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Grid MP at ISIS

Grid MP at ISIS. Tom Griffin, ISIS Facility. Introduction. About ISIS Why Grid MP? About Grid MP Examples The future. Introduction. ISIS - W orld's brightest pulsed neutron and muon source Running since 1984; 1600 user base; ~200 staff

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Grid MP at ISIS

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  1. Grid MP at ISIS Tom Griffin, ISIS Facility

  2. Introduction • About ISIS • Why Grid MP? • About Grid MP • Examples • The future

  3. Introduction • ISIS - World's brightest pulsed neutron and muon source • Running since 1984; 1600 user base; ~200 staff • Neutrons and muons for condensed matter science • Based at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory • Driven by scientific output, not computer science

  4. http://www.isis.rl.ac.uk

  5. Why does ISIS need faster processing? • Many compute intensive programs and problems • Many applications which could be compute intensive • Large range of application domains • Simulations • Analysing results • Designing new instruments • Visualising ideas

  6. Why Grid MP? • Neutron science not computer science • Run by data analysis group • Long interest in distributed computing • Sun Workstations • Condor • Entropia DC Grid • United Devices

  7. Why Grid MP? • ‘Out of box’ solution • United Devices Grid MP is the ‘market leader’ • Customers include: • Johnson & Johnson • GlaxoSmithKline • Novartis • National Physical Laboratory

  8. Why Grid MP? • Set up and running real applications in under 3 hours • Excellent service level • Get what you pay for! • Queries and problems always answered promptly • Active development

  9. The United Devices System • Server hardware • We use two, dual Xeon servers + 280 client licenses • Could (will) easily cope with more clients • Software • Servers run RedHat Linux Advanced Server / DB2 • Clients available for Windows, Linux, SPARCs and Macs • Programming • MGSI – Web Services interface – XML, SOAP • Accessed with C++ and Java classes etc • Management Console • Web browser based • Can manage services, jobs, devices etc

  10. Installing and Deploying the System • Servers • Complete set up in under 3 hours • Virtually self maintaining • Clients • Windows only so far • MSI Installer • approx 20 seconds • SMS • MP Agent User • Install to other OSs looks straightforward

  11. Grid MP Mode of operation • Client – Server • Submitting PC breaks up Job • Uploads data to server • Programs reside on the server • Server distributes Workunits to clients • Clients return results to server • User downloads results from server

  12. Getting an Application Running • Don’t touch executable code • Wrap and upload executable • Write ‘Application Service’ • Typically only a few hours work

  13. Some Features of the Grid MP System • Device to Job matching • Jobs have requirements – CPU, RAM, free disk space etc • Programs have requirements • Devices have preferences • choose what programs they want to run • Administrator can choose which users may submit to which machines

  14. Some Features of the Grid MP System • Timing options • When to execute • When to communicate

  15. Some Features of the Grid MP System • Good access/privileges control • Very powerful • Read, update, create, delete • Can hook into Active Directory, Kerberos etc • Built in basic reporting • Job / Program CPU hours • Performance stats

  16. What do we use it for? • 16 Applications running so far: • Several molecular dynamics apps • several neutron instrument simulation packages • crystal structure solution • maximum entropy calculations • POVRay image rendering

  17. What performance do we get? • Roughly linear for current applications • Running on 100 machines is 100 times faster • Average CPU 2.03Ghz • High percentage of AMD Athlons

  18. Web Interface - Monitoring Jobs

  19. Problems Encountered • Mercifully few • Only once the Grid’s fault • Memory thresholding • Odd program interactions • Fortran and OpenGL

  20. ‘Social’ Issues • Easiest thing to blame • Too abstract for some users (no big box) • Stealing my cycles • Expansion leads to political problems

  21. The Future • Expansion • Applied for 400 licenses (£60k) • Change in licensing model • Bottom line • Unlimited licenses • Total $250K • No technical issues • Plenty of political issues • Single sign-on

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