Globus

Globus is a meta-computing infrastructure toolkit, being developed as a basis for building large high-performance distributed applications running on a wide-area network. The HPC++ team has developed a Globus based run-time system to run underneath the HPC++ communication mechanism. HPC++ (i.e. the HPC++Lib library) can be built to use the Globus based run-time system, through a build-time configuration option.

The use of Globus immediately affords a set of distinct features to the HPC++ environment. Globus provides an extensive layer of authentication between the client and the server, based on public/private key cryptography. The Globus GRAM mechanism is used to authenticate a user before he/she is allowed to start new processes on a machine. HPC++ uses this mechanism to implement its feature of remote context creation. Thus, HPC++ remote context creation using the Globus based run-time system always involves mutual authentication between the client and the server. Globus GRAM can also be used to start jobs on specific nodes of a remote parallel supercompuuter such as an SP2.

hpc++@extreme.indiana.edu

Last modified: Fri Feb 5 01:35:30 EST 1999