The eXtremeDigital (XD) Program

1. The eXtremeDigital (XD) Program Barry I. Schneider Office of Cyberinfrastructure National Science Foundation email:bschneid@nsf.gov

2. XD Solicitation/XD Program • eXtreme Digital Resources for Science and Engineering (NSF 08-571) – eXtremely complex • High-Performance Computing and Storage Services • aka Track 2 awardees and others become service providers (SP) for XD • High-Performance Remote Visualization and Data Analysis Services • 2 awards; 5 years; $3M/year • proposals due November 4, 2008 – Two awards funded in 2009 – RDAV (NICS) & Longhorn (TACC) • Integrating Services (5 years, $26M/year) • Coordination and Management Service (CMS) • 5 years; $12M/year • Technology Audit and Insertion Service (TAIS) • 5 years; $3M/year – Two awards funded in 2010 – Buffalo (TAS) and UIUC (TIS) • Advanced User Support Service (AUSS) • 5 years; $8M/year • Training, Education and Outreach Service (TEOS) • 5 years, $3M/year • two phase proposal process for IS • pre-proposals November 4, 2008 • final proposals due June 15, 2009 – Final project called XSEDE funded July, 2011 for five years with a possible additional five year extension

3. XD at a Glance • Technical Audit Service develops lightweight tools (XDMoD) to enable stakeholders to obtain information on the systems, performance, usage and other characteristics of the XD resources – extremely valuable for data collection – Aid users, system administrators and NSF Program Director • Technical Insertion Service evaluates software and middleware and makes recommendations for injection into project • XSEDE provides the integrating services for the project: Coordination and management, advanced user services and training, education and outreach • XSEDE is a comprehensive set of advanced heterogeneous high-end digital services, integrated into a general-purpose infrastructure. • XSEDE is about increased user productivity, not just high end resources • Increased productivity leads to more science at all levels • Increased productivity is sometimes the difference between a feasible project and an impractical one

4. Thanks to the XSEDE folks for permission to use material from slides used at the US-EU Summer School in computational science held at Lake Tahoe in early August

5. The Vision • Enhance the productivity of scientists and engineers by providing them with new and innovative capabilities • Facilitate scientific discovery while enabling transformational science/engineering and innovative educational programs • Develop a more sustainable approach to the national CI

6. XSEDE supports a breadth of research From direct contact with user community as part of requirements collections • Earthquake Science and Civil Engineering • Molecular Dynamics • Nanotechnology • Plant Science • Storm modeling • Epidemiology • Particle Physics • Economic analysis of phone network patterns • Brain science • Analysis of large cosmological simulations • DNA sequencing • Computational Molecular Sciences • Neutron Science  • International Collaboration in Cosmology and Plasma Physics Sampling of much larger set. Many examples are new to TeraGrid/HPC. Range from petascale to disjoint HTC, many are data driven. XSEDE will support thousands of projects.

7. XSEDE’s Distinguishing Characteristics • Foundation for a national CI ecosystem – in sync with the NSF CIF21 vision • A comprehensive suite of advanced digital services • Federated with other high-end facilities, other providers of digital services here and abroad and importantly campus-based resources • Unprecedented integration of diverse digital resources • Developing an innovative, open architecture making possible the continuous addition of new technology capabilities and services – Achieve Seamless integration of resources at all levels

8. XSEDE: An Infrastructure Designed for Innovation & Evolution • An environment in which all resources, data and services relevant to a researcher can be embedded and shared • Campus bridging creating a single virtual system with interactive data transfer and resource sharing capabilities • “make my data accessible everywhere I want to be” • Coordinated archival approach to ensure persistence of important datasets beyond the lifetime of particular service providers – Still needs fleshing out • An underlying infrastructure to support this • Open architecture with judicious use of standards designed to evolve in a non-disruptive way • Interoperability of XSEDE with other Cis – OSG, PRACE, DEISA NAREGI

9. XSEDE’s Distinguishing Characteristics - Architecture • XSEDE is designed for innovation & evolution • There is an architecture defined, but it is still evolving as a consequence of the review process • based on set of design principles • rooted in the judicious use of standards and best practices • clearly defined transition plan from TeraGrid to XSEDE • Professional systems engineering approach • Responds to evolving needs of existing, emerging, and new communities • incremental development/deployment model • New requirements gathering processes • ticket mining, focus groups, usability panels, shoulder surfing • Ensure robustness and security while incorporating new and improved technologies and services • Process control, quality assurance, baseline management, stakeholder involvement

10. How XSEDE describes the architecture • Security officer • NSF program manager • Campus CIO • Trainer • . . . • A set of “views” examining the elephant from the perspectives of different stakeholders • Not (only) immensely detailed documentation! • Different stakeholders require different views,e.g., • Service provider • System administrator • Power user • Occasional user • Gateway developer • Tell us what views you think are important

11. XSEDE’s Distinguishing Characteristics - Governance • World-class leadership from CI centers with deep experience: partnership led by NCSA, NICS, PSC, TACC and SDSC • PI: John Towns, NCSA/Univ of Illinois • Co-PIs: Jay Boisseau, TACC/Univ of Texas Austin Patricia Kovatch, NICS/Univ of Tenn-Knoxville Ralph Roskies, PSC/CMU Nancy Wilkins-Diehr, SDSC/UC-San Diego • Partners who strongly complement these CI centers with expertise in science, engineering, technology and education • Univ of Virginia Ohio Supercomputing Center • SURA Cornell • Indiana Univ Purdue • Univ of Chicago Rice • Berkeley NCAR • ShodorJülich Supercomputing Centre

12. Engaging stakeholders • Collection of stakeholder needs: • surveys, ticket mining, … • focus groups, usability panels, … • interviews, shoulder surfing, … • Prioritization of identified need and derived requirements • User Requirements Evaluation and Prioritization (UREP) Working Group • broad participation across architecture, deployment, operations, users, and service providers • Assessing plans and deployments • through a variety of stakeholder-focused, facilitated workshops • e.g., interactive ATAM sessions focused on identifying, quantifying, discussing tradeoffs • Representation in the management of XSEDE • XSEDE Advisory Board • User Advisory Committee • Service Providers Forum