Title page for ETD etd-050205-135758

Document Type	thesis
Author Name	Adams, Daniel Alan
URN	etd-050205-135758
Title	Optimal Load Balancing in a Beowulf Cluster
Degree	MS
Department	Computer Science
Advisors	Michael Gennert, Department Head David Finkel, Advisor Micha Hofri, Reader
Keywords	beowulf load sharing load balancing
Date of Presentation/Defense	2005-04-25
Availability	unrestricted
Abstract PANTS (PANTS Application Node Transparency System) is a suite of programs designed to add transparent load balancing to a Beowulf cluster so that processes are transfered among the nodes of the cluster to improve performance. PANTS provides the option of using one of several different load balancing policies, each having a different approach. This paper studies the scalability and performance of these policies on large clusters and under various workloads. We measure the performance of our policies on our current cluster, and use that performance data to build simulations to test the performance of the policies in larger clusters and under differing workloads. Two policies, one deterministic and one non-deterministic, are presented which offer optimal steady-state performance. We also present best practices and discuss the major challenges of load balancing policy design.
Files	dadams.pdf

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