UNIT – III

PROCESS AND RESOURCE MANAGEMENT: Process

migration: Features - Mechanism. Resource
Management: Load balancing approach - Load sharing
approach
 2
Process Management in a Distributed Environment

Main goal of process management

in DS is to make best possible use
of existing resources by providing
mechanism and policies for sharing
them among processors
 Concept of Process

Process: An system
operating an instance
representing abstraction
of a running
computer program
Consists of data, stack, register the
contents, and specific to the state
underlying OS
Can have of
Consists one or own
their more threads
stack of
and register
control
contents, but share a process’s address
space and signals.
 Process management

Conventional OS: deals with the mechanisms

and policies for sharing the processor of the
system among all processes
Distributed operating system: To make best
possible use of the processing resources
of the entire system by sharing them
among all processes
Three concepts to achieve this goal:
Processor allocation:Deals with the process
of deciding which process should be assigned to
which processor
Process migration: Deals with the movement of a
process from its current location to the processor
to which it has been assigned
 Process Migration
Process Migration
The act of transferring a process between two
machines during its
execution
Relocation of a process from its source
current location (the another node node) to
(the destination node)
Goals of Process Migration
Dynamic load distribution
Fault resilience
Improved system administration
Data access locality
Process migration
mechanism
 Process Migration

Two types:
Preemptive process migration
Process may be migrated during the course of its
execution
Non preemptive process migration
Process may be migrated before it starts executing on
its source node

Involves three steps:

Selection of a process that should be
migrated
Selection of the destination node to which
the selected process should be migrated
Actual transfer of the selected
 Desirable Features
Transparency
Object access level -minimum requirement to support non
preemptive process migration- access to the object should be in
location independent manner. System must provide mechanism for
transparent object naming and locating
System call and interprocess communication level- migrating process
should not depend on origination node- system calls and IPC should
be done in location independent manner.
Minimal interference
Migration of a process should cause minimal interference to the
progress of the process
Can be done by minimizing freezing time
Freezing time: a time for which the execution of the process is
stopped for
transferring its information to the destination node
Minimal residual dependencies
Migrated process should not continue to depend on its previous node
once it has started executing on new node
Efficiency
Time required of migrating a process
The cost of locating an object
 Robustn
The ess
failure of a node other than the one on which a process is
currently running should not affect the execution of that process
Communication between coprocesses of a job- Single
job distributed over multiple nodes – to minimize the
communication cost co-processes should be able to directly
able to communicate with each other irrespective of location
Process Migration Mechanisms

Four major sub activities

Freezing and restarting the
process
Transfer of process’s address
space
Forwarding messages meant
for the migrant process
Handling communication
between cooperating processes
 Process Migration Mechanisms
Mechanisms for freezing and restarting a
process
General issues involved in freezing and
restarting
Immediate and Delayed blocking of the
process at
Process may
interruptible be blocked
priority waitingimmediately
for a kernel or delayed
event an
to
if occur,
the process
it canisbe
not executing ablocked
immediately system from
call
ifblocked
further immediately
execution
the process is executing a system call and
if the process
sleeping at nonis executing a system
interruptible call but
priority is
waiting
sleeping
for a kernel event to occur, it can not be blocked
immediately
Fast and Slow I/O operation
frozen after the completion of all fast I/O
operations
 Process Migration Mechanisms
Mechanisms for freezing and restarting a
process
Information about the open files
No problem for network transparent execution
environment
What about UNIX like systems???
creation of link
Reconstruction of file’s path when required
What about frequently used files like
commands???
What about temporary files?
Reinstating the process on its destination
node
Creation of a new process
Process identifier
 Process Migration Mechanisms
Address Space Transfer Mechanisms
Information to be transferred from source node to
destination node:
Process’s state information – Execution status, scheduling
info, info about main mem, IO states,list of objects to which
process has rights to access, process identifier, processes
user and grp identifier, info abt file opened by the process
Process’s address space – Code ,data and stack of the
program
Difference between the size of process’s state
information(few kilobytes) and address space (MB)
Possible to transfer the address space without
stopping its execution
Not possible to resume execution until the state
information is fully transferred
Three methods for address space transfer
Total Freezing
 Process Migration Mechanisms

