SURAgrid Update
SURA BoF @ Internet2 SMM
April 23, 2007
Mary Fran Yafchak, maryfran@sura.org
SURA IT Program Coordinator, SURAgrid project manager
SURAgrid Vision
SURAgrid
Institutional
Resources
(e.g. Current participants)
Gateways to National
Cyberinfrastructure
(e.g. Teragrid)
VO or Project
Resources
(e.g, SCOOP)
Industry Partner
Coop Resources
(e.g. IBM partnership)
Other externally
funded resources
(e.g. group proposals)
Heterogeneous Environment to Meet Diverse User Needs
Project-Specific View
“MySURAgrid” View
Project-specific tools
SURAgrid
Resources
SURAgrid Resources
and Applications
Sample User Portals
SURA regional development:
• Develop & manage partnership relations
• Facilitate collaborative project development
• Orchestrate centralized services & support
• Foster and catalyze application development
• Develop training & education (user, admin)
• Other…(Community-driven, over time…)
SURAgrid Growth & “Mix”
(Key: SURA member; not SURA member)
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University of Alabama at
Birmingham
University of Alabama in Huntsville
University of Florida
Georgia State University
University of Michigan
University of Southern California
Texas Advanced Computing Center
University of Virginia
As of April 2004 (25%)
SURAgrid Growth & “Mix”
(Key: SURA member; not SURA member)
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University of Alabama at Birmingham
University of Alabama in Huntsville
University of Florida
Georgia State University
University of Michigan
University of Southern California
Texas Advanced Computing Center
University of Virginia
Tulane University
University of Arkansas
George Mason University
University of South Carolina
Great Plains Network
Louisiana State
Mississippi Center for SuperComputing
Research
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Texas Tech
University of Louisiana at Lafayette
North Carolina State University
Texas A&M University
As of April 2005 (21%)
SURAgrid Growth & “Mix”
(Key: SURA member; not SURA member)
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University of Alabama at Birmingham
University of Alabama in Huntsville
University of Florida
Georgia State University
University of Michigan
University of Southern California
Texas Advanced Computing Center
University of Virginia
Tulane University
University of Arkansas
George Mason University
University of South Carolina
Great Plains Network
Louisiana State
Mississippi Center for SuperComputing
Research
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Texas Tech
University of Louisiana at Lafayette
North Carolina State University
Texas A&M University
University of North Carolina, Charlotte
University of Kentucky
Old Dominion University
Vanderbilt University
Bowie State University
Louisiana Tech University
University of Maryland
As of April 2006 (23%)
SURAgrid Growth & “Mix”
(Key: SURA member; not SURA member)
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University of Alabama at
Birmingham
University of Alabama in Huntsville
University of Florida
Georgia State University
University of Michigan
University of Southern California
Texas Advanced Computing Center
University of Virginia
Tulane University
University of Arkansas
George Mason University
University of South Carolina
Great Plains Network
Louisiana State
Mississippi Center for
SuperComputing Research
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Texas Tech
University of Louisiana at Lafayette
North Carolina State University
Texas A&M University
University of North Carolina,
Charlotte
University of Kentucky
Old Dominion University
Vanderbilt University
Bowie State University
Louisiana Tech University
University of Maryland
Kennesaw State University
Clemson University
Wake Forest University
As of April 2007 (27%)
Potential with talks in-progress: 33%
Bowie
State
GMU
SURAgrid Participants
UMD
UMich
(As of March 2007)
UKY
UVA
GPN
UArk
Vanderbilt
UAH
ODU
USC
Wake
Forest
MCSR
SC
UNCC
TTU
Clemson
TACC
LATech
UFL
UAB
TAMU
= SURA Member
NC
State
LSU
ULL
Kennesaw
State
GSU
Tulane
= non-SURA Participant
= Resources on the grid
And new SURAgrid staff too!
A warm welcome to…
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Linda Akli, Grid Application & Outreach
Specialist (as of January 2007)
 Mary Trauner, Contractor in resource
deployment & support (as of last week!)
 SURAgrid Infrastructure Specialist (coming
soon - interviews in progress…)
SURAgrid Application Growth
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Five teams showcased their app at I2 FMM in Dec 07
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GSU: Multiple Genome Alignment on the Grid
UAB: Dynamic BLAST
ODU: Bioelectric Simulator for Whole Body Tissues
NCState: Simulation-Optimization for Threat Management in
Urban Water Systems
– UNC: Storm Surge Modeling with ADCIRC
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Documentation
– Application “glossies” (see handouts)
– Running Your Application on SURAgrid, v2
• http://www.sura.org/programs/docs/RunAppsSURAgridV2.pdf
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And more applications in the pipeline (see handout)
More on SCOOP & SURAgrid
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Current collaboration
– SURA IT staff in SCOOP planning & communications
– Active deployment on SURAgrid resources
• Supported individual model runs in 2006 hurricane season
• Planning to support integrated model runs in 2007
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Future collaboration?
– SURA IT & SCOOP management seeking to increase
resources for SCOOP-SURAgrid integration
– Areas of potential co-development:
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Event-driven resource scheduling
Data storage, discovery, redundancy, etc. (“data grid”)
Secure multi-level access (Integrated portals, tiered PKI?)
