A storage plan is a billing method that requires upfront payment. You can use a storage plan to offset only the storage usage fees of a file system to which the storage plan is attached. This topic describes how to upgrade and renew General-purpose NAS storage plans.
Alibaba Cloud provides resource plans for File Storage NAS (NAS). You can no longer purchase storage plans. However, you can renew or upgrade existing storage plans. Compared with a storage plan, a resource plan does not need to be attached to a file system. You can purchase multiple resource plans to offset the storage usage fees of multiple file systems.
Usage notes
After you purchase a storage plan, NAS deducts quotas from the storage plan based on the storage usage of your file system.
You can attach only one storage plan to a General-purpose NAS file system. You cannot manually detach the storage plan from the file system. The storage plan is automatically detached only if you delete the file system. You can attach the detached storage plan to another file system of the same storage class in the same region to offset storage usage fees.
A storage plan is used to first offset the storage usage fees of the General-purpose NAS file system (Performance, Capacity, or Premium) to which the storage plan is attached. If the storage plan still has a positive balance, the storage plan is used to offset the storage usage fees of the IA storage class based on a specific coefficient.
If the following condition is met, the storage plan is sufficient to offset the storage usage fees of the IA storage class: (Capacity of the storage plan - Storage usage of the General-purpose NAS file system) × Coefficient - Storage usage of the IA storage class ≥ 0 GiB.
If the following condition is met, the storage plan is insufficient to offset the storage usage fees of the IA storage class: (Capacity of the storage plan - Storage usage of the General-purpose NAS file system) × Coefficient - Storage usage of the IA storage class < 0 GiB. You are charged for the excess storage usage based on the pay-as-you-go billing method.
The coefficient in the preceding formulas varies based on the storage class of the file system. For Performance NAS file systems, the coefficient is 12.333. For Capacity NAS file systems, the coefficient is 2.333.
Upgrade a storage plan
If the capacity of a storage plan attached to a file system does not meet your business requirements, we recommend that you purchase a resource plan. Compared with a storage plan, a resource plan does not need to be attached to a file system. You can purchase multiple resource plans to offset the storage usage fees of multiple file systems. If you want to upgrade the specifications of an existing storage plan, perform the following steps:
Navigate to the Resource Plans page. In the top navigation bar, select a region.
Click the Storage Plan tab. Find the storage plan that you want to upgrade and click Upgrade.
NoteYou can upgrade a storage plan, but you cannot downgrade a storage plan.
If you upgrade a storage plan, the file system attached to the storage plan is not affected.
In the Upgrade panel, select a storage capacity.
The capacity of an upgraded storage plan ranges from 500 GiB to 1 PiB.
Follow the instructions to place an order. Complete the payment.
Renew a storage plan
After your storage plan expires, we recommend that you purchase a resource plan. Compared with a storage plan, a resource plan does not need to be attached to a file system. You can purchase multiple resource plans to offset the storage usage fees of multiple file systems. If you want to continue using a storage plan, perform the following steps to renew the storage plan before it expires.
After a storage plan expires, it is automatically released and can no longer be renewed. If you want to continue using the storage plan, you must renew the storage plan before the expiration date.
Manually renew the storage plan
Log on to the Expenses and Costs console.
Navigate to the Renewal page. Click the Manual or Nonrenewal tab.
Configure the Expire At, Instances, and Region parameters. Select NAS Storage Package for the Instances parameter.
Find the storage plan that you want to renew and click Renew in the Actions column. In the Renew panel, select a duration.
The minimum duration is one month and the maximum duration is three years. You can renew the storage plan again before the expiration date.
Follow the instructions to place an order. Complete the payment.
Enable auto-renewal
Log on to the Expenses and Costs console.
Navigate to the Renewal page. Click the Manual or Nonrenewal tab.
Configure the Expire At, Instances, and Region parameters. Select NAS Storage Package for the Instances parameter.
Find the NAS storage plan and click Enable Auto Renewal in the Actions column.
To enable auto-renewal for multiple NAS storage plans at a time, select the NAS storage plans and click Enable Auto Renewal in the lower part of the page.
In the Enable Auto Renewal dialog box, select an auto-renewal cycle, and click Auto Renew. Complete the payment.
On the Auto tab, you can view the NAS storage plans for which auto-renewal is enabled, change the renewal cycle, and disable auto-renewal. On the Nonrenewal tab, you can view all NAS storage plans that are not automatically renewed upon expiration.