<s>
Gluster	O
Inc	O
.	O
(	O
formerly	O
known	O
as	O
Z	O
RESEARCH	O
)	O
was	O
a	O
software	O
company	O
that	O
provided	O
an	O
open	B-Application
source	I-Application
platform	I-Application
for	O
scale-out	B-Architecture
public	O
and	O
private	O
cloud	O
storage	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
The	O
name	O
Gluster	O
comes	O
from	O
the	O
combination	O
of	O
the	O
terms	O
GNU	B-Operating_System
and	O
cluster	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Despite	O
the	O
similarity	O
in	O
names	O
,	O
Gluster	O
is	O
not	O
related	O
to	O
the	O
Lustre	B-Application
file	B-Application
system	I-Application
and	O
does	O
not	O
incorporate	O
any	O
Lustre	B-Application
code	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Gluster	O
based	O
its	O
product	O
on	O
GlusterFS	B-Application
,	O
an	O
open-source	O
software-based	O
network-attached	B-Application
filesystem	B-Application
that	O
deploys	O
on	O
commodity	B-Device
hardware	I-Device
.	O
</s>
<s>
The	O
initial	O
version	O
of	O
GlusterFS	B-Application
was	O
written	O
by	O
Anand	O
Babu	O
Periasamy	O
,	O
Gluster	O
's	O
founder	O
and	O
CTO	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Red	O
Hat	O
became	O
the	O
primary	O
author	O
and	O
maintainer	O
of	O
the	O
GlusterFS	B-Application
open-source	B-Application
project	O
after	O
acquiring	O
the	O
Gluster	O
company	O
in	O
October	O
2011	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
The	O
product	O
was	O
first	O
marketed	O
as	O
Red	B-Application
Hat	I-Application
Storage	I-Application
Server	I-Application
,	O
but	O
in	O
early	O
2015	O
renamed	O
to	O
be	O
Red	B-Application
Hat	I-Application
Gluster	I-Application
Storage	I-Application
since	O
Red	O
Hat	O
has	O
also	O
acquired	O
the	O
Ceph	B-Operating_System
file	B-Application
system	I-Application
technology	I-Application
.	O
</s>
<s>
Red	B-Application
Hat	I-Application
Gluster	I-Application
Storage	I-Application
is	O
in	O
the	O
retirement	O
phase	O
of	O
its	O
lifecycle	O
with	O
a	O
end	O
of	O
support	O
life	O
date	O
of	O
December	O
31	O
,	O
2024	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
The	O
GlusterFS	B-Application
architecture	O
aggregates	O
compute	O
,	O
storage	O
,	O
and	O
I/O	O
resources	O
into	O
a	O
global	O
namespace	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Each	O
server	O
plus	O
attached	O
commodity	O
storage	O
(	O
configured	O
as	O
direct-attached	B-General_Concept
storage	I-General_Concept
,	O
JBOD	O
,	O
or	O
using	O
a	O
storage	O
area	O
network	O
)	O
is	O
considered	O
to	O
be	O
a	O
node	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
For	O
public	O
cloud	O
deployments	O
,	O
GlusterFS	B-Application
offers	O
an	O
Amazon	B-Application
Web	I-Application
Services	I-Application
(	O
AWS	B-Application
)	O
Amazon	B-Application
Machine	I-Application
Image	I-Application
(	O
AMI	O
)	O
,	O
which	O
is	O
deployed	O
on	O
Elastic	O
Compute	O
Cloud	O
(	O
EC2	O
)	O
instances	O
rather	O
than	O
physical	O
servers	O
and	O
the	O
underlying	O
storage	O
is	O
Amazon	O
's	O
Elastic	O
Block	O
Storage	O
(	O
EBS	O
)	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
In	O
this	O
environment	O
,	O
capacity	O
is	O
scaled	O
by	O
deploying	O
more	O
EBS	O
storage	O
units	O
,	O
performance	O
is	O
scaled	O
by	O
deploying	O
more	O
EC2	O
instances	O
,	O
and	O
