a Web interface for the GRID world Alice Off-line Meeting Erice (TP) - Italy, Sept 26th, 2000

Outline NICE Company Profile EnginFrame Targets EnginFrame Architecture and Features EnginFrame with Alice Q&A

NICE Targets and Skills n Distributed Resource Management –Master LSF VAR for Italy since 1995 n System Administration –consulting for System Administration –heterogeneous cluster integration n Computing Portal –EnginFrame HPC interface and resource browser –Projects and consulting in distributed computing

NICE Customers n INFN, CNR n CILEA, CASPUR n ENEA, ICTP n Scuola Normale di Pisa n Italtel, CSELT n Telecom Italia n Alenia n FIAT AVIO n Ferrari n Centro Ricerche FIAT n Iveco n ELASIS, UTS n Pharmacia & Upjohn n STMicroelectronics n Accent n ABB Ricerche n ENEL n Ansaldo n Nuovo Pignone (GE) n SGI, Sun, HP, Compaq/DEC n Universities... Research Telecom Auto/Aero EDA Energy

Outline NICE Company Profile EnginFrame Targets EnginFrame Architecture and Features EnginFrame with Alice Q&A

Problems n Are Technical Computing environments getting more and more complex? n How can we simplify access to distributed computing resources? n How can we automate complex workflows and large scale problems? n How can we integrate computing and information services?

What is EnginFrame? n Inter/Intranet access to computing resources n Any-client can connect through any browser –Thin/Fat clients, appliances, PDA, Wireless,... n High scalability & flexibility for HPC resources –Access an arbitrary number of HW & SW resources (clusters, stand-alone hosts, ASP’s…) n Flexible in content presentation n Easy to use, setup and manage

Dedicated Servers Dedicated Servers Compute Farm(s) MetaFrame Clients Standard Web Browser Inter/Intranet Server(s) Computing Portal in Action

EnginFrame Benefits n Enables an instant migration to the Computing Portal paradigm from a command based world n Intuitive XML dialect to define services n Enhances resource Manageability for System and Application managers n Simplifies resource Accessibility for users n Ease deployment of new software and methodologies n Automatic and transparent enforcement of new policies n Enables smooth NT-UNIX-appliance integration

Outline NICE Company Profile EnginFrame Targets EnginFrame Architecture and Features EnginFrame with Alice Q&A

EnginFrame (R)evolution 1.x - LAN Integration (1998) »Unix-Windows NT Integration »Simplified parallel and distributed computing, … 2.x - WAN MetaComputing (1999) »Standards convergence »Dynamic contents management Computing Portal

CLIENT Users “browse” the Computing resources as easily as a Web site. Standard Web browsers allow broad accessibility and very positive user experience RESOURCES Agents “publish” service offerings as XML and act on servers’ request XML can describe many different kinds of services (LSF clusters, standalone, …) WEB SERVER Collects Resource offers and creates HTML pages and forms to interact with. Web servers with servlet engine are becoming a standard WHY? HOW? EnginFrame three tier model

Application Server Application Server LSF Compute Farm Web ServerClients Standard Web Browser MetaFrame + NFuse MetaFrame + NFuse EnginFrame Server and Repository Browsing request HTML Rendering XML Output Service request X / ICA connections EnginFrame LSF Agent NFuse Agent... EnginFrame architecture

EnginFrame service description n Describe service options, actions and information n Intuitive design n Fast and easy prototyping n Use your preferred XML editor SCREEN CAPTURE OR OTHER IMAGE

EnginFrame user experience n User logs in and provides its credentials n Browses through service offerings n Fills the required data form and (if needed) specifies input files n Submits the request for the job

Security n Open architecture to support different security policies n Directly supports HTTP authentication and plain-text authentication n Connection can be secured with SSL or VPN n Security plug-ins will be available for most common protocols (Grid, AFS, …)

Data management: Local input n Supports local data transfer to the agent n Only requirement: v3+ standard browser Local data EnginFrame Server and Repository File Attach Web Server EnginFrame LSF Agent NFuse Agent... Remote storage

Data management: Remote input EnginFrame Server and Repository Remote File Browsing Web Server EnginFrame LSF Agent NFuse Agent... Remote data n Support remote file browsing (requires Java) n Only path information is transferred

Data management: Local output Local disk EnginFrame Server and Repository Output Retrieval Web Server EnginFrame LSF Agent NFuse Agent... Remote output HTTP Download n Output files can be “downloaded” to the client n stdout rendering: XML, HTML, plain text

Data management: Remote output EnginFrame Server and Repository Web Server EnginFrame LSF Agent NFuse Agent... Remote output Service Request Interactive Post Processing Service Request n Output can be directly post-processed remotely n ICA or X[3D] can be used for user interaction

EnginFrame Foundations n Completely standards based –Apache XML suite »Cocoon, FOP, Xalan-J, Xerces-J »Apache + JServ/Jakarta (Servlet 2.x) –Reference platform: Linux »RedHat Linux 6.1 or Sun JDK n Installation facts –Minimal footprint »Server: < 5 Mb Disk; < 20Mb RAM; < 1s CPU/hit »Client: NO LOCAL SOFTWARE! –RPM: Work in progress!

Outline NICE Company Profile EnginFrame Targets EnginFrame Architecture and Features EnginFrame with Alice Q&A

EnginFrame with Alice n Simple but comprehensive web interface to Aliroot n Supports LSF, but not restricted to it –distributed resource management (DRM) off the shelf –Supports multiple sites with MultiCluster –accounting and reporting –File Transfer Agent (FTA) for data transfer n Automate large scale problems –Job array support

Alice test-bed in Catania n VENUS for Configuration Management centralized administration n LSF MultiCluster for DRM n EnginFrame as Web interface n Coming up: –LSF Analyzer for accounting & reporting –LSF FTA for comprehensive and fault tolerant data transfer –GLOBUS integration of the above

Open opportunities n We are open to work together! n Our to-do list –Authentication with GRID facilities –Full support to AFS –Integration with LDAP –Alice advanced workflow management

Outline NICE Company Profile EnginFrame Targets EnginFrame Architecture and Features EnginFrame with Alice Q&A

EnginFrame freedom Seamless access to a full range of interactive and batch applications. Flexibility Applications Devices Connections Access from any client device or appliance Access with any connection. LAN, WAN, Internet, and wireless. Seamless access to a full range of heterogeneous servers and clusters. Render embedded application information (tutorials, context sensitive on-line help,...) Information Resources

Networking Information Communication Engineering “Your new partner in Network Computing”