ActiveStorage: A Storage Server with Mobile Code Engine
Michael Golm, Christian Wawersich, Meik Felser, Jürgen Kleinöder · 1997
Many applications must examine a large amount of file data and have only a very small result set. Moving such a computation to the network storage server saves network bandwidth and improves response time. Executing a find 1 on an NFS mounted directory that contains the linux-2.4.6 kernel sources needs 2.86 sec. The same command executed locally needs 0.05 sec 2 . The ActiveStorage architecture allows a client to transfer a code component - a StoreLet - to the NFS storage server. This StoreLet can communicate with the file system using fast local invocations instead of NFS RPCs. An exact resource control renders "Denial of Service" attacks impossible and guarantees a certain quality of service level for the storage server.