110 likes | 230 Views
WP8 Status. Stephen Burke, PPARC/RAL. What is WP8?. HEP applications workpackage Link between experiment software and EDG middleware Works with WP9 (Earth Observation) and WP10 (Biomedical)
E N D
WP8 Status Stephen Burke, PPARC/RAL
What is WP8? • HEP applications workpackage • Link between experiment software and EDG middleware • Works with WP9 (Earth Observation) and WP10 (Biomedical) • Applications Technical Working Group (ATWG) is a forum to define application requirements for the EDG middleware
“Loose Cannons” • WP8 has 1 EU-funded experiment-independent person for each main contractor: • Ingo Augustin (CERN) • Jean-Jacques Blaising (CNRS) • Stephen Burke (PPARC) • Mario Reale (INFN) • Jeff Templon (NIKHEF) • First-line contacts for HEP application developers
Virtual Organisations • Each experiment constitutes one VO • Members are defined by a VO LDAP server at NIKHEF, entries are made by an administrator (http://datagrid-wp8.web.cern.ch/DataGrid-WP8/Testbed1/virtual_organisation_administrat.htm) • Each VO has a Replica Catalogue, and an area on Storage Elements to store files • Eventually VOs will also have their own Resource Brokers and Information Indices • Members of a VO will be mapped to a VO-based Unix group at each site
Testing the Testbed • The plan was for each experiment to run a series of validation tests on Testbed 1 between October and December 2001, and write a document (D8.2) with the results • The testbed started late and was unstable, hence application tests have been limited so far • Loose Cannons did basic functionality testing and helped with the testbed configuration • D8.2 contains the test plans, and results so far • D8.2 is part of the EU review on March 1st
Test Results So Far • Review of documentation by LCs has led to an improvement in the quality and amount of documentation • Basic testing has verified middleware functionality, and in some cases (e.g. Storage Elements) has revealed configuration problems which have now been solved • Experiments have run basic tests, including submission of simulation jobs
Current Problems • Job submission works, but has been unstable, with jobs failing for various reasons from time to time. • It isn’t yet fully defined how to set up an application environment (where to find compilers, experiment software etc) at each site. • The original plan for Storage Elements did not allow for use by more than one Virtual Organisation. A scheme has now been developed to allow this.
Current Problems (2) • GDMP is somewhat awkward to use. There are now user instructions with examples (see http://cmsdoc.cern.ch/cms/grid/) • There is no Replica Manager yet, files must be replicated by hand using GDMP • The testbed only includes a few sites so far, so there is no experience with a large system
Current Status • Testbed 1.1 released this week, which should fix many outstanding problems • Experiments will continue with their planned validation tests as described in D8.2 • Hope to have a “production” testbed once the functionality has been validated • Experiments have each defined a list of sites they would most like to see in the testbed (Table 2 in D8.2) - UK sites are Bristol, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Lancaster, Liverpool, Oxford, RAL
Other Activity • ATWG is trying to define common needs of all applications. The aim is to have a common software layer between the experiment software and the Grid middleware. • ATWG meeting today, WP8 plenary tomorrow, hence I (SB) am not in Cambridge!
UK Involvement in WP8 • Limited so far (mainly FH and SB) • UK application developers are encouraged to get involved, either directly or through their experiment • ATWG meeting are once a month, WP8 plenary meetings every 4 months • Please contact me (SB) if you need help. I may not know the answer, but I should know a man (or woman) who does!