Project co-funded by the European Commission within the Sixth Framework Programme (2002-2006) FP6−2004−Infrastructures−6-SSA-026024 Dissemination level: CO 1 / 58 Project Number: 026024 Project Acronym: EUMEDGRID Project Title: EUMEDGRID - Empowering eScience Across the Mediterranean Instrument: Specific Support Action Activity: Research Infrastructures Interim Activity Report – 3 rd Quarter Period covered: from 01/07/2006 to 30/09/2006 Date of preparation: 23/12/2006 Start date of project: 1 January 2006 Duration: 24 months Project coordinator name: Federico Ruggieri Revision: V4 Project coordinator organization name: INFN
58
Embed
Interim Activity Report – 3rd Quarter · Project co-funded by the European Commission within the Sixth Framework Programme (2002-2006) FP6−2004−Infrastructures−6-SSA-026024
This document is posted to help you gain knowledge. Please leave a comment to let me know what you think about it! Share it to your friends and learn new things together.
Transcript
Project co-funded by the European Commission within the Sixth Framework Programme (2002-2006)
FP6−2004−Infrastructures−6-SSA-026024 Dissemination level: CO 1 / 58
P r o j e c t N u m b e r : 0 2 6 0 2 4
P r o j e c t A c r o n y m : E U M E D G R I D
P r o j e c t T i t l e : E U M E D G R I D - E m p o w e r i n g e S c i e n c e A c r o s s t h e M e d i t e r r a n e a n
Instrument: Specific Support Action
Activity: Research Infrastructures
I n t e r i m A c t i v i t y R e p o r t – 3 r d Q u a r t e r
Period covered: from 01/07/2006 to 30/09/2006
Date of preparation: 23/12/2006
Start date of project: 1 January 2006 Duration: 24 months
More details on the copyright holders can be found at the following URL: http://www.eumedgrid.org/partners-engl.htm
EUMEDGRID (“Empowering eScience across the Mediterranean”) is a project co-funded by the European Union in the framework of the 6FP for Research and Technological Development, as part of the specific programme “Structuring the European Research Area” within the “Research Infrastructures” activity Call name: Communication Network Development – eInfrastructure – Consolidating Initiatives. For more information on the project, its partners and contributors please see http://www.eumedgrid.org
You are permitted to copy and distribute verbatim copies of this document containing this copyright notice, but modifying this document is not allowed. You are permitted to copy this document in whole or in part into other documents if you attach the following reference to the copied elements: "Copyright (C) 2006. The EUMEDGRID Consortium. http://www.eumedgrid.org ".
The information contained in this document represents the views of EUMEDGRID Consortium as of the date they are published. The EUMEDGRID Consortium does not guarantee that any information contained herein is error-free, or up to date.
THE EUMEDGRID CONSORTIUM MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS, IMPLIED, OR STATUTORY, BY PUBLISHING THIS DOCUMENT.
Delivery slip
name partner/activity date signature
from: F. Ruggieri INFN /WP1
reviewed by: Moderator and reviewers
approved by: TB
Document log
Issue Date Comment Author
1-0 17/10/2006 First draft M. Mieli
1-1 20/10/2006 First activities reported F. Ruggieri
2-0 10/11/2006 New activities and tables F. Ruggieri
3-0 30/11/2006 Information updated and format changes F. Ruggieri
3-1 20/12/2006 Revision R. Barbera, F. Tanlongo
4-0 23/12/2006 Final version M. Mieli, F. Ruggieri
2. WORKPACKAGE PROGRESS OF THE PERIOD..................................................................................... 8
2.1. ACTIVITY SUMMARY ............................................................................................................................. 8 2.1.1. WP1: Project Administrative and Technical Management ......................................................... 8 2.1.2. WP2: Requirement Capture and Analysis .................................................................................. 13 2.1.3. WP3: Pilot Infrastructure Operational Support ........................................................................... 16 2.1.4. WP4: Applications Support ........................................................................................................... 22 2.1.5. WP5 – Dissemination..................................................................................................................... 25
2.2. MAJOR TASKS, PRODUCTS AND SERVICES ..................................................................................... 34 2.2.1. Deliverables and milestones due this quarter ............................................................................ 34
3.4.1 Tutorial – Technicians and Users, Istanbul (Turkey).......................................................................... 39 3.4.2 Tutorial – Technicians and Users, Rome (Italy) ................................................................................. 45 Tutorial for Certification Authority Managers, Rome (Italy)....................................................................... 48 First EUMEDGRID Project Conference, Rome (Italy)................................................................................ 49 Grid Induction - 4th Hands on Workshop, Tel Aviv (Israel) ........................................................................ 51 Updated Statistics for User and Site admin Tutorials .................................................................................. 52
4. OTHER ISSUES ............................................................................................................................................. 53
1. PROJECT OBJECTIVES AND MAJOR ACHIEVEMENTS DURING
THE REPORTING PERIOD
The activity during this quarter was concentrated on the evolution of the pilot infrastructure, on fostering the creation of Certificate Authorities in the countries that are presently served by the INFN catch-all CA and the organization of the First Project Conference in Rome in September.
