Andrew file system
The Andrew file system (AFS) is a distributed networked file system developed by Carnegie Mellon University as part of their Andrew Project. It is named for Andrew Carnegie. Its primary use is in distributed computing.
AFS has several benefits over traditional networked file systems, particularly in the areas of security and scalability. It is not uncommon for enterprise AFS cells to exceed 50,000 clients. AFS uses kerberos for authentication, and implements access control lists on directories for users and groups. AFS's client-level caching improves filesystem perfomance, and allows limited filesystem access in the event of a server crash or a network outage:
[It] is a location-independent file system that uses a local cache to reduce the workload and increase the performance of a distributed computing environment. A first request for data to a server from a workstation is satisfied by the server and placed in a local cache. A second request for the same data is satisfied from the local cache. (Source - searchStorage.com)
The main competitor of the Andrew File System is the more popular Network File System (NFS). NFS is more general use, while AFS is designed with performance, scalability, and security in mind.
It was adopted by the Open Software Foundation as part of their Distributed Computing Environment.
There are three major implementations, Transarc(IBM), OpenAFS and Arla. It is also the predecessor of Coda (file system).
See Also
External Links
Referenced By
Arla (file system) | Coda (file system) | File System | File systems | Filesystem | OpenAFS
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