Dell PowerVault NX3500 - Manual (Page 12)

Term Description
Fluid File System (FluidFS) A special purpose, Dell proprietary operating system providing
enterprise class, high ‐performance, scalable NAS services using
Dell PowerVault, EqualLogic or Dell Compellent SAN storage
systems.
FluidFS Controller (NAS controller) Dell hardware device capable of running the FluidFS firmware.
FluidFS Appliance (NAS appliance) Enclosure containing two NAS controllers. The controllers in an
appliance are called peers, are hot ‐swappable and operate in
active ‐active mode.
Backup Power Supply (BPS) A backup power supply that keeps a FluidFS controller running
in the event of power failure and allows it to dump its cache to
a nonvolatile storage device.
FluidFS system (cluster) Multiple NAS controllers appropriately connected and
configured to form a single functional unit.
PowerVault FluidFS Manager WebUI Management user interface used for managing
PowerVault FluidFS systems.
NAS reserve (pool) The SAN storage system LUNs (and their aggregate size)
allocated and provisioned to a FluidFS system.
NAS volume File system (single-rooted directory/folder and file hierarchy),
defined using FluidFS management functions over a portion of
the NAS reserve.
Client Network (Client LAN) The network through which clients access CIFS shares or NFS
exports and also through which the PowerVault FluidFS
Manager is accessed.
Client VIP Virtual IP address(es) that clients use to access CIFS shares and
NFS exports hosted by the FluidFS system.
CIFS share A directory in a NAS volume that is shared on the Client
Network using the SMB (CIFS) protocol.
NFS export A directory in a NAS volume that is shared on the Client
Network using the Network File System (NFS) protocol.
Network Data Management Protocol
(NDMP)
Protocol used for NDMP backup and restore.
Replication partnership A relation between two FluidFS systems enabling them to
replicate NAS volumes between themselves.
Snapshot A time-specific view of a NAS volume data.
Key Features Of PowerVault FluidFS Systems
The following table summarizes key features of PowerVault FluidFS scale ‐out NAS.
Feature Description
Shared back ‐end infrastructure The MD system SAN and NX36X0 scale ‐out NAS leverage the
same virtualized disk pool.
Unified block and file Unified block (SAN) and file(NAS) storage.
High performance NAS Support for a single namespace spanning up to two NAS
appliances (four NAS controllers).
Capacity scaling Ability to scale a single namespace up to 1024 TB capacity.
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