CoCache: Multi-layer Multi-path Cooperative Cache Accelerating the Deployment of Large Scale Virtual Machines

By analyzing the problems and challenges of virtual machine image store system in cloud computing environment, we present a cooperative persistent cache (CoCache) for virtual disks. CoCache takes advantage of the service ability of the cached nodes by providing virtual image data service for other nodes. CoCache can transfer data between nodes in a P2P pattern, for extending data service ability of the system. CoCache is realized in the kernel space of Linux, can support any kind of VMM. Experiments show that CoCache can effectively reduce the cost during virtual machines read data, and promote the service ability of virtual machine storage system. Layer-aware cache policy is proposed specially for improving cache hit rate in the multi-layer and multipath environment.