Coordinated Scheduling and Dynamic Performance Analysis in Multiprocessors Systems

El rendimiento de los actuales sistemas multiprocesador de memoria compartida depende tanto de la utilización eficiente de todos los componentes del sistema (procesadores, memoria, etc), como de las características del conjunto de aplicaciones a ejecutar. Esta Tesis tiene como principal objetivo mejorar la ejecución de conjuntos de aplicaciones paralelas en sistemas multiprocesador de memoria compartida mediante la utilización de información sobre el rendimiento de las aplicaciones para la planificación de los procesadores.Es una práctica común de los usuarios de un sistema multiprocesador reservar muchos procesadores para ejecutar sus aplicaciones asumiendo que cuantos más procesadores utilicen mejor rendimiento sacarán sus aplicaciones. Sin embargo, normalmente esto no es cierto. Las aplicaciones paralelas tienen diferentes características respecto a su escalabilidad. Su rendimiento depende además de parámetros que sólo son conocidos en tiempo de ejecución, como por ejemplo el conjunto de datos de entrada o la influencia que pueden ejercer determinadas aplicaciones que se ejecutan de forma concurrente.En esta tesis proponemos que el sistema no base sus decisiones solamente en las peticiones de recursos de los usuarios sino que él, dinámicamente, mida el rendimiento que están consiguiendo las aplicaciones y base, o ajuste, sus decisiones teniendo en cuenta esa información.El rendimiento de las aplicaciones paralelas puede ser medido por el sistema de forma dinámica y automática sin introducir una sobrecarga significativa en la ejecución de las aplicaciones. Utilizando esta información, la planificación de procesadores puede ser decidida, o ajustada, siendo mucho más robusta a requerimientos incorrectos por parte de los usuarios, que otras políticas que no consideran este tipo de información. Además de considerar el rendimiento, proponemos imponer una eficiencia objetivo a las aplicaciones paralelas. Esta eficiencia objetivo determinará si la aplicación está consiguiendo un rendimiento aceptable o no, y será usada para ajustar la asignación de procesadores. La eficiencia objetivo de un sistema podrá ser un parámetro ajustable dinámicamente en función del estado del sistema: número de aplicaciones ejecutándose, aplicaciones encoladas, etc.También proponemos coordinar los diferentes niveles de planificación que intervienen en la planificación de procesadores: Nivel librería de usuario, planificador de procesadores (en el S.O), y gestión del sistema de colas. La idea es establecer una interficie entre niveles para enviar y recibir información entre niveles, así como considerar esta información para tomar las decisiones propias de cada nivel.La evaluación de esta Tesis ha sido realizada utilizando un enfoque práctico. Hemos diseñado e implementado un entorno de ejecución completo para ejecutar aplicaciones paralelas que siguen el modelo de programación OpenMP. Hemos introducido nuestras propuestas modificando los tres niveles de planificación mencionados. Los resultados muestran que las ideas propuestas en esta tesis mejoran significativamente el rendimiento del sistema. En aquellos casos en que tanto las aplicaciones como los parámetros del sistema han sido previamente optimizados, las propuestas realizadas introducen una penalización del 5% en el peor de los casos, comparado con el mejor de los resultados obtenidos por otras políticas evaluadas. Sin embargo, en otros casos evaluados, las propuestas realizadas en esta tesis han mejorado el rendimiento del sistema hasta un 400% también comparado con el mejor resultado obtenido por otras políticas evaluadas.Las principales conclusiones que podemos obtener de esta Tesis son las siguientes: - El rendimiento de las aplicaciones paralelas puede ser medido en tiempo de ejecución. Los requisitos para aplicar el mecanismo de medida propuesto en esta Tesis son que las aplicaciones sean maleables y estar en un entorno de ejecución multiprocesador de memoria compartida. - El rendimiento de las aplicaciones paralelas debe ser considerado para decidir la asignación de procesadores a aplicaciones. El sistema debe utilizar la información del rendimiento para auto-ajustar sus decisiones. Además, el sistema debe imponer una eficiencia objetivo para asegurar el uso eficiente de procesadores.- Los diferentes niveles de planificación deben estar coordinados para evitar interferencias entre ellosThe performance of current shared-memory multiprocessor systems depends on both the efficient utilization of all the architectural elements in the system (processors, memory, etc), and the workload characteristics.This Thesis has the main goal of improving the execution of workloads of parallel applications in shared-memory multiprocessor systems by using real performance information in the processor scheduling.It is a typical practice of users in multiprocessor systems to request for a high number of processors assuming that the higher the processor request, the higher the number of processors allocated, and the higher the speedup achieved by their applications. However, this is not true. Parallel applications have different characteristics with respect to their scalability. Their speedup also depends on run-time parameters such as the influence of the rest of running applications.This Thesis proposes that the system should not base its decisions on the users requests only, but the system must decide, or adjust, its decisions based on real performance information calculated at run-time. The performance of parallel applications is information that the system can dynamically measure without introducing a significant penalty in the application execution time. Using this information, the processor allocation can be decided, or modified, being robust to incorrect processor requests given by users. We also propose that the system use a target efficiency to ensure the efficient use of processors. This target efficiency is a system parameter and can be dynamically decided as a function of the characteristics of running applications or the number of queued applications.We also propose to coordinate the different scheduling levels that operate in the processor scheduling: the run-time scheduler, the processor scheduler, and the queueing system. We propose to establish an interface between levels to send and receive information, and to take scheduling decisions considering the information provided by the rest of levels.The evaluation of this Thesis has been done using a practical approach. We have designed and implemented a complete execution environment to execute OpenMP parallel applications. We have introduced our proposals, modifying the three scheduling levels (run-time library, processor scheduler, and queueing system).Results show that the ideas proposed in this Thesis significantly improve the system performance. If the evaluated workload has been previously tuned, in the worst case, we have introduced a slowdown around 5% in the workload execution time compared with the best execution time achieved. However, in some extreme cases, with a workload and a system configuration not previously tuned, we have improved the system performance in a 400%, also compared with the next best time.The main results achieved in this Thesis can be summarized as follows:- The performance of parallel applications can be measured at run-time. The requirements to apply the mechanism proposed in this Thesis are to have malleable applications and shared-memory multiprocessor architectures.- The performance of parallel applications 1must be considered to decide the processor allocation. The system must use this information to self-adjust its decisions based on the achieved performance. Moreover, the system must impose a target efficiency to ensure the efficient use of processors.- The different scheduling levels must be coordinated to avoid interferences between levels

