Creating Views

  • Updated on Feb 3, 2026
  • Published on Jan 28, 2026
  • 12 minute(s) read
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Each view is attached to a view policy which governs some of the configuration of the view. A view policy can be reused.  

If there is no view policy with the configuration that you need for a particular view, you need to create a suitable view policy first. See Creating View Policies for instructions.

Creating a View via VAST Web UI

  1. In the VAST Web UI, select Element Store from the left navigation menu and then select Views.

  2. Click Create View to add a new view.

    The Add View dialog appears.

  3. Complete the following fields:

    Tenant

    Select a tenant from the dropdown.

    Note

    This field only appears if the cluster has more than one tenant.

    Path

    Enter the full path from the top level of the storage system on the cluster to the location that you want to expose.

    The directory may exist already, such as if it was created by a client inside a mounted parent directory. It could also be a path to a new directory which you'll create now. (see Create new directory for the view.)

    If you are going to use the path to create an S3 bucket, ensure that none of the subdirectories under the path has a replication protected path defined on it.

    Protocols

    Select one or more protocols you want the view to be accessible from. The options are:

    • NFSv3 exposes the view as an NFS export to clients using NFS version 3.

    • NFSv4.1 exposes the view as an NFS export to clients using NFS version 4.1 or 4.2.

    • SMB exposes the view as an SMB share to SMB clients.  

    • S3 Bucket exposes the view as an S3 bucket.

      This option is supported on the default tenant only.

    • S3 Endpoint creates a template for creating buckets via S3 APIs. Whenever a bucket is created using this endpoint, a new view is created under the specified path. See Managing S3 Request-Initiated Bucket Creation for more information about S3 Endpoint buckets.

      You can enable NFSv3 and/or NFSv4.1 together with S3 Endpoint. In this case, the view path is exported for NFS access while multiple S3 buckets may also be created under the view path.

      This option is supported on the default tenant only.

    • Database exposes tabular data to database query engines. This value is used for each view that VAST Cluster creates when a user chooses to create a database on the cluster. For more information, see Configuring the VAST Cluster for Database Access.Configuring the VAST Cluster for Database Access

    SMB share name

    If you selected SMB in the Protocols dropdown, enter a name for the SMB share in the SMB share name field. This setting is required for SMB.

    The SMB share name cannot include the following characters: /\:|<>*?"

    An SMB share name must be unique within the tenant.

    NFS alias

    If you selected NFSv3 in the Protocols dropdown to enable NFSv3 access, you can use the NFS alias field to optionally specify an alias for the mount path of the NFSv3 export. An alias must begin with a forward slash ("/") and must consist of only ASCII characters.

    An NFS export alias must be unique within the tenant.

    S3 Bucket Name

    If you selected S3 Bucket in the Protocols dropdown, enter a name for the bucket in the S3 Bucket Name field. This setting is required for S3 buckets.

    A bucket name must be unique across all tenants of  the cluster. For more guidelines on bucket naming, see Overview of VAST Cluster S3 Implementation.Overview of VAST Cluster S3 Implementation

    Policy name

    Specify a view policy that has the configuration you want to use for the view.

    Select an existing view policy from the dropdown, or click Add new Policy to create a new one and follow the procedure described in Creating View Policies.

    QoS Policy

    Specify a QoS policy to be associated with the view.

    Select an existing QoS policy from the dropdown, or click Add New Policy to create a new one and follow the procedure described in Creating a QoS Policy).

    Create new directory for the view

    If the directory does not already exist in the file system, enable this option to create the directory.

  4. If the  Policy name field was set to a view policy that enforces the S3 Native security flavor, choose one of the object ownership modes in the ACLs pane:

    • ACLs enabled (default). The user which uploads the object, becomes the object owner. Access is authorized based on ACLs and identity or bucket policies.

    • ACLs disabled. The bucket owner has full control over any object in the bucket. Access to objects is authorized based on identity and bucket policies. ACLs are not used, neither for S3 nor for other access protocols.

    Note

    For more information about these modes, see S3 Object Ownership.

  5. If you selected S3 Bucket or S3 Endpoint in the Protocols dropdown, go to the S3 tab and set the relevant settings:

    • For S3 Bucket:

      • S3 Owner. Specify a user to be the bucket owner. This setting is required for S3 buckets.

