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The /ifs directory is the root directory for all file-system data on a PowerScale storage cluster.
Under the /ifs directory, two additional directories are automatically created when the PowerScale storage cluster is initially provisioned: the /ifs/data directory for departmental and organization-level data; and /ifs/home for end-user home directories.
Note: Physical placement of home directory data can be applied on a per-user basis, independent of the path of user home directories within the file-system tree. More information about the physical location of PowerScale file data is provided in Node pools and disk pools.
For Network File System (NFS) clients, OneFS supports NFS v3, and NFS v4 protocols. The PowerScale cluster’s default NFS mount point, the /ifs directory, enables UNIX and/or Linux clients to remotely mount any subdirectory, including subdirectories created by Windows clients. Linux and UNIX clients can also mount ACL-protected subdirectories created by a storage administrator. OneFS also offers NFS Kerberized session support for authentication and access management.
For Windows clients and users, OneFS supports SMB access protocols. The default \ifs shared folder gives Windows users access to file system resources via the network, including directories and files created by UNIX and Linux clients.
This SMB compatibility feature means that, to a Windows client, a PowerScale storage cluster looks and acts just like a Windows file server on the network: it can be accessed via a standard Windows server name or Fully Qualified Domain Name (FQDN), it can integrate with Active Directory for authentication and permissions management, as well as acting as a Distributed File System (DFS) file server node on the network. SMB users see data on a PowerScale storage cluster via mapped network drive or via Universal Naming Convention (UNC) address and share name.
More information about Active Directory integration and access control for files and directories is provided in the following section.