Talk:Distributed file system

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This page says "In computing, a distributed file system is a network file system where a single file system can be distributed across several physical computer nodes"

The distributed file system page says "Distributed file systems are also called network file systems. Normally many implementations have been made, they are location dependent and they have access control lists (ACLs), unless otherwise stated below."

Issue 1. These are not consistent. The first says that a distributed file system is a special case of a network file system. The second says distributed and network file systems are the same.

Issue 2. File systems are not distributed across computer nodes. File systems do not reside on computer nodes. File systems are on storage devices and those storage devices can be directly hosted by computer nodes or they may be on storage arrays. Storage arrays may be shared, i.e. they may have multiple hosts.

Issue 3. ACLs have nothing to do with a file system being distributed, or not being distributed.

Issue 4. Is it correct to call NFS a network file system? It is a method for exporting a file system rather than being a native file system.

Rroloff (talk) 18:28, 25 March 2008 (UTC)