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Title: A checkpoint compression study for high-performance computing systems

Journal Article · · International Journal of High Performance Computing Applications
 [1];  [2];  [1]
  1. Univ. of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM (United States). Dept. of Computer Science
  2. Sandia National Laboratories (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States). Scalable System Software Dept.
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As high-performance computing systems continue to increase in size and complexity, higher failure rates and increased overheads for checkpoint/restart (CR) protocols have raised concerns about the practical viability of CR protocols for future systems. Previously, compression has proven to be a viable approach for reducing checkpoint data volumes and, thereby, reducing CR protocol overhead leading to improved application performance. In this article, we further explore compression-based CR optimization by exploring its baseline performance and scaling properties, evaluating whether improved compression algorithms might lead to even better application performance and comparing checkpoint compression against and alongside other software- and hardware-based optimizations. Our results highlights are: (1) compression is a very viable CR optimization; (2) generic, text-based compression algorithms appear to perform near optimally for checkpoint data compression and faster compression algorithms will not lead to better application performance; (3) compression-based optimizations fare well against and alongside other software-based optimizations; and (4) while hardware-based optimizations outperform software-based ones, they are not as cost effective.

Research Organization:
Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA)
DOE Contract Number:
AC04-94AL85000
OSTI ID:
1426906
Report Number(s):
SAND2014-15140J; 534304
Journal Information:
International Journal of High Performance Computing Applications, Vol. 29, Issue 4; ISSN 1094-3420
Publisher:
SAGE
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

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Related Subjects

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING
fault tolerance
checkpoint/restart
checkpoint compression