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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