During this period 3 Deliverables where timely produced and 5 Milestones reached in due time.. The deliverable D5.2 “Policy state of the art”, originally foreseen on month 9 has been delayed in order to include the latest news from the Marrakech workshop in December. One milestone was only partially reached as it is explained in the following paragraphs.
1.1. Deliverables During the quarter 4 deliverables where foreseen and three of them where prepared and sent to the EC in due time.
• D2.2 – “Proposed technical roadmap”.
• D3.1 – “CA and RA procedures and guidelines”. Only RAs where created and reasonable schedules for the creation of CAs was defined.
• D4.1 – “Initial specification and requirements of the applications”
1.2. Milestones A large number of milestones was foreseen to be reached in this quarter and their description follows.
• M2.3 – “Core NGI candidates identified” – This milestone was only partially reached. The list of core NGI candidates is still not complete.
• M3.1 – “Network services assured” – This milestone was reached well before the foreseen date (M7).
• M5.3 – “Dissemination material ready”. The dissemination material was prepared already in may for the TERENA TNC06 Conference well before the M7.
• M5.4 – “Initial setup of outreach material”. The milestone was successfully reached and the full set of dissemination materials can be found on the EUMEDGRID document server at: https://documents.eumedgrid.org/collection/Training%20materials
• M3.2 – “CA in operations”. This milestone was reached well in advance of the foreseen date (M7), as it is explained in the deliverable D3.1.
• M5.5 – “1st Project Workshop”. A project Conference was organized in Rome in September as it is described in the next paragraph.
1.3. First Project Conference In September the First Project Conference was held in Rome at the University of Roma Tre’s premises. The conference was jointly organised by INFN, GARR and University of Roma Tre in the “Aula Magna” of the Rectorate. The conference was attended by more than 60 delegates from all the Mediterranean Countries who actively participated to the discussions with the qualified speakers coming from several areas of interest for the project and, in general, for the Mediterranean Scientific Communities. Digital libraries, Archaeology among the others were the applications presented and discussed.
2.1. ACTIVITY SUMMARY The following paragraphs provide a brief report of activities carried out during the third quarter of the project. By now, the program of activities, as described in the Technical Annex to the Contract did not undergo to any significant changes. The GANTT chart shown in the Annex is reported here as a reference.
Figure 1 - Gantt plan of the project
2.1.1. WP1: Project Administrative and Technical Management
The administrative and technical work went on quite smoothly with no major issues as it is described in the following. The major efforts in the quarter were the organisation of:
An administrative tutorial in Istanbul on the 7th of July.
A grid tutorial of 3 days in Rome from the 11th to the 13th of September.
A Certification Authority Managers (CAM) meeting on the 12th of September.
the First Project Conference in Rome on the 14th and 15th of September 2006.
These last three events were jointly managed by INFN, GARR and Department of Physics of University of Roma Tre.
An administrative tutorial was held in July in Istanbul together with a PMB meeting and a Grid Tutorial hosted by TUBITAK.
Another TB and PMB joint meeting was organised during the First Project Conference in Rome in September; the agenda is available on the web with the transparencies of the presentations made (https://agenda.eumedgrid.org/conferenceDisplay.py?confId=a0658).
In the following Errore. L'origine riferimento non è stata trovata. there is a synthetic list of the third instalments distributed. The EUN amount was not distributed because the Bank Account information was not received.
Table 1 - Third Instalments of the EC pre-financing
Partner N. Partner short name Amount in € Comments
2 CERN 27.963,36
3 CYNET 28.914,11
4 DANTE 3.579,31
5 GARR 35.345,68
6 GRNET 51.452,58
7 RED.ES 13.422,41
8 UoM 34.842,34
9 CERIST 18.959,16
10 CNRST 18.959,16
11 EUN 18.959,16 Not yet delivered
12 HIAST 18.959,16
13 MSRTDC 18.959,16
14 TUBITAK 15.156,14
TOTAL 368.333,35
A1.2 – Technical Management
INFN Activities:
The technical management of the project went on smoothly also due to the TB phone conferences organized regularly during the quarter and to the meetings in person in Istanbul (July) and Rome (September).
