Efficient resource management for running multiple concurrent jobs in a computational grid environment

Managing resources in Grid is an intricate issue and is not possible at the application or user level. Grid provides uniform access to heterogeneous resources owned by multiple organizations. Any time a new resource can join the Grid or an existing resource can withdraw. The system loads and status of the resources also change frequently. Thus, a resource broker is an essential component in a Grid environment that can assist in the selection of a right resource provider for a job in all aspects. This paper discusses the design and implementation of resource brokering strategies within the multi-agent framework. These strategies help in finding out an optimal allocation of resources for executing multiple concurrent jobs in a Grid environment. Different stages in resource brokering and their implementation within the framework are discussed. The paper also presents results of evaluating the strategies and demonstrates their effectiveness.

► A multi-agent system for performance-based resource management and the design of a resource broker are presented in this paper.
► An application is considered as a batch of jobs and initial resource brokering is performed for the entire batch.
► A hybrid approach to resource brokering is suggested, initially centralized scheduling, and thereafter, distributed at the time of rescheduling.
► Jobs are scheduled according to their requirements and the estimated capabilities of the resources.
► It is ensured that the overall performance of the entire batch is optimized instead of focusing on performance improvement of individual jobs.