Engineering:TCON 04 20 2005

Agenda

The dial-in number for this call (Wednesday April 20th, 9 am PDT [noon EDT]) was sent out in email.

The agenda will cover some of the points raised in an email thread within the Engineering core related to grid infrastructure and the LONI pipeline:

1. Overview of goal and potential timelines
2. LONI pipeline overview
3. Grid architectural issues
   1. authentication
   2. exporting jobs (single job vs. entire pipeline)
   3. resource discovery
      1. compute resources
      2. application resources
   4. workflow optimization
4. Compute resources available for the programmer's retreat
5. Action items...

Minutes

Attendees: Bill Lorensen, Steve Pieper, Mike Pan, Jeff Grethe, Jason Gerk, Simon Warfield

• Discussions on security
  • Jeff discussed BIRN's utilization of GSI and how the BIRN authentication architecture and services allow for single sign on across multiple resources
  • Michael discussed the Pipeline's use of J-DRAMMA and how the Pipeline server connects to the SUN Grid Engine as the pipeline user and how client's could be made to connect to other remote resources directly

• Bill suggested a 'staging grid' for compiling code and running continuous/nightly tests of algorithms on large sample data sets
  • Requires the ability to stage newly compiled applications to compute resource without hands-on administration
  • Three levels of applications under development were mentioned in the context of utilizing grid resources to aid the development process
    • Development - application run locally
    • Testing - nightly builds will require the dynamic staging of applications
    • Production - application can be installed in a permanent location in standardized distribution

• Next Call
  • A follow up call next Wednesday at same time (April 27th, 9am PDT/noon EDT)
  • Continue the discussion of job launching and authentication. More specifically, how would the Pipeline talk to grid resources - 1) does the client connect directly to the resource and how does the client get the module information; 2) does the server connect and how does authentication get passed through

• Action Items
  • Compute resources for Programmers retreat
    • Jeff and Jason will confirm that BIRN compute resource will be available, also will

check with Phil P. about possible additional fallback resources

• ** *** Mike will check with LONI about availability of compute resources