Reviewed 2QR. Timesheet related tasks. Coordination of CERN technical, administrative and management activities in EUMEDGRID.
TUBITAK Activities:
TUBITAK ULAKBIM organized the first tutorial of EUMEDGRID in Istanbul between 3-7 July.2006. The project partners participated to this user and administrator Istanbul tutorial with 33 trainees.
Project Management Board (PMB) meeting was held in Istanbul on 7th July 2006 by TUBITAK ULAKBIM.
TUBITAK ULAKBIM participated to PMB meeting in Rome on 14 September and also joined in Rome CAM training with one presentation on 12 September.
GRNET Activities:
Involved Personnel: Zoi Panagiotara - Administration of payments for 3rd parties of GRNET: JUNET and PADI2. Consultation with
the third parties. GRNET administration and management.
Table 2 - WP1 roundup effort
Worked Hours during the Quarter
Total N. of Hours delivered until
now
Effort in the contract (in
hours)1
Remaining Effort (in hours)
Partner Short Name
Name and Surname
Activity
Total Funded Total Funded Total Funded Total Funded
During the 3rd quarter, deliverable D2.2 was drafted, reviewed and finalized. D2.2 (Technical Roadmap) was coordinated by CERN, and presented a technical roadmap for the setup and deployment of EGEE_based grid infrastructure in the Mediterranean region. It included an overview of the EGEE middleware stacks (LCG & gLite), basic site infrastructure deployment and monitoring and a plan for the rollout of EUMEDGRID production sites to join the EGEE production infrastructure. A section was also devoted in surveying the status of national grid initiatives in the participating Mediterranean countries. This is taken from the D2.2 conclusion chapter:
The currents plans foresee to have the following resources available at the end of the two-years project:
• 16 EUMEDGRID clusters across 11 countries configured and active • An overall computing power which can rely on 646 CPUs • An overall storage capacity of 26.4 TBytes And the following applications will be supported: • High Energy Physics applications (there are many candidates, like CMS and ATLAS software packages)
• Biomedicine applications
• Earth Science applications
• As of this writing, regional applications are being identified by WP4. Finally, the status of the NGIs in the Mediterranean region is as follows: • Fledgling Grid community = 1 country • Grid Awareness Raising Phase = 4 • NGI Planning Phase = 2 • Active NGIs = 4
Table 3 - WP2 roundup effort
Worked Hours during the Quarter
Total N. of Hours delivered until
now
Effort in the contract (in
hours)[1]
Remaining Effort (in hours)1 Partner
Short Name
Name and Surname
Activity
Total Funded Total Funded Total Funded Total Funded
2.1.3. WP3: Pilot Infrastructure Operational Support
CERN Activities:
During this period, CERN coordinated the training, installation, documentation and deployment of SAM. SAM (Service Availability Monitoring) is a tool that measures the availability of a service, a site or a VO. It is designed to generate alarms, trouble tickets and callout support staff. It is planned to cover all gLite services - at the moment it covers SE, CE, gLite-CE, LFC, SRM, FTS. Other service sensors will follow soon. SAM is temporarily installed at CERN. It will be moved to CNAF during the 4th quarter of the project.
CYNET Activities:
CYNET is moving forward towards the completion of the WP3 objectives with focus on the deployment of the main CYNET GRID Site (CY-01-CYNET) as well as the creation and accredidation of the CYNET CA for GRID certificates.
In more detail, CYNET has attended both of the EUMEGRID GRID Tutorials which occured in July and September as well as attending the Annual EGEE Conference for further knoweledge dissemination.
In addition the attendance of the CA Tutorial provided assistance in steering towards a more clear direction for the creation of the CYNET CA.
CNRST Activities:
Migration of CNRST site to Glite 3.0:
- Migration from LCG 2.0.7 to Glite 3.0.2;
- Addition a new WN;
- Installation of Ganglia tool for MA-01-CNRST.
Installation of EUMEDGRID applications in CNRST site:
Involved Personnel: Kostas Koumantaros, Fotis Karayannis, Ioannis Liabotis, Antonis Zisimos
• Operation of the EUMEGRID help desk. • New Site registration and certification. • Support installation and configuration of new sites. • Organization of the integration of core services with HGSM • Technical management in WP3 • Definition of the technical strategy of WP3 for the forthcoming period. • Coordination of the deployment of CODESA3D into the infrastructure. • Coordination of the Population of HGSM with all the necessary information • Integration of BDII, GSTAT, GridICE with HGSM • Certification Authority web page created with instructions on how to create a national
certification authority. • Preparation of sites for the participation in BIOMED DC. • Requirements capture for the participation in BIOMED DC. • Preparation of sites and application deployment for demonstration in the EGEE06 Conference
booth
Meetings:
Fotis Karayannis and Ioannis Liabotis participated in the EUMEDGRID PMB in Istanbul (30 June 2006). A presentation of the status of WP3 was prepared for the PMB meting.
