Amazon FSx for Windows File Server | Fully managed by AWS.

 

Amazon FSx is a fully managed service by AWS that allows twtech to launch and run feature-rich, high-performance file systems in the cloud.

It provides several types of file systems optimized for different use cases, without the burden of managing the underlying hardware and file server software.

Key FSx File System Types:

1. Amazon FSx for Windows File Server
• Use Case: Windows-based applications requiring SMB protocol, AD integration, and NTFS.
• Features:
• Fully compatible with Windows
• Support for DFS Namespaces, data deduplication
• Integrated with Microsoft Active Directory
• Access over SMB (Server Message Block).
• Data is backed-up daily to S3 (twtech-s3bucket) for disaster recovery (DR)
  
2. Amazon FSx for Lustre
• Use Case: High-performance computing (HPC), ML, big data analytics.
• Features:
• Sub-millisecond latencies
• Hundreds of GBps throughput
• Seamless integration with Amazon S3. 
• It may be used from on-premises servers (with help of VPN or Direct Connect).
• Supports the Scratch File system(temporary) and Persistent File system (long-term storage).
• May be up to six times faster with up to 200MBps per TiB. 
• Cost Efficient for short-term data processing without having to worry about data replication.
• Persistent File system can perform data replication for same region(SRR).
• Persistent data is stored in two copies of volumes.
3. Amazon FSx for NetApp ONTAP
• Use Case: Enterprises using NetApp ONTAP on-premises, needing ONTAP features in the cloud.
• Features:
• Multi-protocol access (NFS, SMB, iSCSI).
• Snapshots, cloning, data tiering.
• Built-in data protection and replication.
• Supports Linux, Windows, MacOs, VMware Cloud on AWS, Amazon Workplaces & AppStream 2.0, Amazon EC2 and EKS.
• Also support data compression and de-duplication.
• Very efficient for point-in-time cloning especially to the test environment.
4. Amazon FSx for OpenZFS
• Use Case: Linux-based workloads needing ZFS features like snapshots, clones, data compression.
• Features:
• POSIX compliance
• Support for NFS protocol.
• Instantaneous snapshots, and backups.
• Cost efficient and support data compression.

Benefits

• Fully managed by AWS
• Scalable performance and storage
• Secure (encryption at rest/in-transit, VPC integration)
• High availability and durability
• Seamless data migration and integration with AWS services

 Common Use Cases

• Hosting home directories and file shares (FSx for Windows)
• Big data processing and analytics (FSx for Lustre)
• Migrating enterprise NAS systems (FSx for ONTAP)
• ZFS-based data management and development (FSx for OpenZFS).

Project: Hands-on

How twtech creates and use Amzon FSx for its data.

Search for the service: Amazon FSx

Create a file system: 

Select file system type: Amazon FSx for Lustre

To provide an FSx for workload.

Select file system type: Amazon FSx for windows File system.

Select file system type: Amazon FSx for NetApp ONTAP

Select file system type: Amazon FSx for  OpenZFS