Metadata management of the SANtopia file system

Recently, LINUX cluster file systems using the storage area network (SAN) have been developed. The Global File System (GFS) implemented at the University of Minnesota is such an example. These systems do not use a central file server, and instead, multiple clients sharing the whole disk storage through Fibre Channel can freely access disk storage and act as file servers. Accordingly, they offer advantages such as availability, load balancing, and scalability.