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Dell Fluid File System
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<h2 id="history">History</h2> <p>FluidFS is the result of Dell's acquisition of intellectual property from <a href="/facts/Exanet/RmGzRnK5">Exanet</a>, a firm whose assets included a hardware-independent, scalable NAS storage product. Previously known as the Dell Scalable File System (DSFS), Dell changed the name to FluidFS after its acquisition of <a href="/facts/Compellent_Technologies/xgN5HCvm">Compellent Technologies</a>, which successfully used the Fluid Data tag-line as a startup company.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:2" href="#fn:2"><sup>2</sup></a> Dell further developed the Exanet file system to support <a href="/facts/NDMP/QGooj0W9">NDMP</a> backup and integrated it with the IP obtained from the acquisition of <a href="/facts/Ocarina_Networks/TXL3FDBG">Ocarina Networks</a>, which included <a href="/facts/Data_deduplication/sHuJ8zya">deduplication</a> and <a href="/facts/Data_compression/gMFuY4FT">data compression</a> technology. Dell initially adapted FluidFS to work with its Compellent, EqualLogic, and <a href="/facts/PowerVault/KREmTNDY">PowerVault</a> storage platforms.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:3" href="#fn:3"><sup>3</sup></a> </p> <h2 id="architecture">Architecture</h2> <p>The underlying software architecture of FluidFS employs a Linux-based symmetric clustering model with distributed <a href="/facts/Metadata/qt35z79C">metadata</a>, native <a href="/facts/Load_balancing_(computing)/jddk6ang">load balancing</a>, flexible <a href="/facts/Data_cache/x8BYFcdv">caching</a> capabilities and other features. Its <a href="/facts/Scalability/jh7JomPa">scalability</a> is not limited by volume size as with traditional file systems, and supports scaling up (adding capacity to the system) and by scaling out (adding nodes, or performance, to the system). FluidFS operates across a symmetric cluster of purpose-built NAS controllers (housed in pairs within a 2U appliance), which interface over a fabric to shared back-end storage via <a href="/facts/ISCSI/oxaQpYBc">iSCSI</a> or <a href="/facts/Fibre_Channel/C7C0yreb">Fibre Channel</a> storage area networks. </p><p>The FluidFS architecture is layered, and presents a traditional file system to network clients while performing special functions at the back end. This is designed to utilize all available resources at the network, server and disk levels to improve response times. </p> <h2 id="capacity">Capacity</h2> <p>Based on the back-end storage product the maximum number of NAS appliances and storage capacity varies. The number of NAS appliances varies from 1 to 4. The entire capacity of the system can be managed in a single global namespace, and as of FluidFS v6 supports <a href="/facts/Multitenancy/vAxVpeUu">multitenancy</a> and a total storage capacity of tens of PB.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:4" href="#fn:4"><sup>4</sup></a> The maximum size of any single file is 128 TB. The number of files the name-space is limited to 64 billion per appliance,<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:5" href="#fn:5"><sup>5</sup></a> or 256 billion in 4 appliances, making it one of the largest in the industry. </p> <h2 id="external-links">External links</h2> <ul><li><a href="http://en.community.dell.com/techcenter/storage/w/wiki/7425.fluidfs-technical-content">FluidFS technical content</a></li></ul> <h2 id="references">References</h2> <ol> <li id="fn:1"><p>Dell Product Group (June 2013). "Dell Fluid File System v3.0". dell.com. <a href="http://en.community.dell.com/techcenter/extras/m/white_papers/20081181/download" target="_blank">http://en.community.dell.com/techcenter/extras/m/white_papers/20081181/download</a> <a href="#fnref:1" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:2"><p>"Fluid Data Storage". Archived from the original on November 21, 2011 – via Wayback Machine. <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20111121091653/http://www.compellent.com/fluiddata" target="_blank">https://web.archive.org/web/20111121091653/http://www.compellent.com/fluiddata</a> <a href="#fnref:2" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:3"><p>Dell Product Group (June 2013). "Dell Fluid File System v3.0". dell.com. <a href="http://en.community.dell.com/techcenter/extras/m/white_papers/20081181/download" target="_blank">http://en.community.dell.com/techcenter/extras/m/white_papers/20081181/download</a> <a href="#fnref:3" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:4"><p>"Dell Fluid File System Version 6.0 Support Matrix". dell.com. March 2017. <a href="http://en.community.dell.com/techcenter/extras/m/white_papers/20441581/download" target="_blank">http://en.community.dell.com/techcenter/extras/m/white_papers/20441581/download</a> <a href="#fnref:4" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> <li id="fn:5"><p>"Dell EqualLogic FS7610 with FluidFS v4". dell.com. Retrieved October 24, 2017. <a href="http://www.dell.com/en-us/work/shop/povw/equallogic-fs7600" target="_blank">http://www.dell.com/en-us/work/shop/povw/equallogic-fs7600</a> <a href="#fnref:5" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li> </ol>