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Don't just learn the cloud—BYTE it!
Byte the Cloud is your go-to, on-the-go, podcast for mastering AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud certifications and exam prep!
Chris 0:00
Hey, there cloud wizards getting certified. Right buckle up, because today we're diving deep into Amazon, FSX, your one stop shop for high performance file storage in the cloud.
Kelly 0:11
It's really not just about storing files, you know, it's about providing the right kind of file storage for whatever you're working on, massive data sets for machine learning, Legacy file shares, moving to the cloud, anything in between. FSX has something for all of that, and trust me, understanding FSX can really help you out, especially if you're prepping for those AWS exams. Okay,
Chris 0:30
sounds good, but before we get too far into the weeds, let's take a step back. What exactly is FSX like? How would you explain it to someone totally new to the cloud?
Kelly 0:39
Great question. So at its core, Amazon FSX is like having a whole team of storage experts just working behind the scenes to manage your file systems. You know how S3 is fantastic for storing like objects, images, videos, documents, all that? Sure. Well, FSX is all about providing file systems that are optimized for different workloads, so it's not
Chris 0:59
just another way to store files, then there's something special about these file systems that makes FSX like stand out exactly
Kelly 1:06
think about the file systems you're used to, like on your laptop or on a company server. They have a structure, a way of organizing files. They offer features like shared access, permissions, fast data retrieval, all of which are super important for some applications, FSX brings all of that to the cloud, giving you that familiar experience, but with the flexibility and scalability of AWS, gotcha.
Chris 1:28
So give me a real world example. Where does FSX really shine?
Kelly 1:33
All right, imagine a financial firm. They need to run these really complex risk analysis models using tons of market data. These calculations need serious processing power and lightning fast access to data. Doing that on a normal server would be so slow and expensive, but with FSX for Luster, which is designed for high performance computing, you can set up a file system that handles all that data and delivers crazy speeds that can save the company tons of time and money. So you're
Chris 1:59
saying like we're talking shaving hours or even days? Yeah, off those processing times. What other scenarios would make FSX a good choice?
Kelly 2:07
Another great example is machine learning, like training a complex AI model that needs to go through terabytes of data. FSX for Luster, can be the foundation of that data pipeline, making sure data flows smoothly between your systems in your storage, or maybe you're a game developer, right? Working with huge 3D models and textures. FSX for Luster comes in clutch again, providing the speed you need to stay creative. Okay,
Chris 2:30
starting to see the benefits here. It's like a turbo boost for cloud workloads. I'm sure there's more to it than just speed, though. What about features and benefits? For sure,
Kelly 2:38
one of the big things is it's versatility we talked about Luster. But there's also FSX for Windows file server, perfect for companies moving their on premises file shares to the cloud without having to change how they work. It's like a familiar Windows file system, yeah, with all the perks of AWS, scalability, security, high availability, all of that, I
Chris 2:57
bet that's great for companies who want to modernize, yeah, without a ton of extra work. You got it. And
Kelly 3:01
then there's FSX for NetApp ONTAP, bringing all those enterprise grade features of NetApp to AWS, great for organizations needing advanced features like data deduplication, snapshots and replication, all managed by AWS. So
Chris 3:16
it's like FSX is a Swiss army knife. No matter what you're doing, there's an option that'll work. What are some of the benefits that are true for all the options?
Kelly 3:24
One of the best things is that it's fully managed. AWS handles everything about setting it up, maintaining it, patching it. You don't have to manage servers or configure raid or anything. It's all taken care of for you.
Chris 3:36
Awesome. Less time on infrastructure means more time building cool apps,
Kelly 3:39
exactly. Another big benefit is scalability. With FSX, you can easily scale your storage capacity and performance. Need more storage just a few clicks, and you're good. Want to boost performance for a demanding workload, easy peasy. You have all the control and flexibility you could want. That
Chris 3:55
kind of flexibility is so valuable, but we gotta be real, no service is perfect. Are there any limitations with FSX? We should know about
Kelly 4:02
Of course, every service has its quirks. One thing to keep in mind is cost. Managed services like FSS do cost money, so you need to budget for that. It's always a balancing act. You know, convenience versus cost.
Chris 4:13
True, you get a lot of power and ease of use. So you have to factor that in Absolutely.
