Patent attributes
The disclosed embodiments disclose techniques for restoring an archived file in a distributed filesystem. Two or more cloud controllers collectively manage distributed filesystem data that is stored in one or more cloud storage systems; the cloud controllers ensure data consistency for the stored data, and each cloud controller caches portions of the distributed filesystem. Furthermore, cloud controllers may archive infrequently-accessed files in an archival cloud storage system. During operation, a cloud controller receives a request from a client system to access an archived file, and restores this archived file from the archival cloud storage system.