HECURA: Applicability of Object-Based Storage Devices in Parallel File Systems

Ohio State University Research Foundation -Do Not Use, Columbus OH

Investigators

Abstract

While continued improvements in processing speeds and disk densities improve computing over time, the most fundamental advances come from changing the ways in which components interact. Delegating responsibility for some operations from the host processor to intelligent peripherals can improve application performance. Traditional storage technology is based on simple fixed-size accesses with little assistance from disk drives, but an emerging standard for object-based storage devices (OSDs) is being adopted. These devices will offer improvements in performance, scalability and management, and are expected to be available as commodity items soon. The PIs will examine multiple aspects of the mismatch between the needs of a parallel file system, in particular PVFS2, and the capabilities of OSD. Topic areas include mapping data to objects, metadata, transport, caching and reliability. The PIs will examine the feasibility of OSDs for use in parallel file systems, discovering techniques to accommodate this high performance usage model, and suggest extensions to the current OSD standard as needed.