This page documents the goals and results for a series of milestones for the first implementation of RAMCloud. Each milestone last 2 weeks, ending on a Monday.

Milestone 17: ends October 4, 2010

• Ryan goals:
  • Finish edits in response to code review.
  • File bugs on remaining important issues in FastTransport.
• Ryan actual:
  •  
• Steve goals:
  • Finish Infiniband Transport and Driver
  • Simple benchmarks of the above
  • Restart work on new Log and Segment code
• Steve actual:
  •  
• Diego goals:
  • Finish updates to Transport API.
  • Update Driver API.
  • Finish Ethernet packet driver.
• Diego actual:
  •  

Milestone 16: ends September 21, 2010

• Ryan goals:
  • Code review FastTransport, commit with review changes
  • Analyze performance of FastTransport.
• Ryan actual:
  • Working through code review:
    • Done with everything except FastTransport*
    • Worked through easy comments in FastTransport.h
• Steve goals:
  • Infiniband transport & driver
  • Continue working on performance discrepancy with Mellanox
• Steve actual:
  • Driver mostly done (blocked on ServiceLocator), does copying right now to avoid memory registration issues
  • Transport 80% coded
  • Mellanox: our hardware is slower, but we're not sure why (they get latency up to 40% better than us)
• Diego goals:
  • Finish ServiceLocator.
  • Finish Ethernet packet driver.
  • Resolve monitor issue.
• Diego actual:
  • Class/code review done, but integration still in progress.
  • No packet driver work.
  • Monitor #5 works
• John goals:
  • TCPTransport performance improvements.
  • Class prep.
• John actual:
  • No TCPTransport work yet.

Milestone 15: ends September 7, 2010

• Ryan goals:
  • Tuning/code review for FastTransport
• Ryan actual:
  • Code review imminent
• Steve goals:
  • Gone one week
  • Infiniband transport working
• Steve actual:
  • Gone one week
  • Partial Infiniband transport (waiting for ServiceLocators)
  • Talking with Mellanox about performance
• Diego goals:
  • Working monitor
  • Driver to send raw Ethernet packets through the kernel
• Diego actual:
  • Monitor still broken
  • Ethernet packet driver exists but not in proper form
  • Implemented ServiceLocator class; undergoing code review, not integrating cleanly
• John goals:
  • Really really check in Client/Server changes.
  • Start on smaller issues.
• John actual:
  • Committed Client/Server changes
  • Fixed several smaller issues (cpplint, etc.)

Milestone 14: ends August 23, 2010

• Ryan goals:
  • Finish documentation and tests for FastTransport (1 week)
  • Possible next steps:
    • Redo sessions
    • Add UDP layer
• Ryan actual:
  • A few more unit tests to write for FastTransport
  • More work needed on docs
  • FastTransport currently ~1300 lines
• Steve goals:
  • Learn about Infiniband software layers
  • Start on Infiniband Transport class
• Steve actual:
  • Still learning Infiniband, writing simple stand-alone app
  • Setup code for Infiniband complex
  • Mellanox person coming tomorrow for training
• Diego goals:
  • On vacation
• Diego actual:
  • Vacation
• John goals:
  • Finish Client/Server changes and check in (1 week)
  • Odds and ends
• John actual:
  • Client/Server changes code-reviewed, working on followups
  • Switched to using exceptions instead of Status returns.

Milestone 13: ends August 9, 2010

• Ryan:
  • New transport working without timers
  • Take basic performance measurements of new transport
  • Timers working with new transport
• Ryan results:
  • C++ FastTransport implementation compiles and is showing signs of life, but has almost no tests or documentation yet.
  • It looks like the Session mechanism is going to need a redesign.
• Steve goals:
  • Intel driver completely working in user space
  • Basic user-space 10G performance measurements (without fast transport)
  • Ideal: measure performance with user-space driver and new transport
• Steve results:
  • Mellanox NICs and switch arrived
  • Got Infiniband and 10GE pings working using "out-of-the-box" software.
  • Starting to learn about Infiniband verbs
  • Intel work is on hold for now
• Diego:
  • Finish translating ClientSession into C++.
  • On vacation
• John goals:
  • Client converted to C++, upgraded for full use of Buffers, integrated with RAMCloud
• John results:
  • Client converted to C++ and tested, along with Server.
  • Several new header files, such as Rpc.h and Table.h
  • All existing C++ code (including ClientMain and Bench) now uses the new Client.
  • Still need to convert the Python bindings and Python code.

