THREE PHASE COMMIT FOR A DISTRIBUTED FILE SYSTEM

A technique includes using a primary commit coordinator in a distributed file system as a participant in at least one transaction associated with a file operation to commit the transaction(s) to an associated storage segment of the file system. The primary commit coordinator is used to communicate with at least one other participant in the transaction(s) using a three phase commit protocol to generate transaction states associated with committing the transaction(s). The technique includes selectively checkpointing the transaction states to a backup commit coordinator that is associated with the primary commit coordinator to allow the backup commit coordinator to takeover committing the transaction.