I/O Forwarding on Livermore Computing Commodity Linux Clusters
Jim Garlick, USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) · 2012
This report takes the first step in an investigation of I/O forwarding for commodity Linux clusters to improve job launch scalability, reduce operating system jitter, and simplify system management.We discuss the motivation and challenges presented by I/O forwarding through the lens of our experiences with the IBM Blue Gene systems.We identify three I/O modes that each present unique I/O forwarding requirements, and may fare differently in a cost/benefit calculation when considering whether to forward or not.Finally, we present a set of requirements, broken down by I/O mode, which can be used as the basis for an evaluation of possible options.