1. 1 The National Grid Service: An Overview Stephen Pickles University of Manchester Technical Director, GOSC Towards an NGS User Induction Course, NeSC, Edinburgh, 8 December 2004

2. 2 Outline Context –UK e-Science Programme –NGS and GOSC –ETF, EGEE, OMII, TeraGrid... Core Services –Globus, SRB, OGSA-DAI,... Operations Infrastructure Web sites Current Status

3. 3 Context UK e-Science Programme Grid Operations Support Centre National Grid Service Relationships to –EGEE –Engineering Task Force (ETF) –Open Middleware Infrastructure Institute (OMII)

4. 4 UK e-Science Programme UK Grid Operations Support Centre NGSNGS Key Components

5. 5 GOSC The Grid Operations Support Centre is a distributed “virtual centre” providing deployment and operations support for the UK e-Science programme.

6. 6 GOSC Roles  UK Grid Services  National Services  Authentication, authorisation, certificate management, VO management, security, network monitoring, help desk + support centre.  NGS Services  Job submission, simple registry, data transfer, data access and integration, resource brokering, monitoring and accounting, grid management services, workflow, notification, operations centre.  NGS core-node Services  CPU, (meta-) data storage, key software  Services to be coordinated with others (eg OMII, NeSC, LCG):  Integration testing, compatibility & Validation Tests, User Management, training  Administration:  Policies and acceptable use conditions  SLA’s, SLD’s  Coordinate deployment and Operations

7. 7 One Stop Shop Click for help

8. 8 Authentication, authorisation, certificate management, VO management, security. Helpdesk FAQ

9. 9 GOSC does not... Run a repository Develop software (much) –contribute to developments to influence/adapt cf “I’ve got one of those you can have. You just need to …” (Training – Edinburgh/NeSC are part of GOSC) Provide support for Access Grid –use Access Grid Support Centre instead –http://www.agsc.ja.net/http://www.agsc.ja.net/ Do extensive user hand-holding and application support –Need the e-Science Centres –Priorities will be driven by users

10. 10 National Grid Service

11. 11 NGS - A production Grid * Leeds Manchester * * Oxford RAL * Level-2 Grid National Grid Service * DL

12. 12 NGS “Today” Projects e-Minerals e-Materials Orbital Dynamics of Galaxies Bioinformatics (using BLAST) GEODISE project UKQCD Singlet meson project Census data analysis MIAKT project e-HTPX project. RealityGrid ConvertGrid (ESRC) Integrative Biology Users Leeds Oxford UCL Cardiff Southampton Imperial Liverpool Sheffield Cambridge Edinburgh QUB BBSRC CCLRC Manchester Interfaces OGSI::LiteWSRF::Lite

13. 13 “Tomorrow” Web Services-based National Grid Infrastructure

14. 14 Core nodes : Need UK e-Science certificate (1-2 days) Apply through NGS web site (1-2 weeks) http://www.ngs.ac.uk

15. 15 Gaining Access NGS core nodes data nodes at RAL and Manchester compute nodes at Oxford and Leeds free at point of use apply through NGS web site light-weight peer review –1-2 weeks all access is through digital X.509 certificates –from UK e-Science CA –or recognized peer National HPC services HPCx CSAR Must apply separately to research councils Digital certificate and Conventional (username/ password) access supported

16. 16 U of A HPCxHPCx UofD GOSC NGS Core Nodes: Host core services, coordinate integration, deployment and support +free to access resources for all VOs. Monitored interfaces + services NGS Partner Sites: Integrated with NGS, some services/resources available for all VOs Monitored interfaces + services NGS Affiliated Sites: Integrated with NGS, support for some VO’s Monitored interfaces (+security etc.) RAL Oxford Leeds Man. CSARCSAR U of B U of C Commercial Provider PSRE

17. 17 Joining the NGS Resource providers join the NGS by Adopting NGS acceptable use and security policies Run compatible middleware –as defined by NGS Minimum Software Stack –and verified by compliance test suite Support monitoring and accounting Two levels NGS affiliates NGS partners –also provide significant resources or services to NGS users More later

18. 18 Start from LCG2 “Harden” middleware Expand applications €32 from EU –The EU Grid Infrastructure –50% deployment/operations –lots at CERN matched by PP UK + I –training –GOC dev + ops –regional deployment+support T2 coordinators

19. 19 LCG Used for batch production Now. worldwide de facto standards Currently trying to interface analysis S/W on top of gLite from EGEE Need to move out of the physics dept’s

20. 20 GRIDPP UK Contribution to LCG –Also supports current users GridPP1 (2001-2004) –33% deployment/operations –33% middleware dev. –33% applications GridPP2 (2004-2007) –60% deployment/operations LCG2 -> EGEE –15% middleware dev. –25% applications Not just PPARC funding –Universities support LHC benefit from grid experience You should know/meet these people

21. 21 Grid Operations Centre Responsibilities in EGEE UK focused screen UKERNA work to be integrated

22. 22 OMII

23. 23 UK Campus and other Grids Managing middleware evolution Core of GOSC built around experience in deploying and running National Grid Service (NGS) –Support service Important to coordinate and integrate this with deployment and operations work in EGEE, LCG and similar projects. –e.g. EGEE – low level services, CA, GOC, CERT... Focus on deployment and operations, NOT development. OMII ETF NGS Other software sources Software with proven capability & realistic deployment experience ‘Gold’ services Prototypes & specifications Feedback & future requirements EGEE… Deployment/testing/advice Operations