Kelly 4:17
Another thing to consider is the complexity. Even though FSX simplifies storage management, choosing the right file system type and setting it up right can be a bit of a learning curve, so
Chris 4:29
it pays to know your stuff. Speaking of, how does FSX fit into the rest of AWS how well does it work with other services? Oh, FSX
Kelly 4:37
is like the social butterfly of AWS services. It plays nicely with tons of other services, which is great. You can mount your FSX file systems directly to your EC2 instances, giving your applications super fast access to the data they need. That's
Chris 4:51
pretty neat. What other integrations stand out to you? Well, you can use
Kelly 4:55
FSX with AWS Lambda to process data using serverless functions. This. Opens up all sorts of possibilities for building things like event driven workflows and data pipelines. And of course, you can back up and archive your FSX data to S3 for long term storage and cost savings.
Chris 5:12
I'm seeing how FSX isn't just a standalone thing. It's a key piece of the AWS ecosystem.
Kelly 5:18
You got it. And speaking of putting pieces together, let's talk about those AWS certification exams. Ready to see what kind of questions might come up. Totally
Chris 5:26
I'm ready for some real world challenge scenarios. Perfect.
Kelly 5:29
Imagine working for a company needing a high performance file system for their machine learning work. They're training a deep learning model that needs super fast access to data. What FSX option would you go with and why?
Chris 5:40
Well, we've talked about speed and handling tons of data, so I'd say FSX for Illustrator would be good fit. It's architectures designed for that kind of performance, the high throughput and low latency that machine learning needs
Kelly 5:52
exactly you nailed it. Okay, let's change things up. Now you're working for a company that wants to move their on premises, Windows file shares to the cloud. They need something that feels like their windows system, but with the benefits of AWS. What would you suggest?
Chris 6:09
I think in that case, FSX for Windows file server would be the obvious choice. They can lift and shift their setup pretty easily and get all the AWS advantages, scalability, security and all that
Kelly 6:20
spot on. Now let's talk security. A company needs to store sensitive data in the cloud, and they're under strict compliance rules. They have to make sure the data is encrypted at rest and in transit, and they need to control who can access what. How would you use FSX to meet those needs? This
Chris 6:34
is where the security features of FSX is super useful. First, make sure all the data is encrypted at rest using AWS managed keys. That way, even if the storage is compromised, the data is still protected. Then I'd enable encryption in transit to protect the data as it moves around. And I'd use IAM to set up fine grained access control, controlling who can access which files and folders. Perfect.
Kelly 6:56
You clearly get how to use FSX as security features to protect sensitive data. Let's move on to some trickier scenarios. You ready for the next level? Definitely hit me with your best shot. All right, imagine you're working with a company with a massive media library all stored in Amazon S3 they want to use FSX for Luster to process and edit these files, but they also need to keep costs down. How would you design a solution that balances performance and budget
Chris 7:25
so we need the speed of Luster, but also the affordability of S3
Kelly 7:29
Exactly. What if you could use S3 for long term storage and only move files to FSX for Luster when you actually need them, like media files might stay in S3 for ages before someone needs to use them. No need for them to be on expensive storage the whole time.
Chris 7:44
I see you're saying we could use the service to move data between S3 and FSX for Luster based on certain events. That way we're only paying for high performance storage when we need
Kelly 7:54
it. Now you're thinking like a cloud engineer, that's exactly the kind of solution a pro would come up with. You understand how to combine AWS services to create a good balance of performance and cost.
Chris 8:03
Okay, getting the hang of this. What else can you throw at me? All
Kelly 8:05
right, this one's about high availability. Let's say you have a company running a mission critical application. They're using FSX for Windows file server for their data, and they can't have any downtime. How would you make sure their data is protected?
Chris 8:19
High Availability is key here. To prevent problems, we need to replicate data across multiple availability zones. That way, if one zone fails, the application can keep working. FSX for Windows, file server has multIAZ deployments, so that's a good start. You're right.
Kelly 8:37
MultIAZ is essential for high availability. But how about going a step further? What if an entire AWS region goes down? How would you handle that? That's a
Chris 8:47
tougher one. We'd need to copy the data to a different region. But I don't think FSX for Windows file server can do that. You're
Kelly 8:53
right. It doesn't so what else could we use? I've got it. We could
Chris 8:57
use AWS storage gateway to create a cached volume in our main region and replicate data to an S3 bucket in a backup region. That way, if our main region goes down, we can set up a new FSX for Windows file server instance in the backup region and get our data back from S3
Kelly 9:14
that's perfect. You totally get how to combine different AWS services to create a solid disaster recovery plan you've thought about availability within a region and what to do if a whole region goes down. Wow.
Chris 9:27
This deep dive has been really helpful. FSX is a powerful and versatile service, and working through these scenarios has helped me understand it a lot better.
