Networking
Information Communication
Engineering
New
Ideas for
Computing
Environments
EnginFrame
as a multi-purpose framework for computational and data Grids
Institute of Physics - Prague - Czech Republic - 12 Dec 2002
e-mail: Alberto.Falzone@nice-italy.com
info@nice-italy.com
OUTLINE
NICE Company Profile
 IT Evolution and visions
 Enginframe Architecture & Features
 Service overview
 Case Studies
 Future Perspectives and Outlook
 Summary and Conclusions

NICE Background

Distributed Resource Management
– LSF, projects, consulting

System Administration
– VENUS, consulting, support
– Unix - Windows NT integration

Computing Portals
– EnginFrame, projects and consulting
– Web, Java, XML competence
– Expertise in Citrix MetaFrame on NT & Unix
NICE Customers/Partners

Research

Mechanical

Energy

BioTech
Aerospace
Electronics






Telecom
Education
Partners
Consulting
INFN, ENEA, ICTP, CASPUR, CILEA, CNR,
Astronomical & Astrophysical Observatories
Ferrari, FIAT Avio, CRF, Comau, Iveco,
ELASIS, Marelli, UTS, Teksid, Brembo, Lear
ABB, Ansaldo, Nuovo Pignone, ENEL,
EniChem, Enterprise Oil, Agip
Pharmacia, (ENEA)
Alenia, Galileo, IDS
STMicroelectronics, Accent, Alcatel, Ericsson,
Siemens
Telecom Italia, Italtel, CSELT
Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa, Polit. Of Milan,
Universities
Compaq/HP, IBM, NEC, SGI, Sun, Avaki
Accenture, Elsag, ITGlobalValue
Where We are
ITALY
Main Office:
Camerano Casasco
ASTI
Other sites (consultants):
TURIN, MILAN,
CATANIA
OUTLINE
NICE Company Profile
 IT Evolution and visions
 Enginframe Architecture & Features
 Service overview
 Case Studies
 Future Perspectives and Outlook
 Summary and Conclusions

ICT evolution
The two driving forces:

Semiconductors technology evolution
– Moore’s Law = 2x increase every 18 months

Networking and Communication
technologies
– Communication speed growth is faster than
Semiconductors’ evolution
– Internet and World Wide Web
Mainframe-centric vision



Pros
Uniform
access
Easy
Admin.
Full
Resource
Allocation
Control




Cons
High Costs
Limited
Scalability
Fast
obsolescence
Single point of
failure
Desktop-centric vision




Pros
Costs
Scalability
Incremental
growth
Freedom for
users



Cons
Partial
utilization
Limited local
power
Complex
management
Network-centric vision

The Network is the Computer!
–
–
–
–
LSF (Resource Optimization & Analysis)
VENUS (System Administration)
FlowGuide (Job-flow Management)
Avaki (Data Management)
Application
Company
Servers
Network
Linux
Compute
Clusters
Powerful
Workstations
Dedicated
Servers
...
The Web-centric vision
Dedicated
Servers
Clients
Standard
Web
Browser
MetaFrame
Inter/Intranet
Server(s)
Globus/Gri
d Machines
LSF
Compute
Farm
Computing Environment(s)
Today
Powerful
Workstations
MetaFrame
Company
Servers
Tomorrow?
ASP(s)
on the
Internet
Network
Dedicated
Servers
LSF
Compute
Farms
Globus/Gri
d
Machines
...
User Problems

Are Technical Computing environments getting
more and more complex?

Do we need to be System Administrators to do
our job?
Do we really need to type this command line?!?
Isn’t there an easier way to access computing
resources?


System Administrator Problems

How do we manage this complexity?

How can we integrate heterogeneous
Unix/Windows resources?
How can we reduce start-up costs for new
applications and methodologies?
How can we cut training, ownership and
maintenance costs?


OUTLINE
NICE Company Profile
 IT Evolution and visions
 Enginframe Architecture & Features
 Service overview
 Case Studies
 Future Perspectives and Outlook
 Summary and Conclusions

Why EnginFrame?

Common problems:
– Distributed Resource Managing solutions
acceptance and usability
– Client access: Windows-Unix integration
– Policy enforcement
– Collaboration with customers or partners
– Data management on WAN
– Pressure from Enterprise-wide projects

No expertise for Technical Computing
problems among “traditional” web players
What is EnginFrame?

Inter/Intranet access to computing resources

Any-client can connect through any browser
– Thin/Fat clients, appliances, PDA, Wireless, ...

