The National Grid Service:
An Overview
Stephen Pickles
<stephen.pickles@manchester.ac.uk>
University of Manchester
Technical Director, GOSC
Towards an NGS User Induction Course, NeSC, Edinburgh, 8 December 2004
1
Outline
• Context
– UK e-Science Programme
– NGS and GOSC
– ETF, EGEE, OMII, TeraGrid...
• Core Services
– Globus, SRB, OGSA-DAI,...
• Operations Infrastructure
• Web sites
• Current Status
2
Context
•
•
•
•
UK e-Science Programme
Grid Operations Support Centre
National Grid Service
Relationships to
– EGEE
– Engineering Task Force (ETF)
– Open Middleware Infrastructure Institute
(OMII)
3
UK e-Science Programme
Key Components
UK Grid Operations
Support Centre
N
G
S
4
GOSC
The Grid Operations Support Centre is a
distributed “virtual centre” providing
deployment and operations support for
the UK e-Science programme.
5
GOSC Roles

UK Grid Services

National Services


NGS Services




Authentication, authorisation, certificate management, VO management,
security, network monitoring, help desk + support centre.
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

Integration testing, compatibility & Validation Tests, User Management,
training
Services to be coordinated with others (eg OMII, NeSC, LCG):
Administration:



Policies and acceptable use conditions
SLA’s, SLD’s
Coordinate deployment and Operations
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One Stop Shop
Click for help
7
Authentication, authorisation, certificate management,
VO management, security.
Helpdesk
FAQ
8
GOSC does not...
• Run a repository
• Develop software (much)
– contribute to developments to influence/adapt cf
• “I’ve got one of those you can have. You just need to …”
• (Training – Edinburgh/NeSC are part of GOSC)
• Provide support for Access Grid
– use Access Grid Support Centre instead
– http://www.agsc.ja.net/
• Do extensive user hand-holding and application
support
– Need the e-Science Centres
– Priorities will be driven by users
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National Grid Service
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NGS - A production Grid
National Grid Service
Level-2 Grid
* Leeds
Manchester *
* DL
* Oxford
RAL *
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NGS “Today”
Interfaces
OGSI::Lite
Projects
WSRF::Lite
e-Minerals
e-Materials
Orbital Dynamics of Galaxies
Bioinformatics (using BLAST)
GEODISE project
UKQCD Singlet meson project
Census data analysis
MIAKT project
e-HTPX project.
RealityGrid
ConvertGrid (ESRC)
Integrative Biology
Users
Leeds
Oxford
UCL
Cardiff
Southampton
Imperial
Liverpool
Sheffield
Cambridge
Edinburgh
QUB
BBSRC
CCLRC
Manchester
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“Tomorrow”
GOSC Timeline
NGS WS Service
NGS Expansion
(Bristol, Cardiff…)
NGS Production
Service
NGS WS Service 2
OGSA-DAI
NGS Expansion
WS2 plan
WS plan
Q2
Q3
Q4
Q1
2004
Q2
Q3
2005
Q4
Q1
Q2
Q3
2006
OMII release
Web Services-based
National Grid
Infrastructure
gLite release 1
EGEE gLite alpha
release
EGEE gLite release
OMII Release
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http://www.ngs.ac.uk
Core nodes:
Need UK e-Science
certificate (1-2 days)
Apply through NGS
web site (1-2 weeks)
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Gaining Access
NGS core nodes
•
•
•
•
•
•
data nodes at RAL and
Manchester
compute nodes at Oxford and
Leeds
free at point of use
apply through NGS web site
light-weight peer review
– 1-2 weeks
all access is through digital
X.509 certificates
– from UK e-Science CA
– or recognized peer
National HPC services
•
HPCx
•
CSAR
Must apply separately to research
councils
Digital certificate and
Conventional (username/ password)
access supported
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UofD
U
of
A
H
P
C
x
Commercial
Provider
PSRE
Man. Leeds
GOSC
RAL
Oxford
C
S
A
R
U
of
B
U
of
C
NGS Core Nodes: Host core services, coordinate integration, deployment and support
+free to access resources for all VOs. Monitored interfaces + services
NGS Partner Sites: Integrated with NGS, some services/resources available for all VOs
