Hierarchical resource management for enhancing performance of large-scale simulations on data centers

More and more interests have been shown to move large-scale simulations on modern data centers composed of a large number of virtualized multi-core computers. However, the simulation components (Federates) consolidated in the same computer may have imbalanced simulation workloads. Similarly, the computers involved in the same simulation execution (Federation) may also have imbalanced simulation workloads. Hence, federates may waste a lot of computer resources on time synchronization with each other. In this paper, a hierarchical resource management system is proposed to enhance simulation execution performance. Federates in the federation are enraptured in their individual Virtual Machines (VMs), which are consolidated on a group of virtualized multi-core computers. On the computer level, multiple VMs share the resource of the computer according to the simulation workloads of their corresponding federates. On the federation level, some VMs are migrated for workload balance purpose. Therefore, computer resources are fully utilized to conduct useful simulation workloads, avoiding the synchronization overheads. Experiments using synthetic and real simulation workloads have verified that the hierarchical resource management system enhances simulation performance significantly.