Distributed file system

In computing, a distributed file system is a network file system where a single file system can be distributed across several physical computer nodes. Separate nodes have direct access to only a part of the entire file system, in contrast to shared disk file systems where all nodes have uniform direct access to the entire storage.

Distributed file systems generally include facilities for transparent replication and fault tolerance. That is, when a limited number of nodes in a file system go offline, the system continues to work without any data loss.

The difference between a distributed file system and a distributed data store can be vague, but DFSes are generally geared towards use on local area networks.

See also