expired.
Incremental Backup
Retention Period for NDMP
Incremental Backup and
SyncIQ

cloud-incrementalbackup-retention

Specifies the
length of time
that OneFS
retains cloud

If a SmartLink file has

been backed up and
the original
SmartLink file is
subsequently

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Web admin parameter

CLI parameter

Description

Usage notes

data referenced
by a SmartLink
file that has
been replicated
by SyncIQ or an
incremental
NDMP backup.

deleted, associated
cloud objects are
deleted only after the
retention time of the
backed-up SmartLink
file has expired.

The default
value is 5
years.
Full Backup Retention
Period for NDMP Only

cloud-full-backupretention

Specifies the
length of time
that OneFS
retains cloud
data referenced
by a SmartLink
file that has
been backed up
by a full NDMP
backup.
The default
value is 5
years.

Writeback Frequency

cloud-writebackfrequency

Specified the
interval at which
the system
writes the data
stored in the
cache of
SmartLink files
to the cloud.

If a SmartLink file has

been backed up and
the original
SmartLink file is
subsequently
deleted, associated
cloud objects are
deleted only after the
original retention
time, or a longer
incremental or full
backup retention
period, has expired.
Specifies how often
SmartLink files
modified on the
cluster are written to
their associated
cloud data objects.

The default
value is9
hours
Accessibility

cloud-accessibility

Specifies how
data is cached
in SmartLink
files when a
user or
application
accesses a
SmartLink file
on the cluster.
Values are
cached and nocache.
The default
value is
cached

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Determines whether
cloud data is cached
when a file is
accessed on the local
cluster.

cached
When cached
is selected,
accessed cloud
data is cached
to the SmartLink
file on read or
write access.

CloudPools

Web admin parameter

CLI parameter

Description

Usage notes
no-cache
When nocache is
selected, the
system does not
cache data in
the SmartLink
files on read
access, but
passes it
through to the
local accessing
application. If
you write to
data accessed
when this
setting applies,
the system
caches your
changes.
Choose nocache if you
want to limit the
use of cluster
resources.

Cache Read Ahead

cloud-readahead

Specifies the
cache
readahead
strategy for
cloud files (one
of partial or full)
The default
value is
partial

Cache Expiration

cloud-cache-expiration

Specifies the
number of days
until the system
purges expired
cache
information in
SmartLink files.
The default
value is 1 day.

Specifies whether
cloud data is fully or
partially recalled
when you access a
SmartLink file on the
cluster. If partial
is specified, the
system only recalls
the file blocks
needed when a
SmartLink file is
accessed. If full is
specified, all cloud
data is fully cached
when the SmartLink
file is accessed.
Specifies how long
the system retains
cloud data that has
been recalled in the
cache of associated
SmartLink files. The
system purges the
SmartLink file cache
of data that has not

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Web admin parameter

CLI parameter

Description

Usage notes
been accessed for
the number of days
specified.

Archive Files with

Snapshots

cloud-archive-snapshotfiles

Specifies
whether the
policy should
archive files
with snapshots.
The default is
on.

Snapshots capture
files at a moment in
time. If a policy
matches a file that is
included in a
snapshot, the file can
be archived or not
depending on this
setting.

File matching options for cloud archival policies

Each file pool policy must provide match criteria to identify the files to archive and the
cloud target where the files should be stored.
The following table describes the match criteria to use when creating file pool policies.
Match criteria

446

Description

Web admin
interface

Command line
interface

Filename

--name

Includes or excludes files based on the file name.

You can specify whether to include or exclude full or
partial names that contain specific text. Wildcard
characters are supported.

Path

--path

Includes or excludes files based on the file path.

You can specify whether to include or exclude full or
partial paths that contain specified text. You can also
include the wildcard characters *, ?, and [ ].

File Type

--file-type

Includes or excludes files based on one of the following

file-system object types:
l

Regular file

Directory

Other

File Attribute

--custom-attribute

Includes or excludes files based on a custom userdefined attribute.

Modified

--changed-time

Includes or excludes files based on when the file was

last modified.
You can specify a relative date and time, such as "older
than 2 weeks," or a specific date and time, such as
"before January 1, 2012." Time settings are based on a
24-hour clock.

Accessed

--accessed-time

Includes or excludes files based on when the file was

last accessed.

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Match criteria
Web admin
interface

Description
Command line
interface
You can specify a relative date and time, such as "older
than 2 weeks," or a specific date and time, such as
"before January 1, 2012." Time settings are based on a
24-hour clock.
Note

Because it affects performance, access time tracking as

a file pool policy criterion is disabled by default.
Metadata
Changed

--metadatachanged-time

Includes or excludes files based on when the file

metadata was last modified. This option is available only
if the global access-time-tracking option of the cluster is
enabled.
You can specify a relative date and time, such as "older
than 2 weeks," or a specific date and time, such as
"before January 1, 2012." Time settings are based on a
24-hour clock.

Created

--birth-time

Includes or excludes files based on when the file was

created.
You can specify a relative date and time, such as "older
than 2 weeks," or a specific date and time, such as
"before January 1, 2012." Time settings are based on a
24-hour clock.

Size

--size

Includes or excludes files based on their size.

Note

File sizes are represented in multiples of 1024, not

1000.

Combining cloud and local storage policy actions

You can specify both cloud and a local storage actions in the same file pool policy. The
cloud actions are applied to the data of matching files, while the local actions apply to
the SmartLink files that are created in place.
SmartPools settings can determine the target storage pool or tier, file protection level, I/O
optimization, and data access optimization. The SmartLink files are processed according
to the specified SmartPools parameters. If some settings are not specified in the custom
file pool policy, the default file pool policy settings are applied to the SmartLink files.

Retrieving file data from the cloud

You can retrieve file data from the cloud either by inline access through a supported
protocol (SMB, NFS, Swift, or HDFS), or by fully recalling files.

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Inline access of cloud data

Users can retrieve file data in the cloud by accessing a SmartLink file on the local cluster
through a supported protocol. This method is referred to as inline access.
When the user opens a SmartLink file, for example, through an SMB share, CloudPools
retrieves and locally caches file data from the cloud. The amount of data that is cached is
determined by the CloudPools Cache Read Ahead setting.
If the user makes changes to the file, CloudPools maintains those changes in cache and
periodically updates file data to the cloud so that the latest version is always archived.

Recalling files from the cloud

You can fully recall a file from cloud storage. In this case, CloudPools restores the full file
to the cluster and overwrites its associated SmartLink file. As part of a daily maintenance
routine, CloudPools also completely removes the recalled file data from the cloud.
You can recall files from cloud storage only with the CLI command isi cloud recall.
You can recall files individually by name or by specifying a fully recursive directory path.
Note

When you use the isi cloud recall command to recall a file from cloud storage, the
full file is restored to its original directory. If the file pool policy that originally archived
the file to the cloud is still in effect, the next time the SmartPools job runs, the recalled
file is archived to the cloud again. If you do not want the recalled file to be re-archived,
you can move the file to a different directory that would not be affected by the file pool
policy, or you can modify or delete the policy.

CloudPools interoperability with other OneFS functions

CloudPools is designed to work seamlessly with other OneFS functions, including data
encryption and compression, SMB and NFS support, SyncIQ, snapshots, and NDMP
backup and recovery.

Compression and encryption of cloud data

You can specify compression and encryption of data that is moved to the cloud.
With CloudPools, you can enable compression and encryption on a per-policy basis. Both
encryption and compression are disabled by default.
Files encrypted or compressed when stored in the cloud are automatically decrypted and
decompressed when data is cached (inline access) or the file is recalled from the cloud to
local storage.
CloudPools uses a master encryption key to encrypt the data encryption keys. Encryption
applies to both the SmartLink file and the file data archived to the cloud. Both the
SmartLink file and the archived data include encrypted copies of the data encryption
keys. After a file is encrypted, it can only be decrypted by recalling it.
CloudPools keeps track of the encryption status of SmartLink files in snapshots and
referenced data in the cloud. If SmartLink files in snapshots are unencrypted and refer to
unencrypted cloud objects, the SmartLink files in the snapshots remain unencrypted
even if you create a new CloudPools policy that encrypts the latest version of the file.

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OneFS stores the master encryption key in the local key management system. You can
generate a new version of the key if you believe the key has been compromised. If
regenerated, the new master key secures new data written to the cloud. Previously written
data is secured by the old data encryption keys, resident in the local SmartLink files.

NFS inline access

CloudPools enables access of SmartLink files from NFS exports.
When a user connects to a cluster through an NFS export, and browses the file system,
SmartLink files appear to be the original files. When the user opens a SmartLink file,
CloudPools retrieves and caches the original file data from the cloud. Depending on the
Cache Read Ahead setting, either a portion of the file data, or the entire file, is cached.
If the user modifies the file, CloudPools stores the changes in the cache and periodically
writes the changes back to the cloud. In this way, cloud data is kept fully up to date.

SMB inline access

CloudPools enables access of SmartLink files from SMB shares.
When a user connects to a cluster through an SMB share, and browses the file system,
SmartLink files appear to be the original files. When the user opens a SmartLink file,
CloudPools retrieves and caches the original file data from the cloud. Depending on the
Cache Read Ahead setting, either a portion of the file data, or the entire file, is cached.
If the user modifies the file, CloudPools caches the changes and periodically writes the
changes back to the cloud. In this way, the cloud data is kept fully up to date.

Other protocols supporting inline access

Cloud data can be accessed programmatically through Swift and HDFS by accessing the
associated SmartLink files.
We recommend that you consult with your Isilon representative for more information on
these use cases.

SyncIQ interoperability
SyncIQ enables you to synchronize data from your Isilon primary (source) cluster to a
secondary (target) cluster. If your primary cluster becomes unavailable, you can fail over
to the secondary cluster, and users can continue to access data, including data stored in
the cloud.
During SyncIQ replication, all files, including SmartLink files, are copied from the source
cluster to the target cluster. Users given access to the target cluster through supported
protocols can retrieve cloud data or fully recall files from the cloud. In these cases,
CloudPools retrieves and caches data (inline access) or recalls the full file exactly as it
would from the original source cluster.
Unless you specifically grant cloud write access to the secondary cluster, CloudPools
stores any changes to SmartLink files in the local cache, which is limited only by
available space on the cluster.

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SyncIQ policies
CloudPools supports SyncIQ replication of SmartLink files to one or more target clusters.
SyncIQ can also be used to restore backed up SmartLink files to their original (source)
cluster.
The two types of SyncIQ policies are synchronization policies and copy policies. These
policies can be run manually, or configured to run automatically, based on policy
settings.
CloudPools supports both types of SyncIQ policy. When SyncIQ replicates SmartLink files
to a target cluster, secondary information associated with a SmartLink file, such as local
cache state and unsynchronized cache data, is also replicated.
If your source (primary) cluster goes down or is unavailable for any reason, and you fail
over to your secondary cluster, users can continue to access SmartLink files and,
therefore, cloud data, as they would normally.
If the failover is temporary and you plan to restore your source cluster to full operation,
you do not need to enable cloud write access on the secondary cluster. Any changes that
users make to SmartLink files are stored in the local cache, which is limited only by the
amount of free space on your cluster.
When you fail back to your source cluster, and restore updated SmartLink files, only then
will CloudPools write the cached modifications back to the cloud.
CAUTION

If your failover is long-term or permanent, you can grant cloud write access to the
secondary cluster by using the isi cloud access add command in the CLI.
However, you should only ever allow cloud write access on one cluster at a time.
Otherwise, corruption of cloud data can occur.

CloudPools cloud data retention time

In CloudPools, cloud data is governed by a concept referred to as retention. Retention
time defines an absolute time for cloud data to remain in cloud storage after the related
SmartLink file has been deleted.
When you use CloudPools to archive a file from your cluster to cloud storage, a SmartLink
file is created on the Isilon cluster in place of the archived file. As long as data from a file
remains in the cloud, the SmartLink file remains in place to represent and point to the
cloud data.
Because a SmartLink file can be backed up to tape through NDMP and replicated to
another Isilon cluster through SyncIQ, more than one SmartLink file can be pointing to
the same cloud data at the same time.
However, importantly, cloud data can be deleted even if there is a related SmartLink file
on another cluster that was restored by a SyncIQ or NDMP process. Cloud data is
maintained until the minimum duration of its retention times on all clusters has expired.
Retention time is affected by the following archive policy retention periods:
Cloud Data Retention Period specifies the retention time of cloud data beyond the
time when an associated local Smartlink file is deleted. The default setting is one
week.
l
Backup Retention Period for NDMP Incremental Backup and SyncIQ specifies the
retention time of cloud data whose SmartLink file has been backed up by an
incremental NDMP backup, or replicated by a SyncIQ operation. If a local SmartLink
file is deleted, the SmartLink file copy can be restored, and cloud data can still be
accessed. The default setting is five years.

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Full Backup Retention Period for NDMP Only is the retention time of cloud data
whose SmartLink file has been backed up by a full NDMP backup only. If a local
SmartLink file is deleted, the SmartLink file copy can be restored from the backup,
and cloud data can still be accessed. The default setting is five years.

Managing SmartLink files that have been replicated

If you modify or delete a SmartLink file that has been replicated in a SyncIQ operation,
CloudPools can modify or delete its associated cloud objects.
If you modify a SmartLink file on the primary cluster, changes are cached and, depending
on the Writeback Frequency setting, are periodically written back to the cloud. In this
way, cloud data is always kept up to date.
If you modify a SmartLink file on a secondary cluster, because the primary cluster is
temporarily unavailable, changes will remain in cache. When you fail back to the primary
cluster, only then are changes able to be written back to the cloud according to the
Writeback Frequency setting.
Similarly, when a SmartLink file that has been replicated in a SyncIQ operation is deleted,
CloudPools appropriately manages the associated cloud data. Two retention periods can
affect the cloud objects associated with a SmartLink file that has been replicated: the
Cloud Data Retention Period and the Incremental Backup Retention Period for NDMP
Incremental Backup and SyncIQ.
When a SmartLink file has been replicated to a secondary cluster, and is then deleted
from the primary cluster, CloudPools uses both the Cloud Data Retention Period and the
Incremental Backup Retention Period for NDMP Incremental Backup and SyncIQ settings
to determine when the associated cloud objects should be deleted. CloudPools uses the
longer of the two durations to determine when to delete cloud data.
For example, if the longer of the two retention periods is the Incremental Backup
Retention Period for NDMP Incremental Backup and SyncIQ setting, then CloudPools
uses that setting to determine when to delete cloud data after its associated SmartLink
file is deleted.
If you delete a SmartLink file on a secondary cluster, because the primary cluster is
temporarily unavailable, the deleted state will remain in cache. When you fail back to the
primary cluster, CloudPools deletes the SmartLink file, and uses the retention settings to
determine when to delete the associated cloud data.

SyncIQ deep copy

You can create a SyncIQ policy that restores full files rather than SmartLink files when
copying data from the primary (source) cluster to a secondary (target) cluster.
When you create a SyncIQ policy, you can modify the Deep Copy for CloudPools setting.
The default setting is Deny, which means that, during a SyncIQ operation, SmartLink files
are replicated to the target cluster.
Alternatively, you can select either the Allow or Force option for deep copy. When you
select Allow, SyncIQ still replicates SmartLink files to the target cluster unless there is a
SmartLink version mismatch, in which case the full file data is retrieved from the cloud
and replicated.
When you specify Force for deep copy, CloudPools retrieves and copies full file data
from the cloud for all SmartLink files affected by the SyncIQ policy, and replicates the full
files to the target cluster.

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Note

A SyncIQ operation that forces deep copy can take significantly more time and consume
more system resources. We recommend that you not specify deep copy unless you have a
specific reason to do so. For example, if you are backing up data from the primary cluster
to a secondary cluster that is running an older (pre-8.0) version of OneFS, then you
should use deep copy. If you are unsure whether to use deep copy, contact your EMC
Isilon representative for guidance.

SnapshotIQ integration
The SnapshotIQ function enables you to create a point-in-time backup of a directory in
OneFS, while continuing with normal file modifications. CloudPools can control whether
files that have other snapshot versions are stored in the cloud.
As part of file matching, CloudPools finds any snapshot versions of matched files, and
lets you specify whether these files should be archived to the cloud. If you specify that
files with snapshots should be archived, CloudPools archives the most recent file data to
the cloud and creates a local SmartLink file in its place. However, the full-data file
versions in snapshots are also maintained in OneFS. The default setting is to allow files
with snapshot versions to be archived, but you can change the default setting.
Note

Allowing archival of files that have snapshot versions does not result in space savings on
your local cluster. It is recommended that you delete older snapshots that you no longer
need to increase free space on your cluster.
CloudPools also supports SnapRevert for SmartLink files. For example, suppose that
CloudPools archived a directory named /ifs/data/images to the cloud. The files in
the images directory would be replaced with SmartLink files.
If you create a SnapRevert domain for the directory, and run the SnapRevert job, the
CloudPools archival process is reversed, and the original files are restored to the
directory. CloudPools removes any cloud data that was created as part of the original
archive process.

NDMP backup and restore of cloud data

You can perform NDMP backup and restore operations on data that has been archived to
the cloud.
Backup and restore capabilities with CloudPools data include:
l

Archive SmartLink files when backing up from a cluster

Restore data, including SmartLink files, to the same cluster

Restore data, including SmartLink files, to another cluster

With NDMP backup, CloudPools supports backup of SmartLink files only. No cloud data is
included in the backup. Secondary information such as account information, local cache
state, and unsynchronized cache data associated with the SmartLink file is also backed
up.
You can set three CloudPools retention periods that affect backed up SmartLink files and
their associated cloud data:
l

452

Full Backup Retention Period for NDMP takes effect when the SmartLink file is backed
up as part of a full backup. The default is five years.

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Incremental Backup Retention Period for Incremental NDMP Backup and SyncIQ takes
effect when a SmartLink file is backed up as part of an incremental backup. The
default is five years.

Cloud Data Retention Period defines the duration that data in the cloud is kept when
its related SmartLink file is deleted. The default is one week.

CloudPools ensures the validity of a backed-up SmartLink file within the cloud data
retention period. It is important for you to set the retention periods appropriately to
ensure that when the SmartLink file is restored from tape, it remains valid. CloudPools
disallows restoring invalid SmartLink files.
To check whether a backed-up SmartLink file is still valid, CloudPools checks the
retention periods stored on tape for the file. If the retention time is past the restore time,
CloudPools prevents NDMP from restoring the SmartLink file.
CloudPools also makes sure that the account under which the SmartLink files were
originally created has not been deleted. If it has, both NDMP backup and restore of
SmartLink files will fail.

CloudPools best practices

For best results using CloudPools, follow these best practices.

Use time stamps for cloud data archival and recall

Use time matching patterns (creation, modification, last access) when you archive data to
and recall data from the cloud. This enables more efficient archival and recall operations,
therefore better performance.
When you create a file pool policy for archiving data to the cloud, several of the filematching criteria involve time:
l

Created

Accessed

Modified

Therefore, you can specify file-matching criteria that specify when the files were created,
when files were last accessed, or when they were last modified.
CloudPools can also more efficiently recall files based on time stamps.

CloudPools archiving and file size

You can gain the most benefit from CloudPools, in terms of freeing up storage space on
your cluster, by archiving larger files. Archiving small files provides less, if any, benefit.
One of the benefits of archiving files to the cloud with CloudPools is how quickly you can
recall these files when needed.
To enable fast recall, CloudPools creates a SmartLink file for every file whose data is
archived to the cloud. SmartLink files each contain a map to the data in the cloud, meta
data, and cache space. SmartLink files are generally small in size, but can grow if data is
cached through inline access.
Therefore, if you archive small files to the cloud, SmartLink files are left in their place on
the cluster, and could approach, or even exceed, the size of the original file.

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Create exclusive accounts for CloudPools purposes

You should create an account with your cloud provider that is exclusively for CloudPools
use. This prevents conflicts that might lead to data corruption or loss.
If your organization accesses cloud provider accounts outside of OneFS CloudPools
operation, users must be careful not to in any way access or change data archived by
CloudPools. Any such data access or modification would likely corrupt the data and
compromise data retrieval and recall from CloudPools.
To prevent this, create an account in CloudPools that is exclusively for CloudPools use.
Use entirely separate accounts for other cloud applications with your cloud provider.

CloudPools troubleshooting
If you encounter problems using CloudPools, refer to the information provided in this
section before contacting Isilon Customer Support.

