Active Control of Memory for Java Virtual Machines and Applications

A controller is implemented to manage memory as an elastic resource similar to computing cycles for Java applications. The controller actively arbitrates constrained memory between collocated JVMs in response to demand. A key aspect of the work is that JVM metrics are used as proxies for application KPIs so that application performance instrumentation and modeling are not required. A metric corresponding to the allocation rate of memory is derived from the JVM metrics and established as the measure of application performance and is used as the effective feedback mechanism to the controller. The controller is based on a fair share policy in which memory is distributed to equalize the marginal performance value to all JVMs. The design is tested for effectiveness and stability using the suite of SPECjvm2008 and SPECjbb2005 benchmarks.