Storage-system scalability

Overview: 

logoStorage systems grow every day in capacity, number of devices, number of clients etc. This constant growth puts a lot of pressure in storage system designers to be able to fulfill the expectations. In this area we try to make systems more scalable in many of their parameters.

Objectives: 
  • Study application behavior. Most of the research done on file systems are based on assumptions about the use of storage presented, at least, a decade ago. We work on updating this information and see what has changed in the application behavior as well as how is locality maintained over large periods of time.
  • Heterogeneous storage systems. Storage systems, in all their forms, end up being made of a heterogeneous set of disks. We work on building storage systems that take advantage of heterogeneity. We also work on mechanism to add more resources to the system with as less overhead as possible and at the same time balancing the load as much as possible among all resources.
  • Multicores and I/O. Multicore systems are a reality and this new architectural trend has a significant effect on storage systems. On the one hand, multicores put a much higher pressure on the I/O stack. On the other hand, this extra CPU power can be used to improve the storage-system behavior. At BSC we are mainly working on this second component and try to take advantage of muticolres to perform automatic tuning of complex parameters.
  • EXASCALE. Storage still has a long path to go before being what the Exascale era requires. BSC is working on defining how such system should behave and in taking steps towards it.
Additional Information: 
  • Study application behavior. Most of the research done on file systems are based on assumptions about the use of storage presented, at least, a decade ago. We work on updating this information and see what has changed in the application behavior as well as how is locality maintained over large periods of time.
  • Heterogeneous storage systems. Storage systems, in all their forms, end up being made of a heterogeneous set of disks. We work on building storage systems that take advantage of heterogeneity. We also work on mechanism to add more resources to the system with as less overhead as possible and at the same time balancing the load as much as possible among all resources.
  • Multicores and I/O. Multicore systems are a reality and this new architectural trend has a significant effect on storage systems. On the one hand, multicores put a much higher pressure on the I/O stack. On the other hand, this extra CPU power can be used to improve the storage-system behavior. At BSC we are mainly working on this second component and try to take advantage of muticolres to perform automatic tuning of complex parameters.
  • EXASCALE. Storage still has a long path to go before being what the Exascale era requires. BSC is working on defining how such system should behave and in taking steps towards it.