Improving job scheduling performance with parallel access to replicas in Data Grid environment

Data Grid has evolved to be the solution for data-intensive applications, such as High Energy Physics (HEP), astrophysics, and computational genomics. These applications usually have large input of data to be analyzed and these input data are widely replicated across Data Grid to improve the performance. The job scheduling performance on traditional computing jobs can be studied using queuing theory. However, with the addition of data transfer, the job scheduling performance is too complex to be modeled. In this research, we study the impact of data transfer on the performance of job scheduling in the Data Grid environment. We have proposed a parallel downloading system that supports replicating data fragments and parallel downloading of replicated data fragments, to improve the job scheduling performance. The performance of the parallel downloading system is compared with non-parallel downloading system, using three scheduling heuristics: Shortest Turnaround Time (STT), Least Relative Load (LRL) and Data Present (DP). Our simulation results show that the proposed parallel download approach greatly improves the Data Grid performance for all three scheduling algorithms, in terms of the geometric mean of job turnaround time. The advantage of parallel downloading system is most evident when the Data Grid has relatively low network bandwidth and relatively high computing power.     

Ninf-G: A Reference Implementation of RPC-based Programming Middleware for Grid Computing

GridRPC, which is an RPC mechanism tailored for the Grid, is an attractive programming model for Grid computing. This paper reports on the design and implementation of a GridRPC programming system called Ninf-G. Ninf-G is a reference implementation of the GridRPC API which has been proposed for standardization at the Global Grid Forum. In this paper, we describe the design, implementations and typical usage of Ninf-G. A preliminary performance evaluation in both WAN and LAN environments is also reported. Implemented on top of the Globus Toolkit, Ninf-G provides a simple and easy programming interface based on standard Grid protocols and the API for Grid Computing. The overhead of remote procedure calls in Ninf-G is acceptable in both WAN and LAN environments.     

An agent-based approach for dynamic adjustment of scheduled jobs in computational grids

Grid computing is a newly developed technology for complex systems with large-scale resource sharing, wide-area communication, and multi-institutional collaboration. Grid scheduling is an important infrastructure in the grid computing environment. Most of the existing grids scheduling methods focus on maximizing processor utilization without taking grid load into consideration. This may lead to significant inefficiencies in performance such as large job queues and processing delays. In this paper, we propose a multiagent-based scheduling system for computational grids with a new approach. Agent technology is suitable for a computational grid because of the dynamic, heterogeneous, and autonomous nature of the grid. The main idea of the proposed system is a combination of a static scheduling using a fixed scheduling algorithm and a dynamic adjustment through the autonomous behavior of agents. The superiority of the proposed system, in reducing the load of the grid and minimizing the response time for executing user applications, is demonstrated by simulation experiments.     

计算网格中多编程环境的研究与实现

计算网格(也称元计算系统)聚集地理上分散的资源进行大型的分布式高性能计算。PVM和MPI是广泛使用的并行编程环境,它们需要作为并行计算的基本构建而集成到元计算系统中去。论文针对元计算资源的动态性、分布性、性能多变性和结点异构性等特点,实现了一个自适应的、一体化的多编程环境。论文论述了该多编程环境的体系结构,并利用代理技术实现远程编译、发现资源、屏蔽异构和优化调度。     

Modules,objects and distributed programming: Issues in RPC and remote object invocation

Distributed programming can be greatly simplified by language support for distributed communication, such as that provided by remote procedure call (RPC) or remote object invocation. This paper examines design and implementation issues in these systems, and focuses on the influence of the communication system on a distributed program. To make the discussion concrete, we introduce a single application as implemented in two environments: Modula-2+, an extension of Modula-2 with RPC, and Emerald, an object-based language that supports remote object invocation. We show that small differences in the implementation of the communication system can have a significant impact on how distributed applications are structured.     