CloudPools expected behaviors

During normal CloudPools operation, you should be aware of the following limitations
and expected behaviors.
Rolling upgrade before CloudPools usage
If you are performing a rolling upgrade to the new OneFS version, make sure the
upgrade is fully complete before activating CloudPools.
Cloud storage account deletion
Warning: Do not delete a cloud storage account that is in use by archived files. This
can lead to data being lost or unavailable for the archived files that use that account.
Any attempt to open SmartLink files associated with a deleted account will fail with
I/O error messages. In addition, NDMP backup and restore and SyncIQ failover and
failback will fail when a cloud storage account has been deleted. If, through inline
access, an NFS or SMB user attempts to open a SmartLink file, and receives an I/O
error, this can mean that the related cloud storage account has been deleted. We
recommend trying inline access of other SmartLink files in the same CloudPool. If the
same error is generated for those files, the cloud storage account has been deleted
and data is lost. If the other SmartLink files are accessible, the SmartLink file that
generated the error might be corrupted. Either way, you should contact EMC Isilon
Support for assistance.
Accessing SmartLink files
You can view and modify cloud data by accessing SmartLink files through supported
protocols (NFS, SMB, Swift, and HDFS). If you attempt to access a SmartLink file
directly on the cluster, through a command running on the cluster, or through an
unsupported protocol, an I/O error is generated. Local access for SmartLink files is
blocked for these commands: tar, gzip, scp, AVscan, and Job Engine jobs.
Cloning of a SmartLink file is also prevented and will return an EINVAL error.
SmartLink file timestamps can change
Opening a SmartLink file through a supported protocol can change the timestamp
data. When a file is first archived, and the SmartLink file is created in its place, the
ctime timestamp stays the same as the original file's timestamp. However, the first
time the SmartLink file is opened (inline access), the ctime timestamp changes as a

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cache component is added to the file. Also, if an archived file is fully recalled, its
ctime and mtime timestamps change.
Inline access can appear to convert a SmartLink file to a regular file
When a user accesses a SmartLink file on the Isilon cluster from a supported
protocol, the file opens in an application on the client computer. During this process,
called inline access, most applications support the creation of a CloudPools cache
from which users can view and, if desired, modify archived data. With inline access,
the SmartLink file remains intact on the cluster, and any modifications that the user
makes to file data are stored in the cache and updated to the cloud.
However, some applications do not support inline access. Instead, these
applications create a new copy of the original file apart from the SmartLink file. The
new file, containing all original file data, is given a new logical I-node (LIN) number
and timestamps that differ from the file that was originally archived. This behavior
has been observed in only a few programs, including Microsoft Office applications.
In these cases, since an entirely new file is created, the original SmartLink file and its
associated data in the cloud is tagged for removal (garbage collection).
If the new file meets the criteria of the file pool policy that archived the original file to
the cloud, the new file is archived to the cloud the next time the SmartPools job
runs, and a new SmartLink file is created in its place on the local cluster. If the new
file does not meet the policy criteria, the full file remains on the cluster.
For best results using CloudPools, we recommend that you avoid archiving files that
are still being actively modified by your users.
Copying a SmartLink file from one cluster to another can result in a corrupted SmartLink
file
If you use scp (Secure Copy) or other copy commands to copy a SmartLink file from
one cluster to another, the resulting SmartLink file is corrupted.
Running Antivirus on SmartLink files generates errors
We recommend that you avoid creating policies that run Antivirus on directories
containing SmartLink files. Running Antivirus on SmartLink files generates error
messages. If you do run Antivirus on such directories, you can safely ignore these
messages.
Other issues accessing SmartLink files
If the node does not have quorum, or the file system is read-only, or /ifs is not
available, then you might encounter issues accessing SmartLink files.
Client-based tools and SmartLink files
If you run an SMB or NFS client-based tool such as AVScan (anti-virus scan) or a
backup application, file data in the cloud is fully cached back to the SmartLink files.
This can result in heavy network usage and increased service provider costs, and
would also negate space saving on your cluster.
Expired SmartLink files
Expired SmartLink files are not restored using NDMP and do not synch back using
SyncIQ. A SmartLink file on an NDMP backup or on a SyncIQ secondary (target)
cluster is expired when the original SmartLink file has been deleted from the primary
(source) cluster, or the original file data in the cloud has been fully recalled.
Recall can be interrupted
When a full cache is in process (that is, someone performed an inline access of a
SmartLink file from an SMB share or NFS export), recall of the same file can fail.

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When this happens, the full cache is allowed to complete first, and the user should
retry the recall after caching is completed.
ADS files
CloudPools does not archive and recall ADS (alternate data stream) files.
SMB Oplock
SMB Oplock (lease/notification) does not work in cases where you create a file with
the SUPERCEDE flag, and the file already exists and is archived.

CloudPools logs
You can access CloudPools logs to view activity and troubleshoot problems.
The following logs are available in OneFS for CloudPools operation.
Type

Name

Client cluster-side Cpool daemon

logs
Job Engine

Platform API
cloud-side logs

Path
/var/log/isi_cpool_d.log
/var/log/isi_job_d.log

SMB and NFS I/O

/var/log/isi_cpool_io_d.log
and /var/log/lwiod.log

Provisioning

/var/log/isi_papi_d.log

NDMP

/var/log/isi_ndmp_d.log

SyncIQ

/var/log/isi_migrate.log

Messages

/var/log/messages

Platform API (RAN)

/var/log/isi_object_d.log

HTTPd apache

/var/log/apache2/webui_httpd_error.log
and
/var/log/apache2/
webui_httpd_access.log

Session
authentication
Messages

/var/log/messages

Note

Make sure that the client cluster-side time is accurate to within 15 minutes of the cloud
provider.

Troubleshooting CloudPools
This section describes other troubleshooting items for CloudPools administration and
operation.
Cloud storage account cannot connect to the cloud
In the OneFS, if a cloud storage account is shown in the web administration interface
with a red Needs Attention icon, or in the CLI interface with an Unreachable
state, this usually indicates that the cluster has lost Internet connectivity or the

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service provider's cloud storage facility is offline. Ensure that the cluster has Internet
connectivity. If it does, contact your service provider for help.
Determining if a file is a SmartLink file
To determine if a file has been archived to the cloud, you can check whether the
local version on the cluster is a SmartLink file. Run the isi get -D command as in
the following example:
isi get -D koala.jpg | grep Stubbed:

The output would be as follows if the specified file was a SmartLink (stub) file:
* Stubbed:

True

If the file is not a SmartLink file, the output would be False.

Managing cloud storage accounts

A cloud storage account provides OneFS with the information it needs to connect to the
remote cloud storage provider.
You can create and edit one or more cloud storage accounts in OneFS.

Create cloud storage accounts

You define cloud storage accounts on your OneFS cluster as an essential part of
CloudPools configuration. The account username, password, and URI that you used to
establish an account with your cloud provider is required.
Procedure
1. Click File System > Storage Pools > CloudPools.
2. Click + Create a Cloud Storage Account.
3. In the Create a Cloud Storage Account dialog box, perform these actions:
a. In the Name or Alias field, enter a name for the account.
b. In the Type drop-down menu, select a type of cloud account. Choices are EMC
Isilon, EMC ECS Appliance, Virtustream Storage Cloud,
Microsoft Azure, and Amazon S3.
c. In the URI field, enter a fully qualified URI for the account. The URI must use the
HTTPS protocol, and match the URI used to set up the account with your cloud
provider.
d. In the Username field, enter the account username, which must be the same as
the username provided to the cloud provider.
e. In the Key field, enter the account password. The password must be the same as
the password that you provided to the cloud provider, or the key that the cloud
provider issued to you.
f. If you are creating an Amazon S3 account, you must also specify an S3 Account
ID, S3 Telemetry Reporting Bucket, and an S3 Storage Region.
4. Click the Connect Account button.
The Create a Cloud Storage Account dialog box closes, and the new cloud account
appears in the Cloud Storage Accounts list. A cloud account is represented by an
Managing cloud storage accounts

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orange user icon. The Name, Type, State, Username, and URI associated with the
account is displayed.

Edit a cloud storage account

You can edit some of the settings of an existing cloud storage account.
Procedure
1. Click File System > Storage Pools > CloudPools.
2. In the Cloud Storage Accounts list, click the View/Edit button to the right of the
account that you want to edit.
3. In the View Cloud Storage Account Details dialog box, click the Edit Account button.
4. In the Edit Cloud Storage Account Details dialog box, perform any of these actions:
a. In the Name or Alias field, enter a new name for the account. You cannot change
the type of account.
b. In the URI field, enter a fully qualified URI for the account. The URI must use the
HTTPS protocol, and match the URI used to set up the account with your cloud
provider.
c. In the Username field, enter the account username, which must be the same as
the username provided to the cloud provider.
d. In the Key field, enter the account password. The password must be the same as
the password that you provided to the cloud provider, or the key that the cloud
provider issued to you.
e. If you are editing an Amazon S3 account, you can also specify a new S3 Account
ID and S3 Telemetry Reporting Bucket. You cannot change the S3
Storage Region.
5. Click the Save Changes button.
CloudPools validates that your cloud data is still accessible. Otherwise, it alerts you
and does not save the changes.

Managing CloudPools
A CloudPool contains one or more cloud storage accounts and enables OneFS to use
cloud storage as simply another tier of storage available to the cluster.
You can create, view, edit, and monitor CloudPools.

Create a CloudPool
You can create a CloudPool as a container for one or more cloud storage accounts. A file
pool policy can point to the CloudPool as the target where data is stored in the cloud.
Procedure
1. Click File System > Storage Pools > CloudPools.
2. Click the + Create a CloudPool button.
3. In the Create a CloudPool dialog box, in the Name field, enter a name for the
CloudPool. The name must be unique on your cluster.
4. From the Type drop-down menu, select a type of cloud account, one of EMC Isilon,
EMC ECS Appliance, Virtustream Storage Cloud, Microsoft Azure,
or Amazon S3.
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5. Enter a vendor and description for the CloudPool.

6. Click Create a CloudPool .
The dialog box closes and, in the CloudPools list, the new CloudPool is displayed
along with its type, state, vendor, and description.

View information about a CloudPool

You can view the information about a CloudPool.
Procedure
1. Click File System > Storage Pools > CloudPools.
In the CloudPools list, each CloudPool is represented by a blue cloud. Associated
cloud accounts are listed below each CloudPool, and represented by an orange user
icon. The type, vendor, and description associated with each CloudPool is displayed.
2. To further view the settings of a CloudPool, click View/Edit to the right of the
CloudPool.
The View Cloud Storage Pool Details dialog box displays information about the
CloudPool.
3. Click Close to close the dialog box.

Edit a CloudPool
You can modify some of the settings associated with a CloudPool.
Procedure
1. Click File System > Storage Pools > CloudPools.
In the CloudPools list, each CloudPool is represented by a blue cloud icon. The cloud
account associated with each CloudPool is listed and represented by an orange user
icon. The type, vendor, and description are also displayed.
2. Click View/Edit to the right of the CloudPool that you want to modify.
The View Cloud Storage Pool Details dialog box appears.
3. Click the Edit CloudPool button.
The Edit CloudPool Details dialog box appears.
4. Modify the name, vendor, or description fields, as intended.
5. From the Account in CloudPool drop-down list, select a different account of the same
type.
6. Click the Save changes button.
7. In the View Cloud Storage Pool Details dialog box, click Close.
Results
Any changes that you made to the CloudPool are reflected in the CloudPools list.

Monitoring CloudPools
You can monitor the health of CloudPools configured on your cluster.
Procedure
1. Click File System > Storage Pools > Summary.
2. In the Status list, check the status for CloudPools.
View information about a CloudPool

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Status conditions for CloudPools are Good or Needs Attention. A status of

Needs Attention appears when a CloudPool cannot connect to the remote cloud
provider. This could indicate issues with the Internet connection or with the cloud
provider. If you confirm that your Internet connection is good, contact your cloud
provider for help.

Managing cloud policies

CloudPools takes advantage of the SmartPools infrastructure, and applies file pool
policies to determine which files are to be archived to the cloud.
Consequently, you must activate both a SmartPools and a CloudPools license to store
data in the cloud.
By defining file pool policies, you can have OneFS automatically archive files to the cloud
when they match certain characteristics, such as age, size, type, or location.

View or edit default file pool settings

You can view and edit the default file pool settings, which apply to all files that are not
matched by another policy.
Procedure
1. Click File System > Storage Pools > File Pool Policies.
The Default Policy is the last policy listed in the File Pool Policies list.
2. Click View/Edit next to the Default Policy.
The View Default Policy Details dialog box appears, and you can scroll down to view
all the default policies. The Default Policy does not contain any CloudPools actions,
but does control any policy settings for files, including SmartLink files, that are not
specified in a custom file pool policy.
3. To edit the default policy settings, click Edit Policy.
The Edit Default Policy Details dialog box appears.
4. Make any desired changes.
5. Click Save Changes.
Results
Changes you make to the default file policy become active the next time the SmartPools
job runs. All files not controlled by a custom policy follow the settings in the default file
pool policy.

Create a file pool policy for cloud storage

You can create file pool policies to specify CloudPools actions to be applied to selected
files.
File pool policies are both for SmartPools and CloudPools purposes. A file pool policy can
specify a local storage target, a cloud storage target, or both. If you create a policy that
specifies both local and cloud targets, the policy moves file data to the cloud, and
applies the local settings to the SmartLink files retained on the local cluster. If the
purpose of a file pool policy is to move files to a local node pool or tier, do not configure a
cloud target. Conversely, if the purpose of a policy is to archive files to the cloud,
configuring a local target, while allowed, is not necessary. In this case, the system uses
the settings of the default file pool policy to store the local SmartLink files.
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Procedure
1. Click File System > Storage Pools > File Pool Policies.
2. Click the + Create a File Pool Policy button.
The Create a File Pool Policy dialog box displays.
3. Enter a policy name and, optionally, a description.
4. In the Select Files to Manage area, use the pull-down menus to specify the file
selection criteria for cloud storage. The criteria you specify are used by OneFS to
determine the files to archive. The criteria you specify for file selection can include the
following attributes, combined with Boolean operators:
l

Filename

Path

File Type

File Attribute

Modified

Accessed

Metadata Changed

Created

Size

5. In the Apply CloudPools Actions to Selected Files area, select Move to cloud storage.
6. In the CloudPool Storage Target drop-down menu, select an existing CloudPool, and
specify whether to encrypt and compress data before it is archived to the cloud.
7. Click Show Advanced CloudPool Settings to specify additional cloud storage options,
as described in the following table:
Setting
Data
Retention
Settings

Accessibility
and Cache
Settings

Description
l

Cloud Data Retention Period: Specifies how long cloud objects

are retained after a SmartLink file has been deleted. When a
SmartLink file is deleted on the local cluster, CloudPools cleans
up local resources allocated for the SmartLink files, and also
removes the associated cloud objects. This work is performed
weekly by the cloud objects garbage collector job.

Incremental Backup Retention Period for NDMP Incremental

Backup and SyncIQ: Specifies the backup retention period for
SmartLink files created with an incremental NDMP backup policy
or a SyncIQ policy. This value is only relevant for incremental
NDMP backups and SyncIQ replication.

Full Backup Retention Period for NDMP Only: Specifies the

backup retention period for SmartLink files created with a full
NDMP backup policy. This value is only relevant for full NDMP
backups.

Writeback Frequency: Specifies how often SmartLink files edited

on the Isilon cluster are written to their associated cloud data
objects.

Create a file pool policy for cloud storage

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Setting

Archive files
with
snapshots

Description
l

Accessibility: Specifies whether or not to cache archived data

locally. Local caching enables faster access of cloud data, but
reduces space saving on your cluster.

Cache Read Ahead: Specifies whether cloud data is fully or

partially cached when you access a SmartLink file on the local
file system. If the policy specifies partial caching, the system
only caches the blocks needed when a file is accessed. If the
policy specifies full caching, cloud data is fully cached when the
SmartLink file is accessed.

Cache Expiration: Specifies the amount of time cloud data that

has been cached is retained in the local cache of associated
SmartLink files. The system purges the SmartLink cache of data
that has not been accessed for the number of days specified.

Specifies that CloudPools is to archive files that have one or more

snapshot versions. The latest versions of such files are archived,
and SmartLink files are left in their place on the local cluster.
Because the full snapshot versions of files are retained on the
cluster, archiving these files does not save space on the cluster.

8. Click Create Policy.

The file pool policy appears under File Pool Policies in the File Pool Policies window.
Results
The next time the SmartPools system job is run, the file pool policy performs the specified
actions.

Modify cloud attributes in a file pool policy

You can modify all aspects of a file pool policy, including cloud actions. Changing cloud
actions in the policy does not affect data that has already been archived to the cloud. In
this case, the policy would no longer perform the originally specified cloud actions.
Procedure
1. Click File System > Storage Pools > File Pool Policies.
The File Pool Policies page appears.
2. In the File Pool Policies list, next to the file pool policy you intend to modify, click
View/Edit.
The View File Pool Policy Details dialog box appears.
3. Click Edit Policy.
The Edit File Pool Policy Details dialog box appears.
4. Make your changes in the appropriate areas and click Save Changes.
Results
Changes to the file pool policy are applied the next time the SmartPools system job runs.

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CHAPTER 24
System jobs

This section contains the following topics:

l
l
l
l
l
l
l
l

System jobs overview..........................................................................................464

System jobs library..............................................................................................464
Job operation...................................................................................................... 467
Job performance impact...................................................................................... 468
Job priorities....................................................................................................... 469
Managing system jobs........................................................................................ 469
Managing impact policies................................................................................... 472
Viewing job reports and statistics........................................................................474

System jobs

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System jobs overview

The most critical function of OneFS is maintaining the integrity of data on your Isilon
cluster. Other important system maintenance functions include monitoring and
optimizing performance, detecting and mitigating drive and node failures, and freeing up
available space.
Because maintenance functions use system resources and can take hours to run, OneFS
performs them as jobs that run in the background through a service called Job Engine.
The time it takes for a job to run can vary significantly depending on a number of factors.
These include other system jobs that are running at the same time; other processes that
are taking up CPU and I/O cycles while the job is running; the configuration of your
cluster; the size of your data set; and how long since the last iteration of the job was run.
Up to three jobs can run simultaneously. To ensure that maintenance jobs do not hinder
your productivity or conflict with each other, Job Engine categorizes them, runs them at
different priority and impact levels, and can temporarily suspend them (with no loss of
progress) to enable higher priority jobs and administrator tasks to proceed.
In the case of a power failure, Job Engine uses a checkpoint system to resume jobs as
close as possible to the point at which they were interrupted. The checkpoint system
helps Job Engine keep track of job phases and tasks that have already been completed.
When the cluster is back up and running, Job Engine restarts the job at the beginning of
the phase or task that was in process when the power failure occurred.
As system administrator, through the Job Engine service, you can monitor, schedule, run,
terminate, and apply other controls to system maintenance jobs. The Job Engine provides
statistics and reporting tools that you can use to determine how long different system
jobs take to run in your OneFS environment.
Note

To initiate any Job Engine tasks, you must have the role of SystemAdmin in the OneFS
system.

System jobs library

OneFS contains a library of system jobs that run in the background to help maintain your
Isilon cluster. By default, system jobs are categorized as either manual or scheduled.
However, you can run any job manually or schedule any job to run periodically according
to your workflow. In addition, OneFS starts some jobs automatically when particular
system conditions arisefor example, FlexProtect and FlexProtectLin, which start when a
drive is smartfailed.
Job name

Description

Exclusion
Set

Impact
Policy

Priority

Operation

AutoBalance

Balances free space in a cluster, and is most

efficient in clusters that contain only hard
disk drives (HDDs). Run as part of MultiScan,
or automatically by the system when a device
joins (or rejoins) the cluster.

Restripe

Low

Manual

AutoBalanceLin

Balances free space in a cluster, and is most

efficient in clusters when file system
metadata is stored on solid state drives

Restripe

Low

Manual

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Job name

Description

Exclusion
Set

Impact
Policy

Priority

Operation

(SSDs). Run as part of MultiScan, or

automatically by the system when a device
joins (or rejoins) the cluster.
AVScan

Performs an antivirus scan on all files.

None

Low

Manual

ChangelistCreate

Creates a list of changes between two

snapshots with matching root paths. You can
specify these snapshots from the CLI.

None

Low

Manual

Collect

Reclaims free space that previously could not

be freed because the node or drive was
unavailable. Run as part of MultiScan, or
automatically by the system when a device
joins (or rejoins) the cluster.

Mark

Low

Manual

Dedupe*

Scans a directory for redundant data blocks

None
and deduplicates all redundant data stored in
the directory. Available only if you activate a
SmartDedupe license.

Low

Manual

DedupeAssessment

Scans a directory for redundant data blocks

and reports an estimate of the amount of
space that could be saved by deduplicating
the directory.

None

Low

Manual

DomainMark

Associates a path, and the contents of that

path, with a domain.

None

Low

Manual

FlexProtect

Scans the file system after a device failure to Restripe

ensure that all files remain protected.
FlexProtect is most efficient on clusters that
contain only HDDs. While there is a device
failure on a cluster, only the FlexProtect (or
FlexProtectLin) job is allowed to run.
Depending on the size of your data set, this
process can last for an extended period. The
cluster is said to be in a degraded state until
FlexProtect (or FlexProtectLin) finishes its
work. If you notice that other system jobs
cannot be started or have been paused, you
can use the isi job status --verbose
command to see if a "Cluster Is Degraded"
message appears.

Medium

Manual

Note

Unlike HDDs and SSDs that are used for

storage, when an SSD used for L3 cache fails,
the drive state should immediately change to
REPLACE without a FlexProtect job running. An
SSD drive used for L3 cache contains only
cache data that does not have to be protected
by FlexProtect. After the drive state changes to
REPLACE, you can pull and replace the failed
SSD.
System jobs library

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Job name

Description

Exclusion
Set

Impact
Policy

Priority

Operation

FlexProtectLin

Scans the file system after a device failure to

ensure that all files remain protected. This
command is most efficient when file system
metadata is stored on SSDs. In this situation,
run FlexProtectLin instead of FlexProtect.

Restripe

Medium

Manual

FSAnalyze*

Gathers and reports information about all files None

and directories beneath the /ifs path. This
job requires you to activate an InsightIQ
license. Reports from this job are used by
InsightIQ users for system analysis purposes.
For more information, see the Isilon InsightIQ
User Guide.

Low

Scheduled

IntegrityScan

Verifies file system integrity.

Mark

Medium

Manual

MediaScan

Locates and clears media-level errors from

disks to ensure that all data remains
protected.

Restripe

Low

Scheduled

MultiScan

Performs the work of the AutoBalance and

Collect jobs simultaneously.

Restripe
Mark

Low

Manual

PermissionRepair

Uses a template file or directory as the basis

for permissions to set on a target file or
directory. The target directory must always be
subordinate to the /ifs path. This job must
be manually started.

None

Low

Manual

QuotaScan*

Updates quota accounting for domains

None
created on an existing file tree. Available only
if you activate a SmartQuotas license. This job
should be run manually in off-hours after
setting up all quotas, and whenever setting
up new quotas.

Low

Manual

SetProtectPlus

Applies a default file policy across the cluster. Restripe

Runs only if a SmartPools license is not
active.

Low

Manual

ShadowStoreDelete

Frees up space that is associated with

shadow stores. Shadow stores are hidden
files that are referenced by cloned and
deduplicated files.

None

Low

Scheduled

ShadowStoreProtect

Protects shadow stores that are referenced by None

a logical i-node (LIN) with a higher level of
protection.

