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Elastic File Storage

Getting Started

Quick start

This topic describes the workflow for using Elastic File Storage (EFS) to help you quickly get started with EFS.

Product definition

EFS is a next-generation cloud-native elastic file storage service launched by Volcano Engine, designed for AI while meeting traditional NAS requirements. EFS, based on standard POSIX semantics, provides a high-performance file storage client FSX for AI business scenarios, and mainstream protocols NFSv3 and NFSv4.1 for traditional NAS scenarios. It seamlessly integrates with various AI training and inference frameworks, operating systems, and applications, providing a user experience consistent with local file systems. For more information, see What is Elastic File Storage (EFS).

Product specifications

To meet different file storage needs, EFS offers two types of instance specifications: advanced type and basic type. For more information, see Product specifications.

Specifications	Features	Applicable scenarios
Advanced	Flagship specifications; extra large capacity and high file counts; ultra-high bandwidth and IOPS; ultra-low latency; provides strong support for AI training, inference, and critical enterprise workloads.	The advanced type is mainly designed for AI training and inference scenarios, such as autonomous driving and large language model training and inference. It supports file numbers up to hundreds of billions, 10 PiB storage capacity and flexible configuration performance. These features meet the flexible and high-performance file storage needs of such scenarios. The advanced type supports standard NFSv4.1 and NFSv3 protocols to meet traditional business requirements for high-performance shared file storage (such as performance-based NAS).
Basic	Basic specifications; extra large capacity; exceptional value for large-scale file storage needs.	By providing standard NFSv4.1 and NFSv3 protocols, EFS meets traditional business needs for large-capacity shared file storage, such as capacity-oriented NAS.

Product Billing

EFS uses pay-as-you-go mode. You can use the service first and pay later. By default, EFS is billed based on storage capacity. When you use provisioned bandwidth, provisioned bandwidth cost is generated. If you enable burst bandwidth, burst bandwidth cost is generated. For more information, see Billing Overview.

How to use EFS

Prerequisites

Before using EFS, make sure you have completed the following steps:

You have registered a Volcano Engine account and completed enterprise verification. For specific steps, see Account Registration and Real Name Verification.

You have created a project for the file system (or you can use the default project). For more information about projects and steps to create a project, see Project overview and Project management.

You have created a VPC. If you have not created a VPC or want to create a new one, see Creating a VPC.

You have created an ECS instance within the VPC. For detailed steps, see Creating ECS instances.

warning

Both the VPC and ECS must be in the same region as the file system.

Workflow

Select the file system specification.

Select the appropriate file system specification based on your using scenario. For more information, see Product specifications.

Create a file system.

After selecting the file system specification, you can create a file system. For details, see Creating file systems.

Mount the file system.

Select a client access method and mount the file system. Steps:

If mount via NFS

Create a mount target.

A mount target serves as the access entry for ECS instances to the file system. You need to create a mount target before you can mount the file system. For details, see Creating mount targets.

Mount the file system.

File systems must be mounted to ECS instances before they can be used. For more information, see Mounting file systems.

If mount via FSX

Create an access point.

An access point provides directory-level access to file systems in Volcano Engine EFS. You need to create an access point before you can mount a file system. For more details, see Creating access points.

Mount the file system.

File systems must be mounted to ECS instances before they can be used. For more information, see Mounting file systems.

Last updated: 2025.10.27 17:30:43