TALICS$^3$: Tape Library Cloud Storage System Simulator

TL;DR

This paper presents TALICS$^3$, a detailed discrete-event simulation platform that accurately models tape library behavior in cloud storage environments, aiding system design and reliability assessment.

Contribution

It introduces a novel, realistic tape library simulator incorporating real-world phenomena, enabling performance comparison of different storage configurations.

Findings

Accurately models data access latency and robot exchange rates.

Supports comparison of enterprise and commodity tape library configurations.

Helps optimize cost-efficient cold data storage architectures.

Abstract

High performance computing data is surging fast into the exabyte-scale world, where tape libraries are the main platform for long-term durable data storage besides high-cost DNA. Tape libraries are extremely hard to model, but accurate modeling is critical for system administrators to obtain valid performance estimates for their designs. This research introduces a discrete--event tape simulation platform that realistically models tape library behavior in a networked cloud environment, by incorporating real-world phenomena and effects. The platform addresses several challenges, including precise estimation of data access latency, rates of robot exchange, data collocation, deduplication/compression ratio, and attainment of durability goals through replication or erasure coding. Using the {proposed} simulator, {one can} compare the single enterprise configuration with multiple commodity library configurations, making it a useful tool for system administrators and reliability engineers. This makes the simulator a valuable tool for system administrators and reliability engineers, enabling them to acquire practical and dependable performance estimates for their enduring, cost-efficient cold data storage architecture designs.