Tornado Codes for MAID Archival Storage

This paper examines the application of Tornado Codes, a class of low density parity check (LDPC) erasure codes, to archival storage systems based on massive arrays of idle disks (MAID). We present a logstructured extent-based archival file system based on Tornado Coded stripe storage. The file system is combined with a MAID simulator to emulate the behavior of a large-scale storage system with the goal of employing Tornado Codes to provide fault tolerance and performance in a power-constrained environment. The effect of power conservation constraints on system throughput is examined, and a policy of placing multiple data nodes on a single device is shown to increase read throughput at the cost of a measurable, but negligible, decrease in fault tolerance. Finally, a system prototype is implemented on a 100 TB Lustre storage cluster, providing GridFTP accessible storage with higher reliability and availability than the underlying storage architecture.

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2007
• Where: MSS
• Authors: Matthew Woitaszek, Henry M. Tufo
• Keywords: Archival Storage Systems, Fault Tolerance, Internet Technology, MSS 2007, Tornado Codes