Preface

The App Trace Roll installs and configures system tracing tools that records the size and offset of every read/write system call for all processes that are running on a node.

It only records size and offset information. User data is never accessed.

We see the App Trace Roll being used in two modes.

In the first mode, users will use the App Trace Roll for their personal use to better understand the I/O behavior of their applications. They will use the collected data to help them to tune their application, tune their storage subsystem or both. The Rocks Group will benefit from this usage mode as users will provide feedback on how to make the App Trace Roll more useful.

In the second mode, users will use the App Trace Roll for their personal use and upload their trace files to SDSC's server. In the near term, Greg Bruno from the Rocks Group will use these trace files to support his Ph.D. research into parallel file systems. In the long term, the Rocks Group will use these trace files to gain insight on how to provide better storage systems for the Rocks Community.