Since quite a while supercomputers and mainframes are using virtual systems. Now that desktop and server processors are getting more and more powerful, the idea of a number of virtual systems running on a physical platform is becoming more interesting than ever. This is exactly the topic of the User Mode Linux project. It allows to run a number of virtual linux instances on a physical host.

This diploma thesis goes one step further. It should be possible to run a complete pool of virtual systems on different physical hosts. The UML Grid is nothing else than a self organizing virtual server farm. A number of personal computers running an arbitrary number of virtual systems are available on a network. If a virtual system fails it is restarted. Should actually a physical system fail, the grid reorganizes automatically and its virtual systems are redistributed on the other available hosts.

The foundation is a linux daemon which gets installed on each physical system in the grid. The hosts exchange informations among each other, which allows them to organize themselves following given rules. In the case of an unexpected failure of a host, the other available ones can adopt its virtual systems. In case a virtual system fails, the host is responsible to clean up and restart it.

Virtualization is currently enjoying great popularity. The future will show how well User Mode Linux is going to eastablish itself. One of the goals of this thesis was to show what can be done using UML and to demonstrate the great potential that lies in the UML Grid project. We are convinced that it is an ideal solution for diverse applications and a low priced alternative to specialized hardware.