Deploying an Ad-Hoc computing cluster overlaid on top of public desktops

A computer laboratory is often a homogeneous environment, in which the computers have the same hardware and software settings. Conducting system tests in this laboratory environment is quite challenging, as the laboratory is supposed to be shared with regular classes. This manuscript details the use of desktop virtualization to deploy dynamically a virtual cluster for testing and ad-hoc purposes. The virtual cluster can support an environment completely different from the physical environment and provide application isolation essential for separating the testing environment from the regular class activities. Windows 7 OS was running in the host desktops, and VMware Workstation was employed as the desktop virtualization manager. The deployed virtual cluster comprised virtual desktops installed with Ubuntu Desktop Linux OS. Lightweight applications using VMware VIX library and shell scripts were developed and employed to manage job submission to the virtual cluster. Evaluations on the virtual cluster's deployment show that we can leverage on desktop virtualization to quickly and dynamically deploy a testing environment while exploiting the underutilized compute resources.