02/07/03 Grid Support Centre 1 UK Grid Support Centre Alistair Mills CLRC e-Science Centre [email protected]

02/07/03 Grid Support Centre 1

UK Grid Support Centre

Alistair MillsCLRC e-Science Centre

http://www.e-science.clrc.ac.uk/[email protected]


Who we are . . .

• Part of the e-Science Core Programme

• Team of 6 FTE posts based at CLRC (RAL+DL), and Universities of Edinburgh and Manchester (but actually provided by a pool of some 25-30 people at these sites)

• Exists to help users install and apply Grid software quickly, easily and productively

• Supports deployment of a Grid infrastructure for UK e-Science projects (with Regional Centres + collaborators)– Level 2 operational Easter 2003


Provides support . . .

• Helpdesk [email protected]– first point of contact for requests and queries– personally contactable during office hours– provides access to technical expertise at all sites

• Web information resource http://www.grid-support.ac.uk– tutorials– evaluation reports– links to other resources

• Grid Starter Kit http://esc.dl.ac.uk/StarterKit– downloadable software – installation support– documentation


Hits now up to 15,000


. . . and services

• Certificate Authority for the UK e-Science programme– issues X.509 digital certificates usable with Globus GSI– uses network of Registration Authorities to validate users– moving from current manual process to more automated

procedure– see http://www.grid-support.ac.uk/ca

• National monitoring and discovery service ginfo.grid-support.ac.uk

– based on Globus MDS 2.2– holds published information on Grid-enabled resources

• Training for system administrators– to help with setting up local installations

• Reference software installations on supported platforms– Linux, AIX, Solaris, IRIX, Tru64

• Grid infrastructure deployment• Liaison with software development teams


How the Certificate Authority works

• RAs appointed at each university involved in e-Science programme

• RA consists of an RA manager and one or more RA operators• New CA will be accessible by users using a web interface

– based on development of the OpenCA code– currently under test by external users

• User identifies their local RA using the CA interface and generates a certificate request

• User goes to their local RA with photo-ID• RA verifies the user is who they claim to be and understands

how to use and safeguard their certificate• RA approves user’s certificate request to the CA• CA signs the user’s certificate and returns it to the user


How the Information Service works

A portal has been created for the deployment of the e-Science Grid. It uses the MDS system via services on ginfo to create HTML-based and on-line Web services for resource discovery and monitoring.

• Resource-oriented view of compute and data resources http://esc.dl.ac.uk/InfoPortal

• Virtual Organisation view using UDDI with links to contacts, resources and trading models

• Site-oriented view via an active map http://esc.dl.ac.uk/InfoPortal/Map


Software supported

• Currently– Globus Toolkit 2 (production release v2.2.3)– Condor– SRB (CLRC is developing a stand-alone installation)– Sun GridEngine (expertise at Edinburgh)– Network monitoring tools (at Daresbury, in collaboration with GNT)

• Soon– Web services + UDDI registry (based on work at Daresbury)– Globus Toolkit 3 + OGSA + Grid services– Data Access and Integration Grid services (OGSA-DAI,

support from Edinburgh)• In future

– UNICORE (support from Manchester if required)– . . . anything else required?


Co-ordination betweenGSC and GNT

• A single helpdesk for all Grid-related problems including networking issues– you don’t have to know the source of the problem

before you report it

• Network expertise to identify and diagnose network-related problems– NB - identified local network problems must still be

reported and dealt with through established channels

• Effort to develop and deploy network monitoring facilities


Input sought from Projects and Centres

• Local first line technical support person – provide on the spot assistance for local users– filter out issues which can be resolved locally

• Continuing dialogue with the GSC and GNT as development plans and support requirements evolve

• Identify future directions and requirements – what middleware should we support? What applications?


Meetings so far . . .

• Cambridge Centre 20 December 2001• London Centre 15 January 2002• AstroGrid project 30 January 2002• Southampton Centre 1 February 2002

Geodise project• Oxford Centre (GSC only) 8 February 2002• Newcastle Centre 25 February 2002• RealityGrid project 5 March 2002• Comb-e-Chem project 19 March 2002• Belfast Centre 11 April 2002• Cardiff Centre 16 April 2002• Manchester Centre 20 June 2002

MyGrid project


Grid Infrastructure

The UK Grid Engineering Task Force has been asked to manage the rollout of e-Science middleware to create a Grid infrastructure for research projects over the coming years.

This Grid is comprised of:• Resources at the Regional e-Science Centres;• Resources at collaborating sites ;• UK e-Science and other Applications• Middleware and tools developed in UK e-Science projects;• Globus, Web services and OGSA-complient open-source components.Rollout phases:• Level 1 (autumn 2002) – UK MDS working• Level2 (Easter 2003) – pre-installed applicatations and users Globus

GT2• Level3 – accounting, user management etc. Globus GT3


How to contact us

There is a single point of contact for the Grid Support Centre and its related activities:

• Via the Web

– http://www.grid-support.ac.uk/

• By e-Mail

– [email protected]

• By 'phone

– 01235 446822

Documents

02/07/03 Grid Support Centre 1 UK Grid Support Centre Alistair Mills CLRC e-Science Centre [email protected]