A Behind-the-Scenes Story on Applying Cross-Layer Coordination to Disks and Raids

• Other Authors: Qian, Jin (authoraut)
• Format: Others
• Language: English; English
• Published: Florida State University
• Subjects: Computer science
• Online Access: http://purl.flvc.org/fsu/fd/FSU_migr_etd-2230

Coordinating storage components across abstraction layers has demonstrated significant performance gains. However, when applied near the physical storage, this approach relies on exposing and exploiting low-level hardware characteristics, perhaps a large number of them, to cope with complex modern disks and RAIDs. Through implementation and validation of prior research on track-aligned accesses and its incorporation in RAIDs, as well as through experimentation with our proposed queue coordination in RAIDs, we confirmed that cross-layer coordination can indeed yield high performance gains. On the other hand, the effective use of cross-layer coordination involves overcoming several challenges: (1) developing efficient and automated ways to extract and exploit hardware characteristics due to rapidly evolving disks, (2) fostering a greater understanding of the legacy storage data path, so that we can better predict the benefits of low-level optimizations and their intertwined interactions, and (3) inventing efficient and automated ways to tune the low-level parameters. === A Thesis Submitted to the Department of Computer Science in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Science. === Fall Semester, 2007. === October 23, 2007. === Cross-Layer, Coordination, Track-aligned === Includes bibliographical references. === Andy Wang, Professor Directing Thesis; Theodore P. Baker, Committee Member; Xin Yuan, Committee Member.