Performance Models for a Two-tiered Storage System

This work describes the design, implementation and performance analysis of a distributed two-tiered storage software. The first tier functions as a distributed software cache implemented using solid-state devices~(NVMes) and the second tier consists of multiple hard disks~(HDDs). We describe an online learning algorithm that manages data movement between the tiers. The software is hybrid, i.e. both distributed and multi-threaded. The end-to-end performance model of the two-tier system was developed using queuing networks and behavioral models of storage devices. We identified significant parameters that affect the performance of storage devices and created behavioral models for each device. The performance of the software was evaluated on a many-core cluster using non-trivial read/write workloads. The paper provides examples to illustrate the use of these models.