User-centric data migration in networked storage systems

This paper considers the problem of balancing locality and load in networked storage systems with multiple storage devices (or bricks). Data distribution affects locality and load balance across the devices in a networked storage system. This paper proposes a user-centric data migration scheme which tries to balance locality and load in such networked storage systems. The presented approach automatically and transparently manages migration of data blocks among disks as data access patterns and loads change over time. We implemented a prototype system, embodying our ideas, on PCs running Linux. This paper presents the design of user-centric migration and an evaluation of it through realistic experiments.