As you begin working with the StorageGRID system, it is helpful to understand how the StorageGRID system manages data.
Some key concepts to understand are:
What an object is
How object data is protected from loss
The life of an object
What an object is
With object storage, the unit of storage is an object, rather than a file or a block. Unlike the tree-like hierarchy of a file system or block storage, object storage organizes data in a flat, unstructured layout. Object storage decouples the physical location of the data from the method used to store and retrieve that data.
How object data is protected
The StorageGRID system provides you with two mechanisms to protect object data from loss: replication and erasure coding.
The life of an object
An object's life consists of various stages. Each stage represents the operations that occur with the object.