Figure 5.

Comprehensive illustration of the Capsules initiation and application execution process on computers in SBGrid Consortium laboratories (assuming that SBGrid has been already pre-installed with the SBGrid installation manager). This figure showcases the streamlined, single-step initiation method where users begin by executing an OS-agnostic SBGrid Startup Configuration file, compatible with bash/zsh and tcsh for various UNIX shell environments. Users can then incorporate a user-specific configuration file (.sbgrid.conf) to fine-tune software versions and preferences. Once the environment has been activated, users gain immediate, zero-configuration access to an extensive collection of executables, facilitated by the SBGrid Capsules Executable Mapper (CEM), which efficiently resolves naming conflicts between executables with identical names, ensuring smooth execution of the desired executable. This process underscores the ease-of-use approach of the SBGrid system to managing distributed computing resources.