Experiments with allocation of processes across network clusters

Based on configuration and resource capacities of individual nodes in network cluster, find the placement of the processes across the cluster that satisfies the constraints imposed by processing demands.

Constraint programming, bin packing with side constraints.

• MiniZinc models

Below is an instance of a 4-node cluster configuration, with 8 processes we'd like to place on cluster nodes, such that the demand for resources required by processes and the inter-process communication requirements would be satisfied.

The node resources consist of:

• available memory
• available load
• network bandwidth (in and out)

The process demands consist of

• memory;
• load;
• the volume of outgoing network traffic

Additionally:

• The topology of the cluster describes how the nodes are connected;
• The process communication requirements describe the connectivity between processes.

• Capacities per node

• Demand per process

• Cluster topology

• Process communications

  • process1 ⮕ process3
  • process1 ⮕ process8
  • process2 ⮕ process7

The following placement of processes onto the cluster nodes satisfies the requirements described above: