On the Performance of NVRAM-based Operating Systems: A Case Study with Linux and FreeBSD

Rabenstein J, Nguyen DT, Giersch O, Eichler C, Hönig T, Nolte J, Schröder-Preikschat W (2023)

Publication Language: English

Publication Type: Other publication type

Publication year: 2023

Series: Technical reports / Department Informatik

Journal Issue: CS-2023-01

DOI: 10.25593/issn.2191-5008/CS-2023-01

Abstract

Classical core memory was entirely non- volatile and could keep at least part of the operating system (OS) in main memory even across power cycles. These days we can have terabytes of NVRAM to repeat this approach, albeit on an entirely different scale and with large parts of the OS state still kept in the volatile CPU caches. In this paper, we discuss our experiences of running large modern operating systems including their applications entirely in NVRAM. We adapted stock Linux and FreeBSD kernels to work exclusively with NVRAM by hiding all DRAM from the kernels at boot time to establish a realistic performance baseline without changing anything else. Following this entirely NVRAM-agnostic approach, we could observe an effective performance penalty of a factor of about four, but only negligible increases in whole-system power draw. For our system with two CPU sockets and 56 cores total, we also observed a reduction in power draw in several scenarios. Due to prolonged execution times, the energy consumption increased as well for these measured workloads. While this might be discouraging at first sight, this result was achieved without any performance tuning as to the specific characteristics of today’s NVRAM technology. Therefore, we are also discussing means to mitigate the observed shortcomings by integrating NVRAM appropriately into the memory hierarchy of future robust persistent systems.

Authors with CRIS profile

Jonas Rabenstein Lehrstuhl für Informatik 4 (Verteilte Systeme und Betriebssysteme) Dustin Tien Nguyen Lehrstuhl für Informatik 4 (Systemsoftware) Wolfgang Schröder-Preikschat Lehrstuhl für Informatik 4 (Verteilte Systeme und Betriebssysteme)

Related research project(s)

Power-fail aware byte-addressable virtual non-volatile memory (PAVE) SPP 2377: Disruptive Memory Technologies April 5, 2021 - May 14, 2026 Non-volatility in energy-aware operating systems (NEON) Jan. 1, 2022 - Jan. 1, 2025

Involved external institutions

Ruhr-Universität Bochum (RUB) DE Germany (DE) Brandenburgische Technische Universität Cottbus-Senftenberg (BTU) DE Germany (DE)

How to cite

APA:

Rabenstein, J., Nguyen, D.T., Giersch, O., Eichler, C., Hönig, T., Nolte, J., & Schröder-Preikschat, W. (2023). On the Performance of NVRAM-based Operating Systems: A Case Study with Linux and FreeBSD.

MLA:

Rabenstein, Jonas, et al. On the Performance of NVRAM-based Operating Systems: A Case Study with Linux and FreeBSD. 2023.

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