Off-loading processes to an idle machine

[John Menges]

I'm studying the problem of attempting to off-load
non-interactive processes from one machine intended
to be used primarily for interactive work for many
users to another machine intended to run non-interactive
tasks.  (Both machines are VAX/780s running 4.2bsd) 
I'm interested in any work that has been done in this
area.  In particular, I would like to find or write
software to enable the transfer of files to the backend
machine, execution of a command script there, and
transfer of files back to the interactive machine,
without it being necessary for the user to have a login
on the backend machine.  Less general software that
performs this task for specific commands (e.g. troff)
would also be helpful.