Write Anywhere File Layout
The Write Anywhere File Layout (WAFL) is a proprietary file system that supports large, high-performance RAID arrays, quick restarts without lengthy consistency checks in the event of a crash or power failure, and growing the filesystems size quickly. It was designed by NetApp for use in its storage appliances like NetApp FAS, AFF, Cloud Volumes ONTAP and ONTAP Select.
| Developer(s) | NetApp |
|---|---|
| Full name | Write Anywhere File Layout |
| Limits | |
| Max volume size | up to 100 TB (limited by containing aggregate size; variable maximum depending on platform; limited to 16TB when using Deduplication{ONTAP 8.2 now supports dedup to max volume size supported on platform}) |
| Max file size | up to 16 TB |
| Features | |
| Dates recorded | atime, ctime, mtime |
| File system permissions | UNIX permissions and ACLs |
| Transparent compression | Yes (Ontap 8.0 onwards) |
| Transparent encryption | Yes (since Ontap 9.1; possible with 3rd party appliances like Decru DataFort for older versions) |
| Data deduplication | Yes (FAS Dedup: periodic online scans, block based;) |
| Copy-on-write | Yes |
| Other | |
| Supported operating systems | ONTAP |
Its author claims that WAFL is not a file system, although it includes one. It tracks changes similarly to journaling file systems as logs (known as NVLOGs) in dedicated memory storage device non-volatile random access memory, referred to as NVRAM or NVMEM. WAFL provides mechanisms that enable a variety of file systems and technologies that want to access disk blocks.
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