Direct-pNFS: Scalable, transparent, and versatile access to parallel file systems

Grid computations require global access to massive data stores. To meet this need, the GridNFS project aims to provide scalable, high-performance, transparent, and secure wide-area data management as well as a scalable and agile name space. While parallel file systems give high I/O throughput, they are highly specialized, have limited operating system and hardware platform support, and often lack strong security mechanisms. Remote data access tools such as NFS and GridFTP overcome some of these limitations, but fail to provide universal, transparent, and scalable remote data access. As part of GridNFS, this paper introduces Direct-pNFS, which builds on the NFSv4.1 protocol to meet a key challenge in accessing remote parallel file systems: high-performance and scalable data access without sacrificing transparency, security, orportability. Experiments with Direct-pNFS demonstrate I/O throughput that equals or out performs the exported parallel file system across a range of workloads.http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/107917/1/citi-tr-07-2.pd

Parallel network file systems using authenticated key exchange protocols

The keyestablishment for secure many-to-many communications is very important nowadays. The problem is inspired by the proliferation of large-scale distributed file systems supporting parallel access to multiple storage devices. In this, a variety of authenticated key exchange protocols that are designed to address the issues. This shows that these protocols are capable of reducing the workload of the metadata server and concurrently supporting forward secrecy and escrow-freeness. All this requires only a small fraction of increased computation overhead at the client. This proposed three authenticated key exchange protocols for parallel network file system (pNFS). The protocols offer three appealing advantages over the existing Kerberos-based protocol. First, the metadata server executing these protocols has much lower workload than that of the Kerberos-based approach. Second, two of these protocols provide forward secrecy: one is partially forward secure (with respect to multiple sessions within a time period), while the other is fully forward secure (with respect to a session). Third, designed a protocol which not only provides forward secrecy, but is also escrow-free

Parallel NFS Block Layout Module for Linux

This position statement presents CITI's Linux prototype of NFSv4.1 pNFS client block layout module and reviews our implementation approach. CITI's prototype implements the IETF draft specification draft-ietf-nfsv4-pnfs-block and is one of three layout modules being developed along with the Linux pNFS generic client, which implements the draft-ietf-nfsv4-minorversion1 specification. The block layout module provides for an I/O data path over iSCSI directly to client SCSI devices identified by the pNFS block server.http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/107895/1/citi-tr-08-1.pd

Enabling dCache to use preexistent mass storage systems

A mesura que la investigació depèn cada vegada més dels computadors, l'emmagatzematge de dades comença a convertir-se en un recurs escàs per als projectes, i suposa una gran part del cost total. Alguns projectes intenten resoldre aquest problema emprant emmagatzament distribuït. És doncs necessari que alguns centres proveeixin de grans quantitats d'emmagatzematge massiu de baix cost basat en cintes magnètiques. L'inconvenient d'aquesta solució és que el rendiment disminueix, particularment a l'hora de tractar-se de grans quantitats d'arxius petits. El nostre objectiu és crear un híbrid entre un sistema d'alt cost i rendiment basat en discs, i un de baix cost i rendiment basat en cintes. Per això, unirem dCache, un sistema d'emmagatzematge distribuït, amb Castor, un sistema d'emmagatzematge jeràrquic, creant sistemes de fitxers virtuals que contindran grans quantitats d'arxius petits per millorar el rendiment global del sistema.A medida que la investigación depende cada vez más de los computadores, el almacenamiento de datos comienza a ser un recurso escaso para los proyectos y supone una gran parte del coste total. Algunos proyectos intentan solucionar estos problemas usando almacenamiento distribuido, por ello es necesario que algunos centros proporcionen almacenamiento masivo de bajo coste basado en librerías de cintas. El inconveniente de esta solución reside en que el rendimiento disminuye, particularmente cuando se trata de grandes cantidades de archivos pequeños. Nuestro objetivo es crear un híbrido entre un sistema de almacenamiento de alto coste y rendimiento basado en discos, y otro de bajo coste y rendimiento basado en cintas. Para ello uniremos dCache, un sistema de almacenamiento distribuido, con Castor, un sistema de almacenamiento jerárquico, creando así sistemas de archivos virtuales que contengan grandes cantidades de archivos pequeños para mejorar el rendimiento global del sistema.As modern research relies more and more on computers, data storage is becoming a scarce resource for research projects, as well as a large part of the cost. Some projects try to solve this problem by relying on distributed data storage. It is therefore necessary, for some centers, to provide massive amounts of lower cost storage based in tape libraries. The drawback to this approach is that performance decreases, particularly when dealing with large amounts of small files. Our goal is to create a hybrid between a high-cost high-performance disk drive pool array,and a lower-cost, not so high performance tape based library. To this end we will link dCache, a distributed storage system, to Castor, a hierarchical storage management system, while creating virtual file systems containing large amounts of small files to improve the overall performance of the system