Total Freezing
Execution is
whstoppedits
ile address
sp
transferredis being
acProcess is
foresuspended
a long time
during migration
Simple and
easy to
implement
Not suitable
for interactive
process
 Process Migration Mechanisms
Pretransferring
(precopying)
Address space is
transferred while the
process is still running on
the source
Initial node of the
transfer
complete
address space
followed transfers
repeated by of
the pagesduring previous
modified
transfer
Remainingmodified
pages are
retransferred after the
process is frozen for
transferring its state
information
freezing time is reduced
Pretransfer operation is executed at a higher priority than
all other programs
on the source node
Total time of migration is increased due to the possibility of
redundant page transfers
 Process Migration Mechanisms
Transfer on
reference
Based on the
assumption that the
process tends to use
only a relatively small
part of their from
transferred address
space whiledestination
its source
node to executing.
Anode
page of when
only the address
space is driven copy on
referenced
Demand
reference approach
Switching time is very short and independent of the size of
the address space
Not efficient in terms of cost
Imposes continued load on process’s source node
Results in failure if source node fails or reboots
 Process Migration Mechanisms
Message forwarding mechanisms
Ensures that all pending, en-route and future messages arrive at
the process’s new location
Classification of the messages to be forwarded
Type 1: Messages received at the source node after the process’s
execution has been stopped on its source node and process’s
execution has not yet been started on its destination node
Type 2: Message received at the source node after the process’s
execution has started on its destination node
Type 3: Messages that are to be sent to the migrant process from any
other node after it
has started executing on the destination node
Mechanism of Resending the Message
Messages of type 1 and 2 are returned to the sender as not
deliverable or are simply dropped
Locating a process is required upon the receipt of the nonnegative
reply (messages of type 3)
Drawback: nontransparent to the processes interacting with the
migrant process
 Process Migration Mechanisms
Message forwarding mechanisms: Origin Site
Mechanism
Process
Each siteidentifier has the
is responsible forprocess’s
keeping origin site(orhome
information node) of
current location
embedded
about in it
the processes created on it all the
Messages are sent to the origin site first and
from there
they are forwarded
Drawbacks:1. to the
not good from current location
reliability point of view
2. continuous load on migrant process’s original site
Link Traversal mechanism
Uses message queue for storing messages of type 1
Use of link (a forwarding address) for messages of type 2 and 3
Link has two components: process identifier and last known location
of the process
Migrated process is located by traversing a series of links
Drawbacks: 1. poor efficiency 2. poor reliability
Link Update mechanism
Processes communicate via location independent links
During the transfer phase, the source node sends link update
kern
 Process Migration Mechanisms
Mechanisms for handling coprocesses
Communication between a process and its subprocesses
Two different mechanisms
Disallowing separation of Coprocesses
By disallowing the migration of processes that wait for one
or more of their children to complete.
By ensuring that when a parent process migrates, its
children processes will be migrated along with it
Concept of logical host
Process id is structured as {logical host-id, local-index} pair
Drawback :1. Does not allow parallelism within jobs 2. Overhead is large
when logical host contains several processes
home node or origin site concept
Complete freedom of migrating a process or its subprocesses
independently and executing them on different nodes
Drawback:Message traffic and communication cost is significant
 Advantages of process migration
Reducing average response time of processes
Speeding up individual jobs
Execute tasks of a job concurrently
To migrate a job to a node having faster CPU
Gaining higher throughput
Using suitable load balancing policy
Utilizing resources effectively
Depending on the nature of the process, it can be migrated to the
most suitable node
Reducing network traffic
Migrate the process closer to the resources it is using most
heavily
To migrate and cluster two or more processes which frequently
communicate with each other, on the same node
improving system reliability
Migrating critical process to more reliable node
Improving system security
A sensitive process may be migrated and run on the secure node
Resource Management
in Distributed Systems
 Introduction

Distributed systems contain a set of

resources interconnected by a
network
Processes are migrated to fulfill
their resource requirements
Resource manager are to control
the assignment of resources to
processes
Resources can be logical (shared
file) or physical (CPU)
We consider a resource to be a
Types of process scheduling techniques