High scalability & flexibility for any resource
– Access an arbitrary number of HW & SW resources
(clusters, stand-alone hosts, …)



Based on the existing command-line
Flexible in content presentation
Easy to use, setup and manage
EnginFrame (R)evolution
1.x - LAN Integration (1998)
» Unix-Windows NT Integration
» Simplified parallel and distributed computing, …
– Developed in collaboration with Compaq
2.x - WAN MetaComputing (1999)
» Standards convergence
» Dynamic contents management
3.0 - Computing Portal Infrastructure
EnginFrame three tier model
CLIENT
WEB SERVER
RESOURCES
Users “browse”
the Computing
resources as easily
as a Web site.
Collects Resource
offers and creates
HTML pages
and forms to
interact with.
Agents “publish”
service offerings
as XML and act
on servers’ request
Standard Web
browsers allow
broad accessibility
and very positive
user experience
Web servers with
servlet engine are
becoming a
standard
XML can describe
many different
kinds of services
(LSF clusters,
standalone, …)
Computing Portal with EnginFrame
X / ICA connections
Application
Server
MetaFrame
+ NFuse
Clients
Standard
Web
Browser
Browsing
request
HTML
Rendering
Web Server
EnginFrame
Server
and
Repository
Service
request
XML Output
ASP
on the
Internet
EnginFrame
GlobusAgent
LSF Agent
NFuse Agent
...
GLOBUS
Grids
LSF
Compute
Farm
Web front-end
App. & Data Integr.
GUI applications
Client
Web Server
Web Browser
WebSphere
NICE Deliverables
Citrix ICA Client
Resources
EnginFrame
Citrix MetaFrame
Analysis
InfoMiner
PCC Intelligence
License Mgmt
LicenseMiner*
LicenseBroker
PCC LSF/Globus
Grid Mgmt
System Admin
S+C VENUS
Data Management
Avaki DataGrid / AFS
Operating System
Any OS
UNIX, Linux
UNIX, Linux, W2K
Hardware
PC, WS, Laptop, ...
Server, Web Farm
Server, WS, Rack, ...
EnginFrame features

Built on standard technologies
– Open to Grid standards (Globus, GridML)
– Easily extensible to Open Grid Service Architecture
(OGSA) specs


Interfaced with leading 3rd party tools
Flexible data management
– Support for input/output data transfer
– Support for remote access to centralized data
– Native XML representation of data

Flexible security management
– Support data encryption (via SSL server)
– Authentication: NIS, Domain, AFS, Grid/Globus, etc.
EnginFrame service description




Describe
service options,
actions and
information
Intuitive design
Fast and easy
prototyping
Use your
preferred XML
editor
SCREEN
CAPTURE OR
OTHER IMAGE
EnginFrame user experience




User logs in and
provides his/her
credentials
Browse through
service offerings
Fills the required
data form and (if
needed) specify
his/her input files
Submits his/her
request for the job
Security




Open architecture to support different security
policies
Directly supports HTTP authentication and
plain-text authentication
Connection can be secured with SSL or VPN
Security plug-ins available for most common
protocols (AFS, Globus GSI, Nfuse, …)
EnginFrame Benefits










Hide the complexity of Technical Computing environments
Instant migration to the Computing Portal paradigm from a
command based world
Enhance resource Manageability for System and Application
managers
Enable smooth NT-UNIX-appliance integration
Ease deployment of new software and methodologies
Automatic and transparent enforcement of company policies
Simplify resource Accessibility in the Virtual Workplace
Enhance collaboration with remote sites and partners
Protect your Intellectual Property
Shorten Time-To-Market/Time-To-User
OUTLINE
NICE Company Profile
 IT Evolution and visions
 Enginframe Architecture & Features
 Service overview
 Case Studies
 Future Perspectives and Outlook
 Summary and Conclusions

Service overview

The basic building block of the portal is the Service

A Service is an XML representation of any Computing
related action
– a Service might be a FEM solver execution, a parallel
Job based on MPI, a query to the LSF master to find my
pending jobs, etc.

Services are designed focused on their users
– A Service should be self-explaining
– It should make life easier for the user
Service structure



The Service is basically described by
– a service name
– a service description or help (info)
– the options requested to the user
– the command (action) to be executed when the service
is requested
None of these items is required
Service behavior highly depends on the presence of such
items
XML terminology

Tag or Element - an item enclosed in <>, which is
part of an XML document
– e.g. <action>, <table>

Attribute - an option of a tag, which has a name
and a value enclosed by single or double quotes
– e.g. <service id=“myservice”>

