How to build a high-performance compute cluster for the Grid

The success of large-scale multi-national projects like the forthcoming analysis of the LHC particle collision data at CERN relies to a great extent on the ability to efficiently utilize computing and data-storage resources at geographically distributed sites. Currently, much effort is spent on the design of Grid management software (Datagrid, Globus, etc.), while the effective integration of computing nodes has been largely neglected up to now. This is the focus of our work. We present a framework for a high-performance cluster that can be used as a reliable computing node in the Grid. We outline the cluster architecture, the management of distributed data and the seamless integration of the cluster into the Grid environment