Intermediate File Servers in a Distributed File System Environment

Abstract

A component of the Institutional File System (IFS), the intermediate file server addresses scaling and interoperability issues on the University of Michigan campus. The IFS is based on AFS, a distributed file system from Transarc. Intermediate servers provide protocol translation that enables non-AFS clients to easily access the distributed file system. For example, Macintosh users can manipulate UNIX files that reside on a server by moving folders and icons, just as they would manipulate local Macintosh files. Intermediate servers also offer other benefits, such as multi-level caching and data preloading, that increase the capacity of the network by reducing the load on central servers.