Introduction to Grids and overview of the European Grid Platform

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Introduction to Grids and overview of the
European Grid Platform

• F. Ruggieri INFN
• (EUMEDGRID Project Manager)
• Research and Education e-Infrastructures The
  Development Enabler- Damascus 5-6 September 2007

www.eumedgrid.eu
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Outline

• European Vision of e-Infrastructures
• What are Grids ?
• How can Grids help Science ?
• Grid projects and initiatives in Europe
• Social impact
• A quick look to FP7
• Conclusions

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Research Infrastructures are at the core of
the knowledge Triangle
Research
Education
Research infrastructures
Innovation
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The European Vision

• The Research Network infrastructure provides fast
  interconnection and advanced services among
  Research and Education institutes of different
  countries
• Projects GEANT, SEEREN, EUMEDCONNECT, etc.
• The Research Grid infrastructure provides a
  distributed environment for sharing computing
  power, storage, instruments and databases through
  the appropriate software (middleware) in order to
  solve complex application problems
• Projects EGEE, SEE-GRID, EUMEDGRID etc.
• This integrated networking grid environment is
  called electronic infrastructure
  (eInfrastructure) allowing new methods of global
  collaborative research - often referred to as
  electronic science (eScience)
• The creation of the eInfrastructure is a key
  objective of the European Research Area

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Towards sustainable grid-empowered
e-Infrastructures
2007-2013
2002-2006
1997-2001
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What GRID is supposed to be

• A computational grid is a hardware and software
• infrastructure that provides dependable,
  consistent,
• pervasive, and inexpensive access to high-end
• computational capabilities.
• I. Foster K. Kesselman - The Grid Blueprint
  for a New Computing Infrastructure Morgan
  Kaufman 1998.
• A dependable infrastructure that can facilitate
  the usage of distributed resources by many groups
  of distributed persons or Virtual Organizations.
• The GRID paradigm is an extension of the WEB one,
  which was originally limited to distributed
  access to distributed information and documents.
• The classical example is the Power GRID you plug
  in and receive power you dont know (and you
  dont care) where it comes from.

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Extension of Web Paradigm
Web Uniform Access to Information and Documents
Software catalogs
Sensor nets
Grid Flexible and High Performance access to
(any kind of) resources
Computers
Data Stores
Colleagues
On-demand creation of powerful virtual computing
and data systems
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Computing Grid
10 Gbps Links
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A simple GRID Computing Farm
Wide Area Network
Computing Element
Storage Element
Worker Nodes
Disks
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Grid basic strategy

• Basic strategy is use components that are already
  there
• Network Internet and TCP/IP
• Protocols http, TCP, UDP, .
• Operating Systems Linux, Solaris, ..
• Batch Systems PBS, LSF, Condor, ..
• Storage Disks, HPSS, HSM, CASTOR, ..
• Directory Services LDAP, .
• Certificates X509
• An intermediate software layer (middleware) is
  used to interface the services.

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Middleware structure

• Applications have access both to Higher-level
  Grid Services and to Foundation Grid Middleware
• Higher-Level Grid Services are supposed to help
  the users building their computing infrastructure
  but should not be mandatory
• Foundation Grid Middleware will be deployed on
  the EGEE infrastructure
• Must be complete and robust
• Should allow interoperation with other major grid
  infrastructures
• Should not assume the use of Higher-Level Grid
  Services

Applications
Higher-Level Grid Services

Workload Management Replica Management Visualizat
ion Workflow Grid Economies ...
Foundation Grid Middleware Security model and
infrastructure Computing (CE) and Storage
Elements (SE) Accounting Information and
Monitoring
Overview paper http//doc.cern.ch//archive/electro
nic/egee/tr/egee-tr-2006-001.pdf
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GRID Security Infrastructure

• Based on Public Key Infrastructure (PKI)
• Certification of Personal Identity a key ltgt
  a user / physical person
• PKI asymmetric encryption
• X509 certificate (Digital Certificate)
• Identification of Computers and Services with PKI
  Certificates.
• A Certification Authority (CA) is needed to
  identify the users and issue the certificates.
• A CA is an important step towards the creation of
  a National Grid Initiative.