Kostas Koumantaros, Fotis Karayannis and Ioannis Liabotis participated in the EUMEGRID PMB in Rome (14th September 2006). Preparation and presentation of overall WP3 progress report. Preparation and presentation of the technical strategy for WP3 in the forthcoming period.
Kostas Koumantaros, Fotis Karayannis and Ioannis Liabotis attended the 1st EUMEDGRID workshop in Rome (15th September 2006).
INFN Activities:
Management of the VOMS server, GridICE and RB services at INFN CNAF- Bologna.
Management and upgrade of Roma3 (together with the Dep. of Physiscs of Univ. of Roma Tre) and Catania Sites to allocate resources for WISDOM, CODESA-3D, ATLAS and other supported VO’s.
Support of RA’s in the INFN catch-all CA in Florence. Organisation and management of the CAM meeting in Rome in September.
MRSTDC Activities:
The third quarter activities related to the project EUMEDGRID in Tunisia have been concentrated in July and September due to holidays of most participants in August. During this quarter, classical activities of WP1, WP2 and WP3 have been carried with significant advancement in WP3 especially after resolving of all internet problems with the provider and the deliverance of 5 new PCs by the Ministry of Scientific Research, Technology and development of Competencies to the project. These
The CERN staff working in EUMEDGRID is also a sonification application expert. He presented the grid-sonification activity at the 1st EELA.
CYNET Activities:
Deployed BIOMED and CODESA EGEE Applications on CY-01-CYNET GRID site to ease transition in the EGEE infrastructure
CRS4 (GARR third party) Activities:
The CRS4 contribution (third party) to the activity of the project is represented by the presentation of the activity of development and testing of a grid-enabled sub-surface hydrology application to the 1rst EUMEDGRID conference in Rome (15 Sept, 2006). The application entitled "Sustainable management of groundwater exploitation using Monte Carlo simulation of seawater intrusion in the Korba aquifer (Tunisia)" is co-authored by Jaouher Kerrou, Giuditta Lecca, Philippe Renard and Jamila Tarhouni (powerpoint presentation is available at the conference web site).The objective of the study is the quantification of the uncertainty in groundwater levels and salt concentrations of the Korba coastal aquifer (Tunisia) as a result of the uncertainty in the exploitation rates of agricultural wells.
The probability distribution of model outputs is obtained by means of Monte Carlo simulation based on the coupled density-dependent flow and miscible transport model CODESA-3D. The grid-enabled sub-surface hydrology application has been first developed on the INFN GILDA t-Infrastructure and then on the EGEE production grid (VO Earth Science Research). Further developments will include the test of the application on the EUMEDGRID infrastructure.
INFN Activities:
The questionnaire for new applications was finalized, based on the experience of similar surveys conducted both by the EELA and EUChinaGrid projects, and was made available on-line at the URL : https://secure.um.edu.mt/eumedgrid/questionnaire/wp4/.
MRSTDC Activities:
Many contacts with new partners and potential users of Grid computing have been done in order to promote new applications and to support regional applications.
During the third quarter, dissemination continued to be regarded as a key activity for the success of the EUMEDGRID Project. The dissemination activities were mainly addressed to the organization and participation to dissemination and training events and to the preliminary draft of Del5.2, which was due at Project Month 9 (http://www.eumedgrid.org/deliverable/D5.2.html ).
A5.1 – Project dissemination activities
a) Dissemination events
- A wide effort was devoted to the organization of the 1st EUMEDGRID Project Conference in Rome (see http://www.eumedgrid.org/Conf-Roma06/ and https://agenda.eumedgrid.org/conferenceDisplay.py?confId=a0658 for the detailed agenda and speakers’ presentation). Because of the selected location as well as their role as Project Office and large commitment in WP5 activities, the organization of the 1st EUMEDGRID Project Conference was mainly performed by the Italian partners, GARR and INFN; all aspects of the event were jointly managed by the PO and WP5 local team: logistics (although a part of logistics was outsourced to an agency), programme, event website and materials for the event (folders, leaflets, small gadgets and giveaways, posters etc). The event provided a picture of the status of Grid infrastructures and applications in Europe, with a special stress on success cases from other projects and applications of regional interest, which could be adapted and ported on the EUMEDGRID infrastructure. It was a success in term of attendance and represented another step toward the creation of a human network across the Mediterranean, promoting the existing and creating possible synergies. Furthermore, it was a good occasion to disseminate the Project:
1. Increasing participation of people not yet involved in the Project (potential users, grid professional, students)
2. Distributing the conference announcement (http://www.eumedgrid.org/documents/EUMEDGRID-conf-announcement.pdf) and press release (http://www.eumedgrid.org/Conf-Roma06/EUMEDGRID-PR150906-en_03.pdf) to Italian and international press.
