Single System Image with Virtualization Technology for Cluster Computing Environment

Single system image (SSI) for clusters has ever been one of the hot topics in the research field of parallel computer architecture, since SSI supports easier programming and administration for cluster environment. Currently, most SSI studies focused on the middleware level on the top of operating system, leading to some problems of poor transparency, low performance and so on. This paper presents a novel solution using a distributed virtual machine monitor (DVMM) on the basis of hardware-assisted virtualization technologies. The DVMM contains some symmetrical and cooperative VMMs distributed on multi-nodes. The cooperation among the VMMs virtualizes the distributed hardware resources. Thus, the DVMM can support an unmodified legacy operating system to run transparently on the distributed nodes of a cluster. Our solution significantly outperforms other state of SSI solutions, and has more transparency,high performance and easy implementation.