Summary: Towards Realistic File­System Benchmarks with CodeMRI
Nitin Agrawal, Andrea C. Arpaci­Dusseau, and Remzi H. Arpaci­Dusseau
Computer Sciences Department, University of Wisconsin­Madison
{nitina, dusseau, remzi}@cs.wisc.edu
Abstract
Benchmarks are crucial to understanding software sys­
tems and assessing their performance. In file­system re­
search, synthetic benchmarks are accepted and widely
used as substitutes for more realistic and complex work­
loads. However, synthetic benchmarks are largely based
on the benchmark writer's interpretation of the real work­
load, and how it exercises the system API. This is insuffi­
cient since even a simple operation through the API may
end up exercising the file system in very different ways
due to effects of features such as caching and prefetching.
In this paper, we describe our first steps in creating ``real­
istic synthetic'' benchmarks by building a tool, CodeMRI.
CodeMRI leverages file­system domain knowledge and a
small amount of system profiling in order to better under­
stand how the benchmark is stressing the system and to

Source: Arpaci-Dusseau, Andrea - Department of Computer Sciences, University of Wisconsin at Madison

Collections: Computer Technologies and Information Sciences