Low

Scheduled

SmartPools*

Enforces SmartPools file pool policies.

Restripe
Available only if you activate a SmartPools
license. This job runs on a regularly
scheduled basis, and can also be started by
the system when a change is made (for
example, creating a compatibility that merges
node pools).

Low

Scheduled

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Job name

Description

Exclusion
Set

Impact
Policy

Priority

Operation

SnapRevert

Reverts an entire snapshot back to head.

None

Low

Manual

SnapshotDelete

Creates free space associated with deleted

snapshots. Triggered by the system when you
mark snapshots for deletion.

None

Medium

Manual

TreeDelete

Deletes a specified file path in the /ifs

directory.

None

Medium

Manual

Upgrade

Upgrades the file system after a software

version upgrade.

Restripe

Medium

Manual

None

Low

Scheduled

Note

The Upgrade job should be run only when you

are updating your cluster with a major
software version. For complete information,
see the Isilon OneFS Upgrade Planning and
Process Guide.
WormQueue

Processes the WORM queue, which tracks the

commit times for WORM files. After a file is
committed to WORM state, it is removed from
the queue.

* Available only if you activate an additional license

Job operation
OneFS includes system maintenance jobs that run to ensure that your Isilon cluster
performs at peak health. Through the Job Engine, OneFS runs a subset of these jobs
automatically, as needed, to ensure file and data integrity, check for and mitigate drive
and node failures, and optimize free space. For other jobs, for example, Dedupe, you can
use Job Engine to start them manually or schedule them to run automatically at regular
intervals.
The Job Engine runs system maintenance jobs in the background and prevents jobs
within the same classification (exclusion set) from running simultaneously. Two exclusion
sets are enforced: restripe and mark.
Restripe job types are:
l

AutoBalance

AutoBalanceLin

FlexProtect

FlexProtectLin

MediaScan

MultiScan

SetProtectPlus

SmartPools

Mark job types are:

Job operation

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Collect

IntegrityScan

MultiScan

Note that MultiScan is a member of both the restripe and mark exclusion sets. You
cannot change the exclusion set parameter for a job type.
The Job Engine is also sensitive to job priority, and can run up to three jobs, of any
priority, simultaneously. Job priority is denoted as 110, with 1 being the highest and 10
being the lowest. The system uses job priority when a conflict among running or queued
jobs arises. For example, if you manually start a job that has a higher priority than three
other jobs that are already running, Job Engine pauses the lowest-priority active job, runs
the new job, then restarts the older job at the point at which it was paused. Similarly, if
you start a job within the restripe exclusion set, and another restripe job is already
running, the system uses priority to determine which job should run (or remain running)
and which job should be paused (or remain paused).
Other job parameters determine whether jobs are enabled, their performance impact, and
schedule. As system administrator, you can accept the job defaults or adjust these
parameters (except for exclusion set) based on your requirements.
When a job starts, the Job Engine distributes job segmentsphases and tasksacross
the nodes of your cluster. One node acts as job coordinator and continually works with
the other nodes to load-balance the work. In this way, no one node is overburdened, and
system resources remain available for other administrator and system I/O activities not
originated from the Job Engine.
After completing a task, each node reports task status to the job coordinator. The node
acting as job coordinator saves this task status information to a checkpoint file.
Consequently, in the case of a power outage, or when paused, a job can always be
restarted from the point at which it was interrupted. This is important because some jobs
can take hours to run and can use considerable system resources.

Job performance impact

The Job Engine service monitors system performance to ensure that maintenance jobs do
not significantly interfere with regular cluster I/O activity and other system administration
tasks. Job Engine uses impact policies that you can manage to control when a job can run
and the system resources that it consumes.
Job Engine has four default impact policies that you can use but not modify. The default
impact policies are:

468

Impact policy

Allowed to run

Resource consumption

LOW

Any time of day.

Low

MEDIUM

Any time of day.

Medium

HIGH

Any time of day.

High

OFF_HOURS

Outside of business
hours. Business hours are
defined as 9AM to 5pm,
Monday through Friday.
OFF_HOURS is paused
during business hours.

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If you want to specify other than a default impact policy for a job, you can create a custom
policy with new settings.
Jobs with a low impact policy have the least impact on available CPU and disk I/O
resources. Jobs with a high impact policy have a significantly higher impact. In all cases,
however, the Job Engine uses CPU and disk throttling algorithms to ensure that tasks that
you initiate manually, and other I/O tasks not related to the Job Engine, receive a higher
priority.

Job priorities
Job priorities determine which job takes precedence when more than three jobs of
different exclusion sets attempt to run simultaneously. The Job Engine assigns a priority
value between 1 and 10 to every job, with 1 being the most important and 10 being the
least important.
The maximum number of jobs that can run simultaneously is three. If a fourth job with a
higher priority is started, either manually or through a system event, the Job Engine
pauses one of the lower-priority jobs that is currently running. The Job Engine places the
paused job into a priority queue, and automatically resumes the paused job when one of
the other jobs is completed.
If two jobs of the same priority level are scheduled to run simultaneously, and two other
higher priority jobs are already running, the job that is placed into the queue first is run
first.

Managing system jobs

The Job Engine enables you to control periodic system maintenance tasks that ensure
OneFS file system stability and integrity. As maintenance jobs run, the Job Engine
constantly monitors and mitigates their impact on the overall performance of the cluster.
As system administrator, you can tailor these jobs to the specific workflow of your Isilon
cluster. You can view active jobs and job history, modify job settings, and start, pause,
resume, cancel, and update job instances.

View active jobs

If you are noticing slower system response while performing administrative tasks, you
can view jobs that are currently running on your Isilon cluster.
Procedure
1. Click Cluster Management > Job Operations > Job Summary.
2. In the Active Jobs table, view status information about all currently running jobs, job
settings, and progress details.
a. You can perform bulk actions on the active jobs by selecting the Status check box,
then selecting an action from the Select a bulk action drop-down list.

View job history

If you want to check the last time a critical job ran, you can view recent activity for a
specific job, or for all jobs.
Procedure
1. Click Cluster Management > Job Operations > Job Reports.
Job priorities

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The Job Reports table displays a chronological list of the last ten job events that have
occurred on the cluster. Event information includes the time the event occurred, the
job responsible for the event, and event results.
2. Filter reports by job type by selecting the job from the Filter by Job Type drop-down list
and clicking Reset.
3. Click on View Details next to a job name to view recent events for only that job.
Recent events for the job appear in the View Job Report Details window, and include
information such as start time, duration, and whether or not the job was successful.

Start a job
By default, only some system maintenance jobs are scheduled to run automatically.
However, you can start any of the jobs manually at any time.
Procedure
1. Click Cluster Management > Job Operations > Job Summary.
2. In the Active Jobs window, select the job you want to start and click More.
3. Click Start Running Job.

Pause a job
You can pause a job temporarily to free up system resources.
Procedure
1. Click Cluster Management > Job Operations > Job Summary.
2. In the Active Jobs table, click More for the job that you want to pause.
3. Click Pause Running Job in the menu that appears.
The job remains paused until you resume it.

Resume a job
You can resume a paused job.
Procedure
1. Click Cluster Management > Job Operations > Job Summary.
2. In the Active Jobs table, click More for the job that you want to pause.
3. Click Resume Running Job in the menu that appears.
Results
The job continues from the phase or task at which it was paused.

Cancel a job
If you want to free up system resources, or for any reason, you can permanently
discontinue a running, paused, or waiting job.
Procedure
1. Click Cluster Management > Job Operations > Job Summary.
2. In the Active Jobs table, click More for the job that you want to cancel.
3. Click Cancel Running Job in the menu that appears.
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Update a job
You can change the priority and impact policy of a running, waiting, or paused job.
When you update a job, only the current instance of the job runs with the updated
settings. The next instance of the job returns to the default settings for that job.
Note

To change job settings permanently, see "Modify job type settings."

Procedure
1. Click Cluster Management > Job Operations > Job Summary.
2. In the Active Jobs table, click View/Edit for the job that you want to update.
3. (Required) In the View Active Job Details window, click Edit Job.
a. Select a new priority level from the Priority drop-down list.
b. Select an impact policy level from the Impact Policy drop-down list.
4. Click Save Changes.
When you update a running job, the job automatically resumes. When you update a
paused or idle job, the job remains in that state until you restart it.

Modify job type settings

You can customize system maintenance jobs for your administrative workflow by
modifying the default priority level, impact level, and schedule for a job type.
Procedure
1. Click Cluster Management > Job Operations > Job Types.
2. In the Job Types table, locate the row for the policy you want to modify and click
View / Edit.
The View Job Type Details window appears, displaying current default settings,
schedule, current state, and recent activity.
3. Click Edit Job Type. The Edit Job Type Details window appears.
4. Modify the details you want to change. You can modify the default priority, the default
impact policy, whether the job is enabled, and whether the job runs manually or on a
schedule.
5. Click Scheduled to modify a job schedule, then select the schedule option from the
drop-down list.
6. Click Save Changes.
The modifications are saved and applied to all instances of that job type. The results
are shown in the View Job Type Details window.
7. Click Close.

Update a job

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Managing impact policies

For system maintenance jobs that run through the Job Engine service, you can create and
assign policies that help control how jobs affect system performance.
As system administrator, you can create, copy, modify, and delete impact policies, and
view their settings.

Create an impact policy

The Job Engine includes four impact policies, which you cannot modify or delete.
However, you can create and configure new impact policies.
Procedure
1. Click Cluster Management > Job Operations > Impact Policies.
2. Click Add an Impact Policy.
The Create Impact Policy window appears.
3. In the Name text field, type a name for the policy. This field is required.
4. (Required) In the Description text field, type a comment about the impact policy.
Include information specific to the impact policy such as unique schedule parameters
or logistical requirements that make the impact policy necessary.
5. Click Add an Impact Policy Interval.
a. In the Add an Impact Policy Interval window, select the impact level and start and
end times from the drop-down lists.
b. Click Add Impact Policy Interval.
The Add an Impact Policy Interval window disappears, and the settings you selected
appear in the Impact Schedule table.
6. Click Create Impact Policy.
Your copy of the impact policy is saved and is listed in alphabetical order in the
Impact Policies table.

Copy an impact policy

You can use a default impact policy as the template for a new policy by making and
modifying a copy.
Procedure
1. Click Cluster Management > Job Operations > Impact Policies.
2. In the Impact Policies table, locate the row for the policy you want to copy and click
More. The Copy Impact Policy window appears.
3. In the Name field, type a name for the new policy.
4. In the Description text field, enter a description for the new policy.
Include information specific to the impact policy such as unique schedule parameters
or logistical requirements that make the impact policy necessary.
5. Click Add an Impact Policy Interval.
a. In the Add an Impact Policy Interval window, select the impact level and start and
end times from the drop-down lists.
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b. Click Add Impact Policy Interval.

The Add an Impact Policy Interval window closes, and the settings you selected
appear in the Impact Schedule table.
6. Click Copy Impact Policy.
Your copy of the impact policy is saved and is listed in alphabetical order in the
Impact Policies table.

Modify an impact policy

You can change the name, description, and impact intervals of a custom impact policy.
Before you begin
You cannot modify the default impact policies, HIGH, MEDIUM, LOW, and OFF_HOURS. If
you want to modify a policy, create and modify a copy of a default policy.
Procedure
1. Navigate to Cluster Management > Job Operations > Impact Policies.
2. In the Impact Policies table, click View / Edit for the policy you want to modify.
The Edit Impact Policy window appears.
3. Click Edit Impact Policy, and modify one or all of the following:
Option
Policy description

Description
a. In the Description field, type a new overview for the impact
policy.
b. Click Submit.

Impact schedule

a. In the Impact Schedule area, modify the schedule of the

impact policy by adding, editing, or deleting impact intervals.
b. Click Save Changes.

The modified impact policy is saved and listed in alphabetical order in the Impact
Policies table.

Delete an impact policy

You can delete impact policies that you have created.
You cannot delete default impact policies, HIGH, MEDIUM, LOW, and OFF_HOURS.
Procedure
1. Click Cluster Management > Job Operations > Impact Policies.
2. In the Impact Policies table, click More next to the custom impact policy that you want
to delete.
3. Click Delete.
A confirmation dialog box appears.
4. In the confirmation dialog box, click Delete.

Modify an impact policy

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View impact policy settings

You can view the impact policy settings for any job.
Procedure
1. Click Cluster Management > Job Operations > Job Types.
The Job Types table is displayed.
2. If necessary, scroll through the Job Types table to find a specific job.
The impact policy settings for the job are shown in the Job Types table.

Viewing job reports and statistics

You can generate reports for system jobs and view statistics to better determine the
amounts of system resources being used.
Most system jobs controlled by the Job Engine run at a low priority and with a low impact
policy, and generally do not have a noticeable impact on cluster performance.
A few jobs, because of the critical functions they perform, run at a higher priority and with
a medium impact policy. These jobs include FlexProtect and FlexProtect Lin, FSAnalyze,
SnapshotDelete, and TreeDelete.
As a system administrator, if you are concerned about the impact a system job might
have on cluster performance, you can view job statistics and reports. These tools enable
you to view detailed information about job load, including CPU and memory usage and
I/O operations.

View statistics for a job in progress

You can view statistics for a job in progress.
Procedure
1. Click Cluster Management > Job Operations > Job Summary.
You can view jobs that are running in the Active Jobs area.
2. Click the View/Edit option to the right of the job entry.
Results
The View Active Jobs Details screen opens, where you can view statistics such as
processed data, elapsed time, phase, and progress, including an estimate of the time
remaining for the job to complete.

View a report for a completed job

After a job finishes, you can view a report about the job.
Before you begin
A report for a job is not available until after the job is completed.
Procedure
1. Click Cluster Management > Job Operations > Job Reports.
The Job Reports screen appears with a list of the last 10 completed jobs.
2. Locate the job whose report you want to view.
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If the job is not on the first page of the Job Reports screen, click the right-arrow icon to
page through the list until you locate your job.
3. Click View Details.
The View Job Report Details screen appears, listing job statistics such as elapsed
time, CPU and memory usage, and total I/O operations.
4. When you are finished viewing the report, click Close.

View a report for a completed job

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CHAPTER 25
Networking

This section contains the following topics:

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Networking overview........................................................................................... 478

About the internal network.................................................................................. 478
About the external network................................................................................. 479
Configuring the internal network......................................................................... 486
Managing groupnets........................................................................................... 489
Managing external network subnets.................................................................... 491
Managing IP address pools................................................................................. 494
Managing SmartConnect Settings........................................................................496
Managing network interface members.................................................................502
Managing node provisioning rules.......................................................................504
Managing routing options................................................................................... 506
Managing DNS cache settings............................................................................. 507
Managing TCP ports............................................................................................ 508

Networking

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Networking overview
After you determine the topology of your network, you can set up and manage your
internal and external networks.
There are two types of networks on the EMC Isilon cluster:
Internal
Nodes communicate with each other using a high speed low latency InfiniBand
network. You can optionally configure a second InfiniBand network to enable failover
for redundancy.
External
Clients connect to the cluster through the external network with Ethernet. The Isilon
cluster supports standard network communication protocols, including NFS, SMB,
HDFS, HTTP, and FTP. The cluster includes various external Ethernet connections,
providing flexibility for a wide variety of network configurations.

About the internal network

The EMC Isilon cluster must connect to at least one high-speed, low-latency InfiniBand
switch for internal communications and data transfer. The connection to the InfiniBand
switch is also referred to as an internal network. The internal network is separate from the
external network (Ethernet) by which users access the cluster.
Upon initial configuration of your cluster, OneFS creates an initial internal network for the
InfiniBand switch. The interface to the default internal network is int-a. An internal
network for a second InfiniBand switch can be added for redundancy and failover.
Failover allows continuous connectivity during path failures. The interface to the
secondary internal network is int-b, which is referred to as int-b/failover in the web
administration interface.
CAUTION

Only Isilon nodes should be connected to your InfiniBand switch. Information exchanged
on the back-end network is not encrypted. Connecting anything other than Isilon nodes
to the InfiniBand switch creates a security risk.

Internal IP address ranges

The number of IP addresses assigned to the internal network determines how many
nodes can be joined to the EMC Isilon cluster.
When you initially configure the cluster, you specify one or more IP address ranges for the
primary InfiniBand switch. This range of addresses is used by the nodes to communicate
with each other. It is recommended that you create a range of addresses large enough to
accommodate adding additional nodes to your cluster.
While all clusters will have, at minimum, one internal InfiniBand network (int-a), you can
enable a second internal network to support another Infiniband switch with network
failover (int-b/failover). You must assign at least one IP address range for the secondary
network and one range for failover.
If any IP address ranges defined during the initial configuration are too restrictive for the
size of the internal network, you can add ranges to the int-a network or int-b/failover

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networks, which might require a cluster restart. Other configuration changes, such as
deleting an IP address assigned to a node, might also required the cluster to be restarted.

Internal network failover

You can configure an internal switch as a failover network to provide redundancy for intracluster communications.
In order to support an internal failover network, the int-a port on each node in the cluster
must be physically connected to one of the Infiniband switches, and the int-b port on
each node must be connected to the other Infiniband switch.
After the ports are connected, you must configure two IP address ranges; an address
range to support the int-b internal interfaces, and an address range to support failover.
The failover addresses enable seamless failover in the event that either the int-a or int-b
switches fail.

Configuring the internal network for IsilonSD Edge

In the case of IsilonSD Edge, internal communications and data transfer between the
IsilonSD nodes take place through the Ethernet switch.
You must isolate the internal network and ideally route it through a dedicated virtual LAN
or physical switch. You can configure LACP or a port channel group to improve the
network reliability and to increase the inter-cluster traffic throughput.
For the internal IP address range, you must specify one IP address per IsilonSD node. The
IP addresses that you configure for the nodes must be contiguous.
For the internal network failover, IsilonSD Edge depends on the network failover and load
balancing policies that are supported by VMware vSphere. You do not need to configure
the int-b/failover network.
For more information on the networking requirements, see the IsilonSD Edge Installation
and Administration Guide.

About the external network

You connect a client computer to the EMC Isilon cluster through the external network.
External network configuration is composed of groupnets, subnets, IP address pools, and
features node provisioning rules.
Groupnets are the configuration level for managing multiple tenants on your external
network. DNS client settings, such as nameservers and a DNS search list, are properties
of the groupnet. Groupnets reside at the top tier of the networking hierarchy. You can
create one or more subnets within a groupnet.
Subnets simplify external (front-end) network management and provide flexibility in
implementing and maintaining the cluster network. You can create IP address pools
within subnets to partition your network interfaces according to workflow or node type.
The IP address pool of a subnet consists of one or more IP address ranges. IP address
pools can be associated with network interfaces on cluster nodes. Client connection
settings are configured at the IP address pool level.
An initial external network subnet is created during the set up of your EMC Isilon with the
following configuration:
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An initial groupnet called groupnet0 with the specified global, outbound DNS settings
to the domain name server list and DNS search list, if provided.
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An initial subnet called subnet0 with the specified netmask, gateway, and
SmartConnect service address.
Internal network failover

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An initial IP address pool called pool0 with the specified IP address range, the
SmartConnect zone name, and the network interface of the first node in the cluster as
the only pool member.
An initial node provisioning rule called rule0 that automatically assigns the first
network interface for all newly added nodes to pool0.
Adds subnet0 to groupnet0.
Adds pool0 to subnet0 and configures pool0 to use the virtual IP of subnet0 as its
SmartConnect service address.

Groupnets
Groupnets reside at the top tier of the networking hierarchy and are the configuration
level for managing multiple tenants on your external network. DNS client settings, such
as nameservers and a DNS search list, are properties of the groupnet. You can create a
separate groupnet for each DNS namespace that you want to use to enable portions of
the Isilon cluster to have different networking properties for name resolution. Each
groupnet maintains its own DNS cache, which is enabled by default.
A groupnet is a container that includes subnets, IP address pools, and provisioning rules.
Groupnets can contain one or more subnets, and every subnet is assigned to a single
groupnet. Each EMC Isilon cluster contains a default groupnet named groupnet0 that
contains an initial subnet named subnet0, an initial IP address pool named pool0, and
an initial provisioning rule named rule0.
Each groupnet is referenced by one or more access zones. When you create an access
zone, you can specify a groupnet. If a groupnet is not specified, the access zone will
reference the default groupnet. The default System access zone is automatically
associated with the default groupnet. Authentication providers that communicate with an
external server, such as Active Directory and LDAP, must also reference a groupnet. You
can specify the authentication provider with a specific groupnet; otherwise, the provider
will reference the default groupnet. You can only add an authentication provider to an
access zone if they are associated with the same groupnet. Client protocols such as SMB,
NFS, HDFS, and Swift, are supported by groupnets through their associated access zones.

DNS name resolution

You can designate up to three DNS servers per groupnet to handle DNS name resolution.
DNS servers must be configured as an IPv4 or IPv6 address. You can specify up to six DNS
search suffixes per groupnet; the suffixes settings are appended to domain names that
are not fully qualified.
Additional DNS server settings at the groupnet level include enabling a DNS cache,
enabling server-side search, and enabling DNS resolution on a rotating basis.

Subnets
Subnets are networking containers that enable you to sub-divide your network into
smaller, logical IP networks.
On an EMC Isilon cluster, subnets are created under a groupnet and each subnet contains
one or more IP address pools. Both IPv4 and IPv6 addresses are supported on OneFS;
however, a subnet cannot contain a combination of both. When you create a subnet, you
specify whether it supports IPv4 or IPv6 addresses.
You can configure the following options when you create a subnet:
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Gateway servers that route outgoing packets and gateway priority.

Maximum transmission unit (MTU) that network interfaces in the subnet will use for
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SmartConnect service address, which is the IP address on which the SmartConnect

module listens for DNS requests on this subnet.

VLAN tagging to allow the cluster to participate in multiple virtual networks.

Direct Server Return (DSR) address, if your cluster contains an external hardware load
balancing switch that uses DSR.

