Figure 1. A typical journaling file system
Note, Metadata refers to the managing structures for data on a disk. Metadata represents file creation and removal, directory creation and removal, growing a file, truncating a file, and so on. In Google's case, the metadata must contain these attributes - DC, Rack, Slot, Tablet, etc. Of course, some of them located in the GFS master, some resides in the modified Linux file system whatever it is.
Note, Metadata refers to the managing structures for data on a disk. Metadata represents file creation and removal, directory creation and removal, growing a file, truncating a file, and so on. In Google's case, the metadata must contain these attributes - DC, Rack, Slot, Tablet, etc. Of course, some of them located in the GFS master, some resides in the modified Linux file system whatever it is.
