User Community Services in the European Grid Infrastructure 29 Jan 2009 – Paris, France

1. User Community Services in the European Grid Infrastructure29 Jan 2009 – Paris, France Diana Cresti, INFN dcresti@pd.infn.it

2. Contents • EGI General Concepts • EGI main stakeholders and Management Structure • User Community Services • Specialised Support Centres • User Forum • Examples of SSC organisation Paris, France

3. EGI General Concepts Visions and Objectives of EGI To ensure that Europe capitalises fully on its large investment in grid infrastructures, middleware development and applications, the objectives of the future EGI are: • Ensure the long-term sustainability of the European e-infrastructure • Coordinate the integration and interaction between National Grid Infrastructures • Operate the European level of the production grid infrastructure for a wide range of scientific disciplines to link National Grid Infrastructures • Coordinate middleware development and standardisation • Advise National and European Funding Agencies in establishing their programmes for future software developments based on agreed user needs and development standards • Take into account developments made by national e-science projects which were aimed at supporting diverse communities See http://web.eu-egi.eu/about/objectives/ Paris, France

4. Vision based on NGI consensus EGI Blueprint endorsed by the NGIs on 20 Jan 2009 See http://www.eu-egi.org/blueprint Paris, France

5. EGI.org vs. EGI • EGI.org is the central office in charge of most collaboration tasks – EGI.org cannot sustain a production grid infrastructure without the larger EGI environment • The EGI “environment” presupposes that all practical activities at the European level are performed by NGIs as International tasks • There is a budgeted amount of effort expected for the NGI international tasks, some of which is designated as User Community Services (UCS) Paris, France

6. EGI Stakeholders Research Teams Research Institutes NGI2 NGI1 EGI.org NGIn … NGIs Resource Centres Paris, France

7. VOZ VOB2 VOB3 VOB1 Researchers / ResTeams Research Institutes Research Teams, VOs, User Communities VOA … User Community A User Community B User Community Z Paris, France

8. EGI Representation • EGI.org will have bodies for these stakeholders to communicate at the management level • NGIS  EGI Council • Associate members (CERN, ESA, …) • User Communities  User Forum • Representatives from extra-european NGIs Paris, France

9. EGI.org EGI Director UCO User Coord CTO Development CAO Admin & PR COO Operations User Comm Services DevelopmentGroup Administration& PR Group OperationsGroup The EGI Management Structure Members NGI1, NGI2, NGI3, … NGIn Non-voting Representatives Chair of UFSC, extra-EU NGIs, … Associate Members CERN, EBI, ESA, … User Forum Steering Committee (UFSC) EGI Council Advisory Committees e.g. Middleware Coordination Board (MCB) Paris, France

10. EGI User Community Services (UCS) Examples: • Gathering requirements from the user communities and providing efficient channels for their representation within EGI. E.g.: http://knowledge.eu-egi.eu/index.php/User_Requirements • Carrying out a review process to integrate useful “external” software – an extension of the EGEE RESPECT program • Maintaining a European Grid Application Database – e.g. http://grid.ct.infn.it/egee_applications • Establishing technical collaborations with the large European Infrastructure projects (e.g. ESFRI) • Providing “umbrella”services for collaborating projects • Establishing Science Gateways that expose common tools and services (e.g. workflow engines, web services, semantic annotation) • Organising User Forummeetings and topical meetings for specific user communities. • Providing services for new communities – e.g. “Front desk” services, VO creation counseling, etc. • Ensuring that the user communities and grid administrators are provided with high quality documentation and training services. For details: http://knowledge.eu-egi.eu/index.php/UCS_Tasks Paris, France

11. Specialised Support Centres • SSCs are basically a way to organise user community services at a central level by clustering the NGI international tasks • SSCs do not require full NGI consensus to be established • In the EGI proposal, which we will begin drafting in June 2009, the first SSCs will be proposed, based on work by EGEE and collaborating user communities (this means you!) • In the future, SSC proposals will be evaluated by the User Forum Steering Committee and approved by EGI Council • SSCs should interact closely with the central EGI.org UCS team (described in the EGI Blueprint) See also http://knowledge.eu-egi.eu/index.php/Specialised_Support_Centres Paris, France

