A dynamic co-allocation service in multicluster systems

In multicluster systems, and more generally in grids, jobs may require co-allocation, i.e., the simultaneous allocation of resources such as processors in multiple clusters to improve their performance. In previous work, we have studied processor co-allocation through simulations. Here, we extend this work with the design and implementation of a dynamic processor co-allocation service in multicluster systems. While an implementation of basic co-allocation mechanisms has existed for some years in the form of the DUROC component of the Globus Toolkit, DUROC does not provide resource-brokering functionality or fault tolerance in the face of job submission or completion failures. Our design adds these two elements in the form of a software layer on top of DUROC. We have performed experiments that show that our co-allocation service works reliably.