Publications

Profiling platform storage using IO500 and mistral

Monnier, Nolan; Lofstead, Jay; Lawson, Margaret R.; Curry, Matthew J.

This paper explores how we used IO500 and the Mistral tool from Ellexus to observe detailed performance characteristics to inform tuning IO performance on Astra, a ARM-based Sandia machine with an all flash, Lustre-based storage array. Through this case study, we demonstrate that IO500 serves as a meaningful storage benchmark, even for all flash storage. We also demonstrate that using fine-grained profiling tools, such as Mistral, is essential for revealing tuning requirement details. Overall, this paper demonstrates the value of a broad spectrum benchmark, like IO500, together with a fine grained performance analysis tool, such as Mistral, for understanding detailed storage system performance for better informed tuning.