Cephalocon 2024

File system gateways like NFS-Ganesha are capable of immense throughput but can be hindered by thread-centric synchronicity. The default I/O interfaces built in libcephfs rely on threading this way which makes it difficult to achieve high performance throughput. Enter async I/O in libcephfs – a transformative approach that changes how file system gateways interact with CephFS. By leveraging async I/O, protocols can maximize resource utilization, enhance system responsiveness especially to low latency operations. In this talk, we will explore how NFS-Ganesha led to the development of async I/O in CephFS, detailing its journey from inception through various phases of improvement and stabilization. We will discuss the current state of async I/O in CephFS, including how NFS-Ganesha makes the most out of it, how it boosts performance with CephFS, and future applications of the API on other gateways. Think I/O in CephFS? Think Async I/O!