This project aims at developing mathematical reliability models for fault-tolerant energy-aware parallel disk systems. Reliability models, which are used to estimate reliability, are important tools in the design of fault-tolerant computer systems. In the past decade, various practical reliability models have been constructed for disk systems. However, most of these models were developed for non-energy-efficient disk systems, thereby making it difficult to apply the existing reliability models to energy efficient disks. Therefore, the overall objective of this project is to address the mathemetical underpinnings of modeling reliability of energy-efficient parallel disk systems, where fault tolerance and energy-saving techniques are seamlessly integrated to conserve energy without sacrificing reliability in parallel disks. The project can contribute to reliability modeling techniques for parallel disk systems by developing a reliability analysis modeling toolkit accompanied with a set of novel mathematical ability models. The innovative models include disk power consumption models, a reliability model for parallel disk systems with redundancy techniques, a reliability model for repairable and energy-efficient parallel disk systems, a fault recovery model for energy-efficient parallel disk systems. This research has three main strengths. First, it bridges the technology gap between reliability analysis and energy conservation techniques in the context of parallel disk systems. Second, the research can contribute to the implementation of an array of mathematical reliability models for energy-efficient parallel disk systems. Finally, this project creates a reliability analysis toolkit, which is the first toolkit of its kind designed specifically to study a variety of fault-tolerant and energy-saving techniques.
