Stateful File Service
Mechanism.
- Client opens a file.
- Server fetches information about the file from its disk, stores it in its memory, and gives the client a connection identifier unique to the client and the open file.
- Identifier is used for subsequent accesses until the session ends.
- Server must reclaim the main-memory space used by clients who are no longer active.
Increased performance.
- Fewer disk accesses.
- Stateful server knows if a file was opened for sequential access and can thus read ahead the next blocks.