Coordinated Scheduling and Dynamic Performance Analysis in Multiprocessors Systems

El rendimiento de los actuales sistemas multiprocesador de memoria compartida depende tanto de la utilización eficiente de todos los componentes del sistema (procesadores, memoria, etc), como de las características del conjunto de aplicaciones a ejecutar. Esta Tesis tiene como principal objetivo mejorar la ejecución de conjuntos de aplicaciones paralelas en sistemas multiprocesador de memoria compartida mediante la utilización de información sobre el rendimiento de las aplicaciones para la planificación de los procesadores.Es una práctica común de los usuarios de un sistema multiprocesador reservar muchos procesadores para ejecutar sus aplicaciones asumiendo que cuantos más procesadores utilicen mejor rendimiento sacarán sus aplicaciones. Sin embargo, normalmente esto no es cierto. Las aplicaciones paralelas tienen diferentes características respecto a su escalabilidad. Su rendimiento depende además de parámetros que sólo son conocidos en tiempo de ejecución, como por ejemplo el conjunto de datos de entrada o la influencia que pueden ejercer determinadas aplicaciones que se ejecutan de forma concurrente.En esta tesis proponemos que el sistema no base sus decisiones solamente en las peticiones de recursos de los usuarios sino que él, dinámicamente, mida el rendimiento que están consiguiendo las aplicaciones y base, o ajuste, sus decisiones teniendo en cuenta esa información.El rendimiento de las aplicaciones paralelas puede ser medido por el sistema de forma dinámica y automática sin introducir una sobrecarga significativa en la ejecución de las aplicaciones. Utilizando esta información, la planificación de procesadores puede ser decidida, o ajustada, siendo mucho más robusta a requerimientos incorrectos por parte de los usuarios, que otras políticas que no consideran este tipo de información. Además de considerar el rendimiento, proponemos imponer una eficiencia objetivo a las aplicaciones paralelas. Esta eficiencia objetivo determinará si la aplicación está consiguiendo un rendimiento aceptable o no, y será usada para ajustar la asignación de procesadores. La eficiencia objetivo de un sistema podrá ser un parámetro ajustable dinámicamente en función del estado del sistema: número de aplicaciones ejecutándose, aplicaciones encoladas, etc.También proponemos coordinar los diferentes niveles de planificación que intervienen en la planificación de procesadores: Nivel librería de usuario, planificador de procesadores (en el S.O), y gestión del sistema de colas. La idea es establecer una interficie entre niveles para enviar y recibir información entre niveles, así como considerar esta información para tomar las decisiones propias de cada nivel.La evaluación de esta Tesis ha sido realizada utilizando un enfoque práctico. Hemos diseñado e implementado un entorno de ejecución completo para ejecutar aplicaciones paralelas que siguen el modelo de programación OpenMP. Hemos introducido nuestras propuestas modificando los tres niveles de planificación mencionados. Los resultados muestran que las ideas propuestas en esta tesis mejoran significativamente el rendimiento del sistema. En aquellos casos en que tanto las aplicaciones como los parámetros del sistema han sido previamente optimizados, las propuestas realizadas introducen una penalización del 5% en el peor de los casos, comparado con el mejor de los resultados obtenidos por otras políticas evaluadas. Sin embargo, en otros casos evaluados, las propuestas realizadas en esta tesis han mejorado el rendimiento del sistema hasta un 400% también comparado con el mejor resultado obtenido por otras políticas evaluadas.Las principales conclusiones que podemos obtener de esta Tesis son las siguientes: - El rendimiento de las aplicaciones paralelas puede ser medido en tiempo de ejecución. Los requisitos para aplicar el mecanismo de medida propuesto en esta Tesis son que las aplicaciones sean maleables y estar en un entorno de ejecución multiprocesador de memoria compartida. - El rendimiento de las aplicaciones paralelas debe ser considerado para decidir la asignación de procesadores a aplicaciones. El sistema debe utilizar la información del rendimiento para auto-ajustar sus decisiones. Además, el sistema debe imponer una eficiencia objetivo para asegurar el uso eficiente de procesadores.