12. SSC Guidelines - draft • Rights: • EGI will provide resources to the SSCs - in particular manpower. • SSCs will have representation in the EGI Council, middleware coordination group, and the EGI.org directorate. The SSCs will have the ability to feed their technical and non-technical requirements into EGI. • Expect to have access to training and documentation. • Expect that SSCs will have access to resources and to centralized services, such as help desks, central grid services, operations help, middleware help, etc. • Expect to have forums for SSC user communities and SSC managers to discuss with each other. • Responsibilities: • The SSC must have a cohesive community behind it that is able to take ownership of the SSC and to drive its evolution. • The SSC must have a European-level existence follow the defined EGI policies. • The SSCs will report facts and figures about their use of EGI in order to help EGI (and its funding agencies) understand the scope of the work accomplished with EGI. • The SSCs are expected to operate transparently allowing a clear view of the SSC's activities and making the list of provided services available to the full EGI community. • [R&R] SSCs are expected to be “stable” entities. Paris, France

13. Middleware and Software Issues • EGI is assumed to provide support and maintenance to current middleware components from three stacks: ARC, UNICORE, and gLite • No development is envisioned under EGI “project” funding – this includes middleware and any other software (e.g. high-level tools, Applications) • gLite, for instance, is establishing a consortium; funding for development is the responsibility of this consortium • What is within the domain of EGI funding is the work of the Middleware Coordination Board and the continuation of RESPECT and other activities aimed at commissioning new developments. • Thus an SSC – as an EGI entity – can make recommendations for new development proposals • Furthermore, EGI (in my opinion) should support lines of funding for new developments Paris, France

14. The EGI User Forum EGI User Forum User Forum Steering Committee - UFSC SSC1 SSC2 SSC3 SSCn SSC SSC SSC SSC SSC User Technical Support (e.g. USAG) EGI Middleware Coordination Board - MCB MW OPS UCS Paris, France

15. Grid Planning Board UCS OPS MW User Tech Support Ops Dir Usr Sup Example of a Large SSC and main central interfaces EGI general SSC X EGI User Forum Steering Committee SSC Chair (UF delegate) Other UC Svces: “RESPECT” App DB Wikis, repositories Portals, gateways EGI.org MCB(Grid Planning) GP Rep EGI User Tech Support Group (e.g. USAG) SSC Front Desk Paris, France

16. Example of a small SSC (1/2) • Purpose: provide “umbrella” services for a particular user community: Civil Protection (CP) • Three projects have been working (in part) on relevant services: • Project A: collecting and analysing CP requirements • Project B: Data interoperability in the Earth Sciences • Project C: development of tools for remote control of instrumentation • These projects have signed MoUs to establish services for the CP community • Project A has ended; it has generated useful info tools – wikis, repositories, a CP portal • There is a CP VO, mostly used for demonstration purposes Paris, France

17. Example of a small SSC (2/2) • There is a dedicated OGF working group which has produced a set of standards, the Open Geospatial Consortium Web Services – OWS • Two OWS implementations have been produced and two more are in the pipeline • Project C is currently working on a related implementation: Sensor Observation Service • A small SSC – perhaps 2 FTEs – could be established to • provide continuity to Project A tools, • possibly provide some support to the CP VO, • represent the CP community in EGI, • support the OGF working group, • integrate Project C tools via a RESPECT-type process, • help disseminate results to the international community Paris, France

18. Earth SciencesSSC Life SciencesSSC CP SSCOGF working groupRepresentationGatewayProj C tools The SSC Network – a First Sketch UFSC EGI.org Umbrellaservices forsmall projects Project DBiodiversity Drug Discoverygroup Collab groupbio infrastr Project BES data interop& repositories Project CES remoteinstrument Med Imaginggroup Project FDrug Discovery Project ACP reqs Paris, France

19. EGI Timetable • EGI Blueprint finalised 19 Dec ’08; see progress athttp://web.eu-egi.eu/MaKaC/conferenceDisplay.py?confId=75 • D3.2: EGI Functions 2nd draft (cf. D3.1) due Feb ’09 • D5.5: EGI Transition due Mar ’09 • EGI.org location established Mar ’09 • EGI.org Director appointed Mar-Apr ’09 • Other personnel discussed during this time as well, also within NGIs • Prepare to make concrete proposals for SSCs at EGEE User Forum in Catania • Begin writing EGI Proposal in May-June ‘09 Paris, France

20. Notes • One SSC or many Paris, France