Managing virtual volumes
A file system can be divided into discrete areas of storage called virtual volumes. From a client's perspective, a virtual volume appears to be a normal file system. A virtual volume provides a simple method for allocating and controlling directories for projects, users, or groups. Capacity and number of files within a virtual volume can be controlled using quotas.
The terms user and group are used to indicate NFS or SMB users and groups.
Virtual volumes have the following characteristics:
- Name: A name or label by which the virtual volume is identified. This will often be the same as a SMB share or NFS export rooted at the volume's root directory.
- File System: The file system in which the virtual volume is created.
- Path: The directory at the root of the virtual volume.
- Email Contacts: A list of email addresses, to which information and alerts about virtual volume activity are sent. The list can also be used to send emails to individual users.
- Moving Files: You can move files in or out of a virtual volume.
- Moving Directories: Moving a directory in or out of a virtual volume will return a cross volume link error. However, most SMB or NFS clients will suppress this error and, instead, will copy the directory to the target location and then delete the original directory.
- Linking Files (hard links): You cannot link files across different virtual volumes.
Viewing virtual volumes
You can view the current virtual volumes for the selected EVS and file system using the Virtual Volumes & Quotas page in the NAS Manager. This page also allows the virtual volume's details to be viewed.
Navigate to the to display the page.
The following table describes the fields on this page:
Field/Item Description EVS/File System The name of the selected EVS and file system. change Select a file system associated with the chosen EVS. Filter Filters can be defined to reduce the number of virtual volumes displayed on the page and can be configured based on the name or the path. Name Name of the virtual volume. File System Name of the file system. Contact Contact email address for information and alerts about virtual volume activity. NoteOnly the first contact email address is shown; to view the full set of contacts or to modify the virtual volume, click details.Path Directory on which the virtual volume has been created. Usage Amount of data in the virtual volume. details Displays the Virtual Volume page for the selected virtual volume. add Displays the Add Virtual Volume page. delete Deletes the virtual volume and associated quota. View Quotas Displays quotas for the selected virtual volume. Download All Quotas Downloads a CSV (comma separated values) file listing all virtual volumes' configured quotas. The saved quota information includes: Quota Type, Created By, Usage, Usage Limit, Usage Hard Limit, Usage Reset (%), Usage Warning (%), Usage Severe (%), File Count, File Count Limit, File Count Hard Limit, File Count Reset (%), File Count Warning (%), and File Count Severe (%).
Adding a virtual volume
A file system can be divided into discrete areas of storage that are called virtual volumes. You can add a virtual volume in the NAS Manager.
Navigate to
Click add to display the Add Virtual Volume page.
The following table describes the fields on this page:
Field/Item Description EVS/File System The EVS and the file system to which to add this virtual volume. If the volume will be added to a different EVS/file system, click change and select an EVS/file system. Virtual Volume Name The name of the virtual volume.
Create a CIFS Share or NFS Export with the same name as the virtual volume If a share or export with the same name as the virtual volume does not exist, selecting this check box ensures its creation. This is only intended for convenience in accessing the virtual volume through CIFS or NFS.
Allow exports to overlap As overlapping exports can potentially expose security loopholes, the condition can be tested for and, if found, the export creation can be denied. Path Directory in the file system that will be the root of the virtual volume; for example, /company/sales. All subdirectories of this path will be a part of this volume. The path to the directory at the root of the virtual volume must be specified, or selected by browsing the file system. If the directory does not yet exist, then leaving the box checked will ensure it is created. It should be noted that if the system is left to create the directory in this way, the owner will be designated 'root', and the default quotas for this virtual volume will be named anonymously.
Email Contacts Email contacts to receive information about virtual volume usage. In the Virtual Volume Name field, enter the name. Note the the following:
- The name can be up 128 characters.
- Do not use the characters ?*=+[];:/,<>\| in the name.
- The name A$ is reserved for the Windows Event Viewer, and cannot be used.
If a CIFS share of the same name as this virtual volume is required, fill the Create a CIFS Share with the same name as the Virtual Volume check box. Selecting this check box ensures its creation.
if an NFS export with the same name as the virtual volume is required, fill in the Create a NFS Export with the same name as the Virtual Volume check box.
