FAQ

Will Hammerspace ever upload data to a GIR OSV without an explicit objective? For normal data placement, no. Availability and durability objectives alone do not cause Hammerspace to create a new GIR copy. To place data on GIR, use a place-on or confine-to objective that targets the archive-object-volumes Volume Group or a specific GIR OSV. Existing GIR copies can remain or be reused through retention, snapshots, and copy-on-write behavior. Replication has a separate, Support-controlled exception that can use GIR as a last-resort conduit when no Standard conduit is usable; see Replication Behavior.

Can I change a Standard OSV to a GIR OSV (or vice versa) later? No. Storage class is set at creation and is immutable. To move data between storage classes, add a new OSV with the target class, apply placement objectives that target the new OSV, and allow mobility to complete the migration.

Can I enable GIR on a bucket that already contains data? No. Adding a bucket that already contains data as a GIR OSV is not a supported configuration. Create the GIR OSV using a new, empty bucket. To migrate Hammerspace-managed data from a Standard OSV, add the GIR OSV, apply a place-on objective for it to the relevant shares, verify that mobility completes, then remove the old placement.

What happens when I delete a file that lives only on a GIR OSV before 90 days have elapsed? The file is removed from the Hammerspace namespace immediately. Its underlying S3 data is deleted later, through Hammerspace retention and garbage-collection processing; this is not an exact 90-day timer. Separately, AWS applies a 90-day minimum storage duration and can charge for the remaining duration when GIR data is deleted, overwritten, or transitioned earlier.

Why aren’t new GIR copies being created when I raise my availability requirement? By design. Availability and durability objectives alone do not cause Hammerspace to create a new GIR copy. To place data on GIR, apply an explicit place-on objective that targets archive-object-volumes or a specific GIR OSV. Existing GIR copies can still be considered when Hammerspace evaluates the current data layout.

Is GIR storage compatible with Hammerspace compression? Yes. The --use-high-compression option is supported on GIR OSVs. Compression can reduce the amount of data stored and retrieved, but the actual savings depend on data compressibility, object layout, request count, and current AWS pricing. A smaller upload does not by itself reduce a PUT charge, because AWS charges PUT requests per request rather than by size.

Is the --native (non-chunked) mode supported on GIR OSVs? Yes. Adding a GIR OSV with --native stores data as non-chunked, unencrypted, and uncompressed blobs. This is verified in QA.

Can I see what AWS will charge me for a GIR OSV from inside Hammerspace? No. Hammerspace does not integrate with AWS cost APIs in this release. Use the AWS Pricing Calculator for projections, and AWS Billing and Cost Management tools such as Cost Explorer or cost and usage reports to analyze charges. CloudWatch can provide S3 storage and request metrics, but not the actual charges for a specific Hammerspace OSV.

What happens to pre-existing non-Hammerspace data in a bucket when I add it as an OSV? Hammerspace works exclusively within its own path prefix inside the bucket (Hammerspace_v2/). Pre-existing objects outside that prefix are not accessed, modified, or deleted by Hammerspace. However, adding a bucket that already contains data is not a supported configuration for GIR OSVs. Use an empty bucket.

Does GIR apply to the whole share, to individual volumes, or to individual files? GIR is a volume-level designation. Every file that Hammerspace places on a GIR OSV is stored as GIR. You control which files are placed on a GIR OSV by configuring placement objectives on the share — for example, a rule that archives files not accessed in 90 days. The GIR designation itself is not applied per-file or per-share; it is an attribute of the OSV.

Can a single share have some files on Standard OSVs and others on GIR OSVs? Yes. You can configure a share with a keep-online objective (for NAS or Standard cloud availability) and a place-on-archive-object-volumes objective with an age-based condition. Hammerspace will keep active files on Standard storage and archive inactive files to the GIR OSV over time.