GFS Consistency Model and Snapshotting

This lesson will explain how GFS handles the consistency of its operations and data. Additionally, we will look into how GFS implements a snapshotting operation.

GFS consistency model

To keep things simple and efficient, GFS has a relaxed consistency model.

Metadata operations (e.g., file creation) are atomic. They are handled exclusively by the master. Namespace locking guarantees atomicity and correctness, whereas the master's operation log defines a global total order of these operations.

In data mutations, there is an important distinction between write and append operations