Chapter 6.

2
DFS Design and Implementation
Brent R. Hafner

File Concept
OS abstracts from the physical storage devices to define a
logical storage unit: File
Types:
Data: numeric, alphabetic, alphanumeric, binary
Program: source and object form

Logical components of a file

File name: symbolic name
When accessing a file, its symbolic name is mapped to a unique file
id (ufid or file handle) that can locate the physical file
Mapping is the primary function of the directory service

File attributes next slide

Data units
Flat structure of a stream of bytes of sequence of blocks
Hierarchical structure of indexed records

File Attributes
File Handle Unique ID of file
Name only information kept in human-readable form
Type needed for systems that support different types
Location pointer to file location on device
Size current file (and the maximum allowable) size
Protection controls who can read, write, execute
Time, date, and user identification data for protection,
security, and usage monitoring.
Information about files are kept in the directory structure,
which is maintained on the physical storage device.

Access Methods
Sequential access: information is processed in order

read next
write next (append to the end of the file)
reset to the beginning of file
skip forward or backward n records

Direct access: a file is made up of fixed length logical blocks

or records

read n
write n
position to n
read next
write next
rewrite n
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Access Methods (Cont.)

Indexed sequential access
Data units are addressed directly by using an index (key) associated
with each data block
Requires the maintenance of an search index on the file, which must
be searched to locate a block address for each access
Usually used only by large file systems in mainframe computers
Indexed sequential access method (ISAM)
A two-level scheme to reduce the size of the search index
Combine the direct and sequential access methods

Major Components in A File

System
A file system organizes and provides access and
protection services for a collection of files
Directory Service

Name resolution, add and deletion of files

Authorization Service

Capability and /or access control list

File Service
System Service

Transaction

Concurrency and replication management

Basic

Read/write files and get/set attributes

Device, cache, and block management

Directory Structure

Access to a file must first use a

directory service to locate the
file.
A collection of nodes containing
information about all files.
Both the directory structure and
the files reside on disk.

Directory

F1

F2

F3

F4
Fn
Files

Information in a Directory

Name
Type: file, directory, symbolic link, special file
Address: device blocks to store a file
Current length
Maximum length
Date last accessed (for archival)
Date last updated (for dump)
Owner ID
Protection information
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Operations Performed on
Directory

Search for a file

Create a file
Delete a file
List a directory
Rename a file
Traverse the file system

Some kind of name service

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Tree-Structured Directories
Hierarchical Structure of A File System

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Subdirectory is just a
special type of file

Authorization Service
File access must be regulated to ensure security
File owner/creator should be able to control:

what can be done

by whom

Types of access

Read
Write
Execute
Append
Delete
List
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File Service File Operations

Delete

Create
Allocate space
Make an entry in the directory

Search the directory

Release all file space

Write

Truncate

Search the directory

Write is to take place at the
location of the write pointer

Reset the file to length zero

Open(Fi)
Search the directory structure
Move the content of the directory
entry to memory

Read
Search the directory
Read is to take place at the
location of the read pointer

Close(Fi)

Reposition within file file seek

move the content in memory to

directory structure on disk

Set the current file pointer to a

given value

Get/set file attributes

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System Service
Directory, authorization, and file services are user interfaces
to a file system (FS)
System services are a FSs interface to the hardware and
are transparent to users of FS
Mapping of logical to physical block addresses
Interfacing to services at the device level for file space allocation/deallocation
Actual read/write file operations
Caching for performance enhancement
Replicating for reliability improvement

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DFS Architecture
NFS Example

15

File Mounting
A useful concept for constructing a large file system from
various file servers and storage devices
Attach a remote named file system to the clients file system
hierarchy at the position pointed to by a path name (mounting
point)
A mounting point is usually a leaf of the directory tree that contains only
an empty subdirectory
mount claven.lib.nctu.edu.tw:/OS /chow/book

Once files are mounted, they are accessed by using the

concatenated logical path names without referencing either the
remote hosts or local devices
Location transparency
The linked information (mount table) is kept until they are unmounted
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File Mounting Example

root

root
Export

chow

OS

Mount
paper

book

DFS

DFS
/OS/DSM
DSM

DSM

/chow/book/DSM

Local Client

Remote Server

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File Mounting (Cont.)

Different clients may perceive a different FS view
To achieve a global FS view SA enforces mounting rules

Export: a file server restricts/allows the mounting of all or

parts of its file system to a predefined set of hosts
The information is kept in the servers export file

File system mounting:

Explicit mounting: clients make explicit mounting system calls
whenever one is desired
Boot mounting: a set of file servers is prescribed and all mountings
are performed the clients boot time
Auto-mounting: mounting of the servers is implicitly done on demand
when a file is first opened by a client
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Location Transparency

No global naming
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A Simple Automounter for

NFS

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Server Registration
The mounting protocol is not transparent require
knowledge of the location of file servers
When multiple file servers can provide the same file service,
the location information becomes irrelevant to the clients
Server registration name/address resolution
File servers register their services with a registration service, and
clients consult with the registration server before mounting
Clients broadcast mounting requests, and file servers respond to
clients requests

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Stateful and Stateless File

Servers
Stateless file server when a client sends a request to a server, the server
carries out the request, sends the reply, and then remove from its internal
tables all information about the request
Between requests, no client-specific information is kept on the server
Each request must be self-contained: full file name and offset

Stateful file server file servers maintain state information about clients
between requests
State information may be kept in servers or clients

Opened files and their clients

File descriptors and file handles
Current file position pointers
Mounting information
Lock status
Session keys
Cache or buffer

Session: a connection for a sequence

of requests and responses between a
client and the file server
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A Comparison between Stateless

and Stateful Servers
Advantages of Stateless Server

Advantages of Stateful Server

No OPEN/CLOSE calls needed

Better performance

Fault tolerance

Shorter request messages

No server space wasted on tables

Read-ahead possible

No limits on number of open files

Idempotency easier

No problems if a client crashes

File locking possible

Easy to implement

More flexible

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Issues of A Stateless File

Server
Idempotency requirement
Is it practical to structure all file accesses as idempotent operations?

