Your Cache is Overdue a Revolution: MRCs for Cache Performance and Isolation
It is well-known that cache performance is non-linear in cache size and the benefit of caches varies widely by workload. Irrespective of whether the cache is in a storage system, database or application tier, no two real workload mixes have the same cache behavior! Existing techniques for profiling workloads don’t measure data reuse, nor do they predict changes in performance as cache allocations are varied.
Recently, a new, revolutionary set of techniques have been discovered for online cache optimization. Based on work published at top academic venues (FAST '15 and OSDI '14), we will discuss how to 1) perform online selection of cache parameters including cache block size and read-ahead strategies to tune the cache to actual customer workloads, 2) dynamic cache partitioning to improve cache hit ratios without adding hardware and finally, 3) cache sizing and troubleshooting field performance problems in a data-driven manner.
Learning Objectives
- Storage cache performance is non-linear; Benefit of caches varies widely by workload mix
- Working set size estimates don't work for caching
- Miss ratio curves for online cache analysis and optimization
- How to dramatically improve your cache using online MRC, partitioning, parameter tuning
- QoS, performance SLAs/SLOs in caching and tiering systems using MRCs
Irfan Ahmad is the CEO and Cofounder of CachePhysics. Previously, Irfan served as the CTO of CloudPhysics which he cofounded in 2011. Under his leadership, CloudPhysics brought to market and scaled the industry's first SaaS Virtualized IT Operations Management product. Irfan was at VMware for 9 years, where he was R&D tech lead for the DRS team and co-inventor for flagship products, including Storage DRS and Storage I/O Control. Before VMware, Irfan worked on the Crusoe software microprocessor at Transmeta.
Irfan is an inventor on more than twenty five issued and ten pending patents. Irfan has published at ACM SOCC, USENIX FAST, ATC and IEEE IISWC and has chaired HotStorage, HotCloud and VMware’s R&D Innovation Conference. Irfan serves on steering committees for USENIX HotStorage and HotCloud. Irfan has served on program committees for FAST, MSST, HotCloud and HotStorage among others and as a reviewer for the ACM Transactions on Storage. Irfan earned his pink tie from the University of Waterloo.
