Paper 6
Trading Capacity for Performance in a Disk Array
Xiang Yu and Randy Wang
Princeton University
A variety of performance-enhancing techniques, such as striping,
mirroring, and rotational data replication, exist in the disk array literature. Given a fixed budget of disks, one must intelligently
choose what combination of these techniques to employ. In this work, we present a way of designing disk arrays that can flexibly and
systematically reduce seek and rotational delay in a balanced manner. We give analytical models that can guide an array designer
towards optimal configurations by considering both disk and workload characteristics. We have implemented a prototype disk array that
incorporates the configuration models. In the process, we have also developed a robust disk head position prediction mechanism without any
hardware support. The resulting prototype demonstrates the effectiveness of the configuration models.