availability	O
is	O
scaled	O
by	O
n-way	O
replication	B-Architecture
between	O
AWS	B-Application
availability	O
zones	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
A	O
typical	O
on-premises	O
,	O
or	O
private	O
cloud	O
deployment	O
will	O
consist	O
of	O
GlusterFS	B-Application
installed	O
as	O
a	O
virtual	O
appliance	O
on	O
top	O
of	O
multiple	O
commodity	B-Device
servers	I-Device
running	O
hypervisors	B-Operating_System
such	O
as	O
KVM	B-Application
,	O
Xen	B-Operating_System
,	O
or	O
VMware	O
;	O
or	O
on	O
bare	O
metal	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
GlusterFS	B-Application
is	O
a	O
scale-out	B-Architecture
network-attached	B-Application
storage	I-Application
file	B-Application
system	I-Application
.	O
</s>
<s>
It	O
has	O
found	O
applications	O
including	O
cloud	B-Architecture
computing	I-Architecture
,	O
streaming	O
media	O
services	O
,	O
and	O
content	O
delivery	O
networks	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
GlusterFS	B-Application
was	O
developed	O
originally	O
by	O
Gluster	O
,	O
Inc	O
.	O
and	O
then	O
by	O
Red	O
Hat	O
,	O
Inc.	O
,	O
as	O
a	O
result	O
of	O
Red	O
Hat	O
acquiring	O
Gluster	O
in	O
2011	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
In	O
June	O
2012	O
,	O
Red	B-Application
Hat	I-Application
Storage	I-Application
Server	I-Application
was	O
announced	O
as	O
a	O
commercially	O
supported	O
integration	O
of	O
GlusterFS	B-Application
with	O
Red	O
Hat	O
Enterprise	O
Linux	B-Application
.	O
</s>
<s>
Red	O
Hat	O
bought	O
Inktank	O
Storage	O
in	O
April	O
2014	O
,	O
which	O
is	O
the	O
company	O
behind	O
the	O
Ceph	B-Operating_System
distributed	B-Protocol
file	I-Protocol
system	I-Protocol
,	O
and	O
re-branded	O
GlusterFS-based	O
Red	B-Application
Hat	I-Application
Storage	I-Application
Server	I-Application
to	O
"	O
Red	B-Application
Hat	I-Application
Gluster	I-Application
Storage	I-Application
"	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
GlusterFS	B-Application
aggregates	O
various	O
storage	O
servers	O
over	O
Ethernet	O
or	O
Infiniband	B-Architecture
RDMA	B-General_Concept
interconnect	O
into	O
one	O
large	O
parallel	O
network	B-Protocol
file	I-Protocol
system	I-Protocol
.	O
</s>
<s>
It	O
is	O
free	O
software	O
,	O
with	O
some	O
parts	O
licensed	O
under	O
the	O
GNU	B-License
General	I-License
Public	I-License
License	I-License
(	O
GPL	B-License
)	O
v3	O
while	O
others	O
are	O
dual	O
licensed	O
under	O
either	O
GPL	B-License
v2	O
or	O
the	O
Lesser	B-Application
General	I-Application
Public	I-Application
License	I-Application
(	O
LGPL	B-Application
)	O
v3	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
GlusterFS	B-Application
is	O
based	O
on	O
a	O
stackable	O
user	O
space	O
design	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
GlusterFS	B-Application
has	O
a	O
client	O
and	O
server	O
component	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Servers	O
are	O
typically	O
deployed	O
as	O
storage	O
bricks	O
,	O
with	O
each	O
server	O
running	O
a	O
daemon	O
to	O
export	O
a	O
local	O
file	B-Application
system	I-Application
as	O
a	O
volume	B-Application
.	O
</s>
<s>
The	O
client	O
process	O
,	O
which	O
connects	O
to	O
servers	O
with	O
a	O
custom	O
protocol	O
over	O
TCP/IP	B-Protocol
,	O
InfiniBand	B-Architecture
or	O
Sockets	B-Protocol
Direct	I-Protocol
