1. www.egi.eu EGI-InSPIRE RI-261323 EGI-InSPIRE www.egi.eu EGI-InSPIRE RI-261323 NA3 – User Community Coordination Steve Brewer Chief Community Officer EGI.eu NA3 – EGI-InSPIRE EC Review 20111

2. www.egi.eu EGI-InSPIRE RI-261323 NA3 Overview 2 36 Countries 37 Beneficiaries 1379 PMs 28.7 FTEs WPBeneficiaryTotal PMs WP3-EEGI.eu201 WP3-ECSIC12 WP3-EGRNET47 WP3-ELIP12 WP3-ESTFC23 WP3-NARNES19 WP3-NCESNET28 WP3-NCNRS54 WP3-NCSC24 WP3-NCSIC27 WP3-NCYFRONET35 WP3-NE-ARENA7 WP3-NGRENA6 WP3-NIIAP NAS RA6 WP3-NINFN40 WP3-NIPB16 WP3-NIUCC13 WP3-NKIT-G66 WP3-NLIP28 WP3-NMTA KFKI32 WPBeneficiaryTotal PMs WP3-NNCF9 WP3-NRENAM9 WP3-NSIGMA27 WP3-NSTFC28 WP3-NSWITCH8 WP3-NTCD14 WP3-NTUBITAK36 WP3-NUCPH20 WP3-NUCY8 WP3-NUI SAV38 WP3-NUPT24 WP3-NVR-SNIC9 WP3-NVU15 WP3-NASGC121 WP3-NASTI220 WP3-NITB10 WP3-NKISTI28 WP3-NNUS24 WP3-NUPM12 WP3-NNECTEC4 Spain Greece Portugal UK Slovenia Czech Republic France Finland Poland Russia Georgia Armenia Italy Serbia Israel Germany Hungary Netherlands Moldova Norway Switzerland Ireland Turkey Denmark Cyprus Slovakia Albania Sweden Lithuania Taiwan Philippines Indonesia Korea Singapore Malaysia Thailand NA3 – EGI-InSPIRE EC Review 2011

3. www.egi.eu EGI-InSPIRE RI-261323 NA3 Tasks TNA3.1: Activity Management (Steve Brewer, EGI.eu) TNA3.2: User Community Support Team (Steve Brewer, EGI.eu) TNA3.3: NGI User Support Teams (Gergely Sipos, EGI.eu) TNA3.4: Technical Services (Marios Chatziangelou, GRNET) –Training coordination across projects and national teams (Claire Devereux, STFC) –Application database to support new and existing user communities (Marios Chatziangelou, GRNET) –Basic technical services needed by VOs (Ignacio Blanquer CSIC, Gonçalo Borges, LIP) NA3 – EGI-InSPIRE EC Review 20113

4. www.egi.eu EGI-InSPIRE RI-261323 Objectives Activity Achievements and Challenges Future Plans Summary NA3 Outline NA3 – EGI-InSPIRE EC Review 20114

5. www.egi.eu EGI-InSPIRE RI-261323 NA3 Objectives: coordinating the user experience NA3 – EGI-InSPIRE EC Review 20115 Different user types collaborate within a research group Research leader Researchers and scientists Application developers Local System administrators VRC with many research groups (and one VRC representative) Research group User Community Support team (NA3.2) VRCs communicate with EGI through the User Community Board EGI dissemination EGI User Community Support Services (NA3.4) Application Database, Training Marketplace, VO Services, Requirements Tracker National and specialist support & services NGI User Support coordination (NA3.3) Support teams available across 50 partners

6. www.egi.eu EGI-InSPIRE RI-261323 Objectives Activity Achievements and Challenges Future Plans Summary NA3 Outline NA3 – EGI-InSPIRE EC Review 20116

7. www.egi.eu EGI-InSPIRE RI-261323 Activity Management (NA3.1) User Support Coordination (NA3.2) ucst@egi.eu Ensures the flow of information, knowledge and solutions among stakeholders Integrate current and future use NA3 – EGI-InSPIRE EC Review 20117 Users Teams Processes Services Support teams (NA3.3) NGI User Support Teams Experts Site administrators Projects with focus on specific areas. e.g. EDGI; MAPPER; StratusLab Processes (NA3.2) User Community Board (UCB) VRC accreditation Requirements processing Training Working Group User Services Advisory Group (USAG) Technical services (NA3.4) Application Database VO services Training Marketplace Requirements Tracker

