NFS version 4.1 pNFS

What's New?

• August 25, 2009 - Added version 12 of our closed-bins and BFU images based on onnv_121 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ see our download page.

• June 30, 2009 - Added version 11 of our closed-bins and BFU images based on onnv_117 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ see our download page.

• April 10, 2009 - Added version 10 of our closed-bins and BFU images based on onnv_112 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ see our download page.

The Project

Mission Statement

• To develop a prototype of a pNFS client and server to gain experience with the NFSv4.1 protocol
• To validate and provide feedback to the IETF NFSv4 working group about the NFSv4.1 specification
• To participate in community interoperability test events like Connectathon.

The Project Gate

• Our project gate is at nfs41-gate
• It is available for Mercurial download at ssh://anon@hg.opensolaris.org/hg/nfsv41/nfs41-gate

Downloads

• Go to the Downloads page for our current installable bits.

Mailing List

• Don't forget to sign up for the NFSv4.1 project mailing list.

Proposed Deliverables

• Look at the NFS version 4.1 pNFS: Project Logistics page for an outline of the deliverables.

The Technology

What is NFSv4.1?

• NFSv4.1 is the first minor version of NFSv4.  The major extensions included in NFSv4.1 are Sessions, Directory Delegations and parallel NFS.

What is pNFS?

• The pNFS protocol allows us to separate a NFS file system's data and metadata paths.  With a separate data path we are free to lay file data out in interesting ways like striping it across multiple different file servers.  For more information, see the NFSv4.1 specification.

Links

• Summary (including slides) of the September 2006 FROSUG Meeting where pNFS was presented.
• NFSv4.1 Specification - Draft 29

Status

Current Information

• We will be testing our pNFS client and server at the next interoperability event, the October 2009 Bake-a-thon hosted by Sun in Austin, TX.

Past Information

• We tested our client and server implementation at the Bake-a-thon hosted by Network Appliance in June of 2009.
• We tested our client and server implementation at Connectathon in February 2009.
• We tested the Solaris pNFS client and server at the interoperability event, the September 2008 Bake-a-thon (BAT), hosted by the NFS team in Austin, Texas.
• We tested the Solaris pNFS client and server at the interoperability event, the May 2008 ConnectAthon hosted by Sun and NetApp in San Jose, CA.
• The pNFS client and server was taken to both the June 2007 Bakeathon in Austin, Texas and the October 2007 Bakeathon in Ann Arbor, MI.
• The pNFS client prototype was taken to the NFSv4 Bakeathon held in Ann Arbor, MI, Sept. 11-15, 2006.  The OpenSolaris pNFS client was able to successfully do parallel I/O against all of the files-based pNFS servers in attendance.