Nimrod (distributed computing)

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Nimrod is a tool for the parametrization of serial programs to create and execute embarrassingly parallel programs over a computational grid. It is a co-allocating, scheduling and brokering service.{{cite book |last1=Foster |first1=Ian |title=2008 Grid Computing Environments Workshop |last2=Zhao |first2=Yong |last3=Raicu |first3=Ioan |pages=1–10 |doi=10.1109/GCE.2008.4738445 |arxiv=0901.0131 |year=2008 |isbn=978-1-4244-2860-1 |chapter=Cloud Computing and Grid Computing 360-Degree Compared |s2cid=3187572 }} Nimrod was one of the first tools to make use of heterogeneous resources in a grid for a single computation.{{cite conference | last = Abramson | first = D. |author2=Foster, I. |author3=Giddy, J. |author4=Lewis, A. |author5=Sosic, R. |author6=Sutherst, R. |author7= White, N. | title = The Nimrod Computational Workbench: A Case Study in Desktop Metacomputing | book-title = Proceedings of the Australian Computer Science Conference (ACSC 97) |date=February 1997 | url = http://www.csse.monash.edu.au/~davida/papers/iway.pdf }} It was also an early example of using a market economy to perform grid scheduling.{{cite conference | author = Abramson, D. |author2=Giddy, J. |author3=Kotler, L. | url = http://www.csse.monash.edu.au/~davida/papers/ipdps.pdf | title = High Performance Parametric Modeling with Nimrod/G: Killer Application for the Global Grid? | book-title = Proceedings of the International Parallel and Distributed Processing Symposium (IPDPS 2000) | pages = 520–528 |date=May 2000 | publisher = IEEE Computer Society Press | location = USA }} This enables Nimrod to provide a guaranteed completion time despite using best-effort services.{{cite conference | author = Buyya, R. |author2=Abramson, D. |author3=Giddy, J. | url = http://www.csse.monash.edu.au/~davida/papers/hpcasia.pdf | title = Nimrod/G: An Architecture of a Resource Management and Scheduling System in a Global Computational Grid | book-title = Proceedings of HPC Asia 2000 |date=May 2000 | pages = 283–289 | publisher = IEEE Computer Society Press | location = USA }}

The tool was created as a research project funded by the Distributed Systems Technology Centre. The principal investigator is Professor David Abramson of Monash University.