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Introduction to e-Infrastructure: Enabling the Research of the Future

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Manchester Computing, Kilburn Building, Manchester

Manchester Computing, Kilburn Building, Manchester
Description
(Please note the registration and location information given below.) Research is increasingly carried out by collaborations enabled by the Internet. These collaborations may be within a University, between institutes within a country, or be international. A typical feature of such collaborative research enterprises is that, by building with the infrastructure and software of grid computing, they share very large data collections and very large scale computing resources. e-Infrastructure is the term used for the technology and organisations that support research pursued in this manner. It embraces networks, grids, data centres and collaborative environments and includes the supporting operations centres, certificate authorities, training and help-desk services. A range of e-Infrastructure developments is maturing: grid computing is increasingly used as a basis for the computation and data management required by collaborative research, and JISC investments such as in virtual research environments are now being adopted. Production services, notably the National Grid Service and the international EGEE grid are being established, and at the same time new technologies are poised for deployment. A kaleidescope of possibilities results, one which is becoming ever more colourful. The technologies are increasingly being applied in many domains, far beyond the bounds of the early adopters who were in a few scientific disciplines. This event is presented by the National e-Science Centre, MIMAS, Manchester Computing, ESNW, and NCeSS. It will: * Inform decision makers, researchers and systems management about the possibilities that are arising. * Support ESNW, NCeSS, MIMAS, and Manchester Computing in building communities of those adopting or considering adopting e-Infrastructure. To achieve these goals the talks seek to give: * An overview of initiatives in the North-West * An understanding of the concepts, status, and promise of e-Infrastructure * An outline of major initiatives at the scales of University, UK and internationally. Target Audience: This event is aimed at researchers, IT systems managers and decision makers in research-active institutions. Registration: The event is free, but it is necessary to register to attend. It is expected that some people will attend only day 1, others will attend both days (Day 2 will build on the concepts introduced in day 1 - anyone wishing to attend day 2 only should be familiar with the the concepts of grid computing and with the goals and organisation of the National Grid Service.). Please register separately for each day: FOR DAY 1: email joyce.dodson@manchester.ac.uk FOR DAY 2: go to webpage http://www.nesc.ac.uk/action/registration/egee/index.cfm?id=675 The following agenda may be subject to minor modification. Location: Manchester Computing, Kilburn Building, Oxford Road A campus map is at http://www.manchester.ac.uk/medialibrary/maps/campusmap.pdf. Kilburn is building number 38. Also see http://www.mc.manchester.ac.uk/about/visit
  • Monday, 20 March
    • 09:30 → 17:00
      e-Infrastructure Lascelles Williams Training Room

      Lascelles Williams Training Room

      An exploration of the concepts and status of "e-Infrastructure" at the scales of university, UK and internationally.

      • 09:30
        Welcome and Introduction 10m
      • 09:40
        Overview of e-Infrastructure 40m
        The concepts of the different aspects of e-Infrastructure are explained, including networks connecting resources of data and computation; Grids that enable these resources to be perceived as "virtual computers"; tools that support collaboration. The impact that e-Infrastructure is beginning to have on research and learning is described with emphasis on the enabling of collaboration and the potential for multi-disciplinary research. The talk sets the context for the remainder of the day, which explores e-Infrastructure at different scales - the campus, nationally and internationally.
        Speaker: Mike Mineter (NeSC training team)
        transparencies
      • 10:20
        Campus grids: e-Infrastructure within a University 40m
        Many UK universities and institutes have already deployed e-Infrastructures. Their motivations, methods, problems and opportunities are summarised. Current emphasis is often on the better use of computational resources - so for example, teaching laboratories with many PCs can be used overnight as a high-throughput resource for computation. The potential for e-Infrastructure to contribute more widely to research and learning is explored.
        Speaker: Mike Mineter (NeSC training team)
        transparencies
      • 11:00
        COFFEE 20m
      • 11:20
        case study / The North-West Grid 30m
        We describe the structure of the North-West Grid which will operate between 4 partners at CCLRC Daresbury and the Universities of Lancaster, Liverpool and Manchester, starting in April 2006, providing access to over 1000 high performance processors connected by fast intranet and internet links.
        Speaker: John Brooke (ESNW)
        transparencies
      • 11:50
        UK-wide e-Infrastructure 45m
        UK e-Infrastructure comprises the networks (JANET, SuperJANET, UKLight), the National Grid Service and the supporting organisations such as the Grid Operations Support Centre and the Open Middleware Infrastructure Institute (OMII). An introduction to these is given. Related developments emerging from JISC are also summarised.
        Speaker: Mike Mineter (NeSC training team)
        transparencies
      • 12:35
        LUNCH 1h
      • 13:35
        Pulsar Astronomy on the Grid 1999-2006 40m
        We describe the use of Grid resources to process data from the Jodrell Bank radio telescope in the search for new pulsars. This work spans the period from the birth of Grid computing to current implementations on clusters at Jodrell and on the NGS.
        Speaker: John Brooke
        transparencies
      • 14:15
        International e-Infrastructure 40m
        Many research collaborations are international. These can be empowered by an international e-infrastructure. Examples are given. The major European initiatives that integrate national initiatives in networking (GEANT), high performance computing (DEISA) and grid computing (EGEE) are described. The implications of international e-Infrastructure are summarised with reference to emerging standards and interoperability between grids that support many reseach communities.
        Speaker: Mike Mineter (NeSC training team)
        transparencies
      • 15:00
        TEA 20m
      • 15:20
        ConvertGrid 40m
        At present, social scientists and students wishing to exploit the vast resources of data available have to spend considerable amounts of time converting these data sets to an exploitable geographic format. ConvertGrid demonstrates the ways in which social sciences can benefit from grid technologies.
        Speaker: Keith Cole
        transparencies
      • 16:00
        e-Research Support in the North West 30m
        We describe the support available for e-Research in the North West. There are e-Science Centres at Manchester, Daresbury and Lancaster and national services such as the National Centre for e-Social Science has its hub at Manchester and a major spoke at Lancaster.
        Speaker: John Brooke
        transparencies
      • 16:30
        Closing discussion 30m
  • Tuesday, 21 March
    • 09:30 → 16:30
      Induction to the National Grid Service Undergraduate Training Room