How you set up your external network subnets depends on your network topology. For
example, in a basic network topology where all client-node communication occurs
through direct connections, only a single external subnet is required. In another example,
if you want clients to connect through both IPv4 and IPv6 addresses, you must configure
multiple subnets.

IPv6 support
OneFS supports both IPv4 and IPv6 address formats on an EMC Isilon cluster.
IPv6 is the next generation of internet protocol addresses and was designed with the
growing demand for IP addresses in mind. The following table describes distinctions
between IPv4 and IPv6.
IPv4

IPv6

32-bit addresses

128-bit addresses

Address Resolution Protocol (ARP) Neighbor Discovery Protocol (NDP)

You can configure the Isilon cluster for IPv4, IPv6, or both (dual-stack) in OneFS. You set
the IP family when creating a subnet, and all IP address pools assigned to the subnet
must use the selected format.

VLANs
Virtual LAN (VLAN) tagging is an optional setting that enables an EMC Isilon cluster to
participate in multiple virtual networks.
You can partition a physical network into multiple broadcast domains, or virtual local
area networks (VLANs). You can enable a cluster to participate in a VLAN which allows
multiple cluster subnet support without multiple network switches; one physical switch
enables multiple virtual subnets.
VLAN tagging inserts an ID into packet headers. The switch refers to the ID to identify from
which VLAN the packet originated and to which network interface a packet should be
sent.

IP address pools
IP address pools are assigned to a subnet and consist of one or more IP address ranges.
You can partition nodes and network interfaces into logical IP address pools. IP address
pools are also utilized when configuring SmartConnect DNS zones and client connection
management.
Each IP address pool belongs to a single subnet. Multiple pools for a single subnet are
available only if you activate a SmartConnect Advanced license.
The IP address ranges assigned to a pool must be unique and belong to the IP address
family (IPv4 or IPv6) specified by the subnet that contains the pool.
You can add network interfaces to IP address pools to associate address ranges with a
node or a group of nodes. For example, based on the network traffic that you expect, you
might decide to establish one IP address pool for storage nodes and another for
accelerator nodes.
IP address pools

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SmartConnect settings that manage DNS query responses and client connections are
configured at the IP address pool level.
Note

IsilonSD Edge does not support IPv6 addresses for connecting to IsilonSD clusters.

Link aggregation
Link aggregation, also known as network interface card (NIC) aggregation, combines the
network interfaces on a physical node into a single, logical connection to provide
improved network throughput.
You can add network interfaces to an IP address pool singly or as an aggregate. A link
aggregation mode is selected on a per-pool basis and applies to all aggregated network
interfaces in the IP address pool. The link aggregation mode determines how traffic is
balanced and routed among aggregated network interfaces.

SmartConnect module
SmartConnect is a module that specifies how the DNS server on the EMC Isilon cluster
handles connection requests from clients and the policies used to assign IP addresses to
network interfaces, including failover and rebalancing.
Settings and policies configured for SmartConnect are applied per IP address pool. You
can configure basic and advanced SmartConnect settings.
SmartConnect Basic
SmartConnect Basic is included with OneFS as a standard feature and does not require a
license. SmartConnect Basic supports the following settings:
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Specification of the DNS zone

Round-robin connection balancing method only

Service subnet to answer DNS requests

SmartConnect Basic has the following limitations to IP address pool configuration:

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You may only specify a static IP address allocation policy.

You cannot specify an IP address failover policy.

You cannot specify an IP address rebalance policy.

You may only assign one IP address pool per external network subnet.

SmartConnect Advanced
SmartConnect Advanced extends the settings available from SmartConnect Basic. It
requires an active license. SmartConnect Advanced supports the following settings:
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Round-robin, CPU utilization, connection counting, and throughput balancing

methods.

Static and dynamic IP address allocation.

SmartConnect Advanced allows you to specify the following IP address pool configuration
options:

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You can define an IP address failover policy for the IP address pool.

You can define an IP address rebalance policy for the IP address pool.

SmartConnect Advanced supports multiple IP address pools per external subnet to

allow multiple DNS zones within a single subnet.

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SmartConnect zones and aliases

Clients can connect to the EMC Isilon cluster through a specific IP address or though a
domain that represents an IP address pool.
You can configure a SmartConnect DNS zone name for each IP address pool. The zone
name must be a fully qualified domain name. SmartConnect requires that you add a new
name server (NS) record that references the SmartConnect service IP address in the
existing authoritative DNS zone that contains the cluster. You must also provide a zone
delegation to the fully qualified domain name (FQDN) of the SmartConnect zone in your
DNS infrastructure.
If you have a SmartConnect Advanced license, you can also specify a list of alternate
SmartConnect DNS zone names for the IP address pool.
When a client connects to the cluster through a SmartConnect DNS zone, SmartConnect
handles the incoming DNS requests on behalf of the IP address pool, and the service
subnet distributes incoming DNS requests according to the pool's connection balancing
policy.

DNS request handling

SmartConnect handles all incoming DNS requests on behalf of an IP address pool if a
SmartConnect service subnet has been associated with the pool.
The SmartConnect service subnet is an IP address pool setting. You can specify any
subnet that has been configured with a SmartConnect service IP address and references
the same groupnet as the pool. You must have at least one subnet configured with a
SmartConnect service IP address in order to handle client DNS requests. You can
configure only one service IP address per subnet.
A SmartConnect service IP address should be used exclusively for answering DNS
requests and cannot be an IP address that is in any pool's IP address range. Client
connections through the SmartConnect service IP address result in unexpected behavior
or disconnection.
Once a SmartConnect service subnet has been associated with an IP address pool, the
service subnet distributes incoming DNS requests according to the pool's connection
balancing policy. If a pool does not have a designated service subnet, incoming DNS
requests are answered by the subnet that contains the pool, provided that the subnet is
configured with a SmartConnect service IP address. Otherwise, the DNS requests are
excluded.
Note

SmartConnect requires that you add a new name server (NS) record that references the
SmartConnect service IP address in the existing authoritative DNS zone that contains the
cluster. You must also provide a zone delegation to the fully qualified domain name
(FQDN) of the SmartConnect zone.

IP address allocation
The IP address allocation policy specifies how IP addresses in the pool are assigned to an
available network interface.
You can specify whether to use static or dynamic allocation.
Static
Assigns one IP address to each network interface added to the IP address pool, but
does not guarantee that all IP addresses are assigned.
SmartConnect module

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Once assigned, the network interface keeps the IP address indefinitely, even if the
network interface becomes unavailable. To release the IP address, remove the
network interface from the pool or remove it from the node.
Without a license for SmartConnect Advanced, static is the only method available for
IP address allocation.
Dynamic
Assigns IP addresses to each network interface added to the IP address pool until all
IP addresses are assigned. This guarantees a response when clients connect to any
IP address in the pool.
If a network interface becomes unavailable, its IP addresses are automatically
moved to other available network interfaces in the pool as determined by the IP
address failover policy.
This method is only available with a license for SmartConnect Advanced.

IP address failover
When a network interface becomes unavailable, the IP address failover policy specifies
how to handle the IP addresses that were assigned to the network interface.
To define an IP address failover policy, you must have a license for SmartConnect
Advanced, and the IP address allocation policy must be set to dynamic. Dynamic IP
allocation ensures that all of the IP addresses in the pool are assigned to available
network interfaces.
When a network interface becomes unavailable, the IP addresses that were assigned to it
are redistributed to available network interfaces according to the IP address failover
policy. Subsequent client connections are directed to the new network interfaces.
You can select one of the following connection balancing methods to determine how the
IP address failover policy selects which network interface receives a redistributed IP
address:
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Round-robin

Connection count

Network throughput

CPU usage

Connection balancing
The connection balancing policy determines how the DNS server handles client
connections to the EMC Isilon cluster.
You can specify one of the following balancing methods:
Round-robin
Selects the next available network interface on a rotating basis. This is the default
method. Without a SmartConnect license for advanced settings, this is the only
method available for load balancing.
Connection count
Determines the number of open TCP connections on each available network interface
and selects the network interface with the fewest client connections.
Network throughput
Determines the average throughput on each available network interface and selects
the network interface with the lowest network interface load.
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CPU usage
Determines the average CPU utilization on each available network interface and
selects the network interface with lightest processor usage.

IP address rebalancing
The IP address rebalance policy specifies when to redistribute IP addresses if one or more
previously unavailable network interfaces becomes available again.
To define an IP address rebalance policy, you must have a license for SmartConnect
Advanced, and the IP address allocation policy must be set to dynamic. Dynamic IP
addresses allocation ensures that all of the IP addresses in the pool are assigned to
available network interfaces.
You can set rebalancing to occur manually or automatically:
Manual
Does not redistribute IP addresses until you manually start the rebalancing process.
Upon rebalancing, IP addresses will be redistributed according to the connection
balancing method specified by the IP address failover policy defined for the IP
address pool.
Automatic
Automatically redistributes IP addresses according to the connection balancing
method specified by the IP address failover policy defined for the IP address pool.
Automatic rebalancing may also be triggered by changes to cluster nodes, network
interfaces, or the configuration of the external network.
Note

Rebalancing can disrupt client connections. Ensure the client workflow on the IP
address pool is appropriate for automatic rebalancing.

Node provisioning rules

Node provisioning rules specify how new nodes are configured when they are added to
an EMC Isilon cluster.
If the new node type matches the type defined in a rule, the network interfaces on the
node are added to the subnet and the IP address pool specified in the rule.
For example, you can create a node provisioning rule that configures new Isilon storage
nodes, and another rule that configures new accelerator nodes.
OneFS automatically checks for multiple provisioning rules when new rules are added to
ensure there are no conflicts.

Routing options
OneFS supports source-based routing and static routes which allow for more granular
control of the direction of outgoing client traffic on the EMC Isilon cluster.
If no routing options are defined, by default, outgoing client traffic on the cluster is routed
through the default gateway, which is the gateway with the lowest priority setting on the
node. If traffic is being routed to a local subnet and does not need to route through a
gateway, the traffic will go directly out through an interface on that subnet.

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Source-based routing
Source-based routing selects which gateway to direct outgoing client traffic through
based on the source IP address in each packet header.
When enabled, source-based routing automatically scans your network configuration to
create client traffic rules. If you make modifications to your network configuration, such
as changing the IP address of a gateway server, source-based routing adjusts the rules.
Source-based routing is applied across the entire EMC Isilon cluster and does not support
the IPv6 protocol.
In the following example, you enable source-based routing on an Isilon cluster that is
connected to SubnetA and SubnetB. Each subnet is configured with a SmartConnect zone
and a gateway, also labeled A and B. When a client on SubnetA makes a request to
SmartConnect ZoneB, the response originates from ZoneB. This results in a ZoneB
address as the source IP in the packet header, and the response is routed through
GatewayB. Without source-based routing, the default route is destination-based, so the
response is routed through GatewayA.
In another example, a client on SubnetC, which is not connected to the Isilon cluster,
makes a request to SmartConnect ZoneA and ZoneB. The response from ZoneA is routed
through GatewayA, and the response from ZoneB is routed through GatewayB. In other
words, the traffic is split between gateways. Without source-based routing, both
responses are routed through the same gateway.
Source-based routing is disabled by default. Enabling or disabling source-based routing
goes into effect immediately. Packets in transit continue on their original courses, and
subsequent traffic is routed based on the status change. Transactions composed of
multiple packets might be disrupted or delayed if the status of source-based routing
changes during transmission.
Source-based routing can conflict with static routes. If a routing conflict occurs, sourcebased routing rules are prioritized over the static route.
You might enable source-based routing if you have a large network with a complex
topology. For example, if your network is a multi-tenant environment with several
gateways, traffic is more efficiently distributed with source-based routing.

Static routing
A static route directs outgoing client traffic to a specified gateway based on the IP
address of the client connection.
You configure static routes by IP address pool, and each route applies to all nodes that
have network interfaces as IP address pool members.
You might configure static routing in order to connect to networks that are unavailable
through the default routes or if you have a small network that only requires one or two
routes.
Note

If you have upgraded from a version earlier than OneFS 7.0.0, existing static routes that
were added through rc scripts will no longer work and must be re-created.

Configuring the internal network

You can modify the internal network settings of your EMC Isilon cluster.
The following actions are available:
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Modify the IP address ranges of the internal network and the int-b/failover network

Modify the internal network netmask

Configure and enable an internal failover network

Disable internal network failover

You can configure the int-b/failover network to provide backup in the event of an int-a
network failure. Configuration involves specifying a valid netmask and IP address range
for the failover network.

Modify the internal IP address range

Each internal InfiniBand network requires an IP address range. The ranges should have a
sufficient number of IP addresses for present operating conditions as well as future
expansion and addition of nodes. You can add, remove, or migrate IP addresses for both
the initial internal network (int-a) and secondary internal network (int-b/failover).
Procedure
1. Click Cluster Management > Network Configuration > Internal Network.
2. In the Internal Networks Settings area, select the network that you want to add IP
addresses for.
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To select the int-a network, click int-a.

To select the int-b/failover network, click int-b/Failover.

Note

Ignore this step if you are specifying the internal network settings for IsilonSD
Edge.
3. In the IP Ranges area, you can add, delete, or migrate your IP address ranges.
Ideally, the new range is contiguous with the previous one. For example, if your
current IP address range is 192.168.160.6092.168.160.162, the new range should
start with 192.168.160.163.
4. Click Submit.
5. Restart the cluster, if needed.
l

If you remove any IP address that are currently in use, you must restart the cluster.

If you add IP address changes are within the internal network netmask, you do not
need to restart the cluster.

If you change the internal network netmask, you must restart the cluster.

If you migrate the IP address ranges, you must restart the cluster.

Modify the internal network netmask

You can modify the netmask value for the internal network.
If the netmask is too restrictive for the size of the internal network, you must modify the
netmask settings. It is recommended that you specify a class C netmask, such as
255.255.255.0, for the internal netmask. This netmask is large enough to accommodate
future nodes.
Note

For the changes in netmask value to take effect, you must reboot the cluster.
Modify the internal IP address range

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Procedure
1. Click Cluster Management > Network Configuration > Internal Network.
2. In the Internal Network Settings area, select the network that you want to configure
the netmask for.
l

To select the int-a network, click int-a.

To select the int-b/failover network, click int-b/Failover.

Note

Ignore this step if you are configuring the netmask for IsilonSD Edge.
We recommend that the netmask values you specify for int-a and int-b/failover are the
same. If you modify the netmask value of one, modify the other.
3. In the Netmask field, type a netmask value.
You cannot modify the netmask value if the change invalidates any node addresses.
4. Click Submit.
A dialog box prompts you to reboot the cluster.
5. Specify when you want to reboot the cluster.
l

To immediately reboot the cluster, click Yes. When the cluster finishes rebooting,
the login page appears.

Click No to return to the Edit Internal Network page without changing the settings
or rebooting the cluster.

Configure and enable internal failover

You can enable an internal failover on your EMC Isilon cluster.
Internal failover on an IsilonSD cluster is enabled through the failover policy supported
by VMware vSphere. Therefore, this procedure is not applicable for IsilonSD Edge.
Procedure
1. Click Cluster Management > Network Configuration > Internal Network.
2. In the Internal Network Settings area, click int-b/Failover.
3. In the IP Ranges area, for the int-b network, click Add range.
4. On the Add IP Range dialog box, enter the IP address at the low end of the range in the
first IP range field.
5. In the second IP range field, type the IP address at the high end of the range.
Ensure that there is no overlap of IP addresses between the int-a and int-b/failover
network ranges. For example, if the IP address range for the int-a network is
192.168.1.1192.168.1.100, specify a range of 192.168.2.1 - 192.168.2.100 for the
int-b network.
6. Click Submit.
7. In the IP Ranges area for the Failover network, click Add range.
Add an IP address range for the failover network, ensuring there is no overlap with the
int-a network or the int-b network.
The Edit Internal Network page appears, and the new IP address range appears in the
IP Ranges list.
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8. In the Settings area, specify a valid netmask. Ensure that there is no overlap between
the IP address range for the int-b network or for the failover network.
We recommend that the netmask values you specify for int-a and int-b/failover are the
same.
9. In the Settings area, for State, click Enable to enable the int-b and failover networks.
10. Click Submit.
The Confirm Cluster Reboot dialog box appears.
11. Restart the cluster by clicking Yes.

Disable internal network failover

You can disable the int-b and failover internal networks.
Ignore these steps if you are running IsilonSD Edge.
Procedure
1. Click Cluster Management > Network Configuration > Internal Network.
2. In the Internal Network Settings area, click int-b/Failover.
3. In the State area, click Disable.
4. Click Submit.
The Confirm Cluster Reboot dialog box appears.
5. Restart the cluster by clicking Yes.

Managing groupnets
You can create and manage groupnets on the EMC Isilon cluster.

Create a groupnet
You can create a groupnet and configure DNS client settings.
Procedure
1. Click Cluster Management > Networking Configuration > External Network.
2. click Add a groupnet.
The Create Groupnet window opens.
3. In the Name field, type a name for the groupnet that is unique in the system.
The name can be up to 32 alphanumeric characters long and can include underscores
or hyphens, but cannot include spaces or other punctuation.
4. (Optional) In the Description field, type a descriptive comment about the groupnet.
The description cannot exceed 128 characters.
5. In the DNS Settings area, configure the following DNS settings you want to apply to
the groupnet:
l

DNS Servers

DNS Search Suffixes

DNS Resolver Rotate

Disable internal network failover

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Server-side DNS Search

DNS Cache

6. Click Add Groupnet.

DNS settings
You can assign DNS servers to a groupnet and modify DNS settings that specify DNS
server behavior.
Setting

Description

DNS Servers

Sets a list of DNS IP addresses. Nodes issue DNS requests to these IP

addresses.
You cannot specify more than three DNS servers.

DNS Search Suffixes

Sets the list of DNS search suffixes. Suffixes are appended to domain
names that are not fully qualified.
You cannot specify more than six suffixes.

Enable DNS resolver

rotate

Sets the DNS resolver to rotate or round-robin across DNS servers.

Enable DNS serverside search

Specifies whether server-side DNS searching is enabled, which appends

DNS search lists to client DNS inquiries handled by a SmartConnect
service IP address.

Enable DNS cache

Specifies whether DNS caching for the groupnet is enabled.

Modify a groupnet
You can modify groupnet attributes including the name, supported DNS servers, and DNS
configuration settings.
Procedure
1. Click Cluster Management > Networking Configuration > External Network.
2. Click the View/Edit button in the row of the groupnet you want to modify.
3. From the View Groupnet Details window, click Edit.
4. From the Edit Groupnet Details window, modify the groupnet settings as needed.
5. Click Save changes.

Delete a groupnet
You can delete a groupnet from the system, unless it is associated with an access zone,
an authentication provider, or it is the default groupnet. Removal of the groupnet from the
system might affect several other areas of OneFS and should be performed with caution.
Before you begin
In several cases, the association between a groupnet and another OneFS component,
such as access zones or authentication providers, is absolute. You cannot modify these
components so that they become associate with another groupnet.
In the event that you need to delete a groupnet, EMC recommends that you complete the
these tasks in the following order:
1. Delete IP address pools in subnets associated with the groupnet.

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2. Delete subnets associated with the groupnet .

3. Delete authentication providers associated with the groupnet .
4. Delete access zones associated with the groupnet .
Procedure
1. Click Cluster Management > Networking Configuration > External Network.
2. Click the More button in the row of the groupnet you want to delete, and then click
Delete Groupnet.
3. At the Confirm Delete dialog box, click Delete.
If you did not first delete access zones associated with the groupnet, the deletion
fails, and the system displays an error.

View groupnets
You can view a list of all groupnets on the system and view the details of a specific
groupnet.
Procedure
1. Click Cluster Management > Networking Configuration > External Network.
The External Network table displays all groupnets in the system and displays the
following attributes:
l

Groupnet name

DNS servers assigned to the groupnet

The type of groupnet

Groupnet description

2. Click the View/Edit button in a row to view the current settings for that groupnet.
The View Groupnet Details dialog box opens and displays the following settings:
l

Groupnet name

Groupnet description

DNS servers assigned to the groupnet

DNS search suffixes

Whether DNS resolver is enabled

Whether DNS search is enabled

Whether DNS caching is enabled

3. Click the tree arrow next to a groupnet name to view subnets assigned to the
groupnet.
The table displays each subnet in a new row within the groupnet tree.
4. When you have finished viewing groupnet details, click Close.

Managing external network subnets

You can create and manage subnets on the EMC Isilon cluster.

View groupnets

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Create a subnet
You can add a subnet to the external network. Subnets are created under a groupnet.
Procedure
1. Click Cluster Management > Network Configuration > External Network.
2. Click More > Add Subnet next to the groupnet that will contain the new subnet.
The system displays the Create Subnet window.
3. In the Name field, specify the name of the new subnet.
The name can be up to 32 alphanumeric characters long and can include underscores
or hyphens, but cannot include spaces or other punctuation.
4. (Optional) In the Description field, type a descriptive comment about the subnet.
The comment can be no more than 128 characters.
5. From the IP family area, select one of the following IP address formats for the subnet:
l

IPv4

IPv6
Note

IPv6 address format is not supported for IsilonSD Edge.

All subnet settings and IP address pools added to the subnet must use the specified
address format. You cannot modify the address family once the subnet has been
created.
6. In the Netmask field, specify a subnet mask or prefix length, depending on the IP
family you selected.
l

For an IPv4 subnet, type a dot-decimal octet (x.x.x.x) that represents the subnet
mask.

For an IPv6 subnet, type an integer (ranging from 1 to 128) that represents the
network prefix length.

