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Comparison of distributed file systems

In computing, a distributed file system (DFS) or network file system is any file system that allows access from multiple hosts to files shared via a computer network. This makes it possible for multiple users on multiple machines to share files and storage resources.

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In computing, a distributed file system (DFS) or network file system is any file system that allows access from multiple hosts to files shared via a computer network. This makes it possible for multiple users on multiple machines to share files and storage resources.

Distributed file systems differ in their performance, mutability of content, handling of concurrent writes, handling of permanent or temporary loss of nodes or storage, and their policy of storing content.

Locally managed

FOSS

Client Written in License Access API High availability Shards Efficient Redundancy Redundancy Granularity Initial release year Memory requirements (GB)
Alluxio (Virtual Distributed File System) Java Apache License 2.0 HDFS, FUSE, HTTP/REST, S3 hot standby No Replication1 File2 2013
Ceph C++ LGPL librados (C, C++, Python, Ruby), S3, Swift, FUSE Yes Yes Pluggable erasure codes3 Pool4 2010 1 per TB of storage
Coda C GPL C Yes Yes Replication Volume5 1987
GlusterFS C GPLv3 libglusterfs, FUSE, NFS, SMB, Swift, libgfapi mirror Yes Reed-Solomon6 Volume7 2005
HDFS Java Apache License 2.0 Java and C client, HTTP, FUSE8 transparent master failover No Reed-Solomon9 File10 2005
IPFS Go Apache 2.0 or MIT HTTP gateway, FUSE, Go client, Javascript client, command line tool Yes with IPFS Cluster Replication11 Block12 201513
LizardFS14 C++ GPLv3 POSIX, FUSE, NFS-Ganesha, Ceph FSAL (via libcephfs) master No Reed-Solomon15 File16 2013
Lustre C GPLv2 POSIX, NFS-Ganesha, NFS, SMB Yes Yes No redundancy1718 No redundancy1920 2003
MinIO Go AGPL3.0 AWS S3 API, FTP, SFTP Yes Yes Reed-Solomon21 Object22 2014
MooseFS C GPLv2 POSIX, FUSE master No Replication23 File24 2008
OpenAFS C IBM Public License Virtual file system, Installable File System Replication Volume25 200026
OpenIO27 C AGPLv3 / LGPLv3 Native (Python, C, Java), HTTP/REST, S3, Swift, FUSE (POSIX, NFS, SMB, FTP) Yes Pluggable erasure codes28 Object29 2015 0.5
Quantcast File System C Apache License 2.0 C++ client, FUSE (C++ server: MetaServer and ChunkServer are both in C++) master No Reed-Solomon30 File31 2012
RozoFS C, Python GPLv2 FUSE, SMB, NFS, key/value Yes Mojette32 Volume33 201134
Tahoe-LAFS Python GNU GPL35 HTTP (browser or CLI), SFTP, FTP, FUSE via SSHFS, pyfilesystem Reed-Solomon36 File37 2007
XtreemFS Java, C++ BSD License libxtreemfs (Java, C++), FUSE Replication38 File39 2009

Proprietary

Client Written in License Access API
BeeGFS C / C++ FRAUNHOFER FS (FhGFS) EULA,40

GPLv2 client

POSIX
Cloudian C++ Proprietary AWS S3, NFS, SMB/CIFS, Rest API
ObjectiveFS41 C Proprietary POSIX, FUSE
Spectrum Scale (GPFS) C, C++ Proprietary POSIX, NFS, SMB, Swift, S3, HDFS
MapR-FS C, C++ Proprietary POSIX, NFS, FUSE, S3, HDFS, CLI
Isilon OneFS C/C++ Proprietary POSIX, NFS, SMB/CIFS, HDFS, HTTP, FTP, SWIFT Object, CLI, Rest API
Qumulo C/C++ Proprietary POSIX, NFS, SMB/CIFS, CLI, S3, Rest API
Scality C Proprietary FUSE, NFS, REST, AWS S3
VaultFS C/C++ Proprietary POSIX, NFS, SMB/CIFS, CLI, S3, Rest API

