vSched: Optimizing Task Scheduling in Cloud VMs

vSched is a novel approach to task scheduling in cloud virtual machines, providing accurate vCPU abstraction and enhancing performance across various VM types. This repository contains everything you need to run and experiment with vSched.

Authors

• Edward Guo (Hofstra University)
• Weiwei Jia (University of Rhode Island)
• Xiaoning Ding (New Jersey Institute of Technology)
• Jianchen Shan (Hofstra University)

All inquiries regarding this project should be directed to Edward, at eguo3@pride.hofstra.edu.

Important Note

This is the main repository for vSched. This repository contains all components necessary to run and experiment with vSched, including the custom kernel and userland programs.

⚠️ vSched is intended for x86 Intel systems
vSched is built and tested on an x86 Intel system with Ubuntu. Different configurations are not supported.

Repository Structure

This repository contains:

• vsched_kernel/: A custom Linux kernel with vSched modifications
• vtopology/: vTopology prober for vSched
• vcapacity/: vCapacity prober for vSched
• setup_vsched.sh: Script to install and prepare system for vsched
• activate_vsched_bpf.sh: Script to activate IVH and BPF
• activate_vsched_total.sh: Ease-of-use script to setup and run vsched directly

Using vSched

Installing Host Prerequisites and creating a VM

Skip this section if you already have a suitable VM.

1.Install virsh on your host system:

sudo apt update
sudo apt install qemu-kvm libvirt-daemon-system

2.Create a VM using the GUI or follow the guide at

https://deploy.equinix.com/developers/guides/kvm-and-libvirt/

3.Access your VM via GUI, SSH, or 'virsh console'

Setup and run vSched's Kernel

⚠️ The following steps should be performed inside your VM, not on the host system.

1.Install prerequisites:

sudo apt update
sudo apt install -y git build-essential libncurses5-dev bison flex libssl-dev libelf-dev gcc make git 

2.Clone the repository and it's submodules:

git clone --recurse-submodules https://github.com/vSched/vsched_main.git
cd ./vsched_main

3.Compile and install:

cd vsched_kernel
cp cust_vsch_config .config
sudo make oldconfig
sudo make -j$(nproc)
sudo make modules_install
sudo make install
sudo update-grub
sudo reboot

After reboot, verify you're running the new kernel:

uname -r

The output should show:

6.1.36-vsched

4.Alter the path at the head of VCFS's Makefile to the location of ./vsched_kernel

sudo nano ./vsched_kernel/tools/bpf/vcfs/Makefile

Change the following line to the location of the custom kernel on your system

# FIX ME
TREE=/home/ubuntu/vsched_main/vsched_kernel

5.Run the setup bash script

sudo ./setup_vsched.sh

Running the Probers

1. Check the README in vCapacity and vTopology for more information on how to run and configure each tool individually.

2. If you want to run vcapacity without custom starting parameters

(cd ./vcapacity && sudo ./vcap &)

3. If you want to run vtopology without custom starting parameters

(cd ./vtopology && sudo ./vtop &)

Running vSched

1. After running the probers, use the bash scripts to enable the rest of vsched (IVH and BVS):

sudo ./activate_vsched_bpf.sh

2. If you want to run vSched in it's entirety, this script takes care of all the previous steps except for installing/running the kernel

sudo ./activate_vsched_total.sh

Deactivating vSched

1.Run the deactivation script

sudo ./deactivate_vsched.sh