The University of Florida physics building.
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The next OSG Consortium meeting will take place at the University of Florida January 23-25, 2006, followed
by the OSG Council meeting on January 26. Please visit the meeting Web page to
register, view the preliminary agenda and find information about traveling to Gainesville.
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OSG Web Site:
The OSG Web site at http://www.opensciencegrid.org
is the front door to
information about the Consortium and the distributed facility. It
includes instructions on how to join the OSG and how to install the software
stack. The site points to the documents and Twiki information with all
the information about upcoming capabilities and new versions, and
includes OSG-related news and events. We are always looking for
comments, ideas about how to make the site better, and for writers and editors for
the various sections. Please email the webmaster
with suggestions.
OSG Brochure:
You may be interested in the brochure about the OSG and the applications it
supports that was prepared for SC|05. You can view the information
and layout online
and request
printed copies from Paul Avery.
Ruth Pordes, Fermilab
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Building the OSG integration testbed. (Click on image for larger version.)
Image courtesy of Rob Gardner |
Dear OSG Consortium and friends,
The last month was a very busy one for the OSG on all fronts. We ran 1,000–1,500 jobs on the infrastructure at nearly all times, with six virtual organizations running more than 300 simultaneous jobs and ATLAS users making especially good opportunistic use of the OSG. We also welcomed two new VOs: nanoHUB and GROW.
We continue ramping up our attention to storage. Applications running on the OSG have started using managed data storage and SRM-based data access, and we are publishing these storage elements through the GLUE Schema. We are working hard toward the 0.4 release of the OSG software stack. With this release we will put processes in place to provision new releases on a bi-monthly schedule, delaying components if they aren't ready for the present release. A special thanks goes to the VDT and OSG operations teams, as well as the site administrators participating in the integration testbed. Without your efforts this would be impossible!
Last but not least, I want to thank everybody for showing OSG at its best during SC|05. Congratulations to those of you who successfully participated in both SC|05 and the LHC Service Challenge 3, the schedules for which collided beautifully this year.
Sincerely,
Frank Wuerthwein, Chair of the OSG Interim Executive Board
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ATLAS jobs running and waiting to run since November 1. (Click on image for larger version.) |
ATLAS physicists have recently cranked up their use of the OSG, and are using it in new ways.
Gone are the days when only a few select grid experts were populating OSG resources using specialized job submission services. With the onset of LHC operations rapidly approaching, physicists eager to get early looks at data samples that simulate the response of the massive 7,000-ton ATLAS detector are pushing out Monte Carlo simulations of their favorite decay signature any way they can. This often involves building their own systems using whatever software or toolkits they can find. Adding to the mix are the organized and centrally managed teams of physicists creating large-scale data sets to be served to all members of the ATLAS collaboration, and the software developers, integrators and testers of the next-generation job management service who are debugging and validating code in preparation for the worldwide commissioning exercises that begin in January.
Since November, ATLAS has produced more than one million fully simulated events on the OSG. These events include 20 different physics samples—Higgs, jets, b quarks and Z decays—and background samples containing top quarks and minimum-bias events. Now our focus is on validation of the software releases in preparation for the January exercises. We're getting our first look at a computing environment where a diverse community of opportunistic physicists, production managers and developers are competing among themselves and with others in the OSG for the available resources. The reality of LHC computing for ATLAS on the OSG is drawing near indeed.
Rob Gardner, The University of Chicago
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The OSG Operations Activity and Support Centers Group help prepare,
provision and run the OSG production infrastructure. In Operations we
make sure that the production environment is usable for the science
applications and we help evolve the common service environment. We
focus on development and support for:
- the OSG registration database that collects and validates information
for the GOC catalog from resources, virtual organizations and support
centers;
- release of the OSG software stack in a set of PACMAN caches;
- hosting of monitoring tools and displays;
- coordination of support, and development and execution of the OSG
processes through Standard Operating Procedures.
Throughout the upcoming months the Operations Activity will take a lead role in the installation, integration and troubleshooting of OSG 0.4. The rollout of a new software release has historically been a very active time for the GOC as it coordinates software installation and configuration, monitors updates, troubleshoots applications, and provides general resource administrator support.
The GOC is also involved in documentation, including Web page design for the OSG, and participates in the OSG community support effort by helping develop a knowledge base of frequently asked questions and answers. Providing accurate and current information to the community is critical to the smooth of operation of the OSG.
Rob Quick, Indiana University
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