A UNICORE based Multi Site and Multi User Grid Environment for Demonstration, Education and Testing Purposes

This article gives an overview of the novel Instant-Grid UNICORE edition. The Instant-Grid UNICORE edition allows to automatically set up a self-configured and independent multi site and multi user grid environment using the UNICORE 6 middleware. The idea of such an environment is to enable the installation of a grid system on computers located in a local network without any previous knowledge of grid technologies. In this article, we describe the technical concepts including the automatic configuration, ready-to-use features, and applications of the Instant-Grid UNICORE edition. In addition, we consider new features and present an use case where Instant-Grid has been applied in teaching. From our experience, Instant-Grid UNICORE edition is also suitable for demonstrating, developing, and testing purposes of and in grid computing environments.