Task assignment approach

User processes are collections of
related tasks
Tasks are scheduled to improve
performance
Load-balancing approach
Tasks are distributed among
nodes so as to equalize the
workload of nodes of the system
Load-sharing approach
Simply attempts to avoid idle
nodes while processes wait for
Desirable features of a scheduling algorithm

No A Priori Knowledge about Processes

User does not want to specify information about
characteristic and requirements
Dynamic in nature
Decision should be based on the changing load of
nodes and not on fixed static policy
Quick decision-making capability
Algorithm must make quick decision about the
assignment of task to nodes of system
Balanced system performance and scheduling
overhead
Great amount of information gives more intelligent
decision, but
increases overhead
Desirable features of a scheduling algorithm
Stability
Unstable when all processes are migrating without
accomplishing any useful work
It occurs when the nodes turn from lightly-loaded to
heavily-loaded state and vice versa
Scalability
A scheduling algorithm should be capable of handling
small as well as large networks
Fault tolerance
Should be capable of working after the crash of one or
more nodes of the system
Fairness of Service
More users initiating equivalent processes expect to
receive the same quality of service
 Load-balancing approach

Load-balancing
algorithms
St Dyna
ati mic
c

Determin Probabili Centrali Distrib

istic stic zed uted

Cooperative Noncooperative
A Taxonomy of Load-Balancing
Algorithms
 Load-balancing approach
Type of load-balancing algorithms

Static versus Dynamic

Static algorithms use only
information about the average
behavior of the system
Static algorithms ignore the current
stateor load of the nodes in the system
Dynamic algorithms collect state
information and react to system state if
it changed
Static algorithms are much more simpler
Dynamic algorithms are able to give
significantly better performance
 Load-balancing approach
Type of static load-balancing algorithms

Deterministic versus Probabilistic

Deterministic algorithms use the
information about the properties of the
nodes and the characteristic of processes
to be scheduled
Probabilistic algorithms use information of
static attributes of the system (e.g.
number of nodes, processing capability,
topology) to formulate simple process
placement rules
Deterministic approach is difficult to
optimize
 Load-balancing approach
Type of dynamic load-balancing algorithms

Centralized versus Distributed

Centralized approach collects
information to server node and makes
assignment decision
Distributed approach contains entities
to make decisions on a predefined set of
nodes
Centralized algorithms can make
efficient decisions, have lower fault-
tolerance
Distributed algorithms avoid the
bottleneck of collecting state
 Load-balancing approach
Type of distributed load-balancing algorithms

Cooperative versus Noncooperative

In Noncooperative algorithms entities
act as autonomous ones and make
scheduling decisions independently
from other entities
In Cooperative algorithms distributed
entities cooperatewith each other
Cooperative algorithms are more
complex and involve larger overhead
Stability of Cooperative algorithms are
better
 Issues in designing Load-
balancing algorithms
Load estimation policy
determines how to estimate the workload of a
node
Process transfer policy
determines whether to execute a process locally or
remote
State information exchange policy
determines how to exchange load information
among nodes
Location policy
determines to which node the transferable process
should be sent
Priority assignment policy
determines the priority of execution of local and
remote processes
 Load estimation policy I.
for Load-balancing algorithms
To balance the workload on all the nodes of
the system, it is necessary to decide how
to measure the workload of a particular
node
Some measurable parameters (with and
time dependent factor) can be the node
following:
Total number of processes on the node
Resource demands of these processes
Instruction mixes of these processes
Architecture and speed of the node’s processor
Several load-balancing algorithms use the
total number of processes to achieve big
efficiency
 Load estimation policy II.
for Load-balancing algorithms
In some cases the true load could vary
widely depending on the remaining
service time, which can be measured in
several way:
Memoryless method assumes that all
processes have the same expected
remaining service time, independent of the
time used so far
Pastrepeats assumes that the remaining
service time is
equal to the time used so far

Distribution method states that if the

distribution service times is known, the
associated process’s remaining service time
Load estimation policy III.
for Load-balancing algorithms

