Accessing your data - Amazon FSx for Windows File Server
Supported clientsAccessing data from within the AWS CloudAccessing data from on-premisesAccessing data using default DNS namesSupport for Distributed File System (DFS) namespaces

Accessing your data

You can access your Amazon FSx file systems using a variety of supported clients and methods from both the AWS Cloud and on-premises environments.

Topics

Supported clients

FSx for Windows File Server supports the Server Message Block (SMB) protocol versions 2.0 through 3.1.1, giving you the flexibility to connect to your file systems using a wide variety of compute instances and operating systems.

The following AWS compute instances are supported for use with Amazon FSx:

The following operating systems are supported for use with Amazon FSx:

  • Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Server 2012, Windows Server 2012 R2, Windows Server 2016, Windows Server 2019, and Windows Server 2022.

  • Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows 8.1, Windows 10 (including the Windows 7 and Windows 10 desktop experiences of WorkSpaces), and Windows 11.

  • Linux, using the cifs-utils tool.

  • macOS

Accessing data from within the AWS Cloud

Each Amazon FSx file system is associated with a Virtual Private Cloud (VPC). You can access your FSx for Windows File Server file system from anywhere in the file system's VPC, regardless of Availability Zone. You can also access your file system from VPCs that are in different AWS accounts or AWS Regions than the file system. In addition to the requirements described in the following sections for accessing FSx for Windows File Server resources, you also need to ensure that your file system's VPC security group is configured so that data and management traffic can flow between your file system and clients. For more information about configuring security groups with the required ports, see File System Access Control with Amazon VPC.

You can access FSx for Windows File Server file system from supported clients that are in the same VPC as your file system.

The following table illustrates the environments from which Amazon FSx supports access from clients in each of the supported environments, depending on when the file system was created.

Clients located in... Access to file systems created before February 22, 2019 Access to file systems created before December 17, 2020 Access to file systems created after December 17, 2020

Subnets in which the file system is created

✓

✓

✓

Primary CIDR blocks of the VPC in which the file system was created

✓

✓

✓

Secondary CIDRs of the VPC in which the file system was created

Clients with IP addresses in an RFC 1918 private IP address range:

  • 10.0.0.0/8

  • 172.16.0.0/12

  • 192.168.0.0/16

Clients with IP addresses outside the following CIDR block range: 198.19.0.0/16

Other CIDRs or peered networks
Note

In some cases, you might want to access a file system that was created before December 17, 2020 from on-premises using a non-private IP address range. To do this, create a new file system from a backup of the file system. For more information, see Protecting your data with backups.

Accessing data from a different VPC, AWS account, or AWS Region

You can access your FSx for Windows File Server file system from support clients that are located in a different VPC, AWS account, or AWS Region than what is associated with your file system using VPC peering or transit gateways. When you use a VPC peering connection or transit gateway to connect VPCs, compute instances that are in one VPC can access Amazon FSx file systems that are in another VPC. This access is possible even if the VPCs belong to different AWS accounts, and even if the VPCs reside in different AWS Regions.

A VPC peering connection is a networking connection between two VPCs that you can use to route traffic between them using private IPv4 or IP version 6 (IPv6) addresses. You can use VPC peering to connect VPCs within the same AWS Region or between AWS Regions. For more information on VPC peering, see What is VPC Peering? in the Amazon VPC Peering Guide.

A transit gateway is a network transit hub that you can use to interconnect your VPCs and on-premises networks. For more information about using VPC transit gateways, see Getting Started with Transit Gateways in the Amazon VPC Transit Gateways.

After you set up a VPC peering or transit gateway connection, you can access your file system using its DNS name. You do so just as you do from compute instances within the associated VPC.

Accessing data from on-premises

FSx for Windows File Server supports the use of AWS Direct Connect or AWS VPN to access your file systems from your on-premises compute instances. With support for AWS Direct Connect, FSx for Windows File Server enables you to access your file system over a dedicated network connection from your on-premises environment. With support for AWS VPN, FSx for Windows File Server enables you to access your file system from your on-premises devices over a secure and private tunnel.

After you connect your on-premises environment to the VPC associated with your Amazon FSx file system, you can access your file system using its DNS name or a DNS alias. You do so just as you do from compute instances within the VPC. For more information on AWS Direct Connect, see the AWS Direct Connect User Guide. For more information on setting up AWS VPN connections, see VPN Connections in the Amazon VPC User Guide.

FSx for Windows File Server also supports the use of Amazon FSx File Gateway to provide low latency, seamless access to your in-cloud FSx for Windows File Server file shares from your on-premises compute instances. For more information, see the Amazon FSx File Gateway User Guide.

Note

In some cases, you might want to access a file system that was created before December 17, 2020 from on-premises using a non-private IP address range. To do this, create a new file system from a backup of the file system. For more information, see Protecting your data with backups.

Accessing data using default DNS names

FSx for Windows File Server provides a Domain Name System (DNS) name for every file system. You access your FSx for Windows File Server file system by mapping a drive letter on your compute instance to your Amazon FSx file share using this DNS name. To learn more, see Accessing data using file shares.

Important

Amazon FSx only registers DNS records for a file system if you are using Microsoft DNS as the default DNS. If you are using a third-party DNS, you must manually set up DNS entries for your Amazon FSx file systems. For information about choosing the correct IP addresses to use for the file system, see Getting the correct file system IP addresses to use for manual DNS entries.

To find the DNS name:

  • In the Amazon FSx console, choose File systems, and then choose Details. View the DNS name in the Network & Security section.

  • Or, view it in the response of the CreateFileSystem or DescribeFileSystems API command.

For all Single-AZ file systems joined to an AWS Managed Microsoft Active Directory, the DNS name has the following format: fs-0123456789abcdef0.ad-dns-domain-name

For all Single-AZ file systems joined to a self-managed Active Directory, and any Multi-AZ file system, the DNS name has the following format: amznfsxaa11bb22.ad-domain.com

Using Kerberos authentication with DNS names

We recommend that you use Kerberos-based authentication and encryption in transit with Amazon FSx. Kerberos provides the most secure authentication for clients accessing your file system. To enable Kerberos-based authentication and encryption of data in transit for your SMB sessions, use the file system's DNS name provided by Amazon FSx to access your file system.

If you have an external trust configured between your AWS Managed Microsoft Active Directory and your on-premises Active Directory, to use the Amazon FSx Remote PowerShell with Kerberos authentication, you must configure a local group policy on the client for forest search order. For more information, see Configure Kerberos Forest Search Order (KFSO) in the Microsoft documentation.

Support for Distributed File System (DFS) namespaces

FSx for Windows File Server supports the use of Microsoft DFS Namespaces. Use DFS Namespaces to organize file shares that are located on multiple file systems into one common folder structure (a namespace) that you use to access the entire file dataset. You can use a name in your DFS Namespace to access your Amazon FSx file system by configuring its link target to be the file system's DNS name. For more information, see Group multiple FSx for Windows File Server file systems with DFS Namespaces.