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XtreemFS – Fault Tolerant Distributed File System
- meapix 11y ago> requires no special hardware or kernel modules http://xtreemfs.org/quickstart.php http://xtreemfs.org/quickstart.php If not already loaded, load the FUSE kernel module: > modprobe fuse
- fh973 11y agoOne of its creators here. If XtreemFS looks interesting also check out Quobyte (www.quobyte.com), our next software storage system.
- seeing 11y agoHow are XtreemFS and Quobyte different than GlusterFS?
- fh973 11y agoLooking at the architecture, there are two major differences: * XtreemFS has POSIX file system semantics and split-brain safe quorum replication for file data. With Quobyte, we pushed that further and have now full fault tolerance for all parts of the system, working at high performance for both file and block workloads (Quobyte also does erasure coding). GlusterFS replication is not split brain safe, and there are many failure modes that can corrupt your data. * XtreemFS and Quobyte have metadata servers. This allows them place data for each file individually as it can store the location of the data. With Quobyte we pushed this quite far and have a policy engine that allows you configuring placement. When the policy is changed, the system can move file data transparently in the background. This way you can configure isolation, partitioning and tiering. GlusterFS has a pretty static assignment of file data to devices.
- troymc 11y agoI gather that XtreemFS and Quobyte can tolerate benign but not byzantine faults. Is there such a thing as a byzantine fault tolerant file system?
- fh973 11y agoYes, no byzantine faults.
- nickpsecurity 11y agoSince 1999: http://pmg.csail.mit.edu/papers/osdi99.pdf http://pmg.csail.mit.edu/papers/osdi99.pdf Google byzantine fault tolerance filesystems to get quite a few more.
- troymc 11y agoOkay, but are there any in-production file systems implementing that (or any other BFT consensus protocol)?
- nickpsecurity 11y agoThat I'm aware of, nobody wants to pay the price for that. Much like with high assurance systems in general. Demos, prototypes, and so on available with no uptake due to tradeoffs involved. Or maybe I.P. issues, too.
- notacoward 11y agoGlusterFS developer here. Sure, we have bugs just like anybody else. So do you. Nonetheless, just saying that GlusterFS replication "is not split-brain safe" is FUD. Neither is yours, not 100%. Likewise, "static assignment" is simply not true. We move files around to rebalance capacity, we have tiering, and users can explicitly place a file on a particular node (though the mechanisms for that are clunky and poorly documented). I've been fair and even complimentary toward XtreemFS in many blog posts and public appearances. I'd appreciate the same honesty and courtesy in return.
- protomyth 11y agoXtreemFS is BSD, what is Quobyte?
- fh973 11y agoQuobyte is not open source.
- DanielDent 11y agoQuobyte does not appear to be a mature product. Clicking 'get started' merely leads to a 'please let me waste hours talking with your enterprise sales reps' form. A mature product should be possible for me to evaluate and try on my own, and I would rather not waste time doing so if I don't even know what it costs.
- fh973 11y agoYou are totally right with your expectations. But in a startup you can't do everything at once and thus no direct download yet. If you contact us you'll talk directly to the developers and get a download link. That said, Quobyte is in production for business critical workloads.
- robhu 11y agoOf course you're right, a startup can't do everything -- so why not just put a download link up rather than require people to talk to you to get a download link? Given as a startup you're busy and have a lot to do, why not just post a link on your website?
- fh973 11y agoDoing this thoroughly would mean that we would need to provide some form of support aswell.
- craigyk 11y agoHow are the two related exactly? Is XtreemFS part of the core of the Quobyte product, or is it a dead-end, with all new development happening in Quobyte?
- fh973 11y agoXtreemFS is being maintained by the folks at Zuse Institute. Quobyte is a new implementation and only shares the architecture blueprint with XtreemFS.
- ymse 11y agoHow does Quobyte compare to Ceph? Edit: From the product page the main advantage seems to be end-to-end checksums and an adaptive placement engine. Architecture and performance comparisons would be very interesting, though I understand if you can't disclose that yet.
- nickpsecurity 11y agoSo, do you have any reasons for us to use XtreemFS vs its top competitors? What's the main benefits today that others don't have?
- technimad 11y agoThis looks a lot like ceph. Can you give a short overview of the differences?
- RRRA 11y agoHow does it compare to Ceph and Tahoe-LAFS? But more importantly, how are you using any of those? :)