Exporting Storage Systems in a Scalable Manner with pNFS

Hildebrand, Dean; Honeyman, Peter

doi:10.1109/msst.2005.14

Cited by 56 publications

(22 citation statements)

References 16 publications

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“…Our earlier work [21] demonstrates that pNFS matches the performance of the native parallel file system client for large data transfers. This paper investigates the performance of parallel file systems with small writes.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 89%

“…In an earlier paper [21], we describe a pNFS prototype for Linux, depicted in Figure 2, that implements the major features of the pNFS protocol and introduces a general framework for pluggable layout drivers. The I/O throughput of that prototype equals that of its exported file system (PVFS2) and is dramatically better than standard NFSv4.…”

Section: Pnfs Prototypementioning

confidence: 99%

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Large files, small writes, and pNFS

Hildebrand

Ward

Honeyman

2006

Proceedings of the 20th Annual International Conference on Supercomputing

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Workload characterization studies highlight the prevalence of small and sequential data requests in scientific applications. Parallel file systems excel at large data transfers but sometimes at the expense of small I/O performance. pNFS is an NFSv4.1 high-performance enhancement that provides direct storage access to parallel file systems while preserving NFSv4 operating system and hardware platform independence. This paper demonstrates that distributed file systems can increase write throughput to parallel data stores-regardless of file size-by overcoming parallel file system inefficiencies. We also show how pNFS can improve the overall write performance of parallel file systems by using direct, parallel I/O for large write requests and a distributed file system for small write requests. We describe our pNFS prototype and present experiments demonstrating the performance improvements. ABSTRACTWorkload characterization studies highlight the prevalence of small and sequential data requests in scientific applications. Parallel file systems excel at large data transfers but sometimes at the expense of small I/O performance. pNFS is an NFSv4.1 highperformance enhancement that provides direct storage access to parallel file systems while preserving NFSv4 operating system and hardware platform independence. This paper demonstrates that distributed file systems can increase write throughput to parallel data stores-regardless of file size-by overcoming parallel file system inefficiencies. We also show how pNFS can improve the overall write performance of parallel file systems by using direct, parallel I/O for large write requests and a distributed file system for small write requests. We describe our pNFS prototype and present experiments demonstrating the performance improvements.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 89%

Section: Pnfs Prototypementioning

confidence: 99%

Large files, small writes, and pNFS

Hildebrand

Ward

Honeyman

2006

Proceedings of the 20th Annual International Conference on Supercomputing

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“…Finally, there is related work that also adopts the approach of adding a layer upon an existing parallel file system deployment in order to extend its functionality or optimize its performance (pNFS [33], PLFS [34], ZOID [35]). In addition, cross-server coordination has also been considered in the related work [38][39] to improve spatial locality and performance of I/Os on a parallel file system.…”

Section: Related Workmentioning

confidence: 99%

vPFS: Bandwidth virtualization of parallel storage systems

Arteaga

Zhao

et al. 2012

012 IEEE 28th Symposium on Mass Storage Systems and Technologies (MSST)

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Abstract-Existing parallel file systems are unable to differentiate I/Os requests from concurrent applications and meet per-application bandwidth requirements. This limitation prevents applications from meeting their desired Quality of Service (QoS) as high-performance computing (HPC) systems continue to scale up. This paper presents vPFS, a new solution to address this challenge through a bandwidth virtualization layer for parallel file systems. vPFS employs user-level parallel file system proxies to interpose requests between native clients and servers and to schedule parallel I/Os from different applications based on configurable bandwidth management policies. vPFS is designed to be generic enough to support various scheduling algorithms and parallel file systems. Its utility and performance are studied with a prototype which virtualizes PVFS2, a widely used parallel file system. Enhanced proportional sharing schedulers are enabled based on the unique characteristics (parallel striped I/Os) and requirement (high throughput) of parallel storage systems. The enhancements include new threshold-and layout-driven scheduling synchronization schemes which reduce global communication overhead while delivering total-service fairness. An experimental evaluation using typical HPC benchmarks (IOR, NPB BTIO) shows that the throughput overhead of vPFS is small (< 3% for write, < 1% for read). It also shows that vPFS can achieve good proportional bandwidth sharing (> 96% of target sharing ratio) for competing applications with diverse I/O patterns.

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“…Unlike local file systems that sit directly upon a block device, most parallel file systems have adopted a layered architecture characterized by a dedicated metadata service layer backed by an object storage infrastructure serving as the persistence layer for both file data and file system metadata [1]- [4]. With namespace management decoupled from the data path, file system clients are able to stream data directly through individual object storage servers in a scale-out manner, allowing these backend servers to better utilize available hardware resources and maximize I/O bandwidth.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…A file system control plane consisting of multiple dedicated metadata servers is limited by the maximum metadata performance that this number of machines is able to deliver 1 . In order to better accommodate metadata-heavy massive-scale parallel HPC workloads, we propose a client-driven file system metadata architecture that allows applications to handle their own metadata operations locally mostly without server intervention.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

BatchFS: Scaling the File System Control Plane with Client-Funded Metadata Servers

Zheng

Ren

Gibson

2014

2014 9th Parallel Data Storage Workshop

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Abstract-Parallel file systems are often characterized by a layered architecture that decouples metadata management from I/O operations, allowing file systems to facilitate fast concurrent access to file contents. However, metadata intensive workloads are still likely to bottleneck at the file system control plane due to namespace synchronization, which taxes application performance through lock contention on directories, transaction serialization, and RPC overheads. In this paper, we propose a client-driven file system metadata architecture, BatchFS, that is optimized for noninteractive, or batch, workloads. To avoid metadata bottlenecks, BatchFS features a relaxed consistency model marked by lazy namespace synchronization and optimistic metadata verification. Capable of executing namespace operations on client-provisioned resources without contacting any metadata server, BatchFS clients are able to delay namespace synchronization until synchronization is really needed. Our goal in this vision paper is to handle these delayed operations securely and efficiently with metadata verification and bulk insertion. Preliminary experiments demonstrate that our client-funded metadata architecture outperforms a traditional synchronous file system by orders of magnitude.

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Exporting Storage Systems in a Scalable Manner with pNFS

Cited by 56 publications

References 16 publications

Large files, small writes, and pNFS

Large files, small writes, and pNFS

vPFS: Bandwidth virtualization of parallel storage systems

BatchFS: Scaling the File System Control Plane with Client-Funded Metadata Servers

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