Why Demand-Attach File-Server (DAFS) ?
On a traditional file-server, volumes are attached at start-up and detached only at shutdown. Any attached volume can be modified and changes are periodically flushed to disk or on shutdown. When a file-server isn’t shutdown cleanly, the integrity of every attached volume has to be verified by the salvager, whether the volume had been modified or not. As file-servers grow larger (and the number of volumes increase), the length of time required to salvage and attach volumes increases, e.g. it takes around two hours for a file-server housing 512GB data to salvage and attach volumes ! On a Demand-Attach File-Server (DAFS), volumes are attached only when accessed by clients. On start-up, the file-server reads only the volume headers to determine what volumes reside on what partitions. When accessed by clients, the volumes are attached. After some period of inactivity, volumes are automatically detached. This dramatically improves start-up and shutdown times. A demand-attach file-server can
