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Hardware virtualization has been gaining a significant share of computing time in the last years. Using virtual machines (VMs) for parallel computing is an attractive option for many users. A VM gives users a freedom of choosing an operating system, software stack and security policies, leaving the physical hardware, OS management, and billing to physical cluster administrators. The well-known solutions for cloud computing, both commercial (Amazon Cloud, Google Cloud, Yahoo Cloud, etc.) and open-source (OpenStack, Eucalyptus) provide platforms for running a single VM or a group of VMs. With all the benefits, there are also some drawbacks, which include reduced performance when running code inside of a VM, increased complexity of cluster management, as well as the need to learn new tools and protocols to manage the clusters. At SDSC, we have created a novel framework and infrastructure by providing virtual HPC clusters to projects using the NSF sponsored Comet supercomputer. Managing virtual clusters on Comet is similar to managing a baremetal cluster in terms of processes and tools that are employed. This is beneficial because such processes and tools are familiar to cluster administrators. Unlike platforms like AWS, Comet's virtualization capability supports installing VMs from ISOs (i.e., a CD-ROM or DVD image) or via an isolated management VLAN (PXE). At the same time, we're helping projects take advantage of VMs by providing an enhanced client tool for interaction with our management system called Cloudmesh client. Cloudmesh client can also be used to manage virtual machines on OpenStack, AWS, and Azure. The article describes our design and approach to running virtual clusters, the tools we developed, and initial user experience.

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