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FSx

📁 What is Amazon FSx?

Amazon FSx is a fully managed service that provides high-performance file systems optimized for specific workloads such as:

  • Windows-based applications (FSx for Windows File Server)

  • High-performance computing (FSx for Lustre)

  • Linux-based NFS (FSx for OpenZFS)

  • Mac-based development (FSx for NetApp ONTAP)

✅ You get fully managed, scalable file storage with native compatibility for industry-standard protocols like SMB, NFS, Lustre, and more.

🧠 FSx Family Overview

FSx Type Protocol OS Compatibility Best For
FSx for Windows SMB Windows-only .NET, AD-integrated workloads, Windows apps
FSx for Lustre Lustre Linux-based HPC Machine learning, genomics, simulations
FSx for NetApp ONTAP NFS, SMB Linux, Windows, Hybrid Multi-protocol access, Snapshots, DR
FSx for OpenZFS NFS Linux-based DevOps pipelines, backup, ZFS snapshots

📦 1. FSx for Windows File Server

  • Fully managed SMB protocol with Active Directory integration

  • Supports multi-AZ, DFS namespaces, access-based enumeration

  • Ideal for legacy .NET apps, Windows file shares, enterprise AD

🔐 Works seamlessly with AWS Managed Microsoft AD or on-prem AD

⚡ 2. FSx for Lustre

  • Designed for high-throughput, low-latency workloads

  • Common in HPC, ML, genomics, media rendering

  • Integrates with S3 for burst-style compute (can link to S3 buckets)

💡 Use it to cache S3 datasets locally for high-speed processing

🧬 3. FSx for NetApp ONTAP

  • Provides multi-protocol access (NFS, SMB, iSCSI) from a single volume

  • Supports NetApp features like Snapshots, FlexClone, deduplication

  • Best for hybrid storage, shared workloads, and enterprise apps

🌉 Offers SnapMirror for DR with on-prem NetApp systems

🧪 4. FSx for OpenZFS

  • Open-source ZFS-based managed NFS file system

  • Supports ZFS snapshots, resizing, replication

  • Great for DevOps, CI/CD, Kubernetes shared storage

🔐 Security Features (All FSx Types)

Feature Description
Encryption at Rest KMS (customer-managed or AWS-managed)
In-transit encryption TLS (for SMB/NFS where supported)
VPC-only access Not publicly accessible, lives in your VPC
IAM + AD + POSIX Auth varies per file system type
Backups and Snapshots Point-in-time restore (manual + automatic)

📊 Monitoring

Tool What You Get
CloudWatch Throughput, IOPS, FreeStorageSpace
CloudTrail API activity logs
FSx Console Health, utilization, backups

🛠️ Terraform Example – FSx for Windows

resource "aws_fsx_windows_file_system" "winfsx" {
  subnet_ids             = ["subnet-abc123"]
  storage_capacity       = 300
  throughput_capacity    = 32
  preferred_subnet_id    = "subnet-abc123"
  deployment_type        = "MULTI_AZ_1"
  active_directory_id    = aws_directory_service_directory.example.id
  kms_key_id             = aws_kms_key.example.arn
  security_group_ids     = [aws_security_group.fsx_sg.id]
  storage_type           = "SSD"

  tags = {
    Name = "windows-fsx"
  }
}

🛠️ Terraform Example – FSx for Lustre (linked to S3)

resource "aws_fsx_lustre_file_system" "lustrefsx" {
  subnet_ids          = ["subnet-abc123"]
  storage_capacity    = 1200
  per_unit_storage_throughput = 200

  import_path         = "s3://my-s3-bucket"
  export_path         = "s3://my-s3-bucket/output"
  data_compression_type = "LZ4"

  tags = {
    Name = "lustre-fsx"
  }
}

💰 FSx Pricing Summary (2024 – Approx.)

FSx Type Storage Cost (per GB/month) Throughput Cost Backup Cost
Windows ~$0.13 ~$0.018/MBps $0.05/GB
Lustre ~$0.14 (SSD) N/A S3 charges
NetApp ONTAP ~$0.17 ~$0.07/MBps $0.05/GB
OpenZFS ~$0.08 Included $0.05/GB

🔸 Pricing varies by region, deployment type, and AZ redundancy
🔸 Backups can be automated (daily) or manual and are billed separately

✅ TL;DR Comparison Table

Feature Windows FSx Lustre FSx NetApp FSx OpenZFS FSx
Protocols SMB Lustre NFS, SMB, iSCSI NFS
Best for Windows apps HPC, ML, analytics Hybrid workloads Linux pipelines
Supports EC2 Access ✅ ✅ ✅ ✅
AD Integration ✅ ❌ ✅ ❌
Multi-AZ ✅ ❌ ✅ ✅
Terraform Supported ✅ ✅ ✅ ✅

🌐 Region Availability

All FSx services are available in most AWS commercial regions.
Check official docs for FSx region compatibility:
👉 https://aws.amazon.com/fsx/features/

🎯 When to Use FSx?

  • 🪟 Windows FSx → for legacy file shares, AD-integrated workloads

  • 🧬 Lustre FSx → for S3 burst processing (ML, rendering)

  • 🌉 NetApp FSx → for multi-protocol access, snapshots, enterprise DR

  • 🧪 OpenZFS FSx → for CI/CD shared NFS mounts, POSIX workloads