smartpool question

Question

We recently purchased new encrypted nodes ( SED drives in them). Currently we have X410s and N400s and no encrypted drives. We use one file pool policy that moves files older than X days to the N400s. We would like to keep part of our data on the encrypted drives. When we add the new nodes, I believe they will be in their own storage pool. In order to move the data that needs to be encrypted, I am planning to create a file pool policy with the highest priority, to move the files to the new tier using a directory path criteria. So my first question is , will the smartpool policy move the existing files and the new files as they come in to the new storage pool at the same time? I am wondering if the policy will only apply to the new files coming to the dir. path in the policy or will it also apply to all the files in the directory? My second question is, will the old file policy affect the files that were moved to the encrypted node pool? Since we don't want the encypted files to be moved to N400 node pool, should we exclude them from the second file policy? If the two policies affect the same file, will both policies be applied or just the first one? We are on v8.0.0.2. Thanks -Dan

Peter_Sero · Accepted Answer

1. After defining the new file pool policy, a SmartPools job should be run,

and once it has finished successfully, all existing files under the path in question

have been migrated to the new encrypted pool. Also, all newly created files

under that path will be placed on the encrypted pool.

2. The file pool policies are checked in the given order (which can be re-arranged by the admin),

and processing for a given file stops after the first matching policy has been applied.

So it's a good idea to place your new policy at the top of the list.

hth

-- Peter

Dtek1 · Answer

Thank you Peter!

Eric_W1 · Answer

I was told that they did not support mixing SED and non SED nodes in the same cluster because they can't guarantee that the data is encrypted at rest.

cstacey · Answer

Note that you can do exactly as described - that is mix SED and non-SED nodes in the same cluster, tell the cluster where you want it to place files and it will try. However, there are no guarantees that it will be able to do you want. For example, it will violate the your policies if pools are low on space or to reprotect files in the event of drive/node failures.

So, if you are required to guarantee that files that should be encrypted at rest will be, you can't make that guarantee with this set up.

To Eric_W's comment - we do support mixing SED and non-SED drive nodes in the same cluster. But as noted we want people to understand what that does, or more importantly, does not achieve.

It is also important to note that once you add a SED node to a cluster it will not let you add any more non-SED nodes. The expectation is that once you start adding SED nodes you are working towards having the entire cluster as SED nodes so you don't want to be going "backwards" so to speak.

Cheers,
Chris

sluetze · Answer

nice strategy. So if i missbuy one time im stuck with the more expensive node-type.scnr

Isilon

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