GridComputing

From MariachiWiki

Contents 1 The Grid 1.1 Meet The Grid By Katie Yurkewicz 1.2 GRID Presentation by John Hover 1.3 The Grid Vision 1.4 How grids work 1.5 Sciences On The Grid by Katie Yurkewicz 2 The Open Science Grid 3 Getting on the Grid

The Grid

Meet The Grid By Katie Yurkewicz

(Read the entire article in Symmetry Magazine November 2005 Link)
Today's cutting-edge scientific projects are larger, more complex, and more expensive than ever. Grid computing provides the resources that allow researchers to share knowledge, data, and computer processing power across boundaries.

GRID Presentation by John Hover

What is the Grid? -- This is a presentation with an introductory description of what people are talking about when they use the term "grid".

The Grid Vision

The term grid arose in the late 1990s to describe a computing infrastructure that allows dynamic, distributed collaborations to share resources. Its pioneers envisioned a future where users would access computing resources as needed without worrying about where they came from, much like a person at home now accesses the electric power grid.

How grids work

Grids will enable scientists, and the public, to use resources, access information, and connect to people in ways that aren't possible now. A unified grid-computing system that links people with resources is made up of four layers of resources and software stacked on top of each other. Each layer of this grid architecture depends on those below it. The network layer is at the base. It connects all of the grid's resources, which make up the second layer. On top of the resources sits the middleware, the software that makes the grid work and hides its complexity from the grid user. Most people will eventually only interact with the uppermost software layer, the applications, which is the most diverse layer. It includes any program someone wants to run using grid resources.

Using the grid, a scientist could sit down at her computer and request, for example, a climate prediction for the next 10 years. She would open the appropriate grid-adapted application and provide the geographic location as well as the time range for the prediction. The application and middleware will do the rest: make sure she's a member of a VO that allows her to access climate resources; locate the necessary historical data; run a climate prediction program on available resources; and return the results to her local computer.

Sciences On The Grid by Katie Yurkewicz

(Read the entire article at this link)
All fields of science benefit from more resources and better collaboration, so it's no surprise that scientific researchers are among the first to explore the potential of grid computing to connect people, tools, and technology. Physics and biology were among the earliest adopters, but chemistry, astronomy, the geosciences, medicine, engineering, and even social and environmental sciences are now kick-starting their own efforts.

The Open Science Grid

The Open Science Grid is a US grid computing infrastructure that supports scientific computing via an open collaboration of science researchers, software developers and computing, storage and network providers. MARIACHI is a part of the Open Science Grid(OSG) and will utilize the cyberinfrastucture available to it through the grid. Read more about OSG its organization, participants and resources.

Getting on the Grid

As a Mariachi collaborator, there are several steps to using the Grid.

• Acquire a Grid Certificate. Instructions are at HowToGridCertificate

• Join the Mariachi VO (Virtual Organization).
  • Using the same browser you retrieved your grid certficate with, visit https://www-mariachi.physics.sunysb.edu:8443/voms/mariachi/webui/request/user/create .
  • Fill in the additional information.
  • In the comment field, please explain how you are involved with the MARIACHI project.
  • Click on "I have read and agreed to the VO's Usage Rules" (we don't have any yet).

• Use Grid Resources Using the GRID resources assumes you have access to a pre-established workstation with a home directory and GRID client software which will allow you to submit jobs. But the following steps are prerequisite to the submission:
  • Install a grid certificate in your home directory.
  • Install a grid certificate in your web browser.
  • Create a standard grid proxy.
  • Create a VOMS proxy with a Role. There is a nice demo on role-based authentication.

MARIACHI Computing Resources

File Conversion Utilities | Freeware | GRID | LabView | Scientific Linux

Open Source Software | Video Conferencing | Wiki