Amazon FSx for Windows File Server | Overview & Hands-On.

Amazon FSx for Windows File Server - Overview & Hands-On.

Scope:

• Intro,
• Key FSx File System Types,
• Benefits,
• Common Use Cases,
• Project: Hands-on

Intro:

• 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.
• Amazon FSx 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 to launch and run feature-rich, high-performance file systems in the cloud
• Search for the AWS 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