Nutanix, Inc.
ACCELERATING BACKGROUND TASKS IN A COMPUTING CLUSTER

Abstract:

Systems for high-performance computing. A method operates in a distributed storage cluster platform that has a storage pool and computing nodes that concurrently execute foreground tasks and background tasks. A uses interacts with a user interface to input specifications of background task time windows. Background tasks that run within the time frame of a background task time window are permitted to be scheduled at a relatively higher resource usage rate that consumes relatively higher cluster resources than do background task tasks that run outside of the background task time window. When the background task time window closes, the relatively higher resource usage rate of the running cluster background tasks is reduced to a relatively lower resource usage rate. Background tasks can self-observe the background task time windows and/or can be controlled by messages received from a virtualized controller that is designated to perform cluster-wide observations and to make cluster-wide determinations.