SZTAKI desktop grid: adapting clusters for desktop grids

Although clusters usually represent a single large resource for grid computing, most of the time they are utilized as individual resources for desktop grids. This chapter presents a lightweight, fault-tolerant approach for connecting firewalled already deployed clusters for desktop grid computing. It allows to easily offer cluster resources for desktop grids without requiring a large administrative overhead of connecting them separately. Our approach uses Condor for cluster management and an extended version of BOINC to connect those resources across the Internet or wide area networks. We describe security considerations and present our security model for the system and sharing resources. We present running projects where our solution is being used to utilize already deployed clusters requiring low effort from administrators