File locking mechanism

Should locking mechanism be integrated into the transaction
service?

Session key management

Can one-time session key be used for each file access?

Cache consistency
Is the file server responsible for controlling cache consistency
among clients?
What sharing semantics are to be supported?
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File Sharing
Overlapping access: multiple copies of the same file
Space multiplexing of the file
Cache or replication
Coherency control: managing accesses to the replicas, to provide a
coherent view of the shared file
Desirable to guarantee the atomicity of updates (to all copies)

Interleaving access: multiple granularities of data access

operations
Time multiplexing of the file
Simple read/write, Transaction, Session
Concurrency control: how to prevent one execution sequence from
interfering with the others when they are interleaved and how to
avoid inconsistent or erroneous results
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Space Multiplexing
Remote access: no file data is kept in the client machine.
Each access request is transmitted directly to the remote file
server through the underlying network.
Cache access: a small part of the file data is maintained in a
local cache. A write operation or cache miss results a
remote access and update of the cache
Download/upload access: the entire file is downloaded for
local accesses. A remote access or upload is performed
when updating the remote file

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Remote Access VS
Download/Upload Access

Remote Access

Download/Upload Access
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Four Places to Caching

Clients
main memory

Clients disk
(optional)

Servers disk
Servers
main memory

Client

Server

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Coherency of Replicated
Data
Four interpretations:
All replicas are identical at all times
Impossible in distributed systems
Replicas are perceived as identical only at some points in time
How to determine the good synchronization points?
Users always read the most recent data in the replicas
How to define most recent?
Based on the completion times of write operations (the
effect of a write operation has been reflected in all copies)
Write operations are always performed immediately and their
results are propagated in a best-effort fasion
Coarse attempt to approximate the third definition
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Time Multiplexing
Simple RW: each read/write operation is an independent
request/response access to the file server
Transaction RW: a sequence of read and write operations is
treated as a fundamental unit of file access (to the same file)
ACID properties

Session RW: a sequence of transaction and simple RW

operations

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Space and Time

Concurrencies of File Access
Space

Remote Access

Cache Access

Download/Upload
Access

Simple RW

No true sharing

Coherency
Control

Coherency
Control

Transaction

Concurrency
Control

Coherency and
Concurrency
Control

Coherency and
Concurrency
Control

Session

Not applicable

Not applicable

Ignore sharing

Time

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Semantics of File Sharing

a)

b)

On a single processor, when a read follows a

write, the value returned by the read is the
value just written (Unix Semantics).
In a distributed system with caching, obsolete
values may be returned.

Solution to coherency and

concurrency control problems
depends on the semantics of
sharing required by
applications

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Semantics of File Sharing

(Cont.)
Unix Semantics
(Currency)

Every operation on a file is instantly visible to all

processes. File accesses with a write-through
cache and write-invalidation

Transaction Semantics
(Consistency)

All changes have the all-or-nothing property.

Update the server at the end of a transaction.

Immutable Files

No updates are possible;

simplify sharing and replication

Session Semantics
(Efficiency)

No changes are visible to other processes until

the file is closed. Update the server at the end of
a session.

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Version Control
Version control under immutable files

Implemented as a function of the directory service

Each file is attached with a version number
An open to a file always returns the current version
Subsequently read/write operations to the opened files are made
only to the local working copy
When the file is closed, the local modified version (tentative version)
is presented to the version control service
If the tentative version is based on the current version, the update is
committed and the tentative version becomes the current version
with a new version number
What is the tentative version is based on an older version?
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Version Control (Cont.)

Action to be taken if based on an older version
Ignore conflict: a new version is created regardless of what has
happened (equivalent to session semantics)
Resolve version conflict: the modified data in the tentative version
are disjoint from those in the new current version
Merge the updates in the tentative version with the current
version to yield to a new version that combines all updates
Resolve serializability conflict: the modified data in the tentative
version were already modified by the new current version
Abort the tentative version and roll back the execution of the
client with the new current version as its working version
The concurrent updates are serialized in some arbitrary order
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Windows 2003 Server R2

The purpose of distributed file system is to minimize network
traffic due to file replication and optimize the administration
of shared folder

DFS Replication
DFS Replication is a state-based, multimaster replication
engine that supports replication scheduling and bandwidth
throttling. DFS Replication uses a new compression protocol
called Remote Differential Compression (RDC), which can
be used to efficiently update files over a limited-bandwidth
network. RDC detects insertions, removals, and rearrangements of data in files, thereby enabling
DFS Replication to replicate only the changes when files are
updated. Additionally, a function of RDC called cross-file
RDC can help reduce the amount of bandwidth required to
replicate new files.

Namespaces
DFS Namespaces, formerly known as Distributed File
System, allows administrators to group shared folders
located on different servers and present them to users as a
virtual tree of folders known as a namespace. A namespace
provides numerous benefits, including increased availability
of data, load sharing, and simplified data migration.

DFS in Win2003 R2

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References
1. Overview of the Distributed File System Solution in
Microsoft Windows Server 2003 R2, August 22, 2005,
http://technet2.microsoft.com/WindowsServer/en/librar
y/d3afe6ee-3083-4950-a093-8ab748651b761033.mspx?
mfr=true.
2. Randy Chow, Theodore Johnson, Distributed Operating
Systems and Algorithms, Addison-Wesley, 1997.

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