Charter for GGF Research Group on
Data Replication in Grid Environments
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Name: Data Replication in Grid Environments (REP)
Chairs: Ann Chervenak (annc@isi.edu) and Peter Kunszt (Peter.Kunszt@cern.ch)
Secretary: Andre Merzky (merzky@zib.de)
Mailing list: rep-rg@gridforum.org
Home page: http://www.zib.de/ggf/data/
The Data Replication Research Group (REP) explores issues related to management
of replicated data sets in grid computing environments. These data sets may range in
size from gigabytes to terabytes or petabytes. We are interested in data replication
issues for a variety of data models, including file-based replication, replication of
byte ranges within a file, data object replication, and replication of collections of
files. The objective of the group is to provide a forum for discussing approaches to
replica management and to promote collaboration among different groups providing
this functionality.
Specific topics of interest include:
o mechanisms to locate one or more replicas of a specified logical file or
of a range of bytes within a logical file
o mechanisms to create and register new replicas of a logical file or of a
range of bytes within a logical file
o mechanisms to register replica attributes, such as designating a replica
as a master copy
o relationship of replica management systems to metadata services that
contain data describing the contents of data files, collections, byte
ranges or objects
o interfaces for replica management systems, ranging from attributebased queries to UNIX file system-style operations
o scalability of the replica management system to support large numbers
of replicated files, collections, byte ranges or objects
o reliability of the replica management system despite storage system or
network failures
o security of the replica management system to protect the privacy and
integrity of data and of information about the existence of data
o selection of the “best” replica for a data transfer
o automatic creation of new replicas when performance of existing
replicas is inadequate
o support for data versioning or data consistency despite updates
o implementation issues, such as centralized versus distributed design of
the replica management service; use of relational databases versus
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The Giggle Replica Location Service Framework
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XML databases versus UNIX-style directories versus LDAP
directories; etc.
The Replica Management Research Group provides a forum for such topics until
sufficient maturity is reached that results in the formation of separate working groups
or research groups to pursue them further. The discussions of REP are conducted at
meetings and via the mailing list.
Goals/Milestones:
o GGF5 (July 2002): Discussion of RG charter and objectives for the
coming year
o GGF6 (October 2002): Draft document on user requirements for replica
management (pending a volunteer to act as editor); Web site with links to
replication projects discussed in meetings and an infrastructure for easily
updating this information
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