网络集群计算系统中的并行任务调度

基于多处理机并行任务调度模型，探讨网络集群计算系统中的并行任务调度问题，首先证明了一般网络集群计算系统中调度算法的可近似性难度，然后提出了三种不同的启发式算法：最大长度优先调度算法、最大宽度优先调度算法和最大面积优先调度算法；然后根据大量的模拟实验对这些算法以及文献中已提出的调度算法进行了比较分析，结果表明该文的启发式算法比文献中的算法在性能上效果更好。     

计算网格中基于时间均衡的并行粗粒度任务调度算法

考虑网格资源异构、自治、动态等特性,讨论本地用户具有强占优先权情况下的任务调度问题,提出了TBBS(Time-Balancing Based Scheduling Algorithm)算法.建立调度优化模型,以期望完成时间最小为目标选择执行任务的最佳资源组合.以时间均衡策略将任务分解并调度到资源上执行,减少了子任务同步时因等待而产生的延时,获得较好的并行计算性能.采用重复调度策略,适应计算网格中资源的特性.     

网络并行计算系统中基于多处理机任务的资源调度模型

简要描述了网络并行计算系统中任务调度问题和经典的多处理机任务调度研究现状,并将两者结合到一起建立网络并行计算系统中的新型调度模型,较详细地论述了多处理机任务的定义,然后还讨论了该模型求解的近似调度策略及其近似优化问题,给出了其特例Pm｜fix｜Cmax问题的最优调度的时间跨度下界。     

On development of an efficient parallel loop self-scheduling for grid computing environments

The approaches to deal with scheduling and load balancing on PC-based cluster systems are famous and well-known. Self-scheduling schemes, which are suitable for parallel loops with independent iterations on cluster computer system, they have been designed in the past. In this paper, we propose a new scheme that can adjust the scheduling parameter dynamically on an extremely heterogeneous PC-based cluster and Grid computing environments in order to improve system performance. A Grid computing environment consists of multiple PC-based clusters is constructed using Globus Toolkit and MPICH-G2 middleware. The experimental results show that our scheduling can result in higher performance than other similar schemes on Grid computing environments.     

Network and data location aware approach for simultaneous job scheduling and data replication in large-scale data grid environments

Data Grid integrates graphically distributed resources for solving data intensive scientific applications. Effective scheduling in Grid can reduce the amount of data transferred among nodes by submitting a job to a node, where most of the requested data files are available. Scheduling is a traditional problem in parallel and distributed system. However, due to special issues and goals of Grid, traditional approach is not effective in this environment any more. Therefore, it is necessary to propose methods specialized for this kind of parallel and distributed system. Another solution is to use a data replication strategy to create multiple copies of files and store them in convenient locations to shorten file access times. To utilize the above two concepts, in this paper we develop a job scheduling policy, called hierarchical job scheduling strategy (HJSS), and a dynamic data replication strategy, called advanced dynamic hierarchical replication strategy (ADHRS), to improve the data access efficiencies in a hierarchical Data Grid. HJSS uses hierarchical scheduling to reduce the search time for an appropriate computing node. It considers network characteristics, number of jobs waiting in queue, file locations, and disk read speed of storage drive at data sources. Moreover, due to the limited storage capacity, a good replica replacement algorithm is needed. We present a novel replacement strategy which deletes files in two steps when free space is not enough for the new replica: first, it deletes those files with minimum time for transferring. Second, if space is still insufficient then it considers the last time the replica was requested, number of access, size of replica and file transfer time. The simulation results show that our proposed algorithm has better performance in comparison with other algorithms in terms of job execution time, number of intercommunications, number of replications, hit ratio, computing resource usage and storage usage.     

