Abstract: Approaches for writing data objects to a distributed file system are described. In an example, a size of a data object to be created within a distributed file system may be determined based on a client request. Based on the size of the data object, data content of the data object is inserted into one of the object location table, object data table or a data container within the distributed file system. In an example, metadata corresponding to the data object may be written to an object location table.

Abstract: A file server receives a request for data from a user device. The data is represented at the file server by a virtual cluster descriptor. The file server queries an identifier map using an identifier of the virtual cluster descriptor. Responsive to the identifier map indicating that the requested data is stored at a location remote from the file server, the file server accesses a cold tier translation table that stores a mapping between an identifier of each of a plurality of virtual cluster descriptors and a storage location of data associated with the respective virtual cluster descriptor. The cold tier translation table is queried using the identifier of the virtual cluster descriptor to identify a storage location of the requested data, and the data is loaded to the file server from the identified storage location.