Chapter 4: Operations

Operations

This section includes ongoing operations tasks you can perform using the Nasuni Edge Appliance user interface.

You can manage multiple Nasuni Edge Appliances with the Nasuni Management Console (NMC).

For more details on any of these topics, see the Nasuni Edge Appliance Administration Guide and the Nasuni Management Console Guide.

A. Managing Volumes

1. Connecting to a remote volume

   On Nasuni Edge Appliance: Click Volumes. Click Connect to Remote Volume. Select a remote volume to connect to.

   On NMC: Click Volumes, then click Connect Volume. For the selected share, click Edit Connections.

2. Planning a volume

   See Worksheet for a worksheet for planning configurations. Determine the following information to plan the features of a volume:

Quotas

When a directory exceeds its quota limit, no further data writes to the relevant directory are permitted. If the size of the relevant directory is reduced, or the size of the quota limit is increased, then data writes to the relevant directory are permitted once more.

Important: If the size of the directory is larger than the quota limit when the quota is defined, data writes to the relevant directory are halted immediately. Data writes are not permitted until the size of the relevant directory is reduced, or the size of the quota limit is increased.

On Nasuni Edge Appliance: To configure directory-specific quota email notifications, click

File Browser, select a directory, then click Quota. On NMC: Click Volumes, then click Quota.

On NMC: Click Filers, then click Quota Reports.

Pinning directories to cache

On Nasuni Edge Appliance and NMC: To enable pinning a directory to the cache, click File Browser, select a directory, then click Edit Cache Settings.

Auto Cache for directories

“Auto Cache” attempts to bring into the local cache any changes made to the specified directories by other Nasuni Edge Appliances. Without Auto Cache, any such data is only brought into the local cache as it is accessed locally. With Auto Cache enabled, the Nasuni Edge Appliance attempts to bring such data into the local cache during the scheduled syncs.

Auto Cache must be enabled for a volume before Auto Cache is enabled for a directory in the volume. You can only enable Auto Cache for shared volumes.

Auto Cache is designed to run in the background with limited impact on the normal operation of the Nasuni Edge Appliance. For this reason, Auto Cache is not designed to bring items into the cache immediately. Also, other processes, such as snapshots, can interrupt the Auto Cache process so that it takes longer.

Auto Cache makes 3 attempts to bring a given item into the cache. After 3 attempts, Auto Cache skips that item. If a user references that item, the Nasuni Edge Appliance again attempts to bring the item into the cache.

Similarly, the queue for the items that Auto Cache attempts to bring into the cache is limited to 50,000 items. An item is a file or a directory. If there are more than 50,000 items, the items beyond 50,000 do not fit on the queue and are not processed. However, if a user references one of those non-processed items, the Nasuni Edge Appliance does attempt to bring the item into the cache.

If Auto Cache is enabled for directories that have Global File Lock enabled, then only the metadata is brought into the cache during the next sync. The data itself is not brought into the cache until a user accesses the file, because, if the user were to access the file at the same time that the file was brought into the cache, then the user would have to wait.

On Nasuni Edge Appliance and NMC: To enable Auto Cache for directories, click File Browser, select a directory, then click Edit Cache Settings.

Note: Enabling Auto Cache adds a load to the system.

3. Creating a volume

   Tip: You must configure cloud credentials before adding a volume that uses those cloud credentials.

   Tip: For Nasuni recommendations for volume configuration, see Appendix C, “Volume Configuration,”.

   Tip: Before adding data to a Nasuni Edge Appliance, it is a Best Practice to clean up historical and orphaned SIDs. This can help prevent later difficulties with permissions. For more details, see Permissions Best Practices.

   Important: If you intend to use a new encryption key that Nasuni generates, that encryption key is automatically escrowed with Nasuni. To recover encryption keys escrowed with Nasuni, you must specify an escrow passphrase. Therefore, before creating a new volume with an encryption key that Nasuni generates, you must specify an escrow passphrase.

   Tip: The volume name must be fewer than 25 characters.

   Also, if you specify creating a share or export with the new volume, the share or export has the same name as the volume. Therefore, the volume name must satisfy the same restrictions as the share name or export name.

   Important: The Edge Appliance that “owns” a volume (which is the Edge Appliance that created the volume) is called the “owning Appliance” or the “volume owner”. The volume owner has certain special features with respect to its owned volume. In particular, the following functions are not available if the volume owning Appliance is offline:

   • Creating volume.

