DMTCP: Transparent checkpointing for cluster computations and the desktop
23 May 2009-pp 1-12
TL;DR: DMTCP as mentioned in this paper is a transparent user-level checkpointing package for distributed applications, which is used for the runCMS experiment of the Large Hadron Collider at CERN, and it can be incorporated and distributed as a checkpoint-restart module within some larger package.
Abstract: DMTCP (Distributed MultiThreaded CheckPointing) is a transparent user-level checkpointing package for distributed applications. Checkpointing and restart is demonstrated for a wide range of over 20 well known applications, including MATLAB, Python, TightVNC, MPICH2, OpenMPI, and runCMS. RunCMS runs as a 680 MB image in memory that includes 540 dynamic libraries, and is used for the CMS experiment of the Large Hadron Collider at CERN. DMTCP transparently checkpoints general cluster computations consisting of many nodes, processes, and threads; as well as typical desktop applications. On 128 distributed cores (32 nodes), checkpoint and restart times are typically 2 seconds, with negligible run-time overhead. Typical checkpoint times are reduced to 0.2 seconds when using forked checkpointing. Experimental results show that checkpoint time remains nearly constant as the number of nodes increases on a medium-size cluster. DMTCP automatically accounts for fork, exec, ssh, mutexes/ semaphores, TCP/IP sockets, UNIX domain sockets, pipes, ptys (pseudo-terminals), terminal modes, ownership of controlling terminals, signal handlers, open file descriptors, shared open file descriptors, I/O (including the readline library), shared memory (via mmap), parent-child process relationships, pid virtualization, and other operating system artifacts. By emphasizing an unprivileged, user-space approach, compatibility is maintained across Linux kernels from 2.6.9 through the current 2.6.28. Since DMTCP is unprivileged and does not require special kernel modules or kernel patches, DMTCP can be incorporated and distributed as a checkpoint-restart module within some larger package.
Citations
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27 Feb 2021
TL;DR: The ELFie generation tool as mentioned in this paper is a set of tools that allow users to precisely capture any region of interest in program execution and create a stand-alone executable from it.
Abstract: We address the challenge faced in characterizing long-running workloads, namely how to reliably focus the detailed analysis on interesting execution regions. We present a set of tools that allows users to precisely capture any region of interest in program execution, and create a stand-alone executable, called an ELFie, from it. An ELFie starts with the same program state captured at the beginning of the region of interest and then executes natively. With ELFies, there is no fast-forwarding to the region of interest needed or the uncertainty of reaching the region. ELFies can be fed to dynamic program-analysis tools or simulators that work with regular program binaries. Our tool-chain is based on the PinPlay framework and requires no special hardware, operating system changes, recompilation, or re-linking of test programs. This paper describes the design of our ELFie generation tool-chain and the application of ELFies in performance analysis and simulation of regions of interest in popular long-running single and multi-threaded benchmarks.
8 citations
27 Jun 2012
TL;DR: Features and applications of a simulation framework for software-in-the-loop testing of realtime embedded control applications and use cases where the Validator is employed for evaluating integration of new control functions in existing systems, model refinement, and regression testing of automotive control software are presented.
Abstract: This paper describes features and applications of a simulation framework for software-in-the-loop testing of realtime embedded control applications. The Validator tool performs time-functional simulation of control software and its execution platform in closed-loop with Simulink plant models. It is based on a discrete event simulator which executes the application software on a host platform and simulates the passage of time according to execution times of application code and communication times pertaining to a given embedded target. The Validator also simulates functional behavior of operating system services and hardware components at a level of abstraction that enables capturing significant timing aspects without executing detailed hardware models. We present use cases where the Validator is employed for evaluating integration of new control functions in existing systems, model refinement, and regression testing of automotive control software.
8 citations
TL;DR: A user-level checkpoint/restart library into a resource manager, fully transparent to both the user and running application, which opens the door to a whole new set of tools and scheduling possibilities based on the fact that jobs can be migrated, checkpointed, and restarted on a different place or in a different moment.
Abstract: Until now, jobs running on HPC clusters were tied to the node where their execution started. We have removed that limitation by integrating a user-level checkpoint/restart library into a resource manager, fully transparent to both the user and running application. This opens the door to a whole new set of tools and scheduling possibilities based on the fact that jobs can be migrated, checkpointed, and restarted on a different place or in a different moment, while providing fault tolerance for every job running on the cluster. This is of utmost importance in the future generation of exascale HPC clusters, where an increasing degree and complexities of efficient scheduling make it challenging to obtain the required degree of parallelism demanded by the applications.
8 citations
07 Jul 2019
TL;DR: This paper designs Goldilocks, a novel resource provisioning system for optimizing both power and task completion time by allocating tasks to servers in groups by running a graph partitioning algorithm.
Abstract: Power management in data centers is challenging because of fluctuating workloads and strict task completion time requirements. Recent resource provisioning systems, such as Borg and RC-Informed, pack tasks on servers to save power. However, current power optimization frameworks based on packing leave very little headroom for spikes, and the task completion times are compromised. In this paper, we design Goldilocks, a novel resource provisioning system for optimizing both power and task completion time by allocating tasks to servers in groups. Tasks hosted in containers are grouped together by running a graph partitioning algorithm. Containers communicating frequently are placed together, which improves the task completion times. We also leverage new findings on power consumption of modern-day servers to ensure that their utilizations are in a range where they are power-proportional. Both testbed implementation measurements and large-scale trace-driven simulations prove that Goldilocks outperforms all the previous works on data center power saving. Goldilocks saves power by 11.7%-26.2% depending on the workload, whereas the best of the implemented alternatives, Borg, saves 8.9%-22.8%. The energy per request for the Twitter content caching workload in Goldilocks is only 33% of RC-Informed. Finally, the best alternative in terms of task completion time, E-PVM, has 1.17-3.29 times higher task completion times than Goldilocks across different workloads.
8 citations
06 Nov 2011
TL;DR: This paper introduces a process checkpointing tool that applies a cache to capture communication between the main process and its peers, and allows the model checker to complete state-space exploration.
Abstract: Verification of distributed software systems by model checking is not a straightforward task due to inter-process communication. Many software model checkers only explore the state space of a single multi-threaded process. Recent work proposes a technique that applies a cache to capture communication between the main process and its peers, and allows the model checker to complete state-space exploration. Although previous work handles non-deterministic output in the main process, any peer program is required to produce deterministic output. This paper introduces a process checkpointing tool. The combination of caching and process checkpointing makes it possible to handle non-determinism on both sides of communication. Peer states are saved as checkpoints and restored when the model checker backtracks and produces a request not available in the cache. We also introduce the concept of strategies to control the creation of checkpoints and the overhead caused by the checkpointing tool.
8 citations
References
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588 citations