Stephen PicklesTechnical Director, Grid Operations Support Centre

University of Manchester

Neil Geddes CCLRC Head of e-Science

Director of the UK Grid Operations Support Centre

GOSC VisionThis UK Grid Operation Support Centre is a distributed “virtual centre” providing deployment and operations support for the UK e-Science programme. The centre is a collaboration of CCLRC, the University of Manchester, the University of Oxford, the University of Edinburgh and the White Rose Grid at the University of Leeds. The core of the GOSC is built around operation of the National Grid Service (NGS). The GOSC will support UK services for user authentication, user authorization and project organization, credential management, resource discovery, access portals to facilitate collaborative research and resource sharing across the UK and internationally.

The principal roles of the GOSC (as defined in the original call) include:

– Middleware deployment– Central grid service support– General User support and helpdesk– Network services– Grid Security – User and Administrator support– Interoperability and collaboration with international projects, e.g.

EGEE and TeraGrid

UK Core e-Science programme - Situation Today

* LeedsManchester *

* OxfordRAL *

Level-2 Grid

National Grid Service

* DL

NGS “Today”

Projectse-Mineralse-MaterialsOrbital Dynamics of GalaxiesBioinformatics (using BLAST) GEODISE projectUKQCD Singlet meson projectCensus data analysis MIAKT projecte-HTPX project.RealityGrid (chemistry)

Users LeedsOxfordUCLCardiffSouthamptonImperialLiverpoolSheffieldCambridgeEdinburghQUBBBSRCCCLRC.

InterfacesOGSI::LiteOGSI::LiteWSRF::LiteWSRF::Lite

GOSC Timeline

Q2 Q4 Q2 Q3Q1Q4Q3Q2Q1Q3

2004 20062005

EGEE gLite alpha release

gLite release 1

OMII release

NGS Expansion(Bristol, Cardiff…)

OGSA-DAI

WS plan

NGS ProductionService

NGS WS Service

EGEE gLite releaseOMII Release

NGS Expansion

WS2 plan

NGS WS Service 2

“Tomorrow”

Web Services based National Grid Infrastructure

UofA

HPCx

UofD

GOSC

NGS Core Nodes: Host core services, coordinate integration, deployment and support+free to access resources for all VOs. Monitored interfaces + services

NGS Sites: Integrated with NGS, some services/resources available for all VOs Monitored interfaces + services

NGS Connected Sites: Integrated with NGS, support for some VO’sMonitored interfaces (+security etc.)

RAL Oxford

LeedsMan. CSAR

UofB

UofC

CommercialProvider

PSRE

GOSC Roles UK Grid Services

National Services Authentication, authorisation, certificate management, VO

management, security, network monitoring, help desk + support centre.

NGS Services Job submission, simple registry, data transfer, data access and

integration, resource brokering, monitoring and accounting, grid management services, workflow, notification, operations centre.

NGS core-node Services CPU, (meta-) data storage, key software

Services to be coordinated with others (eg OMII, NeSC, LCG):

Integration testing, compatibility & Validation Tests, User Management, training

Administration: Policies and acceptable use SLA’s, SLD’s Coordinate deployment and Operations

SRB serviceOGSA-DAI service

Authentication, authorisation, certificate management, VO management, security.

Helpdesk

FAQ

UKCampus

andother Grids

GOSC + ETF

• Core of GOSC built around experience in deploying and running National Grid Service (NGS) – Support service

• Important to coordinate and integrate this with deployment and operations work in EGEE, LCG and similar projects. – e.g. EGEE – low level services, CA, GOC, CERT...

• Focus on deployment and operations, NOT development.

OMII

ETF

NGSOther software sources Software with proven

capability & realistic deployment experience

‘Gold’ services

Prototypes &specifications

Feedback & future requirements

EGEE…

Deployment/testing/advice

Operations

ETF• Registry

– A freely available UDDI implementation has been deployed/tested between 4 sites

– Experience passed on to the GRIMOIRES OMII project.

• Secure Flocking of Condor– Condor pools at 4 sites have been flocked together, through firewalls– authentication through use of X.509 certifcates– OMII test bed

• Portals– Support access to the NGS.– Tied in with JISC VRE developments

• Evaluations– InnerGrid - Contractual issues delayed start - just started.– OMII – Start later this month– GT4 – Start later this month– gLite – start next month

Joining the NGS

Two levels of membership, affiliation and partnership:

1. Affiliation

2. Partnership

Assumes NGS brand is valuable

AffiliationAffiliates commit to:• running NGS-compatible middleware

– as defined in NGS Minimum Software Stack– this means users of affiliate’s resources can access these using

same client tools they use to access NGS• a well-defined level of service and problem referral

mechanisms– SLD approved by NGS Management Board and published on

NGS web-site• providing technical, administrative, and security (CERT)

contacts• providing an account and mapping for daily compliance

tests (GITS++)• accept UK e-Science certificates• maintain baseline of logs (gatekeeper, batch system) to

assist problem resolution

Partnership

Partners commit to same as affiliates, plus:• making significant resources available to NGS users

– creation of accounts/mappings– in future, VO support, pool accounts, etc

• recognise additional CAs with which UK e-Science programme has reciprocal agreements

• publish/provide additional information to support resource discovery, brokering– BDII (MDS), populating GLUE schema– job level accounting– additional monitoring: load, availability

• compilation environment on computational resources

BenefitsAffiliation:• NGS brand

– certified NGS-compatible• better integrated support for local users who also

access NGS facilities• assistance/advice in maintaining NGS-

compatibility over time

Partnership:• higher brand quality• representation on NGS management board

– either direct, or through regional or functional consortia

Where Next?

• Make the NGS work– Resource Broker/scheduler– VO/Project support– Monitoring and Accounting

• Compatibility with EGEE• Define and agree criteria for success• Web Services

• National e-Infrastructure– Science and Innovation strategy 2004-2014

Timeline

Q2 Q4 Q2 Q3Q1Q4Q3Q2Q1Q3

2004 20062005

EGEE gLite alpha release

gLite release 1

OMII release

NGS Expansion(Bristol, Cardiff…)

OGSA-DAI

WS plan

NGS ProductionService

NGS WS Service

EGEE gLite releaseOMII Release

NGS Expansion

WS2 plan

NGS WS Service 2

Position Statement

• Relatively homogenous core, free at point of use

• + National HPC services• grow through affiliates and partners• wide range of users and applications

– from task farming to high-end parallel jobs, computational steering, distributed computation

• advance reservation, co-scheduling, incoming connections

– data (OGSA-DAI, SRB) and compute (GT2/VDT)

Position Statement

• Alignment/compatibility with EGEE, GridPP, TeraGrid etc important

• Some shared infrastructure with GridPP already

• Have responsibilities to wider UK e-Science constituency too

• Decision inputs: ETF, OMII, EGEE, GGF, TeraGrid,

• How to maintain compatibility over time, while expanding functionality and embracing Web services?

The End