Google Cloud Storage FUSE is a FUSE adapter that allows you to mount and interact with Google Cloud Storage buckets as if they were local file systems. This cloud file storage system means applications can read and write objects in your bucket using standard file system semantics.
What is FUSE?
FUSE is a Filesystem in Userspace. It is a software interface for computer operating systems that allows non-privileged users to create file systems without editing kernel code. This is achieved by running file system code in user space, while the FUSE module provides only a “bridge” to the actual kernel interfaces. At its core, FUSE operates on a simple client-server protocol, where the OS kernel acts as the client and the daemon as the server. After obtaining a file descriptor for this device, the daemon can read requests from that file descriptor and is expected to write back its replies. This mechanism allows for a high degree of flexibility and security, enabling users to implement custom file systems without requiring elevated privileges.
How does Google Cloud Storage FUSE work?
Cloud Storage FUSE translates object storage names into a file and directory system. It interprets the slash character (“/”) in object names as a directory separator, treating objects with the same common prefix as files in the same directory. This translation allows applications to interact with the mounted bucket like a file system, providing virtually limitless file storage running in the cloud.
What are the limitations of GCS FUSE?
GCS FUSE, while appreciated for its utility in certain situations, is best suited for simple use cases. Here are the most important limitations of working with Google Cloud Storage FUSE:
- The tool is limited to Linux. No Windows or Mac clients.
- It only works with Google Cloud Platform (GCP) and Google Cloud Storage buckets (GCS buckets). If you use other object storage providers, you need other tools to work with them.
- Cloud Storage FUSE has much higher latency than a local file system. In addition, it has no caching mechanism – every time you read an object, it will be re-retrieved from the cloud.
- Transient errors can occur when you use Google Cloud Storage FUSE to access Cloud Storage. Google recommends that you retry failed operations using various retry strategies.
- GCS FUSE shouldn’t be used as a server handling concurrent parallel connections from external clients, as this might exceed the maximum number of open file handles. Google recommends avoiding use cases like serving web content from a Cloud Storage FUSE mount, exposing a Cloud Storage FUSE mount as network-attached storage (NAS) using file sharing protocols (for example, NFS or SMB), and hosting a file transfer protocol (FTP) server backed by a Cloud Storage FUSE mount.
- Metadata doesn’t correctly synchronize. Cloud Storage FUSE does not transfer object metadata when uploading files to Cloud Storage, with the exception of mtime and symlink targets.
What’s the best alternative to GCS FUSE?
Our software-only platform for unifying file-based data across any storage system, Resilio Active Everywhere, is a great alternative. It provides the same core functionality as GCS FUSE but with far better performance, scalability, and manageability.
Here’s how GCS FUSE and Resilio Active Everywhere compare.
|
GCS FUSE |
Resilio Active Everywhere |
|
|
Supported Operating Systems |
Linux |
Linux, Windows, Mac OS, Android, FreeBSD. |
|
Supported Cloud Providers |
|
Google, Amazon S3, Azure Blob Storage, Oracle, and any other S3-compatible provider. |
|
Data Transfer Speed |
Slow |
2-5x faster. |
|
Local Caching |
None. Each read will trigger another copy from the cloud. |
Caches objects that do not change. Repeated access is at local storage speed. |
|
Management Tools |
CLI |
CLI, REST API, and UI. |
|
Policy-driven Pre-fetching |
Not supported |
Ability to configure pre-fetching and local caching of objects based on naming patterns. |
|
File Locking |
Not supported |
Distributed file locking is available for Windows today and coming soon for Mac. |
|
Scalability |
Doesn’t scale. It is good for accessing a small number of objects. |
Scales to hundreds of millions of objects. You can use Resilio Active Everywhere cloud storage gateway to serve web content or expose it over NFS or SMB. |
|
Supported On-premises Object Storage |
Not supported |
Any S3-compatible storage. |
|
Transfer Protocol |
TCP which is slow over high latency connections. |
UDP which is WAN-optimized, and resilient to high latency. |
What’s the user experience for GCS FUSE on the desktop when using Resilio Active Everywhere?
It’s just like accessing any other folder.
How do I try Resilio Active Everywhere?
Resilio is an ideal alternative to GCS FUSE that offers fast, efficient, and reliable access to data stored anywhere—in the cloud or on-premises. Getting started is easy. Schedule a demo with our team and start a free trial.
Resilio Active Everywhere is a versatile and high-performance solution that supports a wide range of platforms including Linux, Windows, macOS, Android, and FreeBSD. It is compatible with various cloud providers such as Google, AWS, Azure, Oracle, and any other S3-compatible provider, making it a flexible choice for diverse storage needs.
