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Serverless network file systems

Editor: Kenneth P. Birman Authors:

Thomas E. Anderson,

Michael D. Dahlin,

Jeanna M. Neefe,

David A. Patterson,

Drew S. Roselli,

Randolph Y. WangAuthors Info & Claims

ACM Transactions on Computer Systems (TOCS), Volume 14, Issue 1

Pages 41 - 79

https://doi.org/10.1145/225535.225537

Published: 01 February 1996 Publication History

Abstract

We propose a new paradigm for network file system design: serverless network file systems. While traditional network file systems rely on a central server machine, a serverless system utilizes workstations cooperating as peers to provide all file system services. Any machine in the system can store, cache, or control any block of data. Our approach uses this location independence, in combination with fast local area networks, to provide better performance and scalability than traditional file systems. Furthermore, because any machine in the system can assume the responsibilities of a failed component, our serverless design also provides high availability via redundatn data storage. To demonstrate our approach, we have implemented a prototype serverless network file system called xFS. Preliminary performance measurements suggest that our architecture achieves its goal of scalability. For instance, in a 32-node xFS system with 32 active clients, each client receives nearly as much read or write throughput as it would see if it were the only active client.

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Information & Contributors

Information

Published In

cover image ACM Transactions on Computer Systems

ACM Transactions on Computer Systems Volume 14, Issue 1

Special issue on operating system principles

Feb. 1996

134 pages

ISSN:0734-2071

EISSN:1557-7333

DOI:10.1145/225535

Editor:
Kenneth P. Birman
Cornell Univ., Ithaca, NY

Issue’s Table of Contents

Copyright © 1996 ACM.

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Association for Computing Machinery

New York, NY, United States

Publication History

Published: 01 February 1996

Published in TOCS Volume 14, Issue 1

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