Load balancing and fault tolerance in workstation clusters migrating groups of communicating processes

ABSTRACT

In the past, several process migration facilities for distributed systems have been developed. Due to the complex nature of the subject, all those facilities have limitations that make them usable for only limited classes of applications and environments. We discuss some of the usual limitations and possible solutions. Specifically, we focus on migration of groups of collaborating processes between Unix systems without kernel modifications, and from this we derive the design for a migration system. First experiences with our implementation show that we reach performance figures for the migration that are close to those of real distributed operating system.

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INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  D. Software
  D.4 OPERATING SYSTEMS

Additional Classification:
  C. Computer Systems Organization
  C.5 COMPUTER SYSTEM IMPLEMENTATION
      C.5.3 Microcomputers
          Subjects: Workstations

  D. Software
  D.4 OPERATING SYSTEMS
      D.4.0 General

          Nouns: UNIX

General Terms:
Design, Measurement, Performance, Theory