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MacResearch Introduces OpenMacGrid

Posted by kdawson on

Drew McCormack writes "MacResearch.org has just introduced OpenMacGrid. It is a distributed computing grid similar to SETI@home, but unlike other networks, it is built up entirely of Macs utilizing Xgrid, and access is unrestricted. Anyone with Mac OS X 10.4 can donate cycles, and any scientist with a reasonable project can burn cycles."

29 of 123 comments (clear)

  1. Terminology by John+Nowak · · Score: 4, Funny

    How about we call each node in the OpenMacGrid a MacGriddle?

  2. What constitutes 'reasonable'? by pickyouupatnine · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Who'll the judge? The community?

    --
    _Vishal www.squad9.com
    1. Re:What constitutes 'reasonable'? by __aaclcg7560 · · Score: 2, Funny

      It's just commonsense. Modeling for global warming is OK. Modeling for taking over the world is NOT OK.

    2. Re:What constitutes 'reasonable'? by Funkcikle · · Score: 5, Funny

      From my experience of the online Apple-using community, this entire thing will be used purely to predict when Apple will be releasing new shiny things to buy. Forget about global warming - good God, man! There could be a minor iPod update next Tuesday!

    3. Re:What constitutes 'reasonable'? by metalcup · · Score: 5, Informative

      What I don't get is why this is Mac-only. Are Windows/Linux truely less able to perform these tasks or is it just a Mac promotional campaing under the guise of "research"? Because, X-grid is available only for Macs http://www.apple.com/server/macosx/features/xgrid. html, and all you need to do to set it up (i.e. allow your mac to be a part of the grid) is click on a few options in the system preferences panel - the end user does not need to work with scheduling and other details - the OS takes care of all that with a few options. It really is damn convinient to use for many types of clustering applications. (and I have setup Linux clusters etc). To that end, yeah, it is a bit of a promotional campaign, but only because no other OS can do it out of the box the way Mac can!!
      --
      "Laziness is an optimisation protocol"
  3. Trojans? by Max+Romantschuk · · Score: 2, Interesting
    From the disclaimer:
    http://www.macresearch.org/contribute_to_openmacgr id

    By contributing an agent to OpenMacGrid you recognize that third parties will be running software applications on your system. MacResearch.org, will make every attempt to ensure that third party applications are safe for execution on contributed systems (agents), but in no way will MacResearch.org or its affiliates be held liable for any damage to your system resulting from participation in OpenMacGrid. It is the responsibility of the person contributing the agent to ensure that they have permission to use the system in such a fashion.


    So, Xgrid-experts, what kind of permissions does an application like this have? Is it sandboxed somehow?
    --
    .: Max Romantschuk :: http://max.romantschuk.fi/
    1. Re:Trojans? by dr.badass · · Score: 5, Informative

      So, Xgrid-experts, what kind of permissions does an application like this have? Is it sandboxed somehow?

      Xgrid jobs run as user 'nobody', which is decently safe, with process limits so it can't forkbomb you to death. A rogue job could fill up /tmp or ~/Public/Drop Box or whatever with garbage until you run out of disk, or some other annoying things. I won't say "nothing major", because that depends on what you've got that's readable or writable by others. I'm also not wearing my expert hat, so it's entirely possible that I'm unaware of some way that Xgrid jobs could 0wnz0r you.

      You still need to trust OpenMacGrid to keep these bad jobs off the grid.

      --
      Don't become a regular here -- you will become retarded.
    2. Re:Trojans? by Jimithing+DMB · · Score: 2, Informative

      Do Macs support loopback devices?

      Do they ever. The disk image mounting in OS X makes Linux's loopback devices look like crap. While you can make an image containing only a filesystem you can also make one containing a full disk image (including MBR and everything). When mounted it will for example show up as /dev/disk2 (whole disk), /dev/disk2s1 (first partition), /dev/disk2s2 (second partition) and so on. Makes disk recovery of an imaged disk a shitload easier because you don't have to go through the laborious task of calculating offsets based off the partition table. The kernel does it for you like it would with any other "disk".

    3. Re:Trojans? by profplump · · Score: 2, Informative

      Traditionally the "nobody" user has been used by various daemons that need only read-only disk access (and often which can accept strict ulimits). It's generally not possible to log in as nobody, and nobody usually does not own any files, but it's still useful as daemon account.

      It's becoming more common to assign each daemon its own user, but so long as your process doesn't write any files there's not much security benefit to having your own user, and there is a convience aspect to having fewer users to manage. In particular, it can become a hassle to ensure that each of 25 different daemon users has an account that prevents logins and owns no files; having fewer such accounts makes security verification simplier.

  4. Slashdotted by John+Nowak · · Score: 5, Funny

    I do hope their website isn't representative of their grid's performance...

    1. Re:Slashdotted by Ash-Fox · · Score: 2, Funny

      Their website is probably run by a grid of PPC macs...
      Netcraft confirms they're running on Macs!
      --
      Change is certain; progress is not obligatory.
  5. imagine.... by dino303 · · Score: 4, Funny

    with a beowulf cluster of these... they might even handle the rush from slashdot.

