CAREER: Enhancing Data Center Storage System with Persistent Memory

持久化存储技术被设想为数据中心存储系统的革命性变革。其不可预测的性能、能源和成本效益可能会对数据中心的生产力、效率和利润产生不利影响。尽管前景看好，但这种技术过渡可以从根本上改变长达数十年的内存和存储系统设计假设，并带来关键的设计挑战。例如，新的性能格局可能会改变数据中心的能效模式，打破现有的跨各种系统资源的负载平衡；由于新内存技术的不同故障模式和可靠性问题，传统的数据可靠性方案可能会变得次优；当前的应用程序和系统软件可能无法充分利用永久内存提供的好处。本研究致力于通过充分挖掘持久存储的潜力来提高数据中心存储系统的性能、能效和可靠性。中心方法是重新考虑数据中心架构设计策略和内存/存储堆栈管理，使其具有持久内存感知能力。该项目在效率建模、关键系统资源的负载平衡以及跨单服务器内存/存储堆栈和分布式存储系统的低成本可靠性保证方面设计了基本技术。该项目还通过利用永久内存增强了一组关键数据中心应用程序。预计在该项目中形成的研究思路将显著提高数据中心内存和存储系统的访问性能、能效、可靠性和寿命，为提高我们的日常生活效率迈出一大步。

Persistent memory technique is envisioned to revolutionize data center storage systems. Its unpredictable performance, energy, and cost benefits can adversely affect productivity, efficiency, and profit in data centers. Though promising, this technical transition can fundamentally change the decades-long memory and storage system design assumptions and introduce critical design challenges. For example, new performance landscape can change the energy efficiency model of data centers and break the existing load balance across various system resources; traditional data reliability schemes can become suboptimal due to the discrepant failure patterns and reliability issues of new memory technologies; current applications and system software may not fully exploit the benefits offered by persistent memory. This research focuses on enhancing the performance, energy-efficiency, and reliability of data center storage system by fully exploiting the potential of persistent memory. The central approach is to rethink data center architecture design strategies and memory/storage stack management, making them persistent memory aware. The project devises fundamental techniques in efficiency modeling, load balancing of critical system resources, and low-cost reliability guarantee across single server memory/storage stack and distributed storage systems. The project also enhances a set of key data center applications by leveraging persistent memory. It is expected that research ideas developed in this project will enable significantly improved access performance, energy efficiency, reliability, and lifetime in data center memory and storage systems, taking a large step in making our daily lives more productive.