1. UKQCD Grid Status Report GridPP 13 th Collaboration Meeting Durham, 4th—6th July 2005 Dr George Beckett Project Manager, EPCC g.beckett@epcc.ed.ac.uk +44 131 650 5818

2. GridPP 13, Durham 4th—6th July 2005. Activities QCDgrid Log Book Objective I: Improve, maintain and develop a simple and easy mechanism for UKQCD scientists to share and access each other’s data and compute resources.

3. GridPP 13, Durham 4th—6th July 2005. Improvements to software WP1.1: QCDgrid System Risk Analysis (Oct 2004): System readiness for QCDOC * output → stress testing of QCDgrid; Adequacy of testing infrastructure → creation of new Test Grid and preparation of formal testing plan; Level of availability of UKQCD Grid → review of support for critical nodes/services; * QCDOC is primary source of simulation data for the UKQCD. Has analogue with LHC for experimental data. Primary storage is 50 Tbyte SAN hosted by U. o. E., secondary storage is 4×12.5 Tbyte stores hosted by collaborators, plus other miscellaneous storage (e.g. 2 Tbyte hosted by Columbia),

4. GridPP 13, Durham 4th—6th July 2005. Improvements to software WP1.2/1.3: QCDgrid Load and Stress Testing (Feb 2005): QCDgrid is reliable/predictable, even under high stress → ready for QCDOC; Scalability of Data Grid component with multiple, concurrent write operations is suboptimal → to be investigated; Metadata Catalogue component engine (eXist) fails under (unrealistic) high loads → upgrade eXist / evaluate alternatives.

5. GridPP 13, Durham 4th—6th July 2005. Improvements to software WP1.2/1.3: QCDgrid Load and Stress Testing, cont’d: QCDgrid Stress/Load Test component developed. UKQCD Test Grid installed – 3 Linux and 1 Solaris storage nodes.

6. GridPP 13, Durham 4th—6th July 2005. Improvements to software WP1.4.1: QCDgrid Software Review (Mar 2005) Metadata Component – eXist database needs upgrading → await release of eXist Version 1.0, then re-evaluate. Underlying Grid tools – Globus 2.4 does a good job, though support and maintenance will soon end → consider replacement/upgrade to gLite / Globus 4. Security infrastructure – GT2 and EDG V/O is adequate at present, though for ILDG may need to enrich → evaluate EGEE VOMS.

7. GridPP 13, Durham 4th—6th July 2005. Software maintenance Problem reports, feature requests, etc. are now submitted/tracked/catalo gued by NeSCForge. Formal software versioning strategy has been defined – new releases produced approx. every four months: QCDgrid Version 1.2 released in May 2005 via NeSCForge

8. GridPP 13, Durham 4th—6th July 2005. New developments WP1.5: QCDgrid Version 1.2: support for QCDML Version 1.1; simplified installation process. WP2: Metadata Tools (in progress): Formalise procedure for preparing/storing ensembles/ configurations on grid – bring into line with ILDG targets. Extend current client tools to better support QCDML metadata schemas (ensemble and gauge configuration). Help scientists to create metadata, without worrying about XML!

9. GridPP 13, Durham 4th—6th July 2005. Dissemination UKQCD HackLatt 2005, Edinburgh (Apr 2005) – funded GridPP/NeSC: Two day workshop; 27 participants (from UK and beyond); Presentation/tutorial sessions on: –usage/administration of UKQCD Grid; –using QCDOC for science. Other activities: Lattice QCD simulations via international research networks, Shuzenji, Japan (Sep. 2004). ILDG 5, Tsukuba, Japan via Access Grid (Dec. 2004). PPARC UK e-Science Postgraduate School (May 2005).

10. GridPP 13, Durham 4th—6th July 2005. Activities QCDgrid Log Book Objective II: Provide a simple and easy mechanism for QCD scientists across different continents to share and access each other’s data

11. GridPP 13, Durham 4th—6th July 2005. Collaboration and dissemination QCDgrid team contributed to ILDG Middleware Workshop, Edinburgh (Oct. 2004): –ILDG community shared ideas/experiences of local software developments. –Provisional public interface definition for Datagrid component established. Olivier Brand-Foissac (French ILDG contribution) visited EPCC, Edinburgh (Oct. 2004) to learn about QCDgrid / ILDG. New UKQCD Grid storage node added at Columbia University, New York.

12. GridPP 13, Durham 4th—6th July 2005. Future work Development of QCDgrid: Complete metadata tools; Review/overhaul dependency software – eXist database, Globus 2.4, EDG VO; Continued support/direction for user community. International data sharing: Continue to contribute to ILDG: –ILDG 6 in Boston, USA via Access Grid (May 2005). –2 nd ILDG Middleware Workshop in Tsukuba, Japan (Oct. 2005). Develop Web Service interface to Datagrid component and Metadata component.

13. GridPP 13, Durham 4th—6th July 2005. Further information Project website for: reports; deliverables; presentations; multimedia; news; software. http://www.gridpp.ac.uk/qcdgrid/