SER334 Assignment 2 Solution

Implementing Load Balancing
Summary: In this homework, you will be implementing the main multi-threaded logic for doing batchbased server load balancing using mutexes.
1 Background
In this assignment you will write a batch-based load balancer. Consider a server which handles data processing based on user requests. In general, a server has only a xed set of hardware resources that it can use to satisfy user requests. This is problematic since servers can be become overloaded. One common scaling feature that is implemented is load batching (a form of load balancing). On modern platforms, it is possible to spin up a virtual instance server using a cloud environment (e.g., AWS, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud) to handle speci c needs. The idea of cloud computing has gained traction as a way to deal with scalability and maintance issues. Examples include internet-based storage, computing, or services, which are accessed by client-based devices or by web browsers. As more requests are made, more servers instance are spawned. This gives the ability to seamlessly scale up to peaks in user requests. Although this provides a good way to scale resources, the cost of spinning up a new server is non-trivial. Thus, gateway servers tend to collect a batch of requests before starting a server instance. Your goal in this assignment is to implement the multi-threaded load balancer server logic that will mimic the process of creating server instances to process batches of requests as they come in. Note that while this system is conceptually a network situation, we will be modeling it as a set of functions spread across three les.
At a high level, the load balancer server waits for a speci c number of requests to be made before spawning an instance server in a cloud-like environment, and initializing the instance with the appropriate work. We call the number of requests that should be serviced the batch size, and assume that the server instances are designed so they can handle exactly batch size number of requests at a time. The load balancer starts to form a batch as soon as it receives as least one request and continues to add requests to the batch until the batch is full (i.e., the batch size is reached). At that point, the load balancer will spawn a new server instance using the instance host to begin processing the batch. The load balancer makes sure that server instances are only initialized when enough requests have been made. Internally, the load balancer will add requests to a list which is then forwarded to a instance server once it reaches the appropriate size. As the requests are handled by the individual server instances, each instance will store the result into output location given by the creator of the request.
2 System Architecture
Conceptually, the system is divided into three main components: users, the load balancing server, and the server instance host. Figure 1 shows these components and how they are related.
1. User: A user is a person who utilizes the system to get a job done. Users make a requests to the load balancer server. A request consists of the id of the user, some data payload, and a place to store the result of processing. A request is also called a job. On completion of the request from the server, the result (which will be computed by some instance) will be stored in the location speci ed in the request.
2. Load Balancer Server: The load balancer server acts as a gateway that is a middle layer between server instances and the users, it is used to distribute incoming tra c to di erent servers capable of ful lling those requests in a manner that maximizes throughput, and ensures that no one server is overworked.
3. Server Instance Host: The server instance host is a cloud-like environment which can dynamically create server instances to deliver resources (e.g., compute time) on demand. Changes to one server instance do not have any e ect on other instances. Unlimited server instances can be run within a host environment at any given time. Each server instance takes a batch of requests, and processes it.

Figure 1: Structural overview of the system containing users, a load balancer, and a server host.
Figure 2 shows an overview of the system ow. Behaviorally, the load balancer rst receives requests from users. Once the load balancer has received enough requests, it adds the requests to a batch, instantiates a new server instance, and sends the batch to it. After a batch has been received, it is processed, and the results saved where the user speci ed.

