Access point

Background information

In container computing scenarios, NAS serves as the default storage type supported by the container CSI plug-in and is used as the default persistent storage for container pods in daily production. Developers and users of containerized applications perform read and write operations on persistent storage through PVs (PersistentVolumes), without concerning themselves with traditional file system namespaces or directory structures. NAS File Storage creates different access points for different users or applications based on their specific needs, making it easy to declare them as PV resources in container environments. An access point can divide a NAS directory into independent namespaces. Different users or services (distinguished by RAM identity) can mount their respective directories through different access points, achieving directory-level tenant isolation.

Feature benefits

• Provides directory-level tenant isolation.

  By using access points to restrict a user's accessible namespace to a specific NAS directory, multiple services can share and centrally manage data within a single file system. In addition, you can use quotas to control the storage space used by each service.

• Simplified permission management.

  • Access points support RAM-based permission management. You can configure different RAM access policies and grant them to different RAM users or RAM roles.

  • Access points can be bound with POSIX user identity. When accessing the file system through an access point, a unified POSIX identity is used for data read and write operations, shielding differences between ECS instances and processes, and thus simplifying native Linux POSIX permission management.

Usage limits

• File system

  Only General-purpose NAS NFS protocol file systems support this feature.

• Mount method

  ECS must use NFS transport encryption to mount the NAS access point. Mounting an access point using non-encrypted methods is not supported.

• Specifications

  A single General-purpose NAS NFS protocol file system supports creating a maximum of 1,000 access points under 2 vSwitches.

  Note

  An access point can be accessed by ECS instances under different vSwitches in the same VPC. We recommend that you create multiple access points under the same vSwitch and select a vSwitch in the same zone as NAS to achieve optimal performance.

• Operating system

  Only the following Linux operating systems support accessing General-purpose NAS NFS protocol file systems via access points.

  Operating system type	Operating system version
  Alibaba Cloud Linux	Alibaba Cloud Linux 2.1903 64-bit Alibaba Cloud Linux 3.2104 LTS 64-bit
  Red Hat	Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.x 64-bit Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.x 64-bit
  CentOS	CentOS 7.x 64-bit CentOS 8.x 64-bit
  Ubuntu	Ubuntu 16.04 64-bit Ubuntu 18.04 64-bit Ubuntu 20.04 64-bit
  Debian	Debian 9.x 64-bit Debian 10.x 64-bit

Performance notes

When mounting via an access point, NFS transport encryption is used to access NAS. Compared with mounting using a mount target, the access latency increases by approximately 10% and IOPS decreases by approximately 30%.

Supported regions

• China (Chengdu)

• Philippines (Manila)

• China (Hangzhou)

• China (Shanghai)

• China (Shenzhen)

• China (Heyuan)

• China (Guangzhou)

• China (Qingdao)

• China (Beijing)

• China (Zhangjiakou)

• China (Hohhot)

• China (Ulanqab)

• China (Hong Kong)

• Singapore

• UK (London)

• South Korea (Seoul)

• US (Virginia)

• US (Silicon Valley)

• Indonesia (Jakarta)

• Germany (Frankfurt)

• Japan (Tokyo)

• Thailand (Bangkok)

• Malaysia (Kuala Lumpur)

Usage process

1. Create a file system. For more information, see Create a file system.

2. Create an access point. For more information, see Create an access point.

3. Optional: Configure a RAM policy for the access point. For more information, see (Optional) Configure an access point policy.

4. Mount and access the file system. For more information, see Access a file system using an access point.