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The file system explorer provides a detailed view of where SmartPools managed data is at any time. This view includes both the node pool location and the file pool policy-dictated location. The policy-dictated location is where that file will move after the next successful completion of the SmartPools job.
When data is written to the cluster, SmartPools writes it to a single node pool only. In almost all cases, a file exists in its entirety within a node pool, and not across node pools. SmartPools determines which pool to write to, based on one of two scenarios: If a file matches a file pool policy based on directory path, that file is immediately written into the node pool dictated by the file pool policy. If that file matches a file pool policy that is based on any other criteria besides path name, it will be moved when the next scheduled SmartPools job runs. If the file does not match a specific file pool policy, it is written to a pool based on the default policy.
For performance, charge back, ownership, or security purposes, it is sometimes important to know exactly where a specific file or group of files is on disk at any given time. Any file in a SmartPools environment typically exists entirely in one storage pool. There are exceptions when a single file might be split, usually on a temporary basis, across two or more node pools at one time.