- "Geiger: Monitoring the buffer cache in a virtual machine environment"
Jones ST, Arpaci-Dusseau AC, Arpaci-Dusseau RH, ACM Sigplan Notices 41 (11): 14-24 Nov 2006. In this paper we explore techniques that can be used by a VMM to passively infer useful information about a guest operating system's unified buffer cache and virtual memory system. We have created a prototype implementation of these techniques inside the Xen VMM called Geiger and show that it can accurately infer when pages are inserted into and evicted from a system's buffer cache. We explore several nuances involved in passively implementing eviction detection that have not previously been addressed, such as the importance of tracking disk block liveness, the effect of file system journaling, and the importance of accounting for the unified caches found in modern operating systems.
- "Deconstructing storage arrays"
Denehy TE, Bent J, Popovici FI, et al., ACM Sigplan Notices 39 (11): 59-71 Nov 2004. The authors introduce Shear a user-level software tool that characterizes RAID storage at-rays.
- "Run-time adaptation in River"
ACM Transactions on Computer Systems 21 (1): 36-86 Feb 2003. As well as providing insight on the positives and negatives of run-time adaptation both specifically in River and in a broader context, the authors also comment on the interplay of modeling, simulation, and implementation in system design.
- "Evolving RPC for active storage"
Sivathanu M, Arpaci-Dusseau AC, Arpaci-Dusseau RH, ACM Sigplan Notices 37 (10): 264-276 Oct 2002. The authors demonstrate the power and flexibility of the SRPC framework through a series of case studies, with a focus on active storage servers.