7. In the Gateway address field, type the IP address of the gateway through which the
cluster routes communications to systems outside of the subnet.
8. In the Gateway priority field, type the priority (integer) that determines which subnet
gateway will be installed as the default gateway on nodes that have more then one
subnet.
A value of 1 represents the highest priority.
9. In the MTU list, type or select the size of the maximum transmission units the cluster
uses in network communication. Any numerical value is allowed, but must be
compatible with your network and the configuration of all devices in the network path.
Common settings are 1500 (standard frames) and 9000 (jumbo frames).
Although OneFS supports both 1500 MTU and 9000 MTU, using a larger frame size for
network traffic permits more efficient communication on the external network
between clients and cluster nodes. For example, if a subnet is connected through a 10
GbE interface and NIC aggregation is configured for IP address pools in the subnet, we
recommend that you set the MTU to 9000. To benefit from using jumbo frames, all
devices in the network path must be configured to use jumbo frames.
10. Click Add Subnet.
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Modify a subnet
You can modify a subnet on the external network.
Procedure
1. Click Cluster Management > Network Configuration > External Network.
2. Click View/Edit next to the subnet that you want to modify.
The system displays the View Subnet Details window.
3. Click Edit.
The system displays the Edit Subnet Details window.
4. Modify the subnet settings, and then click Save Changes.

Delete a subnet
You can delete a subnet from the external network.
Deleting an subnet that is in use can prevent access to the EMC Isilon cluster. Client
connections to the cluster through any IP address pool that belongs to the deleted
subnet will be terminated.
Procedure
1. Click Cluster Management > Network Configuration > External Network.
2. Click More > Delete Subnet next to the subnet that you want to delete.
3. At the confirmation prompt, click Delete.

View subnet settings

You can view setting details for a specific subnet.
Procedure
1. Click Cluster Management > Network Configuration > External Network.
2. Click View/Edit next to the subnet that you want to view.
The system displays the View Subnet Details window.
3. Click Close to close the window.

Configure a SmartConnect service IP address

You can set a SmartConnect service IP address in a subnet that will receive all incoming
DNS requests for each IP address pool that is configured to use this subnet as a
SmartConnect service subnet.
Procedure
1. Click Cluster Management > Network Configuration > External Network.
2. Click View/Edit next to the subnet that you want to modify.
The system displays the View Subnet Details window.
3. Click Edit.
The system displays the Edit Subnet Details window.
4. In the SmartConnect Service IP field, type the IP address.
Modify a subnet

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5. Click Save Changes.

After you finish
If you want an IP address pool to use the configured SmartConnect service IP address to
answer DNS requests, modify the pool's settings to specify this subnet as the
SmartConnect service subnet.

Enable or disable VLAN tagging

You can configure a cluster to participate in multiple virtual private networks, also known
as virtual LANs or VLANs.
Procedure
1. Click Cluster Management > Network Configuration > External Network.
2. Click View/Edit next to the subnet that you want to modify.
The system displays the View Subnet Details window.
3. Click Edit.
The system displays the Edit Subnet Details window.
4. Select the Allow VLAN tagging checkbox to enable or disable VLAN tagging.
5. If you enable VLAN tagging, type a number between 2 and 4094 in the VLAN ID field.
The number must correspond to the VLAN ID number set on the switch.
6. Click Save Changes.

Add or remove a DSR address

If your network contains a hardware load balancing switch using Direct Server Return
(DSR), you must configure a DSR address for each subnet.
The DSR address routes all client traffic to the EMC Isilon cluster through the switch. The
switch determines which node handles the traffic for the client and passes the traffic to
that node.
Procedure
1. Click Cluster Management > Network Configuration > External Network.
2. Click View/Edit next to the subnet that you want to modify.
The system displays the View Subnet Details window.
3. Click Edit.
The system displays the Edit Subnet Details window.
4. In the Hardware load balancing field, type the DSR address.
5. Click Save Changes.

Managing IP address pools

You can create and manage IP address pools on the EMC Isilon cluster.

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Create an IP address pool

You can add an IP address pool to the external network. Pools are created under a
subnet.
Procedure
1. Click Cluster Management > Network Configuration > External Network.
2. Click More > Add Pool next to the subnet that will contain the new IP address pool.
The system displays the Create Pool window.
3. In the Name field, specify the name of the new IP address pool.
The name can be up to 32 alphanumeric characters long and can include underscores
or hyphens, but cannot include spaces or other punctuation.
4. (Optional) In the Description field, type a descriptive comment about the IP address
pool.
The comment can be no more than 128 characters.
5. From the Access Zone list, select the access zone you want associated with the IP
address pool
Clients connecting through IP addresses in this pool can access data only in the
associated access zone.
6. In the IP range area, enter a range of IP addresses you want assigned to the IP address
pool in the fields provided.
Specify the range in the following format: <lower_ip_address><higher_ip_address>.
7. Click Add Pool.

Modify an IP address pool

You can modify an IP address pool on the external network.
Procedure
1. Click Cluster Management > Network Configuration > External Network.
2. Click View/Edit next to the IP address pool that you want to modify.
The system displays the View Pool Details window.
3. Click Edit.
The system displays the Edit Pool Details window.
4. Modify the IP address pool settings, and then click Save Changes.

Delete an IP address pool

You can use the web interface to delete IP address pool settings.
Deleting an IP address pool that is in use can prevent access to the EMC Isilon cluster.
Client connections to the cluster through any IP address in the pool will be terminated.
Procedure
1. Click Cluster Management > Network Configuration > External Network.
2. Click More > Delete Pool next to the IP address pool that you want to delete.
3. At the confirmation prompt, click Delete.
Create an IP address pool

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View IP address pool settings

You can view setting details for a specific IP address pool.
Procedure
1. Click Cluster Management > Network Configuration > External Network.
2. Click View/Edit next to the IP address pool that you want to view.
The system displays the View Pool Details window.
3. Click Close to close the window.

Add or remove an IP address range

You can add or remove an IP address range within IP address pool settings.
Procedure
1. Click Cluster Management > Network Configuration > External Network.
2. Click View/Edit next to the IP address pool that you want to modify.
The system displays the View Pool Details window.
3. Click Edit.
The system displays the Edit Pool Details window.
4. To add a range, in the IP range area, enter a range of IP addresses you want assigned
to the IP address pool in the fields provided.
Specify the range in the following format: low IP address - high IP address
5. To add an additional range, click Add an IP range.
The system provides fields in which you can enter the low and high IP addresses of
the additional range.
6. To delete an IP address range, click the Clear this field icon next to the range you want
to delete.
7. Click Save Changes.

Managing SmartConnect Settings

You can configure SmartConnect settings within each IP address pool on the EMC Isilon
cluster.

Modify a SmartConnect DNS zone

You can specify a SmartConnect DNS zone and alternate DNS zone aliases that will
handle DNS requests for an IP address pool.
Procedure
1. Click Cluster Management > Network Configuration > External Network.
2. Click View/Edit next to the IP address pool that you want to modify.
The system displays the View Pool Details window.
3. Click Edit.
The system displays the Edit Pool Details window.
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4. From the SmartConnect Basic area, specify the SmartConnect DNS zone in the Zone
name field.
The SmartConnect DNS zone should be a fully qualified domain name (FQDN).
5. (Optional) From the SmartConnect Advanced area, specify any aliases for the
SmartConnect DNS zone in the SmartConnect Zone Aliases field.
A SmartConnect Advanced license is required to specify zone aliases.
6. Click Save Changes.
After you finish
To use the SmartConnect zone you need to configure your DNS infrastructure to delegate
the DNS zone. Add a new name server (NS) record pointing at the SmartConnect service
IP address, and then add a zone delegation to the new name server for the FQDN of the
SmartConnect zone name.

Specify a SmartConnect service subnet

You can designate a subnet as the SmartConnect service subnet for an IP address pool.
The service subnet answers all DNS requests on behalf of the pool's SmartConnect DNS
zone.
Before you begin
The subnet that you designate as the SmartConnect service subnet must have a
SmartConnect service IP address configured, and the subnet must be in the same
groupnet as the IP address pool. For example, although a pool might belong to subnet3,
you can designate subnet5 as the SmartConnect service subnet as long as both subnets
are under the same groupnet.
If a pool does not have a designated service subnet, incoming DNS requests are
answered by the subnet that contains the pool, provided that the subnet is configured
with a SmartConnect service IP address. Otherwise, the DNS requests are excluded.
Procedure
1. Click Cluster Management > Network Configuration > External Network.
2. Click View/Edit next to the IP address pool that you want to modify.
The system displays the View Pool Details window.
3. Click Edit.
The system displays the Edit Pool Details window.
4. From the SmartConnect Basic area, select a subnet from the SmartConnect Service
Subnet list.
5. Click Save Changes.

Suspend or resume a node

You can suspend and resume SmartConnect DNS responses for a node.
Procedure
1. Click Cluster Management > Network Configuration > External Network.
2. Click View/Edit next to the IP address pool that you want to modify.
The system displays the View Pool Details window.
3. Click Edit.
The system displays the Edit Pool Details window.
Specify a SmartConnect service subnet

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4. To suspend a node:
a. In the SmartConnect Suspended Nodes area, click Suspend Nodes.
The system displays the Suspend Nodes window.
b. Select a logical node number (LNN) from the Available table, and then click Add.
c. Click Suspend Nodes.
d. At the confirmation window, click Confirm.
5. To resume a node:
a. From the SmartConnect Suspended Nodes table, click the Resume button next to
the node number you want to resume.
b. At the confirmation window, click Confirm.
6. Click Close.

Configure IP address allocation

You can specify whether the IP addresses in an IP address pool are allocated to network
interfaces statically or dynamically.
Before you begin
To configure dynamic IP address allocation, you must activate a SmartConnect Advanced
license.
Procedure
1. Click Cluster Management > Network Configuration > External Network.
2. Click View/Edit next to the IP address pool that you want to modify.
The system displays the View Pool Details window.
3. Click Edit.
The system displays the Edit Pool Details window.
4. From the Allocation Method the SmartConnect Advanced Settings area, select one of
the following allocation methods:
l

Static

Dynamic

5. Click Save Changes.

Supported IP allocation methods

The IP address allocation policy specifies how the IP addresses in the pool are assigned
to an available network interface.
You can specify whether to use static or dynamic allocation.
Static
Assigns one IP address to each network interface added to the IP address pool, but
does not guarantee that all IP addresses are assigned.
Once assigned, the network interface keeps the IP address indefinitely, even if the
network interface becomes unavailable. To release the IP address, remove the
network interface from the pool or remove it from the cluster.
Without a license for SmartConnect Advanced, static is the only method available for
IP address allocation.
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Dynamic
Assigns IP addresses to each network interface added to the IP address pool until all
IP addresses are assigned. This guarantees a response when clients connect to any
IP address in the pool.
If a network interface becomes unavailable, its IP addresses are automatically
moved to other available network interfaces in the pool as determined by the IP
address failover policy.
This method is only available with a license for SmartConnect Advanced.

Allocation recommendations based on file sharing protocols

It is recommended that you select a static allocation method if your clients connect
through stateful protocols and a dynamic allocation method with stateless protocols.
The following table displays several common protocols and the recommended allocation
method:
File sharing protocol Recommended allocation method
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SMB

HTTP

FTP

sFTP

FTPS

SyncIQ

Swift

NFSv3

NFSv4

HDFS

Static

Dynamic

Configure a connection balancing policy

You can set a connection balancing policy for an IP address pool.
Procedure
1. Click Cluster Management > Network Configuration > External Network.
2. Click View/Edit next to the IP address pool that you want to modify.
The system displays the View Pool Details window.
3. Click Edit.
The system displays the Edit Pool Details window.
4. From the SmartConnect Advanced area, select one of the following balancing
methods from the Client Connection Balancing Policy list:
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Round-robin

Configure a connection balancing policy

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Note

Round-robin is the default setting and the only balancing method available
without activating a SmartConnect Advanced license.
l

Connection count

Throughput

CPU usage

5. Click Save Changes.

Supported connection balancing methods

The connection balancing policy determines how the DNS server handles client
connections to the EMC Isilon cluster.
You can specify one of the following balancing methods:
Round-robin
Selects the next available node on a rotating basis. This is the default method.
Without a SmartConnect license for advanced settings, this is the only method
available for load balancing.
Connection count
Determines the number of open TCP connections on each available node and selects
the node with the fewest client connections.
Network throughput
Determines the average throughput on each available node and selects the node
with the lowest network interface load.
CPU usage
Determines the average CPU utilization on each available node and selects the node
with lightest processor usage.

Configure an IP failover policy

You can set an IP failover policy for an IP address pool.
Before you begin
To configure an IP failover policy, you must activate a SmartConnect Advanced license.
Procedure
1. Click Cluster Management > Network Configuration > External Network.
2. Click View/Edit next to the IP address pool that you want to modify.
The system displays the View Pool Details window.
3. Click Edit.
The system displays the Edit Pool Details window.
4. From the SmartConnect Advanced area, select one of the following failover methods
from the IP Failover Policy list:

500

Round-robin

Connection count

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CPU usage

5. Click Save Changes.

Configure an IP rebalance policy

You can configure a manual or automatic rebalance policy for an IP address pool.
Before you begin
To configure a rebalance policy for an IP address pool, you must activate a SmartConnect
Advanced license and set the allocation method to dynamic.
Procedure
1. Click Cluster Management > Network Configuration > External Network.
2. Click View/Edit next to the IP address pool that you want to modify.
The system displays the View Pool Details window.
3. Click Edit.
The system displays the Edit Pool Details window.
4. From the SmartConnect Advanced area, select one of the following rebalancing
methods from the Rebalance Policy list:
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Automatic

Manual

5. Click Save Changes.

Supported rebalancing methods

The IP address rebalance policy specifies when to redistribute IP addresses if one or more
previously unavailable network interfaces becomes available again.
You can set rebalancing to occur manually or automatically:
Manual
Does not redistribute IP addresses until you manually issue a rebalance command
through the command-line interface.
Upon rebalancing, IP addresses will be redistributed according to the connection
balancing method specified by the IP address failover policy defined for the IP
address pool.
Automatic
Automatically redistributes IP addresses according to the connection balancing
method specified by the IP address failover policy defined for the IP address pool.
Automatic rebalance may also be triggered by changes to cluster nodes, network
interfaces, or the configuration of the external network.
Note

Rebalancing can disrupt client connections. Ensure the client workflow on the IP
address pool is appropriate for automatic rebalancing.

Configure an IP rebalance policy

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Manually rebalance IP addresses

You can manually rebalance a specific IP address pool or all of the pools on the external
network.
Before you begin
You must activate a SmartConnect Advanced license.
Procedure
1. To manually rebalance IP addresses in a pool:
a. Click Cluster Management > Network Configuration > External Network.
b. Click View/Edit next to the IP address pool that you want to modify.
The system displays the View Pool Details window.
c. Click Edit.
The system displays the Edit Pool Details window.
d. From the Advanced Settings area, click Rebalance Pool IPs.
e. At the confirmation window, click Confirm.
f. Click Cancel to close the Edit Pool Details window.
2. To manually rebalance all IP address pools:
a. Click Cluster Management > Network Configuration > Settings.
b. Click Rebalance All IPs.
c. At the confirmation window, click Confirm.

Managing network interface members

You can add and remove network interfaces to IP address pools.

Add or remove a network interface

You can configure which network interfaces are assigned to an IP address pool.
Procedure
1. Click Cluster Management > Network Configuration > External Network.
2. Click View/Edit next to the IP address pool that you want to modify.
The system displays the View Pool Details window.
3. Click Edit.
The system displays the Edit Pool Details window.
4. To add a network interface to the IP address pool:
a. From the Pool Interface Members area, select the interface you want from the
Available table.
If you add an aggregated interface to the pool, you cannot individually add any
interfaces that are part of the aggregated interface.
b. Click Add.
5. To remove a network interface from the IP address pool:
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a. From the Pool Interface Members area, select the interface you want from the In
Pool table.
b. Click Remove.
6. Click Save Changes.

Configure link aggregation

You can combine multiple, physical external network interfaces on a node into a single
logical interface through link aggregation.
Procedure
1. Click Cluster Management > Network Configuration > External Network.
2. Click View/Edit next to the IP address pool that you want to modify.
The system displays the View Pool Details window.
3. Click Edit.
The system displays the Edit Pool Details window.
4. From the Pool Interface Members area, select the aggregated interface you want from
the Available table and click Add.
5. From the Advanced Settings area, select one of the following link aggregation
methods from the Aggregation Mode list:
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Round-robin

Failover

LACP

FEC

6. Click Save Changes.

Link aggregation modes

The link aggregation mode determines how traffic is balanced and routed among
aggregated network interfaces. The aggregation mode is selected on a per-pool basis and
applies to all aggregated network interfaces in the IP address pool.
OneFS supports dynamic and static aggregation modes. A dynamic aggregation mode
enables nodes with aggregated interfaces to communicate with the switch so that the
switch can use an analogous aggregation mode. Static modes do not facilitate
communication between nodes and the switch.
OneFS provides support for the following link aggregation modes:
Link Aggregation Control Protocol (LACP)
Dynamic aggregation mode that supports the IEEE 802.3ad Link Aggregation Control
Protocol (LACP). You can configure LACP at the switch level, which allows the node to
negotiate interface aggregation with the switch. LACP balances outgoing traffic
across the interfaces based on hashed protocol header information that includes the
source and destination address and the VLAN tag, if available. This option is the
default aggregation mode.
Loadbalance (FEC)
Static aggregation method that accepts all incoming traffic and balances outgoing
traffic over aggregated interfaces based on hashed protocol header information that
includes source and destination addresses.

Configure link aggregation

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Active/Passive Failover
Static aggregation mode that switches to the next active interface when the primary
interface becomes unavailable. The primary interface handles traffic until there is an
interruption in communication. At that point, one of the secondary interfaces will
take over the work of the primary.
Round-robin
Static aggregation mode that rotates connections through the nodes in a first-in,
first-out sequence, handling all processes without priority. Balances outbound traffic
across all active ports in the aggregated link and accepts inbound traffic on any port.
Note

This method is not recommended if your EMC Isilon cluster is using TCP/IP
workloads.

Link aggregation mapping

Network interfaces that can be added to an IP address pool as an aggregated interface
are included when viewing a list of network interfaces on a node. The following table
shows examples of how aggregated interfaces are mapped to non-aggregated interfaces.
Logical Network
Interface (LNI)

Aggregated LNI

ext-1
ext-2

ext-agg = ext-1 + ext-2

ext-1
ext-2

ext-agg = ext-1 + ext-2

ext-agg-2 = ext-3 + ext-4

ext-3

ext-agg-3 = ext-3 + ext-4 + ext-1 + ext-2

ext-4
ext-1
ext-2

ext-agg = ext-1 + ext-2

10gige-agg-1 = 10gige-1 + 10gige-2

10gige-1
10gige-2

Managing node provisioning rules

You can create and manage node provisioning rules that automate the configuration of
new network interfaces.

Create a node provisioning rule

You can create a node provisioning rule to specify how network interfaces on new nodes
are configured when the nodes are added to the EMC Isilon cluster. Node provisioning
rules are created under an IP address pool.
Procedure
1. Click Cluster Management > Network Configuration > External Network.

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2. Click More > Add Rule next to the IP address pool that will contain the new node
provisioning rule.
The system displays the Create Rule window.
3. From the Name field, specify the name of the new node provisioning rule.
4. (Optional) In the Description field, type a descriptive comment about the rule.
The comment can be no more than 128 characters.
5. From the Interface Type list, select the network interface type that will be added to the
pool when the new node is added to the cluster.
6. From the Node Type list, select one of the following node types:
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Any

Storage

Accelerator

Backup accelerator

The rule is applied when a node matching the selected type is added to the cluster.
Note

In the case of IsilonSD Edge, the node type has to be the same in a given IsilonSD
cluster. Therefore, the Node Type option is not applicable for IsilonSD Edge.
7. Click Add rule.

Modify a node provisioning rule

You can modify node provisioning rule settings.
Procedure
1. Click Cluster Management > Network Configuration > External Network.
2. Click View/Edit next to the node provisioning rule that you want to modify.
The system displays the View Rule Details window.
3. Click Edit.
The system displays the Edit Rule Details window.
4. Modify the node provisioning rule settings, and then click Save Changes.

Delete a node provisioning rule

You can delete a node provisioning rule that is no longer necessary.
Procedure
1. Click Cluster Management > Network Configuration > External Network.
2. Click More > Delete Rule next to the node provisioning rule that you want to delete.
3. At the confirmation prompt, click Delete.

Modify a node provisioning rule

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View node provisioning rule settings

You can view setting details for a specific node provisioning rule.
Procedure
1. Click Cluster Management > Network Configuration > External Network.
2. Click View/Edit next to the node provisioning rule that you want to view.
The system displays the View Rule Details window.
3. Click Close to close the window.

Managing routing options

You can provide additional control of the direction of outgoing client traffic through
source-based routing or static route configuration.
If both source-based routing and static routes are configured, the static routes will take
priority for traffic that matches the static routes.

Enable or disable source-based routing

You can enable or disable source-based routing globally on the EMC Isilon cluster.
Procedure
1. Click Cluster Management > Network Configuration > Settings.
2. Select or deselect the Enable source based routing checkbox.
3. Click Save Changes.

Add or remove a static route

You can configure static routes to direct outgoing traffic to specific destinations through a
specific gateway. Static routes are configured at the IP address pool level.
Before you begin
Static routes must match the IP address family (IPv4 or IPv6) of the IP address pool they
are configured within.
Procedure
1. Click Cluster Management > Network Configuration > External Network.
2. Click View/Edit next to the IP address pool that you want to modify.
The system displays the View Pool Details window.
3. Click Edit.
The system displays the Edit Pool Details window.
4. To add a static route:
a. From the Static Routes area, click Add static route.
The system displays the Create Static Route window.
b. In the Subnet field, specify the IPv4 or IPv6 address of the subnet that traffic will
be routed to.
c. In the Netmask or Prefixlen field, specify the netmask (IPv4) or prefix length (IPv6)
of the subnet you provided.
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d. In the Gateway field, specify the IPv4 or IPv6 address of the gateway that traffic will
be routed through.
e. Click Add Static Route.
5. To remove a static route, from the Static Routes table, click the Remove button next to
the route you want to delete.
6. Click Save Changes.

Managing DNS cache settings

You can set DNS cache settings for the external network.

