Event details

Ceph - or: The link between file systems and octopuses

von Dr. Udo Seidel (Amadeus Data Processing GmbH)

Thursday, 24.05.2012, London, 10:45-11:30 Uhr

Shared file systems are known to Unix/Linux since a long time. Network based implementations like NFS or cluster file systems based on shared storage are well established. A new development in this field are the so-called parallel distributed file systems like Lustre.

A very recent member of latter category is Ceph being included in the vanilla Linux kernel since version 2.6.34. Ceph is supposed to be highly available, scalable and performant. Its architecture is quite different compared to the traditional storage systems. Instead of hard disks it uses so-called Object-based Storage Devices (OSD). A software implementation of OSD is part of the Ceph code and the use of BTRFS as local OSD file system is another highlight.

This talk describes the general architecture of the file system. It will introduce and explain the main components, their main tasks and how do they work together. The storage engine of Ceph is of interest even without the POSIX layer. That and the basis - the CRUSH algorithm - will be explained by the presenter. The last part will cover the first steps to get started with Ceph.

Über den Autor Dr. Udo Seidel:

Without Linux Dr. Udo Seidel would have been a teacher for mathematics and physics. But since they met back in 1996 he is a big fan of that opensource operating system. After finishing his PhD studies in experimental physics, Udo worked as a certified trainer and examiner for Linux and Solaris. During his leisure time he enjoyed the first Linux base PDA - the Agenda VR3 and actually managed to port the X window application oneko and xsnow.

From 2002 til 2005 Udo was a Senior Solution Engineer at science+computing AG. He was responsible for HPC clusters and CAE workstations. The majority was based on Linux but he was not scared by administering IRIX and HP-UX. The Agenda VR3 was replaced by the Sharp Zaurus - one of the small software projects from these days is still part of OPIE.

Udo works since 2006 in a large data centre owned by Amadeus Data Processing GmbH in Erding. He leads an international team of Linux/Unix system administrators responsible for more than 700 servers. He regulary writes articles for several computer magazines and gives talks at conferences.

His interests are file systems, virtualization, security but also skiing, inline-skating and badminton.