UnaGrid: On Demand Opportunistic Desktop Grid

Abstract

This paper deals with the design and implementation of a virtual opportunistic grid infrastructure that allows taking advantage of the idle processing capabilities currently available in the computer labs of a university campus, ensuring local users to have priority in accessing the computational resources, while simultaneously, a virtual cluster takes the resources unused by them. A virtualization strategy is proposed to allow the deployment of opportunistic virtual clusters which integration provides a scalable grid solution capable of supplying the high performance computing (HPC) needs required for the development of e-Science projects. The proposed solution was implemented and tested through the execution of opportunistic virtual clusters with customized application environments for projects of different scientific disciplines, evidencing high efficiency in result generation.