File and Network Servers White Papers

The Global File System

• Tags:
• file and network servers,
• nodes,
• device,
• file

Overview The Global File System (GFS) is a prototype design for a distributed file system in which cluster nodes physically share storage devices connected via a network like Fibre Channel. Networks and network attached storage devices have advanced to a level of performance and extensibility that the once believed disadvantages of “shared disk” architectures are no longer valid. This shared storage architecture attempts to exploit the sophistication of device technologies where as the client–server architecture diminishes a device’s role to a simple components.

GFS distributes the file system responsibilities across the processing nodes, storage across the devices, and file system resources across the entire storage pool. GFS caches data on the storage devices instead of the main memories of the machines. Consistency is established by using a locking mechanism maintained by the storage device controllers to facilitate atomic read–modify–write operations.

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