pNFS download now available!

The source and binaries for the OpenSolaris pNFS implementation are available for download! This release allows you to run your Solaris machines as pNFS clients and/or servers.

What is pNFS?

pNFS or Parallel NFS is a distributed, parallel file system that provides the capability for clients to access a file's data (the file's content) and metadata (information about the file such as name, location and size) separately. This separation allows file data to be laid out in interesting ways, such as being striped across multiple data servers. For more information about pNFS, check out this great introduction to pNFS.

The pNFS protocol is being developed as a part of the NFS version 4.1 (NFSv4.1) standards effort in the NFSv4 Working Group of the IETF. The pNFS implementation for Solaris is being developed in the open under the NFSv4.1 pNFS OpenSolaris project. Go and check out the project page for lots of great information including project documention and demos.

How can you get involved?

Download the source and binaries and give pNFS a try. If you are on the fence and don't know if you want to try it out, here's some incentive!