Processor Allocation in Multiprogrammed Distributed-Memory Parallel Computer Systems

In this paper, we examine three general classes of space-sharing scheduling policies under a workload representative of large-scale scientific computing. These policies differ in the way processors are partitioned among the jobs as well as in the way jobs are prioritized for execution on the partitions. We consider new static, adaptive and dynamic policies that differ from previously proposed policies by exploiting user-supplied information about the resource requirements of submitted jobs. We examine the performance characteristics of these policies from both the system and user perspectives. Our results demonstrate that existing static schemes do not perform well under varying workloads, and that the system scheduling policy for such workloads must distinguish between jobs with large differences in execution times. We show that obtaining good performance under adaptive policies requires somea prioriknowledge of the job mix in these systems. We further show that a judiciously parameterized dynamic space-sharing policy can outperform adaptive policies from both the system and user perspectives. © 1997 Academic Press.