Access to computation & facilities for high quality visualization
SURAgrid Resource growth
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Contributors about the same but nature is changing…
– Several test resources being replaced by larger resources,
or those from production environments
– Several institutions now contributing multiple resources
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New additions
– GSU’s IBM P575 (first from the SURAgrid-IBM partnership)
• LSU & TAMU integrations pending…
– LSU’s SuperMike
• See http://www.hpcwire.com/hpc/1320723.html
– Production cluster from UMich (also supports ATLAS)
• See https://hep.pa.msu.edu/twiki/bin/view/AGLT2
Total combined capacity as of March 2007: 1991 CPUs for total
of approximately 10.5 teraflops, with 4.6 terabytes of storage.
Infrastructure Development
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Updates to SURAgrid portal (maintained by TACC):
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Improvements in user documentation
Enhanced system detail & resources “at a glance”
Test scripts at the service level
See Documentation & Resource Monitor at
gridportal.sura.org
Access management (developed by UVA):
– Tiered-PKI being designed to provide multiple levels of
assurance within SURAgrid
– Plans underway for most critical but affordable components
while seeking funding for the rest
– SURAgrid CA (at current LoA), strong authentication for site
administrators, foundational policy documentation
Infrastructure Development
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New! SURAgrid Accounting Working Group
to address the immediate need for grid-wide
views of resource and application activity
– Participants: UAB, GMU, GSU, LSU, UMich, ODU,
TAMU, TTU; SURA facilitating
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New! SURAgrid “stack packaging” task force
– TTU leading, with participation from GSU, GMU,
LSU, UAB
And with growth…we need
things like:
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More formal governance process
 Increased need to find the means to expand
& sustain the effort
Governance & Decision-Making
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SURAgrid Project Planning Working Group
– Established at Sept 2006 In-Person Meeting to develop
governance options for SURAgrid
– Participants:
• Linda Akli, SURA
• Gary Crane, SURA
• Steve Johnson, Texas A&M University
• Sandi Redman, University of Alabama in Huntsville
• Don Riley, University of Maryland & SURA IT Fellow
• Mike Sachon, Old Dominium University
• Srikanth Sastry, Texas A&M University
• Art Vandenberg, Georgia State University
• Mary Fran Yafchak, SURA
Governance Overview
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To date SURAgrid has used consensus-based
decision making with SURA facilitating
Maturity & investment requires more formal structure
– Ensure those investing have appropriate role in governance
– Support sustainable growth & active participation
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Suggested initial classes of membership
– Contributing Member: HE or related org contributing
significant resources to advance SURAgrid infrastructure
• SURA is contributing member by definition
– Participating Member: HE or related org participating in
SURAgrid activities other than Contributing Member
– Partnership Member: Entity (org, commercial, non-HE…)
with strategic relationship with SURAgrid
Proposed Governance Structure
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Formation of SURAgrid Governance Committee
– Primary governing body, elected by SURAgrid Contributing
Members
– Will act on behalf of SURAgrid community
• Guidance, Facilitation, Reporting
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Initial SURAgrid Governance Committee will have 9
members:
– 8 elected by current SURAgrid Participating Organizations, 1
appointed by SURA
– Current SURAgrid Participating Organizations defined as all
those participating as of December 31, 2006
Transitioning to New Governance
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SURAgrid Participating Organization designate a
SURAgrid lead representative – Done
 New governance process/structure approved by
SURA IT Steering Group – Done
 New Governance process/structure approved by vote
of SURAgrid Participating leads – Done
 Call for nominations for SURAgrid Governance
Committee candidates – Done
 Nominations will be accepted through midnight April
28 – In progress
 Election of SURAgrid Governance Committee
members is expected to be completed by May 12
Sustaining the effort, Part 1
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Continuing to seek external funding for SURAgrid
through collaborative proposal development
– SURA-led NSF STCI (Strategic Technologies for
Cyberinfrastructure) proposal (under review)
• Expanded grid-wide operations & support, Portal
maintenance & development, Development of two-tiered
PKI (Public Key Infrastructure)
• Submission included 9 letters of support from other
SURAgrid sites as well as Teragrid, SCOOP & NCSA
– SURAgrid as grid service provider in NSF CCLI (Course,
Curriculum & Laboratory Improvement) proposal led by
UNC-C (Barry Wilkinson) & UArk (Amy Apon) (under review)
• Other partners: LSU, GMU, Lewis & Clark University,
UNC Wilmington, Southern University & Howard
University
Sustaining the effort, Part 2
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SURAgrid included as participant in LSU’s Nov 06 submission to
NSF 06-599 “High-Performance Computing for Science and
Engineering
SURAgrid was also a partner in LSU’s Feb 07 NSF proposal
submission to the NSF 06-573 “Leadership-Class System
Acquisition - Creating a Petascale Computing Environment for
Science and Engineering” program.
SURA staff have also been working with John Connolly
(Director of the University of Kentucky Center for Computational
Sciences) and several IT leaders from SURA’s EPSCoR
community to explore the development of a SURA program to
leverage SURAgrid and SURAgrid’s Corporate Partners
program to create a cyberinfrastructure program targeted at the
SURA EPSCoR community.
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Now to Gary (Whew!) for more detail on
corporate partnerships…