- Los diferentes niveles de planificación deben estar coordinados para evitar interferencias entre ellosThe performance of current shared-memory multiprocessor systems depends on both the efficient utilization of all the architectural elements in the system (processors, memory, etc), and the workload characteristics.This Thesis has the main goal of improving the execution of workloads of parallel applications in shared-memory multiprocessor systems by using real performance information in the processor scheduling.It is a typical practice of users in multiprocessor systems to request for a high number of processors assuming that the higher the processor request, the higher the number of processors allocated, and the higher the speedup achieved by their applications. However, this is not true. Parallel applications have different characteristics with respect to their scalability. Their speedup also depends on run-time parameters such as the influence of the rest of running applications.This Thesis proposes that the system should not base its decisions on the users requests only, but the system must decide, or adjust, its decisions based on real performance information calculated at run-time. The performance of parallel applications is information that the system can dynamically measure without introducing a significant penalty in the application execution time. Using this information, the processor allocation can be decided, or modified, being robust to incorrect processor requests given by users. We also propose that the system use a target efficiency to ensure the efficient use of processors. This target efficiency is a system parameter and can be dynamically decided as a function of the characteristics of running applications or the number of queued applications.We also propose to coordinate the different scheduling levels that operate in the processor scheduling: the run-time scheduler, the processor scheduler, and the queueing system. We propose to establish an interface between levels to send and receive information, and to take scheduling decisions considering the information provided by the rest of levels.The evaluation of this Thesis has been done using a practical approach. We have designed and implemented a complete execution environment to execute OpenMP parallel applications. We have introduced our proposals, modifying the three scheduling levels (run-time library, processor scheduler, and queueing system).Results show that the ideas proposed in this Thesis significantly improve the system performance. If the evaluated workload has been previously tuned, in the worst case, we have introduced a slowdown around 5% in the workload execution time compared with the best execution time achieved. However, in some extreme cases, with a workload and a system configuration not previously tuned, we have improved the system performance in a 400%, also compared with the next best time.The main results achieved in this Thesis can be summarized as follows:- The performance of parallel applications can be measured at run-time. The requirements to apply the mechanism proposed in this Thesis are to have malleable applications and shared-memory multiprocessor architectures.- The performance of parallel applications 1must be considered to decide the processor allocation. The system must use this information to self-adjust its decisions based on the achieved performance. Moreover, the system must impose a target efficiency to ensure the efficient use of processors.- The different scheduling levels must be coordinated to avoid interferences between levels.Postprint (published version

