Characterization and management of I/O on multiprogrammed parallel systems

Most studies of resource management in multiprogrammed parallel systems have ignored the I/O performed by applications. Recent studies have demonstrated that significant I/O operations are performed by a number of different classes of parallel applications. This paper focuses on some basic issues that underlie I/O management and system performance in multiprogrammed parallel environments that run applications with I/O. Characterization of the I/O behavior of parallel applications is discussed first followed by an investigation of three different I/O management strategies. Based on simulation models this research demonstrates a strong relationship among I/O characteristics of applications, I/O management strategies, and system performance. For example, using CPU-I/O overlap in applications and I/O management strategies that incorporate data replication are found to be beneficial for a variety of different multi-programmed parallel environments.