Chapter 2 HPSS Planning
HPSS Installation Guide September 2002 63
Release 4.5, Revision 2
2.6.2 Bitfile Server
The Bitfile Server (BFS) provides a view of HPSS as a collection of files. It provides access to these
filesand maps the logical file storage into underlying storage objects in the Storage Servers. When
aBFS is configured, it is assigned a server ID. This value should never be changed. It is embedded
inthe identifier that is used to name bitfiles in the BFS. This value can be used to link the bitfile to
the Bitfile Server that manages the bitfile.
The BFS maps bitfiles to their underlying physical storage by maintaining mapping information
thatties a bitfile to the storage server storage segments that contain its data. These storage segments
arereferenced using an identifier that contains the server ID of the Storage Server that manages the
storagesegment. For this reason, once a Storage Server has been assigned a server ID, this ID must
neverchange. For additional information on this point, see Section 2.6.3: Disk Storage Server on page
64 and Section 2.6.4:Tape Storage Server on page 64. The relationship of BFS bitfiles to SS storage
segments and other structures is shown in Figure 2-1 on page 63.
Figure 2-1 The Relationship of Various Server Data Structures