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GreenFS: making enterprise computers greener by protecting them better

Authors:

Nikolai Joukov,

Josef SipekAuthors Info & Claims

Eurosys '08: Proceedings of the 3rd ACM SIGOPS/EuroSys European Conference on Computer Systems 2008

Pages 69 - 80

https://doi.org/10.1145/1352592.1352600

Published: 01 April 2008 Publication History

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Abstract

Hard disks contain data - frequently an irreplaceable asset of high monetary and non-monetary value. At the same time, hard disks are mechanical devices that consume power, are noisy, and fragile when their platters are rotating.

In this paper we demonstrate that hard disks cause different kinds of problems for different types of computer systems and demystify several common misconceptions. We show that solutions developed to date are incapable of solving the power consumption, noise, and data reliability problems without sacrificing hard disk life-time, data reliability, or user convenience.

We considered data reliability, recovery, performance, user convenience, and hard disk-caused problems together at the enterprise scale. We have designed GreenFS: a fan-out stackable file system that offers all-time all-data run-time data protection, improves performance under typical user workloads, and allows hard disks to be kept off most of the time. As a result, GreenFS improves enterprise data protection, minimizes disk drive-related power consumption and noise and increases the chances of disk drive survivability in case of unexpected external impacts.

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Cited By

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Chen MZadok EVasudevan AWang K(2016)SeMiNASProceedings of the 9th ACM International on Systems and Storage Conference10.1145/2928275.2928282(1-13)Online publication date: 6-Jun-2016
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Wei HChen THsu T(2016)BASESoftware—Practice & Experience10.1002/spe.232346:5(581-599)Online publication date: 1-May-2016
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1002/spe.2323
Li ZChen MMukker AZadok E(2015)On the Trade-Offs among Performance, Energy, and Endurance in a Versatile Hybrid DriveACM Transactions on Storage10.1145/270031211:3(1-27)Online publication date: 24-Jul-2015
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Index Terms

GreenFS: making enterprise computers greener by protecting them better
1. Information systems
  1. Information storage systems
    1. Storage management
2. Software and its engineering
  1. Software organization and properties
    1. Contextual software domains
      1. Operating systems
        File systems management
        Memory management

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Reviews

Reviewer: Elliot Jaffe

Power consumption and the management of disk failures have been niche topics in computer science over the past ten years. It takes a nontrivial amount of energy to keep a disk spinning. The costs become significant when we consider the number of personal computers, servers, and notebooks currently in use. More critically, disks fail much more frequently than commonly believed. GreenFS is a system that addresses both the reliability of disks and the cost of constant operation. The GreenFS architecture begins with the notion that most enterprise computers, of whatever form factor, are networked. Joukov and Sipek introduce the concept of a reverse backup. Typical systems store backup data on the server and use the local disk for daily operations. In GreenFS, they store the backup on the local disk and use the network for daily operations. This inversion allows the local disk to be spun up only a few times a day to retrieve updates from the active network. In case of disconnected operations, the local disk is spun up and used as the main repository. To provide complete protection and uninterrupted operations, the GreenFS file system uses a local flash disk as an intermediary storage area for items that need to be retained locally, but do not warrant spinning up the local disk. Although necessary, the local flash disk complicates the architecture and its implementation. I enjoyed reading this paper. It is full of good details and presents a novel file system design. Online Computing Reviews Service

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Published In

Eurosys '08: Proceedings of the 3rd ACM SIGOPS/EuroSys European Conference on Computer Systems 2008

April 2008

346 pages

ISBN:9781605580135

DOI:10.1145/1352592

General Chair:
Joe Sventek
University of Glasgow, UK
,
Program Chair:
Steven Hand
University of Cambridge, UK

ACM SIGOPS Operating Systems Review Volume 42, Issue 4
EuroSys '08
May 2008
321 pages
ISSN:0163-5980
DOI:10.1145/1357010
Issue’s Table of Contents

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Association for Computing Machinery

New York, NY, United States

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Published: 01 April 2008

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April 1 - 4, 2008

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Overall Acceptance Rate 241 of 1,308 submissions, 18%

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Wei HChen THsu T(2016)BASESoftware—Practice & Experience10.1002/spe.232346:5(581-599)Online publication date: 1-May-2016
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1002/spe.2323
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Chen TWei HChen YHsu TShih W(2013)BASE: Benchmark analysis software for energy-efficient solutions in large-scale storage systems2013 IEEE International Conference on Cluster Computing (CLUSTER)10.1109/CLUSTER.2013.6702670(1-5)Online publication date: Sep-2013
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Chen CHe LChen HSun JGao BJarvis S(2013)Developing communication-aware service placement frameworks in the Cloud economy2013 IEEE International Conference on Cluster Computing (CLUSTER)10.1109/CLUSTER.2013.6702668(1-8)Online publication date: Sep-2013
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Essary DAmer ATa-Shma PMoreira JShrira L(2011)Sustainable predictive storage managementProceedings of the 4th Annual International Conference on Systems and Storage10.1145/1987816.1987828(1-11)Online publication date: 30-May-2011
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Li ZGrosu RSehgal PSmolka SStoller SZadok ETa-Shma PMoreira JShrira L(2011)On the energy consumption and performance of systems softwareProceedings of the 4th Annual International Conference on Systems and Storage10.1145/1987816.1987827(1-12)Online publication date: 30-May-2011
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