If there is a possibility that this new NFS export will overlap an existing export, fill in the Allow exports to overlap check box.
Enter the path to the directory at the root of the virtual volume or click Browse and navigate to the file system path.
If the directory does not yet exist, fill in the Create path if it does not exist check box to ensure that it is created.
Enter each email address in the Email Contacts box, and click add to append it to the list. Email lists are limited to a maximum of 512 characters.
- To configure email notification of threshold alerts, designate explicit email recipients (for example, admin@company.com) to receive email notification any time a defined threshold has been reached.
- To send email to all affected user accounts when their user quota has been reached, add an email address beginning with * to the Email Contacts list (for example, *@example.com).
NoteIf no email contacts are specified for the virtual volume, the server generates events for quota warnings. To generate events in addition to email alerts, go to the server’s command line interface and issue the command quota-event–-on.Click OK.
Modifying a virtual volume
You can modify the name and email address of an existing virtual volume in the NAS Manager.
Navigate to to display the Virtual Volumes & Quotas page.
Click details to display the Virtual Volume page.
The following table describes the fields on this page:
Field/Item Description EVS/File System The EVS and the file system to which to add this virtual volume. If the virtual volume will be added to a different EVS/file system, click change and select an EVS/file system. Virtual Volume Name The name of the virtual volume. Path Directory in the file system that is the root of the virtual volume; for example, /company/sales. All subdirectories of this path will be a part of this volume. Security Mode Displays the File System Security page. Total Quota Limits Allocated Displays the total quota limits allocated. Total Usage Displays the total usage excluding metadata. Use the fs-analyze-data-usage command to determine how much metadata exists on the file system. It is not possible to determine how much metadata exists for an individual virtual volume. File Count Displays the file count. For virtual volume quotas, the root of the virtual volume counts as belonging to the virtual volume - therefore an empty virtual volume displays a file count of one. Email Contacts Displays existing email contacts. View Corresponding Share Displays the corresponding shares. View Corresponding Export Displays the corresponding exports. Data Migration Paths Displays the Data Migration Paths page. To modify the virtual volume name, enter the new name.
To add new email contacts, enter the email address and click add. To delete an existing email address, select the address from the list and click x.
Click OK.
Deleting a virtual volume
- If the virtual volume is not empty, use the --delete-contents CLI option to remove its contents before removal:
- virtual-volume remove [--delete-contents] <file-system> <name>
- To remove all virtual volumes of a given file system, issue the following command. If some volumes are not-empty, use the --delete contents option:
- virtual-volume removeall [--delete-contents] <file-system>
Refer to CLI man pages for more information.
You can delete an empty virtual volume in the NAS Manager.
Procedure
Navigate to .
Select one or more virtual volumes.
Click delete.
A warning message displays asking for confirmation that this action is definitely required.
Click OK.
Enabling and disabling file system capacity and free space reporting based on virtual volume quotas
The file system capacity and free space reporting for virtual volume quotas option supports thin provisioning within a virtual volume. When this option is enabled and a virtual volume quota is created, capacity/free space counts returned to clients are derived solely from the virtual volume quota. This affects only those clients that have mounted an export or share within a virtual volume.
You may want to enable this option when data migration is configured. In this scenario, the primary file system could ingest more data than it has capacity itself for. You can define a quota for a virtual volume based on available capacity of migration target(s) and enable this feature so that the capacity defined by the quota is reported to protocol clients rather than the primary file system capacity/free space.
- To enable this option for the virtual volume vivol1 that resides on the file system fs1, issue the following CLI command:
- fs-space-reporting-based-solely-on-vivol-quota --on fs1 vivol1
- To get the current setting for the virtual volume vivol1 that resides on the file system fs1, issue the following CLI command:
- fs-space-reporting-based-solely-on-vivol-quota fs1 vivol1
- To disable this option for the virtual volume vivol1 that resides on the file system fs1, issue the following CLI command:
- fs-space-reporting-based-solely-on-vivol-quota --off fs1 vivol1
See the Command Line Reference for more details.