© University of Reading 2008 www.reading.ac.uk

IT Services

ITS Support for e ResearchStephen GoughAssistant Director of IT Services

18 June 2008

Review of computer services - 1997

• 2.4.5 (a) the University work towards minimising the range of equipment supported on central funds, subject to functional requirements being met

• led to support being predominantly for MS Windows

• lots of Unix expertise in ITS though– many Unix servers

2

e-Science Development Officer

• David Spence appointed Jan 2008

• half-time– other half working for Oxford e-Research Centre

(OeRC)

• working on:– mapping– interviews– some documentation

3

http://www.reading.ac.uk/e-research

• Providing better resources, software and support to allow researchers in Reading to make use of e Research technology in their research

• To encourage inter-disciplinary collaborations to be formed inside and outside of the University around e Research

• To develop an e Research agenda for the University

4

e-Science advice and networking

• e-Research and the Grid

• what resources will best suit your research

• contacts for collaboration

• national e-Research resources

• e-Science email list– http://www.lists.rdg.ac.uk/mailman/listinfo/e-science

5

Campus Computation Grid

• free, automatic access to about 500 lab/library PCs– while not in use by students

• ideal for research that involves running a program many times– where each run takes about an hour or less

• Grid nodes run Linux

• Grid is connected to National Grid Service

• need an e-Science certificate

• apply to ITS Help for an account

• help provided on getting started6

Certification processes

• access to many Grid resources requires the use of a digital certificate issued by UK e-Science Certification Authority

• apply for certificate at:• http://www.grid-support.ac.uk/content/view/23/182/

• link to this from e-Research page

• IT Services approves your request• on presentation of photographic identification

7

Globus Gateway

• Globus– widely used set of tools that are used in e-Research

• Globus Gateway– single point of reference for external (Globus) services

wishing to access Globus resources in Reading and vice versa

– a way for users in Reading to access external resources which are accessed with Globus, without needing to install these tools themselves

• need to register with IT Services– contact David Spence, or– ticket to ITS Help

8

Future plans

• coming out of e-Research mapping exercise

• need to prioritise

• follow up survey is important– paper forms available

9

Advice & support

• support for Linux and MacOS

• advice on Linux distributions

• how to configure for Reading network

• basic Unix/Linux/Mac use

10

Resources available

• information and advice on how to use them

• Campus Grid

• ACET’s Bladecenter

• National Grid service

• resources at Oxford

11

Campus Grid developments

• checkpointing server - by end of July

• submission/compilation server - by end of July

• additional RAM and local disk space for Grid nodes– updated during summer 2008

• R & Matlab runtime

• simplifying access– Nimrod, Swift, GRex etc– which?

• add existing departmental/school clusters

• managing resulting data from computation done on Grid

• Wake on LAN for Condor12

Virtual research environmentsand collaborative tools

• Access Grid– one at ESSC– Personal Interface to Access Grid

• info on e-Research page

• JANETTalk– trial coming soon

• Blackboard

• wikis

• SVN

13

Collaboration networks

• directory of expertise?

• making best use of existing expertise

• email list

• wiki

• contacts within Reading and with Oxford / Southampton– others?– KCL

14

Hosting facilities

• hosting facility for school owned clusters and servers– http://www.reading.ac.uk/internal/its/help/its-help-

forms/requestlylespace.asp

15

Data

• data stewardship– best practices– QAR issues– hosting centrally vs backup service– continued research use of data– support for web server based databases and tools– advice about databases/web servers

• common tools– file handling/archiving

• microscopy system developed in Oxford• CfAM, fMRI, CAF etc

16

Training

• Grid use

• Unix/Linux

• programming– advice on porting

• data stewardship

17

Providing suitable software environment

• Matlab compiler licences– ordered– document use

• Matlab site licence?– Matlab TAH

• ATLAS.ti– qualitative analysis– available on Terminal Server

• UCINET– analysis of social network data– available on Terminal Server

• others?18

Seminars

• already good programmes from ACET & PEDAL– details posted to e-sci@lists.reading.ac.uk

• specialist Arts & Humanities seminars?

19