FAQ

What is Cloud Parallel File Storage (CPFS)?

Cloud Parallel File Storage (CPFS) is a fully managed, scalable parallel file system from Alibaba Cloud designed for high-performance computing scenarios. CPFS provides a unified namespace and supports hundreds or thousands of machines accessing it simultaneously. It delivers tens of gigabytes per second in throughput, millions of input/output operations per second (IOPS), and sub-millisecond latency.

What scenarios are suitable for CPFS general-purpose edition?

CPFS general-purpose edition is ideal for I/O-intensive workloads that require high throughput, high IOPS, and massive numbers of files. Typical use cases include AI training, autonomous driving, genomic computing, media rendering, oil and gas exploration, weather analysis, and EDA simulation.

What are the advantages of CPFS?

CPFS delivers stable performance. A CPFS file system can support up to 20 GB/s of throughput and one million IOPS.

How do I choose a performance specification for CPFS general-purpose edition?

CPFS general-purpose edition offers two performance specifications based on throughput per TiB: 100 MB/s/TiB and 200 MB/s/TiB. The maximum supported throughput is 2 TB/s. Choose the specification that best matches your capacity and throughput requirements.

How is billing handled for the ECS instance used as the POSIX client control plane node?

After creation, the ECS instance used as the POSIX client control plane node is billed on a pay-as-you-go basis by Elastic Compute Service (ECS). For more information, see ECS pay-as-you-go.

Using the CPFS-NFS client does not require a control plane node.

Can I change the billing method of the ECS instance used as the POSIX client control plane node?

Do not convert the billing method of the ECS instance used as the POSIX client control plane node to subscription. If you forget to renew a subscription ECS instance, the instance will be stopped and released, making CPFS unavailable.

What performance does CPFS deliver?

CPFS provides hundreds of gigabytes per second in bandwidth, millions of IOPS, and sub-millisecond latency. Actual bandwidth and IOPS depend on the size of the file system you purchase.

How do I change the performance of a CPFS general-purpose edition file system?

The size and performance of a file system are fixed after creation and cannot be changed directly. However, you can upgrade an existing file system to a larger specification, which increases its performance accordingly.

Which operating systems does CPFS-POSIX support?

The CPFS-POSIX client supports only Linux operating systems, including Alibaba Cloud Linux, Ubuntu, and CentOS. For information about the supported operating system versions, see the following table.

Which operating systems does CPFS-NFS support?

How do I choose between the CPFS-POSIX client and the CPFS-NFS client?

How do I activate the service and create a CPFS file system?

If you have already registered and logged on to Alibaba Cloud and activated NAS, log on to the NAS console to perform related operations. On first use, authorize CPFS before creating a file system. For details, see Create a file system.

How do I access a CPFS general-purpose edition file system from a compute instance?

Install the CPFS client and the client control plane cluster on your compute node. Then mount the CPFS file system to the compute node using the client. After mounting, access the CPFS file system as if it were a local file system. For details, see Mount a file system using the CPFS-POSIX client (Ubuntu/CentOS) or Mount a file system using the CPFS-NFS client (recommended).

How do I monitor a CPFS general-purpose edition file system?

In the NAS console, view the performance monitoring page or go to the Performance Monitoring tab on the details page of your CPFS file system. You can monitor IOPS, throughput, latency, and metadata QPS metrics.

What security isolation capabilities does CPFS provide?

CPFS supports virtual private cloud (VPC). Only compute nodes in the same VPC as the file system can mount it. CPFS also supports ACLs, allowing you to configure access permissions for files or folders.

What is the data reliability of CPFS?

CPFS uses a multi-replica redundancy mechanism in the backend to provide 99.9999999% (nine nines) data durability.

What is the service-level agreement (SLA) for CPFS?

CPFS guarantees a service availability of at least 99.9%.

How is CPFS billed?

CPFS charges based on storage type, size, and duration. If your workload involves data transfer or protocol services, CPFS also charges for bandwidth usage. For more information, see CPFS billing overview.

How do I check the version of my CPFS file system?

Why can't I find my newly created CPFS general-purpose edition file system?

• Issue

  After creating a CPFS file system, it remains in the "Creating" state on the file system list page. Later, it disappears entirely.

• Possible causes

  • The vSwitch you selected during creation uses a secondary CIDR block of the VPC. CPFS does not support vSwitches created from secondary CIDR blocks.

  • The zone where you tried to create the file system has exhausted its available resources. Try a different zone.

• Solution

  Create the CPFS file system again. When selecting a vSwitch or zone, choose a different zone and a vSwitch that was not created from a secondary CIDR block.

Which access protocols does CPFS general-purpose edition support?

CPFS general-purpose edition supports both POSIX and NFSv3 protocols and allows interoperability between them.