HeuristicDB: A hybrid storage database system using a non-volatile memory block device

Abstract

Hybrid storage systems are widely used in big data fields to balance system performance and cost. However, due to a poor understanding of the characteristics of database block requests, past studies in this area cannot fully utilize the performance gain from emerging storage devices. This study presents a hybrid storage database system, called HeuristicDB, which uses an emerging non-volatile memory (NVM) block device as an extension of the database buffer pool. To consider the unique performance behaviors of NVM block devices and the block-level characteristics of database requests, a set of heuristic rules that associate database (block) requests with the appropriate quality of service for the purpose of caching priority are proposed. Using online analytical processing (OLAP) and online transactional processing (OLTP) benchmarks, both trace-based examination and system implementation on MySQL are carried out to evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed design. The experimental results indicate that HeuristicDB provides up to 75% higher performance and migrates 18X fewer data between storage and the NVM block device than existing systems.