A visualization platfom for disk failure analysis

It has become a norm rather than an exception to observe multiple disks malfunctioning or whole disk failures in places like big data centers where thousands of drives operate simultaneously. Data that resides on these devices is typically protected by replication or erasure coding for long-term durable storage. However, to be able to optimize data protection methods, real life disk failure trends need to be modeled. Modelling helps us build insights while in the design phase and properly optimize protection methods for a given application. In this study, we developed a visualization platform in light of disk failure data provided by BackBlaze, and extracted useful statistical information such as failure rate and model-based time to failure distributions. Finally, simple modeling is performed for disk failure predictions to alarm and take necessary system-wide precautions.