1. Diana Cresti, INFN dcresti@pd.infn.it
User Community Services in the European Grid Infrastructure 29 Jan 2009 – Paris, France
Diana Cresti, INFN

2. Contents EGI General Concepts
EGI main stakeholders and Management Structure
User Community Services
Specialised Support Centres
User Forum
Examples of SSC organisation
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3. EGI General Concepts Visions and Objectives of EGI
To ensure that Europe capitalises fully on its large investment in grid infrastructures, middleware development and applications, the objectives of the future EGI are:
Ensure the long-term sustainability of the European e-infrastructure
Coordinate the integration and interaction between National Grid Infrastructures
Operate the European level of the production grid infrastructure for a wide range of scientific disciplines to link National Grid Infrastructures
Coordinate middleware development and standardisation
Advise National and European Funding Agencies in establishing their programmes for future software developments based on agreed user needs and development standards
Take into account developments made by national e-science projects which were aimed at supporting diverse communities
See
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4. Vision based on NGI consensus
EGI Blueprint endorsed by the NGIs on 20 Jan 2009
See
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5. EGI.org vs. EGI
EGI.org is the central office in charge of most collaboration tasks – EGI.org cannot sustain a production grid infrastructure without the larger EGI environment
The EGI “environment” presupposes that all practical activities at the European level are performed by NGIs as International tasks
There is a budgeted amount of effort expected for the NGI international tasks, some of which is designated as User Community Services (UCS)
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6. EGI Stakeholders NGI2 NGI1 EGI.org … NGIs NGIn 29 Jan 2009
Research Teams
Research Institutes
NGI2
NGI1
EGI.org
NGIn …
NGIs
Resource Centres
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7. Research Teams, VOs, User Communities
VOB2
VOZ
VOA
VOB1
VOB3
User Community A
User Community B …
User Community Z
Researchers / ResTeams
Research Institutes
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8. EGI Representation
EGI.org will have bodies for these stakeholders to communicate at the management level
NGIS  EGI Council
Associate members (CERN, ESA, …)
User Communities  User Forum
Representatives from extra-european NGIs
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9. The EGI Management Structure
Non-voting Representatives
Chair of UFSC, extra-EU NGIs, …
Members
NGI1, NGI2, NGI3, … NGIn
Associate Members
CERN, EBI, ESA, …
User Forum Steering
Committee
(UFSC)
EGI Council
EGI.org
EGI Director
CTO
Development
CAO
Admin & PR
Development Group
Administration & PR Group
Operations Group
UCO
User Coord
User Comm Services
COO
Operations
Advisory
Committees
e.g.
Middleware
Coordination
Board
(MCB)
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10. EGI User Community Services (UCS)
Examples:
Gathering requirements from the user communities and providing efficient channels for their representation within EGI. E.g.:
Carrying out a review process to integrate useful “external” software – an extension of the EGEE RESPECT program
Maintaining a European Grid Application Database – e.g.
Establishing technical collaborations with the large European Infrastructure projects (e.g. ESFRI)
Providing “umbrella” services for collaborating projects
Establishing Science Gateways that expose common tools and services (e.g. workflow engines, web services, semantic annotation)
Organising User Forum meetings and topical meetings for specific user communities.
Providing services for new communities – e.g. “Front desk” services, VO creation counseling, etc.
Ensuring that the user communities and grid administrators are provided with high quality documentation and training services.
For details:
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11. Specialised Support Centres
SSCs are basically a way to organise user community services at a central level by clustering the NGI international tasks
SSCs do not require full NGI consensus to be established
In the EGI proposal, which we will begin drafting in June 2009, the first SSCs will be proposed, based on work by EGEE and collaborating user communities (this means you!)
In the future, SSC proposals will be evaluated by the User Forum Steering Committee and approved by EGI Council
SSCs should interact closely with the central EGI.org UCS team (described in the EGI Blueprint)
See also
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12. SSC Guidelines - draft Rights: Responsibilities:
EGI will provide resources to the SSCs - in particular manpower.
SSCs will have representation in the EGI Council, middleware coordination group, and the EGI.org directorate. The SSCs will have the ability to feed their technical and non-technical requirements into EGI.
