\input zb-basic
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\iteman{io-port 01936208}
\itemau{Spasojevic, Mirjana; Satyanarayanan, M.}
\itemti{An empirical study of a wide-area distributed file system.}
\itemso{ACM Trans. Comput. Syst. 14, No. 2, 200-222 (1996).}
\itemab
Summary: \Beginpar{}{}{}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. We examine AFS as a provider of wide-area file services to over 100 organizations around the world. We discuss usage characteristics of AFS derived from empirical measurements of the system. 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.% \Endpar (Provider: ACM) Review: \Beginpar{}{}{}Various Andrew File System (AFS) mechanisms in a large-scale, wide-area context are presented and their effectiveness is evaluated. The authors{'} goal is to observe wide-area AFS usage and to characterize its profile. The paper also assesses how well AFS works at its current scale and determines whether there are any imminent limits to its future growth. The study consisted of instrumenting AFS to permit the collection of data from actual AFS use during two 12-week periods. Both clients and servers were instrumented. Care was taken that systems being observed were not significantly perturbed.\Endpar \Beginpar{}{}{}The paper presents the data in an organized fashion and corroborates the data with anecdotal evidence that was collected by means of a questionnaire to the AFS community. In the final section, a comparison between the World Wide Web and AFS poses the question of whether the Web will replace AFS.\Endpar \Beginpar{}{}{}The paper is well written and provides significant evidence, ranging from observed experience to study of a commercial distributed file system. Because many vendors do not provide significant studies of their experimental or commercial artifacts, this paper is valuable in its contribution of evidence and methodologies for empirical \mbox{observations.}\Endpar (Provider: ACM)
\itemrv{~}
\itemcc{D.4.3 D.4.8}
\itemut{design; experimentation; measurement; performance}
\itemli{doi:10.1145/227695.227698}
\end