File Gateway ACL and performance

Thank you for your questions about AWS File Gateway. I'll address each of your points:

1. Regarding ACLs (Access Control Lists) for File Gateway: For SMB file shares, ACLs are supported by default. You don't need to enable any additional features to use ACLs for granular permissions on folders and files. When you create an SMB file share, you can configure access control through various authentication methods, including Microsoft Active Directory (AD) or guest access. This allows you to set up granular permissions for your folders and files.

   For NFS file shares, File Gateway uses POSIX permissions rather than ACLs. These permissions are also available by default when you create an NFS file share.

2. Regarding performance differences between multiple file shares and a single file share: There can be performance implications when deciding between multiple file shares and a single file share for a large number of folders and files. Here are some considerations:

   • Using multiple file shares can help distribute the load across different gateways, which may improve overall performance, especially if you have high-throughput applications.

   • However, the relationship between the number of file shares and gateway performance is not necessarily linear. Some file shares might generate more throughput than others, placing varying demands on the gateway's virtual hardware.

   • If you find that adding multiple file shares to a single gateway reduces performance, you might want to consider moving the most active file shares to separate gateways. This is particularly important for very-high-throughput applications.

   • It's generally recommended to spread high and low throughput file shares evenly across gateways to balance hardware saturation, rather than configuring one gateway for multiple high-throughput applications and another for low-throughput ones.

   • For optimal performance, you should monitor your file share throughput using metrics like ReadBytes and WriteBytes, and adjust your configuration accordingly.

Remember that the best configuration will depend on your specific use case, workload, and the resources allocated to your File Gateway. It's advisable to test different configurations and monitor performance to find the optimal setup for your needs.

Sources
Performance and optimization - AWS Storage Gateway
Creating a file share - AWS Storage Gateway
Create an SMB file share using the default configuration - AWS Storage Gateway