Section: Software and Platforms

OAR : Batch scheduler for clusters and grids

Participant : Olivier Richard [correspondent] .

The OAR project (see http://oar.imag.fr ) focuses on robust and highly scalable batch scheduling for clusters and grids. Its main objectives are the validation of grid administration tools such as Taktuk , the development of new paradigms for grid scheduling and the experimentation of various scheduling algorithms and policies.

The grid development of OAR has already started with the integration of best effort jobs whose purpose is to take advantage of idle times of the resources. Managing such jobs requires a support of the whole system from the highest level (the scheduler has to know which tasks can be canceled) down to the lowest level (the execution layer has to be able to cancel awkward jobs). OAR is perfectly suited to such developments thanks to its highly modular architecture. Moreover, this development is used for the CiGri grid middleware project.

The OAR system can also be viewed as a platform for the experimentation of new scheduling algorithms. Current developments focus on the integration of theoretical batch scheduling results into the system so that they can be validated experimentally.