Protocol	I-Protocol
,	O
creates	O
composite	O
virtual	O
volumes	O
from	O
multiple	O
remote	O
servers	O
using	O
stackable	O
translators	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
By	O
default	O
,	O
files	O
are	O
stored	O
whole	O
,	O
but	O
striping	B-General_Concept
of	O
files	O
across	O
multiple	O
remote	O
volumes	O
is	O
also	O
possible	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
The	O
client	O
may	O
mount	B-Application
the	O
composite	O
volume	B-Application
using	O
a	O
GlusterFS	B-Application
native	O
protocol	O
via	O
the	O
FUSE	B-Application
mechanism	O
or	O
using	O
NFS	B-Protocol
v3	O
protocol	O
using	O
a	O
built-in	O
server	O
translator	O
,	O
or	O
access	O
the	O
volume	B-Application
via	O
the	O
client	O
library	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
The	O
client	O
may	O
re-export	O
a	O
native-protocol	O
mount	B-Application
,	O
for	O
example	O
via	O
the	O
kernel	O
NFSv4	O
server	O
,	O
SAMBA	B-Language
,	O
or	O
the	O
object-based	O
OpenStack	B-Application
Storage	O
(	O
Swift	O
)	O
protocol	O
using	O
the	O
"	O
UFO	O
"	O
(	O
Unified	O
File	O
and	O
Object	O
)	O
translator	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Most	O
of	O
the	O
functionality	O
of	O
GlusterFS	B-Application
is	O
implemented	O
as	O
translators	O
,	O
including	O
file-based	O
mirroring	O
and	O
replication	B-Architecture
,	O
file-based	O
striping	B-General_Concept
,	O
file-based	O
load	B-Application
balancing	I-Application
,	O
volume	B-Application
failover	B-General_Concept
,	O
scheduling	B-General_Concept
and	O
disk	B-Device
caching	I-Device
,	O
storage	B-Application
quotas	I-Application
,	O
and	O
volume	B-Application
snapshots	B-Application
with	O
user	O
serviceability	O
(	O
since	O
GlusterFS	B-Application
version	O
3.6	O
)	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
The	O
GlusterFS	B-Application
server	O
is	O
intentionally	O
kept	O
simple	O
:	O
it	O
exports	O
an	O
existing	O
directory	B-Application
as-is	O
,	O
leaving	O
it	O
up	O
to	O
client-side	O
translators	O
to	O
structure	O
the	O
store	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
GlusterFS	B-Application
relies	O
on	O
an	O
elastic	O
hashing	B-Error_Name
algorithm	I-Error_Name
,	O
rather	O
than	O
using	O
either	O
a	O
centralized	O
or	O
distributed	O
metadata	O
model	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
The	O
user	O
can	O
add	O
,	O
delete	O
,	O
or	O
migrate	O
volumes	O
dynamically	O
,	O
which	O
helps	O
to	O
avoid	O
configuration	O
coherency	B-General_Concept
problems	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
This	O
allows	O
GlusterFS	B-Application
to	O
scale	O
up	O
to	O
several	O
petabytes	O
on	O
commodity	B-Device
hardware	I-Device
by	O
avoiding	O
bottlenecks	O
that	O
normally	O
affect	O
more	O
tightly	O
coupled	O
distributed	B-Protocol
file	I-Protocol
systems	I-Protocol
.	O
</s>
<s>
GlusterFS	B-Application
provides	O
data	B-Architecture
reliability	I-Architecture
and	O
availability	O
through	O
various	O
kinds	O
of	O
replication	B-Architecture
:	O
replicated	O
volumes	O
and	O
Geo-replication	B-General_Concept
.	O
</s>
<s>
Geo-replication	B-General_Concept
provides	O
a	O
master-slave	O
model	O
of	O
replication	B-Architecture
,	O
where	O
volumes	O
are	O
copied	O
across	O
geographically	O
distinct	O
locations	O
.	O
</s>
