Achieving Near-Linear Scalability Using Solaris OS on NUMA Architectures

Modern systems seek to maximize execution efficiency in three ways: by giving a thread an affinity for the processor on which it most recently ran, by giving a thread an affinity for the processor that is “closest” to the memory that the thread needs to access (lgroups in the Solaris OS), and by using large L2 and L3 caches. Sometimes these policies are not enough to ensure efficient and scalable execution.

Intelligent policy-based scheduling would help, but the operating system can only do so much. An experienced competent analyst with sufficient knowledge of the workload can make the crucial difference between a smooth-running efficient system and an unscalable, erratically performing system.