8. www.egi.eu EGI-InSPIRE RI-261323 UCB and the Virtual Research Community model: purpose and benefits NA3 – EGI-InSPIRE EC Review 20118 Benefits: 1.Defined communication channels: named contact points between communities & EGI 2.Application integration 3.Policy and procedures: define interaction between EGI and users 4.Requirements gathering: solutions and influence 5.Dissemination: sharing of news, breakthroughs, best practice and innovation User Community Board with representation from: Life Sciences, WLCG, WeNMR, Astronomy & Astrophysics, Earth Sciences, Computational Chemistry, Arts & Humanities, Hydrometeorology VO: a group of researchers working collaboratively EGI Helpdesk Other Helpdesk E G I. e u NGINGI Training Events Trainers Technical Services VRC support units Other support units UCB User Community VRC: a grouping of research collaborations working in a common domain

9. www.egi.eu EGI-InSPIRE RI-261323 A virtuous service cycle: current communities NA3 – EGI-InSPIRE EC Review 20119 EGI.eu National Resource Providers New User Communities MoUs & OLAs Technology Providers MoUs & SLAs Current User Communities MoUs LoIs

10. www.egi.eu EGI-InSPIRE RI-261323 NGI User Support Teams (Task NA3.3) NA3 – EGI-InSPIRE EC Review 201110 NGI User Support Teams Consultancy Training Provide access to grid and software services Porting apps. Dev. and operate software services Collecting Feedback Document Processes & apps. Helpdesk NGI User Support Teams provide: Consultancy & training Access to grid services Application porting Developing and operating software services Collecting feedback Documentation & helpdesk NGIs receive: Web & wiki resources Requirements process Applications and services VRC coordination support Support teams are available across 50 partners – they are all different… as are their support skills. Serbian NGI: Grid Intro. - 25 March 2011 SIMAP added: 4 March 2011, (Comp. Chem)

11. www.egi.eu EGI-InSPIRE RI-261323 A virtuous service cycle: new communities NA3 – EGI-InSPIRE EC Review 201111 Used by Researchers Gathering New Requirements New Technology Assessed Deployed Infrastructure Services EGI.eu National Resource Providers Current User Communities New User Communities MoUs MoUs & OLAs Technology Providers MoUs & SLAs LoIs

12. www.egi.eu EGI-InSPIRE RI-261323 New user communities: gathering new requirements NA3 – EGI-InSPIRE EC Review 201112 Integrated Services Human Technical Infrastructure What makes up a Virtual Research Community? VRCs provide EGI with: EGI offers VRCs: -Virtual Organisations -Mailing lists -Workshops -Forums -Blogs -Projects -Shared stories -Best practices -Collaborations -Laboratories -Partnerships -Requirements -Applications and tools -Data collections -Training modules -Success stories -Experts -Users -Easy to use infrastructure -Grid-ready applications -Training resources -Help and support -Involvement in open development processes -Workshops and forums Design Deliver Discover

13. www.egi.eu EGI-InSPIRE RI-261323 www.egi.eu/user-support NA3 – EGI-InSPIRE EC Review 201113

14. www.egi.eu EGI-InSPIRE RI-261323 Task NA3.4: Technical Services NA3 – EGI-InSPIRE EC Review 201114 Services provided by a few NGIs for the whole community To support the Virtual Research Communities To facilitate the work of NGI support teams To improve communication among NGIs, among users and with users Bring in expertise and services from Heavy User Communities through SA3 Tools and services (Task leader: Marios Chatziangelou, GRNET) : 1.EGI Application Database (Marios Chatziangelou, GRNET) 2.Services for VOs (Ignacio Blanquer Espert, CSIC; Gonçalo Borges, LIP) 3.Training Marketplace (Claire Devereux, STFC) 4.Requirement Tracker (EGI.eu with help from CESNET)

15. www.egi.eu EGI-InSPIRE RI-261323 EGI Application Database NA3 – EGI-InSPIRE EC Review 201115 Benefits of the AppDB: gives recognition to reusable applications and tools gives recognition to application developers Use of the AppDB Register applications/tools Reuse of applications/tools Map of application landscape AppDB gadget has been instantiated by: –WeNMR, LSGC, GridPP, Serbian, UK and Hungarian NGIs

16. www.egi.eu EGI-InSPIRE RI-261323 AppDB: PY1 statistics NA3 – EGI-InSPIRE EC Review 201116 Note: Apps. Can be associated with > 1 country New additions to the Applications Database during Project Year 1 (Data: largest to smallest)

17. www.egi.eu EGI-InSPIRE RI-261323 Training Marketplace Integration of: –Training event calendar –Digital library (of training materials) –Service offering & requesting form Purpose of the Training Marketplace: –Register training events –Use, reuse and share training materials –Offer training-related services (infrastructure, VO, CA,...) –Feed training-requirements –Delegate representative to EGI Training Working Group Results: –Approximately 60 training events were added during PY1 NA3 – EGI-InSPIRE EC Review 201117

