5th USENIX Conference on File and Storage Technologies – Abstract
Pp. 31–45 of the Proceedings
A Five-Year Study of File-System Metadata
Nitin Agrawal, University of Wisconsin, Madison; William J. Bolosky, John R. Douceur, and Jacob R. Lorch, Microsoft Research
Abstract
For five years, we collected annual snapshots of filesystem metadata from over 60,000 Windows PC file systems in a large corporation. In this paper, we use these snapshots to study temporal changes in file size, file age, file-type frequency, directory size, namespace structure, file-system population, storage capacity and consumption, and degree of file modification. We present a generative model that explains the namespace structure and the distribution of directory sizes. We find significant temporal trends relating to the popularity of certain file types, the origin of file content, the way the namespace is used, and the degree of variation among file systems, as well as more pedestrian changes in sizes and capacities. We give examples of consequent lessons for designers of file systems and related software.
- View the full text of this paper in HTML and PDF. Listen to the presentation in MP3 format.
Until February 2008, you will need your USENIX membership identification in order to access the full papers.
The Proceedings are published as a collective work, © 2007 by the USENIX Association. All Rights Reserved. Rights to individual papers remain with the author or the author's employer. Permission is granted for the noncommercial reproduction of the complete work for educational or research purposes. USENIX acknowledges all trademarks within this paper.
|