Figure 2: Behavioral overview depicting how system elements communicate.
2.1 System Model
For this scenario, we will not be implementing a full networked solution of di erent programs runing across multiple computers, but rather model it as a set of functions spread across di erent les. The implementation will be done using three les which provide the functionality needed by each of the system components. For example, we will have a le called InstanceHost.c which contains a function called host_request_instance(). When the load balancer in our system needs to create an instance, it will simply called host_request_instance() from InstanceHost.c. It will not make any sort of network connection. The goal is simply to use C functions which t into the overall conceptual framework given by the problem.
The network will be modeled using three les. User.c will receive input for amount of user making requests, and the batch size. During execution, a thread will be generated to represent each user request. Each request will be passed to LoadBalancer.c. LoadBalancer.c, after receiving requests from User.c, will construct a batch (a linked list). The batch will be passed to InstanceHost.c which will remove the requests from the batch, and process it. Batches will be represented as a linked list of nodes, with nodes containing the pieces of information (id, data, result address) required by each request. Note that a job will simply consistent of squaring a number.
3 Requirements [36 points]
For your submission will you create two new les: LoadBalancer.c (which includes LoadBalancer.h, and InstanceHost.h), and InstanceHost.c (which includes InstanceHost.h). You will not need to make changes to User.c, LoadBalancer.h, or InstanceHost.h. Your task is to implement the functionality as de ned in LoadBalancer.h and Instance.h in their respective .c les.
The number of requests (N) and batch size (K) will be provided as an input during execution. Each request will run on an individual thread. Requests will be received by the load balancer which will instantiate new server instances depending on batch size. The LoadBalancer will create a linked list (up to size K) as requests are made and which will be protected by a mutex to ensure only one request is added at a time. After a batch has been lled, the batch is sent to a new server instance. Once in a thread on the host, the linked list’s requests are processed and the results are given as an output. Throughout the lifetime of the program, create only one LoadBalancer and one InstanceHost object. Global variables not permitted for LoadBalancer or InstanceHost.
1. LoadBalancer.c: A le containing a set of functions to simulate a load balancer. [20 points total]
(a) balancer* balancer_create(int batch_size): Initializes the load balancer. Takes batch size as parameter. [2 points]
(b) void balancer_destroy(balancer** lb): Shuts down the load balancer. Ensures any outstanding batches have completed. [3 points]
• If there are leftover jobs (too few to have spawned an instance host normally), then create an instance host to handle them. [5 points]
(c) void balancer_add_job(balancer* lb, int user_id, int data, int* data_return): Adds a job to the load balancer. The linked list of jobs must be protected by a mutex. [6 points]
• If enough jobs have been added to ll a batch, the load balancer will request a new instance from InstanceHost. [4 points]
2. InstanceHost.c: A le containing a set of functions to simulate a cloud-like server instance host. [16 points total]
(a) void host_create(): Initializes the host environment. [3 points]
(b) void host_destroy(host** h): Shuts down the host environment. Ensures any outstanding batches have completed. [3 points]
(c) void host_request_instance(host* h, struct job_node* batch): Creates a new server instance (i.e., thread) to handle processing the items contained in a batch (i.e., a listed list of job_node). Server instances are modeled as threads which process a list of jobs. [5 points]
• Data must be processed (the data value squared) and returned to user (using the result pass-by-reference). [5 points]
User #1: Wants to process data=77 and store it at 0xb2a00470 .
LoadBalancer : Received new job from user #1 to process data=77 and store it at 0xb2a00470 . User #4: Wants to process data=49 and store it at 0xb2c00480 .
LoadBalancer : Received new job from user #4 to process data=49 and store it at 0xb2c00480 .
User #5: Wants to process data=62 and store it at 0x95f89c0 .
LoadBalancer : Received new job from user #5 to process data=62 and store it at 0x95f89c0 .
User #8: Wants to process data=40 and store it at 0x95f89d0 .
LoadBalancer : Received new job from user #8 to process data=40 and store User #3: Wants to process data=93 and store it at 0x95f89b0 . it at 0x95f89d0 .
LoadBalancer : Received new job from user #3 to process data=93 and store LoadBalancer : Received batch and spinning up new instance .
User #9: Wants to process data=72 and store it at 0xb2a004a0 . it at 0x95f89b0 .
LoadBalancer : Received new job from user #9 to process data=72 and store User #7: Wants to process data=63 and store it at 0xb2c00490 . it at 0xb2a004a0 .
LoadBalancer : Received new job from user #7 to process data=63 and store User #6: Wants to process data=90 and store it at 0xb2a00490 . it at 0xb2c00490 .
LoadBalancer : Received new job from user #6 to process data=90 and store User #0: Wants to process data=83 and store it at 0xb2c00470 . it at 0xb2a00490 .
LoadBalancer : Received new job from user #0 to process data=83 and store User #2: Wants to process data=86 and store it at 0xb2a00480 . it at 0xb2c00470 .
LoadBalancer : Received new job from user #2 to process data=86 and store LoadBalancer : Received batch and spinning up new instance .
User #0: Received result from data=83 as result =6889.
User #3: Received result from data=93 as result =8649.
User #6: Received result from data=90 as result =8100.
User #1: Received result from data=77 as result =5929.
User #8: Received result from data=40 as result =1600.
User #5: Received result from data=62 as result =3844.
User #4: Received result from data=49 as result =2401.
User #7: Received result from data=63 as result =3969.
User #2: Received result from data=86 as result =7396.
User #9: Received result from data=72 as result =5184. it at 0xb2a00480 .
This output was generated with 10 user requests and a batch size of 5. Since the users make requests after waiting a random amount of time your output will di er. To get this output, you will need to add two lines to your lines:
//as f i r s t line of balancer_add_job : printf (" LoadBalancer : Received new job from user #%d to process data=%d and store it at %p. " , user_id , data , data_return );
//as f i r s t line of host_request_instance : printf (" LoadBalancer : Received batch and spinning up new instance . ");
3.1 Basecode
For this assignment, three base les are provided: User.c, LoadBalancer.h, and InstanceHost.h. These les together make up the logic of our system.
1. User.c: A program to simulate multiple users simultaneously requesting work (a "job") to be carried by a load balancing server and returned to the user. A job is to compute the square of a number.
(a) int main(): Entry point to simulation.
(b) void* simulate_user_request(void* user_id): simulates a user requesting work to be done a server.
2. LoadBalancer.h: A le containing de nitions for a set of functions to simulate a load balancer.
(a) void balancer_init(int batch_size): Initializes the load balancer.
(b) void balancer_shutdown(): Shuts down the load balancer.
(c) void balancer_add_job(int user_id, int data, int* data_return): Adds a job to the load balancer.
3. InstanceHost.h: A le containing de nitions for a set of functions to simulate a cloud-like server instance host.
(a) void host_init(): Initializes the host environment.
(b) void host_shutdown(): Shuts down the host environment.
(c) void host_request_instance(struct job_node* batch): Creates a new server instance to handle processing the items contained in a batch.
4 Include Files
• pthread.h: De nes functionality for manipulating mutexes.
Useful functions
∗ int pthread_mutex_init(pthread_mutex_t *mutex, const pthread_mutexattr_t *attr): function initialises the mutex referenced by mutex with attributes speci ed by attr.
∗ int pthread_mutex_lock(pthread_mutex_t *mutex): The mutex object referenced by mutex is locked by calling pthread_mutex_lock(). If the mutex is already locked, the calling thread blocks until the mutex becomes available.
∗ int pthread_mutex_unlock(pthread_mutex_t *mutex): The pthread_mutex_unlock() function releases the mutex object referenced by mutex.
∗ int pthread_mutex_destroy(pthread_mutex_t *mutex): The pthread_mutex_destroy() function shall destroy the mutex object referenced by mutex; the mutex object becomes, in e ect, uninitialized.
5 Submission
The submission for this assignment has one part: a source code submission. The le should be attached to the homework submission link on BlackBoard.
Writeup: For this assignment, no write up is required.