A test bed for a high-performance file server

The authors outline the design concepts and issues being explored, using a large-scale, high-performance file server, in the High Performance File Server (HPFS) test bed at the US Army High Performance Computing Research Center (AHPCRC) at the University of Minnesota. They present the implementation of a variety of concepts described in the Mass Storage System Reference Model, and being developed by the IEEE Storage System Standards Working Group. The concepts implemented by this project include the separation of data and control within a distributed file system manager to effectively use a separate, high-speed data path managed by a Bitfile Mover. This project has been completed to the point of a successful demonstration of the functionality of the AFS Client interface using Bitfile Movers to read data over a HIPPI (High-Performance Parallel Interface) channel.<
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