Step 1: Create your file system - Amazon FSx for Windows File Server

Step 1: Create your file system

To create your Amazon FSx file system, you must create your Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2) instance and the AWS Directory Service directory. If you don't have that set up already, see Walkthrough 1: Prerequisites for getting started.

To create your first file system

  1. Open the Amazon FSx console at https://console.aws.amazon.com/fsx/.

  2. On the dashboard, choose Create file system to start the file system creation wizard.

  3. On the Select file system type page, choose FSx for Windows File Server, and then choose Next. The Create file system page appears.

  4. In the File system details section, provide a name for your file system. It's easier to find and manage your file systems when you name them. You can use a maximum of 256 Unicode letters, white space, and numbers, plus the special characters + - = . _ : /

  5. For Deployment type choose Multi-AZ or Single-AZ.

    • Choose Multi-AZ to deploy a file system that is tolerant to Availability Zone unavailability. This option supports SSD and HDD storage.

    • Choose Single-AZ to deploy a file system that is deployed in a single Availability Zone. Single-AZ 2 is the latest generation of single Availability Zone file systems, and it supports SSD and HDD storage.

    For more information, see Availability and durability: Single-AZ and Multi-AZ file systems.

    The following image shows all of the configuration options available in the File system details section.

    Create file system details screen showing options for deployment type, storage type, storage capacity, and recommended throughput.

  6. For Storage type, you can choose either SSD or HDD.

    FSx for Windows File Server offers solid state drive (SSD) and hard disk drive (HDD) storage types. SSD storage is designed for the highest-performance and most latency-sensitive workloads, including databases, media processing workloads, and data analytics applications. HDD storage is designed for a broad spectrum of workloads, including home directories, user and departmental file shares, and content management systems. For more information, see Optimizing costs using storage types.

  7. For Storage capacity, enter the storage capacity of your file system, in GiB. If you're using SSD storage, enter any whole number in the range of 32–65,536. If you're using HDD storage, enter any whole number in the range of 2,000–65,536. You can increase the amount of storage capacity as needed at any time after you create the file system. For more information, see Managing storage capacity.

  8. Keep Throughput capacity at its default setting. Throughput capacity is the sustained speed at which the file server that hosts your file system can serve data. The Recommended throughput capacity setting is based on the amount of storage capacity you choose. If you need more than the recommended throughput capacity, choose Specify throughput capacity, and then choose a value. For more information, see FSx for Windows File Server performance.

    Note

    If you are going to enable file access auditing, you must choose a throughput capacity of 32 MB/s or greater. For more information, see File access auditing.

    You can modify the throughput capacity as needed at any time after you create the file system. For more information, see Managing throughput capacity.

  9. In the Network & security section, choose the Amazon VPC that you want to associate with your file system. For this getting started exercise, choose the same Amazon VPC that you chose for your AWS Directory Service directory and your Amazon EC2 instance.

  10. For VPC Security Groups, the default security group for your default Amazon VPC is already added to your file system in the console. If you're not using the default security group, make sure that the security group you choose is in the same AWS Region as your file system. You will also need to add the following rules to your chosen security group:

    1. Add the following inbound and outbound rules to allow the following ports.

      Rules Ports

      UDP

      53, 88, 123, 389, 464
      TCP 53, 88, 135, 389, 445, 464, 636, 3268, 3269, 5985, 9389, 49152-65535

      Add from and to IP addresses or security group IDs associated with the client compute instances that you want to access your file system from.

    2. Add outbound rules to allow all traffic to the Active Directory that you're joining your file system to. To do this, do one of the following:

      • Allow outbound traffic to the security group ID associated with your AWS Managed AD directory.

      • Allow outbound traffic to the IP addresses associated with your self-managed Active Directory domain controllers.

    Note

    In some cases, you might have modified the rules of your AWS Managed Microsoft AD security group from the default settings. If so, make sure that this security group has the required inbound rules to allow traffic from your Amazon FSx file system. For more information about the required inbound rules, see AWS Managed Microsoft AD Prerequisites in the AWS Directory Service Administration Guide.

    For more information, see File System Access Control with Amazon VPC.

  11. If you have a Multi-AZ deployment (see step 5), choose a Preferred subnet value for the primary file server and a Standby subnet value for the standby file server. A Multi-AZ deployment has a primary and a standby file server, each in its own Availability Zone and subnet.

  12. For Windows authentication, you have the following options:

    If you want to join your file system to a Microsoft Active Directory domain that is managed by AWS, choose AWS Managed Microsoft Active Directory, and then choose your AWS Directory Service directory from the list. For more information, see Working with Microsoft Active Directory in FSx for Windows File Server.

    If you want to join your file system to a self-managed Microsoft Active Directory domain, choose Self-managed Microsoft Active Directory, and provide the following details for your Active Directory.

    • The fully qualified domain name of your Active Directory.

      Important

      For Single-AZ 2 and all Multi-AZ file systems, the Active Directory domain name cannot exceed 47 characters. This limitation applies to both AWS managed and self-managed Active Directory domain names.

      Amazon FSx requires a direct connection or internal traffic to your DNS IP Address. Connection via an internet gateway is not supported. Instead, use a VPN, VPC peering, Direct Connect or a transit gateway association.

    • DNS server IP addresses—the IPv4 addresses of the DNS servers for your domain

      Note

      Your DNS server must have EDNS (Extension Mechanisms for DNS) enabled. If EDNS is disabled, you may not be able to create an Amazon FSx file system.

    • Service account username—the user name of the service account in your existing Active Directory. Do not include a domain prefix or suffix.

    • Service account password—the password for the service account.

    • Confirm password—the password for the service account.

    • (Optional) Organizational Unit (OU)—the distinguished path name of the organizational unit in which you want to join your file system.

    • (Optional) Delegated file system administrators group— the name of the group in your Active Directory that can administer your file system. The default group is 'Domain Admins'.

  13. For Encryption, keep the default Encryption key setting of aws/fsx (default).

  14. For Auditing - optional, file access auditing is disabled by default. For information about enabling and configuring file access auditing, see To enable file access auditing when creating a file system (console).

  15. For Access - optional, enter any DNS aliases that you want to associate with the file system. Each alias name must be formatted as a fully qualified domain name (FQDN). For more information, see Managing DNS aliases.

  16. For Backup and maintenance - optional, keep the default settings.

  17. For Tags - optional, enter a key and value to add tags to your file system. A tag is a case-sensitive key-value pair that helps you manage, filter, and search for your file system.

    Choose Next.

  18. Review the file system configuration shown on the Create file system page. For your reference, note which file system settings you can modify after file system is created. Choose Create file system.

  19. After Amazon FSx creates the file system, choose the file system ID in the File Systems dashboard. Choose Attach, and note the fully qualified domain name for your file system. You will need it in a later step.