June 25, 2012
CLEMSON, SC, June 25 -- Today the OrangeFS development team supported by Omnibond Systems LLC, announced the release of OrangeFS 2.8.6 and the new OrangeFS Web Pack, available as a separate downloads.
The new release touts significant improvements in performance—especially with small files and unaligned requests, extended Linux Kernel support (including 3.x) and two new Direct Interface libraries, for POSIX calls and low-level system calls, to seamlessly integrate with OrangeFS. Support for WebDAV and S3 are provided in the initial offering of the Web Pack, a separate download that will expand in future releases to include a rich toolkit for Web-based communications with OrangeFS.
The Web Pack enables native access to the Orange File System via any WebDAV or S3 client. Installation, configuration and operation of these Web-based protocols are essentially independent from the file system through integration of the standard Apache Module architecture tightly integrated with the OrangeFS Client.
The Direct Interface allows you to access OrangeFS in an environment that is similar to Linux (POSIX-based). The difference is that the Direct Interface bypasses the Linux Kernel for a more direct and better performing path to OrangeFS for programs that are not written for MPI.
With the addition of the two lower level libraries, the Direct Interface now provides three levels of access in varying performance versus ease-of-use combinations. The first and lowest level, the system call library, provides OrangeFS-specific functions. The next layer, the POSIX library, provides POSIX calls with standard Linux syntax. Finally, programmers still have the option of using the original C library layer for its I/O buffering and richer set of interface options. The libraries also provide a client side data cache that can be shared among a users' processes or threads for enhanced performance with small files and unaligned requests.
“This release is a big milestone in accomplishing the bold changes we committed to when the OrangeFS project began,” said Boyd Wilson, from Omnibond. “And the vision continues to stretch still further into the future as we are getting a grasp on the possibilities that will follow when we complete those goals. Interest in the industry is finally taking off as more people are exposed to the commercial potential of OrangeFS.”
“The Direct Interface, as originally envisioned, is now complete,” said Dr. Walt Ligon, founding developer of the evolving parallel file system. “Programmers seeking a high-performance alternative to MPI now have direct and flexible, three-tiered programming access to the power of OrangeFS.” Wilson and Ligon noted the new opportunities that are emerging as the demanding requirements of HPC are crossing paths with the massive I/O needs of big-data computing in the business world.
The new version of OrangeFS will be featured at this year’s Red Hat* Summit convention Boston (June 26-29). Members of the OrangeFS and Omnibond teams will be on hand to demonstrate the new features and to explain the continuing goals of their development roadmap. OrangeFS and the Web Pack can be downloaded at OrangeFS.org, home of the software’s development community. The site also provides details about objectives and progress on upcoming releases. Product documentation is also coming along, with last month’s debut of the
Installation Instructions in a new online format. Parties interested in enterprise support, development and maintenance services for OrangeFS can visit omnibond.com for more information about a wide range of product services.
About OrangeFS
OrangeFS (Orange File System) is the next evolution of the Open Source Parallel Virtual File System (PVFS), designed for high performance computing (HPC) systems that require high-speed access to disk storage in parallel computing applications. OrangeFS continues to embrace these high end computing needs while addressing new directions in stability, redundancy and diverse client access. For more information about the OrangeFS user and development communities, visit OrangeFS.org.
About Omnibond
Omnibond is a technology development company currently focused on software engineering and support for networked Identity/Access Management, HPC and Big Data Parallel Virtual File Systems, and Computer Vision technologies. Our newest forays include commercial-grade product services for OrangeFS, the next generation of PVFS for high-performance computing. We are committed to open source development. For more information visit Omnibond.com.
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Source: Omnibond
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