Open-MPI over MOSIX: paralleled computing in a clustered world

Abstract: Recent increased interest in Cloud computing emphasizes the need to find an adequate solution to the load-balancing problem in parallel computing -- efficiently running several jobs concurrently on a cluster of shared computers (nodes). One approach to solve this problem is by preemptive process migration -- the transfer of running processes between nodes. A possible drawback of this approach is the increased overhead between heavily communicating processes. This project presents a solution to this last problem by incorporating the process migration capability of MOSIX into Open-MPI and by reducing the resulting communication overhead. Specifically, we developed a module for direct communication (DiCOM) between migrated Open-MPI processes, to overcome the increased communication latency of TCP/IP between such processes. The outcome is reduced run-time by improved resource allocation.