Abstract
The overhead of the kernel storage path accounts for half of the access latency for new NVMe storage devices. We explore using BPF to reduce this overhead, by injecting user-defined functions deep in the kernel’s I/O processing stack. When issuing a series of dependent I/O requests, this approach can increase IOPS by over 2.5× and cut latency by half, by bypassing kernel layers and avoiding user-kernel boundary crossings. However, we must avoid losing important properties when bypassing the file system and block layer such as the safety guarantees of the file system and translation between physical blocks addresses and file offsets. We sketch potential solutions to these problems, inspired by exokernel file systems from the late 90s, whose time, we believe, has finally come!
Resources
Coverage
- eBPF Reading Group BPF for Storage: An Exokernel-Inspired Approach
- Hacker News BPF for Storage: An Exokernel-Inspired Approach
- Lobsters BPF for Storage: An Exokernel-Inspired Approach
- 博客园 BPF for storage：一种受外核启发的反式