Quick Start

4 Server roles

Acronis Storage is deployed on bare metal. It does not require a general-purpose operating system to

run on any of its nodes.

The Acronis Storage server roles are assigned to hard disk drives rather than to a node. A drive can

be assigned only one role. If a node has more than one disk drive, it can run more than one server

role. When a role is assigned to a disk drive, this disk is initialized and all of its data is deleted.

4.1 Metadata Server (MDS)

A metadata server (MDS) stores information about file fragments and the location of chunks that

make up these fragments. It is the most critical component of the system.

Several MDS nodes are needed to build a high-availability metadata cluster. A standard configuration

includes three metadata nodes: one master and two subordinates. The metadata is continuously

replicated from the master node to the subordinate nodes. If the master node fails, one of the

subordinate nodes is elected as the new master node.

We recommend that you dedicate two hard disk drives to the MDS role. The software RAID1 array

will be automatically created on these disks, to increase the MDS reliability.

A management component (MGMT) is installed with each MDS role. This component enables you to

use the Acronis Storage web console for system deployment, monitoring and management.

When the master MDS node fails over to a different node, the management component

automatically starts on that node so that the web console is available at any time.

4.2 Storage Server (STS)

The Storage Server (STS) role is responsible for storing data chunks.

4.3 Front-end Server (FES)

The Front-end Server (FES) role allows Acronis Backup Cloud backup agents to access the Acronis

Storage system for backup data transfer.