The dispatch mode determines how the Load Balancer selects nodes to distribute workflow tasks. The Load Balancer uses the following dispatch modes:
Round-robin. The Load Balancer dispatches tasks to available nodes in a round-robin fashion. It checks the Maximum Processes threshold on each available node and excludes a node if dispatching a task causes the threshold to be exceeded. This mode is the least compute-intensive and is useful when the load on the grid is even and the tasks to dispatch have similar computing requirements.
Metric-based. The Load Balancer evaluates nodes in a round-robin fashion. It checks all resource provision thresholds on each available node and excludes a node if dispatching a task causes the thresholds to be exceeded. The Load Balancer continues to evaluate nodes until it finds a node that can accept the task. This mode prevents overloading nodes when tasks have uneven computing requirements.
Adaptive. The Load Balancer ranks nodes according to current CPU availability. It checks all resource provision thresholds on each available node and excludes a node if dispatching a task causes the thresholds to be exceeded. This mode prevents overloading nodes and ensures the best performance on a grid that is not heavily loaded.
When the Load Balancer runs in metric-based or adaptive mode, it uses task statistics to determine whether a task can run on a node. The Load Balancer averages statistics from the last three runs of the task to estimate the computing resources required to run the task. If no statistics exist in the repository, the Load Balancer uses default values.
In adaptive dispatch mode, the Load Balancer can use the CPU profile for the node to identify the node with the most computing resources.
You configure the dispatch mode in the domain properties.