In conjunction with the Conference, several internal meetings and tutorials were carried out, including a users’ and system administrators’ tutorial (see next chapter for details) and a CA managers tutorial.
- Another central point for dissemination in the quarter was the participation to EGEE06 Conference. The presence at this event, which can easily be regarded as one of the largest Grid events in the world, was considered as a very important occasion to enhance the
project visibility and, on the other hand, to get in touch with relevant actors in the world of research and industry. EUMEDGRID presence involved several levels:
a) Exhibition of a project poster
b) Booth (in conjunction with the EUChinaGRID project), with an online demonstration of the monitoring of grid activities over the infrastructure and distribution of small gadgets with the project logo (cups, pens, block-notes, post-it blocks etc) and project leaflets;
c) Attendance to sessions/workshops of importance for the coordination with other projects and initiatives (regional projects workshop organized by SEEGRID; related project workshop, National Grid Initiatives closed workshop).
b) Preliminary draft and survey for deliverable 5.2
Another major activity of the quarter was the preparation of the Survey relating to Deliverable 5.2 (Policy state of the Art) and its preliminary draft. The document (http://www.eumedgrid.org/deliverable/D5.2.html) was due at project month 9 and intended to report on the Status and perspectives of the creation of National Grid Initiatives (NGIs) in the Mediterranean Countries involved in EUMEDGRID, with special reference to the ones not currently belonging to the EGEE consortium. Although the original delivery to the EC services, due on mid November, was delayed of about a month (to incorporate updates from the Marrakech workshop, where a NGIs session was scheduled, see https://agenda.eumedgrid.org/conferenceDisplay.py?confId=5 for details) this activity was instead carried out in the third quarter.
c) Other activities
Further activities were then devoted to day-by-day management and update of the website and the creation of web pages providing information on particular dissemination events; preparatory activities for the dissemination and training events in Tunisia and Marrakech (programme, logistics etc) to be held in the following quarter were carried out as well.
CYNET Activities:
CYNET took part in the dissemination sessions delivered by the EUMEDGRID project such as both of the EUMEDGRID Tutorials that occured in July and September.
CYNET also benefited from disseminated knowledge regarding the creation and operation of a CA in order to establish the CYNET CA.
CYNET has provided dissemination materials to CYNET partners based on the EUMEDGRID tutorials and provided status update including 3rd party work opportunities within the bounds of the EUMEDGRID project
GARR activities were focused on three main points:
a. The organization of the first Project Conference in Rome. This involved all aspects of the event, from logistics (although a part of logistics was outsourced to an agency) to the creation of a suitable programme, the contact with speakers etc, the creation of a complete website and a number of materials for the event (folders, leaflets, small gadgets and giveaways, posters etc).
b. The preparation and participation to EGEE06. An integrated presence was designed with a booth held in cooperation with the EUChinaGRID project with a poster, leaflets and giveaways, attendance to sessions/workshops on issues where coordination with other project may be a key success factor (see above).
c. Preliminary draft and preparation of the NGI Survey for Deliverable 5.2 (Policy state of the Art), due at project month 9 under GARR responsibility.
As main responsible of the website, GARR devoted as well a part of the effort in performing the day-by-day management and update of the website and the creation of web pages providing information on particular dissemination events.
GRNET Activities:
Fotis Georgatos participated as a trainer in the EUMEDGRID Training Event in Istanbul (3rd-7th July 2006).
GRNET 3rd Parties’ activities:
JUNET Activities:
Meetings:
Yousef Torman participated in the EUMEDGRID PMB in Rome (14th September 2006) . Presentation of the coutry’s plans and the progress of their NGI.
Yousef Torman participated in the 1st EUMEDGRID workshop in Rome (15th September 2006).
INFN Activities:
Organisation of the First Project Conference in Rome on 14-15 September 2006, attended by 60 people.
MRSTDC Activities:
The Tunisian team working in WP5 started the preparation of two events:
- November 3 2006 in the ESSTT (www.esstt.rnu.tn/utic/colloque) a scientific conference about grid computing to present the project EUMEDGRID, an introduction and basic concepts of grid computing and presentation of some international projects.
- November 27 to December 2 2006: a long eumedgrid tutorial in the ESSTT.
