PowerScale OneFS 9.8.0.0 CloudPools Administration Guide

About file pool policy order

OneFS compares all files to file pool policies in order. The first custom policy that matches a file controls how that file is handled. All other custom file pool policies in the ordered list are ignored. For any of the attributes that the matching custom policy does not specify, the value from the default policy is applied.

This makes the order of file pool policies important. If two or more file pool policies would match the same file, you must ensure that the policy order delivers your preferred file handling instructions.

After a file match with a file pool policy occurs, the system uses the settings in the matching policy to store and protect the file. However, a matching policy might not specify all settings for the match file. In this case, the default policy is used for those settings not specified in the custom policy. For each file stored on the OneFS cluster, the system needs to determine the following:

• Requested protection level
• Data storage target for local data cache
• SSD strategy for metadata and data
• Protection level for local data cache
• Configuration for snapshots
• SmartCache setting
• L3 cache setting
• Data access pattern
• CloudPools actions (if any)

If no custom policy matches a file, the default policy specifies all storage settings for the file. The default policy, in effect, matches all files not matched by any other SmartPools policy. For this reason, the default policy is the last in the file pool policy list, and always the last policy the system applies.

Files that have been archived to the cloud are always governed by the original policy.