A distributed file system includes metadata servers and data servers. The metadata server includes a selecting unit to select a data server from the data servers, a chunk allocation requesting unit to request that the selected data server perform chunk allocation, a chunk list managing unit to insert a list of chunks transmitted from the data server into a chunk list pool and determine an arrangement method of the chunk list pool, and a chunk fetching unit to fetch available chunk information from the chunk list pool. The data server includes a receiving unit to receive request for chunk allocation from the metadata server, a chunk allocating unit to allocate chunks in response to the request for chunk allocation and write a list of chunks based on information about the allocated chunk, and a transmitting unit to transmit the list of chunks to the metadata server.