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Borg: The Next Generation [pdf]

eurosys2020.org

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Re: Borg: The Next Generation [pdf]

#13
post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can't you run Kubernetes? (which is the open-source project from Google inspired by Borg)

Kubernetes is very different from Borg.

Can you share how? I’ve heard of borg previously as a inspiration for open source k8s but I’m surprised to hear that it’s very different.

Re: Borg: The Next Generation [pdf]

#15

Does Borg also track and allocate network usage? That has been an issue for me in compute environments in the past for high IO situations.

Google's network tracks and manages network usage at the edge. I'm not sure if experts would say that was done "by borg" or not. On each host there is a "host enforcer" which manages flows to and from that host. You can read all about it at [1]. I don't think there are any publications suggesting that Borg uses network flow rate for scheduling.

1: https://research.google/pubs/pub43838/

Re: Borg: The Next Generation [pdf]

#16

How much different/better/worse is this compared to Kubernetes?

Much simpler to use as a user. I'd say the k8s API is very much over designed and has artifacts that you don't find in other job description languages. Or can anyone explain me the need for StorageClasses, PVCs and PVs with CSI mixins just to access some files?

As a scheduler it's much more powerful in capabilities, scalability and performance. It was designed to react to different workload demands in huge clusters very quickly. Imagine a data center goes offline and you need to spin up the search engine while killing a map reduce with 20k workers. A borg cluster is war zone, priorities and quotas win.

Re: Borg: The Next Generation [pdf]

#17

Was involved in this research project for a few months in early 2019. Feel free to post some questions that are not sensitive to internal details, and I can answer them here. Edit: not one of the coauthors, since I left the team in April 2019.

How do people who work on Borg look at kubernetes? Is it the real "next generation"

Re: Borg: The Next Generation [pdf]

#18

How much different/better/worse is this compared to Kubernetes?

k8s and borg are similar in the same way as gRPC and stubby: very similar in conceptual architecture, quite different in objective outcomes. Read the linked article to see that Borg cells have over ten thousand machines each, then note that k8s falls apart with 5000 machines. k8s supports up to 100 pods per node, and you query this trace data to see how that compares to borg. k8s in my experience can schedule about 5 pods per second, and this paper gives much higher figures for borg.

Re: Borg: The Next Generation [pdf]

#19
post #3

Interesting, I can only wish to run this sort of tech for my own small company.

I think you shouldn't - it's like wishing you could drive an 18-wheeler to do grocery. Most people don't need that kind of firepower ever, and that's a good thing - where are you going to park your 18-wheeler, for starters?
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