Churn tolerant virtual organization file system for grids

Abstract

A Grid computing environment allows forming Virtual Organizations (VOs) to aggregate and share resources. We present a VO File System (VOFS) which is a VO-aware distributed file system that allows VO members to share files. VOFS supports access and location transparency by maintaining a common file namespace, which is decentralized in order to improve robustness. VOFS includes a P2P system of file servers, a VO membership service and a policy and role based security mechanism. VOFS can be mounted to a local file system in order to access files using POSIX file API. VOFS can operate in a dynamic Grid environment (e.g. desktop Grids) since it tolerates unplanned resource arrival and departure (churn) while maintaining a single uniform namespace. It supports transparent disconnected operations that allow the user to work on files while being disconnected. © 2010 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.