Self-adaptive provisioning of virtualized resources in cloud computing

Abstract

In this paper, we propose a distributed learning mechanism that facilitates self-adaptive virtual machines resource provisioning. We treat cloud resource allocation as a distributed learning task, in which each VM being a highly autonomous agent submits resource requests according to its own benefit. The mechanism evaluates the requests and replies with feedback. We develop a reinforcement learning algorithm with a highly efficient representation of experiences as the heart of the VM side learning engine. We prototype the mechanism and the distributed learning algorithm in an iBalloon system. Experiment results on a Xen-based cloud testbed demonstrate the effectiveness of iBalloon.