Addressing Shingled Magnetic Recording drives with Linear Tape File System

Shingled Magnetic Recording is a disruptive technology. It increases the capacity of the drive at the expense of not supporting random writes. This limits the adoption of SMR devices in traditional systems with write in place file systems. We can address the write expectations of SMR through various layers of abstraction, from application to firmware. A high abstraction layer provides more room for innovation and a more consistent performance guarantee. Thus, one potential implementation is through the familiar POSIX/Unix file system interface which provides a stable and familiar abstraction for both the storage vendor and user. In this presentation we would like to share some of the thoughts, lessons and experiences that we went through in making Linear Tape File System work with WD SMR drives.

Learning Objectives

What is Shingled Magnetic Recording and what are its benefits and requirements.
What are some potential approaches to address SMR requirements in software.
What WD learned in utilizing Linear Tape File System for SMR drives.