Scheduling Objectives Which scheduling objective best fits this policy: “Admit jobs to create a mix that will keep most devices (CPU, disks, printers, network) busy”?

Difficulty: Easy

Correct Answer: To balance resource utilization

Explanation:


Introduction / Context:
Schedulers aim to meet various objectives: fairness, priority adherence, predictability, throughput, and resource balance. Some workloads saturate one device while leaving others idle; a balanced job mix increases overall system efficiency.


Given Data / Assumptions:

  • Heterogeneous jobs with different resource profiles (CPU-bound, I/O-bound).
  • Goal is to keep most subsystems productively engaged.


Concept / Approach:
Resource balancing admits and sequences jobs so that bottlenecks are minimized and idle times on other resources are reduced. It often increases throughput and improves average response time.


Step-by-Step Solution:
Classify incoming jobs by dominant resource usage.Adjust admission and dispatching to interleave CPU-bound with I/O-bound jobs.Monitor utilization; revise mix to avoid single-resource saturation.


Verification / Alternative check:
Utilization metrics (CPU, disk, network) trending closer to target ranges after policy changes confirm improved balance. Queue lengths and response times should reflect reduced contention.


Why Other Options Are Wrong:
Fairness (Option A) focuses on equitable time, not explicit subsystem balancing.Priority (Option C) enforces importance order, not necessarily balance.Predictability (Option D) emphasizes consistent behavior, not utilization mix.


Common Pitfalls:

  • Over-prioritizing one metric (e.g., fairness) at the expense of system throughput.
  • Ignoring changing workload patterns; balancing should be dynamic.


Final Answer:
To balance resource utilization.

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