Hammerspace Terminology

The following list of terms may be helpful to users of this documentation. For more in-depth definitions of terms relevant to Hammerspace Global File Systems and data orchestration, see the Dictionary of Terms on the Hammerspace web site.

Table 1. Hammerspace terminology
Term	Definition
Alignment	Used to report if a file is currently adhering to all, some, or none of the currently applied objectives.
Aligned	Indicates that all applicable objectives have been met for a file.
Anvil	A Hammerspace metadata server. Responsible for managing all the metadata for the Global File System, and hosts the API and Management GUI services.
Assimilation	The ingestion of all existing file and folder metadata required to serve data using the new Hammerspace global namespace. Can be Read-Write or Read-Only.
Attribute	A type of custom metadata that can be applied and values set by the user using the hstk.
Cloud Mover	A DSX service responsible for uploading and downloading data from cloud and object storage.
Collections	Subsets of files determined by a defined query of metadata updated on each pass of the sweeper process. Accessible in any directory in a Hammerspace share in .collections.
Condition	Rules used to specify when an objective will be applied. If no condition is specified, the objective will be applied as TRUE
Data Orchestration	The movement of data based on Hammerspace objectives.
DSX (Data Services nodes)	The Hammerspace data services node. Includes functional capabilities like Portal, Mover, Cloud Mover, and Store.
DSX Store	A DSX service that makes block storage available as file storage volumes using XFS.
Global file share	A share added to more than one Hammerspace cluster. Each cluster has the same view of the share contents.
Hammerscript	The proprietary scripting language used to define and work with metadata, modeled after spreadsheet formula syntax. Used for queries, objectives, and reporting.
Hammerspace Toolkit (HSTK)	A collection of Python-based extensions for command-line interfaces (Linux Bash, Windows CMD/PowerShell) used to query and manipulate file system metadata. See HSTK GitHub for more information.
Instance	A file placed on Hammerspace will have at least one instance written to the underlying storage; more if the objectives require it.
Label	A type of custom metadata; a simple string that uses an administrator-defined schema.
Metadata	Data that provides information about other data. Hammerspace manages POSIX, Internal, and Custom metadata.
Mover	A stateless DSX service that moves files non-disruptively between file storage volumes.
Objective	Rules that define the intent for managing files. Uses metadata criteria to orchestrate data access and placement.
Offline file	A file considered offline when it is only available in an object storage volume.
Online file	A file considered online when it is in either a DSX volume or a connected NFS storage volume.
Partially aligned	Indicates that a file adheres to at least some of the applicable objectives.
Portal	A DSX service enabling protocol access for NFS, SMB, and S3 clients.
Retention policy	Specified length of time to keep a file system snapshot or file clone.
Schedule	Specified time and frequency to take a snapshot or make a file clone.
Shadow namespace	Provides hidden access to Hammerspace metadata and functionality through a mounted file system, using ?. extensions.
Share	A file system presented for file access by clients via NFS, SMB, and/or S3 protocols. Objectives determine where the file instances are placed.
Site	Refers to a specific Hammerspace cluster, which may or may not be at another physical location.
SLO (Service-level objective)	A target value or range of values measured by service-level indicators. Often refers to an objective to place file instances on specific storage.
SMB (Server Message Block)	A network communication protocol for providing shared access to files, printers, and serial ports between nodes on a network.
Snapshot	A record of the state of the file system at a specific point in time.
Tag	A type of custom metadata; a key-value pair that does not use a predefined schema.
Unaligned	Indicates that a file does not currently adhere to any of the applicable objectives.
Volume	A storage container used by Hammerspace to store instances of files. Can be DSX storage drives, NFS exports, or object storage buckets.
Volume groups	Used to group storage systems, volumes, or other volume groups for easier targeting in objectives.