Improving the MPI-IO performance of applications with genetic algorithm based auto-tuning

Abstract

Parallel I/O is an essential part of scientific applications running on high-performance computing systems. Under- standing an application’s parallel I/O behavior and identifying sources of performance bottlenecks require a multi-layer view of the I/O. Typical parallel I/O stack layers offer many tunable parameters that can achieve the best possible I/O performance. However, scientific users do often not have the time nor the experience for investigating the proper combination of these parameters for each application use-case. Auto-tuning can help users by automatically tuning I/O parameters at various layers transparently. In auto-tuning, using naive strategy, running an application by trying all possible combinations of tunable parameters for all layers of the I/O stack to find the best settings is an exhaustive search through the huge parameter space. This strategy is infeasible because of the long execution times of trial runs. In this paper, we propose a genetic algorithm-based parallel I/O auto-tuning approach that can hide the complexity of the I/O stack from users and auto-tune a set of parameter values for an application on a given system to improve the I/O performance. In particular, our approach tests a set of parameters and then, modifies the combination of these parameters for further testing based on the I/O performance. We have validated our model using two I/O benchmarks, namely IOR and MPI-Tile-IO. We achieved an increase in I/O bandwidth of up to 7.74×over the default parameters for IOR and 5.59× over the default parameters for MPI-Tile-IO.