Name space - an optional naming convention that
groups tag related to a common context
– e.g. <ef:action>, <ef:service>
Service Example
<ef:service id="gzip">
<ef:name>gzip sample</ef:name>
<ef:option id="level" label="Compression level" type="list">
<ef:option id="9">maximum</ef:option>
<ef:option id="4">medium</ef:option>
<ef:option id="0">none</ef:option>
</ef:option>
<ef:option id=”FILE" label="File to compress" type="file"/>
<ef:action id="submit" label="Submit job">
EF_SPOOLER_NAME="gzip $file”
export EF_SPOOLER_NAME
${EF_ROOT}/plugins/lsf/bin/bsub -o output.txt gzip -$level \"$FILE\”
<ef:result type="text/xml"/></ef:action>
</ef:service>
EF Rendering pipeline
EnginFrame
Agent
EF XML
file
Service results
are added
EnginFrame
Server
Special tags
are expanded
XSLT
Processor
Templates
are applied
To
browser
The rendering pipeline enriches and then
transforms the EF XML files
 Customization can be at Agent-level and/or
through an XSLT style-sheet

Choosing the right layout


One very effective method is to select one existing page
from your Intranet/Internet site
You need to identify a page where you can figure out the
space for the service navigation bar and the service content
area
OUTLINE
NICE Company Profile
 IT Evolution and visions
 Enginframe Architecture & Features
 Service overview
 Case Studies
 Future Perspectives and Outlook
 Summary and Conclusions

Case study: Consolidation
Company in the Defense sector
 Different companies have merged into one
 Sites and customers spread over WAN
 Projects need common coordination and
collaboration
–
–
–
–
No common design methodology
Duplicated licenses across different sites
Insufficient local resources
Limited communication
Solution: EnginFrame
Centralized eDesign Services
Benefits


Savings in management cost and complexity
Simulation from anywhere, in any moment
– No training needed
– Application-independent Collaborative engineering




Project-specific cost control
Integration with project management, workflow
and existing Intranet Portal (Oracle-based)
Full control over resource allocation
Unified and efficient resource administration
Case Study: Intellectual Property
Chipset IP +

+ FirmWare
Scenario:
– Accent is designing a chipset for Siemens
– Siemens needs to test the firmware & software
for this chipset

Problem:
– Intellectual Property cannot be disclosed
Solution: EnginFrame
Black-box for Firmware simulation
Before & After
Internet
Firewall
Secure
HTTP
Internal users
LSF
Compute
Farm
Benefits



Great savings in time, travel and logistic costs
Simulation from anywhere, in any moment
All existing infrastructure is left intact
– no additional/dedicated HW and software
– no administrative efforts to set-up a new farm

Intellectual property is fully protected
– only specific files can be returned to the user
– pre-coded simulation scripts

No training needed
Case Study: Time to User
Full ASP set-up in 1 day!
Case Study: Data Exchange
Collaboration problem in the supply chain
 Many suppliers with different supported 3D
models
 Complex operations to convert files
 Management not comfortable with
uncontrolled data exchange
 User friendliness
Solution: EnginFrame DataGate
Case study: a portal for DataGrid
Problems:
 Scientists only care about their applications
and not about the technicalities to run them
 They are too lazy to learn new command
line interfaces
 The middleware services and the ways to
access them change very rapidly
The solution: EnginFrame
GENIUS: The Grid Portal for DataGrid
Benefits

Independence from MiddleWare changes:
– Transparent to the users
– The user is guided in his/her choices

Independence from Layout changes:
– The services mantain the same structure
– New graphic look & feel can be easily
implemented

Intuitive use
OUTLINE
NICE Company Profile
 IT Evolution and visions
 Enginframe Architecture & Features
 Service overview
 Case Studies
 Future Perspectives and Outlook
 Summary and Conclusions

Development strategy

EnginFrame evolves at two levels
– Architectural evolution
– Project driven enhancements

Future technological focuses:
–
–
–
–
–
OGSA/WebServices
Enterprise/Science Portal integration
DB integration
B2B and workflow integration
3D visualization integration
Roadmap

EnginFrame 3.3 - Q4 02
– Data management enhancements
– Portlet integration

EnginFrame 3.5 - Q2 03
– Authorization system
– Early DB integration

EnginFrame 4.0 - Q4 03
– WebServices & early B2B functions
Summary & Conclusions



This New Portal Technology provides an easy way
to access user’s applications in a distributed
environment (e.g., Computational and Data Grids)
The standard W3C languages compliance
guarantees a very high compatibility and
flexibility in multi-purpose development of
service architecture
Benefits for the end-user:
– Ubiquitous access to computational & data resources
– Intuitive interaction with services
– High abstraction do not imply any specific IT technical
knowledge
Please, visit our web site
www.enginframe.com
e-mail: info@nice-italy.com
Networking
Information
Communication
Engineering
“Your new partner in Grid Computing”
e-mail: info@nice-italy.com
What does XML mean?


XML files must be well-formed
An XML is well formed when:
– There is exactly one element, called the root
– the elements, delimited by start- and end-tags, nest
properly within each other
– each element attribute is delimited by single or double
quotes

XML files are case sensitive

All XML files in EF must be well formed