-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 Hi Nick: I think what you're looking for is Condor, from the University of Wisconsin. They have software that can harvest Windows machine cycles without all the reboots you're describing. It allows the use of Windows computers whenever they're idle, not just overnight, and if Condor is using a machine when it's owner wants it, it just checkpoints the job and gives the machine back to the owner. Arnie Joe Landman wrote: | Hi Nick: | | Nick D'Angelo wrote: | |> In speaking to our R and D managers, they posed a good question. |> |> What about their desktop machines (relatively New Dell PCs), have them |> automatically shutdown and reboot, say at 8:00 pm and then join the |> cluster |> until 05:00 am. | | | This is called "Beowulf-at-night" or BAN. | |> |> Then at 5:00 am, initiate another reboot that will present the Windows |> Login |> for the 'normal business day'. | | | Its not "hard" to do, though how do you handle jobs which run longer | than usual, or machines that get wedged into some odd state? | |> |> This would make great use of the hundreds of computers that are mostly |> sitting idle during the off hours 'normal business day'. | | | You might wish to look at some offerings from Platform Computing. You | could tie those in with Cygwin or similar, and have a "unixish" place to | run code while retaining the desktop. You could also look at things | like United Devices. Just beware that there is a bit more of a | philosophical buy-in with that approach, and it is a bit more proprietary. | | Joe | |> |> Thoughts, suggestions always appreciated, thanks. |> |> Nick |> |> In case you need to know, I am likely going to install the BioBrew v3.x |> which has just been pre-leased in Beta I believe. |> _______________________________________________ |> Bioclusters maillist - Bioclusters at bioinformatics.org |> https://bioinformatics.org/mailman/listinfo/bioclusters | | - -- ================== Arnie Miles Systems Administrator, Advanced Research Computing (ARC) Adjunct Assistant Professor, Computer Science Dept. Georgetown University 320c St. Mary's 3800 Reservoir Road NW, Washington, DC 20057 Office: 202-687-9379 Fax: 202-687-1505 http://www.georgetown.edu/users/adm35/ (Personal) http://www.clusters.arc.georgetown.edu/ (GUPPI Initiative) http://www.arc.georgetown.edu/ (Division) ================== -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.2.2 (GNU/Linux) iD8DBQFB5o3KOFaZplrWnsQRAlsKAJ9gcZZf9LxobTGfTOWLUYC0C3iY5gCdHQil Un/6gJLI8nMtKHh1ncoCF8Q= =sZnQ -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: adm35.vcf Type: text/x-vcard Size: 344 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://bioinformatics.org/pipermail/bioclusters/attachments/20050113/ba9207d2/adm35-0001.vcf