FAQ

CephFS FAQ

What is CephFS?

CephFS is a file storage solution that forms a part of Ceph. Ceph file storage makes use of the Portable Operating System Interface (POSIX)-compliant Ceph file system (CephFS) to store data in a Ceph Storage Cluster. CephFS uses the same clustered system as Ceph block storage and Ceph object storage.

Is CephFS the right solution for my business?

CephFS is a great platform that allows businesses to store data securely with fast throughput. Where it shines the most is large file storage. If your business stores large PDF files, videos, CAD files and/or backup images then CephFS will allow you to scale easily as your needs grow. 

What is the best CephFS solution?

Servers Australia has chosen to partner with Softiron to offer Enterprise Ceph hardware & software. The hardware is hardened, secured & tuned specifically to improve CephFS performance

Can we just add on via the Storage Control Panel here?

Yes, you can increase your storage after you've ordered it via the MySAU customer portal. It will become available within around 1 minute.

Can we attach storage as a mapped drive or other to this Server, and/or from others?

Yes, you can mount as a mapped drive or as a folder. Ceph is designed as a shared filesystem and can handle access from multiple servers simultaneously. There are some limitations on windows around file locking however. 

https://docs.ceph.com/en/latest/cephfs/ceph-dokan/

Where does the storage reside?

The storage resides on our Softiron Ceph Cluster in Equinix SY4.

What are the transfer speeds in/out?

Our testing has shown the speeds can get up to around 800MB/s but as this is a shared platform we cannot guarantee this. You can easily order a minimal ceph volume for testing and cancel it whenever if you're not happy with the performance.

What are the redundancies of this storage?

The ceph cluster uses Erasure Coding (6+2) for data durability. This means we could handle at least two entire node failures simultaneously without any data loss. For data loss to occur it would require both failed nodes to contain the same data which is also a low chance.

Some more info on erasure coding can be found here: 

https://docs.ceph.com/en/latest/rados/operations/erasure-code/

Is the data on Ceph backed up?

There are no backups of the platform, it's simply a storage platform for you to use as you see fit. If you want backups of the data you could use a different storage platform such as Nimble to store a second copy or you could use a backup software such as veeam to do backups to a remote repository (this is also a product we offer).

Is it available immediately?

Yes, within a few minutes of ordering via the customer portal.

Can we apply Windows ACLs/permissions to the folders within the Cephfs?

No, Windows ACLs are not supported on Ceph filesystem. POSIX ACLs are supported. Please see the following ceph doc for more information and limitations regarding Ceph on windows:

https://docs.ceph.com/en/latest/cephfs/ceph-dokan/