NTT Releases 'NILFS' Linux File System for Prevention of Data Loss

JCNN News Summaries - Japan Corporate News Network, Sep 30, 2005 by Aki Tsukioka

Tokyo, Sept 30, 2005 - (JCN) - NTT anounced the September 26 release of NILFS (New Implementation of a Log-structured File System), a new file system for the Linuxoperating system that is designed to improve reliability by continuously and automatically saving instantaneous states of the file system without interrupting service, as open source software.

When a Linux computer system with a conventional file system crashed, a great deal of time and effort is required to restore the data to the state just prior to failure and then restart the system, and data could be lost because the writing of data is not guaranteed on some conditions.

Further, although Solaris and other operating systems provide a data snapshot function, the file system service must be temporarily suspended when that function is executed.

NILFS greatly improves the reliability of Linux systems, according to NTT, thus accelerating the growth and adoption of Linux in business enterprise systems and other computer systems that require management of file changes.

NTT Cyber Space Laboratories (NTT Labs) are making positive use of open source software in order to serve as the mainstay system for enterprises. We have been focusing on improving the reliability and functionality of operating systems, database management systems, and other such middleware. In February of 2004, the company joined Open Source Development Labs, Inc. (OSDL)

NILFS is free software, available with full source code under the GNU General Public License (GPL) Version 2.0 on the NILFS project Web site: http://www.nilfs.org/