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Amazon FsX for Windows File Server

TL;DR

  • fully managed windows FS share drive
  • highly reliable
  • SMB protocol & Windows NTFS
  • Scale up to 10s of GB/s, millions of IOPS, 100s PB of data.
  • AD Integration, access control lists (ACLs), user quotas
  • can be mounted on Linux EC2 instances.
  • Supports Microsoft distributed FS (DFS)
  • Namespaces (group files across multiple FS)
  • Can be configured to be Multi-AZ (HA)
  • Data is backed-up daily to S3.
  • Can be accessed from your on-premises infrastructure:

Longer Version

  • Fully managed native Windows file servers/shares
  • designed for integration with Windows environments.
    • Native Windows file system, not emulated server
  • Integrates with Directory Service or Self-Managed AD
  • Can be used in Single or Multi-AZ within a docs/networks/VPC.
    • This controls the network interfaces that are available.
    • Single mode use replication in the AZ to ensure resiliency.
  • Can perform full range of different backups
    • Client side and AWS side
    • Can perform automatic and on-demand backups.
  • File systems can be access using:

Words to look for

  • VSS: User Driven Restores
  • Native File System (NFS) accessible over SMB
  • Windows permissions model
  • Product supports Distribute File Systems (DFS), scale out file share.
  • Managed service, no file server admin
  • Integrates with DS and your own directory.