title: ClusterRAID: Architecture and Prototype of a Distributed Fault-Tolerant Mass Storage System for Clusters
creator: Wiebalck, Arne
subject: 510
subject: 510 Mathematics
description: During the past few years clusters built from commodity off-the-shelf (COTS) components have emerged as the predominant supercomputer architecture.  Typically comprising a collection of standard PCs or workstations and an interconnection network, they have replaced the traditionally used integrated systems due to their better price/performance ratio. As paradigms shift from mere computing intensive to I/O intensive applications, mass storage  solutions for cluster installations become a more and more crucial aspect of these systems. The inherent unreliability of the underlying components is one of the reasons why no system has been established as a standard storage solution for clusters yet.  This thesis sets out the architecture and prototype implementation of a novel distributed mass storage system for commodity off-the-shelf clusters and addresses the issue of the unreliable constituent components. The key concept of the presented system is the conversion of the local hard  disk drive of a cluster node into a reliable device while preserving the block device interface. By the deployment of sophisticated erasure-correcting codes, the system allows the adjustment of the number of tolerable failures and thus the overall reliability. In addition, the applied data layout considers the access behaviour of a broad range of applications and minimizes the  number of required network transactions. Extensive measurements and functionality tests of the prototype, both stand-alone and in conjunction with local or distributed file systems, show the validity of the concept. 
date: 2005
type: Dissertation
type: info:eu-repo/semantics/doctoralThesis
type: NonPeerReviewed
format: application/pdf
identifier: https://archiv.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/volltextserverhttps://archiv.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/volltextserver/5624/1/ClusterRAID_PhD_Wiebalck.pdf
identifier: DOI:10.11588/heidok.00005624
identifier: urn:nbn:de:bsz:16-opus-56248
identifier:   Wiebalck, Arne  (2005) ClusterRAID: Architecture and Prototype of a Distributed Fault-Tolerant Mass Storage System for Clusters.  [Dissertation]     
relation: https://archiv.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/volltextserver/5624/
rights: info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
rights: http://archiv.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/volltextserver/help/license_urhg.html
language: eng