EUMEDGRID Final Review, Brussels, 06.May.08
PO: E Mitjana (replacing C Mena-Abela)
Reviewers: Jorge Andres Sanchez; Stefan Wesner; Isayvani Naiker (Chair)
Agenda & slides:
http://indico.cern.ch/getFile.py/access?resId=0&materialId=slides&confId=33488
Key points for CERN & EGEE:
* 2nd year survey showed significant increase in the usage of gLite in the Med region,
highlighted as one of the impacts of the project in the region
* Follow up proposals under evaluation DREAM (FP7-INFRA-2008), EPIKH (FP7PEOPLE)
* MoU will be in place to keep infrastructure on best effort strategy
* 5 NGIs established from the Med region during the project
* Minor updates of a couple of deliverables & reports, none involving CERN except the
final cost claim.
Project summary
SSA, FP6, Jan06-Feb08 (27 months, including +2 months extension)
14 partners, 1.6Meur EC contr, 491 total PMs, 373 funded PMs
www.eumedgrid.eu
Management: PMB, PO, TB, EAB
Budget: 50Keur in excess of EC contrib
Effort: 490 PM planned, 520 PM delivered
Main achievements:
2 surveys confirmed effectiveness of dissemination activities; 25 sites in 13 countries;
1800CPUs 84TB storage; Egypt NGI established in 2nd year; Morocco 1st African CA
accredited by EUGRIDPMA; effective dissemination and policy events; 8 new
applications in the 2nd year
Outlook:
MoU will be in place to keep infrastructure on best effort strategy; Enlarge collaboration
with other communities Bib Alexandrina, SESAME, Libya;
FP7 proposals:
*DREAM (Definition of a Roadmap for an e-Infrastructure in Africa and the Middleeast) to the FP7-INFRASTRUCTURES-2008-1 / INFRA-2008-3.2 Coordination &
Support Action
* EPIKH (Exchange Programme to advance e-Infrastructure Know-How) to the FP7PEOPLE-IRSES-2008/Marie Curie Action
Actions addressing 1st review recommendations:
#1 Emphasis on the formation of NGIs; Establish contact with Libya & Lebanon;
Establish one RC per beneficiary country.
*NGI status
1st year: Jordan, Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia
2nd year: Egypt
In the process of establishing NGI: Jordan, Syria
Aiming/Negotiating to establish NGI: Cyprus, Israel, Malta
*RC status and usage
At least one active site per country, 10 sites in Egypt; Total of 25 active sites in 13
countries; Testbed monitored using production tools of EGEE.
Libya/ Lebanon contacts established; minimal progress
#2 Shift dissemination focus to policy makers
Several thematic workshops in Med region; EU-Med Event in Brussels 23 Oct07; 2nd
EUROMED ministerial event in Cairo Feb 08
Booklet on “e-Infrastructure across Mediterranean” produced and distributed
#3 Establish foster collaboration with similar projects
Several joint events with EUChinaGrid, EELA, EGEE, SEE-GRID-2, EUIndiaGrid,
Geant, EUMedConnect
Common materials produced for tutorials; proceedings of the 3rd EELA conference
#4 Improved financial management
#5 Review risk analysis
Updated risk analysis submitted. None of the risks happened.
WP2 User Requirement
Updated end of project survey indicated:
Improved awareness; improved understanding; widespread use of gLite; NGI awareness;
increased need for further training
WP3 Infrastructure
25 sites, at least one per country
Operational structure: Malta, Cyprus managing the infra in the 2nd year, with GRNET
supervising
CA: Morocco’s MAGRID accredited in EUGRIDPMA
Increased availability and usability in the 2nd year
WP4 Application Support
96 registered users, linearly increasing during the project lifetime, linearly increasing
voms-proxy-init
EGEE apps: CMS, ATLAS- deployed and used to validate infra
1st year apps: CODESA-3D, ArchaeoGrid
2nd year apps: 8 integrated at the EGSAP (grid school) in Egypt in the domains of
Bioinfo, Eng, Math, Theoretical Physics; +4 apps
Country presentations:
Jordan – JUNET
* Also NREN
*Joined EUMEDCONNECT Mar06; 3rd partner behind GRNET in May06; limited
budget
*Initiated the NGI – called JUNET
Algeria – CERIST
* CERIST managing the ARN NREN
* Initiated the NGI; national funded project; part of ARN NREN
Cyprus – CYNET
* Also NREN
* Accredited CA in place (before EUMEDGRID)
* Aims to establish NGI; JRU in place
Egypt – EUN
* Finalising CP/CPS, to become accredited CA
* Initiated the NGI – Egyption Grid Initiative
Israel – UCC
* UCC managing the NREN – called UCC
* Negotiating to establish NGI
Malta – UoM
* Negotiating to establish NGI
Morocco – MAGRID
* NGI established - MAGRID
Palestine – PADI2
* No NGI?
Syria - HIAST
* CA in preparation
* NGI?
Tunisia – UTIC
* NGI established - GTRS
* Uses gLite and XtremWebCH
Turkey – TUBITAK
* NGI established – TR-GRID, legal status
* JRU established, legal status
Questions:
Explain EAB and Role: F Gagliardi, A Belic, V Breton. Active during the 1st year, not
active in the 2nd year. Role was focused to help startup activities.
Explain why some countries have more sites/compentense/more successful; these are
lessons learned we can share with other communities.
Each country has different pace, focus, involvement of national/government agencies. If
there is strong national support, progress is faster. Good example is Egypt.
With the survey, what is the major impact of EUMEDGRID in the region?Explain the
status of migration to EGEE production sites. Following the 2nd survey, any actions for
the management?
Substantial increase in positive awareness, improved quality of responses (less blanks)
Widespread use of gLite in year2.
Only Morocco has progressed in creating production sites.
Explain high demand for security/confidentiality/integrity, is this influenced by the grid
technology or the applications?
This is slightly misleading survey answer. During application porting there was no need
for more sophisticated security mechanism. But it may be said that better security will
increase impact, especially for certain applications.
How do you propose to proceed in keeping the infrastructure now that EUMEDGRID
project is finished?
* ROC – which one? SEE, IT?
* Need re-focus strategy to 1-Allow Med countries to access resources in Europe; 2Slowly build capacity in the Med countries
Create graph of active users from each country, to be included in the final activity report.
Most actively used application?
CMS & ATLAS
Make prominent in the public Med websites the logo of EUMEDGRID.
===
Feedback from reviewers:
This project is specific, difficult to compare with similar infrastructure projects like
EELA, EUChinaGrid; Mediterrean effort is a very specific, strategic area with its own
issues. The project has taken the 1st review recommendations and addressed them.
Specific recommendations:
*Resubmission of D1.1.
*De-emphasize the WISDOM challenge,
*De-emphasize role of EUMedGrid in co-organised events
*Follow up on the MoU and have it signed by the participating countries (currently
draft); Use as leverage in future project proposals
*Table 5.2 on NGI should be included in updated PAR.
*Include country reports in the updated PAR as additional section; Include a section on
key challenges in the Med region
*Find a “catch-all” application that gather users across Med countries
*Update current status of infrastructure
*Update project website to include: booklet/info from the booklet; links to partners’
websites/activities