Scale-out File Services - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Scale out File Services (SoFS) is a highly-scalable, grid-based NAS

Network-attached storage

Network-attached storage is file-level computer data storage connected to a computer network providing data access to heterogeneous clients. NAS not only operates as a file server, but is specialized for this task either by its hardware, software, or configuration of those elements...

solution developed by IBM

IBM

International Business Machines Corporation or IBM is an American multinational technology and consulting corporation headquartered in Armonk, New York, United States. IBM manufactures and sells computer hardware and software, and it offers infrastructure, hosting and consulting services in areas...

. It is based on IBM's high-performance shared-disk clustered file system GPFS. SoFS exports the clustered file system through industry standard protocols like CIFS, NFS, FTP

File Transfer Protocol

File Transfer Protocol is a standard network protocol used to transfer files from one host to another host over a TCP-based network, such as the Internet. FTP is built on a client-server architecture and utilizes separate control and data connections between the client and server...

and HTTP

Hypertext Transfer Protocol

The Hypertext Transfer Protocol is a networking protocol for distributed, collaborative, hypermedia information systems. HTTP is the foundation of data communication for the World Wide Web....

. Released in 2007, SoFS is a second generation file services architecture first used within IBM to store employees files since 2001.
All of the SoFS nodes in the grid export all files of all file systems simultaneously. This is a different approach from some other clustered NAS solutions which pin individual files to a single node or pair of nodes thus limiting the single file performance dramatically. Each file system can be multiple Petabytes in size.

SoFS combines proprietary IBM technology (storage & server hardware and GPFS) with open source components like Linux

Linux

Linux is a Unix-like computer operating system assembled under the model of free and open source software development and distribution. The defining component of any Linux system is the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released October 5, 1991 by Linus Torvalds...

, Samba

Samba (software)

Samba is a free software re-implementation, originally developed by Andrew Tridgell, of the SMB/CIFS networking protocol. As of version 3, Samba provides file and print services for various Microsoft Windows clients and can integrate with a Windows Server domain, either as a Primary Domain...

and CTDB.

Since February 2010, IBM is offering a hardened appliance version (better: evolution) of SoFS, called Scale Out Network Attached Storage (SONAS). SONAS includes a subset of the described software stack plus a new management layer. Major differences are a strict hardware support matrix, integrated high-density disk storage and a delivery model with standard IBM product warranty. Technically, SONAS uses an internal Infiniband

InfiniBand

InfiniBand is a switched fabric communications link used in high-performance computing and enterprise data centers. Its features include high throughput, low latency, quality of service and failover, and it is designed to be scalable...

network for achieving short latency and highest cluster throughput. The cluster architecture is derived from leading Top500

TOP500

The TOP500 project ranks and details the 500 most powerful known computer systems in the world. The project was started in 1993 and publishes an updated list of the supercomputers twice a year...

supercomputer designs.

See also