1. LHC Computing Grid Project
General Presentation
November 2001
Les Robertson
CERN - IT Division
The lectures will survey technologies that could be used for storing and managing the many PetaBytes of data that will be collected and processed at LHC.
This will cover current mainline hardware technologies, their capacity, performance and reliability characteristics, the likely evolution in the period from now to LHC, and their fundamental limits.
It will also cover promising new technologies including both products which are emerging from the home and office computing environment (such as DVDs) and more exotic techniques.
The importance of market acceptance and production volume as cost factors will be mentioned.
Robotic handling systems for mass storage media will also be discussed.
After summarising the mass storage requirements of LHC, some suggestions will be made of how these requirements may be met with the technology which will be available.

2. The Requirements

3. The Large Hadron Collider Project
4 detectors
CMS
ATLAS
Storage –
Raw recording rate 0.1 – 1 GBytes/sec
Accumulating at 5-8 PetaBytes/year
10 PetaBytes of disk
Processing –
200,000 of today’s fastest PCs
LHCb

4. Worldwide distributed computing system
Small fraction of the analysis at CERN
ESD analysis – using large regional centres
how to use the resources efficiently
establishing and maintaining a uniform physics environment
Data exchange – with tens of smaller regional centres, universities, labs
Importance of cost containment
components & architecture
utilisation efficiency
maintenance, capacity evolution
personnel & management costs
ease of use (usability efficiency)

5. From Distributed Clusters to Fabrics & Grids

6. Distributed Computing
Distributed computing ’s - locally distributed systems
Clusters
Parallel computers (IBM SP)
Advances in local area networks, cluster management techniques
 1,000-way clusters widely available
Distributed Computing – 2000’s
Giant clusters  fabrics
New level of automation required
Geographically distributed systems
Computational Grids
Key areas for R&D
Fabric management
Grid middleware
High-performance networking
Grid operation
mass
storage
application
servers
WAN
data cache

7. The MONARC Multi-Tier Model (1999)
Department   
Desktop
CERN – Tier 0
MONARC report:
Tier 1
FNAL
RAL
IN2P3
622 Mbps
2.5 Gbps
155 mbps
Tier2
Lab a
Uni b
Lab c
Uni n

8. LHC Computing Model 2001 - evolving
The opportunity of
Grid technology
LHC Computing Model evolving
Tier3
physics
department   
Desktop
Tier2
Lab a
Uni a
Lab c
Uni n
Lab m
Lab b
Uni b
Uni y
Uni x
regional group
CMS
ATLAS
LHCb
CERN
Tier 0 Centre at CERN
Germany
Tier 1
USA UK
France
Italy
……….
CERN Tier 1
The opportunity of
Grid technology
CERN Tier 0
The LHC Computing Centre
physics group

9. The Project

10. The LHC Computing Grid Project
Goal – Prepare and deploy the LHC computing environment
applications tools, frameworks, environment
computing system  services
cluster  fabric
collaborating computer centres  grid
CERN-centric analysis  global analysis environment
foster collaboration, coherence of LHC computing centres
This is not yet another grid technology project – it is a grid deployment project

11. The LHC Computing Grid Project
Phase 1 –
Development and prototyping
Approved by CERN Council 20 September 2001
Phase 2 –
Installation and operation of the full world-wide initial production Grid
Costs (materials + staff) included in the LHC cost to completion estimates
Two phases

12. The LHC Computing Grid Project
Phase 1 Goals –
Prepare the LHC computing environment
provide the common tools and infrastructure for the physics application software
establish the technology for fabric, network and grid management (buy, borrow, or build)
develop models for building the Phase 2 Grid
validate the technology and models by building progressively more complex Grid prototypes
operate a series of data challenges for the experiments
maintain reasonable opportunities for the re-use of the results of the project in other fields
Deploy a 50% model* production GRID including the committed LHC Regional Centres
Produce a Technical Design Report for the full LHC Computing Grid to be built in Phase 2 of the project
* 50% of the complexity of one of the LHC experiments

13. Areas of Work
Applications Support & Coordination
Computing System
Grid Technology
Grid Deployment

14. Applications Support & Coordination
Application Software Infrastructure – libraries, tools
Object persistency, data management tools, data models
Common Frameworks – Simulation, Analysis, ..
Adaptation of Physics Applications to Grid environment
Grid tools, Portals

15. Computing System Physics Data Storage and Management Fabric Management
LAN Management
Wide-area Networking
Security
Internet Services

16. Grid Technology Grid middleware Scheduling Data Management Monitoring
Error Detection & Recovery
Standard application services layer
Inter-project coherence/compatibility

17. Grid Technology for the LHC Grid
An LHC collaboration needs a usable, coherent computing environment – a Virtual Computing Centre - a Worldwide Grid
Already – even in the HEP community - there are several Grid technology development projects, with similar but different goals