24. 24 (Grid) Engineering Task Force Originally built the UK Level-2 Grid using hardware resources volunteered by the UK e-Science Centres –very heterogeneous –exposed need for dedicated resources 0.5 FTE at each e-Science centre Now primarily conducting pre-deployment evaluation and testing for NGS Currently evaluating: –Condor (nearly complete) –Globus Toolkit version 4 –Innergrid and Outergrid –OMII distribution –gLite from EGEE (awaiting release candidate January ’05) Also doing portal work for NGS linked to JISC VRE developments UDDI work complete

25. 25 NGS Core Services - Globus Globus Toolkit version 2 –GT 2.4.3 from VDT 1.2 Job submission (GRAM) File transfer (GridFTP) Shell (GSI-SSH) Information Services (MDS/GIIS/GRIS) –Information providers from GLUE schema More from Steve Pickering later today

26. 26 NGS Core Services - SRB Storage Resource Broker from SDSC Location transparent access to storage Metadata catalog Replica management Clients on compute nodes Servers on data nodes More from Andy Richards later today

27. 27 NGS Core Services – Oracle Oracle 9i database Only on data nodes Populated by users/data providers Infrastructure maintained by NGS database administrators Used directly or via OGSA-DAI More from Matt Ford later today

28. 28 NGS Core Services – OGSA-DAI Open Grid Services Architecture (OGSA) Database Access and Integration (DAI) Developed by UK e-Science projects OGSA-DAI and DAIT OGSA-DQP (Distributed Query Processor) Experimental service based on OGSI/GT3 on Manchester data node only –will consider WS-I and WSRF flavours when in final release Uses Oracle underneath Early users from e-Social Science (ConvertGrid) More from Matt Ford later today

29. 29 NGS Core Services - other Operated by GOSC for NGS and UK e-Science programme In production: Certificate Authority Information Services (MDS/GIIS) MyProxy server Integration tests and database Cluster monitoring LCG-VO In testing: VOMS EDG Resource Broker In development Accounting Portal (see Dharmesh’s demonstration, Friday)

30. 30 NGS Organisation Operations Team –led by Andy Richards –representatives from all NGS core nodes –meets weekly by Access Grid –day-to-day operational and deployment issues –reports to Technical Board Technical Board –led by Stephen Pickles –representatives from all sites and GOSC –meets bi-weekly by Access Grid –deals with policy issues and high-level technical strategy –sets medium term goals and priorities –reports to Management Board Management Board (a.k.a. Steering Committee) –meets quarterly –representatives from funding bodies, partner sites and major stakeholders –sets long term priorities

31. 31 Web Sites NGS –http://www.ngs.ac.ukhttp://www.ngs.ac.uk GOSC –http://www.grid-support.ac.ukhttp://www.grid-support.ac.uk CSAR –http://www.csar.cfs.ac.ukhttp://www.csar.cfs.ac.uk HPCx –http://www.hpcx.ac.ukhttp://www.hpcx.ac.uk

32. 32 Google search for “Grid Support”

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38. 38 Production Status TODAY 4 JISC-funded core nodes operational 136 Users registered (36 since 1 September ’04) Grid enabled – Globus v2 (VDT distribution v1.2) at present BDII information service (GLUE + MDS Schemas) Data Services – Oracle, SRB and OGSA-DAI Growing base of user applications MyProxy and CA services provided by GOSC VO Management Software – LCG-VO User support: Helpdesk Next… NGS Portal Resource Broker SRB production service Accounting EGEE VOMS Move from User- to Project/VO-based registration Other Middleware [gLite/OMII etc…]

39. 39 UKGSC: Queue Totals For Month Prior To (10:11 AM, 26/11/2004) Certification still dominant query type General contains GGUS related queries from EGEE/GGUS helpdesk (A separate queue for this new traffic is to be created) Helpdesk http://www.grid-support.ac.uk support@grid-support.ac.uk

40. 40 User registrations so far…

41. 41 Recent Developments NGS newsletter OMII helpdesk Resource Broker (LCG) available for early adopters TeraGrid –UK certificates accepted on TeraGrid –Looking at INCA monitoring with Jenny Schopf Trial of accounting software from MCS project –using GGF Usage Record draft standard (as EGEE) Meeting with Open Science Grid’s iGOC Collect user exemplars – Agreed form of acknowledgement

42. 42 Other Developments VO server (LCG/EGEE) being trialled by RealityGrid –also CCLRC e-Science EGEE VOMS now available EGEE meeting in den Haag Security = NGS + GridPP + EGEE UKERNA developments on Security and Network monitoring Negotiations with vendors on software licenses –NAG – positive discussions If user A has a license X, they can use any other site with a license X To be formalised –Gaussian Need a Commercial license ($20k-30k) –Matlab Currently have a workable solution (binaries) but next release will break Mathworks aware but no solution yet

43. 43 The Last Slide We are in the game of providing a service –built on leading (sometimes bleeding) edge academic stuff ! The challenge –not the latest and greatest grid –not what any given user wants The solution –want to make it work for our researchers for our institutions –and maintain compatibility with EGEE, TeraGrid –and accommodate OMII –and expand, bringing in more partners Sign people/users up (to the vision) –“get out more”