Milestone 12: ends July 26, 2010

• Ryan:
  • Implement a few specific benchmarks using Metrics counters (actual: no change)
  • Commit Metrics class (actual: done)
  • Aggregator classes (actual: started)
  • Additional: started translating Transport from Python to C++; coded InboundMessage; working on OutboundMessage.
• Steve:
  • Rerun E1000 measurements on new machines (actual: done, but slightly slower than HiStar machines: 19 us for 64 bytes vs. 18.4 us)
  • 10G driver running in user space (actual: kernel pings work; using "HugeTLB" to map big pages, pin; wrote "HugeTLBPhys" driver to return physical addresses; all that's left is to map device registers into user space)
• Diego goals:
  • Finish Python version of fast transport
  • Possibly start on logging mechanism
• Diego results:
  • Python version done
  • Committed basic logging (prints to stderr)
  • Helping Ryan with Python->C++ translation of Transport

Milestone 11: ends July 12, 2010

• Ryan:
  • 2 or 3 basic benchmarks (est: 3 days; actual: some simple benchmarks running, Metrics class ready for code review)
  • Integrate into Makefile (est: 1 day; actual: done, server started automatically for tests now)
• Steve:
  • Setup machines, send RAMCloud packets to/from each machine (actual: done)
  • Experiment with 10G user-space driver (actual: works using standard in-kernel approach, not yet working from user space)
  • Rerun E1000 tests on new machines (actual: not done)
  • Log stuff (actual: not done)
• Diego:
  • Finish buffer integration (actual: done, merged into master)
  • More transport work (actual: still working on Python prototype; feature complete)
  • Vacation July 28-Aug. 13

Milestone 10: ends June 28, 2010

• Ryan:
  • Performance infrastructure (actual: 3 days, basic measurements working)
• Steve:
  • Setup machines? (actual: machines just arrived)
  • Revisions to log code (actual: log code complete rewrite (mostly coded, no tests/docs), just starting on cleaner)
• Diego:
  • Finish buffer integration (partial progress, not done: .25 day)
  • Decompose fast transport into tasks (actual: task changed, see below)
  • Start on fast transport tasks (actual: task changed, see below)
  • Revised task: full working Python prototype on UDP (actual: mostly there: 6 days)
  • Additional task: Python mock script (reduce duplication of prototypes, other improvements: .3 day)

Milestone 9: ends June 14, 2010

• Ryan:
  • Benchmark planning (actual: worked mostly on this; some initial end-to-end measurements working)
  • Try out simulator for performance analysis (actual: tried it, but not sure how interesting it is yet)
• Steve:
  • 6 machines ordered (est: 1 day; actual: in purchasing)
  • Set machines up (est: 1 day; actual: N/A)
  • Cleanup log code (actual: just getting started)
  • Understand existing drivers (w. Aravind) (actual: done)
• Aravind:
  • Transfer knowledge
• Diego:
  • Replicate Aravind 11 usec numbers (est: 1 day) (actual: done)
  • Take over fast transport from Aravind (actual: done)
  • Integrate Buffer into code base (actual: partial progress, 1 day)

Milestone 8: ends May 31, 2010

• Ryan:
  • Working on other projects/quals
• Steve:
  • Working on other projects/quals
• Aravind:
  • Finish testing/docs for RPC driver (est: 2 days; actual: 2 days, done)
  • Write RPC transport class (est: 5 days; actual: 1 day, not done)
  • GSRC talk (est: 0; actual: 2 days, done)
  • POMI poster (est: 0; actual 0.5 day)
• Diego:
  • Buffer chunk deallocation (est: 2 days; actual: 2.25 days, done)
  • Finish TCPTransport cleanup (est: 1 day; actual: .625 days, done)
  • Try out Google Mock framework (est: 1 day; actual: .875 days, done/discarded)

Milestone 7: ends May 17, 2010

• Ryan:
  • Working on other projects/quals
• Steve:
  • Working on other projects/quals
• Aravind:
  • Fast RPC driver class (NIC, buffers) (est: 2 days; actual: 3 days, not done (no tests/doc))
  • Fast RPC transport class (mux/de-mux) (est: 5 days; actual: 0.5 day, not done)
  • Protocol design for retransmit/large packets (est: 1 day; actual: done, 1 day)
  • Web site for code reviews (est: 0.5 day; actual: done, 0.5 day)
• Diego:
  • ZooKeeper measurements: latency/bandwidth of get/set (est: 1 day; actual: done, 1 day)
  • Buffer chunk deallocation (est: 1 day; actual: 1 day, coding not started)
  • Update Hash Table after code review (est: 1 day; actual: done, 1 day)
  • Try out Google Mock framework (est: 1 day; actual: not started)
  • TCPTransport code review cleanup (est: 1 day; actual: 0.5 day, not done)

Milestone 6: ends May 3, 2010

• Ryan:
  • Working on other projects
• Steve:
  • Working on other projects
• Aravind:
  • Documentation and tests for RPC code (est: 2 days, actual: done, 1 day)
  • Integrate properly Buffer into the code - right now Buffer is only used just before sending an RPC. (est: 2 days, actual: done, 0.5 day)
  • Computer forum poster (est: 2 days, actual: N/A)
• Diego:
  • Poster (est: 3 days, actual: done, 2 days)
  • Unit tests and docs for TCP transport (est: 2 days, actual: done, 2 days)
  • ZooKeeper measurements: latency/bandwidth of get/set (est: 1 day, actual: not started)

