Services or capabilities described in Amazon Web Services documentation might vary by Region. To see the differences applicable to the China Regions, see Getting Started with Amazon Web Services in China (PDF).

Administering FSx for Windows file systems

Amazon FSx provides a wide range of administrative capabilities that help you easily manage and grow your Amazon FSx for Windows File Server file systems to meet changing workload and user requirements, and your organizations regulatory and compliance needs. The following is a list of some of the file system configurations that you can manage using the Amazon Web Services Management Console, Amazon CLI and API, the Amazon FSx CLI for remote management on PowerShell, and native Microsoft Windows Server graphical interfaces.

The following sections provide information about the file system administrative features and setting that are available to you. We've included guidance to help you determine which options are best for your situation, and best practices where applicable.

Amazon FSx file system status

You can view the status of an Amazon FSx file system by using the Amazon FSx console, the Amazon CLI command describe-file-systems, or the API operation DescribeFileSystems.

Using the Amazon FSx CLI for PowerShell

This chapter describes how to access the Amazon FSx CLI for remote management on PowerShell to perform file system administrative tasks for FSx for Windows file systems. You can also use the Microsoft Windows–native graphical user interface (GUI) to perform some administrative tasks.

The Amazon FSx CLI for remote management on PowerShell enables file system administration for users in the file system administrators group. To start a remote PowerShell session on your FSx for Windows File Server file system, you first need to meet the following prerequisites:

The Amazon FSx CLI for remote management on PowerShell uses the following security features:

You have two options to run remote management CLI commands on your Amazon FSx file system:

If you want to set and pass variables as parameters to the remote management command, you will need to use Invoke-Command.

You need to use the file system's Windows Remote PowerShell Endpoint to access the Remote PowerShell. The remote administration endpoint has the format of amznfsxctlyaa1k.ActiveDirectory-DNS-name, for example, amznfsxctlyaa1k.corp.example.com. You can find the endpoint name by using the Amazon Web Services Management Console in the File system details page on the Network & security tab. Use the Amazon CLI describe-file-systems command to view the RemoteAdministrationEndpoint property returned in the response.

You can use the Get-Command cmdlet to retrieve information about the cmdlets, functions, and aliases available in PowerShell. For more information, see the Microsoft Get-Command documentation.

You can also run Amazon FSx CLI for remote management CLI on PowerShell commands on your file system using the Invoke-Command cmdlet, using the following syntax:

PS C:\Users\delegateadmin> Invoke-Command -ComputerName amznfsxctlyaa1k.corp.example.com -ConfigurationName FSxRemoteAdmin -scriptblock { fsx-command}

For instructions on how to start a long-lived Remote PowerShell session on your FSx for Windows File Server files system, see Starting an Amazon FSx remote PowerShell session

File system maintenance windows

Amazon FSx for Windows File Server performs routine software patching for the Microsoft Windows Server software that it manages. The maintenance window lets you control the day and time of the week when software patching occurs. You choose the maintenance window during file system creation. If you have no time preference, a 30-minute default window is assigned.

FSx for Windows File Server lets you adjust your maintenance window to accommodate your workload and operational requirements. You can move your maintenance window as frequently as required, provided that a maintenance window is scheduled at least once every 14 days. If a patch is released and you haven’t scheduled a maintenance window within 14 days, FSx for Windows File Server proceeds with maintenance on the file system to ensure its security and reliability. For more information about how to adjust your file system's maintenance window, see Changing the weekly maintenance window.

While patching is in progress, expect your Single-AZ file systems to be unavailable, typically for less than 20 minutes. Your Multi-AZ file systems remain available and automatically fail over and fail back between the preferred file server and the standby file server. For more information, see Failover process for FSx for Windows File Server. Because patching for Multi-AZ file systems involves failover and failback, any traffic to the file system during this time must be synchronized between the preferred file server and the standby file server. To reduce patching time, we recommend scheduling your maintenance window during idle periods when there's minimal load on your file system.