Kelly 9:35
Glad to hear it, even if you're not taking an exam understanding FSX is super important for any cloud engineer who works with file storage in AWS, you'll see it all the time as you build and manage cloud applications absolutely
Chris 9:45
and as we move towards more data heavy workloads, services like FSX will become even more important. I
Kelly 9:51
agree, managing and accessing data efficiently and securely is at the core of modern app development, and FSX is a big part of that. This has been
Chris 9:58
fantastic. We've. Or so much from the basics of FSX to complex scenarios, and we've learned how FSX can solve real world problems. But before we finish, I want to leave our listeners with something to think about. We focused on the technical side of FSX, but how do you think its flexibility will impact how we build apps in the future? Great
Kelly 10:18
question, as applications become more spread out and data hungry, services like FSX will become even more important for enabling new architectures and development practices. Having high performance, scalable and secure file storage will open up new opportunities for innovation.
Chris 10:35
It's not just about storing files anymore. It's about enabling new ways of building and running apps Exactly. Well, that's all the time we have for today's deep dive into Amazon FSX. Hope you've learned a ton. Keep
Kelly 10:46
learning, keep experimenting and keep pushing the limits in the cloud. Until next time. Happy clouding. You know, one thing that really makes FSX stand out is how well it integrates with other AWS services. It's more than just storage. It's a core part of your cloud setup. Take data analytics, for instance. Let's say you have a huge data set in S3 like petabytes of customer data or sensor readings. Now you want to run some complex queries on that data using Amazon EMR, the Hadoop service. How would you connect those two? Yeah,
Chris 11:17
good point. You've got all that data in S3 but EMR needs quick access to do its job. Moving terabytes back and forth would take forever. Exactly,
Kelly 11:24
that's where FSX for Luster comes in. Remember, it's built for high performance computing and can handle huge amounts of data. You can directly mount your S3 bucket to an FSX for Luster file system. It's a direct link between your data lake and your EMR cLuster. So
Chris 11:38
I can just connect my S3 bucket to FSX for Luster, and EMR can access the data like it's right there. Yep, that's
Kelly 11:44
the magic of it. FSX is deeply integrated with S3 your EMR cLuster sees the data as part of its own system, so it can process everything super fast. This can really speed up those complex queries, saving you a lot of time and money.
Chris 11:57
That's a huge advantage for big data analytics. You get the scalability of S3 and the performance of FSX for Luster,
Kelly 12:05
best of both worlds, absolutely. And this integration goes beyond just EMR. Think about using FSX with Lambda for serverless data processing. You could trigger a Lambda function to work on files in FSX whenever something new is added to your S3 bucket. Lots of possibilities. I'm
Chris 12:20
starting to see that FSX really ties a lot of AWS services together. Yeah, it's not just about storage. It's a key part of all sorts of workflows. Exactly
Kelly 12:28
understanding how FSX fits into the bigger picture of AWS is crucial for building good cloud applications. Speaking
Chris 12:36
of good applications, let's get back to those AWS exam questions. I'm ready for another one.
Kelly 12:40
Okay, imagine you're working for a healthcare company. They need to store and process lots of medical images, high resolution scans, X rays, sensitive patient data, any performance and security?
Chris 12:50
This is a tricky one. We need speed for those large files, but security is super important with patient information. We also need to follow all the FBI regulations
Kelly 13:00
Exactly. So which FSX option would you choose? Well,
Chris 13:03
FSX for Luster is fast and scalable, but I'm not sure about the compliance features.
Kelly 13:10
You're right to think about that. Luster is great for performance, but maybe not the best for high peak compliance.
Chris 13:16
What about FSX for Windows file server? It's familiar. Which might be easier for healthcare companies and Windows has some built in security features. That's
Kelly 13:24
a thought, but managing Windows in the cloud can be tough, and making sure it's HIPAy compliant takes work.
Chris 13:31
Okay, so what's the best option? Then we need speed, security and compliance all in one. In
Kelly 13:35
this case, FSX for NetApp on end. Tap might be the way to go. It brings the power of NetApp to AWS, and NetApp has a good history of working with healthcare companies. They know how to meet those strict requirements. That
Chris 13:49
makes sense. NetApp is known for data management and security, yep, plus
Kelly 13:52
FSX for NetApp on end attack can handle those big medical images. It's a win, win. I'm
Chris 13:58
realizing that choosing the right FSX option is about more than just performance or cost. It's about fitting specific needs and compliance rules. That's
Kelly 14:07
right. It's about using the right tool for the job and understanding the differences between them. Okay, give me another challenge. All right. Now, you're working for a huge online store. They get tons of traffic during holidays and sales. They use EC2 for their website, and they need a storage solution that can keep up with those peaks. Sounds like
Chris 14:24
we need auto scaling more EC2 instances to handle the traffic and storage that can scale with it. You're on
Kelly 14:31
the right track, but just adding more EC2 instances isn't enough. The storage needs to scale too Right?
