%0 Generic
%A Wiebalck, Arne
%D 2005
%F heidok:5624
%R 10.11588/heidok.00005624
%T ClusterRAID: Architecture and Prototype of a Distributed Fault-Tolerant Mass Storage System for Clusters
%U https://archiv.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/volltextserver/5624/
%X 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.