GRID ENGINE WORKSHOP

April 22 - 24, 2002

Sun Microsystems Gridware GmbH

Dr.-Leo-Ritter-Straße 7 D-93049 Regensburg, Germany

The first SGE Development Workshop brought together Grid Engine users, developers and development partners from sixteen organizations, out of research and industry, in six different countries. The attendees participated in introductory sessions to the Grid Engine project and a code walk through, had the opportunity to give an overview on their own Grid Engine projects, and to learn about others' Grid interests, foci and results. Breakout sessions on several topics further stimulated discussion of common interests. Additional Grid Engine Development Workshops will be proposed on the project mail lists.

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CONTENTS
 

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Participants

Anjomshoaa, Ali University of Edinburgh EPCC James Clerk Maxwell Building Mayfield Road Edinburgh EH9 3JZ, UK  Tel: +44 (0)131 650 6717 Fax: +44 (0)131 650 6555 a.anjomshoaa@epcc.ed.ac.uk

Alefeld, André Sun Microsystems Gridware Dr. -Leo-Ritter-Straße 7 D-93049 Regensburg, Germany Tel: +49 (0)941 3075 255 Fax: +49 (0)941 3075 222 andre.alefeld@sun.com

Barr, John Sun Microsystems LTD. Java House, Guillemont Park Minley Road, Blackwater Camberley Surrey GU17 9QG UK  Tel: +44 (0)1252 421157  Fax: +44 (0)1252 420105 john.barr@sun.com

Bablick, Ernst Sun Microsystems Gridware Dr. -Leo-Ritter-Straße 7 D-93049 Regensburg, Germany Tel: +49 (0)941 3075 135 Fax: +49 (0)941 3075 222 ernst.bablick@sun.com

Cafaro, Prof. Massimo Università degli Studi di Lecce Dipartimento di Ingegneria dell'Innovazione Via Monteroni I-73100 Lecce, Italy Tel: +39 0832 320 284 Fax: +39 0832 320 279 Massimo.cafaro@unile.it

Cawood, Geoff University of Edinburgh EPCC James Clerk Maxwell Building Mayfield Road Edinburgh EH9 3JZ, UK  Tel: +44 (0)131 650 5818 Fax: +44 (0)131 650 6555 g.cawood@epcc.ed.ac.uk

Dew, Prof. Peter M. University of Leeds Information Systems Services Leeds LS2 9JT, UK Tel: +44 (0)113 233  dew@comp.leeds.ac.uk

Edgecombe, Dr. Kenneth Queen's University High Performance Computing Virtual Laboratory HPCVL Queen's University  141 Collingwood Street  Kingston, ON K7L 3X6 Canada  edgecomk@post.queensu.ca

Ferstl, Fritz Sun Microsystems Gridware Dr. -Leo-Ritter-Straße 7 D-93049 Regensburg, Germany  Tel: +49 (0)941 3075 110 Fax: +49 (0)941 3075 222 fritz.ferstl@sun.com

Furmento, Dr. Nathalie London E-Science Centre Imperial College Department of Computing 180 Queen's Gate London SW7 2BZ, UK  Tel: +44 (0)207-594-8310 Fax:+44 (0)207-581-8024  n.furmento@doc.ic.ac.uk

Gabler, Joachim Sun Microsystems Gridware Dr. -Leo-Ritter-Straße 7 D-93049 Regensburg, Germany Tel: +49 (0)941 3075 233 Fax: +49 (0)941 3075 222  joachim.gabler@sun.com

Gentzsch, Dr. Wolfgang Sun Microsystems Inc. 901 San Antonio Road MPK29-301 Palo Alto, CA 94303-4900, USA Tel: +1 650 786 2032 wolfgang.gentzsch@sun.com

Haas, Andreas Sun Microsystems Gridware Dr. -Leo-Ritter-Straße 7 D-93049 Regensburg, Germany Tel: +49 (0)941 3075 131 Fax: +49 (0)941 3075 222 andreas.haas@sun.com

Ismail, Dr. Mathew University of Warwick Centre for Scientific Computing Coventry, CV4 7AL, UK Tel: +44 (0)2476 574100 Matthew.Ismail@warwick.ac.uk

