Oracle Solaris Cluster software provides a cluster file system based on the Oracle Solaris Cluster Proxy File System (PxFS). The cluster file system has the following features:
File access locations are transparent. A process can open a file that is located anywhere in the system. Processes on all cluster nodes can use the same path name to locate a file.
Coherency protocols are used to preserve the UNIX file access semantics even if the file is accessed concurrently from multiple nodes.
Extensive caching is used along with zero-copy bulk I/O movement to move file data efficiently.
The cluster file system provides highly available, advisory file-locking functionality by using the fcntl command interfaces. Applications that run on multiple cluster nodes can synchronize access to data by using advisory file locking on a cluster file system. File locks are recovered immediately from nodes that leave the cluster, and from applications that fail while holding locks.
Continuous access to data is ensured, even when failures occur. Applications are not affected by failures if a path to disks is still operational. This guarantee is maintained for raw disk access and all file system operations.
Cluster file systems are independent from the underlying file system and volume management software.
You can mount a file system on a global device globally with mount –g or locally with mount.
Programs can access a file in a cluster file system from any node in the cluster through the same file name (for example, /global/foo).
A cluster file system is mounted on all cluster members. You cannot mount a cluster file system on a subset of cluster members.
A cluster file system is not a distinct file system type. Clients verify the underlying file system (for example, UFS).