Using a grid: A user’s perspective

A user may first have to enroll in the grid and install the provided grid software on his own machine. He may optionally enroll his machine as a donor on the grid.

Enrolling in the grid may require authentication for security purposes. The user positively establishes his identity with a Certificate Authority. This should not be done solely via the Internet. The Certificate Authority must take steps to assure that the user is in fact who he claims to be. The Certificate Authority makes a special certificate available to software needing to check the true identity of a grid user and his grid requests. Similar steps may be required to identify the donating

machine. The user has the responsibility of keeping his grid credentials secure. Once the user and/or machine are authenticated, the grid software is provided to the user for installing on his machine for the purposes of using the grid as well as donating to the grid. This software may be automatically preconfigured by the grid management system to know the communication address of the management nodes in the grid and user or machine identification information. In this way, the installation may be a one-click operation with a minimum of interaction required on the part of the user. In less automated grid installations, the user may be asked to identify the grid’s management node and possibly other configuration information. He may choose to limit the resources donated to the grid, the times that his machine is usable by the grid, and other policy-related constraints. The user may also need to inform the grid administrator which user IDs are his on other machines that exist on the grid.