1. Professor, University of Maryland
SURAgrid Regional Grid Infrastructure for Scalable Inter-institutional Sharing MAX Member Meeting 20 April 2006
Don Riley
SURA IT Fellow
Professor, University of Maryland

2. Non-profit consortium of 62 colleges and universities in 16 southern states and DC, with special provisions for outside the region members, i.e., MIT
Incorporated in 1980 to compete for the DOE’s first “major” nuclear physics particle accelerator in the U.S. – the Continuous Electron Beam Accelerator Facility (CEBAF), now the Jefferson Lab – in Newport News, Virginia
“Crown Jewel”

3. Mission Foster excellence in scientific research
Strengthen the scientific and technical capabilities of the Nation and of the Southeast
Provide outstanding training opportunities for the next generation of scientists and engineers

4. SURA Information Technology: Looking Back
SURAnet
Crossroads Regional GigaPop Support (SOX, MAX)
Video Conferencing / Voice over IP (ViDe)
National Middleware Initiative (NMI Testbed)
SURA CyberSecurity Working Group
Internet2; AT&T USAWaves; National LambdaRail
Refocused SURA IT Strategy (2003; again 2005)
Facilitating Collaboration on Science (eScience)
Strengthening the base: Enabling the Possible
Positioning SouthEast for Lead in IT and Science

5. SURA Coastal Ocean Observing and Prediction (SCOOP) Program
Enabling Integration of National Coastal Observing Initiatives (
Goal
To create an open-access, distributed national laboratory for scientific research and coastal operations.
Purpose
To promote effective and rapid fusion of observed data with numerical models, and facilitate rapid dissemination of information to operational, scientific, and public and private users.
Importance
Over the next decade, a major national investment is expected in building varied components of a national ocean and coastal observing system. By facilitating a seamless integration for this emerging, multi-faceted ocean observing system, SCOOP will ensure that the value and effectiveness of these investments are maximized.
US Ocean Action Plan
SURA Coastal Ocean Observing and Prediction (SCOOP) Program

6. OpenIOOS.org The Southeast Region
OpenIOOS had real-time storm-surge and wave predictions before Katrina made landfall.
This colorful slide shows OpenIOOS.org, a “front end” to the SCOOP service-oriented architecture for prediction. The point is that this site was working in real time (as indicated by the caption) and leveraging activities at SURA universities on 1 Jul 2005, which was the release date for Version 2.0.

7. SURA IT Strategy: Looking Forward
Foundation (Infrastructure) Building
Connectivity
Regional: Crossroads/Sox/MAX +
MATP/SLR/FLR/LONI/LEARN etc
National (AT&T GridFiber, NLR, Internet2)
International Opportunities (IEEAF, IRNC, Atlantic Wave)
Network Research
Regional Grid/HPC Infrastructure and Capacity Building
Middleware
High Performance Computing
Data storage
Identifying and Enabling “Science Communities”
Focused on Support for SURA Science Drivers
Jefferson Laboratory
SCOOP - Coastal Research
Bio-Informatics / Medical Research / Rural Telehealth

8. Grids as the eScience Enabler
Standards &
Specifications
High Performance
Computing
Connectivity
Last Mile
Regional Grid
Infrastructure
Program
(SURAGrid)
Network
Research
Beyond Connectivity……
New Simulation
And Modeling
Applications
(energy,weather
Population,etc)
SCOOP
Tele-Medicine
Bio-Informatics

9. SURAgrid Initiative IT & HPC Leaders formed GridPlan Group
Workshop series building awareness
- Dec. Grid Applications
- Jan. Life Sciences Grid
SURAgrid evolving as a regional grid community & shared infrastructure:
800+ nodes 2.5+Tflops
26 SURAgrid participating institutions
SURAgrid Portal and Bridge Certificate Authority in operation
$200,000 in new grant funding
- NSF & TATRC
Seeking Corporate partnerships
Sun, IBM, ….
For more information:

10. About SURAgrid
A “beyond regional” initiative in support of regional strategy
Evolved from the SURA NMI Testbed Grid
Developing grids as general purpose infrastructure
Integrate with other enterprise-wide middleware
Integrate heterogeneous platforms and resources
Support range of user groups with varying application needs and levels of grid expertise
Facilitate seamless sharing of resources within a campus, across related campuses and between different institutions
Alignment and collaboration with synergistic initiatives (e.g. Open Science Grid, Teragrid, GridChem)

11. SURAgrid Goals
To develop scalable infrastructure that leverages local institutional identity and authorization while managing access to shared resources
To promote the use of this infrastructure for the broad research and education community
To provide a forum for participants to gain additional experience with grid technology, and participate in collaborative project development

