Model-Free Control for Resource Harvesting in Computing Grids

Cloud and High-Performance Computing (HPC) systems are increasingly facing issues of dynamic variability, in particular w.r.t. performance and power consumption. They are becoming less predictable, and therefore demand more runtime management by feedback loops. In this work, we describe results addressing autonomic administration in HPC systems through a control theoretical approach. We more specifically consider the need for controllers that can adapt to variations a long time in the behavior of controlled systems, but also to being reused on different systems and processors. We therefore explore the application of Model-Free Control (MFC) in the context of resource harvesting in a Computing Grid, by regulating the injection of flexible jobs while limiting perturbation of the prioritary applications.