Next Generation Parallel Virtual File System

Walt Ligon
walt@clemson.edu
Clemson University 

The Parallel Virtual File System (PVFS) is system software developed
specifically for Beowulf class parallel computers that provides
facilities for distributing file data among the nodes of the computer
and for accessing the file data from the multiple tasks of a parallel
application.

PVFS has been released and supported under a GPL license since 1998.
We are currently undertaking a major rewrite of PVFS to
include several new features and a new internal architecture.
The goals of the new file system are:

• Achieve maximum performance for large scale parallel file I/O.
• Provide flexibility in network transfer, requests, data
• distribution, and data replication.
• Allow for the development of experimental file system features.

In this talk we outline the future of PVFS and the major issues
addressed by the new version. The new developments in PVFS can be 
outlined as follows:

• Requests based on MPI Datatypes,
• Programmable distributions,
• Support for data replication,
• Modular metadata subsystem,
• Multiple network transport methods,
• VFS-like system interface.
  

Back to Program