| Developer(s) | Silicon Graphics Inc. |
|---|---|
| Full name | CXFS |
| Introduced | 1994; 31 years ago (1994) withIRIX v5.3 |
| Structures | |
| Directory contents | B+ trees |
| File allocation | extent based |
| Limits | |
| Max volume size | 17exabytes |
| Max file size | 8.5exabytes |
| Max filename length | 255bytes |
| Allowed filename characters | All bytes except NUL |
| Features | |
| Dates recorded | Yes |
| Forks | Yes (called extended attributes) |
| File system permissions | Yes |
| Transparent compression | No |
| Transparent encryption | No (provided at the block device level) |
| Other | |
| Supported operating systems | Server:IRIX,Linux, Clients:IRIX,Solaris,Linux,Mac OS X,AIX,Windows |
TheCXFS file system (ClusteredXFS) is aproprietaryshared disk file system designed bySilicon Graphics (SGI) specifically to be used in astorage area network (SAN) environment.
A significant difference between CXFS and other shared disk file systems is that data andmetadata are managed separately from each other. CXFS provides direct access to data via the SAN for all hosts which will act as clients. This means that a client is able to access file data via the fiber connection to the SAN, rather than over alocal area network such asEthernet (as is the case in most other distributed file systems, likeNFS). File metadata however, is managed via ametadata broker. The metadata communication is performed via TCP/IP and Ethernet.
Another difference is that file locks are managed by the metadata broker, rather than the individual host clients. This results in the elimination of a number of problems which typically plague distributed file systems.
Though CXFS supports having a heterogeneous environment (includingSolaris,Linux,Mac OS X,AIX andWindows), either SGI'sIRIX Operating System orLinux is required to be installed on the host which acts as the metadata broker.