Performance tools for large-scale clusters

ABSTRACT

Identifying factors that limit large-scale cluster scalability remains a challenging area of research. Several efforts have focused on developing tools to address different aspects of this problem space. Presenters from both industry and research will describe their tools, including: monitoring cluster-wide utilizations of system components (CPUs, memory, I/O, interconnect), monitoring node-level load (memory bandwidth, cache/TLB misses, stall components), high-frequency, low-overhead, fine-grained application profiling.Our first goal is to discuss how such tools can be helpful for improving application performance, reducing hot-spots, and determining the best match between applications and platforms. The second goal is to solicit developers' and users' experiences with problems in this space and ideas and techniques that might help address them.

INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  D. Software
  D.4 OPERATING SYSTEMS
      D.4.7 Organization and Design
          Subjects: Distributed systems

Additional Classification:
  D. Software
  D.4 OPERATING SYSTEMS
      D.4.8 Performance

General Terms:
Performance