Farsite is a serverless, distributed file system that does not assume mutual trust among the client computers on which it runs. Logically, the system functions as a central file server, but physically, there is no central server machine. Instead, a group of desktop client computers collaboratively establish a virtual file server that can be accessed by any of the clients.
The system provides a global name space for files, location-transparent access to both private files and shared public files, and improved reliability relative to storing files on a desktop workstation. It does this by distributing multiple encrypted replicas of each file among a set of client machines. Files are referenced through a hierarchical directory structure that is maintained by a distributed directory service.
Our broad objective is to figure out how to build highly available, reliable, and secure systems on a substrate of cooperating but mutually distrusting hosts. In the context of our distributed file system, we have identified three specific goals:
 | To provide high availability and reliability for file storage. |
| To provide security and resistance to Byzantine threats. |
| To have the system automatically configure and tune itself adaptively. |
For more information, see the Farsite FAQ.
We published a feasibility study of this system in a paper at the ACM SIGMETRICS 2000 conference.