doc: update glossary documentation

Change-Id: I0da7c3aaaeb43f633b4d6355ef83ac2d21e24d68
Signed-off-by: Divya    <dmuntima@redhat.com>
Signed-off-by: Pavithra <psriniva@redhat.com>
Signed-off-by: Humble Devassy Chirammal <hchiramm@redhat.com>
Reviewed-on: http://review.gluster.org/8847
Tested-by: Gluster Build System <jenkins@build.gluster.com>
Reviewed-by: Krishnan Parthasarathi <kparthas@redhat.com>
Reviewed-by: Humble Devassy Chirammal <humble.devassy@gmail.com>

1 files changed, 142 insertions, 40 deletions

diff --git a/doc/admin-guide/en-US/markdown/glossary.md b/doc/admin-guide/en-US/markdown/glossary.md
index d047622a93b..496d0a428d4 100644
--- a/doc/admin-guide/en-US/markdown/glossary.md
+++ b/doc/admin-guide/en-US/markdown/glossary.md
@@ -2,31 +2,69 @@ Glossary
 ========
 
 **Brick**
-:   A Brick is the basic unit of storage in GlusterFS, represented by an
-    export directory on a server in the trusted storage pool. A Brick is
-    represented by combining a server name with an export directory in the
-    following format:
-
-    `SERVER:EXPORT`
+:   A Brick is the basic unit of storage in GlusterFS, represented by an export
+    directory on a server in the trusted storage pool.
+    A brick is expressed by combining a server with an export directory in the following format:
 
+        `SERVER:EXPORT`
     For example:
+        `myhostname:/exports/myexportdir/`
+
+**Volume**
+:   A volume is a logical collection of bricks. Most of the gluster
+    management operations happen on the volume.
 
-    `myhostname:/exports/myexportdir/`
 
-**Client**
-:   Any machine that mounts a GlusterFS volume.
+**Subvolume**
+:   A brick after being processed by at least one translator or in other words
+    set of one or more xlator stacked together is called a sub-volume.
+
+
+**Volfile**
+:   Volume (vol) files are configuration files that determine the behavior of the
+    GlusterFs trusted storage pool. Volume file is a textual representation of a
+    collection of modules (also known as translators) that together implement the
+    various functions required. The collection of modules are arranged in a graph-like
+    fashion. E.g, A replicated volume's volfile, among other things, would have a
+    section describing the replication translator and its tunables.
+    This section describes how the volume would replicate data written to it.
+    Further, a client process that serves a mount point, would interpret its volfile
+    and load the translators described in it. While serving I/O, it would pass the
+    request to the collection of modules in the order specified in the volfile.
+
+    At a high level,  GlusterFs has three entities,that is, Server, Client and Management daemon.
+    Each of these entities have their own volume files.
+    Volume files for servers and clients are generated by the management daemon
+    after the volume is created.
+
+    Server and Client Vol files are located in /var/lib/glusterd/vols/VOLNAME directory.
+    The management daemon vol file is named as glusterd.vol and is located in /etc/glusterfs/
+    directory.
+
+**glusterd**
+:   The daemon/service that manages volumes and cluster membership. It is required to
+    run on all the servers in the trusted storage pool.
 
 **Cluster**
-:   A cluster is a group of linked computers, working together closely
-    thus in many respects forming a single computer.
+:   A trusted pool of linked computers working together, resembling a single computing resource.
+    In GlusterFs, a cluster is also referred to as a trusted storage pool.
+
+**Client**
+:   Any machine that mounts a GlusterFS volume. Any applications that use libgfapi access
+    mechanism can also be treated as clients in GlusterFS context.
+
+
+**Server**
+:   The machine (virtual or bare metal) that hosts the bricks in which data is stored.
+
+
+**Block Storage**
+:   Block special files, or block devices, correspond to devices through which the system moves
+    data in the form of blocks. These device nodes often represent addressable devices such as
+    hard disks, CD-ROM drives, or memory regions. GlusterFS requires a filesystem (like XFS) that
+    supports extended attributes.
 
-**Distributed File System**
-:   A file system that allows multiple clients to concurrently access
-    data over a computer network.
 
-**Extended Attributes**
-:   Extended file attributes (abbreviated xattr) is a file system feature
-    that enables users/programs to associate files/dirs with metadata.
 
 **Filesystem**
 :   A method of storing and organizing computer files and their data.
@@ -36,28 +74,43 @@ Glossary
 
     Source: [Wikipedia][]
 
+**Distributed File System**
+:   A file system that allows multiple clients to concurrently access data which is spread across
+    servers/bricks in a trusted storage pool. Data sharing among multiple locations is fundamental
+    to all distributed file systems.
+
+**Virtual File System (VFS)
+    VFS is a kernel software layer which handles all system calls related to the standard Linux file system.
+    It provides a common interface to several kinds of file systems.
+
+**POSIX**
+:   Portable Operating System Interface (for Unix) is the name of a
+    family of related standards specified by the IEEE to define the
+    application programming interface (API), along with shell and
+    utilities interfaces for software compatible with variants of the
+    Unix operating system. Gluster exports a fully POSIX compliant file
+    system.
+
+**Extended Attributes**
+:   Extended file attributes (abbreviated xattr) is a filesystem feature
+    that enables users/programs to associate files/dirs with metadata.
+
+
 **FUSE**
 :   Filesystem in Userspace (FUSE) is a loadable kernel module for
     Unix-like computer operating systems that lets non-privileged users
-    create their own file systems without editing kernel code. This is
-    achieved by running file system code in user space while the FUSE
+    create their own filesystems without editing kernel code. This is
+    achieved by running filesystem code in user space while the FUSE
     module provides only a "bridge" to the actual kernel interfaces.
 
