SVL: Storage Virtualization Engine Leveraging DBMS Technology

Abstract

The demands on storage systems are increasingly requiring expressiveness, fault-tolerance, security, distribution, etc. Such functionalities have been traditionally provided by DBMS. We propose a storage management system, SVL that leverages DBMS technology. The primary problem in block storage management is block virtualization, which is essentially an abstraction layer that separates the user view of storage from the implementation of storage. Storage virtualization standardizes storage management in a heterogeneous storage and/or host environment, and plays a crucial role in enhancing storage functionality and utilization. Currently specialized hardware or microcode-based solutions are popular for implementing block storage management systems, commonly referred to as disk controllers. We demonstrate how to take a general purpose commercial RDBMS, rather than a specialized solution, to support block storage management. We exploit the simple semantics of storage management systems to streamline database performance and thus attain acceptability from a storage point of view. This work promises to pave the way for diverse and innovative industrial applications of database management systems.