Kirstein, Prof. Dr. Peter University College London Department of Computer Science Gower Street London WC1E 6BT, UK Tel: +44 (0)171 380 7285 Fax: +44 (0)171 387 1397 P.Kirstein@cs.ucl.ac.uk

Kloock, Martin cards Engineering GmbH&Co. KG Robert-Perthel-Straße 19 D-50739 Köln, Germany Tel: +49 (0)221 179520 Fax: +49 (0)221 179529 martin.kloock@cardse.com

Kupczyk, Miroslaw, M.Sc.; Poznan Supercomputing and Networking Center ul. Noskowskiego 10 Pl-61-704 Poznan, Poland Tel: +48 61 858 20 52 Fax: +48 61 852 59 54 miron@man.poznan.pl

Kurowski, Krzysztof, M.Sc. Poznan Supercomputing and Networking Center ul. Noskowskiego 10 Pl-61-704 Poznan, Poland Tel: +48 61 858 20 72 Fax: +48 61 852 59 54 krzysztof.kurowski@man.poznan.pl

Lippert, Lothar Sun Microsystems Gridware Dr. -Leo-Ritter-Straße 7 D-93049 Regensburg, Germany Tel: +49 (0)941 3075 123 Fax: +49 (0)941 3075 222 lothar.lippert@sun.com

Lorenz, Andrea Aachen University of Technology Center for Computing and Communication Seffenter Weg 23 D-52074 Aachen, Germany Tel: +49 (0)241 80-29791 Fax: +49 (0)241 80-22504 lorenz@rz.rwth-aachen.de

Newhouse, Dr. Steven Imperial College Department of Computing 180 Queen's Gate London SW7 2BZ, UK Tel: +44 (0)20 7594 8316 Fax: +44 (0)20 7581 8024 s.newhouse@doc.ic.ac.uk

Novotny, Jason Max-Planck-Institut für Gravitationsphysik Am Mühlenberg 1 D-14476 Golm, Germany Tel: +49 (0)331 567 7203 JDNovotny@lbl.gov

Piontek, Tomasz Poznan Supercomputing and Networking Center ul. Noskowskiego 10 Pl-61-704 Poznan, Poland Tel: +48 61 858 20 72 Fax: +48 61 852 59 54 piontek@man.poznan.pl

Piwowarek, Pawl Poznan Supercomputing and Networking Center ul. Noskowskiego 10 Pl-61-704 Poznan, Poland  Tel: +48 61 858 20 72 Fax: +48 61 852 59 54 pivero@man.poznan.pl

Reissmann, Christian Sun Microsystems Gridware Dr. -Leo-Ritter-Straße 7 D-93049 Regensburg, Germany Tel: +49 (0)941 3075 112 Fax: +49 (0)941 3075 222 christian.reissmann@sun.com

Saleem, Asif Imperial College Department of Computing 180 Queen's Gate London SW7 2BZ, UK Tel: +44 (0)20 7594 8316 Fax: +44 (0)20 7581 8024 asif@doc.ic.ac.uk

Schmidt, Egon cards Engineering GmbH&Co. KG Robert-Perthel-Straße 19 D-50739 Köln, Germany Tel: +49 (0)221 179520 Fax: +49 (0)221 179529 egon.schmidt@cardse.de

Schmidt, Dr. Joanna University of Leeds Information Systems Services Leeds LS2 9JT, UK Tel: 0113 233 5375 j.g.schmidt@leeds.ac.uk

Seed, Thomas University of Edinburgh EPCC James Clerk Maxwell Building Mayfield Road Edinburgh EH9 3JZ, UK  Tel: +44 (0)131 650 5818 Fax: +44 (0)131 650 6555 t.seed@epcc.ed.ac.uk

Sloan, Terry University of Edinburgh EPCC James Clerk Maxwell Building Mayfield Road Edinburgh EH9 3JZ, UK  Tel: +44 (0)131 650 5818 Fax: +44 (0)131 650 6555 t.sloan@epcc.edu.ac.uk