   • Global File Acceleration: enabling or disabling.

   • Global File Lock: enabling or disabling.

   • Health check for volume.

   • Protocol: changing or adding.

   • Remote Access: enabling and disabling settings.

   • Safe Delete: enabling or disabling.

   • Shared volume: connecting and disconnecting.

   • Snapshot Directory Access: enabling or disabling.

   • Snapshot Retention: enabling, disabling, or changing.

   • Volume Quota and Volume Quota Rules.

   • Cloud I/O.

   On Nasuni Edge Appliance: Click Volumes, then click Add New Volume. On NMC: Click Volumes, then click Create Volume.

   Tip: For CIFS-only volumes, certain processing is optimized for volumes that treat file names and directory names as case-insensitive (namely, volumes created with the “Case Sensitive” option unselected).

   The default is case-insensitive. However, to specify that the CIFS volume should treat file and directory names as case-sensitive, select “Make the volume case- sensitive”.

   Important: Clients such as Windows can sometimes give inconsistent results when dealing with the case sensitivity of file names.

   A snapshot occurs automatically after the volume is created. After you create a volume, download and save encryption keys:

   On Nasuni Edge Appliance: Click Configuration, then click Encryption Keys, then click Download Generated Keys.

   The default maximum number of owned volumes is 8.

   If applications access the Nasuni Edge Appliance directly, create an application-specific volume.

   If this Nasuni Edge Appliance is a standby for disaster recovery, create a shared volume that connects to the primary volume.

   Tip: Perform any necessary data ingestion to the volume before enabling Remote Access.

   Otherwise, data ingestion processing can impact the synchronization of remote volumes.

   Enable Remote Access for the primary volume, with Read-Write access for the standby Nasuni Edge Appliance. Scheduling syncs with a frequent Frequency helps to ensure that data is up to date. Enabling Auto Cache for directories helps to ensure that data is up to date. You can schedule snapshots with an infrequent Frequency, because the standby is not responsible for ensuring that snapshots occur.

4. Enabling Global File Lock

   The purpose of the Global File Lock feature is to prevent conflicts when two or more users attempt to change the same file on different Nasuni Edge Appliances. If you enable the Global File Lock feature for a directory and its descendants, any files in that directory or its descendants can only be changed by one user at a time.

   Tip: For Nasuni recommendations for volume configuration, see Appendix C, “Volume Configuration,”.

   Note: You can view the Health Status of the Nasuni Orchestration Center (NOC), Global File Acceleration (GFA), and Global File Lock (GFL) at account.nasuni.com.

   Tip: Enabling Global File Lock can have an impact on performance, depending on factors that include network congestion, user load, and file sizes. If users do not typically collaborate on the same file at the same time, it is unnecessary to enable Global File Lock.

   Tip: On volumes with Global File Lock enabled, we recommend increasing the snapshot frequency and the synchronization frequency of the volume.

   If the normal snapshot and synchronization frequency of the volume are decreased, new files take longer to propagate, because new files depend on snapshot and synchronization to propagate.

   On Nasuni Edge Appliance: Click File Browser, select directory, then click Edit Global Locking Settings.

   On NMC: Click Volumes, then click File Browser, select directory, then click Edit Global Locking Settings.

   Tip: If Global File Lock is enabled for a volume that uses multiple protocols where hardlinks might be present, it is highly recommended that the parent directory where Global File Lock is enabled be exported as an “NFS Export” to applications that use multiple protocols. Note that hardlinks can span multiple hierarchies where Global File Lock is enabled.

   

   Caution: Allowing NFS hardlinks to span hierarchies outside where Global File Lock is enabled might result in data inconsistencies during file synchronization. This does not apply to soft links such as symlinks.

   

B. Managing Shares, Exports, and FTP/SFTP directories

You can create multiple CIFS shares, NFS exports, and FTP/SFTP directories for each volume. Each share, export, or FTP/SFTP directory can have different properties and permissions for different purposes and users.

Note: Nasuni supports SFTP, the SSH File Transfer Protocol. This is not the same as FTPS, the File Transfer Protocol over SSL.

Tip: You can ensure that the SFTP (SSH File Transfer Protocol) protocol is used, rather than the FTP protocol, with the Firewall page in the Edge Appliance UI. For each Traffic Group, select SFTP and deselect FTP.

