OSiRIS: A Distributed Storage and Networking Project Update

¹ Physics Department, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA
² Department of Intelligent Systems Engineering, Indiana University, Bloomington, USA
³ Institute for Cyber-Enabled Research, Michigan State University, East Lansing, USA
⁴ Department of Chemistry and the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Michigan State University, East Lansing, USA
⁵ Computing and Information Technology Department, Wayne State University, Detroit, USA

^* e-mail: smckee@umich.edu

Published online: 16 November 2020

Abstract

We report on the status of the OSiRIS project (NSF Award #1541335, UM, IU, MSU and WSU) after its fourth year. OSiRIS is delivering a distributed Ceph storage infrastructure coupled together with software-defined networking to support multiple science domains across Michigan’s three largest research universities as well as the Van Andel Institute. The project’s goal is to provide a single scalable, distributed storage infrastructure that allows researchers at each campus to work collaboratively with other researchers across campus or across institutions. The NSF CC*DNI DIBBs program which funded OSiRIS is seeking solutions to the challenges of multi-institutional collaborations involving large amounts of data and we are exploring the creative use of Ceph and networking to address those challenges. We will present details on the current status of the project and its various science domain users and use-cases. In the presentation we will cover the various design choices, configuration and the tuning and operational challenges we have encountered in providing a multiinstitutional Ceph deployment interconnected by a monitored, programmable network fabric. We will conclude with our plans for the final year of the project and its longer term outlook.