Abstract
Most recent studies of file system workloads have focussed on loads imposed by general computing. This paper introduces a significantly different workload imposed by a distributed application system . The FileNet system is a distributed application system that supports document image processing. The FileNet file system was designed to support the workload imposed by this application. To characterize the read-mostly workload applied to the file system and how it differs from general computing environments, we present statistics gathered from live production installations. We contrast these statistics with previously published data for more general computing. We describe the key algorithms of the file system, focusing on the caching approach. A bimodal client caching approach is employed, to match the file modification patterns observed. Different cache consistency algorithms are used depending on usage patterns observed for each file. Under most conditions, files cached at workstations can be accessed without contacting servers. When a file is subject to frequent modification that causes excessive cache consistency traffic, caching is disabled for that file, and servers participate in all open and close activities. The data from production sites is examined to evaluate the success of the approach under its applied load. Contrasts with alternative approaches are made based on this data.
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