Monitored interfaces + services
NGS Affiliated Sites: Integrated with NGS, support for some VO’s
Monitored interfaces (+security etc.)
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Joining the NGS
Resource providers join the NGS by
• Adopting NGS acceptable use and security policies
• Run compatible middleware
– as defined by NGS Minimum Software Stack
– and verified by compliance test suite
• Support monitoring and accounting
Two levels
• NGS affiliates
• NGS partners
– also provide significant resources or services to NGS users
More later
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•
•
Start from LCG2
“Harden” middleware
•
•
Expand applications
€32 from EU
•
–
–
–
The EU Grid Infrastructure
50% deployment/operations
lots at CERN
•
matched by PP
UK + I
–
–
–
training
GOC dev + ops
regional deployment+support
•
T2 coordinators
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LCG
•Used for batch
production Now.
• worldwide de
facto standards
•Currently trying to
interface analysis S/W
• on top of gLite
from EGEE
•Need to move out of
the physics dept’s
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GRIDPP
•
UK Contribution to LCG
•
GridPP1 (2001-2004)
•
GridPP2 (2004-2007)
– Also supports current users
– 33% deployment/operations
– 33% middleware dev.
– 33% applications
– 60% deployment/operations
• LCG2 -> EGEE
•
– 15% middleware dev.
– 25% applications
Not just PPARC funding
– Universities
• support LHC
• benefit from grid experience
• You should know/meet these
people
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Grid Operations Centre
Responsibilities in EGEE
UK focused screen
UKERNA work to be
integrated
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OMII
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Managing middleware
evolution
•
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.
EGEE…
Other software
sources
Prototypes &
specifications
NGS
ETF
Software with proven
capability & realistic
deployment
experience
OMII
‘Gold’ services
UK
Campus
Operations and
other
Grids
Feedback & future requirements
Deployment/testing/advice
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(Grid) Engineering Task Force
• Originally built the UK Level-2 Grid using hardware resources
volunteered by the UK e-Science Centres
– very heterogeneous
– exposed need for dedicated resources
• 0.5 FTE at each e-Science centre
• Now primarily conducting pre-deployment evaluation and testing
for NGS
• Currently evaluating:
–
–
–
–
–
Condor (nearly complete)
Globus Toolkit version 4
Innergrid and Outergrid
OMII distribution
gLite from EGEE (awaiting release candidate January ’05)
• Also doing portal work for NGS linked to JISC VRE
developments
• UDDI work complete
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NGS Core Services - Globus
• Globus Toolkit version 2
– GT 2.4.3 from VDT 1.2
•
•
•
•
Job submission (GRAM)
File transfer (GridFTP)
Shell (GSI-SSH)
Information Services (MDS/GIIS/GRIS)
– Information providers from GLUE schema
• More from Steve Pickering later today
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NGS Core Services - SRB
• Storage Resource Broker from SDSC
• Location transparent access to storage
• Metadata catalog
• Replica management
• Clients on compute nodes
• Servers on data nodes
• More from Andy Richards later today
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NGS Core Services – Oracle
• Oracle 9i database
• Only on data nodes
• Populated by users/data providers
• Infrastructure maintained by NGS database
administrators
• Used directly or via OGSA-DAI
• More from Matt Ford later today
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NGS Core Services – OGSA-DAI
• Open Grid Services Architecture (OGSA)
• Database Access and Integration (DAI)
• Developed by UK e-Science projects OGSA-DAI and
DAIT
• OGSA-DQP (Distributed Query Processor)
• Experimental service based on OGSI/GT3 on
Manchester data node only
– will consider WS-I and WSRF flavours when in final release
• Uses Oracle underneath
• Early users from e-Social Science (ConvertGrid)