PADI2 Activities:
Sufyan Aqtam attended the EUMEDGRID tutorials in Istanbul/ Turkey (3rd-7th July 2006), and worked on building the needed technical experience about Grids and to build Grid awareness among institutions in the West bank area in Palestine.
Meetings:
Bahjat Qazzaz participated in Eumedgrid PMB in Rome and presented Palestine’s plans and the progress of their NGI. A5.2 – Dissemination of advanced knowledge activities For the quarter, activities were mainly devoted to deliver two tutorials, in Istanbul and Rome, and organize the ones scheduled for the next quarter. Furthermore, the maintenance of the GILDA Site was performed.
a) Outreach events
The first event delivered in the quarter was the Istanbul tutorial. The event was composed by a long tutorial for users, held from the 3rd to the 5th of July, and a site administrators tutorial. The complete set of training materials and a detailed programme of the event can be found at: https://agenda.eumedgrid.org/conferenceDisplay.py?confId=a0657
The following are the main topics presented in the tutorial:
Users:
Overview of the gLite middleware
Authorization and authentication in gLite
The gLite Information System
The GILDA t-Infrastructure
Installation and configuration of a gLite 3.0 User Interface
Installation and configuration of: VOMS server, MyProxy server, BDII server, WMS+LB server, CE + WN, SRM, LFC server, FTS server, RGMA and AMGA server.
It should be highlighted that, although the event falls in the third quarter, almost the totality of the preparatory work for this event was carried on within the previous quarter.
The other event for the reporting period is the Grid Tutorial for User and System Administrator, held Rome at University of Roma Tre from 11 to 13 of September 2006 in conjunction with the EUChinaGRID Project (see https://agenda.eumedgrid.org/conferenceDisplay.py?confId=a0659). The following are the main topics of the tutorial:
• Introduction to GILDA t-Infrastructure.
• Overview of the main services of the gLite middleware.
• Practical sessions on main services of the gLite middleware.
• Installation and configuration of the main resources for a base configuration of a gLite site.
• Installation and configuration of the main services of the gLite middleware.
b) GILDA Maintenance
The maintenance of the GILDA Site, with the installation of the new version of the gLite Middleware (v. 3.0.0) was carried out on the following services:
• gLite User Interface;
• BDII server;
• Workload Management System + Logging&Bookkeeping server;
• LFC server;
• AMGA server;
• Computing Element + Torque Server
• N.3 Worker Node + Torque Client
• FTS Server
• SRM
• GENIUS
c) Tutorial Statistics2
2 The updated training statistics are available at: http://www.eumedgrid.org/statistiche-en.html
The first feedbacks on the training activity, obtained through an in-deep online questionnaire proposed to participants at the end of the events, has been made available and analyzed. The pictures here below illustrate the number of attendees (total and per event, per audience), the number of participants per day and the average feedback. The latter shows that trainees appear to generally perceive the level of the tutorial as satisfactory.
Figure 2 - tutorial statistics at the end of third project quarter
2.2.1. Deliverables and milestones due this quarter
Almost all the Deliverables and Milestones foreseen for this quarter were delivered on schedule and a complete list is shown in the following table:
Table 5 - Deliverables and Milestones due for the reporting period
Name N° Due on Status
Proposed technical roadmap D2.2 PM 07 Done
CA and RA procedures and guidelines D3.1 PM 07 Done
Initial specification and requirements of the applications
D4.1 PM 09 Done
Policy state of the art D5.2 PM09 Delayed
Core NGI candidates identified M2.3 PM07 Reached
Network services assured M3.1 PM07 Reached
Dissemination material ready M5.3 PM07 Reached
Initial setup of outreach material M5.4 PM07 Reached
CA in operations M3.2 PM07 Reached
1st Project Workshop M5.5 PM09 Reached
2.3. SUMMARY OF ISSUES
2.3.1. WP1 Issues
There were a couple of issues to report in this quarter, which are mainly continued from the first two quarters.
Lack of experience on EC funded Projects among the partners
Still some more work is needed to disseminate knowledge about the administrative matters related to European Projects. A new administrative tutorial is foreseen for December in Marrakech at the end of the First Project Workshop.
Delay in the distribution of the pre-financing
The Egyptian partner is still waiting authorizations to receive the project funds on their bank account.
An investigation on possible workarounds is under way.
There were still few bugs in the timesheet tool which delayed the correct collection of the worked hours. These bugs are supposed to be fixed in the next quarter.
2.3.2. WP2 Issues
No specific issues to report.
2.3.3. WP3 Issues
No specific issues to report.
2.3.4. WP4 Issues
No specific issues to report.
