Access points
An access point is a dedicated access entry that lets a specific application or user access a General-purpose NAS file system. You can create multiple access points for a NAS directory, configure a different access policy for each access point, and apply the access points to different services. This reduces the complexity of permission management when multiple services share the same datasets.
Background information
In container environments, NAS is the default storage type that the container CSI plugin supports, and the default persistent storage for container pods in production. Developers and users of container applications read and write persistent storage through persistent volumes (PVs). They do not work with the namespaces and directory structures of traditional file systems.
File Storage NAS creates different access points for different users or applications based on the requirements of a specific application or user. You can then declare these access points as PVs in a container environment. Access points divide NAS directories into independent namespaces. Different users or services, identified by their RAM identities, mount their own directories through different access points. This achieves directory-level tenant isolation.
Benefits
Directory-level tenant isolation
Access points limit the namespace that a user can access to a specific NAS directory. Multiple services can share data in one file system and manage the data centrally. You can also use quotas to control the storage space that each service uses.
Simplified permission management
Access points support Resource Access Management (RAM)-based permission management. You can configure different RAM access policies and grant them to different RAM users or RAM roles.
You can bind Portable Operating System Interface (POSIX) user information to an access point. When you access a file system through the access point, unified POSIX information is used to read and write data. This masks the differences between Elastic Compute Service (ECS) instances and between processes, and simplifies native Linux POSIX permission management.
Limits
Supported file systems
Only General-purpose NAS file systems that use the NFS protocol support access points.
Mounting methods
ECS instances must use NFS transit encryption to mount NAS access points. Mounting an access point directly without encryption is not supported.
Specifications
A single General-purpose NFS file system supports up to 1,000 access points distributed across two vSwitches.
ECS instances in different vSwitches within the same virtual private cloud (VPC) can access an access point. By default, create multiple access points in the same vSwitch. For optimal performance, select a vSwitch that is in the same zone as the NAS file system.
Operating systems
Only the following Linux operating systems can use access points to access General-purpose NFS file systems.
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 impact
When you mount a file system through an access point, NAS is accessed with NFS encryption in transit. Compared with mounting through a mount target, access latency increases by about 10% and IOPS drops by about 30%.
Supported regions
Access points are available in the following regions.
China
China (Beijing)
China (Chengdu)
China (Guangzhou)
China (Hangzhou)
China (Heyuan)
China (Hohhot)
China (Hong Kong)
China (Qingdao)
China (Shanghai)
China (Shenzhen)
China (Ulanqab)
China (Zhangjiakou)
Asia Pacific
Germany (Frankfurt)
Indonesia (Jakarta)
Japan (Tokyo)
Malaysia (Kuala Lumpur)
Philippines (Manila)
Singapore
South Korea (Seoul)
Thailand (Bangkok)
Europe and Americas
UK (London)
US (Silicon Valley)
US (Virginia)