CXFS

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CXFS
Developer	Silicon Graphics Inc.
Full name	CXFS
Introduced	1994 (IRIX v5.3)
Partition identifier
Structures
Directory contents	B+ trees
File allocation	extent based
Bad blocks
Limits
Max file size	8.5 exabytes
Max number of files
Max filename size	255 bytes
Max volume size	17 exabytes
Allowed characters in filenames	All bytes except NUL
Features
Dates recorded	Yes
Date range
Forks	Yes (called extended attributes)
Attributes
File system permissions	Yes
Transparent compression	No
Transparent encryption	No (provided at the block device level)
Supported operating systems	Server: IRIX, Linux, Clients: IRIX, Solaris, Linux, Mac OS X, AIX, Windows

The CXFS file system (Clustered XFS) is a distributed networked file system designed by Silicon Graphics (SGI) specifically to be used in a Storage area network (SAN) environment.

A significant difference between CXFS and other distributed file systems is that data and metadata are managed separately from each other. CXFS provides direct access to data via the SAN for all hosts which will act as clients. This means that a client is able to access file data via the fiber connection to the SAN, rather than over an ethernet network (as is the case in most other distributed file systems, like NFS. File metadata however, is managed via a metadata broker. The metadata communication is performed via TCP/IP and ethernet.

Another difference is that file locks are managed by the metadata broker, rather than the individual host clients. This results in the elimination of a number of problems which typically plague distributed file systems.

Though CXFS supports having a heterogeneous environment (including Solaris, Linux, Mac OS X, AIX and Windows), either SGI's IRIX Operating System or Linux is required to be installed on the host which acts as the metadata broker.