2.3.5. WP5 Issues No major issues were highlighted in the quarter. However, in delivering the tutorials it was highlighted a finer-grained segmentation of the audience than expected. This implies that foreseeing just two formats for tutorials (addressing respectively users and site administrators) is not enough in order to maximize the benefits for attendees. Different levels of awareness and previous grid knowledge were indeed highlighted amongst users, which have a deep impact on their ability to learn (roughly, we can divide them in potential, basic and advanced users). In fact, it was found that the current format works generally well with system administrators and very smart users, while newcomer users normally feel difficulties with some technical aspects (as, for instance, the command-line interface). For this reason a new format for beginners is under development and will be tested in the Marrakech event. This “lighter” version will present:
o Basics of grids o GENIUS interface o Hands-on sessions on real applications (CORSIKA, ROSETTA)
2.4. Plans for the next reporting quarter
2.4.1. WP1 Future plans
Administrative tutorial in December in Marrakech and preparation of templates for the first year report.
2.4.2. WP2 Future plans
The bulk of activity was already completed. A possible second survey at the end of the project to compare the impact of the EUMEDGRID activity in the region is under investigation.
2.4.3. WP3 Future plans
Enlargement of the pilot infrastructure with new countries and new sites.
Analysis of the questionnaires on new applications and first candidates selection.
2.4.5. WP5 Future plans
Activities in the next quarter will be mainly devoted to the following tasks:
o Organization and delivery of the Tunis tutorial
o Organization and delivery of the Marrakech workshop and tutorial
o Draft of Deliverable 5.2 (Policy state of the art)
o Creation of a project newsletter
o Creation of a format for the project demonstrations (for the annual review and other dissemination opportunities), in close coordination with the colleagues working on applications.
2.5. Main Project Activity Metrics A certain number of quantifiable indicators used to measure the progress of the activities were already defined. New indicators will eventually be added if appropriate. The current list is the following:
• Number of sites joining the EUMEDGRID Pilot infrastructure at the end of the reporting period (9).
• Number of tutorial events held (3) and number of participants per event (25).
• Number of International Meetings, Workshops and Conferences organised (2).
• Number of attended Conferences or workshops with specific EUMEDGRID presentations or posters and/or other dissemination activities (4).
• Number of Groups of interested researchers contacted during the workshops and conferences (4).
• Number of applications/software adaptation and installation on the GILDA t-Infrastructure (1).
• Number of questionnaires filled in the framework of the WP2 survey activity (about 100).
• Number of users registered as members of the EUMEDGRID Virtual Organization (30).
The above numbers in bold have been incremented since the last quarter.
This section summarizes the status of the project and its management activity, including information on:
• Consortium management tasks and their achievement; problems which have occurred and how they were solved
• Contractors: Comments regarding contributions, changes in responsibilities and changes to consortium itself, if any
• Short comments and information on co-ordination activities in the period, such as communication between partners, project meetings, possible co-operations with other projects/programmes, etc.
Other information relating to the overall management activities can be found in the WP1 report (see above).
3.1. Consortium management The management of the consortium was done using the PMB mailing list and 2 PMB Meetings in this quarter.
3.2. Contractors No changes were recorded during the quarter, respect to the representatives and activity managers.
Table 6 - List of the Partners’ Representatives in the PMB
Id Partner Representative in the PMB
1 Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare (IT) (coordinator) Federico Ruggieri
2 European Organisation for Nuclear Research CERN, Geneve (CH) Florida Estrella
3 Cyprus Research and Academic Network, Lefkosia (CY) Eftychios Eftichiou
4 Delivery of Advanced Network Technology to Europe, Cambridge (UK) David West
A5.2 - Outreach activities Giuseppe Andronico INFN
3.3. Events A short report on the events organized and attended during the quarter can be found in the Annex I below. Other internal events and related items are discussed in the following paragraphs.
3.4. Project and activity Meetings On this quarter following EUMED activities were held
Table 9 - Internal meetings for the reporting period
For all of these events a common set of objectives can be summarized as below:
• Dissemination of grid computing skills. • Prepare scientist to use grid infrastructure. • Dissemination of site administration knowledge. • Prepare technicians to create and manage grid infrastructure.
3.4.1 Tutorial – Technicians and Users, Istanbul (Turkey) Arguments:
• Introduction to GILDA t-Infrastructure. • Overview of the main services of the gLite middleware. • Practical sessions on main services of the gLite middleware. • Installation and configuration of the main resources for a base configuration of a gLite site. • Installation and configuration of the main services of the gLite middleware.
