User's Manual

78 Configuring FSE
Configuring a WORM FSE partition
FSE provides an option to configure an HSM file system as a WORM (Write Once Read Many) file system.
The Type parameter in the FSE partition configuration file defines whether the type of a file system is
regular or WORM.
IMPORTANT: A WORM FSE partition cannot be changed to a regular FSE partition, but a regular FSE
partition can be reconfigured as a WORM FSE partition.
On a WORM HSM file system, a file can only be written and changed before a configured timeout expires
for the file. Afterwards, the file can only be read. Thus, on a WORM file system, modifications of files and
their metadata, including access control rights and file attributes, are prevented after the timeouts have
expired for the files, regardless of the file access permissions. Consequently, it is not possible to manually
remove or rename files, but only to add new files.
The only way of deleting files from the WORM HSM file systems is by using the deletion policy. For details
on the deletion policy, see chapter ”Migration, release, recall, and deletion”, section ”Deletion” on
page 137.
In the FSE partition configuration, the timeout parameter (WORMTimeout) defines the interval during which
it is possible to modify or delete a file after the file is closed. During this interval, the file contents and its
metadata can be modified; the file can be renamed, moved, or removed. Once the interval has expired,
the file, its metadata, and location can never be modified again. This parameter is commented out in the
template file. It must be uncommented if the file system type is “WORM”. The timeout value must be set
according to the specific archiving environment.
IMPORTANT: Applications that create temporary backups of the original files may have problems when
used for editing files located on a WORM HSM file system. If an original file is edited for so long that the
WORMTimeout interval expires, the application cannot remove its backup copy and the file gets a file ID
and is later migrated to the FSE media.
To prevent this problem, avoid using such applications for editing files located on the WORM HSM file
systems.
NOTE: If a WORM FSE partition is used for accounting or legislation applications, WORM FSE media
pools must be assigned to it.
Examples of configuration files for WORM FSE partitions
The following is an example of a WORM FSE partition configuration file on Linux platform.
Linux specific
#
# Where is the HSM file system?
#
Client "fse_host.company.com"
{
FileSystemID = "/dev/vg_fsefs/fs03"
# e.g. /dev/mapper/hsmfs1, Linux client
# FileSystemID = "Volume{xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx}"
# Windows client