FDP SSDs improve data storage efficiency and speed in data centers
FDP: The Data Placement Promise of Modern NVMe SSDs
Operating SystemsDatabases
Summary
Data centers use special fast storage devices called NVMe SSDs to hold lots of information. The authors study a new feature called Flexible Data Placement (FDP) that helps these devices organize data better inside. FDP reduces extra work inside the device, which means SSDs last longer and work faster without changing existing software. The authors tested FDP SSDs with popular storage systems and found they improve speed and quality of service while handling many requests.
What this means in practice
- •For data center operators: Deploy FDP-enabled NVMe SSDs to reduce write amplification and improve performance without modifying current applications.
- •For database engineers: Use FDP capabilities to map conventional database write patterns onto SSDs, improving device lifetime and throughput.
- •For cloud storage service providers: Offer improved NVMe SSD storage options with FDP that enhance device durability and service quality in client workloads.$Commercial implications: Enables selling advanced NVMe SSD-based storage solutions with better endurance and speed to cloud infrastructure customers.
Authors
Sijie Lan, Hui Qi, Xing He, Mahmut Kandemir, Javier González, Vivek Shah
Abstract
NVMe SSDs are now widely deployed as the storage tier in data centers. As SSDs have evolved over the past decade, the commu- nity has continued to debate the interfaces they expose and how operating systems and storage systems should exploit them. The NVMe Flexible Data Placement (FDP) proposal is the latest point in this design space. FDP introduces an interface based on Reclaim Units that enables explicit data placement to reduce device write amplification without the software engineering costs of sequential- write constraints and host garbage collection. FDP-enabled SSDs are emerging in commercial products and early data center de- ployments. Their compatibility with conventional block I/O allows existing applications to run unchanged, allowing a frictionless adop- tion in industry. This paper presents an experimental evaluation of FDP SSDs to characterize their data placement guarantees over the raw device interface. We then revisit two widely deployed and distinct open- source storage systems, MySQL and RocksDB, and examine whether lifetime-based data separation and distinct write patterns built into their architectures can be mapped onto FDP SSDs without inva- sive changes. Our evaluation shows end-to-end WAF reductions at higher device utilization, along with QoS and throughput improve- ments under synthetic and real-world workloads. These results demonstrate that FDP provides a practical and deployable cross- layer mechanism for data placement with open-source ecosystem support on Linux. They also highlight why FDP SSDs are gaining traction in industry.