Flush the DNS cache

You can simultaneously flush the DNS cache of each groupnet that has enabled DNS
caching.
Procedure
1. Click Cluster Management > Network Configuration > DNS Cache.
2. From the Actions area, click Flush DNS Cache.
3. At the confirmation window, click Confirm.

Modify DNS cache settings

You can modify global settings that are applied to the DNS cache of each groupnet that
has enabled DNS caching.
Procedure
1. Click Cluster Management > Network Configuration > DNS Cache.
2. Modify the DNS cache settings, and then click Save Changes.

DNS cache settings

You can configure settings for the DNS cache.
Setting

Description

TTL No Error Minimum

Specifies the lower boundary on time-to-live for cache hits.

The default value is 30 seconds.

TTL No Error Maximum

Specifies the upper boundary on time-to-live for cache hits.

The default value is 3600 seconds.

TTL Non-existent Domain Specifies the lower boundary on time-to-live for nxdomain.
Minimum
The default value is 15 seconds.
TTL Non-existent Domain Specifies the upper boundary on time-to-live for nxdomain.
Maximum
The default value is 3600 seconds.
TTL Other Failures
Minimum

Specifies the lower boundary on time-to-live for non-nxdomain

failures.
The default value is 0 seconds.

TTL Other Failures

Maximum

Specifies the upper boundary on time-to-live for non-nxdomain

failures.
Managing DNS cache settings

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Setting

Description
The default value is 60 seconds.

TTL Lower Limit For

Server Failures

Specifies the lower boundary on time-to-live for DNS server failures.

The default value is 300 seconds.

TTL Upper Limit For

Server Failures

Specifies the upper boundary on time-to-live for DNS server failures.

The default value is 3600 seconds.

Eager Refresh

Specifies the lead time to refresh cache entries that are nearing
expiration.
The default value is 0 seconds.

Cache Entry Limit

Specifies the maximum number of entries that the DNS cache can
contain.
The default value is 65536 entries.

Test Ping Delta

Specifies the delta for checking the cbind cluster health.

The default value is 30 seconds.

Managing TCP ports

You can modify the list of client TCP ports available to the external network.

Add or remove TCP ports

You can add and remove TCP ports from the list of ports available for the external
network.
Procedure
1. Click Cluster Management > Network Configuration > Settings.
2. To add a TCP port:
a. From the TCP Ports area, click Add TCP Ports.
The system displays the Add TCP Ports window.
b. In the TCP Ports field, type a port number.
c. (Optional) Click Add another port to specify additional port numbers.
d. Click Add Ports.
3. To remove a TCP port, from the TCP Ports table, click the Remove button next to the
port you want to delete.
4. Click Save Changes.

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CHAPTER 26
Hadoop

This section contains the following topics:

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Hadoop overview................................................................................................ 510

Hadoop architecture............................................................................................510
How Hadoop is implemented on OneFS...............................................................510
Hadoop distributions supported by OneFS.......................................................... 511
HDFS files and directories................................................................................... 511
Hadoop user and group accounts........................................................................512
HDFS authentication methods............................................................................. 512
HDFS and SmartConnect..................................................................................... 512
WebHDFS............................................................................................................ 513
Secure impersonation......................................................................................... 513
Ambari agent.......................................................................................................513
Virtual HDFS racks...............................................................................................514
Deploying Hadoop with OneFS............................................................................ 514
Managing the HDFS service................................................................................. 515
Set the HDFS root directory..................................................................................517
Configuring HDFS authentication methods.......................................................... 517
Create a local Hadoop user..................................................................................519
Enable or disable WebHDFS................................................................................ 519
Configuring secure impersonation.......................................................................519
Configure Ambari agent settings..........................................................................521
Managing virtual HDFS racks............................................................................... 522

Hadoop

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Hadoop overview
Hadoop is an open-source platform that runs analytics on large sets of data across a
distributed file system.
In a Hadoop implementation on an EMC Isilon cluster, OneFS acts as the distributed file
system and HDFS is supported as a native protocol. Clients from a Hadoop cluster
connect to the Isilon cluster through the HDFS protocol to manage and process data.
Hadoop support on the cluster requires you to activate an HDFS license. To obtain a
license, contact your EMC Isilon sales representative.

Hadoop architecture
Hadoop consists of a compute layer and a storage layer.
In a typical Hadoop implementation, both layers exist on the same cluster.

Compute layer
YARN is the task processing engine of the Hadoop compute layer.
YARN runs a variety of jobs (also known as applications), or queries, on large sets of data
and pulls information out. YARN relies on the following key components:
ResourceManager
Global authority that allocates resources (such as CPU, memory, disk, network) to
NodeManagers, and schedules jobs based on their resource requirements.
NodeManager
Per-node component that launches jobs and monitors job resource consumption.

Storage layer
The storage layer is known as the Hadoop distributed file system (HDFS).
The storage layer contains the data accessed and processed by the compute layer. HDFS
relies on two key components:
NameNode
Node that stores in-memory maps of every file, including information about which
DataNode the file resides on and the location of the file on the DataNode.
DataNode
Node that stores data and serves read and write requests as directed by the
NameNode component.
A typical Hadoop implementation contains one NameNode that acts as a master and
routes requests for data access to the proper DataNode.

How Hadoop is implemented on OneFS

In a Hadoop implementation on the EMC Isilon cluster, data is stored on OneFS. HDFS is
supported as a protocol, which is used by Hadoop compute clients to access data.
A Hadoop implementation with OneFS differs from a typical Hadoop implementation in
the following ways:
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The compute and storage layers are on separate clusters instead of the same cluster.

Instead of storing data within a Hadoop distributed file system, the storage layer
functionality is fulfilled by OneFS on an EMC Isilon cluster. Nodes on the Isilon cluster
function as both a NameNode and a DataNode.

The compute layer is established on a Hadoop compute cluster that is separate from
the Isilon cluster. MapReduce and its components are installed on the Hadoop
compute cluster only.

Rather than a storage layer, HDFS is implemented on OneFS as a native, lightweight

protocol layer between the Isilon cluster and the Hadoop compute cluster. Clients
from the Hadoop compute cluster connect over HDFS to access data on the Isilon
cluster.

In addition to HDFS, clients from the Hadoop compute cluster can connect to the
Isilon cluster over any protocol that OneFS supports such as NFS, SMB, FTP, and
HTTP.

Hadoop compute clients can connect to any node on the Isilon cluster that functions
as a NameNode instead of being routed by a single NameNode.

Hadoop distributions supported by OneFS

You can run most common Hadoop distributions with the EMC Isilon cluster.
OneFS supports many distributions of the Hadoop Distributed File System (HDFS). These
distributions are updated independently of OneFS and on their own schedules.
For the latest information about Hadoop distributions that OneFS supports, see the
Supported Hadoop Distributions and Products page on the EMC Community Network
(ECN).

HDFS files and directories

Before implementing Hadoop, ensure that the directories that you will need are
configured on the EMC Isilon cluster.
You configure one HDFS root directory in each access zone that will contain data
accessible to Hadoop compute clients. When a Hadoop compute client connects to the
cluster, the user can access all files and sub-directories in the specified root directory.
The default HDFS directory is /ifs.
Each IP address pool on the cluster must be associated with an access zone. When
Hadoop compute clients connect to the cluster through a given IP address pool, the
clients can access only the HDFS data in the associated access zone. This configuration
isolates data within access zones and allows you to restrict client access to the data.
Unlike NFS mounts or SMB shares, clients connecting to the cluster through HDFS cannot
be given access to individual folders within the root directory. . If you have multiple
Hadoop workflows that require separate sets of data, you can create multiple access
zones and configure a unique HDFS root directory for each zone.
When you set up directories and files under the root directory, ensure that they have the
correct permissions so that Hadoop clients and applications can access them. Directories
and permissions will vary by Hadoop distribution, environment, requirements, and
security policies.

Hadoop distributions supported by OneFS

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Hadoop user and group accounts

Before implementing Hadoop, ensure that the user and groups accounts that you will
need to connect over HDFS are configured on the EMC Isilon cluster.
You must also ensure that the user accounts that your Hadoop distribution requires are
configured on the Isilon cluster on a per-zone basis. The user accounts that you need and
the associated owner and group settings vary by distribution, requirements, and security
policies. The profiles of the accounts, including UIDs and GIDS, on the Isilon cluster
should match those of the accounts on your Hadoop compute clients.
OneFS must be able to look up a local Hadoop user or group by name. If there are no
directory services, such as Active Directory or LDAP, that can perform a user lookup, you
must create a local Hadoop user or group. If directory services are available, a local user
account or user group is not required.

HDFS authentication methods

You can configure an HDFS authentication method on a per-access zone basis.
When a Hadoop compute client connects to the EMC Isilon cluster through an access
zone, the client must authenticate with the method specified for that access zone. HDFS
supports simple authentication, Kerberos authentication, or both. By default, HDFS
accepts both simple and Kerberos authentication.

HDFS and SmartConnect

You can configure a SmartConnect DNS zone to manage connections from Hadoop
compute clients.
SmartConnect is a module that specifies how the DNS server on the EMC Isilon cluster
handles connection requests from clients. For each IP address pool on your Isilon cluster,
you can configure a SmartConnect DNS zone which is a fully qualified domain name
(FQDN). Hadoop compute clients can connect to the cluster through the SmartConnect
DNS zone name, and SmartConnect evenly distributes NameNode requests across IP
addresses and nodes in the pool.
When a Hadoop compute client makes an initial DNS request to connect to the
SmartConnect zone, the Hadoop client is routed to the IP address of an Isilon node that
serves as a NameNode. Subsequent requests from the Hadoop compute client go the
same node. When a second Hadoop client makes a DNS request for the SmartConnect
zone, SmartConnect balances traffic and routes the client connection to a different node
than that used by the previous Hadoop compute client.
If you specify a SmartConnect DNS zone that you want Hadoop compute clients to
connect though, you must add a new name server (NS) record as a delegated domain to
the authoritative DNS zone that contains the Isilon cluster. On the Hadoop compute
cluster, you must set the value of the fs.defaultFS property to the SmartConnect DNS
zone name in the core-site.xml file.
SmartConnect is discussed in further detail in the Networking section of this guide.

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WebHDFS
OneFS supports access to HDFS data through WebHDFS client applications.
WebHDFS is a RESTful programming interface based on HTTP operations such as GET,
PUT, POST, and DELETE that is available for creating client applications. WebHDFS client
applications allow you to access HDFS data and perform HDFS operations through HTTP
and HTTPS.
WebHDFS is supported by OneFS on a per-access zone basis and is enabled by default.
WebHDFS supports simple authentication or Kerberos authentication. If the HDFS
authentication method for an access zone is set to All, OneFS uses simple
authentication for WebHDFS.
Note

To prevent unauthorized client access through simple authentication, disable WebHDFS

in each access zone that should not support it.

Secure impersonation
Secure impersonation enables you to create proxy users that can impersonate other
users to run Hadoop jobs.
You might configure secure impersonation if you use applications, such as Apache Oozie,
to automatically schedule, manage, and run Hadoop jobs. For example, you can create an
Oozie proxy user that securely impersonates a user called HadoopAdmin, which allows
the Oozie user to request that Hadoop jobs be performed by the HadoopAdmin user.
You configure proxy users for secure impersonation on a perzone basis, and users or
groups of users that you assign as members to the proxy user must be from the same
access zone. A member can be one or more of the following identity types:
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User specified by user name or UID

Group of users specified by group name or GID

User, group, machine, or account specified by SID

Well-known user specified by name

If the proxy user does not present valid credentials or if a proxy user member does not
exist on the cluster, access is denied. The proxy user can only access files and subdirectories located in the HDFS root directory of the access zone. It is recommended that
you limit the members that the proxy user can impersonate to users that have access only
to the data the proxy user needs.

Ambari agent
The Ambari client/server framework is a third-party tool that enables you to configure,
manage, and monitor a Hadoop cluster through a browser-based interface.
The Ambari agent is configured per access zone; you can configure the OneFS Ambari
agent in any access zone that contains HDFS data. To start an Ambari agent in an access
zone, you must specify the IPv4 address of the external Ambari server and the address of
a NameNode that acts as the point of contact for the access zone.
The external Ambari server receives communications from the OneFS Ambari agent. Once
the Ambari agent assigned to the access zone registers with the Ambari server, the agent
WebHDFS

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provides a heartbeat status at regular intervals. The OneFS Ambari agent does not
provide metrics or alerts to the Ambari server. The external Ambari server must be
specified by a resolvable hostname, FQDN, or IPv4 address and must be assigned to an
access zone.
The NameNode is the designated point of contact in an access zone that Hadoop services
managed through the Ambari interface should connect through. For example, if you
manage services such as YARN or Oozie through the Ambari interface, the services will
connect to the access zone through the specified NameNode. The Ambari agent
communicates the location of the designated NameNode to the Ambari server, and to the
Ambari interface, the NameNode represents the access zone. If you change the
designated NameNode address, the Ambari agent will inform the Ambari server. The
NameNode must be a resolvable SmartConnect zone name or an IP address from the IP
address pool associated with the access zone.
Note

The specified NameNode value maps to the NameNode, secondary NameNode, and
DataNode components on the Ambari interface.
The OneFS Ambari agent is based on the Apache Ambari framework and is compatible
with multiple Ambari server versions. For a complete list, see the Supported Hadoop
Distributions and Products page on the EMC Community Network (ECN).

Virtual HDFS racks

You can create a virtual HDFS rack of nodes on the EMC Isilon cluster to optimize
performance and reduce latency when accessing HDFS data.
OneFS enables you to specify a group of preferred HDFS nodes on the EMC Isilon cluster
and an associated group of Hadoop compute clients as a virtual HDFS rack. Virtual HDFS
racks allow you to fine-tune client connectivity by directing Hadoop compute clients to go
through quicker, less-busy switches or to faster nodes, depending on your network
topology.
When a Hadoop compute client from the specified group connects to the cluster, OneFS
returns at least two IP addresses from the group of preferred HDFS nodes. You specify the
preferred HDFS nodes by IP address pool. IP address pools in the IPv6 family are not
supported by virtual HDFS racks.

Deploying Hadoop with OneFS

To support Hadoop on the EMC Isilon cluster, you must configure HDFS on the Isilon
cluster to communicate with a Hadoop cluster.
The process for configuring HDFS on the Isilon cluster is summarized in the following list:

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Activate a license for HDFS. When a license is activated, the HDFS service is enabled
by default.

Create directories on the cluster that will be set as HDFS root directories.

Create a SmartConnect zone for balancing connections from Hadoop compute clients.

Create local Hadoop users in access zones that do not have directory services such
as Active Directory or LDAP.

Set the HDFS root directory in each access zone that supports HDFS connections.

Enable or disable WebHDFS in each access zone.

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Set an authentication method in each access zone that supports HDFS connections.

Configure HDFS service settings on the cluster.

Configure proxy users for secure impersonation.

Configure virtual HDFS racks.

Managing the HDFS service

You can configure HDFS service settings on the EMC Isilon cluster to improve performance
for HDFS workflows.

Enable or disable the HDFS service

You can enable or disable the HDFS service on a per-access zone basis.
Procedure
1. Click Protocols > Hadoop (HDFS) > Settings.
2. From the Current Access Zone list, select the access zone in which you want to enable
or disable the HDFS service.
3. From the HDFS Service Settings area, check or uncheck the Enable HDFS service box.
4. Click Save Changes.

Configure HDFS service settings

You can configure HDFS service settings in each access zone to improve performance for
HDFS workflows.
Procedure
1. Click Protocols > Hadoop (HDFS) > Settings.
2. From the Current Access Zone list, select the access zone in which you want to
configure service settings.
3. From the HDFS Service Settings area, select the HDFS block size you want from the
Default Block Size list.
The HDFS block size determines how the HDFS service returns data upon read
requests from Hadoop compute client.
4. Select the checksum type from the Default Checksum Type list.
The HDFS service does not send any checksum data, regardless of the checksum type.
5. Click Save Changes.

HDFS service settings

HDFS service settings affect the performance of HDFS workflows.
You can configure the following HDFS service settings:
Setting

Description

Block size

The HDFS block size setting on the EMC cluster determines how the HDFS
service returns data upon read requests from Hadoop compute client.
You can modify the HDFS block size on the cluster to increase the block size
from 4 KB up to 1 G. The default block size is 128 MB. Increasing the block size

Managing the HDFS service

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Setting

Description
enables the Isilon cluster nodes to read and write HDFS data in larger blocks
and optimize performance for most use cases.
The Hadoop cluster maintains a different block size that determines how a
Hadoop compute client writes a block of file data to the Isilon cluster. The
optimal block size depends on your data, how you process your data, and other
factors. You can configure the block size on the Hadoop cluster in the hdfssite.xml configuration file in the dfs.block.size property.

Checksum type

The HDFS service sends the checksum type to Hadoop compute clients, but it
does not send any checksum data, regardless of the checksum type. The
default checksum type is set to None. If your Hadoop distribution requires
sending a checksum type other than None to the client, you can set the
checksum type to CRC32 or CRC32C.

View HDFS settings

You can view HDFS settings in an access zone.
Procedure
1. Click Protocols > Hadoop (HDFS) > Settings.
2. From the Current Access Zone list, select the access zone in which you want to view
HDFS settings.
The Settings tab displays the current HDFS options in the following areas:
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HDFS Service Settings

HDFS Protocol Settings

Ambari Server Settings

Modify HDFS log levels

You can set the default logging level of HDFS services events for any node on the EMC
Isilon cluster.
This procedure is available only through the command-line interface
Procedure
1. Open a secure shell (SSH) connection to a node in the cluster and log in.
2. Run the isi hdfs log-level modify command.
The following command sets the HDFS log level to trace on the node:
isi hdfs log-level modify --set=trace

View HDFS log levels

You can view the default logging level of HDFS services events for any node on the EMC
Isilon cluster.
This procedure is available only through the command-line interface

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Procedure
1. Open a secure shell (SSH) connection to a node in the cluster and log in.
2. Run the isi hdfs log-level view command.
The system displays output similar to the following example:
Current HDFS service log-level at the node is: trace

Set the HDFS root directory

You can specify an HDFS root directory in each access zone. Hadoop compute clients
connected to the access zone can access all files and sub-directories in the specified root
directory.
Procedure
1. Click Protocols > Hadoop (HDFS) > Settings.
2. From the Current Access Zone list, select the access zone in which you want to specify
the root directory.
3. From the HDFS Protocol Settings area, type or browse to directory you want in the
HDFS Root Directory field.
The root directory must be within /ifs.
4. Click Save Changes.

Configuring HDFS authentication methods

You can configure an HDFS authentication method on a per-access zone basis.
If you want Hadoop compute clients running Hadoop 2.2 and later to connect to an
access zone through Kerberos, you must Configure HDFS authentication properties on the
Hadoop client.

Set the HDFS authentication method

You can specify the HDFS method used to authenticate Hadoop compute client
connections to an access zone.
Procedure
1. Click Protocols > Hadoop (HDFS) > Settings.
2. From the Current Access Zone list, select the access zone in which you want to specify
the authentication method.
3. From the HDFS Protocol Settings area, from the Authentication Type list, select one of
the following authentication methods:
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Both Simple and Kerberos authentication

Simple authentication

Kerberos authentication

4. Click Save Changes.

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Configure HDFS authentication properties on the Hadoop client

If you want Hadoop compute clients running Hadoop 2.2 and later to connect to an
access zone through Kerberos, you must make some modifications to the coresite.xml and hdfs-site.xml files on the Hadoop clients.
Before you begin
Kerberos must be set as the HDFS authentication method in the access zone and a
Kerberos authentication provider must be configured and assigned to the access zone.
Procedure
1. Go to the $HADOOP_CONF directory on your Hadoop client.
2. Open the core-site.xml file in a text editor.
3. Set the value of the hadoop.security.token.service.use_ip property to false as shown
in the following example:
<property>
<name>hadoop.security.token.service.use_ip</name>
<value>false</value>
</property>

4. Save and close the core-site.xml file.

5. Open the hdfs-site.xml file in a text editor.
6. Set the value of the dfs.namenode.kerberos.principal.pattern property to the Kerberos
realm configured in the Kerberos authentication provider as shown in the following
example:
<property>
<name>dfs.namenode.kerberos.principal.pattern</name>
<value>hdfs/*@storage.company.com</value>
</property>

7. Save and close the hdfs-site.xml file.

Supported HDFS authentication methods

The authentication method determines what credentials are required by OneFS to
establish a Hadoop compute client connection.
An HDFS authentication method is specified for each access zone. OneFS supports the
following authentication methods for HDFS:
Authentication Description
method
Simple only

Requires only a user name to establish client connections.

Kerberos only

Requires Kerberos credentials to establish client connections.

Note

You must configure Kerberos as an authentication provider on the EMC Isilon

cluster, and you must modify the core-site.xml file on clients running
Hadoop 2.2 and later.
All (default
value)

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Accepts both simple authentication and Kerberos credentials. If Kerberos

settings and file modifications are not completed, client connections default to
simple authentication.

Hadoop

Authentication Description
method
CAUTION

To prevent unintended access through simple authentication, set the

authentication method to Kerberos only to enforce client access through
Kerberos.

Create a local Hadoop user

OneFS must be able to look up a local Hadoop user by name. If there are no directory
services in an access zone that can perform a user lookup, you must create a local
Hadoop user that maps to a user on a Hadoop compute client for that access zone. If
directory services are available, a local user account is not required.
Procedure
1. Click Access > Membership & Roles > Users.
2. From the Current Access Zone list, select the access zone in which you want to create
a local Hadoop user.
3. From the Providers list, select LOCAL.
4. Click Create a User, and then type a name for the Hadoop user in the Username field.
5. Click Create User.

Enable or disable WebHDFS

You can specify whether access to HDFS data through WebHDFS client applications is
supported in each access zone.
Procedure
1. Click Protocols > Hadoop (HDFS) > Settings.
2. From the Current Access Zone list, select the access zone in which you want to enable
or disable WebHDFS.
3. From the HDFS Protocol Settings area, check or uncheck the Allow WebHDFS Access
box.
4. Click Save Changes.

