Deconstructing Storage Arrays
Learn about the Gray-box approach to deconstruct storage arrays, utilizing the Shear Algorithm to identify characteristics such as disk number, chunk size, and layout scheme for optimized file system performance and array management.
Deconstructing Storage Arrays
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Presentation Transcript
Timothy E. Denehy, John Bent, Florentina I. Popovici, Andrea C. Arpaci-Dusseau, Remzi H. Arpaci-Dusseau University of Wisconsin, Madison Deconstructing Storage Arrays
Gray-box Research • Computer systems becoming more complex • Transistors • Lines of code • Each component is becoming more complex • Interactions between subsystems can affect • Performance • Reliability • Power • Security
Gray-box Research • Interfaces remain the same • Changes can be difficult and impractical • Support multiple platforms or legacy systems • Commercial acceptance for wide-spread adoption • Hardware and software phenomenon • IA-32 instruction set, POSIX OS, SCSI storage • Problem: lack of information
Gray-box Solution • Treat target system as a gray-box • General characteristics are known • Extract information from an existing interface • e.g. determine cache contents • Exploit information to control system behavior • e.g. access cached data first
Gray-box Information Techniques • Make assumptions about target system • Observe system inputs and outputs • Statistical methods • Draw inferences about internal structure • Microbenchmarks and probes • Parameterize system components • Observe system under controlled input
Gray-box Applications • Gray-box techniques have been used to identify • Memory hierarchy parameters [Saavedra and Smith] • Processor cycle time [Staelin and McVoy] • Low-level disk characteristics [Worthington et al.] • Buffer cache replacement algorithms [Burnett et al.] • File system data structures [Sivathanu et al.] • storage array characteristics: Shear
Shear • Software tool that automatically determines the important properties of a storage array • Enables file system performance tuning with knowledge of storage array characteristics • Acts as a management tool to help configure, monitor, and maintain storage arrays
Outline • Introduction • Shear • Background • Algorithm • Case Studies • Performance: Stripe-aligned Writes • Management: Detecting Misconfiguration, Failure • Conclusion
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 Shear Goals • Determine storage array characteristics SCSI SCSI
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 Shear Goals • Determine storage array characteristics • Number of disks SCSI SCSI
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 Shear Goals • Determine storage array characteristics • Number of disks • Chunk size SCSI SCSI
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 Shear Goals • Determine storage array characteristics • Number of disks • Chunk size • Layout and redundancy scheme SCSI SCSI RAID-0
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 Shear Goals • Determine storage array characteristics • Number of disks • Chunk size • Layout and redundancy scheme SCSI SCSI RAID-1
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 P P P P 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 P P P P 16 20 21 22 23 17 18 19 12 13 14 15 P P P P 32 33 34 35 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 P P P P 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 Shear Goals • Determine storage array characteristics • Number of disks • Chunk size • Layout and redundancy scheme SCSI SCSI RAID-5
Shear Motivation • Performance • Tune file systems to array characteristics • Management • Verify configuration • Detect failure
Shear Techniques • Microbenchmarks and probes • Controlled, random access read and write patterns • Measure response time of access patterns • Measure steady-state performance • Statistical clustering • Automatically classify fast and slow regimes • Identify patterns that utilize only a single disk
Shear Assumptions • Storage array • Layout follows a repeatable pattern • Composed of homogeneous disks • System • Able to bypass the file system and buffer cache • Little traffic from other processes
Outline • Introduction • Shear • Background • Algorithm • Case Studies • Performance: Stripe-aligned Writes • Management: Detecting Misconfiguration, Failure • Conclusion
Shear Algorithm • Pattern size • Chunk size • Layout of chunks to disks • Level of redundancy
Determining the Pattern Size • Find the size of the layout's repeating pattern • Not always the stripe size • Choose a hypothetical pattern size • Perform random reads at multiples of that distance • Repeat for a range of pattern sizes • Cluster results and identify actual pattern size
RAID-0 4 Disks 8 KB Chunks Pattern Size Example
RAID-0 4 Disks 8 KB Chunks Testing 2 KB Pattern Size Example
RAID-0 4 Disks 8 KB Chunks Testing 4 KB Pattern Size Example
RAID-0 4 Disks 8 KB Chunks Testing 6 KB Pattern Size Example
RAID-0 4 Disks 8 KB Chunks Testing 8 KB Pattern Size Example
RAID-0 4 Disks 8 KB Chunks Testing 10 KB Pattern Size Example
RAID-0 4 Disks 8 KB Chunks Testing 12 KB Pattern Size Example
RAID-0 4 Disks 8 KB Chunks Testing 14 KB Pattern Size Example
RAID-0 4 Disks 8 KB Chunks Testing 16 KB Pattern Size Example
RAID-0 4 Disks 8 KB Chunks Testing 18 KB Pattern Size Example
RAID-0 4 Disks 8 KB Chunks Testing 20 KB Pattern Size Example
RAID-0 4 Disks 8 KB Chunks Testing 22 KB Pattern Size Example
RAID-0 4 Disks 8 KB Chunks Testing 24 KB Pattern Size Example
RAID-0 4 Disks 8 KB Chunks Testing 26 KB Pattern Size Example
RAID-0 4 Disks 8 KB Chunks Testing 28 KB Pattern Size Example
RAID-0 4 Disks 8 KB Chunks Testing 30 KB Pattern Size Example
RAID-0 4 Disks 8 KB Chunks Testing 32 KB Pattern Size Example
RAID-0 4 Disks 8 KB Chunks Pattern Size Example
RAID-0 4 Disks 8 KB Chunks Actual 32 KB cluster cluster cluster Pattern Size Example
Shear Algorithm • Pattern size • Chunk size • Layout of chunks to disks • Level of redundancy
Determining the Chunk Size • Chunk size • amount of data contiguously allocated to one disk • Find the boundaries between disks • Choose a hypothetical boundary offset • Perform random reads on both sides of that offset • Repeat for all offsets in the pattern size • Cluster results and identify actual chunk size
RAID-0 4 Disks 8 KB Chunks Chunk Size Example
RAID-0 4 Disks 8 KB Chunks Testing 0 KB Chunk Size Example
RAID-0 4 Disks 8 KB Chunks Testing 2 KB Chunk Size Example
RAID-0 4 Disks 8 KB Chunks Testing 4 KB Chunk Size Example
RAID-0 4 Disks 8 KB Chunks Testing 6 KB Chunk Size Example
RAID-0 4 Disks 8 KB Chunks Testing 8 KB Chunk Size Example
RAID-0 4 Disks 8 KB Chunks Testing 10 KB Chunk Size Example
RAID-0 4 Disks 8 KB Chunks Testing 12 KB Chunk Size Example
RAID-0 4 Disks 8 KB Chunks Testing 14 KB Chunk Size Example