External trace research

Public storage traces are valuable for workload-shape and policy stress tests, but the sources reviewed so far do not contain synchronized evidence of SSH, PVE API, or an equivalent host-management plane. Storage-only data therefore cannot close the active-control promotion gate.

Sources reviewed

Source	Latency	Management evidence	Use here
UMass/SPC traces	no portable standard field	none	workload shape
Tencent, Alibaba, CloudPhysics catalog	not in listed block formats	none	workload shape
MSR Cambridge catalog	per-I/O response time	none	held for license review
Google Thesios	yes	none	synthetic tests only

The CacheMon collection labels its work CC BY 4.0, while a read-only inspection of the linked MSR archive found an older Microsoft disclaimer with materially more restrictive redistribution terms. The project bundles neither that archive nor derived MSR samples. Permission must be established independently.

Safe research lane

The repository provides a standard-library-only converter for caller-supplied, authorized CSV data. It accepts timestamp, operation, size, and response time; drops every unspecified source column; and emits relative offsets, nearest-rank write p95, IOPS, and throughput. Timestamp-ordered input is aggregated one interval at a time rather than retained as a full per-I/O copy. The caller must explicitly declare whether latency was measured at the storage domain, block device, virtual disk, application, or an unknown layer.

python3 poc/io_csv_to_replay_trace.py authorized.csv \
  --name licensed-study-a \
  --source-kind observed \
  --independence-group external-study-a \
  --storage-class rotational-hdd \
  --workload-class mixed \
  --write-wait-measurement-layer block-device \
  --confirm-authorized-and-sanitized > candidate.json

Because block-I/O rows do not prove host availability, every converted sample has managementPlaneStatus=unknown. The trace can exercise storage algorithms, but the machine assessor must reject it as production promotion evidence. A block-device p95 also cannot be relabeled as the controller’s storage-domain p95. The confirmation flag is an operator assertion, not an automated license check.

Read the complete review and input contract on GitHub.