Grid.org, the online community for open-source cluster and grid software, announced that their open source cluster software stack, UniCluster, has exceeded 5,000 downloads by the HPC community.

Grid.org, launched in November 2007, was developed to provide a single aggregation point for information and interaction by the community of grid and cluster users, developers and administrators. Home to Univa UD's UniCluster software stack, Grid.org offers an all-inclusive destination for users to exchange information, ideas, and participate in development projects.

UniCluster is a fully integrated, community-enabled open source cluster software stack with unrestricted support for all its components. Available by download, this product simplifies the deployment, configuration and management of clusters, from installation and job scheduling to monitoring and remote access.

"Univa UD's mission is to bring practical and cost effective systems management best practices to HPC environments for a better price," said Gary Tyreman, VP and General Manager of HPC for Univa UD. "Surpassing 5,000 downloads substantiates that UniCluster is a superior alternative to existing, more expensive workload management solutions."

Grid.org, sponsored by Univa UD, has been upgraded to include new functionality and user autonomy. The site encourages users to participate in forums and blogs, form their own organic groups, explore upcoming events, and download software and documentation. Some of the established groups on Grid.org already working with UniCluster include:

• The Open HPC Interoperability Project- a collaboration with Sun Microsystems, BioTeam Inc., Grid Gateway, and Runtime Design Automation. The open source project's primary goal is to simplify the challenges of managing HPC Systems and to reduce the associated costs.
• Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) Group - for users of Amazon Web Services (AWS), primarily the EC2 cloud computing for scientific, grid, and distributed computing workflows. Various EC2 sources are sited including a white paper with detailed instructions on deploying UniCluster in the EC2 Cloud.
• Grid Gateway, which shares technologies and best practices to create appropriate compute clusters and Grids.

"The relationships and experience amongst the established communities within Grid.org are proving to be an effective means of displaying the benefits of open source software, like UniCluster, to users and developers," states Matt Filios, Community Management Practice Leader, Olliance Group.