Introduction to AFM to cloud object storage
The AFM to cloud object storage is an IBM Storage Scale feature that enables placement of files or objects in an IBM Storage Scale cluster to a cloud object storage.
Cloud object services such as Amazon S3, IBM Cloud® Object
Storage, Seagate
Lyve Cloud, and Microsoft Azure Blob storage offer industry-leading scalability, data
availability, security, and performance. AFM to cloud object storage
supports Amazon S3, IBM Cloud Object
Storage, Seagate
Lyve Cloud, Microsoft Azure Blob, and Google Cloud Platform. Microsoft Azure Blob storage is supported by using two features. - AFM to cloud object storage direct Microsoft Azure Blob support: AFM to cloud object storage fileset connects to Azure containers without any intermediary application.
- By deploying MinIO as an S3 gateway between AFM to cloud object storage and Microsoft Azure Blob storage.
- AFM to cloud object storage supports S3 endpoints as backend also.
The AFM to cloud object storage allows associating an
IBM Storage Scale fileset with a cloud object storage.
Customers use a cloud object storage to run workloads such as mobile applications, backup and
restore, enterprise applications, and big data analytics, file server. These workloads can be cached
on AFM to cloud object storage filesets for faster computation and
synchronize back to the cloud object storage server.
The front-end for object applications is an AFM to cloud object storage fileset with the data exchange between the fileset and cloud object storage buckets through the AFM to cloud object storage in the background by providing high performance for the object applications. Object applications can also span across AFM to cloud object storage filesets and on a cloud object storage. Both the fileset and the cloud object storage can be used as a backup of important data.
The AFM to cloud object storage on an IBM Storage Scale fileset becomes an extension of cloud object storage buckets for high-performance or used objects. Depending upon the modes of AFM to cloud object storage fileset configurations, objects required for applications such as AI and big data analytics can be downloaded, worked upon, and can be uploaded to a cloud object storage. The objects that are created by applications can be synchronized to the objects on a cloud object storage asynchronously. An AFM to cloud object storage fileset can cache only metadata or both metadata and data.
The AFM to cloud object storage also allows data center administrators to free the IBM Storage Scale storage capacity by moving less useful data to the cloud storage. This feature reduces capital and operational expenditures. The AFM-based cache eviction feature can be used to improve the storage capacity manually and by using policies. For more information about the AFM cache eviction, see Cache eviction.
The AFM to cloud object storage uses the same underlying infrastructure as AFM. For more information, see Active File Management.
An AFM to cloud object storage fileset supports setting an access control list (ACL) on a file of up to 2 KB size. When an ACL is assigned on a file of more than 2 KB size, the file is discarded and only file data is synchronized with the bucket.
The AFM to cloud object storage is available on all IBM Storage Scale editions.
AFM to cloud object storage by using Azure Blob storage
AFM to cloud object storage fileset can be configured to use Microsoft Azure Blob storage backend by deploying MinIO in between. MinIO is runs as an S3 Gateway, and it convert S3 API to/from Azure Blob native. All communication between AFM to cloud object storage fileset and the bucket at the Azure Blob Storage goes through S3 Gateway. All the operations, modes and functions are seamlessly supported with S3 Gateway that communicates to Azure Blob.