ReSHAPE: A Framework for Dynamic Resizing and Scheduling of Homogeneous Applications in a Parallel Environment

Applications in science and engineering often require huge computational resources for solving problems within a reasonable time frame. Parallel supercomputers provide the computational infrastructure for solving such problems. A traditional application scheduler running on a parallel cluster only supports static scheduling where the number of processors allocated to an application remains fixed throughout the lifetime of execution of the job. Due to the unpredictability in job arrival times and varying resource requirements, static scheduling can result in idle system resources thereby decreasing the overall system throughput. In this paper we present a prototype framework called ReSHAPE, which supports dynamic resizing of parallel MPI applications executed on distributed memory platforms. The framework includes a scheduler that supports resizing of applications, an API to enable applications to interact with the scheduler, and a library that makes resizing viable. Applications executed using the ReSHAPE scheduler framework can expand to take advantage of additional free processors or can shrink to accommodate a high priority application, without getting suspended. In our research, we have mainly focused on structured applications that have two-dimensional data arrays distributed across a two-dimensional processor grid. The resize library includes algorithms for processor selection and processor mapping. Experimental results show that the ReSHAPE framework can improve individual job turn-around time and overall system throughput.Comment: 15 pages, 10 figures, 5 tables Submitted to International Conference on Parallel Processing (ICPP'07

Invasive compute balancing for applications with shared and hybrid parallelization

This is the author manuscript. The final version is available from the publisher via the DOI in this record.Achieving high scalability with dynamically adaptive algorithms in high-performance computing (HPC) is a non-trivial task. The invasive paradigm using compute migration represents an efficient alternative to classical data migration approaches for such algorithms in HPC. We present a core-distribution scheduler which realizes the migration of computational power by distributing the cores depending on the requirements specified by one or more parallel program instances. We validate our approach with different benchmark suites for simulations with artificial workload as well as applications based on dynamically adaptive shallow water simulations, and investigate concurrently executed adaptivity parameter studies on realistic Tsunami simulations. The invasive approach results in significantly faster overall execution times and higher hardware utilization than alternative approaches. A dynamic resource management is therefore mandatory for a more efficient execution of scenarios similar to our simulations, e.g. several Tsunami simulations in urgent computing, to overcome strong scalability challenges in the area of HPC. The optimizations obtained by invasive migration of cores can be generalized to similar classes of algorithms with dynamic resource requirements.This work was supported by the German Research Foundation (DFG) as part of the Transregional Collaborative Research Centre ”Invasive Computing” (SFB/TR 89)

An approach to resource-aware coscheduling for cmps.

ABSTRACT We develop real-time scheduling techniques for improving performance and energy for multiprogrammed workloads that scale nonuniformly with increasing thread counts. Multithreaded programs generally deliver higher throughput than single-threaded programs on chip multiprocessors, but performance gains from increasing threads decrease when there is contention for shared resources. We use analytic metrics to derive local search heuristics for creating efficient multiprogrammed, multithreaded workload schedules. Programs are allocated fewer cores than requested, and scheduled to space-share the CMP to improve global throughput. Our holistic approach attempts to co-schedule programs that complement each other with respect to shared resource consumption. We find application co-scheduling for performance and energy in a resource-aware manner achieves better results than solely targeting total throughput or concurrently co-scheduling all programs. Our schedulers improve overall energy delay (E*D) by a factor of 1.5 over time-multiplexed gang scheduling