HBase架构中RPC客户端的通信性能优化

HBase已成为大数据存储、分析和处理的关键部件,对其进行性能优化是当前产业界和学术界的一个研究热点。HBase架构包括多个子系统,子系统之间的通信采用远程过程调用(Remote Procedure Call,RPC)通信机制,但这些子系统的RPC客户端采用的是阻塞通信模式,这种模式在客户端数据请求密集的情况下会引起线程的阻塞,影响了子系统之间的通信效率,降低了HBase的性能。首先分析了HBaseRPC客户端与服务端的通信机制,然后提出了一种HBaseRPC客户端非阻塞的通信模型,并通过Java NIO技术实现。实验结果表明,该模型有效降低了阻塞模式对通信性能的影响,提高了HBaseRPC客户端的通信性能。     

一种面向异构计算的结构化并行编程框架

随着人工智能时代的到来,异构计算在深度学习、科学计算等领域发挥着越来越重要的作用。目前异构计算系统在应用上的瓶颈之一在于缺少高效的软件开发框架,已有的OpenCL、CUDA等支持GPU、DSP及FPGA的编程框架基于C/C++语言和传统的并行编程方法,导致软件开发效率较低,软件推理和调试困难,难以灵活处理计算设备之间的协作和调度。提出一种面向异构计算平台的基于脚本语言的结构化并行编程框架,提供结构化的并行编程接口,支持计算任务到异构计算设备的映射,便于并行程序的推理和验证。设计并实现了基于遗传算法的结构化调度算法,充分利用异构计算系统的计算能力,提高了异构计算系统的软件开发效率。实验结果表明,提出的编程框架在CPU+GPU平台上实现了相对于单处理器1.5到2.5倍的加速比。     

高性能计算系统中的服务质量研究

高性能计算系统的资源管理以集群作业管理为主,这种粗粒度的管理方式缺乏有效的作业资源控制手段,不能准确了解作业的资源需求,在一定程度上仍然不可避免计算资源的浪费.针对高性能计算系统中高效利用系统计算资源的问题,提出并实现了基于操作系统的QoS服务质量框架,对作业资源使用进行细粒度的统计与控制,实现了资源的动态控制与协商机制,完善作业加载与调度策略,在高效利用系统资源方面取得了较好的应用效果.     

A probabilistic and adaptive scheduling algorithm using system-generated predictions for inter-grid resource sharing

Rapid advancement and more readily availability of Grid technologies have encouraged many businesses and researchers to establish Virtual Organizations (VO) and make use of their available desktop resources to solve computing intensive problems. These VOs, however, work as disjointed and independent communities with no resource sharing between them. We, in previous work, have proposed a fully decentralized and reconfigurable Inter-Grid framework for resource sharing among such distributed and autonomous Grid systems (Rao et al. in ICCSA, [2006]). The specific problem that underlies in such a collaborating Grids system is scheduling of resources as there is very little knowledge about availability of the resources due to the distributed and autonomous nature of the underlying Grid entities. In this paper, we propose a probabilistic and adaptive scheduling algorithm using system-generated predictions for Inter-Grid resource sharing keeping collaborating Grid systems autonomous and independent. We first use system-generated job runtime estimates without actually submitting jobs to the target Grid system. Then this job execution estimate is used to predict the job scheduling feasibility on the target system. Furthermore, our proposed algorithm adapted itself to the actual resource behavior and performance. Simulation results are presented to discuss the correctness and accuracy of our proposed algorithm.

A Game-Theoretic Analysis of Grid Job Scheduling

Computational Grid is a well-established platform that gives an assurance to provide a vast range of heterogeneous resources for high performance computing. Efficient and effective resource management and Grid job scheduling are key requirements in order to optimize the use of the resources and to take full advantage from Grid systems. In this paper, we study the job scheduling problem in Computational Grid by using a game-theoretic approach. Grid resources are usually owned by different organizations which may have different and possibly conflicting concerns. Thus it is a crucial objective to analyze potential scenarios where selfish or cooperative behaviors of organizations impact heavily on global Grid efficiency. To this purpose, we formulate a repeated non-cooperative job scheduling game, whose players are Grid sites and whose strategies are scheduling algorithms. We exploit the concept of Nash equilibrium to express a situation in which no player can gain any profit by unilaterally changing its strategy. We extend and complement our previous work by showing whether, under certain circumstances, each investigated strategy is a Nash equilibrium or not. In the negative case we give a counter-example, in the positive case we either give a formal proof or motivate our conjecture by experimental results supported by simulations and exhaustive search.     