Milestone 5: ends April 19, 2010

• Ryan:
  • Mostly working on other projects
  • Flesh out design of index recovery with partitions (est: 1 day, actual: no time to work)
• Steve:
  • Working on other projects (actual: done!)
• Aravind:
  • Full task list for TCP-based RPC (est: 1 day, actual: done, 1 day)
  • Other RPC tasks TBD
    • Port existing code to Buffer and RPC (est: was TBD, actual: done except for comments and tests, 2 days)
    • Hook up RPC system to use Diego's TCP Transport (est: was TBD; actual: done except for comments and tests, 1 days)
  • Mail Jeff Dean about ProtocolBuffer performance disconnect (est: 1 day, actual: done, 1 day)
• Diego:
  • TCP transport for RPC (est: 3 days) (actual: not done, 2.5 days)
  • Get ZooKeeper installed and running (est: 1 day) (actual: done, 0.5 day)
  • ZooKeeper measurements: latency/bandwidth of get/set (est: 1 day) (actual: not started)

Milestone 4: ends March 29, 2010

• Ryan:
  • Slides for review
• Steve:
  • Slides for review
• Aravind:
  • Slides for review
  • RPC refactoring (no estimate)
• Diego:
  • Slides for review

Milestone 3: ends March 15, 2010

• Aravind:
  • Implement RPC API on TCP (est: 3 days) (actual: done, 2 days)
  • Finish Protocol Buffer analysis (est: 2 days) (actual: "done", 1.5 days)
  • Deallocate Buffer memory (est: 2 days) (actual: not done)
  • Extra stuff: reworked Buffer class after code review
• Diego:
  • RAM-33: Least-usable file system: small file ops (est: 2 days) (actual: done, 0.5 day)
  • RAM-51: RAMCloud build attempt with TCP and post-mortem analysis (est: 1 day) (actual: done, except unit test binary too large to fit, 0.5 day)
  • RAM-50: File-by-file opt in/out of "extra checks", add to pre-commit hooks (est: 2 days) (actual: done, 1 day)
  • RAM-41: Hash table cleanup/code review (est: 2 days) (actual: done, 3 days)
• Ryan:
  • Multi-host backup (est: 1 day) (actual: not done, 0.5 day)
  • Save and collect segement location info for restore (est: 2 days) (actual: not done)
  • RPC design (actual: done, 0.5 day)
• Steve:
  • Log/Segment refactoring (est: 2 days) (actual: not done)
  • Other code review issues (est: 2 days) (actual: not done)
  • Threading design (actual: done, 1 day)

Milestone 2: ends March 1, 2010

• Aravind:
  • Analyze protocol buffer performance (est: 0.5 day) (actual: not done, 0.5 day)
  • Implement new RPC API on TCP (est: 4 days) (actual: 70% done?, 3 days)
  • Code review of RCBUF (est: 0.5 day) (actual: done, 3 days)
  • Quick and dirty user-level implementation of scatter-gather (est: 1 day) (actual: done, but not with Buffer, 1 day)
• Diego (modified 2010-02-18 with John's approval, and somewhat changed my mind 2010-02-19):
  • RAM-36: Finish mini-transactions (est: 1 day)s (actual: done, 0.5 day)
  • RAM-33: Least usable version of file system (est: 5 days) (actual: not done (only directories so far), 4 days)
  • RAM-26: Table enumeration (est: 2 days) or maybe instead RAM-38: C/C++ extension for Python bindings (est: 2 days) (actual: not started)
• Ryan:
  • Propagate GetSegMetaData through server (est: 0.5 day) (actual: done, 0.5 day)
  • Boilerplate recovery routine (est: 0.5 day) (actual: in flux because of segment refactor, 1 day)
  • Creating shadow objects in log (est: 2 days) (actual: not done, depends on segment refactor)
• Steve:
  • Log/tombstone tests (est: 1 day) (actual: done, 2 days)
  • Design for multi-threading (est: 2 days) (actual: not done, 1 day so far)

Milestone 1: ends February 15, 2010

• Aravind:
  • RCBuf implementation (including docs and tests) (est: 3 days) (actual: done in 4 days, ~10 hours)
  • Use RCBufs in current RPC mechanism (est: 1 day) (actual: done in 2 half-days)
  • New RPC API implemented on TCP (est: 4 days) (actual: not done)
  • Extras: protocol buffer tests
• Diego:
  • Mini-transactions returning Booleans (est: 3 of "7") (actual: not done (90%?) spent "5")
  • Mini-transactions returning results/error info (est: 4 of "7") (actual: not done (90%?), spent "2")
  • Extras: transaction discussions, functional tests
• Ryan:
  • Finish GetSegMetaData (est: 2 days) (actual: done in 16 actual hours)
  • Support multiple segments in backup (est: 3 days) (actual: not done)
  • Support multiple backups/master (est: 3 days) (actual: not done)
  • Extras: cleanup (4 hours)
• Steve:
  • New tombstone code (est: 1 day) (actual: done in 4 hours)
  • Log/tombstone docs (est: 1 day) (actual: done in 2 hours)
  • Log/tombstone tests (est: 3 days) (actual: not done; halfway?)
  • Segment docs (est: 1 day) (actual: done in 1 hour)
  • Segment tests (est: 1 day) (actual: done in 2-3 hours)