Sørensen, Dr. Søren-Aksel University College of London Department of Computer Science Gower Street London WC1E 6BT, UK Tel: +44 (0)171 380 7285 Fax: +44 (0)171 387 1397 S.Soerensen@cs.ucl.ac.uk

Spormann, Annett cards Engineering GmbH&Co. KG Robert-Perthel-Straße 19 D-50739 Köln, Germany Tel: +49 (0)221 179520 Fax: +49 (0)221 179529 annett.spormann@cardse.de

Sundaram, Babu University of Houston Department of Computer Science 501, PGH 4800, Calhoun Rd Houston, Texas 77204, USA babusun@Bayou.uh.edu

Stair, Craig R. Raytheon P.O. Box 660023 Dallas, Texas, 75266-0023, USA Tel: +1 972 205 7677 Fax: +1 972 205 4740 craig.stair@raytheon.com

Stahlberg, Eric, Ph.D. Ohio Supercomputer Center 1224 Kinnear Road Columbus, OH 43212-1163, USA Tel: +1 614 292 2696 Fax: +1 614 292 7168 eas@osc.edu

Tollefsrud, John Sun Microsystems Inc. 901 San Antonio Road UMPK29-302 Palo Alto, CA 94303-4900 Tel: +1 650 786 2037 Fax: +1 650 786 8390 john.tollefsrud@engsun.com

Wehrens, Oliver Max-Planck-Institut für Gravitationsphysik Am Mühlenberg 1 D-14476 Golm, Germany  Tel: +49 (0)331 567 7203 wehrens@mac.com

Agenda

Day 1 - Monday, April 22

09:00	Welcome (Fritz Ferstl)
09:15	Sun Grid Computing Strategy (Wolfgang Gentzsch)
10:15	Grid Engine, Overview and Roadmap (Fritz Ferstl)
11:00	Break
11:30	The Grid Engine Project (Fritz Ferstl)
12:00	Lunch
13:15	Working in the Grid Engine Project - Part I (André Alefeld)
14:45	Break
15:15	Working in the Grid Engine Project - Part II (Andreas Haas)
17:00	Adjourn
19:00	Dinner Invitation ("Leerer Beutel" - Bertold Straße - see map)

Day 2 - Tuesday, April 23

09:00	Partner Grid Engine Projects
	Integration and Support for Grid Engine Martin Kloock, Cards Engineering  Workstation Cluster at Ford of Europe Craig Stair, Raytheon Integration, Support and Development Projects Related to Grid Engine
	Grid Computing (Globus etc.) & Grid Engine
	Geoff Cawood, EPCC Using Sun Grid Engine and Globus to Schedule Across a Combination of Local and Remote Machines Krzysztof Kurowski, PSNC  "Gridlab" and "Progress" as the Examples of Cooperation Between SGE and Grid Research at PSNC
10:30	Break

11:00	Partner Grid Engine Projects cont'd
	Grid Engine and Portals Kenneth Edgecombe, HPCVL Secure Grid and Portal Computing Eric Stahlberg, OSC Sun TCP Bioinformatics Application Integration on Heterogeneous Server Platforms Steven Newhouse, Imperial College  Portals and Resource Scheduling at Imperial College P. M. Dew, Univ. of Leeds The White Rose Computational Grid

12:30	Lunch
13:30	Partner Grid Engine Projects cont'd
	Scheduler Enhancements for Grid Engine and other Topics Andrea Lorenz, RWTH Aachen Scheduling in an HPC Environment Soren-Aksel Sorensen, UCL-CS Covering the Spectrum - UCL-CS Grid Related Activities Babu Sundaram, University of Houston Overview of set up of the Campus Grid, EZ-Grid system at UH
14:30	Adjourn
16:00	Walk through Regensburg
17:30	At people's disposal

Day 3 -  Wednesday, April 24

09:00        Project Wrap Up; Build Special Interest Groups

09:30        Special Interest Group Meetings

11:00        Break

11:30        Special Interest Group Meetings cont'd

12:30        Lunch

14:00        Presentation of SIGs

15:00        Roundtable discussion

15:45        Closing Remarks (Fritz Ferstl)

16:00        End
 
 
 

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Presentations

Sun Grid Computing Strategy and Projects

Sun Grid Computing Strategy

By Wolfgang Gentzsch, Sun Microsystems Inc.

