Modernizing File System through In-Storage Indexing

Abstract

We argue that a key-value interface between a file system and an SSD is superior to the legacy block interface by presenting KEVIN. KEVIN combines a fast, lightweight, and POSIX-compliant file system with a key-value storage device that performs in-storage indexing. We implement a variant of a log-structured merge tree in the storage device that not only indexes file objects, but also supports transactions and manages physical storage space. As a result, the design of a file system with respect to space management and crash consistency is simplified, requiring only 10.8K LOC for full functionality. We demonstrate that KEVIN reduces the amount of I/O traffic between the host and the device, and remains particularly robust as the system ages and the data become fragmented. Our approach outperforms existing file systems on a block SSD by a wide margin – 6.2× on average – for metadata-intensive benchmarks. For realistic workloads, KEVIN improves throughput by 68% on average. © 2021 by The USENIX Association. All rights reserved.