Global File System
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Global File System (GFS) is a shared storage file system available for Linux computer clusters.
GFS is different from distributed file systems like AFS, Coda, or InterMezzo because it requires all nodes to have direct concurrent access to the same shared block storage.
GFS has no disconnected operating mode, and no client or server roles. All nodes in a GFS cluster are peers.
Fibre Channel, iSCSI, or AoE devices are often used for GFS shared storage. GFS depends on a distributed lock manager like GULM or GDLM.
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[edit] History
GFS originally developed as part of a thesis project at the University of Minnesota. At some point it made its way to Sistina Software, where it lived for a time as an open source project. Sometime in 2001 Sistina made the choice to make GFS a commercial product — not under an open source license. OpenGFS forked from the last public release of GFS. OpenGFS has undergone further development, including updates allowing it to work with OpenDLM.
In December 2003 Red Hat purchased Sistina. In late June 2004, Red Hat released GFS and many cluster infrastructure pieces under the GPL. Red Hat's current goal for the project (aside from the normal bug fixing and stabilization) envisages inclusion in the mainline Linux kernel (achieved in version 2.6.19). GFS now forms part of the Fedora Core distribution and can be purchased as a commercial product on top of Red Hat Enterprise Linux. Here are some version numbers and major features introduced:
- v1.0 (1996) SGI IRIX only
- v3.0 Linux-port
- v4 Journaling
- v5 Redundant Lock Manager
- v6.1 (2005) Distributed Lock Manager
[edit] See also
- Comparison of file systems
- Lustre
- List of file systems
- Oracle cluster file system (OCFS)
- SAN File System
[edit] External links
[edit] Background
- Symmetric Cluster Architecture — paper (pdf) describing gfs and future development
- http://www.diku.dk/undervisning/2003e/314/papers/soltis97global.pdf — a good paper about the technical background of GFS and how it compares to other network filesystems
- Old but still useful GFS 5.1.1 user manual: pdf
[edit] Documentation
- Red Hat GFS Product Page
- Red Hat Cluster Suite and GFS Documentation Page
- GFS Project Page
- DataCore's GFS Informations
- A GFS Wiki
