Robust sequential resource allocation in heterogeneous distributed systems with random compute node failures

—The problem of finding efficient workload distribution techniques is becoming increasingly important today for heterogeneous distributed systems where the availability of compute nodes may change spontaneously over time. Therefore, the resource-allocation policy must be designed to be robust with respect to absence and reemergence of compute nodes so that the performance of the system is maximized. Such a policy is developed in this work, and its performance is evaluated on a model of a dedicated system composed of a limited set of heterogeneous Web servers. Assuming that each HTML request results in a ”reward” if completed before its hard deadline, the goal is to maximize a cumulative reward obtained in the system. A failure rate for each server is set relatively high to simulate its operation under harsh conditions. The results demonstrate that the proposed approach based on the concepts of the Derman–Lieberman–Ross theorem outperforms other policies compared in our expe...

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2009
• Where: IPPS
• Authors: Vladimir Shestak, Edwin K. P. Chong, Anthony A. Maciejewski, Howard Jay Siegel
• Keywords: Compute Nodes, Distributed And Parallel Computing, Efficient Workload Distribution, Heterogeneous Distributed Systems, IPPS 2009