    1. Re:imagine.... by MattPat · · Score: 2, Funny

      with a beowulf cluster of these... they might even handle the rush from slashdot.

      Well then, it's quite clear that they don't have one: Warning: mysql_connect(): Too many connections. :)

      They'd better not use the same MySQL database for storing grid results... I can picture the headlines now: "Cure for Cancer Lost Because of Traffic from Geek Website."

  6. Re:Movie studios and CGI by Max+Romantschuk · · Score: 4, Informative

    Y'know, I imagine stuff like this would be nice to speed up the rendering farms in movie studios. Either make 'm pay for the access or give every contributor with enough cycles a free ticket ;).

    This only works in a LAN. Every single frame of a modern movie requires gigabytes of texture data etc. etc... It's not something you can send over the Internet.
    --
    .: Max Romantschuk :: http://max.romantschuk.fi/
  7. Curious indeed by agent+dero · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I went ahead and signed up (what can I say, I'm a sucker for science) but I'm really hoping they make it clear what will be running on the agents.

    One thing quite curious, the "introduction" images are almost direct yanks from xgrid@stanfard including the Dashboard widget the push as their own from the xgrid widget SDK linked with the xgrid@stanford project as well.

    Should be interesting how this shapes up. 91 total agents right now, 0 working :-P

    --
    Error 407 - No creative sig found
  8. Usefulness? by wlan0 · · Score: 2, Insightful

    How useful can it be to be locked into one OS? How hard is it to make a commandline program and then a Cocoa interface, that way you can get everyone and still have a pretty window and widget for OS X users.

    1. Re:Usefulness? by dr.badass · · Score: 4, Informative

      How useful can it be to be locked into one OS? How hard is it to make a commandline program and then a Cocoa interface, that way you can get everyone and still have a pretty window and widget for OS X users.

      OpenMacGrid uses Xgrid, which is Mac-only. It isn't something new they've made: it's built-in to Mac OS X. You ask "how hard is it...", and the answer is "A lot harder than just using what's already available."

      Also, the Xgrid agent doesn't have a pretty window. It's a background daemon.

      --
      Don't become a regular here -- you will become retarded.
    2. Re:Usefulness? by dr.badass · · Score: 2, Insightful

      without exception the actual number-crunching code is an console application, plain C - not even any #ifs, and the only thing that is platform specific is a tiny wrapper script.

      Without exception? Are you sure nobody ever does any vectorization outside of what the compiler does? Ever? Nobody ever links to platform-specific frameworks for any reason? Ever? Nobody ever writes code to run on a homogenous cluster? Ever?

      Being tied to XGrid is an truly abysmal design in comparison.

      In your case perhaps it would be. That doesn't mean that there aren't plenty of other people for whom it is more ideal than your setup. Those people include scientists that already run Mac OS X, and perhaps link the Accelerate framework, and perhaps already have Xgrid-ready jobs that can run on OpenMacGrid without modification. Or maybe they just don't want to concern themselves with the details of distributing jobs and returning results with a Perl script or something.

      --
      Don't become a regular here -- you will become retarded.
  9. /. effect good? by ljaguar · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I just configured my ibook following the simple instructions here.

    Dead simple. The process is still running at 0.0% so i guess i haven't been assigned anything yet.

    First time that /. effect is beneficial to those involved!

  10. Re-Enactment by DrRevotron · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Re-enactment of the creation of the OpenMacGrid...

    Person 1: "Hey, I've got an idea!"
    Person 2: "Yeah?"
    Person 1: "Yeah! Let's make a compute grid... except, it won't be like those other compute grids. Except, it kinda will. But it won't. But that's not the point. People will be able to submit their own projects!"
    Person 2: "Oh, you mean like BOINC, GPU, The World Community Grid, distributed.net, Leiden, Grid.org, OurGrid..."
    Person 1: "Well, uh... yeah... I guess... except, um... let's run it on a Mac!"
    Person 2: "Hey, yeah, that's a totally original and cool plan, as opposed to actually devoting processor time to worthwhile and established projects like Folding@Home and SETI!"

    Thought: Maybe, instead of everybody making their own little grid system... we could all make things go ALOT faster by devoting our processors to more than simulating chess games (Yes, I'm talking to you, Chess960) and focus it where it really counts, like finding a cure to debilitating diseases or searching for intelligent life. (Not a whole lot of it on Earth.)

    1. Re:Re-Enactment by dr.badass · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Maybe, instead of everybody making their own little grid system...

      I don't think you fully understand what you're talking about.

      For starters, BOINC is not a separate grid. It's a framework and client for many grids. BOINC users can (and do) contribute to many different projects including your "established projects" like Folding@Home and SETI@Home, and including many of the other grids you've listed. Many of the others you listed do exactly the kind of jobs you're calling for, like disease research.

