Paper Info
Title
libboincexec: A Generic Virtualization Approach for the BOINC Middleware
Abstract
BOINC is a client-server desktop grid middleware that has grown to power very large computational projects. BOINC clients request computing jobs to a central server and run them alongside other regular applications. Unfortunately, this kind of execution causes two kinds of problems. Firstly, developers must port their application to every single operating system target, which usually means maintaining several different versions of the same application. Secondly, any application running natively on desktop grid hardware is a potential security threat to the volunteer client. During the course of this research we sought an efficient and generic method for alternative execution of jobs in BOINC clients. Our approach is strongly guided by the principles of non-intrusiveness and contains two main components. The first is a library, libboincexec, which is able to control several virtual machines monitors. The second is a modified BOINC wrapper that provides the glue between libboincexec and the middleware. Through the use of this solution we are able to effectively use virtual machines to perform computation on desktop grids. This computation is inherently safe because virtual machines provide sand boxing. Additionally, by targeting the same virtual operating system, the problem of maintaining different versions of an application does not exist, thereby solving the heterogeneity problem of desktop grid nodes.
Year
DOI
Venue
2011
10.1109/IPDPS.2011.349
IPDPS Workshops
Keywords
Field
DocType
regular application,desktop grid node,generic virtualization approach,modified boinc wrapper,virtual machine,boinc middleware,virtual machines monitor,client-server desktop grid middleware,desktop grid hardware,desktop grid,boinc client,different version,computer architecture,grid computing,virtualisation,virtual machines,servers,client server,middleware,virtual machine monitor,virtual operating system,operating system,operating systems
Virtualization,Middleware,Grid computing,Virtual machine,Computer science,Server,Operating system,Grid,Computation,Distributed computing,BOINC Credit System
Conference
Citations 
PageRank 
References 
5
0.50
6
Authors
3
Name
Order
Citations
PageRank
Diogo Ferreira1594.28
Filipe Araujo221424.63
Domingues, P.318017.68