Virtual Organization Clusters: Self-Provisioned Clouds on the Grid

Author

Michael Murphy, Clemson UniversityFollow

Date of Award

5-2010

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Legacy Department

Computer Science

Committee Chair/Advisor

Goasguen, Sebastien

Committee Member

Martin , James

Committee Member

Ligon , Walt

Committee Member

Geist , Robert

Abstract

Virtual Organization Clusters (VOCs) provide a novel architecture for overlaying dedicated cluster systems on existing grid infrastructures. VOCs provide customized, homogeneous execution environments on a per-Virtual Organization basis, without the cost of physical cluster construction or the overhead of per-job containers. Administrative access and overlay network capabilities are granted to Virtual Organizations (VOs) that choose to implement VOC technology, while the system remains completely transparent to end users and non-participating VOs. Unlike alternative systems that require explicit leases, VOCs are autonomically self-provisioned according to configurable usage policies. As a grid computing architecture, VOCs are designed to be technology agnostic and are implementable by any combination of software and services that follows the Virtual Organization Cluster Model.
As demonstrated through simulation testing and evaluation of an implemented prototype, VOCs are a viable mechanism for increasing end-user job compatibility on grid sites. On existing production grids, where jobs are frequently submitted to a small subset of sites and thus experience high queuing delays relative to average job length, the grid-wide addition of VOCs does not adversely affect mean job sojourn time. By load-balancing jobs among grid sites, VOCs can reduce the total amount of queuing on a grid to a level sufficient to counteract the performance overhead introduced by virtualization.

Recommended Citation

Murphy, Michael, "Virtual Organization Clusters: Self-Provisioned Clouds on the Grid" (2010). All Dissertations. 511.
https://open.clemson.edu/all_dissertations/511