Scheduling Support Mechanisms for Autonomous, Heterogeneous, Distributed Systems (Ph.D. Thesis)
Steve J. Chapin · Purdue e-Pubs (Purdue University System) · 1993
Users often find that local resources are too limlted to solve large computing problems. At the same time, unrlerutilized resources remain unused because of incompatible architectures, ignorance of their capabilities, or incompatible administrative restrictions. To preserve this investment in equipment, and allow for the solution of large problems, mechanisms are needed to join these systems into cooperating groups across the boundaries of adminlstrative domains and physical locality. An essential component to effective use of such distributed systems is proper task placement, or scheduling. Several researchers have proposed algorithms to perform task scheduling, under the assumptions that sufficient descriptive information is available to make intelligent choices and that underlying mechanisms to manipulate tasks exist. The work presented here makes a clear distinction between policy and mechanism, and focuses on the problem of providing general-purpose mechanisms that facilitate a broad spectrum of task placement algorithms. This dissertation describes scalable and extensible mechanisms that support the efficient implementation of scheduling policies on distributed systems, while preserving the autonomy of the component systems. This dissertation also examines a prototype implementation of these mechanisms, called MESSIAHS. As a demonstration of the utility of the prototype, several algorithms from the literature are implemented and their performance is analyzed. -This work was sponsored in part by NASA GSRP grant number NGT 50919. Graduate School Form 9 (Revised 8/89) PURDUE UNIVERSITY GRADUATE SCHOOL Thesis Acceptance This is to certify that the thesis prepared By Stephen Joel Chapin Entitled Scheduling Support Mechanisms for Autonomous J Heterogeneous J Distributed Systems Complies with University regulations and meets the standards of the Graduate School for originality and quality For the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Signed by the final ex Approved by: «,12-.-£ ff :J • Dale Dis This thesis ~ is not to be regarded as confidential