FT-OpenVZ: A Virtualized Approach to Fault-Tolerance in Distributed Systems

摘要

We present FT-OpenVZ, a full check pointing and fault-tolerant solution for virtual private server (VPS) distributed computing. FT-OpenVZ extends OpenVZ's VPS check pointing to include full VPS check pointing for MPI applications, including incremental file system check pointing and user-assisted restart of checkpoints. With our solution, we extend the state of virtual machine/VPS fault-tolerance to any MPI-based distributed solution. By check pointing all child processes, threads, and files within a distributed system, we provide a framework for future fault-tolerance work. For added resiliency to node failure, we include checkpoint replication and show that its use dramatically decreases the burden of check pointing on network storage/centralized storage solutions. Using replication, FT-OpenVZ eliminates any need for network storage or centralized servers, reducing the impact of check pointing on non-participating cluster nodes/users. Further, we show that by using replication our solution is scalable, where network storage and centralized server-based solutions are not. Our analysis is based on the NAS Parallel Benchmarks with cluster sizes up to 64 nodes. Using these benchmarks we examine the overhead of check pointing with replication, demonstrating low overhead for virtualized check pointing.