Orion: A Distributed File System for Non-Volatile Main Memory and RDMA-Capable Networks

Authors: 

Jian Yang, Joseph Izraelevitz, and Steven Swanson, UC San Diego

Abstract: 

High-performance, byte-addressable non-volatile main memories (NVMMs) force system designers to rethink trade-offs throughout the system stack, often leading to dramatic changes in system architecture. Conventional distributed file systems are a prime example. When faster NVMM replaces block-based storage, the dramatic improvement in storage performance makes networking and software overhead a critical bottleneck.

In this paper, we present Orion, a distributed file system for NVMM-based storage. By taking a clean slate design and leveraging the characteristics of NVMM and high-speed, RDMA-based networking, Orion provides high-performance metadata and data access while maintaining the byte addressability of NVMM. Our evaluation shows Orion achieves performance comparable to local NVMM file systems and outperforms existing distributed file systems by a large margin.

FAST '19 Open Access Sponsored by NetApp

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BibTeX
@inproceedings {227790,
author = {Jian Yang and Joseph Izraelevitz and Steven Swanson},
title = {Orion: A Distributed File System for {Non-Volatile} Main Memory and {RDMA-Capable} Networks},
booktitle = {17th USENIX Conference on File and Storage Technologies (FAST 19)},
year = {2019},
isbn = {978-1-939133-09-0},
address = {Boston, MA},
pages = {221--234},
url = {https://www.usenix.org/conference/fast19/presentation/yang},
publisher = {USENIX Association},
month = feb
}

Presentation Video