Storage
Storage
This domain tests service selection and data-protection controls across Object Storage, Block Volume, and File Storage. Know which service supports shared POSIX access, which supports HTTP object access, and which behaves like a virtual disk.
Core rules
- Object Storage is regional and bucket-based. Tiers include Standard, Infrequent Access, and Archive. Lifecycle policies transition or delete objects by prefix, tag, or age; versioning keeps overwrites; retention rules prevent deletion or overwrite for a fixed period; pre-authenticated requests (PARs) grant time-limited access with a defined scope and expiry.
- Block Volume is availability-domain scoped and network-attached. Performance levels (Lower Cost, Balanced, High Performance, Ultra High) use VPUs/GB to raise IOPS and throughput; auto-tune can adjust. Volumes can be resized online, cloned, backed up, and replicated.
- File Storage provides NFSv3 shared file systems through a mount target in a subnet; snapshots and clones support recovery and test copies. Security rules must allow NFS.
- Choose block for databases and boot disks, file for shared POSIX workloads, and object for unstructured data over HTTP.
Worked example
A team writes 10 TB of audit logs and reads them only during a yearly review. Use Standard tier for ingest, enable versioning, add a retention rule for the required period, and add a lifecycle rule to move objects to Archive after 30 days. Archive is cheapest but retrieval is not instant, so the review must allow restore time. If legal hold requires immutability, the retention rule-not a PAR-provides it. A PAR only controls access and expiry.
Traps
- Treating Object Storage as a mountable POSIX file system.
- Expecting Archive objects to be readable immediately.
- Forgetting that a PAR expires and cannot be extended after creation.
- Assuming a block volume can attach across availability domains.
- Resizing a block volume but not growing the partition or file system.
- Relying on lifecycle rules for immediate deletion; they run asynchronously.