1. Planning a CIFS share

   See Worksheet for a worksheet for planning configurations. Determine the following information to plan CIFS shares:

2. Creating a new share

   Tip: Hard links, junctions, and symbolic links (including Windows junctions and hard links) are not supported with SMB (CIFS) shares.

   On Nasuni Edge Appliance: Click Volumes, select a volume with the CIFS protocol enabled from the list, then click the Total Shares status. Click Add New Share.

   On NMC: Click Volumes, then click Shares, then click Create Share.

   If applications access the Nasuni Edge Appliance directly, create an application-specific share.

   Tip: “Mobile Access” must be enabled in the customer license before Web Access can be used with a Nasuni Edge Appliance.

   Some applications need Case-Sensitive Paths disabled in order to successfully access files. However, disabling Case-Sensitive Paths can cause performance issues.

   Important: Clients such as Windows can sometimes give inconsistent results when dealing with the case sensitivity of file names.

   Some applications need Allocation Roundup Size disabled. However, disabling Allocation Roundup Size can cause performance issues. The default is to be disabled.

3. Creating NFS exports

   On Nasuni Edge Appliance: Click Volumes, select an NFS volume from the list, then click the Total Exports status. Click Add New Export.

   On NMC: Click Volumes, then click Exports, then click Create Export.

   Tip: It is possible to create, update, and delete NFS exports using the NMC API.

4. Enabling multiple protocols for a volume

   Tip: For Nasuni recommendations for volume configuration, see Appendix C, “Volume Configuration,”.

   To enable multiple protocols for a volume:

   On Nasuni Edge Appliance: Click Volumes, then select a volume from the list. From the Properties drop-down menu, select Volume Protocols.

   On NMC: Click Volumes, then click Protocols. For the selected volume, click Edit.

5. Creating FTP/SFTP directories

   Note: Nasuni supports SFTP, the SSH File Transfer Protocol. This is not the same as FTPS, the File Transfer Protocol over SSL.

   Enable the FTP protocol for the volume. See “Enabling multiple protocols for a volume” on page 43.

   To create an FTP/SFTP directory for a volume:

   On Nasuni Edge Appliance: Click Volumes, then select a volume that has the FTP/SFTP protocol enabled. From the Properties drop-down menu, select FTP Directories. Click Add New FTP Directory.

   On NMC: Click Volumes, then click FTP Directories, then click Create FTP Directory.

C. Enabling Remote Access

Tip: Perform any necessary data ingestions to the volume before enabling Remote Access.

Otherwise, data ingestion processing can impact the synchronization of remote volumes.

To enable access to a volume by remote offices attached to your Nasuni.com account:

On NMC: Click Volumes, then click Remote Access. For the selected volumes, click Edit Volumes.

If this Nasuni Edge Appliance is performing data ingestions, disable Remote Access for the volume. Disabling Remote Access reduces processing.

D. Adding data TO the Nasuni Edge Appliance

For details, see Appendix B, “Cache Configuration,”.

Tip: Before adding data to a Nasuni Edge Appliance, it is a Best Practice to clean up historical and orphaned SIDs. This can help prevent later difficulties with permissions. For more details, see Permissions Best Practices.

Tip: PST files: Microsoft Outlook Personal Storage (.pst) files are used to store information for Microsoft Outlook email systems. These files contain a large quantity of different types of information, and can grow very large: multi-GB .pst files are common.

Nasuni recommends that customers NOT store active Outlook .pst files with the Nasuni Edge Appliance, for a number of reasons:

• Whenever a new email arrives, the entire .pst file is marked as unprotected, and the entire very large file must then be uploaded to the cloud again with the next snapshot. This can interfere with the handling of other files, and with data propagation.

• The multiple versions of .pst files can increase the cloud usage of such files for a volume.

• Microsoft also recommends NOT storing .pst files on networks: https:// docs.microsoft.com/en-US/outlook/troubleshoot/data-files/limits-using-pst-files-over- lan-wan

To help ensure that .pst files are not stored with the Nasuni Edge Appliance, Nasuni recommends that customers enable the File Alert Service and include patterns such as *.pst.

1. Copying data from local or network drives to Nasuni Edge Appliance

   In Windows, you can map volumes on the Nasuni Edge Appliance to network drives, then copy data to the mapped drives.

   Tip: In Windows, if a directory gives permission to the group “Everyone”, unprivileged users might not be able to access the directory. Instead, Nasuni recommends that you assign users to another group that has the desired permission for the directory

   In Linux or UNIX, you can use command line instructions to navigate to mounted volumes on the Nasuni Edge Appliance, then copy data to the volume.

