FAQ
The following are a few FAQ to provide insight into the Network File Storage (NFS) product.
Provisioning and configuration
What are the current limitations of Network File Storage?
NFS has its own set of limitations. For more information, see Technical Specification and Limitations.
What is the minimum and maximum size for an NFS cluster?
Cluster size ranges from 2 TiB to 42 TiB, in 1 TiB increments. All provisioned capacity is fully usable; no space is reserved for system overhead or performance headroom. For more information, see Pricing Model.
Can I decrease the size of an NFS cluster after creation?
No. After creation, the cluster size can only be increased, not decreased.
Which regions is NFS available in?
NFS is available in Berlin, Frankfurt, Paris, London, Logroño, Las Vegas, Newark, and Lenexa. It will soon be available in Worcester, United Kingdom. For more information, see Technical Specification and Limitations.
Shares and access control
What is a share within an NFS cluster?
A share represents individual file systems within an NFS cluster. Each cluster can contain multiple shares. For more information, see Create Shares.
How do I control which VMs can access a share?
Add client groups when creating or managing a share, using either IP Networks (an authorized CIDR network) or Hosts (specific VM IP addresses). If both are set, IP Networks supersedes the Hosts list.
What is squash security?
Squash security is a built-in mechanism that reduces the risk of unauthorized root-level access from a client machine to the NFS server. When creating a share, choose one of three squash modes: No squash mode, Map root user to anonymous user id, or Map all users to anonymous user id.
Can I limit the amount of data a share can store?
Yes. Each share supports an optional quota specified in MiB that restricts the amount of data it can store. Set the quota to 0 to disable it for that share.
Performance
What are the benefits of the NFSv4.2 protocol compared to NFSv3?
The key difference is protocol efficiency: NFSv4.2 uses compound operations and caching to reduce round-trips, while NFSv3 issues one operation per request.
IONOS CLOUD supports NFSv4.2, the latest version of the NFS protocol. It allows standard Linux users to read and write directly to storage, with performance that scales linearly for both Input/Output Operations Per Second (IOPS) and throughput.
Protocol overhead
One operation per request
Reduced with compound operations and caching
File operations
Higher server interaction
Efficient, with minimal server interaction
Network connections
Single connection per session
Enhanced performance with multiple parallel connections
Data movement
Interrupts active sessions
Live data movement without interruption
Telemetry
No built-in file-level telemetry
Detailed file-level access and performance telemetry
Does Network File Storage support NIC Multi-Queue?
Yes. NIC Multi-Queue is enabled by default on the NFS backend, provided the cluster has at least two CPU threads (two cores, or one core with hyperthreading). It distributes network traffic across multiple queues to improve throughput and reduce latency. No action is required from the customer to enable it.
Security
How does NFS secure data?
NFS is based on Block Storage and inherits its data security properties, including encryption at rest and secure deletion. For details, see Data Security.
Who can create and manage NFS clusters and shares?
Only contract administrators, owners, and users with the Access and Manage Network File Storage privilege can create and manage NFS clusters and shares. You can set this privilege via the DCD group privileges or, through the Cloud API, by setting the accessAndManageNFS privilege to true. For more information, see Set User Privileges for Network File Storage.
Mounting and connectivity
How do I mount an NFS share on a Linux machine?
You need the IP address of the cluster and the UUID of the share, in the format mount -t nfs <cluster-ip>:<share-uuid> <local-mount-path>. For more information, see Create Shares.
Can multiple VMs access the same share at the same time?
Yes. Data can be accessed simultaneously from multiple compute instances, such as VMs and containers, without compromising data consistency.
Can I use NFS with Kubernetes?
Yes. NFS integrates with Kubernetes clusters to provide persistent storage for containerized workloads. You can provision an NFS share as a ReadWriteMany (RWX) persistent volume, so multiple pods across nodes can mount the same share simultaneously.
Billing
How is NFS billed?
Billing for NFS is based on the cluster size. For more information, see Pricing Model.
Are there data transfer charges between NFS and my VMs?
No. Data transfer between NFS and your VMs is not metered and incurs no charges.
Troubleshooting
What do the different NFS cluster statuses mean?
BUSY: The cluster is being created or updated.
AVAILABLE: The cluster is available and operational.
DESTROYING: The cluster is being deleted.
FAILED: The cluster is not available due to an error.
For more information, see View Clusters.
Why cannot I create or modify NFS clusters or shares?
You likely don't have the required privilege. Without the Access and Manage Network File Storage privilege, users have read-only access and cannot provision changes. For more information, see Set User Privileges for Network File Storage.
Why am I not seeing the documented aggregate write IOPS?
Reaching the aggregate write IOPS figure requires around 372 concurrent operations at ~20 ms latency, which exceeds the default NFS RPC slot table limit of 64–128 per mount. Mount from multiple clients to reach the documented aggregate. For more information, see Technical Specification and Limitations.
NFS API
What authentication method does the NFS API use?
The API uses the Token Authentication method. Specify the header value as Bearer followed by your token.
Does the NFS API support pagination?
Yes. The retrieve clusters and retrieve shares endpoints support pagination using limit and offset query parameters.
What privileges are required to manage NFS clusters and shares through the API?
Only contract administrators, owners, and users with the accessAndManageNFS privilege can create and manage clusters and shares through the API. For more information, see Set User Privileges through the API.
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