18. A few of the Grid Technology Projects
Data-intensive projects
DataGrid – 21 partners, coordinated by CERN (Fabrizio Gagliardi)
CrossGrid – 23 partners complementary to DataGrid (Michal Turala)
DataTAG – funding for transatlantic demonstration Grids (Olivier Martin)
European national HEP related projects
GridPP (UK); INFN Grid; Dutch Grid; NorduGrid; Hungarian Grid; ……
US HEP projects
GriPhyN – NSF funding; HEP applications
PPDG – Particle Physics Data Grid – DoE funding
iVDGL – international Virtual Data Grid Laboratory
Global Coordination
Global Grid Forum
InterGrid – ad hoc HENP Grid coordination (Larry Price)

19. Grid Technology for the LHC Grid
An LHC collaboration needs a usable, coherent computing environment – a Virtual Computing Centre - a Worldwide Grid
Already – even in the HEP community - there are several Grid technology development projects, with similar but different goals
And many of these overlap with other communities
How do we achieve and maintain compatibility, provide one usable computing system?
architecture? api? protocols? ……
while remaining open to external, industrial solutions
This will be a significant challenge for
the LHC Computing Grid Project

20. Grid Deployment Data Challenges Grid Operations
Integration of the Grid & Physics Environments
Network Planning
Regional Centre Coordination
Security & access policy

21. Synchronised with DataGrid Prototypes

22. Time constraints continuing R&D programme prototyping
pilot technology selection
pilot service
system software selection, development, acquisition
hardware selection, acquisition
1st production service

23. Organisation

24. The LHC Computing Grid Project Structure
Common Computing RRB
Reviews
The LHC Computing Grid Project
Reports
Resource Matters
Project Overview Board
Project Manager
Project Execution Board
Software and Computing Committee (SC2)
Requirements,
Monitoring
RTAG
implementation teams

25. The LHC Computing Grid Project Structure
Common Computing RRB
Reviews
The LHC Computing Grid Project
Reports
Resource Matters
Project Overview Board
Other Computing Grid Projects
Project Manager
Project Execution Board
Software and Computing Committee (SC2)
EU DataGrid Project
Requirements,
Monitoring
Other HEP Grid Projects
RTAG
implementation teams
Other
Labs

26. The LHC Computing Grid Project Structure
Common Computing RRB
Project Overview Board Chair: CERN Director for Scientific Computing Secretary: CERN IT Division Leader
Membership: Spokespersons of LHC experiments CERN Director for Colliders Representatives of countries/regions with Tier-1 center : France, Germany, Italy, Japan, United Kingdom, United States of America 4 Representatives of countries/regions with Tier-2 center
from CERN Member States In attendance: Project Leader SC2 Chairperson
Reviews
The LHC Computing Grid Project
Reports
Resource Matters
Project Overview Board
Project Manager
Project Execution Board
Software and Computing Committee (SC2)
Requirements,
Monitoring
RTAG
implementation teams

27. The LHC Computing Grid Project Structure
Common Computing RRB
Software and Computing Committee (SC2) (Preliminary)
Sets the requirements
Approves the strategy & workplan
Monitors progress and adherence to the requirements
Gets technical advice from short-lived focused RTAGs
(Requirements & Technology Assessment Groups)
Chair: to be appointed by CERN Director General Secretary
Membership: 2 coordinators from each LHC experiment
Representative from CERN EP Division
Technical Managers from centers in each region represented in the POB Leader of the CERN Information Technology Division Project Leader Invited: POB Chairperson
Reviews
The LHC Computing Grid Project
Reports
Resource Matters
Project Overview Board
Project Manager
Project Execution Board
Software and Computing Committee (SC2)
Requirements,
Monitoring
RTAG
implementation teams

28. The LHC Computing Grid Project Structure
Project Execution Board Gets agreement on milestones, schedule, resource allocation
Manages the progress and direction of the project
Ensures conformance with SC2 recommendations
Identifies areas for study/resolution by SC2
Membership (preliminary – POB approval required)
Project Management Team:
Project Leader Area Coordinators
Applications
Fabric & basic computing systems
Grid technology - from worldwide grid projects
Grid deployment, regional centres, data challenges
Empowered representative from each LHC Experiment
Project architect Resource manager
Leaders of major contributing teams
Constrain to 15—18 members
LHCC
Common Computing RRB
Reviews
The LHC Computing Grid Project
Reports
Resource Matters
Project Overview Board
Project Manager
Project Execution Board
Software and Computing Committee (SC2)
Requirements,
Monitoring
RTAG
implementation teams

29. Status

30. Funding of Phase 1 at CERN
Funding for R&D activities at CERN during partly through special contributions from member and associate states -
Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Israel, Italy, Spain, Switzerland, United Kingdom
Industrial funding – CERN openlab Intel, Enterasys, KPNQwest
European Union – Datagrid, DataTag further possibilities (FP6)
Funded so far - all of the personnel, ~40% of the materials

31. Project Startup
Collaborations have named their representatives in the various committees
First pre-POB meetings being scheduled – will not be fully populated
PEB – 23 November
SC2 – beginning of December
Kick-off workshop in February?