      Undergraduate Training Room

      Today introduces the National Grid Service, with an emphasis on practicals.

      Many concepts will already have been introduced on day 1 of this event, and so today\'s focus is therefore strongly upon giving experience of using the NGS middleware.

      The day will include:
      - authorisation and authentication on the NGS (GSI, proxy certificates, MyProxy)
      - computation services (Globus)
      - data services (SRB and OGSA-DAI)
      - case studies

      This session is derived from the 2-day course, "Induction to Grid Computing and the National Grid Service". Material from the Induction course can be found at: http://www.nesc.ac.uk/action/esi/contribution.cfm?Title=633

      • 09:30
        Practical - gaining access to the NGS 1h
        A short talk on authorisation, authentication and security, followed by a practical introduction to the use of UK e-science certificates.
        Speaker: Mike Mineter, Guy Warner (National e-Science Centre)
        more information
        transparencies
      • 10:30
        Practical: Creating and Running an application on the NGS 45m
        more information
        transparencies
      • 11:15
        Coffee 15m
      • 11:30
        Practical continues 1h 30m
        more information
      • 13:00
        Lunch 1h
      • 14:00
        An Overview of the myGrid Project 30m
        myGrid is a suite of middleware components designed to support in silico experiments in biology. In the Life Sciences domain in silico experiments generally involve accessing disparate and heterogeneous biological data and analysis tools. Traditional approaches have involved ‘cutting and pasting’ or writing bespoke programmes to run over local copies of resources. The myGrid workbench, Taverna, enables the construction and enactment of complex workflows over resources on local and remote machines, allowing the automation of otherwise labour-intensive multi-step bioinformatics tasks. The use of distributed compute technology enables easy interoperation between biological resources, and the harnessing of semantic web technologies enables myGrid to support the e-Science experiment life cycle. Workflows can be designed and executed; monitored and recorded; and shared and re-used. This talk will give an overview of the myGrid project, its users in the Life Science community and future directions for the project.
        Speaker: Katy Wolstencroft (ESNW University of Manchester)
        transparencies
      • 14:30
        Practical - data services on the NGS: OGSA-DAI 45m
        more information
      • 15:15
        TEA 15m
      • 15:30
        Practical: data services on the NGS: SRB 30m
        more information
        transparencies
      • 16:00
        An Overview of the RealityGrid Project 30m
        The focus of the RealityGrid project is the use of the Grid to facilitate the simulation of condensed-matter systems such as material surfaces, miscible fluids and macro-molecules. The scientists doing such work typically have existing codes (written in a variety of languages) for doing the calculations and require access to powerful, parallel computing resources. The RealityGrid project has provided a set of tools for use by the application scientists. These tools include functionality for launching, cloning and migrating calculations on Globus Toolkit 2.x-based Grids, monitoring and interacting with a running job (including the provision of on-line visualization) and managing the checkpoints produced by a job or set of jobs. In this talk I will discuss how RealityGrid has used evolving Grid technology to construct tools that enable computational scientists to extract greater value from their existing simulations and to tackle problems that were previously too difficult or costly with traditional approaches.
        Speaker: John Brooke (ESNW University of Manchester)
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