None of the previous methods can be

used in modern systems because of
periodically running processes and
daemons
An acceptable method for use as the load
estimation policy in these systems would
be to measure the CPU utilization of the
nodes
Central Processing Unit utilization is
defined as the number of CPU cycles
actually executed per unit of real time
It can be measured by setting up a timer
 Process transfer policy I.
for Load-balancing algorithms
Most of the algorithms use the threshold policy
to decide on whether the node is lightly-
loaded or heavily-loaded
Threshold value is a limiting value of the
workload of node which can be determined by
Static policy: predefined threshold value for each
node depending on processing capability
Dynamic policy: threshold value is calculated from
average workload and a predefined constant
Below threshold value node accepts processes
to execute, above threshold value node tries
to transfer processes to a lightly-loaded node
 Process transfer policy II.
for Load-balancing algorithms
Single-threshold policy may lead to unstable
algorithm because underloaded node could turn to
be overloaded right after a process migration
To reduce instability double-threshold policy has
been proposed which is also known as high-low
policy
Overloaded

High
Thres mark
Underloade
hold Low
d
mark

Single-threshold Double-threshold
policy policy
 Process transfer policy III.
for Load-balancing algorithms

Double threshold policy

When node is in overloaded region new
local processes are sent to run
remotely, requests to accept remote
processes are rejected
When node is in normal region new local
processes run locally, requests to
accept remote processes are rejected
When node is in underloaded region
new local processes run locally,
requests to accept remote processes
are accepted
 Location policy I.
for Load-balancing algorithms
Threshold method
Policy selects a random node, checks whether
the node is able to receive the process, then
transfers the process. If node rejects, another
node is selected randomly. This continues until
probe limit is reached.
Shortest method
L distinct nodes are chosen at random, each is
polled to determine its load. The process is
transferred to the node having the minimum
value unless its workload value prohibits to
accept the process.
Simple improvement is to discontinue probing
whenever a node
 Location policy II.
for Load-balancing algorithms
Bidding method
Nodes contain managers (to send processes) and
contractors (to receive processes)
Managers broadcast a request for bid,
contractors respond with bids (prices based on
capacity of the contractor node) and manager
selects the best offer
Winning contractor is notified and asked whether
it accepts the
process for execution or not

Full autonomy for the nodes regarding scheduling

Big communication overhead
Difficult to decide a good pricing policy
 Location policy III.
for Load-balancing algorithms

Pairing
Contrary to the former methods the pairing
policy is to reduce the variance of load only
between pairs
Each node asks some randomly chosen
node to form a pair with it
If it receives a rejection it randomly selects
another node and tries to pair again
Two nodes that differ greatly in load are
temporarily paired with each other and
migration starts
The pair is broken as soon as the migration is
over
A node only tries to find a partner if it
 State information exchange policy I
for Load-balancing algorithms
Dynamic policies require frequent
exchange of state information, but these
extra messages arise two opposite
impacts:
Increasing the number of messages gives more
accurate scheduling decision
Increasing the number of messages raises the
queuing time of messages
State information policies can be the
following:
Periodic broadcast
Broadcast when state changes
On-demand exchange
Exchange by polling
State information exchange policy II.
for Load-balancing algorithms

Periodic broadcast
Each node broadcasts its state information
after the elapse of every T units of time
Problem: heavy traffic, fruitless messages,
poor scalability since information exchange is
too large for networks having many nodes
Broadcast when state changes
Avoids fruitless messages by broadcasting the
state only when a process arrives or
departures
Further improvement is to broadcast only
when state switches to another region
(double-threshold policy)
State information exchange policy III.
for Load-balancing algorithms
On-demand exchange
In this method a node broadcast a State-
Information-Request message when its state
switches from normal to either underloaded or
overloaded region.
On receiving this message other nodes reply
with their own state information to the
requesting node
Further improvement can be that only those
nodes reply which are useful to the requesting
node
Exchange by polling
To avoid poor scalability (coming from broadcast
messages) the partner node is searched by
 Priority assignment policy
for Load-balancing algorithms