Expect to have access to training and documentation.
Expect that SSCs will have access to resources and to centralized services, such as help desks, central grid services, operations help, middleware help, etc.
Expect to have forums for SSC user communities and SSC managers to discuss with each other.
Responsibilities:
The SSC must have a cohesive community behind it that is able to take ownership of the SSC and to drive its evolution.
The SSC must have a European-level existence follow the defined EGI policies.
The SSCs will report facts and figures about their use of EGI in order to help EGI (and its funding agencies) understand the scope of the work accomplished with EGI.
The SSCs are expected to operate transparently allowing a clear view of the SSC's activities and making the list of provided services available to the full EGI community.
[R&R] SSCs are expected to be “stable” entities.
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13. Middleware and Software Issues
EGI is assumed to provide support and maintenance to current middleware components from three stacks: ARC, UNICORE, and gLite
No development is envisioned under EGI “project” funding – this includes middleware and any other software (e.g. high-level tools, Applications)
gLite, for instance, is establishing a consortium; funding for development is the responsibility of this consortium
What is within the domain of EGI funding is the work of the Middleware Coordination Board and the continuation of RESPECT and other activities aimed at commissioning new developments.
Thus an SSC – as an EGI entity – can make recommendations for new development proposals
Furthermore, EGI (in my opinion) should support lines of funding for new developments
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14. The EGI User Forum EGI User Forum User Forum Steering Committee - UFSC
SSC1
SSC2
SSC3
SSCn
SSC
SSC
SSC
SSC
SSC
User Technical Support (e.g. USAG)
EGI Middleware Coordination Board - MCB MW
OPS
UCS
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15. Example of a Large SSC and main central interfaces
EGI general
SSC X
EGI User Forum Steering Committee
SSC Chair (UF delegate)
Other UC Svces:
“RESPECT”
App DB
Wikis, repositories
Portals, gateways
Grid Planning Board
UCS
OPS MW
EGI.org MCB (Grid Planning)
GP Rep
User Tech Support
Dir Usr Sup
Ops
EGI User Tech Support Group (e.g. USAG)
SSC Front Desk
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16. Example of a small SSC (1/2)
Purpose: provide “umbrella” services for a particular user community: Civil Protection (CP)
Three projects have been working (in part) on relevant services:
Project A: collecting and analysing CP requirements
Project B: Data interoperability in the Earth Sciences
Project C: development of tools for remote control of instrumentation
These projects have signed MoUs to establish services for the CP community
Project A has ended; it has generated useful info tools – wikis, repositories, a CP portal
There is a CP VO, mostly used for demonstration purposes
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17. Example of a small SSC (2/2)
There is a dedicated OGF working group which has produced a set of standards, the Open Geospatial Consortium Web Services – OWS
Two OWS implementations have been produced and two more are in the pipeline
Project C is currently working on a related implementation: Sensor Observation Service
A small SSC – perhaps 2 FTEs – could be established to
provide continuity to Project A tools,
possibly provide some support to the CP VO,
represent the CP community in EGI,
support the OGF working group,
integrate Project C tools via a RESPECT-type process,
help disseminate results to the international community
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18. The SSC Network – a First Sketch
UFSC
EGI.org
Earth Sciences SSC
Life Sciences SSC
Umbrella services for small projects
Project D Biodiversity
CP SSC OGF working group Representation Gateway Proj C tools
Drug Discovery group
Collab group bio infrastr
Project B ES data interop & repositories
Project C ES remote instrument
Med Imaging group
Project A CP reqs
Project F Drug Discovery
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19. EGI Timetable
EGI Blueprint finalised 19 Dec ’08; see progress at
D3.2: EGI Functions 2nd draft (cf. D3.1) due Feb ’09
D5.5: EGI Transition due Mar ’09
EGI.org location established Mar ’09
EGI.org Director appointed Mar-Apr ’09
Other personnel discussed during this time as well, also within NGIs
Prepare to make concrete proposals for SSCs at EGEE User Forum in Catania
Begin writing EGI Proposal in May-June ‘09
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20. Notes
One SSC or many
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