StableBuffer: optimizing write performance for DBMS applications on flash devices

Flash devices have been widely used in embedded systems, laptop computers, and enterprise servers. However, the poor random writes have been an obstacle to running write-intensive DBMS applications on flash devices. In this paper, we exploit the recently discovered, efficient write patterns of flash devices to optimize the performance of DBMS applications. Specifically, motivated by a focused write pattern, we propose to write pages temporarily to a small, pre-allocated storage space on the flash device, called StableBuffer, instead of directly writing to their actual destinations. We then recognize and flush efficient write patterns of the buffer to achieve a better write performance. In contrast to prior log-based techniques, our StableBuffer solution does not require modifying the driver of flash devices and hence works well for commodity flash devices. We discuss the detailed design and implementation of the StableBuffer solution. Performance evaluation based on a TPC-C benchmark trace shows that StableBuffer improves the response time and throughput of write operations by a factor of 1.5-12, in comparison with a direct write-through strategy.