Dell EqualLogic PS6210XS EqualLogic Group Manager Administrator s Guide PS Ser - Page 41

• Add a NAS appliance to a NAS cluster to increase processing power and allow more client connections • Replace a failed controller If a NAS controller fails, the NAS cluster is still operational, but you cannot perform most service configuration modifications until you detach the failed NAS controller. While a NAS controller is down or detached, performance might decrease because data is no longer cached. • Rebalance or fail back client connections after changing the hardware configuration (for example, adding a NAS appliance or attaching a NAS controller) You can rebalance client connections across all the functioning NAS controllers, or you can fail back client connections to recently recovered NAS controllers. • Update the firmware on a NAS controller • Cleanly shut down a NAS controller (for example, if you are moving the NAS cluster hardware) You can perform some NAS controller maintenance operations without impacting NAS member operation (for example, replacing a power supply). Other NAS member maintenance operations require shutting down the NAS controller before performing maintenance procedures and then restarting the NAS controller. About NAS Containers To provision NAS storage, you can create multiple NAS containers in a NAS cluster. In a NAS container, you can create multiple SMB shares and SMB home shares and NFS exports. Access to shares and exports is through one or more NAS cluster virtual IP addresses. The number and size of the NAS containers in a NAS cluster depend on the storage needs of your NAS clients and applications. You can increase or decrease the size of a NAS container as needed without disruption to the NAS clients accessing the NAS container. In addition, NAS containers: • Have robust security mechanisms • Support user and group quotas • Support snapshots for data protection • Support thin clones • Support NDMP for remote backups • Support replication to remote FS Series NAS clusters for disaster tolerance • Support thin provisioning You can create a single, large NAS container, or you can create many NAS containers. Creating multiple NAS containers enables you to apply different management policies to the NAS containers, as required by your organization. For example, you can apply different backup, snapshot, security, and quota policies to the NAS containers. When you create a NAS container, SMB share, SMB home share, or NFS export, the NAS cluster applies default values. About the NAS Reserve When you configure a NAS cluster, you allocate a portion of storage space to the NAS reserve. As part of the service configuration, the NAS reserve is configured with the Dell Fluid File System (FluidFS) and Dell EqualLogic Auto-Snapshot Manager/Microsoft Edition (ASM/ME). Figure 8. NAS Reserve depicts the components of the NAS reserve. Table 10. NAS Reserve explains the callouts used in the figure. Architecture Fundamentals 41