The International Conference for High Performance Computing, Networking, Storage, and Analysis
The International Conference for High Performance Computing, Networking, Storage, and Analysis
Authors: Nafiseh Moti, Frederic Schimmelpfennig, Reza Salkhordeh, and David Klopp (Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz); Toni Cortes (Polytechnic University of Catalonia); Ulrich Rückert (Bielefeld University, Germany); and André Brinkmann (Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz)
Abstract: The availability of non-volatile main memory (NVMM) has started a new era for designing storage systems. Designing NVMM-specific file systems is a significant step towards the integration of NVMMs. Supporting millions of files with scalable metadata required by most data-intensive applications is often hindered by the kernel storage stack's poor scalability and high footprint. Moving the file systems to user space, however, can compromise security.
This paper introduces Simurgh, a hardware-assisted user space file system with decentralized metadata management and allows secure metadata updates from within the user space. Simurgh guarantees consistency, durability and ordering of updates without sacrificing scalability. Security is enforced by only allowing NVMM access from protected user space functions, which can be implemented through two proposed instructions. Comparisons with other NVMM file systems show that Simurgh improves metadata performance up to 18x and application performance up to 89% compared to the second-fastest file system.
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