1. http://www.ngs.ac.ukhttp://www.grid-support.ac.uk http://www.eu-egee.org/http://www.pparc.ac.uk/http://www.nesc.ac.uk/ The Storage Resource Broker and the NGS Slides from Peter Berrisford, RAL For a full SRB tutorial, see: http://www.niees.ac.uk/events/srb

2. 2 http://www.sdsc.edu/srb/

3. Peter Berrisford RAL 3 What is SRB? Storage Resource Broker (SRB) is a software product developed by the San Diego Supercomputing Centre (SDSC). Allows users to access files and database objects across a distributed environment. Actual physical location and way the data is stored is abstracted from the user Allows the user to add user defined metadata describing the scientific content of the information

4. Peter Berrisford RAL 4 How SRB Works MCAT Database MCAT Server SRB A Server SRB B Server SRB Client a b cd e f g 4 major components: –The Metadata Catalogue (MCAT) –The MCAT-Enabled SRB Server –The SRB Storage Server –The SRB Client

5. Peter Berrisford RAL 5 The MCAT Database The MCAT database is a metadata repository that provides a mechanism for storing information used by the SRB system. Includes both –Internal system data required for running the system –Application (user) metadata regarding data sets being brokered by SRB.

6. Peter Berrisford RAL 6 The MCAT Server At least one SRB Server must be installed on the node that can access the MCAT database. This is known as the MCAT-Enabled SRB Server. MCAT SRB Server works directly against the MCAT database to provide SRB Services All other SRB Servers interact through the MCAT Server

7. Peter Berrisford RAL 7 The SRB Server The SRB Server is a middleware application that accepts requests from clients and obtains/queries/manages the necessary data sets. It queries the MCAT SRB Server to gather information on datasets and supplies this back to the SRB client.

8. Peter Berrisford RAL 8 SRB Client Tools Provide a user interface to send requests to the SRB server. 4 main interfaces: –Command line (S-Commands) –MS Windows (InQ) –Web based (MySRB). –Java (JARGON) Web Services (MATRIX)

9. Peter Berrisford RAL 9 Concepts Location: A physical node running an SRB Server Physical Resource: A storage area managed by an SRB Server Logical Resource: One or more Physical Resources – can be distributed Collection – Data abstraction of resources

10. Peter Berrisford RAL 10 Deployment Structure Online Replication SRB Server SRB server @ RAL Resource Driver MCAT SRB server @ Oxford Resource Driver Database Servers @ RAL User Disk Farm Disk Farm MCAT Server @ RAL DB1 DB n Database Servers @ Manchester DB1 DB n SRB Server MCAT MCAT Server @ Manchester Failover link Disk Farm SRB server @ HPCX Resource Driver Disk Farm SRB server @ Leeds Resource Driver Disk Farm

11. 11 SRB practical