Multi-Site Virtual Cluster Management Mechanism for Grid Computing Environments

Grid computing is a term referring to the combination of computer resources from multiple administrative domains to reach a common goal. The grid can be thought of as a distributed system with noninteractive workloads that involve a large number of files. What distinguishes grid computing from conventional high performance computing systems such as cluster computing is that grids tend to be more loosely coupled, heterogeneous, and geographically dispersed. Although a grid can be dedicated to a specialized application, it is more common that a single grid will be used for a variety of different purposes. Grids are often constructed with the aid of general-purpose grid software libraries known as middleware. Grid computing is a promising technology for utilizing distributed computing resources seamlessly. However, it is still difficult for end-users to deploy and manage their own computing environments into large number of distributed locations easily and rapidly. Recent grid technologies do not address the problems involved in distributed deployment and management of grid-enabled system programs; they do not allow end-users to obtain computing resources dynamically from different locations and organizations, and to build their computing systems with them easily and scalably. Therefore, we propose a user-oriented, distributed deployment and management mechanism for grid computing systems, based on multi-site virtual clusters. It enables end-users to easily configure grid computing environments on distributed computing resources through their own large-scale clusters of virtual machines. It is composed of inter-domain resource control protocols, resource virtualization technologies including virtual machines and virtual private networks, and scalable virtual node management mechanisms