Configuring secure impersonation

Configure and manage proxy users that can securely impersonate other users and
groups.
Note

Names cannot contain the following invalid characters:

"/\[]:;|=,+*?<>

Create a local Hadoop user

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Create a proxy user

You can create a proxy user by designating an existing user to securely impersonate
another user or a set of users.
Before you begin
Add the users you want to designate as proxy users or members to the EMC Isilon cluster.
The proxy user and its members must belong to the same access zone.
Procedure
1. Click Protocols > Hadoop (HDFS) > Proxy Users.
2. From the Current Access Zone list, select the access zone in which you want to add a
proxy user.
3. Click Create a Proxy User.
4. In the Proxy User field, type or browse to the user that you want to designate as a new
proxy user.
If you browse for a user, you can search within each authentication provider assigned
to the current access zone in the Select a User dialog box.
5. Click Add a Member. The Select a User, Group, or Wellknown dialog box appears.
6. In the Search for area, select the type of member you would like to search for.
Members can be individual users or groups. You can search for a user or group by
name or by well-known SID from the Select a User, Group, or Wellknown dialog box.
7. (Optional) Click Search to display results based on the search criteria.
8. Select the member you want from the Search Results list, and then click Select.
The Select a User, Group, or Wellknown dialog box closes.
9. Click Create a Proxy User.

Modify a proxy user

You can modify the list of members that a proxy user securely impersonates.
You cannot change the user that is designated as the proxy user.
Procedure
1. Click Protocols > Hadoop (HDFS) > Proxy Users.
2. From the Current Access Zone list, select the access zone in which you want to modify
a proxy user.
3. From the Proxy Users list, select the checkbox next to the proxy user that you want to
modify, and then click View/Edit.
4. From the View Proxy User Details dialog box, click Edit Proxy User.
5. Add or remove members, and then click Save Changes.

Delete a proxy user

You can delete a proxy user that securely impersonates another user.
Deleting a proxy user deletes the user from the list of users that can perform secure
impersonation; it does not remove the user itself from the system.

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Procedure
1. Click Protocols > Hadoop (HDFS) > Proxy Users.
2. From the Current Access Zone list, select the access zone in which you want to delete
a proxy user.
3. From the Proxy Users list, select the checkbox next to the proxy user that you want to
delete, and then click Delete.
4. In the confirmation dialog box, click Delete.

View a proxy user

You can view a list of all proxy users in an access zone and view individual proxy user
details.
Procedure
1. Click Protocols > Hadoop (HDFS) > Proxy Users.
2. From the Current Access Zone list, select the access zone in which you want to view a
proxy user.
The Proxy Users list displays all proxy users configured in the access zone.
3. From the Proxy Users list, select the checkbox next to the proxy user that you want to
view, and then click View/Edit.
The View Proxy User Details dialog box appears.
4. Click Close when you are finished viewing proxy user details.

Configure Ambari agent settings

You can configure Ambari agent support in each access zone that contains HDFS data.
Procedure
1. Click Protocols > Hadoop (HDFS) > Settings.
2. From the Current Access Zone list, select the access zone in which you want to enable
Ambari server settings.
3. From the Ambari Server Settings area, in the Ambari Server field, type the name of the
external Ambari server that will receive communication from the Ambari agent.
4. In the Ambari NameNode field, designate an IPv4 address as the point of contact for
Hadoop services managed through the Ambari interface.
The IP address must belong to an IP address pool that shares the same access zone.
IPv6 addresses are not supported.
5. In the ODP Version field, specify the version of the Open Data Platform (ODP) stack
repository, including build number if one exists, installed by the Ambari server.
The ODP version is required to support ODP upgrades on other systems that are part
of the Hadoop cluster.
6. Click Save Changes.

View a proxy user

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Managing virtual HDFS racks

You can manage virtual HDFS racks of nodes on the EMC Isilon cluster.
A virtual HDFS rack is a pool of nodes on the Isilon cluster associated with a pool of
Hadoop compute clients. You can create, modify, delete, and view virtual racks.

Create a virtual HDFS rack

You can create a virtual HDFS rack of nodes on the EMC Isilon cluster to optimize
performance and reduce latency when accessing HDFS data .
Procedure
1. Click Protocols > Hadoop (HDFS) > Virtual Racks.
2. From the Current Access Zone list, select the access zone in which you want to add a
virtual HDFS rack.
3. Click Create a Virtual Rack.
4. In the Name field, type a name for the new virtual rack.
A rack name must begin with a forward slashfor example, /hdfs-rack2.
5. In the Client IP Ranges fields, specify the IP address range of Hadoop compute clients
to be associated with the virtual HDFS rack.
You can associate multiple IP ranges.
6. From the IP Pools area, select the IP address pool you want from the Available Pools
table and click Add.
7. Click Create Virtual Rack.

Modify a virtual HDFS rack

You can modify the settings of a virtual HDFS rack.
Procedure
1. Click Protocols > Hadoop (HDFS) > Virtual Racks.
2. From the Current Access Zone list, select the access zone in which you want to modify
a virtual HDFS rack.
3. From the Virtual Racks list, select the checkbox next to the virtual HDFS rack that you
want to modify, and then click View/Edit.
4. From the View Virtual Rack Settings dialog box, click Edit Virtual Rack.
5. Modify virtual rack settings, and then click Save Changes.

Delete a virtual HDFS rack

You can delete a virtual HDFS rack from an EMC Isilon cluster.
Procedure
1. Click Protocols > Hadoop (HDFS) > Virtual Racks.
2. From the Current Access Zone list, select the access zone in which you want to delete
a virtual HDFS rack.
3. From the Virtual Racks list, select the checkbox next to the virtual HDFS rack that you
want to delete, and then click Delete.
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4. In the confirmation dialog box, click Delete.

View a virtual HDFS rack

You can view a list of all virtual HDFS racks in an access zone and view individual virtual
rack details.
Procedure
1. Click Protocols > Hadoop (HDFS) > Virtual Racks.
2. From the Current Access Zone list, select the access zone in which you want to view a
virtual HDFS rack.
The Virtual Racks list displays all virtual HDFS racks configured in the access zone.
3. From the Virtual Racks list, select the checkbox next to the virtual HDFS rack that you
want to view, and then click View/Edit.
The View Virtual Rack Settings dialog box appears.
4. Click Close when you are finished viewing virtual HDFS rack details.

View a virtual HDFS rack

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CHAPTER 27
Antivirus

This section contains the following topics:

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Antivirus overview............................................................................................... 526

On-access scanning............................................................................................ 526
Antivirus policy scanning.....................................................................................527
Individual file scanning....................................................................................... 527
Antivirus scan reports......................................................................................... 527
ICAP servers........................................................................................................ 527
Supported ICAP servers....................................................................................... 528
Antivirus threat responses...................................................................................528
Configuring global antivirus settings................................................................... 529
Managing ICAP servers........................................................................................ 531
Create an antivirus policy.................................................................................... 532
Managing antivirus policies.................................................................................533
Managing antivirus scans....................................................................................534
Managing antivirus threats..................................................................................535
Managing antivirus reports..................................................................................536

Antivirus

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Antivirus overview
You can scan the files you store on an Isilon cluster for computer viruses and other
security threats by integrating with third-party scanning services through the Internet
Content Adaptation Protocol (ICAP).
OneFS sends files through ICAP to a server running third-party antivirus scanning
software. These servers are referred to as ICAP servers. ICAP servers scan files for viruses.
After an ICAP server scans a file, it informs OneFS of whether the file is a threat. If a threat
is detected, OneFS informs system administrators by creating an event, displaying near
real-time summary information, and documenting the threat in an antivirus scan report.
You can configure OneFS to request that ICAP servers attempt to repair infected files. You
can also configure OneFS to protect users against potentially dangerous files by
truncating or quarantining infected files.
Before OneFS sends a file to be scanned, it ensures that the scan is not redundant. If a
file has already been scanned and has not been modified, OneFS will not send the file to
be scanned unless the virus database on the ICAP server has been updated since the last
scan.
Note

Antivirus scanning is available only if all nodes in the cluster are connected to the
external network.

On-access scanning
You can configure OneFS to send files to be scanned before they are opened, after they
are closed, or both. Sending files to be scanned after they are closed is faster but less
secure. Sending files to be scanned before they are opened is slower but more secure.
If OneFS is configured to ensure that files are scanned after they are closed, when a user
creates or modifies a file on the cluster, OneFS queues the file to be scanned. OneFS then
sends the file to an ICAP server to be scanned when convenient. In this configuration,
users can always access files without any delay. However, it is possible that after a user
modifies or creates a file, a second user might access the file before the file is scanned. If
a virus was introduced to the file from the first user, the second user will be able to
access the infected file. Also, if an ICAP server is unable to scan a file, the file will still be
accessible to users.
If OneFS ensures that files are scanned before they are opened, when a user attempts to
download a file from the cluster, OneFS first sends the file to an ICAP server to be
scanned. The file is not sent to the user until the scan is complete. Scanning files before
they are opened is more secure than scanning files after they are closed, because users
can access only scanned files. However, scanning files before they are opened requires
users to wait for files to be scanned. You can also configure OneFS to deny access to files
that cannot be scanned by an ICAP server, which can increase the delay. For example, if
no ICAP servers are available, users will not be able to access any files until the ICAP
servers become available again.
If you configure OneFS to ensure that files are scanned before they are opened, it is
recommended that you also configure OneFS to ensure that files are scanned after they
are closed. Scanning files as they are both opened and closed will not necessarily
improve security, but it will usually improve data availability when compared to scanning
files only when they are opened. If a user wants to access a file, the file may have already

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been scanned after the file was last modified, and will not need to be scanned again if
the ICAP server database has not been updated since the last scan.

Antivirus policy scanning

You can create antivirus scanning policies that send files from a specified directory to be
scanned. Antivirus policies can be run manually at any time, or configured to run
according to a schedule.
Antivirus policies target a specific directory on the cluster. You can prevent an antivirus
policy from sending certain files within the specified root directory based on the size,
name, or extension of the file. Antivirus policies do not target snapshots. Only on-access
scans include snapshots. Antivirus scans are handled by the OneFS Job Engine, and
function the same as any system job.

Individual file scanning

You can send a specific file to an ICAP server to be scanned at any time.
If a virus is detected in a file but the ICAP server is unable to repair it, you can send the
file to the ICAP server after the virus database had been updated, and the ICAP server
might be able to repair the file. You can also scan individual files to test the connection
between the cluster and ICAP servers.

Antivirus scan reports

OneFS generates reports about antivirus scans. Each time that an antivirus policy is run,
OneFS generates a report for that policy. OneFS also generates a report every 24 hours
that includes all on-access scans that occurred during the day.
Antivirus scan reports contain the following information:
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The time that the scan started.

The time that the scan ended.

The total number of files scanned.

The total size of the files scanned.

The total network traffic sent.

The network throughput that was consumed by virus scanning.

Whether the scan succeeded.

The total number of infected files detected.

The names of infected files.

The threats associated with infected files.

How OneFS responded to detected threats.

ICAP servers
The number of ICAP servers that are required to support an Isilon cluster depends on how
virus scanning is configured, the amount of data a cluster processes, and the processing
power of the ICAP servers.
If you intend to scan files exclusively through antivirus scan policies, it is recommended
that you have a minimum of two ICAP servers per cluster. If you intend to scan files on
Antivirus policy scanning

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access, it is recommended that you have at least one ICAP server for each node in the
cluster.
If you configure more than one ICAP server for a cluster, it is important to ensure that the
processing power of each ICAP server is relatively equal. OneFS distributes files to the
ICAP servers on a rotating basis, regardless of the processing power of the ICAP servers. If
one server is significantly more powerful than another, OneFS does not send more files to
the more powerful server.

Supported ICAP servers

For a list of supported ICAP servers, see the Isilon Third-Party Software & Hardware
Compatibility Guide.

Antivirus threat responses

You can configure the system to repair, quarantine, or truncate any files that the ICAP
server detects viruses in.
OneFS and ICAP servers react in one or more of the following ways when threats are
detected:
Alert
All threats that are detected cause an event to be generated in OneFS at the warning
level, regardless of the threat response configuration.
Repair
The ICAP server attempts to repair the infected file before returning the file to OneFS.
Quarantine
OneFS quarantines the infected file. A quarantined file cannot be accessed by any
user. However, a quarantined file can be removed from quarantine by the root user if
the root user is connected to the cluster through secure shell (SSH).
If you backup your cluster through NDMP backup, quarantined files will remain
quarantined when the files are restored. If you replicate quarantined files to another
Isilon cluster, the quarantined files will continue to be quarantined on the target
cluster. Quarantines operate independently of access control lists (ACLs).
Truncate
OneFS truncates the infected file. When a file is truncated, OneFS reduces the size of
the file to zero bytes to render the file harmless.
You can configure OneFS and ICAP servers to react in one of the following ways when
threats are detected:
Repair or quarantine
Attempts to repair infected files. If an ICAP server fails to repair a file, OneFS
quarantines the file. If the ICAP server repairs the file successfully, OneFS sends the
file to the user. Repair or quarantine can be useful if you want to protect users from
accessing infected files while retaining all data on a cluster.
Repair or truncate
Attempts to repair infected files. If an ICAP server fails to repair a file, OneFS
truncates the file. If the ICAP server repairs the file successfully, OneFS sends the file
to the user. Repair or truncate can be useful if you do not care about retaining all

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data on your cluster, and you want to free storage space. However, data in infected
files will be lost.
Alert only
Only generates an event for each infected file. It is recommended that you do not
apply this setting.
Repair only
Attempts to repair infected files. Afterwards, OneFS sends the files to the user,
whether or not the ICAP server repaired the files successfully. It is recommended that
you do not apply this setting. If you only attempt to repair files, users will still be
able to access infected files that cannot be repaired.
Quarantine
Quarantines all infected files. It is recommended that you do not apply this setting. If
you quarantine files without attempting to repair them, you might deny access to
infected files that could have been repaired.
Truncate
Truncates all infected files. It is recommended that you do not apply this setting. If
you truncate files without attempting to repair them, you might delete data
unnecessarily.

Configuring global antivirus settings

You can configure global antivirus settings that are applied to all antivirus scans by
default.

Exclude files from antivirus scans

You can prevent files from being scanned by antivirus scans. These settings apply to all
antivirus scans.
Procedure
1. Click Data Protection > Antivirus > Settings.
2. (Optional) To exclude files based on file size, in the Maximum File Scan Size area,
specify the largest file size you want to scan.
3. To exclude files based on file name, perform the following steps:
a. Select Enable filters.
b. In the Filter Matching area, specify whether you want to scan all files that match a
specified filter or all files that do not match a specified filter.
c. Specify one or more filters.
a. Click Add Filters.
b. Specify the filter.
You can include the following wildcard characters:
Wildcard
character

Description

Matches any string in place of the asterisk. For example, specifying m*

would match movies and m123.

Configuring global antivirus settings

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Wildcard
character

Description

[ ]

Matches any characters contained in the brackets, or a range of characters

separated by a dash.
For example, specifying b[aei]t would match bat, bet, and bit.
For example, specifying 1[4-7]2 would match 142, 152, 162, and

172.
You can exclude characters within brackets by following the first bracket
with an exclamation mark.
For example, specifying b[!ie] would match bat but not bit or bet.
You can match a bracket within a bracket if it is either the first or last
character.
For example, specifying [[c]at would match cat and [at.
You can match a dash within a bracket if it is either the first or last
character.
For example, specifying car[-s] would match cars and car-.
?

Matches any character in place of the question mark.

For example, specifying t?p would match tap, tip, and top.

c. Click Add Filters.

4. Click Save Changes.

Configure on-access scanning settings

You can configure OneFS to automatically scan files as they are accessed by users. Onaccess scans operate independently of antivirus policies.
Procedure
1. Click Data Protection > Antivirus > Settings.
2. In the On-Access Scans area, specify whether you want files to be scanned as they are
accessed.
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To require that all files be scanned before they are opened by a user, select Enable
scan of files on open, and then specify whether you want to allow access to files
that cannot be scanned by selecting or clearing Enable file access when scanning
fails.

To scan files after they are closed, select Enable scan of files on close.

3. In the All Scans area, in the Path Prefixes field, specify the directories that you want to
apply on-access settings to.
4. Click Save Changes.

Configure antivirus threat response settings

You can configure how OneFS responds to detected threats.
Procedure
1. Click Data Protection > Antivirus > Settings.
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2. In the Action On Detection area, specify how you want OneFS to react to potentially
infected files.

Configure antivirus report retention settings

You can configure how long OneFS retains antivirus reports before automatically deleting
them.
Procedure
1. Click Data Protection > Antivirus > Settings.
2. In the Reports area, specify how long you want OneFS to keep reports.

Enable or disable antivirus scanning

You can enable or disable all antivirus scanning.
This procedure is available only through the web administration interface.
Procedure
1. Click Data Protection > Antivirus > Summary.
2. In the Service area, select or clear Enable Antivirus service.

Managing ICAP servers

Before you can send files to be scanned on an ICAP server, you must configure OneFS to
connect to the server. You can test, modify, and remove an ICAP server connection. You
can also temporarily disconnect and reconnect to an ICAP server.

Add and connect to an ICAP server

You can add and connect to an ICAP server. After a server is added, OneFS can send files
to the server to be scanned for viruses.
Procedure
1. Click Data Protection > Antivirus > ICAP Servers.
2. In the ICAP Servers area, click Add an ICAP Server.
3. (Optional) To enable the ICAP server, click Enable ICAP Server.
4. In the Create ICAP Server dialog box, in the ICAP Server URL field, type the IPv4 or
IPv6 address of an ICAP server.
5. (Optional) To add a description of the server, type text into the Description field.
6. Click Add Server.

Test an ICAP server connection

You can test the connection between the OneFS and an ICAP server. This procedure is
available only through the web administration interface.
Procedure
1. Click Data Protection > Antivirus > ICAP Servers.
2. In the ICAP Servers table, in the row for the ICAP server, click View / Edit.

Configure antivirus report retention settings

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If the cluster is connected to the ICAP server, in the Details area, active will appear
in the Status field.

Modify ICAP connection settings

You can modify the IP address and optional description of ICAP server connections.
Procedure
1. Click Data Protection > Antivirus > ICAP Servers.
2. In the ICAP Servers table, in the row for an ICAP server, click View / Edit.
3. Click Edit.
4. Modify settings, and then click Save Changes.

Temporarily disconnect from an ICAP server

If you want to prevent OneFS from sending files to an ICAP server, but want to retain the
ICAP server connection settings, you can temporarily disconnect from the ICAP server.
Procedure
1. Click Data Protection > Antivirus > ICAP Servers.
2. In the ICAP Servers table, in the row for an ICAP server, click View / Edit.
3. Click Edit.
4. Clear the Enable ICAP Server box and then click Save Changes.

Reconnect to an ICAP server

You can reconnect to an ICAP server that you have temporarily disconnected from.
Procedure
1. Click Data Protection > Antivirus > ICAP Servers.
2. In the ICAP Servers table, in the row for an ICAP server, click View / Edit.
3. Click Edit.
4. Select Enable ICAP Server, and then click Save Changes.

Remove an ICAP server

You can permanently disconnect from the ICAP server.
Procedure
1. Click Data Protection > Antivirus > ICAP Servers.
2. In the ICAP Servers table, in the row for an ICAP server, click Delete.

Create an antivirus policy

You can create an antivirus policy that causes specific files to be scanned for viruses
each time the policy is run.
Procedure
1. Click Data Protection > Antivirus > Policies.
2. Click Create an Antivirus Policy.
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3. (Optional) To enable the policy, click Enable antivirus policy.

4. In the Policy Name field, type a name for the antivirus policy.
5. (Optional) To specify an optional description of the policy, in the Description field,
type a description.
6. In the Paths field, specify the directory that you want to scan.
Optionally, click Add another directory path to specify additional directories.
7. In the Recursion Depth area, specify how much of the specified directories you want
to scan.
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To scan all subdirectories of the specified directories, click Full recursion.

To scan a limited number of subdirectories of the specified directories, click Limit

depth and then specify how many sub directories you want to scan.

8. (Optional) To scan all files regardless of whether OneFS has marked files as having
been scanned, or if global settings specify that certain files should not be scanned,
select Enable force run.
9. (Optional) To modify the default impact policy of the antivirus scans, from the Impact
Policy list, select a new impact policy.
10. In the Schedule area, specify whether you want to run the policy according to a
schedule or manually.
Scheduled policies can also be run manually at any time.
Option

Description

Run the policy only manually.

Click Manual

Run the policy according to a

schedule.

a. Click Scheduled.
b. Specify how often you want the policy to
run.

11. Click Create Policy.

Managing antivirus policies

You can modify and delete antivirus policies. You can also temporarily disable antivirus
policies if you want to retain the policy but do not want to scan files.

Modify an antivirus policy

You can modify an antivirus policy.
Procedure
1. Click Data Protection > Antivirus > Policies.
2. In the Antivirus Policies table, in the row of the antivirus policy that you want to
modify, click View / Edit.
3. In the View Antivirus Policy Details dialog box, click Edit.
4. Modify settings, and then click Save Changes.

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Delete an antivirus policy

You can delete an antivirus policy.
Procedure
1. Click Data Protection > Antivirus > Policies.
2. In the Antivirus Policies table, in the row for the antivirus policy you want to delete,
click More > Delete.

Enable or disable an antivirus policy

You can temporarily disable antivirus policies if you want to retain the policy but do not
want to scan files.
Procedure
1. Click Data Protection > Antivirus > Policies.
2. In the Antivirus Policies table, in the row for the antivirus policy you want to enable or
disable, click More > Enable or More > Disable.

View antivirus policies

You can view antivirus policies.
Procedure
1. Click Data Protection > Antivirus > Policies.
2. In the Antivirus Policies table, view antivirus policies.

Managing antivirus scans

You can scan multiple files for viruses by manually running an antivirus policy, or scan an
individual file without an antivirus policy. You can also stop antivirus scans.

