VirtualCluster: Customizing the Cluster Environment through Virtual Machines

Software packages in working clusters are often once installed and kept unchanged for a very long time except for some bug fix, security enhancement, or small upgrades. This is due to the sharing property of the clusters among many users or institutes. They do not want to disturb each other while changing the infrastructure software packages. Such typical usage scenario means newly developed technologies cannot be deployed and used quickly in the traditional cluster environments. With the fast development of the virtual machine technologies, we are seeking the ways on how to use the virtual machines to manage the cluster environments efficiently. We believe that this will be more flexible and easy for using or management of clusters. Users of the clusters can be provided with customized ldquovirtual clustersrdquo instead of accessing physical nodes. This paper will discuss the new trends in virtualization cluster management with their design objectives, challenges, as well as our prototype system, named VirtualCluster with its design and implementation.