An Efficient Policy-Based Scheduling and Allocation of Virtual Machines in Cloud Computing Environment

Abstract

Cloud computing has become the most challenging research field in the current information technology scenario. In this, a set of user tasks are scheduled and allocated to numerous kinds of heterogeneous virtual machines (VMs) in cloud data centers (CDCs), and these VMs are hosted by diverse types of heterogeneous physical machines (PMs). It extends several features, encompassing elasticity, safety, sustainability, and even adequate maintenance compared to traditional data centers. There are numerous techniques available for VM scheduling and allocation. However, it still requires the existence of new mechanisms that can reduce the execution time (ET) of the tasks, improve the optimization of energy usage and resource utilization (RU), and reduce time consumption. Along with optimization, VM scheduling (VMS) and VM allocation (VMA) are two-level issues that need to be considered with essential policies to govern these mechanisms. Hence, for executing optimal VMS and VMA in the data center, new optimization methodologies, such as enhanced shark smell optimization algorithm (ESSOA) at the first level and Brownian movement-centered gravitation search algorithm (BMGSA) at the second level, are proposed in this work to define the policies. Firstly, the user requests for VMs are reserved on the most appropriate PM by the proposed ESSOA, which has the lowest execution cost within deadline limits, and the proposed BMGSA decides the allocation of the chosen VM on the most appropriate PM within the resource limitations at the second level. To demonstrate the proposed algorithm’s efficiency, the simulations are carried out using the Java language-based CloudSim simulator, and the proposed mechanism outcomes acquired are compared with the existing approaches. The simulation results show that the suggested algorithm is efficient in terms of the execution cost, degree of imbalance (DOI), make span (MS), and resource utilization (RU).