If you have issues with the load balancer, have a look at "my" version:
https://github.com/datacratic/StarCluster. At the end of the readme there
is a section about various improvements I have made and the load balancer
is the one that I have improved the most.
You mention working on a grid engine scheduler. You probably already know,
but just in case: Have you taken a look at the *allocation_rule *parameter*?
*It allows *to configure *the allocation strategy as either "round robin"
or "fill up".