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Dynamic file-access characteristics of a production parallel scientific workload

Conference ·
OSTI ID:87664
;  [1]
  1. Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH (United States). Dept. of Computer Science
Multiprocessors have permitted astounding increases in computational performance, but many cannot meet the intense I/0 requirements of some scientific applications. An important component of any solution to this I/0 bottleneck is a parallel file system that can provide high-bandwidth access to tremendous amounts of data in parallel to hundreds or thousands of processors. Most successful systems are based on a solid understanding of the expected workload, but thus far there have been no comprehensive workload characterizations of multiprocessor file systems. This paper presents the results of a three week tracing study in which all file-related activity on a massively parallel computer was recorded. The instrumentation differs from previous efforts in that it collects information about every I/O request and about the mix of jobs running in a production environment. The authors also present the results of a trace-driven caching simulation and recommendations for designers of multiprocessor file systems.
OSTI ID:
87664
Report Number(s):
CONF-941118--; ISBN 0-8186-6605-6
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English