Metanode

There is one metanode per open file. A file refers to a file system object that also includes a directory. The metanode is responsible for maintaining file metadata integrity.

In almost all cases, the node that has had the file open for the longest continuous period is the metanode. All nodes accessing a file can read and write data directly, but updates to metadata are written only by the metanode. The metanode for each file can move to any node to meet application requirements, except when multiple remote clusters access the same file. In such a scenario, the metanode is placed on a home cluster node. The home cluster is also known as the owning cluster.