The Pervasive Technology Institute at Indiana University announced today (November 12) that it has joined OpenSFS, a technical organization that promotes collaboration among institutions using open source scalable file systems such as Lustre.

OpenSFS is a nonprofit corporation formed in 2010 by Cray Inc., DataDirect Networks Inc., Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, and Oak Ridge National Laboratory. OpenSFS is committed to acknowledging and addressing system needs in ways that bring together the Lustre community.

In 2005, IU received a National Science Foundation grant for the Data Capacitor, a high-speed, high-bandwidth research storage system that uses Lustre. Lustre has since become the site-wide file system for IU's high performance computing (HPC) environment, making it critical to IU scientists and nationwide researchers who use IU HPC resources. As part of IU's work with OpenSFS, Data Capacitor lead Stephen Simms plans to form a working group dedicated to the development of Lustre across wide area networks (WAN).

"We've seen the value that wide area Lustre has brought to the scientific community," said Simms. "OpenSFS will allow us to assist with community support and encourage development of the Lustre file system. Ensuring that Lustre continues as an open source, community supported and developed file system is crucial. And working with this group of partners really makes sense—it's a good fit for us."

IU has partnered with DataDirect Networks since 2006, and worked with Oak Ridge National Laboratory during early development of the Data Capacitor WAN file system. Additionally, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory provided advice on the architecture and implementation of the Data Capacitor.

IU has pioneered the development of Lustre across the wide area network. In 2007, IU developed the open source user ID mapping code that currently enables Lustre WAN file systems on the TeraGrid, the Data Capacitor WAN file system, and the newly launched Albedo wide area file system.

This unified user identification scheme ensures that ownership and file permissions remain consistent across all clients on a WAN, increasing ease of use. In joining OpenSFS, IU hopes to further innovative research and scientific discovery in areas ranging from investigating planetary origins to measuring the Earth's melting polar ice caps.