Selfish
Local processes are given higher priority than remote
processes. Worst
response time performance of the three policies.
Altruistic
Remote processes are given higher priority than local
processes. Best response time performance of the three
policies.
Intermediate
When the number of local processes is greater or equal to
the number of remote processes, local processes are
given higher priority than remote processes. Otherwise,
remote processes are given higher priority than local
processes.
 Migration limiting policy
for Load-balancing algorithms

This policy determines the total number of

times a process can migrate
Uncontrolled
A remote process arriving at a node is treated just as a
process originating at a node, so a process may be
migrated any number of times
Controlled
Avoids the instability of the uncontrolled policy
Use a migration count parameter to fix a limit on the
number of time a process can migrate
Irrevocable migration policy: migration count is fixed to 1
For long execution processes migration count must be
greater than 1 to adapt for dynamically changing states
 Load-sharing approach

Drawbacks of Load-balancing approach

Load balancing technique with attempting equalizing the
workload on all the nodes is not an appropriate object
since big overhead is generated by gathering exact state
information
Load balancing is not achievable since number of
processes in a node is always fluctuating and temporal
unbalance among the nodes exists every moment
Basic ideas for Load-sharing approach
It is necessary and sufficient to prevent nodes from being
idle while some other nodes have more than two
processes
Load-sharing is much simpler than load-balancing since it
only attempts to ensure that no node is idle when heavily
node exists
Priority assignment policy and migration limiting policy are
the same as that
Load estimation policies
for Load-sharing algorithms

Since load-sharing algorithms simply

attempt to avoid idle nodes, it is
sufficient to know whether a node is
busy or idle
Thus these algorithms normally employ
the simplest load estimation policy of
counting the total number of processes
In modern systems where permanent
existence of several processes on an idle
node is possible, algorithms measure
CPU utilization to estimate the load of a
node
 Process transfer policies
for Load-sharing algorithms
Algorithms normally use all-or-nothing
strategy
This strategy uses the threshold value of all
the nodes fixed to 1
Nodes become receiver node when it has no
process, and become sender node when it
has more than 1 process
To avoid processing power on nodes having
zero process load-sharing algorithms use a
threshold value of 2 instead of 1
When CPU utilization is used as the load
estimation policy, the double-threshold
 Location policies I.
for Load-sharing algorithms

Location policy decides whether the

sender node or the receiver node of the
process takes the initiative to search for
suitable node in the system, and this
policy can be the following:
Sender-initiated location policy
Sender node decides where to send the
process
Heavily loaded nodes search for lightly
loaded nodes
Receiver-initiated location policy
Receiver node decides from where to get
the process
 Location policies II.
for Load-sharing algorithms
Sender-initiated location policy
Node becomes overloaded, it either broadcasts or randomly
probes the other
nodes one by one to find a node that is able to receive remote
processes

When broadcasting, suitable node is known as soon as

reply arrives
Receiver-initiated location policy
Nodes becomes underloaded, it either broadcast or
randomly probes the other nodes one by one to indicate
its willingness to receive remote processes
Receiver-initiated policy require preemptive process
migration facility since scheduling decisions are
usually made at process departure epochs
 Location policies III.
for Load-sharing algorithms

Experiences with location policies

Both policies gives substantial performance
advantages
over the situation in which no load-sharing is
attempted

Sender-initiated policy is preferable at light to

moderate system loads
Receiver-initiated policy is preferable at high
system loads
Sender-initiated policy provide better
performance for the case when process
transfer cost significantly more at receiver-
initiated than at sender-initiated policy due to
State information exchange policies
for Load-sharing algorithms

In load-sharing algorithms it is not necessary for the nodes

to periodically exchange state information, but needs to
know the state of other nodes when it is either
underloaded or overloaded
Broadcast when state changes
In sender-initiated/receiver-initiated location policy a node
broadcasts State Information Request when it becomes
overloaded/underloaded
It is called broadcast-when-idle policy when receiver-initiated
policy is used
with fixed threshold value value of 1
Poll when state changes
In large networks polling mechanism is used
Polling mechanism randomly asks different nodes for state
information until find an appropriate one or probe limit is
reached
It is called poll-when-idle policy when receiver-initiated policy
is used with