The Grid Engine Project

By Fritz Ferstl, Sun Microsystems Gridware

Working in the Grid Engine Project: Part I

By André Alefeld, Sun Microsystems Gridware

Working in the Grid Engine Project: Part II

By Andreas Haas, Sun Microsystems Gridware

Partner Grid Engine Projects

Integration and Support for Grid Engine

Workstation-Cluster at Ford of Europe

By Martin Kloock, Cards Engineering

Abstract:

In August 1998 cards Engineering was able to place an on-site support contract at Ford Motor Company in Cologne/Merkenich. I started there maintaining the CAE (Computer Aided Engineering) application server. About 50 CAE applications are installed on their server which is a SUN Ultra Enterprise 450. My activity covered the installation of the applications, 1st- and 2nd-level helpdesk and the license maintenance of all these products. Additionally I had to collaborate very closely with the Ford colleagues in Dunton/UK and Dearborn/USA.

During this time some Ford people thought about a better usage of their workstations (w/s), mainly HPs and altogether about 800 w/s. Additionally they thought they could decrease the costs the Cray supercomputer was producing.

About at the same time SUN acquired Gridware and we saw a good opportunity to help Ford with introducing a resource management system. With our close connections to SUN we were able to introduce SGE at Ford and to create a workstation cluster in two development departments at Ford. After one of my colleagues from the Cologne cards PIT team took over my job maintaining the CAE server I was able to work on the w/s cluster based on a new contract.

In these months from summer 2001 until April 2002 SGE was installed on about 80 w/s and adapted 8 CAE applications (i.e. Radioss, Nastran, Fluent) for the workstation cluster for using them in serial (1 CPU or w/s) and/or parallel mode. This had to be done by changing startup scripts, GUI configurations and creating submit scripts. Additionally I configured the cluster due to user's wishes.

With the help of some SUN guys we were able to convince the responsible persons at Ford of Europe that SGE is a good product which does exactly what they requested. Unfortunately we were not able to convince the Ford of US people completely. Over there LSF and PBS, two competitive products, are very strong and already used before we began with SGE. Nevertheless it was possible to install a productive w/s cluster in Cologne and Dunton/UK and to satisfy the users concerning their needs.

Integration, Support and Development Projects Related to Grid Engine

By Craig Stair, Raytheon

Abstract:

Raytheon’s High Performance Computing(HPC) team has been engaged in large-scale supercomputer-based systems development, deployment, operation, and maintenance for 30 years. The team works continuously to maintain its comprehensive knowledge of IBM, SGI, SUN, Compaq, HP, Cray/NEC, and end-to-end storage solutions/file systems. Raytheon’s in-house technical strengths for high-end systems development includes systems architecture engineering, system performance engineering, modeling, applications performance engineering, facilities engineering and implementation.

Grid Computing (Globus etc.) & Grid Engine

Using Sun Grid Engine and Globus to Schedule Across a Combination of Local and Remote Machines

By Geoff Cawood and Paul Graham, Edinburgh Parallel Computing Centre, EPCC

Abstract:

The aim of this collaboration between EPCC and Sun is to produce a job scheduler (based on SGE) which can submit jobs to both local and remote machines. Globus will provide a secure means of running jobs on remote sites.
The project is still at an early fact-finding stage so this talk will compare some potential solution strategies and invite comments from the floor on the technical issues arising.

GridLab and Progress as the Examples of Cooperation between SGE and Grid Research at PSNC

By Krzysztof Kurowski, Poznan Supercomputing and Networking Center, PSNC

Abstract:

Grid research and development at Poznan Supercomputing and Networking Center (PSNC) will be presented during the SGE Workshop. Amongst different projects the presentation will be focused on GridLab and Progress projects and their relationships to SGE.
Two important aspects of Grid technology, which have been largely ignored, form the basis of the GridLab Project, which aims to build components for Grid applications, and realistic testbeds for their development: Co-development of Infrastructure and Applications and Dynamic Grid Computing.
In case of Progress project, scientific portal and Grid environment for SUN Servers will be developed based on SUN technologies. The main goal of this project is to provide reliable and easy access to the Grid as well as support research community with many useful tools and services.

