Managing personal files across independent file management units

Abstract

This paper presents the design and implementation of the PFS personal file management system. PFS provides transparent and reliable access to personal files that are dispersed across reliable independent file servers. PFS is unique and practical since it runs on variations of the Unix system, it does not modify the operating system kernel, and more importantly, it operates in environments in which a user lacks administrative control. By means of the PFS, a user creates a global structure of personal files that appear identical despite the server that the user accesses. Since each file is replicated once, the system provides transparent access to files despite one failure at any server.<>