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Vitalii Koshura edited this page Jul 15, 2024 · 8 revisions

Grid computing with BOINC

Grid versus volunteer computing

Grid computing is a form of distributed computing in which an organization (business, university, etc.) uses its existing computers (desktop and/or cluster nodes) to handle its own long-running computational tasks. This differs from volunteer computing in several ways:

  • The computing resources can be trusted; i.e. one can assume that the PCs don't return results that are intentionally wrong, and that they don't falsify credit. Hence there is typically no need for replication.
  • There is no need for screensaver graphics; in fact it may be desirable to have the computation be completely invisible and out of the control of the PC user.
  • Client deployment is typically automated.

Using BOINC as a grid platform

Although it was originally designed for volunteer computing, BOINC works very well for grid computing. The steps in creating a BOINC-based grid are:

To ensure that outside hosts can't participate in your project or access its files, configure your firewall to prevent HTTP access to your BOINC server.

Some resources

  • The SZTAKI desktop grid project has developed software allowing hierarchical organizations to share resources in a way that reflects the hierarchy.

  • The University of Extremadura is using BOINC to allow a group of peer organizations to form a computational grid. They have developed an open-source system called Jarifa for this purpose.

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