The autonomic operating system research project - Achievements and future directions

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Simulation techniques in an artificial society model

Artificial society refers to a generic class of agent-based simulation models used to discover global social structures and collective behavior produced by simple local rules and interaction mechanisms. Artificial society models are applicable in a variety of disciplines, including the modeling of chemical and biological processes, natural phenomena, and complex adaptive systems. We focus on the underlying simulation techniques used in artificial society discrete-event simulation models, including model time evolution and computational performance.;Although for some applications synchronous time evolution is the correct modeling approach, many other applications are better represented using asynchronous time evolution. We claim that asynchronous time evolution can eliminate potential simulation artifacts produced using synchronous time evolution. Using an adaptation of a popular artificial society model, we show that very different output can result based solely on the choice of asynchronous or synchronous time evolution. Based on the event list implementation chosen, the use of discrete-event simulation to incorporate asynchronous time evolution can incur a substantial loss in computational performance. Accordingly, we evaluate select event list implementations within the artificial society simulation model and demonstrate that acceptable performance can be achieved.;In addition to the artificial society model, we show that transforming from a synchronous to an asynchronous system proves beneficial for scheduling resources in a parallel system. We focus on non-FCFS job scheduling policies that permit jobs to backfill, i.e., to move ahead in the queue, given that they do not delay certain previously submitted jobs. Instead of using a single queue of jobs, we propose a simple yet effective backfilling scheduling policy that effectively separates short from long jobs by incorporating multiple queues. By monitoring system performance, our policy adapts its configuration parameters in response to severe changes in the job arrival pattern and/or resource demands. Detailed performance comparisons via simulation using actual parallel workload traces indicate that our proposed policy consistently outperforms traditional backfilling in a variety of contexts

"Virtual malleability" applied to MPI jobs to improve their execution in a multiprogrammed environment"

This work focuses on scheduling of MPI jobs when executing in shared-memory multiprocessors (SMPs). The objective was to obtain the best performance in response time in multiprogrammed multiprocessors systems using batch systems, assuming all the jobs have the same priority. To achieve that purpose, the benefits of supporting malleability on MPI jobs to reduce fragmentation and consequently improve the performance of the system were studied. The contributions made in this work can be summarized as follows:· Virtual malleability: A mechanism where a job is assigned a dynamic processor partition, where the number of processes is greater than the number of processors. The partition size is modified at runtime, according to external requirements such as the load of the system, by varying the multiprogramming level, making the job contend for resources with itself. In addition to this, a mechanism which decides at runtime if applying local or global process queues to an application depending on the load balancing between processes of it. · A job scheduling policy, that takes decisions such as how many processes to start with and the maximum multiprogramming degree based on the type and number of applications running and queued. Moreover, as soon as a job finishes execution and where there are queued jobs, this algorithm analyzes whether it is better to start execution of another job immediately or just wait until there are more resources available. · A new alternative to backfilling strategies for the problema of window execution time expiring. Virtual malleability is applied to the backfilled job, reducing its partition size but without aborting or suspending it as in traditional backfilling. The evaluation of this thesis has been done using a practical approach. All the proposals were implemented, modifying the three scheduling levels: queuing system, processor scheduler and runtime library. The impact of the contributions were studied under several types of workloads, varying machine utilization, communication and, balance degree of the applications, multiprogramming level, and job size. Results showed that it is possible to offer malleability over MPI jobs. An application obtained better performance when contending for the resources with itself than with other applications, especially in workloads with high machine utilization. Load imbalance was taken into account obtaining better performance if applying the right queue type to each application independently.The job scheduling policy proposed exploited virtual malleability by choosing at the beginning of execution some parameters like the number of processes and maximum multiprogramming level. It performed well under bursty workloads with low to medium machine utilizations. However as the load increases, virtual malleability was not enough. That is because, when the machine is heavily loaded, the jobs, once shrunk are not able to expand, so they must be executed all the time with a partition smaller than the job size, thus degrading performance. Thus, at this point the job scheduling policy concentrated just in moldability.Fragmentation was alleviated also by applying backfilling techniques to the job scheduling algorithm. Virtual malleability showed to be an interesting improvement in the window expiring problem. Backfilled jobs even on a smaller partition, can continue execution reducing memory swapping generated by aborts/suspensions In this way the queueing system is prevented from reinserting the backfilled job in the queue and re-executing it in the future.Postprint (published version

