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Optimal Load Balancing in a Beowulf Cluster

PANTS (PANTS Application Node Transparency System) is a suite of programs designed to add transparent load balancing to a Beowulf cluster so that processes are transfered among the nodes of the cluster to improve performance. PANTS provides the option of using one of several different load balancing policies, each having a different approach. This paper studies the scalability and performance of these policies on large clusters and under various workloads. We measure the performance of our policies on our current cluster, and use that performance data to build simulations to test the performance of the policies in larger clusters and under differing workloads. Two policies, one deterministic and one non-deterministic, are presented which offer optimal steady-state performance. We also present best practices and discuss the major challenges of load balancing policy design.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:wpi.edu/oai:digitalcommons.wpi.edu:etd-theses-1628
Date02 May 2005
CreatorsAdams, Daniel Alan
ContributorsDavid Finkel, Advisor, Michael A. Gennert, Department Head, Micha Hofri, Reader
PublisherDigital WPI
Source SetsWorcester Polytechnic Institute
Detected LanguageEnglish
Typetext
Formatapplication/pdf
SourceMasters Theses (All Theses, All Years)

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