     Source: [Wikipedia][1]
 
-**Geo-Replication**
-:   Geo-replication provides a continuous, asynchronous, and incremental
-    replication service from site to another over Local Area Networks
-    (LAN), Wide Area Network (WAN), and across the Internet.
 
 **GFID**
 :   Each file/directory on a GlusterFS volume has a unique 128-bit number
     associated with it called the GFID. This is analogous to inode in a
     regular filesystem.
 
-**glusterd**
-:   The Gluster management daemon that needs to run on all servers in
-    the trusted storage pool.
 
 **Infiniband**
     InfiniBand is a switched fabric computer network communications link
@@ -108,13 +161,7 @@ Glossary
 
     Source: [Wikipedia][3]
 
-**POSIX**
-:   Portable Operating System Interface (for Unix) is the name of a
-    family of related standards specified by the IEEE to define the
-    application programming interface (API), along with shell and
-    utilities interfaces for software compatible with variants of the
-    Unix operating system. Gluster exports a fully POSIX compliant file
-    system.
+
 
 **Quorum**
 :   The configuration of quorum in a trusted storage pool determines the
@@ -123,7 +170,7 @@ Glossary
     unavailable.
 
 **Quota**
-:   Quotas allow you to set limits on usage of disk space by directories or
+:   Quota allows you to set limits on usage of disk space by directories or
     by volumes.
 
 **RAID**
@@ -178,19 +225,74 @@ Glossary
     start the first server, the storage pool consists of that server
     alone.
 
+**Scale-Up Storage**
+:   Increases the capacity of the storage device in a single dimension.
+    For example, adding additional disk capacity to an existing trusted storage pool.
+
+**Scale-Out Storage**
+    Scale out systems are designed to scale on both capacity and performance.
+    It increases the capability of a storage device in single dimension.
+    For example, adding more systems of the same size, or adding servers to a trusted storage pool
+    that increases CPU, disk capacity, and throughput for the trusted storage pool.
+
 **Userspace**
 :   Applications running in user space don’t directly interact with
     hardware, instead using the kernel to moderate access. Userspace
     applications are generally more portable than applications in kernel
     space. Gluster is a user space application.
 
-**Volfile**
-:   Volfile is a configuration file used by glusterfs process. Volfile
-    will be usually located at `/var/lib/glusterd/vols/VOLNAME`.
 
-**Volume**
-:   A volume is a logical collection of bricks. Most of the gluster
-    management operations happen on the volume.
+**Geo-Replication**
+:   Geo-replication provides a continuous, asynchronous, and incremental
+    replication service from site to another over Local Area Networks
+    (LAN), Wide Area Network (WAN), and across the Internet.
+
+**N-way Replication**
+:   Local synchronous data replication which is typically deployed across campus
+    or Amazon Web Services Availability Zones.
+
+**Distributed Hash Table Terminology**
+**Hashed subvolume**
+:   A Distributed Hash Table Translator subvolume to which the file or directory name is hashed to.
+
+**Cached subvolume**
+:   A Distributed Hash Table Translator subvolume where the file content is actually present.
+    For directories, the concept of cached-subvolume is not relevant. It is loosely used to mean
+    subvolumes which are not hashed-subvolume.
+
+**Linkto-file**
+
+:   For a newly created file, the hashed and cached subvolumes are the same.
+    When directory entry operations like rename (which can change the name and hence hashed
+    subvolume of the file) are performed on the file, instead of moving the entire data in the file
+    to a new hashed subvolume, a file is created with the same name on the newly hashed subvolume.
+    The purpose of this file is only to act as a pointer to the node where the data is present.
+    In the extended attributes of this file, the name of the cached subvolume is stored.
+    This file on the newly hashed-subvolume is called a linkto-file.
+    The linkto file is relevant only for non-directory entities.
+
+**Directory Layout**
+:   The directory layout specifies the hash-ranges of the subdirectories of a directory to which
+    subvolumes they correspond to.
+
+**Properties of directory layouts:**
+:   The layouts are created at the time of directory creation and are persisted as extended attributes
+    of the directory.
+    A subvolume is not included in the layout if it remained offline at the time of directory creation
+    and no directory entries ( such as files and directories) of that directory are created on
+    that subvolume. The subvolume is not part of the layout until the fix-layout is complete
+    as part of running the rebalance command. If a subvolume is down during access (after directory creation),
+    access to any files that hash to that subvolume fails.
+
+**Fix Layout**
+:   A command that is executed during the rebalance process.
+    The rebalance process itself comprises of two stages:
+    Fixes the layouts of directories to accommodate any subvolumes that are added or removed.
+    It also heals the directories, checks whether the layout is non-contiguous, and persists the
+    layout in extended attributes, if needed. It also ensures that the directories have the same
+    attributes across all the subvolumes.
+
+    Migrates the data from the cached-subvolume to the hashed-subvolume.
 
   [Wikipedia]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Filesystem
   [1]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Filesystem_in_Userspace