The Gridnix project is an effort to produce tools that allow easy clustering of computers running the GNU/Linux operating system. Its aim is to become a free replacement for proprietary software that packages and controls Virtualization, load balancing and distributed file systems.

The resulting tools and controls should allow a system administrator to assign a user global resource quotas that persist across a 'farm' of computers, allowing the user to create virtual machines and networks utilizing all computers in a cluster, up to their resource quota. An example would be assigning a user a quota consisting of 3GB of ram, 200GB of hard disk, 10 public IP addresses and perhaps exclusive use of some system hardware, such as certain USB devices or network interfaces. The user would then be able to create as many virtual machines as they desire up to their global resource limits.

Additional features, such as allowing users to create virtual switches (which translate to Ethernet bridges) to network all of their virtual machines together are planned and should be included.

The goal of Gridnix is to meter all consumables (resources) so that users are accountable for only what they use. This includes bandwidth accounting, CPU utilization, disk space or any other resource where consumption might vary.

Gridnix utilizes Xen, a free virtualization technology to accomplish many things however support for dis-similar virtualization technology under one umbrella of accounting and control is planned.

The Gridnix tools accept instructions through very simple text descriptors (a line of text written to a file) to permit easy interaction with existing user interfaces and control panels, such as GNUPanel or Webmin.

Virtual appliance templates, such as load balancers, firewalls, Asterisk appliances, SQL servers, Web servers, E-Mail servers will be included. These templates will be made from 'strapped' Ubuntu GNU/Linux installations.

Currently, Gridnix is finishing its planning phase. Development is expected to reach an Alpha release by December 2008, earlier depending upon participants and scheduling. Gridnix is written in C and Bash for simplicity, permitting the tools to be
easily modified by users of varying experience levels.

While Ubuntu GNU/Linux is our base, our tools will be crafted to be as distribution-agnostic as possible.