Network File System: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 12:45, 10 May 2023

Revision as of 23:41, 16 June 2023

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{{IPstack}}

'''Network File System''' ('''NFS''') is a [[distributed file system]] protocol originally developed by [[Sun Microsystems]] (Sun) in 1984,<ref name="sun85">{{cite documentciteseerx |title=Design and Implementation of the Sun Network Filesystem |year=1985 |publisher=[[USENIX]] |author1=Russel Sandberg |author2=David Goldberg |author3=Steve Kleiman |author4=Dan Walsh |author5=Bob Lyon |citeseerx = 10.1.1.14.473}}</ref> allowing a user on a client [[computer]] to access files over a [[computer network]] much like local storage is accessed. NFS, like many other protocols, builds on the [[Open Network Computing Remote Procedure Call]] (ONC RPC) system. NFS is an open IETF standard defined in a [[Request for Comments]] (RFC), allowing anyone to implement the protocol.

== Versions and variations ==

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NFS version&nbsp;4.1 (RFC 5661, January 2010; revised in RFC 8881, August 2020) aims to provide protocol support to take advantage of clustered server deployments including the ability to provide scalable parallel access to files distributed among multiple servers (pNFS extension). Version&nbsp;4.1 includes Session trunking mechanism (Also known as NFS Multipathing) and available in some enterprise solutions as [[VMware ESXi]].

NFS version&nbsp;4.2 (RFC 7862) was published in November 2016<ref>{{cite journalietf

| url = https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc7862

| title = NFS Version 4 Minor Version 2

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* the byte-range advisory Network Lock Manager (NLM) protocol (added to support [[UNIX System V]] [[file locking]] APIs)

* the remote quota-reporting (RQUOTAD) protocol, which allows NFS users to view their data-storage quotas on NFS servers

* [[NFS over RDMA]], an adaptation of NFS that uses [[remote direct memory access]] (RDMA) as a transport<ref>{{cite web|url= http://www.connectathon.org/talks06/talpey-cthon06-nfs-rdma.pdf|title= NFS/RDMA Implementation(s) Update|author= Tom Talpey|publisher= Network Appliance, Inc.|date= February 28, 2006|url-status= dead|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20110512180716/http://www.connectathon.org/talks06/talpey-cthon06-nfs-rdma.pdf|archive-date= May 12, 2011}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url= http://www.usenix.org/events/fast02/wips/callaghan.pdf|title= NFS over RDMA|author= Brent Callaghan|publisher= Sun Microsystems|date= January 28, 2002}}</ref>

* NFS-Ganesha, an NFS server, running in user-space and supporting various file systems like [[GPFS|GPFS/Spectrum Scale]], CephFS via respective FSAL (File System Abstraction Layer) modules. The [[Ceph (software)|CephFS]] FSAL supported using libcephfs<ref>

{{cite book

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| date = 2016

| page = 110

| isbn = {{Format ISBN|9781784397364}}

| access-date = 2017-03-21

| quote = NFS-Ganesha is an NFS server that runs in user space and supports the CephFS FSAL (File System Abstraction Layer) using libcephfs.

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| access-date = 2019-07-16

}}</ref> This caused many of AT&T's other licensees of UNIX System to become concerned that this would put Sun in an advantaged position, and ultimately led to Digital Equipment, HP, IBM, and others forming the [[Open Software Foundation]] (OSF) in 1988. Ironically, Sun and AT&T had formerly competed over Sun's NFS versus AT&T's [[Remote File System]] (RFS), and the quick adoption of NFS over RFS by Digital Equipment, HP, IBM, and many other computer vendors tipped the majority of users in favor of NFS.

NFS [[interoperability]] was aided by events called "Connectathons" starting in 1986 that allowed vendor-neutral testing of implementations with each other.<ref>{{Cite web |title= What is Connectathon? |website= Original Connectathon.Org web site |url= http://www.connectathon.org/ |url-status=dead |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/19990128152940/http://www.connectathon.org/#whatis |archive-date= January 28, 1999}}</ref> OSF adopted the [[Distributed Computing Environment]] (DCE) and the [[DCE Distributed File System]] (DFS) over Sun/ONC RPC and NFS. DFS used DCE as the RPC, and DFS derived from the [[Andrew File System]] (AFS); DCE itself derived from a suite of technologies, including Apollo's NCS and [[Kerberos (protocol)|Kerberos]].{{citation needed|date=January 2014}}

=== 1990s ===