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LHC Computational Problem
Many PetaBytes (1015 Bytes) of data every year to
be accessed by thousands of physicists from tens
of countries in different continents
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A large portfolio of applications

• Simulation of seawater intrusion in the aquifers
  (CODESA-3D).
• Archaelogical applications (ArchaeoGrid)
• Biomedical applications (WISDOM, etc.)
• Ab-initio protein structure simulation (Rosetta,
  Early/Late).
• and many others.

A large number of applications, in several fields
has been already deployed on the Grid
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The EGEE infrastructure
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EGEE and collaborating projects
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The EUMEDGRID e-Infrastructure
INFN - CNAF
INFN -Roma3
ULAKBIM
CYNET
INFN -Catania
MA-GRID
Un. of Tunis
GRNET
HIAST
Un. of Malta
IUCC
CERIST
ERI/EUN
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BalticGrid

• Common Grid infrastructure in Estonia, Latvia and
  Lithuania based on gLite and fully integrated
  with EGEE
• Sharing of resources (24 sites) and enabling of
  applications
• Network provisioning
• RD in the area of SLAs (Tycoon)and user
  administration (VUS)
• Common operation of grid services
• ETDO, policy and standards activities

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HELLASGRID (HG) infrastructure
http//www.hellasgrid.gr/infrastructure

• HG-01 cluster (pilot phase)
• _at_Demokritos - Athens
• 64 CPU, 10TB FC SAN, 12TB Tape Library, gLite
  middleware
• HG02-HG06 clusters (HG project)
• Athens (NDC/EKT, IASA)
• Thessaloniki (AUTH)
• Crete (ICS-FORTH)
• Patras (CTI)
• 800 CPUs (x86_64, 2 GB RAM, 80GB HDD, 2x Gbit)
• 30 TBytes total raw SAN storage capacity
• 80TBytes Tape Library
• 4 Access Grid nodes
• Athens, Thessaloniki, Crete

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Italian Grid

• 39 Resource Centres (gt28 sites are also part of
  the EGEE/LCG Grid infrastructure)
• gt 4400 CPUs in 1300 Worker Nodes
• gt 1.4 PBytes Disk Storage

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Grids build upon Networks

• Grid Services need good connectivity
• Research Education Networks provide top level
  quality accessibility to world wide Research
  Centres, Laboratories and Universities using
  state of the art technologies.

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Sustainability
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How to build a Grid infrastructure(the EUMEDGRID
approach)

• (TOP-DOWN)
• Foster the creation of National Grid Initiatives
  (NGIs) ? promote the creation of sustainable
  national grid infrastructures with production
  quality level.
• Deploy first those applications which are already
  grid-enabled and/or easy to be ported (HEP,
  BIOMED).
• (BOTTOM-UP)
• Discover and support New User Communities which
  will be the driving force of constant expansion
  and evolution of the Grid Infrastructures ?
  stimulate new demanding application to be
  deployed and support NGI creation.
• Discover and support new applications which are
  relevant for the Region (Earth Science,
  Archaeology, etc.).

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Digital Divide
http//maps.maplecroft.com/
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Social Impact

• e-Infrastructures support wide geographically
  distributed communities ? enhance international
  collaboration of scientists ? promote
  collaboration in other fields.
• Grids and networks allow the access of many
  researchers to scientific resources (laboratories
  and data) ? the brain drain can be reduced.
• The e-Infrastructures promote the usage of
  network connectivity and stimulate scientific and
  technical development of countries ?
  contribute to fight the digital divide.

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FP6 Facts and Figures

• Some information on Research Infrastructures in
  FP6
• Total budget 735 M of which 222 for GÉANT
  GRID
• Number of projects 143
• Number of RIs supported 248

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FP7 2007 - 2013
FP7 budget (52 billion) Source revised FP7
agreed by Council Parliament in October 2006
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Specific Programme Capacities
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e-Infrastructures from FP6 to FP7
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Conclusions

• Grids are part of the concept of
  e-Infrastructures.
• Grids can, not only optimize the usage of
  resources, but increase their usability and
  accessibility.
• Grids can be the a valid instrument for
  cooperation in Science and Education (the human
  Network).
• e-Infrastructures are fundamental for long term
  development and to mitigate phenomena like the
  Digital Divide and the Brain Drain.
• High bandwidth and Good Quality Communication
  Networks are a must for enabling the whole
  picture.

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Thank You !