Mass Storage System (MSS) improvement
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The growth of the NCAR MSS continues to follow an exponential curve. The MSS has successfully scaled up for decades. CISL continues to make system enhancements and deploy state-of-the-art storage solutions to maintain the NCAR MSS' leadership position in high-volume data management technology. |
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These are the storage technologies tested and used in the MSS since 1964. The NCAR MSS Group has evaluated and deployed many cutting-edge storage technologies during the life of the MSS. These carefully chosen solutions have enabled and enhanced MSS scalability, reliability, and availability at affordable levels throughout the life of the system. |
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The NCAR Mass Storage System (MSS) has been a high performance, reliable, and scalable system over the past 20 years. It has demonstrated high availability and accessibility and proven its cost effectiveness.
The MSS in many ways has been what has distinguished computing at NCAR from computing elsewhere, and the system continues to be highly regarded by users and by peers at other centers. MSS maintenance and development supports the NCAR strategic priority of "Enhancing capability and capacity of NCAR supercomputing."
Today, the NCAR MSS remains one of the most capacious archives. In June 2007 the NCAR MSS surpassed its fourth petabyte of data. At the end of FY2007, it stores more than 4.5 petabytes (PB) of total data (2.7 PB of unique data), transfers more than 10 terabytes (TB) of data per day in response to user requests, and transfers another 6.7 TB of data per day for internal data migration and data movement to new media. The MSS is growing at a net rate of more than 100 TB per month.
Traditionally, MSS users access MSS data within the confines of the NCAR computer room where the highest possible data performance, reliability, and availability are provided. However, the computing environment is shifting from the traditional "glass house" paradigm, where the end user comes to a central site via remote data access interfaces, to a Grid-based infrastructure that supports more sophisticated work and data flows. The NCAR MSS is adapting to these changes.
The first step in adapting to this emerging landscape occurred in FY2007 when CISL joined the NSF TeraGrid and offered the NCAR MSS as an available resource. The NCAR MSS also embarked on a collaborative effort with the San Diego Supercomputing Center (SDSC) to provide mutual dark storage for disaster recovery, wherein each site serves as a remote backup site for the other. The NCAR MSS must continue to adapt to the evolving needs of the TeraGrid, including accommodating new areas of science and new classes of scientific users, while maintaining the high-performance characteristics of the glass house environment to traditional users.
The future development and deployment of the NCAR Mass Storage System is constrained by both the need to continue providing traditional file storage and access to Mass Storage services in the context of a full 7 by 24 production environment, as well as adopting new roles as an integrated component of larger UCAR-wide data management efforts. The MSS's traditional role will continue: to reliably preserve UCAR, NCAR, and university community data while serving a wide client base on multiple levels.
The MSS must scale up to meet an ever-growing demand for secure, reliable data storage and high-performance access. This requires the constant evaluation and periodic deployment of the latest, highest-performance, and most cost-effective hardware and software technologies available. Plans for FY2008 include upgrading the current MSS tape subsystem midyear and launching a project to prepare for replacing the tape library technology within the next few years. The NCAR MSS must also be ready to handle the anticipated increase in traffic from the ICESS computing upgrade in FY2008.
The NCAR MSS is managed by CISL under the UCAR/NSF Cooperative Agreement and is supported by NSF Core funds including CSL funding.