      • Under S3 Features:

        Note

        These features are not available if NFSv3, NFSv4.1 and/or SMB were selected in the Protocols dropdown in the General tab.

        • S3 Versioning. Enables S3 Object Versioning on the bucket. Versioning cannot be disabled after the view is created.

          Note

          This setting must be enabled if S3 Object Locking is enabled, so it is automatically toggled on when you enable S3 Object Lock.

        • S3 Object Lock. Enables S3 Object Locking on the bucket. Object locking cannot be disabled after the view is created.

          Note

          S3 Object Versioning is required to use S3 Object Locking, so the S3 Versioning option is automatically toggled on when you enable S3 Object Lock.

        • Retention Mode. If S3 Object Locking is enabled, you can optionally select a default retention mode for objects in the bucket:

          • None (default).  Object versions that are placed in the bucket have no automatic protection but can be configured with a retention period or legal hold.

          • Governance. Object versions that are placed in the bucket are automatically protected with a retention lock with retention mode set to governance.  

          • Compliance. Object versions that are placed in the bucket are automatically protected with a retention lock with retention mode set to compliance.

          For more information about retention modes, see S3 Object Locking Overview.

        • S3 Retention Period. If S3 Object Locking is enabled, you can optionally set a default retention period for objects in the bucket. If set, object versions that are placed in the bucket are automatically protected with a retention lock with the specified retention period, unless S3 Retention Mode is set to None. Otherwise, by default, each object version has no automatic protection but can be configured with a retention lock or legal hold. For more information the S3 retention period, see S3 Object Locking Overview.

      • Under S3 Access Control:

        • Anonymous access. Allows anonymous S3 access to the bucket. If enabled, anonymous requests are allowed, provided that the object ACL grants access to the All Users  group (for S3 Native security flavor) or the permission mode bits on the requested file and directory path grant access permission to others (for NFS security flavor). For views with SMB security flavor, anonymous requests are not allowed.

    • For S3 Endpoint:

      • Under  S3 Access Control:

        • Bucket Creators (Users). List bucket users by user name. Any request to create an S3 bucket that is sent by S3 API by a user listed here will use the S3 Endpoint view that you are configuring.

          Note

          Users should not be specified as bucket creators in more than one S3 Endpoint view.

          Naming a user as a bucket creator in two S3 Endpoint views will fail the creation of the view with an error.

        • Bucket Creators (Groups). List user groups by group name. Any request to create an S3 bucket that is sent by S3 API by a user who belongs to a group listed here will use the S3 Endpoint view that you are configuring.

          Caution

          Take extra care not to duplicate bucket creators through groups. If you specify a group as a bucket creator group in one view and you also specify a user who belongs to that group as a bucket creator user in another view, view creation will not fail. Yet, there is a conflict between the two configurations and the selection of a view for configuring the user's buckets is not predictable.  

        • Anonymous access. Allows anonymous S3 access to the bucket. If enabled, anonymous requests are allowed, provided that the object ACL grants access to the All Users  group (for S3 Native security flavor) or the permission mode bits on the requested file and directory path grant access permission to others (for NFS security flavor). For views with SMB security flavor, anonymous requests are not allowed.

  6. If you selected SMB in the Protocols dropdown, you can optionally configure a share-level ACL:

    1. Go to the Share-level ACL tab.

    2. Toggle Enable Share-level ACL on to enable share-level ACL on the view.

      When enabled, SMB requests to access the view will fail unless permission is granted to the requesting user by an ACE configured in this dialog.

      When disabled, the default share-level ACL applies to the view.  

      Tip

      The default share-level ACL grants Full Control permissions to the Everyone group by default. You can alter this setting on the General tab of the Tenant dialog (choose Element Store -> Tenants -> choose to edit a tenant).

    3. Add share-level ACEs:

      1. Under Search, query a user or group that you want to define an ACE for:

        1. Select a specific Active Directory domain or all domains from the Domain dropdown.

        2. Select the Grantee type (user or group) that you want to search for.

        3. In the Name field, specify the name of the grantee:

          • For a grantee from the cluster's joined domain, enter the  name without the domain name suffix.

          • For a grantee from domains in other trusted forests, enter the name followed by the domain name suffix: <grantee name>@<domain name>.

