Re: [Condor-users] Question regarding running windows condor pool

[Alan De Smet <adesmet@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Prakash Velayutham <prakash.velayutham@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> I have a question regarding windows condor pool. I have around
> 20 windows PCs sitting idle (most of the time).  ...  How will
> condor start jobs on these machines (under what user)? 

On Windows Condor creates throw-away accounts to run the job as.
In essence, jobs run under their own custom "nobody" user.

Condor on Windows doesn't currently support the ability to run
jobs as the user that submitted them.

> and does it mean that remote desktop or some similar software
> needs to be installed on these machines? 

Nothing of the sort is needed.  The ideal Condor jobs on Windows
is just a console job, no use of the GUI at all.  They should
Just Work.  There are some workarounds for jobs that insist on a
GUI if necessary, but these workarounds will cause windows to pop
up on the desktop (a Bad Thing for end-user machines).

> As far as I know, user switching does not work in these 
> machines as they are part of a domain, and what happens in this case 
> with condor running a job and a user trying to physically logon to the box?

The user should not notice (ignoring the workaround mentioned
above).  The jobs will run as the throwaway user in the
background.  I don't believe this constitutes "user switching";
this is the same mechanism used to run normal Windows services.


If you're new to Condor on Windows, definately check out the
Windows specific section of our manual:

http://www.cs.wisc.edu/condor/manual/v6.6.8/6_2Microsoft_Windows.html

It's not too long and should give you a good overview of how
things work.

Good luck,



-- 
Alan De Smet                              Condor Project Research
adesmet@xxxxxxxxxxx                 http://www.condorproject.org/