Grid Engine and Portals

Secure Grid and Portal Computing

By Kenneth Edgecombe, HPCVL

Abstract:

HPCVL was formed by a consortium of four universities (Carleton University, Queen's University, the Royal Military College of Canada, and the University of Ottawa) to provide a secure innovative High Performance Computing (HPC) environment for researchers. This environment is now being built with contributions from the four member institutions, the Canada Foundation for Innovation, the Ontario Innovation Trust, the Ontario Research and Development Fund, Sun Microsystems, IBM, and Entrust.
The progress being made, the roadmap for future developments, and the acceptance by researchers will be reviewed. The partnership with Sun Microsystems will be highlighted and progress on the Centre for Secure Grid and Portal Computing discussed.

Sun TCP Bioinformatics Application Integration on Heterogenous Server Platforms

By Eric Stahlberg, Ohio Supercomputer Center, OSC

Abstract:

A brief overview of efforts made to integrate applications of running on a variety of server architectures without using SGE will be presented. Proof-of-concept integration approaches for using the Technical Compute Portal with Time Logic DeCypher bioinformatics algorithm accelerators, Cray and SGI origin systems will be discussed. Issues and potential problems associated with the implementations will be highlighted.
 

Portals and Resource Scheduling at Imperial College

By Steven Newhouse, Imperial College, London

Abstract:

The London e-Science Centre at Imperial College, one of the eight Regional Centres within the UK e-Science program, is involved in the construction of Grid infrastructures within the College and in the UK through the use of SGE, Globus and its own grid middleware - ICENI.
As part of the Centre's activities, and as a Sun Centre of Excellence, we have been developing middleware to support an e-Science Portal at the College (based on uPortal), the use of the Technical Compute Portal to access Sun Grid Engine through the uPortal infrastructure, and the integration of scheduling infrastructures (such as SGE) through a web service enabled DRMAA interface.
The presentation will comprise an overview of this work and its future directions.

The White Rose Computational Grid

By P. M. Dew, University of Leeds

Abstract:

This talk will describe the manner in which the Sun Grid Engine (SGE) and the Technical Computing Portal (TCP) are to be used in support of collaborative e-Science projects at the White Rose universities. Our presentation will include an example of the UK e-Science project, DAME (Distributed Aircraft Maintenance Environment), which aims to deliver a grid test-bed for distributed diagnostics. The project builds on the White Rose Computational Grid, based on the Sun Grid Engine, and the Technical Computing Portal that will provide a Web-based interface to technical applications executed on any of the White Rose Computational Grid nodes.

Scheduler Enhancements for Grid Engine and other Topics

Scheduling in an HPC environment

By Andrea Lorenz, RWTH Aachen

Abstract:

With the purchase of RWTH's SunFire equipment the old queueing system (GNQS) was replaced by SGE.
The operational part works right out of the box, however, for our job load characteristics with a broad range of job sizes with respect to memory and required CPUs, the standard scheduler gives only a poor utilization.
In the talk the specific requirements and our approaches to meet them are presented.

Covering the Spectrum Grid Activities@UCL

By Søren-Aksel Sørensen, University College of London, UCL-CS

Overview of Sun Center of Excellence in Geosciences at the University of Houston

By Babu Sunderam, University of Houston

Abstract:

University of Houston (UH) is a Sun Center of Excellence in Geo sciences. Recently, University of Houston obtained a hardware grant and setting up a campus grid to aggregate resources across the campus. Major participants include the HPCTools research group lead by Dr. Barbara Chapman, High performance computing center, Advanced Geosciences lab and Mechanical engineering. At this workshop, we will present an overview of the hardware and software setup of this campus grid under construction. Also, we explain the EZ-Grid system being developed at UH for easier setup, managing and efficient usage of grid environments. The major components of the system include integrated resource broker, usage policy management frameworks and information services. The interfaces with Globus toolkit and Sun Grid Engine are to be presented. We also expect to receive feedback from the workshop participants on improving our EZ-Grid system and tightly integrating with Sun Grid Engine software.