Meeting security and user behavior requirements in Grid scheduling

Most of current research in Grid computing is still focused on the improvement of the performance of Grid schedulers. However, unlike traditional scheduling, in Grid systems there are other important requirements to be taken into account. One such a requirement is the secure scheduling, namely achieving an efficient allocation of tasks to reasonable trustful resources. In this paper we formalize the Grid scheduling problem as a non-cooperative non-zero sum game of the Grid users in order to address the security requirements. The premise of this model is that in a large-scale Grid, the cooperation among all users in the system is unlikely to happen. The users’ cost of playing the game is interpreted as a total cost of the secure job execution in Grid. The game cost function is minimized, at global (Grid) and local (users) levels, by using four genetic-based hybrid meta-heuristics. We have evaluated the proposed model under the heterogeneity, the large-scale and dynamics conditions using a Grid simulator. The relative performance of four hybrid schedulers is measured by the makespan and flowtime metrics. The obtained results suggested that it is more resilient for the Grid users to pay some additional scheduling cost, due to verification of the security conditions, instead of taking the risk of assigning their tasks to unreliable resources.     

QoS guided Min-Min heuristic for grid task scheduling

Task scheduling is an integrated component of computing.With the emergence of Grid and ubiquitous computing,new challenges appear in task scheduling based on properties such as security,quality of service,and lack of central control within distributed administrative domains.A Grid task scheduling framework must be able to deal with these issues.One of the goals of Grid task scheduling is to achivev high system throughput while matching applications with the available computing resources.This matching of resources in a non-deterministically shared heterogeneous environment leads to concerns over Quality of Service (QoS).In this paper a novel QoS guided task scheduling algorithm for Grid computing is introduced.The proposed novel algorithm is based on a general adaptive scheduling heuristics that includes QoS guidance.The algorithm is evaluated within a simulated Grid environment.The experimental results show that the nwe QoS guided Min-Min heuristic can lead to significant performance gain for a variety of applications.The approach is compared with others based on the quality of the prediction formulated by inaccurate information.     

Towards Efficient Execution of MPI Applications on the Grid: Porting and Optimization Issues

The message passing interface (MPI) is a standard used by many parallel scientific applications. It offers the advantage of a smoother migration path for porting applications from high performance computing systems to the Grid. In this paper Grid-enabled tools and libraries for developing MPI applications are presented. The first is MARMOT, a tool that checks the adherence of an application to the MPI standard. The second is PACX-MPI, an implementation of the MPI standard optimized for Grid environments. Besides the efficient development of the program, an optimal execution is of paramount importance for most scientific applications. We therefore discuss not only performance on the level of the MPI library, but also several application specific optimizations, e.g., for a sparse, parallel equation solver and an RNA folding code, like latency hiding, prefetching, caching and topology-aware algorithms.     

基于信任机制与遗传算法的渲染网格作业调度研究

信任关系是网格作业调度中一个很重要的因素,也是影响网格计算有效性和性能的关键技术之一。将信任机制引入到渲染网格作业调度中,建立渲染网格环境中基于信任机制的作业调度模型,在调度策略上对基本遗传算法进行了改进,提出了基于信任机制的遗传算法。实验结果表明,该算法可以提高任务完成率和平均信任效益,是适用于渲染网格的一种有效作业调度方法。     

Grid harvest service: A performance system of grid computing

Conventional performance evaluation mechanisms focus on dedicated systems. Grid computing infrastructure, on the other hand, is a shared collaborative environment constructed on virtual organizations. Each organization has its own resource management policy and usage pattern. The non-dedicated characteristic of Grid computing prevents the leverage of conventional performance evaluation systems. In this study, we introduce the grid harvest service (GHS) performance evaluation and task scheduling system for solving large-scale applications in a shared environment. GHS is based on a novel performance prediction model and a set of task scheduling algorithms. GHS supports three classes of task scheduling, single task, parallel processing and meta-task. Experimental results show that GHS provides a satisfactory solution for performance prediction and task scheduling of large applications and has a real potential.