Xen2MX: Towards High-Performance Communication in the Cloud

Abstract

Abstract. Efficient VM communication in Cloud computing infrastructures is an important aspect of HPC application deployment in clusters of VMs. In this paper we present Xen2MX, a high-performance messaging protocol, binary compatible with Myrinet/MX and wire compatible with MXoE. Its design is based on MX and its port over generic Ethernet adapters, Open-MX. Xen2MX combines the zero-copy characteristics of Open-MX with Xen's memory sharing techniques, in order to construct the most efficient data path for high-performance communication, achievable with software techniques. Using Xen2MX, we are able to reduce the round-trip latency to 14µs, compared to directly attached devices (13µs) and to a software bridge setup (44µs).

Xen2MX: High-performance communication in virtualized environments

“…Numerous studies both in native [8,16] and virtualized environments [5,6,18,20,22,23,24,25,26,40] explore the implications of alternative data-paths that increase the system's I/O throughput, helping applications overcome significant bottlenecks in data retrieval from storage or network devices. However, near-native I/O performance for Virtual Machines (VMs) in a generic cloud environment, built from offthe-shelf components, is still far from being achieved.…”

“…Unfortunately, in the cloud context, I/O-intensive applications suffer from poor performance [22,33,40], due to various intermediate layers that abstract away the physical characteristics of the underlying hardware and multiplex the application's access to I/O resources. This limitation is one of the most important reasons that HPC applications are not widely deployed in virtualized environments [35].Numerous studies both in native [8,16] and virtualized environments [5,6,18,20,22,23,24,25,26,40] explore the implications of alternative data-paths that increase the system's I/O throughput, helping applications overcome significant bottlenecks in data retrieval from storage or network devices. However, near-native I/O performance for Virtual Machines (VMs) in a generic cloud environment, built from offthe-shelf components, is still far from being achieved.…”

Αποδοτικός Διαμοιρασμός Πόρων Εισόδου / Εξόδου Σε Περιβάλλοντα Εικονικών Μηχανών

“…Πολλές εργασίες σε φυσικά [11,24] και εικονικά [7,8,27,29,31,32,33,34,35,51] περιβάλλοντα ερευνούν τη δυνατότητα παράκαμψης των μονοπατιών δεδομένων που δημιουργούν αυτή την καθυστέρηση με σκοπό την αύξηση της επίδοσης της Ε/E, βοηθώντας τις εφαρμογές να παρακάμψουν τη συμφόρηση στην ανάκτηση/τοποθέτηση δεδομένων από/ προς συσκευές αποθήκευσης ή δικτύωσης. Παρόλα αυτά, σε εικονικό περιβάλλον, η επίδοση των συστημάτων E/E με συμβατικό υλικό, παρουσιάζεται σημαντικά μειωμένη σε σχέση με την αντίστοιχη σε φυσικό περιβάλλον.…”