Peer Global File Service vs XtreemFS

Peer Global File Service (PeerGFS) replicates, manages, and synchronizes files across sites, platforms, clouds, and storage systems. It sends changes in real time for active-active file sharing, uses distributed file locking to help prevent conflicts, and transfers changed data rather than whole files through delta-level replication. The product supports SMB and NFS workloads and lists Windows and Linux file servers, NetApp, Nutanix Files, Dell systems, and cloud targets including S3 and Azure Blob. Microsoft DFS Namespaces can unify SMB access across sites and support failover and failback. Security descriptions include SSL-encrypted traffic up to AES-256, role-based controls through Active Directory, and monitoring for suspicious file activity. The product also lists local caching, edge synchronization, metadata and access preservation, cutover orchestration, and migration reporting. Capabilities depend on configuration: edge caching is limited to Windows file servers, and NFS supports only replication and synchronization jobs. Pricing is available on request. A trial request includes a guided proof of concept with the pre-sales team. Peer Software says it began in 1993.

XtreemFS is a free, fault-tolerant distributed file system for general-purpose storage, available for Linux, macOS, Windows and self-hosted deployments. Files are replicated across storage servers, with automatic failover to a backup replica if the primary fails. Full or partial read-only replicas support immutable files and can be used to create caches across datacenters. The project says an installation can grow to thousands of storage and metadata servers by adding or removing storage servers. POSIX compatibility makes it usable as an NFS replacement. SSL and X.509 certificate support are built in, and the site says XtreemFS can run over the internet without a VPN. A Hadoop client supports use as an HDFS replacement. Listed uses include filer replacement, HPC and Hadoop clusters, VM block storage and cross-branch sharing. Linux distribution packages and precompiled Windows and Mac OS X clients are available. The FAQ says a single volume may hold up to tens of millions of files, with no known limits stated for volumes and services. The project is open source under a BSD license and is developed by Zuse Institute Berlin.