Dell PowerFlex 4.6.x Technical Overview

Clone NAS server and file system

PowerFlex file users can clone their NAS server and file system for environment repurposing.

• Clone a user file system and an entire NAS server.
• Select any existing NAS server or file system and clone it.
• Clone a file system from an existing snapshot.

File-level retention

Protecting a file system using file-level retention enables you to create a permanent and unalterable set of files and directories. File-level retention ensures data integrity and accessibility, simplifies archiving procedures for administrators, and improves storage management flexibility.

There are two levels of file-level retention:

• Enterprise: Protects data from changes that are made by users and storage administrators using SMB, NFS, and FTP. An administrator can delete a file-level retention enterprise file system which contains locked files.
• Compliance: Protects data from changes that are made by users and storage administrators using SMB, NFS, and FTP. An administrator cannot delete a file-level retention compliance file system which contains locked files. File-level retention compliance complies with the SEC rule 17a-4(f).

Multi-tenancy

NAS servers can be used to enforce multi-tenancy. This is useful when hosting multiple tenants on a single system, such as for service providers.

• Since each NAS server has its own independent configuration, it can be tailored to the requirements of each tenant without impacting the other NAS servers on the same appliance.
• Each NAS server is logically separated from each other, and clients that have access to one NAS server do not inherently have access to the file systems on the other NAS servers. File systems are assigned to a NAS server upon creation and cannot be moved between NAS servers.