A kernel integrated task migration infrastructure for clusters of workstations

The processing and the communication capacities of interconnected workstati ons are currently not prohibitive for executing parallel and distributed ap plications. The programs can be executed on remote workstations yet deliver the results locally or where they are required, provided the overhead is t olerable. This capability opens up a whole new era. With a task (or process ) migration facility, it would be possible to utilize abundant processing p ower and realize fail-proof execution of applications, This paper presents a task migration infrastructure (TMI), which allows tasks to dynamically mi grate amongst the workstations. It incorporates parallel and distributed ap plications. Contrary to other studies, TMI is partly integrated into the UN IX kernel in the form of enhancements (E-kernel) and it is based on a dedic ated message passing communication interface. TMI is to serve as an infrast ructure for higher level usage such as fault tolerance, load balancing, and resource utilization. The experimental results have acknowledged the feasi bility of TMI, in particular for long running applications. (C) 2000 Elsevi er Science Ltd. All rights reserved.