SC07: November 10-16 2007, Reno, NV
Attendees: A Stephen McGough, Vesselin Novov
Main groups of focus: GridSAM and OGSA HPCP interopt
The SuperComputing'07 convention was again used by the HPCP-WG as a staging
ground for a second demonstration of interoperability among a number of prototype
implementations of the HPC Basic Profile(HPCBP) v1.0 specification. At the previous
year event, several groups managed to demonstrate a successful interoperation among
different job scheduling platforms through the use of a common interface – the initial
draft of the HPCBP. In the year after the event, taking into account the participants'
experiences and incorporating viable solutions for the issues encountered, the HPCP-WG
refined the Basic Profile and the specification was published as a draft recommendation
version 1.0. Relying on the success of the event from the previous year, several
engineering teams used SC'07 show floor to set a follow-up demonstration of the
improved HPCBP. The second year brought together again a mix of representatives from
academia and industry; Altrair Engineering, Microsoft, Platform Computing, NorduGrid,
University of Virginia e-Science Group, GridSAM/OMII-UK and EGEE/OMII-Europe.
The tested back-end platforms were based on a number of different technologies:
Windows OS, various version of Linux OS, Java, C++, C#, Axis, gSOAP, XFire,
Widows Compute Cluster, PBS, LSF, SGE, Torque, ARC, CREAM and Globus. Despite
the wide degree of heterogeneity, with the use of their respective implementations of the
refined HPCBP v1.0, the teams managed again to successfully submit, monitor, query
and control test suites of computational jobs. What was more for this second
interoperability test, a few of the participants, GridSAM, UofVA, Microsoft and
Platform, had enhanced the functionality of their implementations to provide support for
two newly proposed extensions of the Basic Profile – the File Staging and Activity
Credential extensions. The File Staging specification, mainly based on the Data Staging
element in JSDL v1.0, provided for a 'common denominator' protocol of transferring
input/output data files as part of a job processing, while the Activity Credential extension
provided for a standard way of supplying security credentials necessary for a crossorganizational launching of executables and/or staging of files. Out of that smaller group
of four, the GridSAM was one of the more mature platforms with previous experience
with JSDL's Data Staging and security credentials processing. That previous experience
was invaluable in resolving the various problems occurring during the testing.
After the event each team's gained experience was documented along with the workable
solutions of the encountered problems. Through the continued work of the HPCP-WG,
where GridSAM team had regular participation, the two extension specifications were
brought to the public comment phase of the standardisation process. Likewise, the overall
success and experience of the SC'07 Interop-fest would likely help the HPCBP v1.0
become a full OGF standard. Some time after the event a couple of the industry
participants announced their plans for integration of their HPCBP implementations into
their respective upcoming product releases. Knowing for a fact that the GridSAM's
HPCBP support had successfully tested with these commercial products we could now be
even more confident about the GridSAM project's potential for its wider acceptance.
There have been already concrete plans for the integration of the GridSAM HPCBP-
related functionality within the GridBS project. It would be also likely that much of the
experience of the GridSAM team gained through involvement with the HPCP-WG and
OGF activities would apply towards the successful completion of the GridBS project.