Distributed and Lightweight Meta-heuristic Optimization method for Complex Problems

The world is becoming more prominent and more complex every day. The resources are limited and efficiently use them is one of the most requirement. Finding an Efficient and optimal solution in complex problems needs to practical methods. During the last decades, several optimization approaches have been presented that they can apply to different optimization problems, and they can achieve different performance on various problems. Different parameters can have a significant effect on the results, such as the type of search spaces. Between the main categories of optimization methods (deterministic and stochastic methods), stochastic optimization methods work more efficient on big complex problems than deterministic methods. But in highly complex problems, stochastic optimization methods also have some issues, such as execution time, convergence to local optimum, incompatible with distributed systems, and dependence on the type of search spaces. Therefore this thesis presents a distributed and lightweight metaheuristic optimization method (MICGA) for complex problems focusing on four main tracks. 1) The primary goal is to improve the execution time by MICGA. 2) The proposed method increases the stability and reliability of the results by using the multi-population strategy in the second track. 3) MICGA is compatible with distributed systems. 4) Finally, MICGA is applied to the different type of optimization problems with other kinds of search spaces (continuous, discrete and order based optimization problems). MICGA has been compared with other efficient optimization approaches. The results show the proposed work has been achieved enough improvement on the main issues of the stochastic methods that are mentioned before.Maailmasta on päivä päivältä tulossa yhä monimutkaisempi. Resurssit ovat rajalliset, ja siksi niiden tehokas käyttö on erittäin tärkeää. Tehokkaan ja optimaalisen ratkaisun löytäminen monimutkaisiin ongelmiin vaatii tehokkaita käytännön menetelmiä. Viime vuosikymmenien aikana on ehdotettu useita optimointimenetelmiä, joilla jokaisella on vahvuutensa ja heikkoutensa suorituskyvyn ja tarkkuuden suhteen erityyppisten ongelmien ratkaisemisessa. Parametreilla, kuten hakuavaruuden tyypillä, voi olla merkittävä vaikutus tuloksiin. Optimointimenetelmien pääryhmistä (deterministiset ja stokastiset menetelmät) stokastinen optimointi toimii suurissa monimutkaisissa ongelmissa tehokkaammin kuin deterministinen optimointi. Erittäin monimutkaisissa ongelmissa stokastisilla optimointimenetelmillä on kuitenkin myös joitain ongelmia, kuten korkeat suoritusajat, päätyminen paikallisiin optimipisteisiin, yhteensopimattomuus hajautetun toteutuksen kanssa ja riippuvuus hakuavaruuden tyypistä. Tämä opinnäytetyö esittelee hajautetun ja kevyen metaheuristisen optimointimenetelmän (MICGA) monimutkaisille ongelmille keskittyen neljään päätavoitteeseen: 1) Ensisijaisena tavoitteena on pienentää suoritusaikaa MICGA:n avulla. 2) Lisäksi ehdotettu menetelmä lisää tulosten vakautta ja luotettavuutta käyttämällä monipopulaatiostrategiaa. 3) MICGA tukee hajautettua toteutusta. 4) Lopuksi MICGA-menetelmää sovelletaan erilaisiin optimointiongelmiin, jotka edustavat erityyppisiä hakuavaruuksia (jatkuvat, diskreetit ja järjestykseen perustuvat optimointiongelmat). Työssä MICGA-menetelmää verrataan muihin tehokkaisiin optimointimenetelmiin. Tulokset osoittavat, että ehdotetulla menetelmällä saavutetaan selkeitä parannuksia yllä mainittuihin stokastisten menetelmien pääongelmiin liittyen