Abstract

We present a transparent, system-level checkpointing solution for master-worker parallelism that automatically adapts, upon restart, to the number of processor nodes available. This is important, since nodes in a cluster fail. It also allows one to adapt to using multiple cluster partitions and multiple resources from the Computational Grid, as they become available. Checkpointing a master-worker computation has the additional advantage of needing to checkpoint only the master process. This is both fast and more economical of disk space. This has been demonstrated by checkpointing Geant4, a million line C++ program. Our solution has been implemented in the context of TOP-C (Task Oriented Parallel C/C++), a free, open-source parallel package, although it can easily be ported to additional master-worker packages.

Notes

Originally published in Cluster Computing and the Grid, 2006. CCGRID 06. Sixth IEEE International Symposium on, vol.1, 9 pp., 16-19 May 2006. doi: 10.1109/CCGRID.2006.106

Keywords

checkpointing, cluster computing, Geant4, C++, TOP-C

Subject Categories

Fault-tolerant computing

Disciplines

Computer Sciences

Publication Date

5-2006

Rights Information

Copyright 2006

Restrictions

Personal use of this material is permitted. Permission from IEEE must be obtained for all other users, including reprinting/ republishing this material for advertising or promotional purposes, creating new collective works for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or reuse of any copyrighted components of this work in other works.

Rights Holder

IEEE


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