TY - GEN
T1 - Achieving target MTTF by duplicating reliability-critical components in high performance computing systems
AU - Nakka, Nithin
AU - Choudhary, Alok
AU - Grider, Gary
AU - Bent, John
AU - Nunez, James
AU - Khalsa, Satsangat
PY - 2011
Y1 - 2011
N2 - Mean Time To failure, MTTF, is a commonly accepted metric for reliability. In this paper we present a novel approach to achieve the desired MTTF with minimum redundancy. We analyze the failure behavior of large scale systems using failure logs collected by Los Alamos National Laboratory. We analyze the root cause of failures and present a choice of specific hardware and software components to be made fault-tolerant, through duplication, to achieve target MTTF at minimum expense. Not all components show similar failure behavior in the systems. Our objective, therefore, was to arrive at an ordering of components to be incrementally selected for protection to achieve a target MTTF. We propose a model for MTTF for tolerating failures in a specific component, system-wide, and order components according to the coverage provided. Systems grouped based on hardware configuration showed similar improvements in MTTF when different components in them were targeted for fault-tolerance.
AB - Mean Time To failure, MTTF, is a commonly accepted metric for reliability. In this paper we present a novel approach to achieve the desired MTTF with minimum redundancy. We analyze the failure behavior of large scale systems using failure logs collected by Los Alamos National Laboratory. We analyze the root cause of failures and present a choice of specific hardware and software components to be made fault-tolerant, through duplication, to achieve target MTTF at minimum expense. Not all components show similar failure behavior in the systems. Our objective, therefore, was to arrive at an ordering of components to be incrementally selected for protection to achieve a target MTTF. We propose a model for MTTF for tolerating failures in a specific component, system-wide, and order components according to the coverage provided. Systems grouped based on hardware configuration showed similar improvements in MTTF when different components in them were targeted for fault-tolerance.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=83455173239&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=83455173239&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1109/IPDPS.2011.311
DO - 10.1109/IPDPS.2011.311
M3 - Conference contribution
AN - SCOPUS:83455173239
SN - 9780769543857
T3 - IEEE International Symposium on Parallel and Distributed Processing Workshops and Phd Forum
SP - 1567
EP - 1576
BT - 2011 IEEE International Symposium on Parallel and Distributed Processing, Workshops and Phd Forum, IPDPSW 2011
T2 - 25th IEEE International Parallel and Distributed Processing Symposium, Workshops and Phd Forum, IPDPSW 2011
Y2 - 16 May 2011 through 20 May 2011
ER -