Usenix FAST: Live Demonstration of Radian Memory Systems Zoned Flash SSDs With IBM Research Storage Stack

At the USENIX File and Storage Technology (FAST) Conference in Santa Clara, CA., Radian Memory Systems, Inc. will provide a live demonstration of IBM‘s software defined log-structured array storage management stack ^[1] utilizing Zoned flash SSDs for the first time.

IBM Research Software log structured array with Radian zoned flash SSDs
Click to enlarge

The demo will also include an industry first milestone for running a user application (MySQL database) over Zoned flash SSDs.

RMS-350 U.2

A HA configuration based upon 6 RMS-350 U.2 SSDs, with Radian’s implementation of Zoned Namespaces (ZNS), will be demonstrated with each SSD accessed simultaneously in dual port mode by separate host controllers in an AIC, Inc.‘s HA202-PH storage server. This demo involves 2 instances of IBM’s software-defined log-structured array storage management stack. Each instance of SALSA accesses one port and 2TB of each of the 6 RMS-350 Zoned SSDs, representing a single 12TB volume. The live demo will include the following benchmark tests running concurrently on each controller:

• Block level tests with a single fio tester

• Block level tests with multiple fio testers (noisy neighbors)

• MySQL and the ysBench database tester

• MySQL and te SysBench database tester along with multiple fio testers (noisy neighbors)

SALSA (SoftwAre Log Structured Array)
Developed by IBM Research, SALSA ^[1] is a flexible, host resident translation layer that can virtualize multiple storage devices (SSDs or HDDs), manage zoned block devices (SMR HDDs, Zoned SSDs, etc.), and be configured to adapt to specific workloads. Targeting the backend of SDS frameworks, SALSA can expose a Linux block device that can either be used directly by unmodified applications, or mounted by traditional Linux filesystems.

Click to enlarge

Zoned Namespaces (ZNS)
Targeting compliance with the forthcoming ZNS spes. from the NVMe industry standards organization, Radian’s implementation of Zoned flash includes functionality such as Idealized flash, the ASL Configurator, Decoupled Wear Leveling and NAND Maintenance that earned it the 2019 Flash Memory Summit’s Most Innovative Technology‘ award for SSD firmware.

^[1] Ioannou N., Kourtis K., and Koltsidas I.: .Elevating Commodity Storage with the SALSA Host Translation Layer. International Symposium on Modeling, Analysis, and Simulation of Computer and Telecommunication Systems 2018 (MASCOTS’18)

Read also:
Symphonic Cooperative Flash Zones for SSD From Radian Memory Systems
SSDs to provide flash zones, zone tiering, and an ‘All Firmware’ SDF implementation
February 22, 2019 | Press Release
FMS: Radian Memory Systems Unveils RMS-350 Open-Channel 2 Compliant Up to 12TB U.2 SSD
Includes support for Cooperative Flash Management based on Symphonic CFM technology, targeting AFAs, hyperconverged systems and cloud storage, offers highly parallelized, deterministic I/O while minimizing tail latencies for data center workload.
August 3, 2018 | Press Release