• More from Matt Ford later today
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NGS Core Services - other
Operated by GOSC for NGS and UK e-Science programme
In production:
• Certificate Authority
• Information Services (MDS/GIIS)
• MyProxy server
• Integration tests and database
• Cluster monitoring
• LCG-VO
In testing:
• VOMS
• EDG Resource Broker
In development
• Accounting
• Portal (see Dharmesh’s demonstration, Friday)
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NGS Organisation
•
Operations Team
•
Technical Board
•
Management Board (a.k.a. Steering Committee)
–
–
–
–
–
led by Andy Richards
representatives from all NGS core nodes
meets weekly by Access Grid
day-to-day operational and deployment issues
reports to Technical Board
–
–
–
–
–
–
led by Stephen Pickles
representatives from all sites and GOSC
meets bi-weekly by Access Grid
deals with policy issues and high-level technical strategy
sets medium term goals and priorities
reports to Management Board
– meets quarterly
– representatives from funding bodies, partner sites and major stakeholders
– sets long term priorities
30
Web Sites
• NGS
– http://www.ngs.ac.uk
• GOSC
– http://www.grid-support.ac.uk
• CSAR
– http://www.csar.cfs.ac.uk
• HPCx
– http://www.hpcx.ac.uk
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Google search for “Grid Support”
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Production Status
TODAY
•
4 JISC-funded core nodes operational
•
136 Users registered (36 since 1 September ’04)
•
Grid enabled – Globus v2 (VDT distribution v1.2) at present
•
BDII information service (GLUE + MDS Schemas)
•
Data Services – Oracle, SRB and OGSA-DAI
•
Growing base of user applications
•
MyProxy and CA services provided by GOSC
•
VO Management Software – LCG-VO
•
User support: Helpdesk
Next…
•
NGS Portal
•
Resource Broker
•
SRB production service
•
Accounting
•
EGEE VOMS
•
Move from User- to Project/VO-based registration
•
Other Middleware [gLite/OMII etc…]
38
Helpdesk
http://www.grid-support.ac.uk
support@grid-support.ac.uk
UKGSC: Queue Totals For Month Prior To (10:11 AM, 26/11/2004)
• Certification still dominant query type
• General contains GGUS related queries from EGEE/GGUS helpdesk
• (A separate queue for this new traffic is to be created)
39
User registrations so far…
Number of Registered NGS Users
160
Number of Users
140
120
100
NGS User
Registrations
80
Linear (NGS User
Registrations)
60
40
20
0
04 April 2004
24 May 2004
13 July 2004 01 September
2004
21 October
2004
10 December
2004
Date
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Recent Developments
•
•
•
•
NGS newsletter
OMII helpdesk
Resource Broker (LCG) available for early adopters
TeraGrid
– UK certificates accepted on TeraGrid
– Looking at INCA monitoring with Jenny Schopf
• Trial of accounting software from MCS project
– using GGF Usage Record draft standard (as EGEE)
• Meeting with Open Science Grid’s iGOC
• Collect user exemplars
– Agreed form of acknowledgement
41
Other Developments
• VO server (LCG/EGEE) being trialled by RealityGrid
•
•
•
•
– also CCLRC e-Science
EGEE VOMS now available
EGEE meeting in den Haag
Security = NGS + GridPP + EGEE
UKERNA developments on Security and Network monitoring
• Negotiations with vendors on software licenses
– NAG – positive discussions
• If user A has a license X, they can use any other site with a license X
• To be formalised
– Gaussian
• Need a Commercial license ($20k-30k)
– Matlab
• Currently have a workable solution (binaries) but next release will break
• Mathworks aware but no solution yet
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The Last Slide
• We are in the game of providing a service
– built on leading (sometimes bleeding) edge academic stuff !
• The challenge
– not the latest and greatest grid
– not what any given user wants
• The solution
– want to make it work
• for our researchers
• for our institutions
– and maintain compatibility with EGEE, TeraGrid
– and accommodate OMII
– and expand, bringing in more partners
• Sign people/users up (to the vision)
– “get out more”
43