12. Major Areas of Activity
Grid-Building
Persistent inter-institutional grid infrastructure, grid portal
Key contributor: Texas Advanced Computing Center
Authentication & Authorization
Scalable secure access and account management
Key contributor: University of Virginia
Application Discovery & Deployment
Scientific advancements; drivers for development
Key contributor: Georgia State University
Outreach & Funding Development
Sharpen and sustain value for new and “traditional” users
SURA facilitating; various participating

13. Grid-Building Growing number of resources Portal development
See SURAgrid portal, gridportal.sura.org
Compute resources now but looking to expand!
Portal development
Resource monitor & user interface
Eventual support for multiple community “views”
Balance heterogeneity with interoperability
Determine minimum requirements and work up
Expand type of available resources and gateways
Themes: heterogeneity, flexibility, interoperability

14. Project-Specific View Project-specific tools
Vision for SURAgrid Expansion
SURAgrid
Institutional
Resources
(e.g. Current participants)
Gateways to National
Cyberinfrastructure
(e.g. Teragrid)
Industry Partner
Coop Resources
(e.g. IBM partnership)
VO or Project
Resources
(e.g, SCOOP)
Other externally
funded resources
(e.g. group proposals)
Heterogeneous Environment to Meet Diverse User Needs
Project-Specific View
“MySURAgrid” View
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…)
Project-specific tools
SURAgrid Resources
and Applications
SURAgrid Resources
Sample User Portals

15. SURAgrid Participants
(As of April 2006)
Bowie State
GMU
UMD
UKY
= SURA Member
= Resources on-grid
UMich
UVA
UArk
GPN
Vanderbilt
ODU
UAH
USC
NCState
OleMiss
TTU SC
UNCC
TACC
TAMU
UAB
UFL
LSU
GSU
ULL
Tulane

16. Grid Portal Resource Monitor

17. Authentication & Authorization
Expanded operation of SURAgrid Bridge CA
Increase participation, move to production service
Cognizant of emerging trends in PKI (HE, IGTF, Federal, commercial)
Promote success of enterprise CAs
Provide technology & policy components to bridge gaps short-term, integrate long term
Themes: local autonomy, scalability, leverage enterprise infrastructure

18. Application Development
Increase frequency of traffic from initial application set
Increase quantity and diversity of both applications and users
Identify and document processes to assist in “grid-enabling” of applications
Themes: provide immediate benefit to applications; applications drive further development

19. Initial Applications Underway
SCOOP/ADCIRC
UNC Marine Science/RENCI/MCNC – Early SCOOP application - ensemble runs in response to data input triggered by hurricanes.
TACC, UKY, TAMU, USC, ULL, LSU
ENDYNE
Texas Tech University – Grid implementation of electron nuclear dynamics (END) theory; multiple trajectory calculations in quantum phase space.
TTU, GSU, TACC, TAMU
Multiple Genome Alignment
Georgia State University – Evaluation and refinement of algorithms for multiple genome sequence alignment in grid & cluster environments.
GSU, USC, UVA, TACC
UCoMs
Louisiana State University – Run time identification and utilization of grid-based resources, supporting petroleum exploration/simulation.
LSU, TACC, GSU

20. Outreach & Funding Pursuit of external support
Collaborative proposals among SURAgrid community
E.g., SURAgrid as outreach component of LSU-led proposal to NSF HPC Acquisition program (under review)
Corporate partnerships (deployment and R&D)
E.g., Current partnership forming with IBM
Discussions with Sun
Recent awards
“Developing Regional Grid Technology Support for TATRC Programs”
“Creating a Catalyst Application Set for the Development of Large-Scale Multi-purpose Grid Infrastructure” (NSF SGER)
Participation in SURA outreach activities
Workshop planning, presentation, attendance
SURA Cyberinfrastructure Workshop Series,

21. Regional Grid Support for TATRC
“Developing Regional Grid Technology Support for TATRC Programs”
Funded by Telemedicine and Advanced Technology Research Center (
Deliverables:
Analysis of TATRC-funded research among SURA members
Demonstrations to highlight value of grid technologies for applicable projects
First version of Grid Technology Cookbook
Partners: SURA, GSU, LSU, Mary Trauner (formerly GATech), Open Science Grid (for Cookbook development)
$150K over 1 year

22. Grid Application Set Development
“Creating a Catalyst Application Set for Development of Large-Scale Multi-purpose Grid Infrastructure”
Funded by NSF SGER (Small Grants for Experimental Research)
Deliverables:
Identification and prioritization of application candidates
Analysis and documentation of implementation process
Initial application set illustrating value of SURAgrid
$50K over 1 year

23. “… growing the scientific
SURAgrid Partnership
“… growing the scientific
capacity of our Region
and the Nation …”

24. Questions or comments? For more information, or to join SURAgrid:
Mary Fran Yafchak,
SURA IT Program Coordinator - SURAgrid project manager