Formatting a file system prepares it for use by clients for data storage. File systems created through File Administrator are formatted and mounted automatically. So, you do not need to perform this process frequently. Manually formatting a file system will delete data from the selected file system.
- Navigate to .
- Locate the file system that you want to format, and then click View.
- Review the status of the file system. If it is mounted, from the more actions menu, select Unmount, and then select Format.
- In the Format File System dialog box, do the following:
- Acknowledge to proceed with formatting that will delete data from the selected file system.
- Select 32 KiB or 4 KiB as the block size for the file system.
32 KiB: Provides higher throughput when transferring large files.
4 KiB: Efficient space utilization management of numerous relatively smaller files.
- Select Object replication target, to configure the file system as the intended target of an object replication. Selecting this option formats the file system to allow shares and exports.
- Select Support and enable dedupe, to support and enable deduplication on the file system.
- (Optional) Set the Enable WORM toggle to Yes to configure the file system to WORM.
A WORM (Write Once Read Many) file system stores data in an immutable state where files cannot be modified, renamed, deleted, or have permissions changed. However, the file system allows expansion of storage to accommodate more files.
A WORM file system is useful for regulatory compliance and long-term data retention.
- Click Format.