Support for the UK e-Science Roadmap
David Boyd
UK Grid Support Centre
CLRC e-Science Centre
d.r.s.boyd@rl.ac.uk
18 April 2002
e-Science Architectural Roadmap Open Meeting
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Outline
• What the Grid Support Centre does now
• How this will extend to support the roadmap
18 April 2002
e-Science Architectural Roadmap Open Meeting
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Grid Support Centre
• Part of the e-Science Core
Programme
• Team of 6 FTE posts based at
CLRC(RAL+DL), Universities of
Edinburgh and Manchester
(but actually provided by a
pool of some 25-30 people)
• Exists to help users install and
apply Grid software quickly,
easily and productively
18 April 2002
e-Science Architectural Roadmap Open Meeting
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Provides a range of support . .
• Helpdesk support@grid-support.ac.uk
– first point of contact for requests and queries
– personally contactable during office hours
– provides access to technical expertise at all sites
• Web information resource http://www.grid-support.ac.uk
– tutorials
– evaluation reports
– links to other resources
• Grid Starter Kit
– downloadable software
– installation support
– documentation
18 April 2002
e-Science Architectural Roadmap Open Meeting
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. . . . and services
•
•
•
•
•
Certificate Authority for the UK e-Science programme
– issues X.509 digital certificates usable with Globus GSI
– uses network of Registration Authorities to validate users
– currently testing web-based procedure using OpenCA software
– see http://www.grid-support.ac.uk/ca
National resource directory service
– based on Globus MDS 2
– holds published information on Grid-enabled resources
Training for system administrators
– to help with setting up local installations
Reference software installations on supported platforms
– Linux, AIX, Solaris, IRIX, Tru64
Liaison with software development teams
18 April 2002
e-Science Architectural Roadmap Open Meeting
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Software supported
• Currently
– Globus Toolkit 2.0 (just moved from beta to production)
– Condor
– SRB (currently working with SLAC to build a UK
installation with stand-alone MCAT)
– Sun GridEngine (expertise at Edinburgh)
– EDG network monitoring tools (in collaboration with GNT)
• In future
– Web Services + open-source components
– Globus Toolkit 3.0 + Grid Services
18 April 2002
e-Science Architectural Roadmap Open Meeting
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Coming soon . . .
• Early Web Services releases will include
– GSI-enabled modification of Apache Tomcat to support
secure Web Service applications
•
•
•
•
originally developed at Argonne
builds in security at transport level
enables secure higher level Web Service interactions
enhanced and documented for UK use at EPCC
– XML database software based on Apache Xindice
• Web Services wrapping developed at EPCC
• Early releases of GT 3 will start to appear in the next few
months
• The GSC will provide user support for these as they stabilise
18 April 2002
e-Science Architectural Roadmap Open Meeting
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Ongoing support . . .
• Working with software developers to assist transition from alpha/beta
to production releases
– help with testing releases at an early stage
– relieve developers of ongoing support burden once product is
stable
– provide central point for accessing software and
documentation
• Encouraging co-operation and pooling of resources to develop new tools
– maximise productive involvement from across the programme
• Testing inter-workability of software from different sources
– identify problems and work with developers to resolve
• Building and maintaining library of software components and tools
– 2002
quality
18 April
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internally consistent, change managed
e-Science Architectural Roadmap Open Meeting
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Summary
• The Grid Support Centre will continue to support use
of Globus Toolkit 2 and other Grid software into the
future
• We will maintain the current range of services in
support of the centres and projects
• New Web Service and Grid Service developments will
come on board as there emerge and stabilise
• We will provide a focus for bringing together,
integrating and supporting new developments from
across the programme
18 April 2002
e-Science Architectural Roadmap Open Meeting
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