Remote access

Name Run by Access API
Amazon S3 Amazon.com HTTP (REST/SOAP)
Google Cloud Storage Google HTTP (REST)
SWIFT (part of OpenStack) Rackspace, Hewlett-Packard, others HTTP (REST)
Microsoft Azure Microsoft HTTP (REST)
IBM Cloud Object Storage IBM (formerly Cleversafe)42 HTTP (REST)

Comparison

Some researchers have made a functional and experimental analysis of several distributed file systems including HDFS, Ceph, Gluster, Lustre and old (1.6.x) version of MooseFS, although this document is from 2013 and a lot of information are outdated (e.g. MooseFS had no HA for Metadata Server at that time).43

The cloud based remote distributed storage from major vendors have different APIs and different consistency models.44

See also

See also

References

References

  1. "Caching: Managing Data Replication in Alluxio".
  2. "Caching: Managing Data Replication in Alluxio".
  3. "Erasure Code Profiles".
  4. "Pools".
  5. Satyanarayanan, Mahadev; Kistler, James J.; Kumar, Puneet; Okasaki, Maria E.; Siegel, Ellen H.; Steere, David C. "Coda: A Highly Available File System for a Distributed Workstation Environment" (PDF). {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  6. "Erasure coding implementation". GitHub. 2 November 2021.
  7. "Setting up GlusterFS Volumes".
  8. "MountableHDFS".
  9. "HDFS-7285 Erasure Coding Support inside HDFS".
  10. "Apache Hadoop: setrep".
  11. Erasure coding plan: "Reed-Solomon layer over IPFS #196". GitHub., "Erasure Coding Layer #6". GitHub.
  12. "CLI Commands: ipfs bitswap wantlist".
  13. "Why The Internet Needs IPFS Before It's Too Late". 4 October 2015.
  14. "Is LizardFS development still alive?". GitHub.
  15. "Configuring Replication Modes".
  16. "Configuring Replication Modes: Set and show the goal of a file/directory".
  17. "Lustre Operations Manual: What a Lustre File System Is (and What It Isn't)".
  18. Reed-Solomon in progress: "LU-10911 FLR2: Erasure coding".
  19. "Lustre Operations Manual: Lustre Features".
  20. File-level redundancy plan: "File Level Redundancy Solution Architecture".
  21. "MinIO Erasure Code Quickstart Guide".
  22. "MinIO Storage Class Quickstart Guide". GitHub.
  23. Only available in the proprietary version 4.x "[feature] erasure-coding #8". GitHub.
  24. "mfsgoal(1)".
  25. "Replicating Volumes (Creating Read-only Volumes)".
  26. "OpenAFS".
  27. "OpenIO SDS Documentation". docs.openio.io.
  28. "Erasure Coding".
  29. "Declare Storage Policies".
  30. "The Quantcast File System" (PDF).
  31. "qfs/src/cc/tools/cptoqfs_main.cc". GitHub. 8 December 2021.
  32. "About RozoFS: Mojette Transform".
  33. "Setting up RozoFS: Exportd Configuration File".
  34. "Initial commit". GitHub.
  35. "About Tahoe-LAFS". GitHub. 24 February 2022.
  36. "zfec -- a fast C implementation of Reed-Solomon erasure coding". GitHub. 24 February 2022.
  37. "Tahoe-LAFS Architecture: File Encoding".
  38. "Under the Hood: File Replication".
  39. "Quickstart: Replicate A File".
  40. "FRAUNHOFER FS (FhGFS) END USER LICENSE AGREEMENT". Fraunhofer Society. 2012-02-22.
  41. "ObjectiveFS official website".
  42. "IBM Plans to Acquire Cleversafe for Object Storage in Cloud". www-03.ibm.com. 2015-10-05. Archived from the original on October 8, 2015. Retrieved 2019-05-06.
  43. Séguin, Cyril; Depardon, Benjamin; Le Mahec, Gaël. "Analysis of Six Distributed File Systems" (PDF). HAL.
  44. "Data Consistency Models of Public Cloud Storage Services: Amazon S3, Google Cloud Storage and Windows Azure Storage". SysTutorials. 4 February 2014. Retrieved 19 June 2017.