Adaptive storage management for very large virtual/real storage systems

Abstract

This paper describes the 'storage management methodology of a very large virtual/real storage systcm called the Super Terabyte System (STS). Advances in semiconductor technology make a vast amount of virtuallreal storage possible in computer systems. One of the most serious problems in supporting large virtual/real storage is the increase in storage management overhead. Adaptive storage management methods, elastic page allocation in multi-size paging architecture, partial analysis controls, partial swapping, and adaptive prepaging are STS's approaches to the problem. We have developed an experimental STS. which realizes virtual storage of 256 terabytes and real storage of 1.5 gigabytes. Evaluation of the system shows that STS prevents the storage management overhead from increasing in most workload environment, and that it can support real storage of a 10gigabyte order and virtual storage of more than a 10gigabyte order.