Analyzing Scalable High-Performance I/O Architectures.

In this paper we present a tool to perform analysis of High Performance Applications, which make a great amount of I/O operation, on large storage networks. In order to perform those analyses we have developed SIMCAN, a simulation tool to analyze High-Performance I/O Architectures. Storage subsystem performance is one of the major concerns that arise on large storage networks. Major requirements for storage networks are scalability and performance. In those kinds of networks, defining an architecture that satisfies those requirements is a very difficult task. With SIMCAN, custom environments can be configured and deployed on a flexible and easy way. In fact, the most interesting features of this simulation tool are its flexibility and scalability, so the simulation of distributed storage environments can be performed with the required detail level. Thus, in order to evaluate the benefits and the accuracy of the proposed tool, we have tested it with a typical high performance application, and compared the results of the simulated architecture with the real one.