[Bioclusters] Using semi-public PCs for heavy computation jobs

[Ron Chen]

GridEngine (SGE) 6.0 will integrate with JXTA,
offering JxGrid, to provide P2P workload management
like SETI@home.

http://gridengine.sunsource.net/project/gridengine/workshop22-24.09.03/proceedings.html
"Resource Discovery in Sun Grid Engine using JXTA"

However, SGE 6.0 is not available until May 2004. So I
suggest another package called "BOINC".

http://boinc.berkeley.edu

BOINC is free+opensource, supports multiple platforms
(Windows, Linux, Solaris, MacOSX).

Your approach of installing sshd/telnetd is OK, but
the sys.admins will not like opening a port, since
hackers can get in easiler. BOINC does not leave a
port open, and it uses http to get the workload (so
easiler to go through firewalls). Moreover, it allows
suspending the work when users access the machine, and
allow better scheduling. Further it has better file
transfer than home-made solutions.

I would suggest you to look at the link above as I do
not fully know all the features!

 -Ron

--- Arnon Klein <klein@pob.huji.ac.il> wrote:
> As part of my graduate research, I need to run a job
> of a genome-wide 
> scale. Using all of the computers available to me at
> my lab, this can 
> take about 6 months. We don't have a cluster...
> I am already making use of a students computer lab,
> after-hours. Those 
> computers run linux, and it was a no-brainer : just
> hacked some scripts 
> to rshell into the machines, activated by the crond.
> It's not enough, 
> though.
> While I'm looking at the option of getting or buying
> CPU time on a 
> cluster, I am also tempted to make use of other
> public PCs at the 
> campus. The ideal thing here is to have something
> like SETI@home or 
> Fold@home, but I would go for anything that will
> allow me to have my 
> jobs running on as many PCs as possible here, while
> not making me the 
> enemy of the system admins...
> We're talking about Windows based PCs (mostly 2000
> or XP), at least some 
> of them are managed using a central image.
> Right now it looks like the simplest option is to
> install sshd or telnet 
> service on them, and have a script that logs in
> after hours, and  
> execute some binary. However, I'm not sure this
> would go well with the 
> sys-admins (security implications?).
> I think it would be best if I can approach the
> authorities with a 
> sensible plan - first impressions are very
> important...
> 
> I would like to hear anything about this subject:
> configuration 
> suggestions, past experience, encouragements,
> discouragements, etc.
> 
> Arnon
> _______________________________________________
> Bioclusters maillist  - 
> Bioclusters@bioinformatics.org
>
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