Using Storage Class Memories to Increase the Reliability of Two-Dimensional RAID Arrays

Appeared in Proceedings of the 17th IEEE International Symposium on Modeling, Analysis, and Simulation of Computer and Telecommunication Systems (MASCOTS 2009).

Abstract

Two-dimensional RAID arrays maintain separate row and column parities for all their disks. Depending on their organization, they can tolerate between two and three concurrent disk failures without losing any data. We propose to enhance the robustness of these arrays by replacing a small fraction of these drives by storage class memory devices, and demonstrate how such a pairing is several times more reliable than relying on conventional disks alone, or simply augmenting popular redundant layouts. Depending on the ratio of the failure rates of these two devices, the substitution can double or even triple the mean time to data loss (MTTDL) of each array.

Publication date:
September 2009

Authors:
Jehan-François Pâris
Ahmed Amer
Darrell D. E. Long

Projects:
Reliable Storage

Available media

Full paper text: PDF

Bibtex entry

@inproceedings{amer-mascots09,
  author       = {Jehan-François Pâris and Ahmed Amer and Darrell D. E. Long},
  title        = {Using Storage Class Memories to Increase the Reliability of Two-Dimensional {RAID} Arrays},
  booktitle    = {Proceedings of the 17th IEEE International Symposium on Modeling, Analysis, and Simulation of Computer and Telecommunication Systems (MASCOTS 2009)},
  month        = sep,
  year         = {2009},
}