A multicriteria approach to two-level hierarchy scheduling in grids

In this paper we address a multicriteria scheduling problem for computational Grid systems. We focus on the two-level hierarchical Grid scheduling problem, in which at the first level (the Grid level) a Grid broker makes scheduling decisions and allocates jobs to Grid nodes. Jobs are then sent to the Grid nodes, where local schedulers generate local schedules for each node accordingly. A general approach is presented taking into account preferences of all the stakeholders of Grid scheduling (end-users, Grid administrators, and local resource providers) and assuming a lack of knowledge about job time characteristics. A single-stakeholder, single-criterion version of the approach has been compared experimentally with the existing approaches.