Scaling a global file system to the greatest possible extent, performance, capacity, and number of users

We investigate here, both theoretically and by demonstration, scaling file storage to the very widest possible extents. We use IBM's GPFS file system, with extensions developed by the San Diego Supercomputer Center in collaboration with IBM. Geographically, the file system extends across the United States, including Pittsburgh, Illinois, and San Diego, California, with the TeraGrid 40 Gb/s backbone providing the wide area network connectivity. We show the results from two demonstrations, at each of the past two supercomputing conferences, SC03 in Phoenix, Arizona, and SC04 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The second demonstration was purposely designed to presage an intended production facility across the National Science Foundation's TeraGrid.