3.4.2 Tutorial – Technicians and Users, Rome (Italy) Arguiments:
• Introduction to GILDA t-Infrastructure. • Overview of the main services of the gLite middleware. • Practical sessions on main services of the gLite middleware. • Installation and configuration of the main resources for a base configuration of a gLite site. • Installation and configuration of the main services of the gLite middleware.
• Site monitoring administration and troubleshooting
Agenda
EUMedGrid/EUChinaGrid Tutorial
Date/Time: from Monday 11 September 2006 (09:00) to Wednesday 13 September 2006 (18:30)
Location: Rome
Chair: Ardizzone, V.
Description: User Tutorial Feedback Form
Monday 11 September 2006
User Tutorial - Day 1 (09:00->18:30)
09:15 Welcome (15') Ruggieri, F. (INFN Roma3)
09:30 EUMedGrid/EUChinaGrid Infrastructure (30') Galeazzi, F. (INFN Roma Tre)
10:00 GILDA t-Infrastructure (30') Ardizzone, V. (INFN Catania)
10:00 The IGTF model and how to join a GridPMA (45') This talk will set the scope of the tutorial and introduce to the model of the International Grid Trust Federation (IGTF, http://www.gridpma.org/).
Cecchini, R. (INFN)
10:45 Best practices to setup and manage a national CA (45') A detailed guide telling the process for an acceptance, set-up and maintenance of a prospective CA will be introduced in this presentation.
Zengin, A. (ULAKBIM)
11:30 Coffee break
12:00 Live demo of some CA operations (30')
This demo will show a typical session of certificate request and issue. For this demonstration, the GILDA Certification Authority will be used. It is almost entirely based on the INFN CA.
Platania, G. (INFN)
12:30 Candidate CA of Egypt (30') Barakat, D
13:00 Lunch break
14:30 Candidate CA of Morocco (30') Merrouch, R.
First EUMEDGRID Project Conference, Rome (Italy)
Date/Time: Friday 14-15 September 2006 from 09:00 to 18:00
Location: Rome
Chair: Ruggieri, F.
Thursday 14 September 2006
09:30 Conference Registration
10:00 Welcome and Introduction (30') F. Ruggieri (INFN)
10:30 Work Packages Presentations: status, achievements and perspectives
WP2 - Requirements capture and analysis (30')
K. Vella (University of Malta)
11:00 Coffee Break
11:30 WP3 - Pilot Infrastructure operational support (30') Koumantaros, K (GRNET)
12:00 WP4 - Applications support (30') Andronico, G. (INFN)
12:30 WP5 - Dissemination and outreach (30') Tanlongo, F. (GARR)
13:00 Lunch Break
14:00 Project Management Board Meeting Administrative Status (30') F. Ruggieri (INFN)
[R14] IST website http://www.cordis.lu/ist/home.html
4.2. Terminology
Glossary
CA Certification Authority.
Cluster The term describes a cluster is a group of machines that are networked together and used as a single unit to run parallel programs.
Grid The term designates a distributed infrastructure of computation and storage resources, which can be used by a VO in a transparent way (i.e. without need to know about the location of the resources etc).
GILDA Grid Infn Laboratory for Dissemination Activities
gLITE Codename of the Middleware software suite developed by EGEE JRA1.
Globus “Globus Toolkit” is the name of all software components for Grid Computing platforms available under an open-source license from the consortium Globus Alliance.
Eumedgrid system support G.Misurelli 11/09/2006 http://www.eumedgrid.org/documents/slides/Roma-EumedSystemSupport-110906.ppt
Job types P. Celio 11/09/2006 http://www.eumedgrid.org/documents/slides/Roma-JobTypes-110906.ppt
The Workload Management System architecture
F. Bitelli 11/09/2006 http://www.eumedgrid.org/documents/slides/Roma-WMS-110906.ppt
WMS service installationa and configuration
A. Budano 11/09/2006 http://www.eumedgrid.org/documents/slides/Roma-WMSLB_SrvInst-110906.ppt
The Workload Management System practice
P. Celio 11/09/2006 http://www.eumedgrid.org/documents/slides/Roma-WMS_Practicals-110906.ppt
External documents
The EUMedGRID Project F. Galeazzi 04/09/2006 http://indico.eu-eela.org/materialDisplay.py?contribId=8&sessionId=0&materialId=slides&confId=32
Training Activities G.Andronico 25/09/2006 http://indico.cern.ch/getFile.py/access?contribId=124&sessionId=126&resId=5&materialId=slides&confId=1504
All press cuts relating to EUMEDGRID are available on the official website, at the URL: http://www.eumedgrid.org/cut.html (with a pdf version of the article and, whenever possible, the link to the online article).