XtreemOS
Last November the XtreemOS project
announced
XtreemOS 2.0, the second public release of its Grid operating system; motto
"Making Grid Computing Easier
".
Grid computing is a form of distributed computing where computers are loosely coupled, heterogeneous, and may be geographically dispersed. In other words a grid consists of several different computers that may be located anywhere in the world. Clusters, on the other hand, are generally made up of several similar computers, co-located and on the same network.
XtreemOS 2.0 is based on
Mandriva 2009.0 but includes the tools to create a grid with laptops,
desktops and servers or to create clusters. According to the release notes
"XtreemOS is a Linux-based operating system providing the basic
functionalities that are expected in a Grid system: Application Execution
Management, Data Management and Virtual Organization
Management.
"
One unique feature of XtreemOS is its use of XtreemFS, a replicated and distributed object-based file system. According to the XtreemFS user guide, this file system is POSIX compliant, multi-platform, globally distributed, failure-tolerant, secure and customizable. XtreemFS 1.2 is the current version, announced last month.
While XtreemOS is aimed at grid computing, it can also be used to create
clusters using Kerrighed clustering technology.
"Kerrighed is a Single System Image operating system for
clusters. Kerrighed offers the view of a unique SMP machine on top of a
cluster of standard PCs.
" Kerrighed is implemented as a set of
modules and kernel patches, so it can be used on other Linux systems, but
like XtreemFS it is nicely integrated into XtreemOS.
Grid computing, at its simplest, could be a good collaboration tool, allowing you to distribute and replicate your files on a friend's computer or just use it to keep your laptop in sync with your desktop. Grid computing is certainly good for large computing tasks, but with XtreemOS you can easily play around with smaller grids.
If you are attending the EuroSys conference (in Paris next April), there will be a half-day tutorial about XtreemOS.