Cluster-based input/output trace synthesis

I/O traces are crucial for understanding the performance of new storage architectures. Unfortunately, traces are extremely bursty and difficult to characterize. They are large, difficult to obtain, and unwieldy. In this paper, we examine a trace synthesis method based on cluster analysis of time-varying characteristics of I/O traces. Representative trace segments are selected, and synthetic traces are reconstructed from these segments. We show that we can achieve a 5-10% demerit factor for I/O response times with a reduction of trace data volume of 75-90%.