      Also, you seem to think that all grid computing projects are interchangeable, and that just isn't so. They may work with different data, or using different methods; they may not have the same requirements for job submission; they may operate on vastly different scales. Basically, they're suited for different research needs. A nice thing about OpenMacGrid, for example, is that researchers can take the same Xgrid job they've been using on their tiny network and send it to a public grid without much, if any modification.

      --
      Don't become a regular here -- you will become retarded.
  11. Re:...and access is unrestricted. by mr_matticus · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Isn't that like expecting that a public airstrip claiming "unrestricted access" be accessible to submarines, too?

    Practical limitations may apply without something violating a notion of "unrestricted." Sort of like how unrestricted Internet access in your home still requires you to have a computer or other suitable device; you can't just plug the Internet into your arm.

  12. Kind of makes me hungry... by rogtioko · · Score: 2, Funny
    ...Bad for future foodility bills :(

    From my general vegan perspective: could instead call each node an apple. Get it? apples on tree branch grid. Dynamic with key word Macgrid.

  13. Missing the point by Anthonares · · Score: 4, Interesting

    The comments so far have (mostly) overlooked the main point of just why the OpenMacGrid is different: it's *open*. That means that scientists, even PhD students like myself that want to run jobs using far greater numbers of nodes than the clusters (beowolf or otherwise) at our home institutions will now have a means to do so. Most such projects have neither the resources nor the capabilities to create their own custom cross-platform clients like those mentioned from other distributed computing projects.

    OpenMacGrid (or just OMG, I guess) uses XGrid, which is built-in to every OSX 10.4 distribution and acts just like any other job queue manager, except it's even easier. So, the whole process of writing a distributed computing project becomes far simpler as well.

    Finally, the OMG it doesn't matter if the OMG is cross-platform running on proprietary hardware: so is every other cluster that I as a scientist have ever had access to. The SGI cluster is proprietary, and to an extent so is the Linux machine at our High-Performance Computing lab on campus. And, if you're thinking about it being non-cross-platform from the client side, well, you're probably not thinking differently anyway, so just go download Folding@Home.

    --
    *most people never really think about the consequences*
    1. Re:Missing the point by bcg · · Score: 2, Interesting

      I totally agree with you.

      I see the difficulty of starting a distributed computing project as being a serious problem.

      One solution I am proposing is borrowing some of the techniques from BitTorrent and using them in distributed computing. So far, the results have been very encouraging.

      So here is a tidbit of my PhD research (an abstract from a paper hopefully being published soon):

      "This paper describes the operational characteristics of "CompTorrent", a general purpose distributed computing platform that provides a low entry cost to creating new distributed computing projects. An algorithm is embedded into a metadata file along with data set details which are then published on the Internet. Potential nodes discover and download metadata files for projects they wish to participate in, extract the algorithm and data set descriptors, and join other participants in maintaining a swarm. This swarm then cooperatively shares the raw data set in pieces between nodes and applies the algorithm to produce a computed data set. This computed data set is also shared and distributed amongst participating nodes. CompTorrent allows a "simple home-brewed" solution for small or individual distributed computing projects. Testing and experimentation have shown CompTorrent to be an effective system that provides similar benefits for distributed computing to those BitTorrent provides for large file distribution."

      If anyone else is interested in my shameless self promotion: http://www.comp.utas.edu.au/users/bcg/

  14. Re:...and access is unrestricted. by WrecklessSandwich · · Score: 3, Funny

    you can't just plug the Internet into your arm.
    I beg to differ.
  15. two ways to get more nodes on board by v1 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Instead of blindly contributing my cycles to whatever project some group of people in california (or wherever) decide is the project of the day, I would like it if I was given the option as a node to pick which project(s) my cycles were used for. People feel better about helping others and contributing/donating when they have a better knowledge of what exactly they are helping. I would be more likely to donate my cycles if I was able to pick which project I was most interested in loaning my hardware to.

    It would also be to their benefit to introduce some competition. Contests like RC64 encouraged teamwork, and there were daily ranking boards where you could go see whose teams were knocking out the most units that day. There is no better motivator to encourage donation of resources than competition and bragging rights. Many of those teams were group oriented, there were things like TeamUnix, TeamMacinotosh, TeamUCLA, etc, and again that gives the nodes in each team a feeling of belonging to a group of people they can relate to, even if they have little in common.

    --
    I work for the Department of Redundancy Department.
  16. Fan burnout a result? by Oshawapilot · · Score: 2, Interesting

    With all the stories I've heard of the cooling fans on the MacBook's going wonky if run at too high of a speed for too long, I'm reluctant to offer my spare cycles to Xgrid.

    The last thing I want to happen as a result of being a participant is seeing my fan spooled up to 6000+ RPM day in and day out while my Mac crunches numbers, only to result in the fan itself crapping out a few months later.

  17. botnet by pikine · · Score: 2, Interesting

    "nobody" user can still listen for and establish connections over network, so an OpenMacGrid node can participate in DDoS attack and spam delivery.

    Grid computing is essentially botnet, trying to use that concept for good scientific purpose.

    --
    I once had a signature.