A Usage Profile and Evaluation of a Wide-Area Distributed File System

M. Spasojevic and M. Satyanarayanan

Abstract

The evolution of the Andrew File System (AFS) into a wide-area distributed file system has encouraged collaboration and information dissemination on a much broader scale than ever before. In this paper, we examine AFS as a provider of wide-area file services to over 80 organizations around the world. We discuss usage characteristics of AFS derived from empirical measurements of the system, and from user responses to a questionnaire. Our observations indicate that AFS provides robust and efficient data access in its current configuration, thus confirming its viability as a design point for wide-area distributed file systems.