Chris 14:35
FSX already scales on demand, so we can increase capacity easily. But what about performance? We don't want the storage to slow things down during a traffic surge.
Kelly 14:45
Exactly how can we make sure the storage keeps up with the compute resources? I
Chris 14:49
think I know we could use FSX for Luster with Elastic File Systems, that lets us scale performance separately from storage capacity. So as we add more easy to instances, we. Also boosts the performance of our FSX for Luster system. That's
Kelly 15:03
the way to do it. You're thinking like a cloud Pro. You understand how to use FSX for Luster's Elastic File System to build a truly scalable and high performance solution.
Chris 15:12
This is great feeling like an FSX expert now, but are there any times when FSX might not be the best choice?
Kelly 15:20
That's a good question. No. Service is perfect for everything. FSX is powerful, but there are times when something else might be better,
Chris 15:27
interesting. Tell me more.
Kelly 15:29
Let's talk about alternatives. Remember Amazon S3 it's great for storing tons of data at a low cost, but it doesn't have all the fancy file system features of FSX. So if you need things like shared access or permissions, FSX is the way to go. But if you're just storing simple things like images or backups, S3 might be cheaper. Makes sense use the right tool for the job. Exactly another time you might consider something else is if you have an application that's really sensitive to latency, FSX is fast, but sometimes you need even faster. In those cases, you might look at Amazon EBS volumes. They're connected directly to your EC2 instances, and they offer super low latency.
Chris 16:08
So if speed is critical, EBS might be better. That's right. It's
Kelly 16:11
all about finding the right balance performance, cost and all that. And sometimes even within FSX, you might pick one option over another. This
Chris 16:19
deep dive has been super insightful. We've covered so much about FSX, its features, limitations, how it fits with other AWS services.
Kelly 16:27
I agree. I hope everyone listening feels more confident about FSX and how to use it to solve problems. For
Chris 16:33
sure. One last thought for our listeners, as cloud technology keeps changing, how do you think FSX will adapt? What new things might we see? That's
Kelly 16:42
a great question. I think FSX will keep evolving to keep up with the demands of cloud applications. We might see new file system types made for things like edge computing or serverless. We might also see it integrate even more with other AWS services, opening up new ways to manage and use data.
Chris 16:59
Sounds exciting. I can't wait to see what's next for FSX. Me too.
Kelly 17:03
And as cloud engineers, it's our job to stay ahead of the curve and use these new technologies to build cool solutions.
Chris 17:10
Wrapping up this deep dive into Amazon FSX, I keep thinking about this idea of future proofing. We've talked about how versatile it is right now, but things change so fast in the cloud, what makes you think FSX can keep up with how we'll be building apps in five or 10 years? I
Kelly 17:24
love that question. It means you're thinking long term, not just about the exam, but your whole career. And honestly, a few things make me really optimistic about FSX. First, the FSX team is constantly innovating. They're always adding new features, file system types, integrations. It's like they know what we need before we
Chris 17:43
do. Yeah, it seems like there's always a big FSX announcement at Red on invent. But beyond just new features, what about those big changes in how we build apps, more microservices, more serverless, so much data? Can FSX really handle all that? And that's where
Kelly 17:57
the architecture of FSX comes in. It's built on the core AWS infrastructure, so it gets all the scalability, security and availability that AWS is known for. As our apps become more complex and data intensive, FSX can scale right along with them.
Chris 18:10
So it's like a storage solution that's ready for whatever we come up with next, exactly.
Kelly 18:15
And the third thing that excites me is how FSX is becoming the central hub for data in AWS. We talked about S3 Lambda, EMR, but it goes beyond that. Think about things like AWS data exchange, where you can get external data sets, or AWS backup for protecting your data. FSX is part of all of this, making it easier to manage and use data everywhere, so it's becoming a bigger part of how AWS handles data overall, precisely, and as data becomes even more important for businesses, having a central, integrated system for data will be crucial. I'm even
Chris 18:50
more impressed with FSX now it's clearly built for the future. Any last tips for our listeners as they learn more about the cloud?
Kelly 18:56
Definitely keep learning the cloud. World never stops changing. So keep exploring new services, trying new things and pushing the limits. And don't forget the documentation and white papers. That's where you'll find the real insights, good
Chris 19:07
advice. Remember everyone, even 1000 mile journey, starts with a single step. So keep learning, keep building and keep on clouding until next time see ya.