18. www.egi.eu EGI-InSPIRE RI-261323 Training Marketplace: Motivation The Training Marketplace was devised to overcome the failings of the University of Edinburgh (UE) to deliver the Training Events and Training Repository as part of the UK JRU led by STFC: NA3 – EGI-InSPIRE EC Review 201118 UE produce no significant new functionality or project plans in PQ1 & 2 In January 2010 UK JRU advised EGI that Edinburgh were withdrawing and that effort would be reallocated within the UK. Training Working Group requirements document (http://go.egi.eu/279) drives development of Training Marketplace modelhttp://go.egi.eu/279 STFC takes on responsibility of training services in TNA3.4 New technology (Drupal) used importing old training material as required

19. www.egi.eu EGI-InSPIRE RI-261323 Coordination of services for VOs NA3 – EGI-InSPIRE EC Review 201119 VO-specific testing of sites is required by VO managers within VRCs Basic services are available from within the infrastructure Typically delivered through the operations teams and NGIs Coordination consists of: Reviewing available services: management, monitor & accounting tools (NAGIOS SAM, GANGA, DIANE, CERN dashboard & mini dashboard) Consultancy/help for VO managers* Specification of requirements for improving operational tools to simplify VO management Provisioning basic services for new VOs Developing dashboard infrastructure * Further consultancy is provided by NGIs NGI VO monitor NGI Site resources VRCs contain one or more VO. Each VO needs to monitor many resources

20. www.egi.eu EGI-InSPIRE RI-261323 VO Services: NAGIOS SAM NA3 – EGI-InSPIRE EC Review 201120 Benefits: Sites from a VO are tested (infrastructure tests run probes on NGIs) Ability to develop and integrate VO’s own probes A VO can use the central installation from LIP/UPV, or can install its own Service Status Details for: phys.vo.ibergrid.eu NAGIOS SAM triggers the executions of probes in grid sites – Tests to the Storage resources – Tests to the Computing Resources – Summary views of successful and unsuccessful services – Sends emails to the site admins in case of failures Provision of VO support software for VRCs & VOs (e.g.WeNMR, BioMed)

21. www.egi.eu EGI-InSPIRE RI-261323 Processing EGI requirements; implementing solutions NA3 – EGI-InSPIRE EC Review 201121 TCB EGI Requirements Tracker VRCs Input Channels for User requirements NGIs HUCs ESFRIs EEF VOs Developer teams in TNA3.4 UCST (with NGIs) UCB External Technology Providers EIROs EGI Helpdesk (GGUS system) EMI IGE SAGA USAG Permanent storage for requirements Complete transparency –For user, NGIs & technology providers Requirement submission interface

22. www.egi.eu EGI-InSPIRE RI-261323 PY1 Results: Requirements Tracker 110 new requirements: –48 resolved within EGI-InSPIRE/UCST –36 prioritised by UCB of which… –20 passed via TCB to Technology Providers –26 still being investigated by UCST Current issues endorsed by UCB and recognised by TCB: 1.Increased stability and scalability for gLite WMS 2.Better (more verbose and informative) error messages 3.Fixing the known bugs before adding new features 4.Coherency of command line commands, parameters and APIs 5.Better feedback about jobs, automated resubmission of jobs stuck on sites Requirements to be refined in community workshops Data management, Workflow systems & Workload management Use to define and build EGI VRC User support platform NA3 – EGI-InSPIRE EC Review 201122 Proved to be an effective communication channel with EMI and other external Technology Providers 60 requirements also generated from legacy documents from VRCs: SHARE Roadmap (HealthGrid), ESFRI project reqs., Production Grid Infrastucture (OGF), Request for Enhancements of gLite to support bio-NMR applications, gLite requirements (EGEE), User requirements (EGI-DS), DRIHMS Questionnaire

23. www.egi.eu EGI-InSPIRE RI-261323 NA3 Outline Objectives Activity Achievements and Challenges Future Plans Summary NA3 – EGI-InSPIRE EC Review 201123

24. www.egi.eu EGI-InSPIRE RI-261323 PY1: Achievements VRC model developed and deployed: –Accreditation process and MoU template created –MoUs signed: Structural Biology (WeNMR) in PY1 and Life Sciences (LSGC) in PY2 –MoUs in discussion: WLCG, Hydrometeorology, Fusion, Astronomy and Astrophysics, Computational Chemistry –Letter of Intent (LoI) agreed: Humanities (DARIAH/CLARIN) EGI User Community bodies established: –User Community Board established (2 meetings in PY1) Processes established (now meeting monthly) HUCs and new communities participating; Requirements process developed with TCB –User Services Advisory Group (2 meetings in PY1) USAG coordinates technology development teams NA3 – EGI-InSPIRE EC Review 201124

