Performance-based migration among data storage devices

1. A method, comprising:

identifying, by a computer system, a difference between one or more performance metrics of an application and a service-level agreement (SLA) of the application;

calculating, by the computer system, a numeric correlation between the one or more application performance metrics and one or more disk input/output (I/O) metrics representing the disk I/O performance of a data storage device used by the application;

comparing the numeric correlation to a threshold value;

determining a saturation of disk I/O by the application;

determining that an SLA violation occurred based on the identified difference, the saturation of disk I/O by the application, and the numeric correlation exceeding the threshold value; and

outputting a recommendation to migrate the application from the data storage device to a different type of data storage device.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein determining the saturation of disk I/O by the application comprises:

comparing the one or more disk I/O metrics with baseline values for the one or more disk I/O metrics on the data storage device; and

identifying the saturation of disk I/O when a disk I/O metric in the one or more disk I/O metrics exceeds a corresponding baseline value.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein determining the saturation of disk I/O by the application further comprises:

for each disk I/O metric in the one or more disk I/O metrics:

determining a maximum value of the disk I/O metric; and

scaling the maximum value to obtain a baseline value for the disk I/O metric prior to comparing the disk I/O metric with the baseline value.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the correlation comprises a rank correlation.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the one or more performance metrics comprises at least one of:

a latency; and

a throughput.

6. The method of claim 2 , wherein the one or more disk I/O metrics comprise an I/O operations per second (IOPS).

7. The method of claim 2 , wherein the one or more disk I/O metrics comprise an I/O rate.

8. The method of claim 2 , wherein the one or more disk I/O metrics comprise an I/O latency.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the data storage device comprises a hard disk drive (HDD) and the different type of data storage device comprises a solid-state drive (SSD).

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein identifying the difference between the performance of the application and the SLA of the application comprises:

identifying a violation of the SLA by the application over a pre-specified period.

11. The method of claim 2 , wherein determining the saturation of disk I/O by the application further comprises calculating the baseline values for the one or more disk I/O metrics on the data storage device by, for each of the one or more disk I/O metrics:

identifying a maximum value for the disk I/O metric during processing of a benchmark workload; and

dividing the maximum value by a numeric factor to obtain a value representing saturation of disk I/O processing of normal workloads on the data storage device;

wherein the baseline value for the disk I/O metric comprises the obtained value.

12. An apparatus, comprising:

one or more processors; and

memory storing instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the apparatus to:

identify a difference between one or more performance metrics of an application and a service-level agreement (SLA) of the application;

calculate a numeric correlation between the one or more application performance metrics and one or more disk input/output (I/O) metrics representing the disk I/O performance of a data storage device used by the application;

compare the numeric correlation to a threshold value;

determine a saturation of disk I/O by the application;

determine that an SLA violation occurred based on the identified difference, the saturation of disk I/O by the application, and the numeric correlation exceeding the threshold value; and

output a recommendation to migrate the application from the data storage device to a different type of data storage device.

13. The apparatus of claim 12 , wherein determining the saturation of disk I/O by the application comprises:

comparing the one or more disk I/O metrics with baseline values for the one or more disk I/O metrics on the first type of data storage device; and

identifying the saturation of disk I/O when a disk I/O metric in the one or more disk I/O metrics exceeds a corresponding baseline value.

14. The apparatus of claim 13 , wherein the one or more disk I/O metrics comprise at least one of:

an I/O operations per second (IOPS);

an I/O rate; and

an I/O latency.

15. The apparatus of claim 14 , wherein the one or more performance metrics comprises at least one of:

a latency; and

a throughput.

16. The apparatus of claim 13 , wherein determining the saturation of disk I/O by the application further comprises calculating the baseline values for the one or more disk I/O metrics on the data storage device by, for each of the one or more disk I/O metrics:

identifying a maximum value for the disk I/O metric during processing of a benchmark workload; and

dividing the maximum value by a numeric factor to obtain a value representing saturation of disk I/O processing of normal workloads on the data storage device;

wherein the baseline value for the disk I/O metric comprises the obtained value.

17. A system, comprising:

an analysis module comprising a non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising instructions that, when executed, cause the system to:

identify a difference between one or more performance metrics of an application and a service-level agreement (SLA) of the application;

calculate a numeric correlation between the one or more application performance metrics and one or more disk input/output (I/O) metrics representing the disk I/O performance of a data storage device used by the application;

compare the numeric correlation to a threshold value;

determine a saturation of disk I/O by the application;

determine that an SLA violation occurred based on the identified difference, the saturation of disk I/O by the application, and the numeric correlation exceeding the threshold value; and

a management module comprising a non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising instructions that, when executed, cause the system to output a recommendation to migrate the application from the data storage device to a different type of data storage device when the correlation exceeds a threshold.

18. The system of claim 17 , wherein determining the saturation of disk I/O by the application comprises:

comparing the one or more disk I/O metrics with baseline values for the one or more disk I/O metrics on the data storage device; and

identifying the saturation of disk I/O when a disk I/O metric in the one or more disk I/O metrics exceeds a corresponding baseline value.

19. The system of claim 18 , wherein determining the saturation of disk I/O by the application further comprises calculating the baseline values for the one or more disk I/O metrics on the data storage device by, for each of the one or more disk I/O metrics:

identifying a maximum value for the disk I/O metric during processing of a benchmark workload; and

dividing the maximum value by a numeric factor to obtain a value representing saturation of disk I/O processing of normal workloads on the data storage device;

wherein the baseline value for the disk I/O metric comprises the obtained value.