   You can use a VMware client, such as the VMware vSphere Client, to define NFS datastores. If you do this, prepend /nfs to the name of the NFS volume or NFS export.

2. Web Access

   Using Web Access, you can drag and drop data to the Nasuni Edge Appliance with some Web browsers. (Internet Explorer does not currently support this feature.) To enable Web Access, see “Enabling Web Access to CIFS shares on each volume” on page 33.

   Tip: “Mobile Access” must be enabled in the customer license before Web Access can be used with a Nasuni Edge Appliance.

   If you use this URL to access your Nasuni Edge Appliance:

   https://yourfiler.example.com:8443/

   then the URL of the Web Access page is:

   https://yourfiler.example.co m:443/

E. Accessing data FROM the Nasuni Edge Appliance

1. Copying data from Nasuni Edge Appliance to local or network drives

   See “Copying data from local or network drives to Nasuni Edge Appliance” on page 44.

2. Web Access

   Using Web Access, you can drag and drop data from the Nasuni Edge Appliance with some Web browsers. (Internet Explorer does not currently support this feature.) See “Web Access”.

   Tip: “Mobile Access” must be enabled in the customer license before Web Access can be used with a Nasuni Edge Appliance.

F. Resizing the cache (virtual machine)

For details on resizing the cache, see Installing on Hyper-V, Installing on Nutanix, Installing on Scale HyperCore, or Installing on VMware.

G. Moving Nasuni Edge Appliance to new host

1. Download and protect all encryption keys before shutting down Nasuni Edge Appliance

2. Perform Nasuni snapshots on all volumes before shutting down Nasuni Edge Appliance

3. Disaster Recovery procedure is available for use on the new host, if necessary

4. Verify network and Internet connectivity after moving the Nasuni Edge Appliance

H. Changing device and network parameters (virtual machine)

You can use console commands to change network parameters such as the static IP address, netmask, MTU, hostname, default gateway, DNS servers, and search domains. You can also view the MAC address, or enable static or DHCP networking. For details, see the Nasuni Edge Appliance Initial Configuration Guide.

Important: Edge Appliances and the NMC must be configured with operational DNS servers and a time server (internal or external) within your environment.

I. Enabling Global File Lock for a directory

The purpose of the Global File Lock feature is to prevent conflicts when two or more users attempt to change the same file on different Nasuni Edge Appliances. If you enable the Global File Lock feature for a directory and its descendants, any files in that directory or its descendants can only be changed by one user at a time. Any other users cannot change the same file at the same time.

On Nasuni Edge Appliance and NMC: To enable Global File Lock for a directory, click File Browser, select a directory, then click Edit Global Locking Settings.

Tip: If Global File Lock is enabled for a volume that uses multiple protocols where hardlinks might be present, it is highly recommended that the parent directory where Global File Lock is enabled be exported as an “NFS Export” to applications that use multiple protocols. Note that hardlinks can span multiple hierarchies where Global File Lock is enabled.

Caution: Allowing NFS hardlinks to span hierarchies outside where Global File Lock is enabled might result in data inconsistencies during file synchronization. This does not apply to soft links such as symlinks.

J. Verifying licensed capacity

On Nasuni Edge Appliance: Click Status, then select Subscription Status.

On NMC: Licensed capacity appears on the Home page. Click the Nasuni logo.

K. Updating Nasuni Edge Appliance Software

Warning: Do not attempt to restore from a virtual machine snapshot or backup.

You can configure the Nasuni Edge Appliance to update software automatically. On Nasuni Edge Appliance: Click Configuration, then select Automatic Updates.

On NMC: Click Filers, then click Automatic Updates. Select Nasuni Edge Appliances, then click Edit Filers.

Alternatively, you can update software manually.

On Nasuni Edge Appliance: Click Status, then select Updates.

On NMC: Click Filers, then click Software Updates. Select Nasuni Edge Appliances, then click Edit Filers.

To avoid user interface issues when updates occur, clear your Web browser’s cache. Because updating the software disconnects all users currently using the Nasuni Edge Appliance, you should choose a date and time that will minimize interruptions. When updates occur, review the release notes for the update.

If this Nasuni Edge Appliance is a primary file server, configure automatic software updates during times that do not impact users.

L. Avoiding performance issues

In Windows, disable the Windows Explorer Preview Pane. Using Preview Pane can cause performance issues.