A 64-bit, Scalable File System for Storage Area Networks

By merging network and channel interfaces, resulting interfaces allow multiple computers to physically share the storage devices in storage area network (SAN). In SAN, computers service local file requests directly from shared storage devices. Direct device access eliminates the server machines as bottlenecks to performance and availability. Communication is unnecessary between computers, since each machine views the storage as being locally attached. SAN provides us to very large physical storage up to 64-bit address space, but traditional file systems can’t adapt to the file system for SAN because they have the limitation of scalability. In this paper, we describe the architecture and design features of a new scalable file system, SANtopia, which is being developed at ETRI as global shared cluster file system for 64-bit address space file in the SAN environment. SANtopia manages to deal in large file, large directories, and the large number of files using new metadata structure. SANtopia will perform well as a local file system as a traditional network file system, and as a high performance cluster file system running over SAN. SANtopia provides a key cluster enabling technology for Linux, helping to bring the availability, scalability, and load balancing benefits of clustering to Linux. Key-Words: Global File System, Storage Area Network, Cluster File System, Linux, SANtopia