      2. Click + Add ACE. The grantee's type and name displayed in the ACL grid.

      3. In the Permission column of the ACL grid, select the permission type that you want to grant to the grantee.

      4. Repeat steps c1 to c3 until you have created all the ACEs that you want to configure.

  7. In the Global Synchronization tab, optionally enable Enable global synchronization. This setting synchronizes file handles between the view and views on replication peers in a replication group that each point to the replicated path. It enables NFSv3 client users to retain the same mount point to the view in the event of a failover of the view path to a replication peer. Enabling global synchronization may cause overhead and should only be done when the use case is relevant.

    When you enable this setting, the Global Synchronization tab shows the synchronization status of views on remote replication peers. If replication is not configured on the view path or on any path under the view, the tab displays No synced views. If replication is configured on the view path or on any path(s) under the view, the following details are displayed per replication peer:

    • Path. A path under the view that is replicated to a remote path.

    • Cluster name. The cluster on which the remote path resides.

    • Peer name. The name of the replication peer.

    • Sync status. Synced means there is a view on the remote path, it is enabled for global synchronization and it is synced with the view. Error means that there is no view on the remote path yet, or there is view on the remote path, but it does not have global synchronization enabled. In order to complete the global synchronization configuration, you will need to create a new view and enable global synchronization when you create it.    

    For more information about global synchronization, see Preparing for Seamless Replication Failover (NFSv3).

  8. If you selected SMB in the Protocols dropdown in the General tab, you can optionally configure Access-Based Enumeration (ABE):

    1. Go to the ABE tab.

      Note

      This tab is available for SMB-enabled views only.

    2. To enable ABE for the view, select SMB in the Protocols dropdown in the ABE tab.

    3. Optionally, set the maximum directory level (depth) at which ABE is enabled in the Max depth field. If left empty, ABE depth is unlimited.

  9. If the view is to be used as WORM storage, set these fields in the Write Once Read Many tab:

    1. Toggle Enable write once read many (WORM).

      Note

      This step is irreversible. Once WORM is enabled in a view, it cannot subsequently be disabled.

    2. Select the File Retention Mode (for NFS and SMB) or S3 Retention Mode (for S3) for the view:

      • Governance. In this mode, locked files cannot be deleted or changed. The Retention settings can be shortened or extended by users with sufficient permissions

      • Compliance. In this mode, locked files cannot be deleted or changed. Retention settings can be extended, but not shortened, by users with sufficient permissions.

      • None (S3 only). The retention mode is not set for the view; it is set individually for each object.

    3. Set the Retention settings for the view as follows:

      • Default Retention Period. This is the period of time a file or object will be locked, if locking is done automatically (Auto-commit is set). It must be in the range Minimum Retention Period and Maximum Retention Period. Set it as minutes (m), hours (h), days (d), or years (y). Example:  4m.

      • Minimum Retention Period. The minimum retention period for a file or object, once it is locked, in minutes (m), hours (h), days (d), or years (y). This applies both to files locked automatically and to files locked manually.

      • Maximum Retention Period. The maximum retention period for a file or object, once it is locked, in minutes (m), hours (h), days (d), or years (y). This applies both to files locked automatically and to files locked manually.

      • Auto-commit period (NFS and SMB only). If set to a non-zero value, files will automatically be locked after the Default Retention Period elapses since from the time the file is saved. If this is set, you do not have to manually set the file to Read-Only to lock them (see Auto-commit Locking of Files for NFSv3 and SMB). Set it as minutes (m), hours (h), days (d), or years (y). Example: 4m.

  10. If you are going to use Attribute-Based Access Control (ABAC), go to the Attribute-Based Access Control (ABAC) tab and enter a comma-separated list of ABAC attributes in the Attribute field.

    Up to 20 ABAC tags can be defined per view. ABAC tags are case-sensitive and can include alphanumeric characters, a hyphen (-), a colon (:), a plus sign (+), and an underline (_).

    For example: red,green,yellow

  11. Click Create.

    The view is now created and can be accessed via all the protocols you enabled. You can see it displayed in the Views tab.

Creating a View via VAST CLI

Use the view create command to create the view.

Note

Share-level ACLs can be added via CLI only using the view modify command after creating the view.

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