Self-Similarity in File Systems

We demonstrate that high-level le system events exhibit selfsimilar behaviour, but only for short-term time scales of approximately under a day. We do so through the analysis of four sets of traces that span time scales of milliseconds through months, and that di er in the trace collection method, the lesystems being traced, and the chronological times of the tracing. Two sets of detailed, short-term le system trace data are analyzed; both are shown to have self-similar like behaviour, with consistent Hurst parameters a measure of self-similarity for all le system trafc as well as individual classes of le system events. Long-term le system trace data is then analyzed, and we discover that the traces' high variability and self-similar behaviour does not persist across time scales of days, weeks, and months. Using the short-term trace data, we show that sources of le system trafc exhibit ON OFF source behaviour, which is characterized by highly variably lengthed bursts of activity,...

• Type: Conference
• Year: 1998
• Where: SIGMETRICS
• Authors: Steven D. Gribble, Gurmeet Singh Manku, Drew S. Roselli, Eric A. Brewer, Timothy J. Gibson, Ethan L. Miller
• Keywords: Hardware, Short-term Time Scales, SIGMETRICS 1998, Time Scales, Trace Data