Apple Servers

Now any individual or workgroup can quickly build a low-cost supercomputer. Introducing Xgrid, the first distributed computing architecture to be built into a desktop or server operating system. With Xgrid, scientists, animators and digital content creators can run a single job across multiple computers at once — without ever rewriting a single line of code.

Take any number of portable computers, desktops and servers and turn them into a single computational cluster — in a matter of minutes. Xgrid technology leverages the power of Mac OS X Server’s UNIX-based foundation and directory services architecture to streamline configuration — while administration tools make it easy to manage Xgrid clusters, submit jobs, monitor progress and retrieve results.

Configuration in an Instant

Since Xgrid is built into every copy of Mac OS X and Mac OS X Server v10.4, configuration is easy. Using Server Admin (or the command line, if you prefer), just designate one system as controller, then enable additional systems to act as Xgrid agents. All agents use the zero-configuration Bonjour technology to find the controller and bind to it automatically — no need to manually enter a slew of IP addresses. For maximum processing power, you can even use Workgroup Manager to enlist idle desktop systems as part-time Xgrid agents, so spare CPU cycles are never wasted.

Distributed Computing — Anywhere and Everywhere

Xgrid’s power doesn’t end at the nearest router. Using the DNS service lookup in Bonjour, agents can query your organization’s nameserver to find the appropriate controller, no matter where it is. In fact, you can set up a controller that’s accessible from the public Internet,* and any Xgrid-capable system can join the grid just by using your hostname or IP address. That means Xgrid clusters can range from a single rack of Xserve systems to a roomful of Power Mac G5 computers to a diverse collection of Mac systems dispersed across the Internet.

Preserve and Protect

Now that you have all that power, you’d hate for someone else to tap into it without your knowledge. Fortunately, Xgrid provides the same high level of security you’d expect from an Apple product. Mac OS X Server’s built-in Open Directory server provides a Kerberos Domain Controller (KDC) for single-sign on — enabling secure authentication without passing passwords over the network. And since Mac OS X Server is completely standards-based, you can do all this using Active Directory or any other standard KDC.

Scalability and High Availability

The Xgrid controller is designed to scale as your projects grow more complex. In fact, it works as hard as the hardware you’re running. Since Xgrid handles jobs that crunch for days, if not months, it needs to deal gracefully with disruptions. Xgrid automatically detects when an agent is no longer accessible and reassigns the task to another system. Essential job information is cached on disk, so your grid can resume work immediately if you should ever need to reboot the controller.

Management Made Easy

The new Xgrid Admin application, available only with Mac OS X Server v10.4, gives you an overview of all the agents, jobs and tasks that your servers are managing. As administrator, you can stop, pause, resume or delete jobs — or partition available agents into separate clusters, which allows different groups to share a single controller without interfering with each other. And you can always bring up a tachomoter to revel in how many gigahertz are turning over inside your supercomputer.

* Requires port 4111 to not be blocked by a firewall.