A mechanism is provided for operating programs on a computer cluster comprising cluster resources. The cluster resources comprise non-virtual real hardware resources with variable configurations and virtual resources. Each cluster resource has a configuration description and a type. Each type has a unique type identification and descriptions of operations that can be performed by the cluster resource of the each type. Each program is operable for: requesting usage of the cluster resource specifying the type and the configuration description; and requesting a modification of the variable configuration of the non-virtual real hardware resource with the variable configuration. Execution of each program requires the dedicated execution environment on the computer cluster. The generation of each dedicated execution environment requires one or more dedicated virtual resources and one or more dedicated non-virtual real hardware resources with the variable configurations.