Scan a file
You can manually scan an individual file for viruses.
This procedure is available only through the command-line interface (CLI).
Procedure
1. Open a secure shell (SSH) connection to any node in the cluster and log in.
2. Run the isi antivirus scan command.
The following command scans the /ifs/data/virus_file file for viruses:
isi antivirus scan /ifs/data/virus_file

Manually run an antivirus policy

You can manually run an antivirus policy at any time.
This procedure is available only through the web administration interface.

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Procedure
1. Click Data Protection > Antivirus > Policies.
2. In the Antivirus Policies table, in the row for a policy, click More > Run Policy.

Stop a running antivirus scan

You can stop a running antivirus scan. This procedure is available only through the web
administration interface.
Procedure
1. Click Cluster Management > Job Operations > Job Summary.
2. In the Active Jobs table, in the row with type AVScan, click More > Cancel Running Job.

Managing antivirus threats

You can repair, quarantine, or truncate files in which threats are detected. If you think
that a quarantined file is no longer a threat, you can rescan the file or remove the file from
quarantine.

Manually quarantine a file

You can quarantine a file to prevent the file from being accessed by users.
Procedure
1. Click Data Protection > Antivirus > Detected Threats.
2. In the Antivirus Threat Reports table, in the row of a file, click More > Quarantine File .

Rescan a file
You can rescan a file for viruses if, for example, you believe that a file is no longer a
threat.
This procedure is available only through the command-line interface (CLI).
Procedure
1. Open a secure shell (SSH) connection to any node in the cluster and log in.
2. Run the isi antivirus scan command.
For example, the following command scans /ifs/data/virus_file:
isi antivirus scan /ifs/data/virus_file

Remove a file from quarantine

You can remove a file from quarantine if, for example, you believe that the file is no
longer a threat.
Procedure
1. Click Data Protection > Antivirus > Detected Threats.
2. In the Antivirus Threat Reports table, in the row of a file, click More > Restore File.

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Manually truncate a file

If a threat is detected in a file, and the file is irreparable and no longer needed, you can
manually truncate the file.
This procedure is available only through the command-line interface (CLI).
Procedure
1. Open a secure shell (SSH) connection to any node in the cluster and log in.
2. Run the rm command on a file.
The following command truncates the /ifs/data/virus_file file:
rm /ifs/data/virus_file

View threats
You can view files that have been identified as threats by an ICAP server.
Procedure
1. Click Data Protection > Antivirus > Detected Threats.
2. In the Antivirus Threat Reports table, view potentially infected files.

Antivirus threat information

You can view information about the antivirus threats that are reported by an ICAP server.
Name
Displays the name of the detected threat as it is recognized by the ICAP server.
Path
Displays the file path of the potentially infected file.
Remediation
Indicates how OneFS responded to the file when the threat was detected.
Policy
Displays the ID of the antivirus policy that caused the threat to be detected.
Detected
Displays the time that the threat was detected.
Actions
Displays actions that can be performed on the file.

Managing antivirus reports

You can view antivirus reports through the web administration interface. You can also
view events that are related to antivirus activity.

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View antivirus reports

You can view antivirus reports.
Procedure
1. Click Data Protection > Antivirus > Reports.
2. In the Antivirus Scan Reports table, in the row for a report, click View Details.

View antivirus events

You can view events that relate to antivirus activity.
Procedure
1. Click Cluster Management > Events and Alerts > Events.
2. In the Event Groups table, view all events.
All events related to antivirus scans are classified as warnings. The following events
are related to antivirus activities:
AVScan Infected File Found
A threat was detected by an antivirus scan. These events refer to specific reports
on the Antivirus Reports page but do not provide threat details.
No ICAP Servers available
OneFS is unable to communicate with any ICAP servers.
ICAP Server Misconfigured, Unreachable or Unresponsive
OneFS is unable to communicate with an ICAP server.

View antivirus reports

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CHAPTER 28
IsilonSD Edge

This section contains the following topics:

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IsilonSD Edge storage and architecture............................................................... 540

IsilonSD cluster overview.................................................................................... 541
IsilonSD Edge licensing overview.........................................................................541
IsilonSD Management Server overview................................................................ 544
Deploying and configuring IsilonSD clusters........................................................544

IsilonSD Edge

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IsilonSD Edge

IsilonSD Edge storage and architecture

IsilonSD Edge creates OneFS virtual clusters through the resources available on VMware
ESXi hosts. The OneFS clusters are deployed as virtual machines (VMs) and drives are
hosted on data disks.
IsilonSD Edge components include the IsilonSD Management Server, IsilonSD
Management Plug-in, and the OneFS virtual machine files. The management plug-in is
bundled with the management server and automatically installs when the management
server is deployed on an ESXi host and a VMware vCenter server is registered.
The management plug-in enables you to create an IsilonSD cluster by choosing ESXi
hosts and drives on those hosts. A maximum of six nodes, which are actually OneFS
virtual machines, can be added to a cluster. In order to maintain the same protection
model that is followed for physical EMC Isilon clusters, a one-to-one correspondence is
maintained between an ESXi host and a node. Similarly, a one-to-one correspondence is
maintained between a drive that is accessible to a node and a physical drive. All these
checks are performed by the management server.
When the management server deploys nodes, it prevents two or more nodes of the same
cluster from sharing the same ESXi host. When selecting physical drives for a node, the
management server prevents hosting of more than one virtual disk on any single drive.
Note

IsilonSD Edge supports homogenous node configurations. You can have only one node
type in a cluster.
IsilonSD Edge networking considerations
The OneFS data-path requires a minimum of two NICs to provide connectivity for backend and front-end networks respectively. In an IsilonSD Edge deployment, a node has
virtual NICs allocated to it that are plumbed into virtual switches. We recommend that
you connect the back-end and front-end Ethernet networks to two different subnets. The
front-end Ethernet subnet is for client and management access and must be always
accessible. A management or service IP address must be allocated to the cluster in the
same subnet as the front-end IP range. The management server interacts with the cluster
through this IP address. We recommend that you create a cluster with the maximum
possible range of IP addresses considering future requirements. A supportability
consideration for nodes is that their serial port device must be accessible over the
network. This is accomplished through a virtual serial port concentrator (vSPC) that runs
on the management server. The ESXi host of a node must be able to establish a TCP
connection to port number 8080 on the management server. Make sure that there is a
proper route and there is no firewall set up between the hosts and vCenter.
IsilonSD Edge storage considerations
In IsilonSD Edge, the boot disk and journal disk of a node are backed by storage devices.
These devices determine the reliability of a node. The throughput and latency of the
journal disk determines the write throughput and latency of the node. Hence we
recommend that you host a journal disk over a flash-backed storage device. In summary,
each node requires as many unique storage devices as the number of data disks required
for a node. The storage device on a given host cannot be shared between the data disks
of same node.
The architecture of a three-node cluster is shown in the following figure:

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IsilonSD cluster overview

An IsilonSD cluster consists of three to six virtual nodes hosted on VMware ESXi. Each
virtual node runs the Isilon OneFS operating system, the distributed file-system software
that unites the nodes into a cluster.
The cluster's storage capacity varies depending on the following factors:
l

IsilonSD license type

Minimum data disk size

Minimum number of data disks per node

Number of nodes in the cluster

For more information on cluster capacity, see the IsilonSD Edge Installation and
Administration Guide.

IsilonSD Edge licensing overview

With IsilonSD Edge, you can configure one license per cluster to manage your storage
requirements. This license contains a cluster license and a OneFS features license. These
two licenses determine the maximum number of nodes, capacity, memory, vCPU, disks,
and IsilonSD cluster features that are available to you.
You can install IsilonSD Edge by configuring the free license that is bundled with the
installation package. However, this license does not support all of the cluster features. To
access advanced cluster features, must purchase a license that supports these features.
After obtaining the license keys, you can activate the licenses through the IsilonSD
Management Server.
For questions related to the licensing support, contact the EMC eLicensing team. For
information regarding the purchase of licenses, contact your EMC Isilon sales
representative.
Note

If you have deployed an IsilonSD cluster by configuring the free license, you are not
entitled to any support from EMC Isilon for product-related questions. You can post your
questions at https://community.emc.com/community/products/isilon for assistance.

IsilonSD cluster overview

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IsilonSD Edge

The following table summarizes the availability of the cluster features depending on the
type of licenses you have configured for your installation.

542

Feature

Function

Free license

Paid license

CloudPools

Creates file pool

policies that archive
files to the cloud

no

yes

NFS, SMB,
File-sharing and
HTTP, FTP, HDFS transfer protocols

yes

yes

InsightIQ

Monitors and
analyzes the
performance of a
cluster to help you
optimize storage
resources and
forecast capacity

yes

yes

SyncIQ

Asynchronously
replicates data on
another cluster and
supports failover
and failback
between clusters

no

yes

SmartLock

Protects critical data

from malicious,
accidental, or
premature alteration
or deletion.

no

yes
Note

IsilonSD Edge supports

the SmartLock software
module both in the
enterprise and
compliance modes.
However, if the cluster is
running in compliance
mode, you cannot add
new nodes to the
cluster. Also, the
IsilonSD cluster may not
comply with SEC
regulations.

SmartConnect
Advanced

Manages roundyes
robin connections,
CPU utilization,
connection counting,
and throughput
balancing

yes

SmartPools

Groups nodes and

files into pools

yes

yes

SmartDedupe

Saves storage space

on a cluster by
reducing redundant
data

yes

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IsilonSD Edge

Feature

Function

Free license

Paid license

SmartQuota

Monitors and
enforces
administratordefined storage
limits

yes

yes

SnapShotIQ

Creates snapshots to yes

protect data against
accidental data
deletion and
modification and
restores modified or
deleted data

yes

Isilon Swift

Provides objectbased storage

capabilities

yes

Two-way NDMP
backup

A Network Data
no
Management
Protocol (NDMP) in
which a data
management
application (DMA) on
a backup server
instructs a Backup
Accelerator node on
the cluster to back
up data to a tape
media server that is
attached to the
Backup Accelerator
node

no

Three-way
NDMP backup

A Network Data
yes
Management
Protocol (NDMP) in
which a data
management
application (DMA) on
a backup server
instructs the cluster
to back up data to a
tape media server
that is attached
either to the LAN or
directly to the DMA

yes

yes

IsilonSD Edge licensing overview

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IsilonSD Management Server overview

IsilonSD Management Server serves as a gateway for deploying OneFS clusters on
VMware ESXi. You must successfully deploy and configure the management server in
order to deploy the OneFS clusters.
The management server manages IsilonSD licenses and these licenses in turn determine
the software modules that are available to you for accessing the advanced cluster
capabilities. For information on deploying and configuring the IsilonSD Management
Server, see the IsilonSD Edge Installation and Administration Guide.
After you deploy and configure the management server, the IsilonSD Management Plug-in
gets registered within VMware vCenter. You can access this plug-in to perform the
following tasks:
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Deploy a cluster

Delete a cluster

Configure IsilonSD licenses

Upgrade IsilonSD licenses

Add nodes to a cluster

Remove nodes from a cluster

Add drives

Remove drives

Smartfail nodes

Smartfail drives

Note

You cannot perform the aforementioned tasks through the web administration interface.
For information about the above tasks, refer to the IsilonSD Edge Installation and
Administration Guide.

Deploying and configuring IsilonSD clusters

You can use the IsilonSD Management Plug-in to deploy and configure IsilonSD clusters.
After successfully registering a VMware vCenter server through the IsilonSD Management
Server interface, the management plug-in gets installed within that vCenter server.
The management plug-in also enables you to scale the clusters by adding nodes. The
number of nodes that you can add to your cluster depends on the number of licenses you
own and on the underlying virtualization infrastructure.
You can also use the management plug-in to configure storage for the clusters, provided
you configure direct attached storage through RAID, LUNs, or Raw Disks, and then expose
them to the ESXi host. The management plug-in thereafter creates virtual disks, formats
the disks, and makes them available to the clusters.

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CHAPTER 29
VMware integration

This section contains the following topics:

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VMware integration overview...............................................................................546

VAAI.................................................................................................................... 546
VASA...................................................................................................................546
Configuring VASA support................................................................................... 547
Disable or re-enable VASA...................................................................................549
Troubleshooting VASA storage display failures....................................................549

VMware integration

545

VMware integration

VMware integration overview

OneFS integrates with VMware infrastructures, including vSphere, vCenter, and ESXi.
VMware integration enables you to view information about and interact with Isilon
clusters through VMware applications.
OneFS interacts with VMware infrastructures through VMware vSphere API for Storage
Awareness (VASA) and VMware vSphere API for Array Integration (VAAI). For more
information about VAAI, see the Isilon VAAI NAS Plug-In for Isilon Release Notes.
OneFS integrates with VMware vCenter Site Recovery Manager (SRM) through the Isilon
Storage Replication Adapter (SRA). VMware SRM facilitates the migration and disaster
recovery of virtual machines stored on Isilon clusters. Isilon SRA enables VMware vCenter
SRM to automatically manage the setup, testing, and failover components of the disaster
recovery processes for Isilon clusters. For information about Isilon SRA for VMware SRM,
see the Isilon SRA for VMware SRM Release Notes.

VAAI
OneFS uses VMware vSphere API for Array Integration (VAAI) to support offloading
specific virtual machine storage and management operations from VMware ESXi
hypervisors to an Isilon cluster.
VAAI support enables you to accelerate the process of creating virtual machines and
virtual disks. For OneFS to interact with your vSphere environment through VAAI, your
VMware environment must include ESXi 5.0 or later hypervisors.
If you enable VAAI capabilities for an Isilon cluster, when you clone a virtual machine
residing on the cluster through VMware, OneFS clones the files related to that virtual
machine.
To enable OneFS to use VMware vSphere API for Array Integration (VAAI), you must install
the VAAI NAS plug-in for Isilon on the ESXi server. For more information on the VAAI NAS
plug-in for Isilon, see the VAAI NAS plug-in for Isilon Release Notes.

VASA
OneFS communicates with VMware vSphere through VMware vSphere API for Storage
Awareness (VASA).
VASA support enables you to view information about Isilon clusters through vSphere,
including Isilon-specific alarms in vCenter. VASA support also enables you to integrate
with VMware profile driven storage by providing storage capabilities for Isilon clusters in
vCenter. For OneFS to communicate with vSphere through VASA, your VMware
environment must include ESXi 5.0 or later hypervisors.

Isilon VASA alarms

If the VASA service is enabled on an Isilon cluster and the cluster is added as a VMware
vSphere API for Storage Awareness (VASA) vendor provider in vCenter, OneFS generates
alarms in vSphere.
The following table describes the alarm that OneFS generates:

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Alarm name

Description

Thin-provisioned LUN There is not enough available space on the cluster to allocate space for
capacity exceeded
writing data to thinly provisioned LUNs. If this condition persists, you will
not be able to write to the virtual machine on this cluster. To resolve this
issue, you must free storage space on the cluster.

VASA storage capabilities

OneFS integrates with VMware vCenter through VMware vSphere API for Storage
Awareness (VASA) to display storage capabilities of Isilon clusters in vCenter.
The following storage capabilities are displayed through vCenter:
Archive
The Isilon cluster is composed of Isilon NL-Series nodes. The cluster is configured for
maximum capacity.
Performance
The Isilon cluster is composed of Isilon i-Series, Isilon X-Series, or Isilon S-Series
nodes. The cluster is configured for maximum performance.
Note

If a node type supports SSDs but none are installed, the cluster is recognized as a
capacity cluster.
Capacity
The Isilon cluster is composed of Isilon X-Series nodes that do not contain SSDs. The
cluster is configured for a balance between performance and capacity.
Hybrid
The Isilon cluster is composed of nodes associated with two or more storage
capabilities. For example, if the cluster contained both Isilon S-Series and NL-Series
nodes, the storage capability of the cluster is displayed as Hybrid.

Configuring VASA support

To enable VMware vSphere API for Storage Awareness (VASA) support for a cluster, you
must enable the VASA daemon on the cluster, download the Isilon vendor provider
certificate and add the Isilon vendor provider in vCenter.

Enable VASA
You must enable an Isilon cluster to communicate with VMware vSphere API for Storage
Awareness (VASA) by enabling the VASA daemon.
Procedure
1. Open a secure shell (SSH) connection to any node in the cluster and log in.
2. Enable VASA by running the following command:
isi services isi_vasa_d enable

VASA storage capabilities

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Download the Isilon vendor provider certificate

To add an Isilon cluster VASA vendor provider in VMware vCenter, you must use a vendor
provider certificate.
Procedure
1. In a supported web browser, connect to an Isilon cluster at https://
<IPAddress>, where <IPAddress> is the IP address of the Isilon cluster.
2. Add a security exception and view the security certificate to make sure that it is
current.
3. Download the security certificate and save it to a location on your machine.
For more information about exporting a security certificate, see the documentation of
your browser.
Note

Record the location of where you saved the certificate. You will need this file path
when adding the vendor provider in vCenter.

Add the Isilon vendor provider

You must add an Isilon cluster as a vendor provider in VMware vCenter before you can
view information about the storage capabilities of the cluster through vCenter.
Before you begin
Download a vendor provider certificate.
Procedure
1. In vCenter, navigate to the Add Vendor Provider window.
2. Fill out the following fields in the Add Vendor Provider window:
Name
Type a name for this VASA provider. Specify as any string. For example, type EMC
Isilon Systems.
URL
Type https://<IPAddress>:8081/vasaprovider, where <IPAddress> is the IP
address of a node in the Isilon cluster.
Login
Type root.
Password
Type the password of the root user.
Certificate location
Type the file path of the vendor provider certificate for this cluster.
3. Select the Use Vendor Provider Certificate box.
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4. Click OK.

Disable or re-enable VASA

You can disable or re-enable an Isilon cluster to communicate with VMware vSphere
through VMware vSphere API for Storage Awareness (VASA).
To disable support for VASA, you must disable both the VASA daemon and the Isilon web
administration interface. You will not be able to administer the cluster through an
internet browser while the web interface is disabled. To re-enable support for VASA, you
must enable both the VASA daemon and the web interface.
Procedure
1. Open a secure shell (SSH) connection to any node in the cluster and log in.
2. Disable or enable the web interface by running one of the following commands:
l

isi services apache2 disable

isi services apache2 enable

3. Disable or enable the VASA daemon by running one of the following commands:
l

isi services isi_vasa_d disable

isi services isi_vasa_d enable

Troubleshooting VASA storage display failures

If you are unable to view information about Isilon clusters through vSphere, follow the
troubleshooting tips given below to fix the issue.
l

Verify that the vendor provider certificate is current and has not expired.

Verify that the Isilon cluster is able to communicate with VASA through the VASA
daemon. If the VASA daemon is disabled, run the following command to enable it:
isi services isi_vasa_d enable

Verify that the date and time on the cluster is set correctly.

Verify that data has been synchronized properly from vCenter.

Disable or re-enable VASA

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CHAPTER 30
File System Explorer

This section contains the following topics:

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File System Explorer overview..............................................................................552

Browse the file system........................................................................................ 552
Create a directory................................................................................................ 553
Modify file and directory properties..................................................................... 553
View file and directory properties........................................................................ 553
File and directory properties................................................................................ 553

File System Explorer

551

File System Explorer

File System Explorer overview

The File System Explorer is a web-based interface that enables you to manage the content
stored on your EMC Isilon cluster. You can use the File System Explorer to navigate the
Isilon file system (/ifs), add directories, and manage file and directory properties
including data protection, I/O optimization, and UNIX permissions.
Isilon file system directory permissions are initially set to allow full access for all users.
Any user can delete any file, regardless of the permissions on the individual file.
Depending on your environment, you should establish appropriate permission
restrictions through the File System Explorer.
File System Explorer supports access zones. By default, the root user and sysadmin have
access to the top-level access zone, System (/ifs). Other users can be restricted to
specific access zonesfor example, /ifs/home.
You can view and configure file and directory properties from within Windows clients that
are connected to the cluster. However, because Windows and UNIX permissions differ
from one another, you must be careful not to make any unwanted changes that affect file
and directory access.

Browse the file system

You can browse the Isilon file system, /ifs, through the File System Explorer.
Procedure
1. Click File System > File System Explorer.
2. View files and directories.
You can click on a directory to view its contents.

File System Explorer icons

The following icons appear in the File System Explorer.
Folder
Represents a directory.
Folder with a red lock
Represents a directory that contains a SmartLock directory.
Red lock
Represents a SmartLock directory.
Yellow lock
Represents a directory that is contained in a SmartLock directory.
Sheet of paper
Represents a file
Sheet of paper with a red lock
Represents a file that has been committed to a WORM state.

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Create a directory
You can create a directory in the /ifs directory tree through the File System Explorer.
Procedure
1. Click File System > File System Explorer.
2. Navigate to the directory that you want to add the directory to.
3. Click Create Directory.
4. In the Create a Directory dialog box, in the Directory Name field, type a name for the
directory.
5. In the Permissions area, assign permissions to the directory.
6. Click Create Directory.

Modify file and directory properties

You can modify file and directory properties through File System Explorer.
Procedure
1. Click File System Management > File System Explorer.
2. Navigate to the file or directory that you want to modify.
3. In the row of the file or directory, click View / Edit.
4. Click Edit Properties.
5. Modify the file or directory properties, and then click Save Changes.

View file and directory properties

You can view file and directory properties through the File System Explorer.
Procedure
1. Click File System Management > File System Explorer.
2. Navigate to the file or directory that you want to view.
3. In the row of the file or directory, click View / Edit.

File and directory properties

The following file and directory properties are displayed in the File System Explorer:
Properties
Path
Displays the absolute path of the file or directory.
File Size
Displays the logical size of the file or directory.
Space Used
Displays the physical size of the file or directory.
Create a directory

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File System Explorer

Last Modified
Displays the time that the file or directory was last modified.
Last Accessed
Displays the time that the file or directory was last accessed.
UNIX Permissions
User
Displays the permissions assigned to the owner of the file or directory.
Group
Displays the permissions assigned to the group of the file or directory.
Others
Displays the permissions assigned to other users for the file or directory.

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