Distributed file system
A distributed file system ( English distributed file system , DFS or network file system ) is a special file system with which files are accessed via a computer network and which allows access and data storage on several computers used as servers . The counterpart to such a network file system is a classic local file system, which manages mass storage devices connected directly to the computer .
Implementations
Well-known implementations of distributed file systems are:
- Distributed File System (DFS) as part of the Windows operating system from Microsoft
- originally at the Carnegie Mellon University developed Andrew File System (AFS), for which there are several manufacturers
- DFS within the Distributed Computing Environment (DCE) project of the Open Software Foundation consortium (now Open Group ) as a further development of AFS
- Coda , also developed at Carnegie Mellon University
- Luster
- BeeGFS / FhGFS , for clusters and HPC applications
- GlusterFS , for all POSIX -compliant operating systems
- Hadoop Distributed File System (HDFS)
- Ceph , offers object, block, and file storage, part of the Linux kernel, LGPL
- XtreemFS , fail-safe distributed file system with POSIX-compliant interface
- Google File System (GFS, GoogleFS) from Google , proprietary, based on Linux , optimized for high data throughput
In a broader sense, a distributed file system is understood to mean a network protocol for accessing files. Examples are:
- Network File System (NFS) from Sun Microsystems
- Common Internet File System (CIFS), an extension of Server Message Block (SMB)
- Apple Filing Protocol (AFP) from Apple
- NetWare Core Protocol (NCP) from Novell