CSR: Small: System Support for Transiency in Data Center and Cloud Computing

今天的分布式应用程序是使用隐含的假设来构建的，即底层数据中心服务器将是稳定的并且正常可用的，除非偶尔发生故障。 然而，在许多新兴场景中，数据中心和云只能提供其服务器的瞬时可用性，而不是连续可用性。 现代分布式系统中的瞬态出现在许多情况下，例如使用可再生间歇源供电的绿色数据中心，提供可以从其用户抢占的低成本现场服务器实例的云平台，或者当智能电网发出信号时自愿减少其能量使用的智能数据中心。 这个项目提出了分布式系统设计的新研究，将瞬态作为一个一流的设计原则。 由于传统的容错方法过于昂贵或不适合处理由瞬态引起的服务器间歇性可用性，该项目为现代数据中心和云平台提出了新的低成本瞬态机制。 针对绿色数据中心的瞬态问题，提出了一种基于有限迁移的虚拟化机制，并将其应用于系统级瞬态管理算法的设计。 对于云平台，该项目侧重于瞬态算法，智能管理稳定的按需和瞬态现货服务器的不同组合。 最后，为了处理由于智能电网交互引起的瞬态，该项目提出了新的机制来明智地调节能源使用，而不会影响应用程序的性能。 该项目采用了基于原型实现和实验评估的系统驱动的方法，使用现实的应用程序来展示这些瞬态机制的好处。 分布式系统的设计，包括瞬态有可能显着增加数据中心内可再生能源的使用，并更好地集成现代数据中心和云平台与智能电网。 该项目的更广泛影响将包括研究生课程，纳入研究成果，本科生暑期研究项目，推广到当地的K-12学校的绿色计算，并发布源代码的瞬态算法的研究社区。

Today's distributed applications are built using the implicit assumption that the underlying data center servers will be stable and normally available, barring for occasional faults. In many emerging scenarios, however, data centers and clouds only provide transient, rather than continuous, availability of their servers. Transiency in modern distributed systems arises in many contexts such as green data centers powered using renewable intermittent sources, cloud platforms that provide lower-cost spot server instances which can be preempted from their users, or smart data centers that voluntarily curtail their energy usage when signaled by the smart electric grid. This project proposes new research in distributed systems design that treats transiency as a first-class design principle. Since traditional fault-tolerance methods are too expensive or not well suited to handling the intermittent availability of servers caused by transiency, this project proposes new low-cost transiency mechanisms for modern data center and cloud platforms. For transiency in green data centers, the project focuses on a new virtualization mechanism based on bounded migration, and applies it to design system-wide transiency management algorithms. For cloud platforms, the project focuses on transiency algorithms that intelligently manage different mixes of stable on-demand and transient spot servers. Finally, to handle transiency due to smart grid interactions, the project proposes new mechanisms to judiciously modulate energy use without impacting application performance. The project employs a systems-driven approach based on prototype implementation and experimental evaluation using realistic application to demonstrate the benefits of these transiency mechanisms. The design of distributed systems that incorporate transiency have the potential to significantly increase the use of renewable energy sources within data centers and better integrate modern data centers and cloud platforms with the smart grid. Broader impacts of the project will include graduate courses that incorporate research results, undergraduate summer research projects, outreach to local K-12 schools in green computing, and the release of source code for the transiency algorithms to the research community.