Load balancing across near-homogeneous multi-resource servers

An emerging model for computational grids interconnects similar multi-resource servers from distributed sites. A job submitted to the grid can be executed by any of the servers; however, resource size or balance may be different across servers. One approach to resource management for this grid is to layer a global load distribution system on top of the local job management systems at each site. Unfortunately, classical load distribution policies fail on two aspects when applied to a multi-resource server grid. First, simple load indices may not recognize that a resource imbalance exists at a server. Second, classical job selection policies do not actively correct such a resource imbalanced state. We show through simulation that new policies based on resource balancing perform consistently better than the classical load distribution strategies.