After NTFS, Microsoft comes out with ReFS
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Jan. 17, 2012
For the past nineteen years, Microsoft's Windows operating system has been using the NTFS file system and it
has done a pretty good job so far. But now it's time to make a small upgrade.
But now, Microsoft has created a new file system that builds on NTFS. Dubbed "Resilient File System" or ReFS for
short, Microsoft's latest file system will be delivered with Windows 8 Server and will become the basic foundation of
storage applications for Windows Clients, says Microsoft.
Overall, ReFS will be used with Windows 8's Storage Spaces, a feature in Microsoft's forthcoming Windows 8 Client
that pools data storage for use by different computers and servers.
Storage Spaces and ReFS have been designed to complement each other as components of a complete storage system,
claims the software behemoth.
Microsoft's file system development manager Surendra Verma says "We believe ReFS will significantly advance our state
of the art for storage."
"We will implement ReFS in a staged evolution of the feature. First as a storage system for Windows Server, then as
storage for clients, and then ultimately as a boot volume. This is the same approach we have used with new file systems
in the past," added Verma.
To be sure, NTFS was introduced by Microsoft in Windows NT back in 1993. However, Verma and his boss, Windows group
president Steven Sinofsky, were quick to point out that ReFS does not replace NTFS and that it builds on the existing
system. ReFS reuses NTFS code responsible for the Windows file system semantics, Verma said.
"The code reuse simply implements the file system interface (read, write, open, close, change notification, etc),
maintains in-memory file and volume state, enforces security, and maintains memory caching and synchronization for file
data," says Verma.
"This reuse ensures a high degree of compatibility with the features of NTFS that we're carrying forward," he added.
The simple difference between ReFS and NTFS is that the code uses a new engine to implement on-disk structures, such
as the Master File Table, to represent files and directories. It's this implementation, Verma wrote, "where a significant
portion of the innovation behind ReFS lies".
By simply working with Storage Spaces, ReFS tries to protect data from partial and complete disk failures, and will
remove data from the name space on a live volume where information has been corrupted.
Meanwhile, a process has been added that periodically scrubs metadata and Integrity Stream data on volumes living on
a mirrored Storage Space.
The initial focus of ReFS will be on its role in file servers, especially with mirrored Storage Spaces. "We also plan
to work with our storage partners to integrate it with their storage solutions," Verma wrote.
The overall thinking of ReFS seems to be data and file management and a recovery system built from the ground up for
peers and nodes of all sizes while handling increasing quantities of big data.
NTFS dates from a time when departmental-level and LAN-levels of scale inside the corporate firewall were the goal, but
now of course, overall needs have greatly changed since, hence the implementation of MS' ReFS.
Source: Microsoft Corp.
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