25. www.egi.eu EGI-InSPIRE RI-261323 Impact on communities and NGIs NGI contacts established: –Communication building with & within partners Dedicated EGI User Support booth at UF UCST related workshops at UF & TF –40-50 attendees –Generated new requirements –Clarification of existing requirements Participation at conferences & workshops –Talking to communities and users about needs & plans Dissemination through articles and interviews for NGI and VRC newsletters NA3 – EGI-InSPIRE EC Review 201125

26. www.egi.eu EGI-InSPIRE RI-261323 Resolved issues 1.Establishing NGI communication channels took a long time –NGI user support team contacts established –Contacts include EGI-InSPIRE NGIs plus NGIs/regions outside Europe 2.Training Services –UE’s withdrawal from UK JRU mean reallocation of work –STFC took over responsibility by end of PY1 3.VO Services –SA3 VO dashboard dependent on CERN Oracle database. –Alternative system implemented using NAGIOS deployed by SA1 –Now used by VRCs (WeNMR, LSGC) and a number of NGIs NA3 – EGI-InSPIRE EC Review 201126

27. www.egi.eu EGI-InSPIRE RI-261323 Unresolved issues 1.Lack of funding for communities to develop VRCs –Specialist Support Centres were not funded for HUCs Fewer VRCs were created than envisaged –Working to resolve perceived obstacles for new VRCs e.g. Astro using wiki and mailing list 2.Limited contact with ESFRIs –Not all in a state to integrate resources with EGI yet 3.Working with ESFRIs through Letter of Intent (LoI) model –Adopted by DARIAH and CLARIN pending establishment of ERICs as legal basis for VRC NA3 – EGI-InSPIRE EC Review 201127

28. www.egi.eu EGI-InSPIRE RI-261323 Use of Resources NA3 – EGI-InSPIRE EC Review 201128 WP3-E - WP3 (NA3) - NA3 User Community (EGI) Partner Worked PM Funded Committed PMAchieved PM % 1-EGI.EU 39.850.379% 12A-CSIC (IBERGRID) 4.63.0152% 29-LIP (IBERGRID) 3.0 99% 16A-GRNET (Greece) 8.18.596% 16E-IASA (Greece) 6.53.3200% 34A-STFC (UK) 5.65.897% Total:67.573.892% WP3-N - WP3 (NA3) - NA3 User Community Worked PM FundedCommitted PMAchieved PM % Total:137.9166.283%

29. www.egi.eu EGI-InSPIRE RI-261323 NA3 Outline Objectives Activity Achievements and Challenges Future Plans Summary NA3 – EGI-InSPIRE EC Review 201129

30. www.egi.eu EGI-InSPIRE RI-261323 Plans for next year: NA3.2 UCB meeting with increased frequency –Monthly to generate more interaction with & between VRCs –More asynchronous interaction & communication Identify more VRCs –Through NGIs and attendance at research community events e.g. Conferences, workshops… –Identify and support sub-groups within communities e.g. Seismology, Hydrometeorology… Series of Workshops planned –Themes taken from requirements analysis –Aim: Define needs and gaps in order to find sustainable solutions for end-users NA3 – EGI-InSPIRE EC Review 201130

31. www.egi.eu EGI-InSPIRE RI-261323 Plans for next year: NA3.3 Communication: Promote core activities to NGIs by monitoring usage: –Application Database –Requirement Tracking system –Training Marketplace –User Support Webpage and the EGI blog The ‘NGI Roadshow model’: to help EGI to support NGIs in promoting their services to sites and campuses in their countries –HealthGrid conference in UK is an early prototype, as is, –DCI Summer School in Hungary –Roadshow model will be further developed with NGIs at TF11 NA3 – EGI-InSPIRE EC Review 201131

32. www.egi.eu EGI-InSPIRE RI-261323 Plans for next year: NA3.4 Develop and promote integrated User Support Platform: Applications Database (AppDB) –Improve quality and reliability of information –Improve search & browse capabilities; notifications –Architecture; cross-browser compatibility Training Marketplace –Map view of data –Training wish list; advertise expertise & resources –Promotion of teaching modules and courses –Integration of legacy data; advanced search VO Services –Continue to run existing services –Introduce VO Admin dashboard More applications & tools will be added to platform when identified NA3 – EGI-InSPIRE EC Review 201132

33. www.egi.eu EGI-InSPIRE RI-261323 NA3 Outline Objectives Activity Achievements and Challenges Future Plans Summary NA3 – EGI-InSPIRE EC Review 201133

34. www.egi.eu EGI-InSPIRE RI-261323 Summary VRC model implemented: –User Community Board established –Requirements Tracker established –User Services Advisory Group established Technical Services: –User requirement-driven process established –AppDB gadget: being used by VRCs and NGIs –VRC User Support Platform based around gadgets NA3 – EGI-InSPIRE EC Review 201134