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Special Interest Group Meetings

Globus Integration and Brokers

Objectives/plans/achievements of the organizations participating in the SIG.
User requirements; expected scenarios to be solved.
Action items.

EPCC: Integrate Globus and Grid Engine with broker on top. Project has started. Prototype to be available by end of 2002. Project to be finalized in 2 years.

Imperial College: Integrate Grid Engine with Globus via web services and Jini. Brokerage needed for own operation of site – better sooner than later.

Univ. of Houston: Build broker for Globus and integrate with Grid Engine. Gram enhancements. Prototype already exists.

PSNC: Grid architecture based on Globus integrating Grid Engine and self developed broker. Special requirement is that Grid service requirements can appear within already executing jobs. Project is in architecture definition phase.

Raytheon: Has concrete customers which are looking for Grid architectures and solutions today.

Sun: Looking for the best technology to take to the market and to solve the problems of existing and future customers with Grid requirements.

Setup a SIG mailing list (F. Ferstl).

Each participant to submit requirements, use cases and objectives as available.

Each participant to submit designs, concept papers, etc. as available.

TCP Interest Group

Current State & what's missing
Goals
Short term goals

iPlanet Portal server is currently required

installation currently sometimes difficult, at least not straightforward, needs cleanup

installation under root -> root access should be singled out in a special controlled component, the rest should for security reasons not run as root

adding of new applications needs a lot of admin interaction and adoptions, so it is currently not easy

MAC browser cannot work with TCP (netlets)

NT support not available

configurability not too easy

missing documentation, buglist, FAQ

shared filesystem needed in the current implementation

Unix account necessary

file organization of TCP generated files not structured enough

hook to an existing security framework/environment missing

prototype is running quite stable and reliable

setup changes are requiring some amount of admin work, should be easier

access of password protected web content from a channel was not possible

Javascript is required

navigation within forms should be enhanced (too many windows popping up/down)

customizable views for different users dependent on their authentication/authorization record should be possible

workflow integration would be nice, macro functionality to replay a set of actions

netlet technology available, but has restrictions (with VNC e.g. OpenGL not working); should be available to get visualization from a host where the data are or which has the corresponding capabilities

utility functions should be supported by the portal (e.g. converters, visualizers etc.)

better output handling should be available (e.g. visualization from any machine through VNC or whatever, output file handling should be more sophisticated to suppress unnecessary file transfers)

independence from iPlanet

On what standards is TCP based and who is defining them ?

ease of installation/administration/application integration

user profiles should exist and be connected to a security infrastructure, logging and trace facilities should be available

user space customization and application adding should in certain limits be possible

better job monitoring facilities should be available

web service support

EJB support for persistence

create TCP (shall be renamed) Open Source Project with mailing list, source code repository (project will be hosted on GE Open Source site)

around end of May/beginning of June the current version of TCP with some smaller changes will be available (if the legal issues concerning the O'Reilly Servlet Book code have been clarified)

project guidelines (java programming guidelines, I18N support, etc.) shall be made available

Legal issues shall be clarified

Parallel Jobs and Scheduling

What concepts does SGE provide for parallel scheduling?

Sun Grid Engine 5.3, Administration and User's Guide (Chapter: Managing Parallel Environments, see page 271: The Allocation rule input..) and sge_pe (5)

What is the difference between so called loose and tight integration for parallel jobs?

Sun Grid Engine 5.3, Administration and User's Guide (Chapter: Tight Integration of PEs and Sun Grid Engine Software, page 277)

Which requirements are to be fulfilled by parallel jobs to make them run under SGE?

None

What are the issues when designing a general interface for writing customized schedulers?

Scheduler Documentation

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Closing Discussion

The workshop was closed with a roundtable discussion around the topics:

• Grid visions for the mid and long term future
• Applications suitable for Grids

The discussion was quite controversial. The visions stated ranged from Grids consisting of tightly managed resource provider centers coupled by Grid infrastructure to a globally spread pool of resources where everything is a Grid service. If there is any conclusion which can be drawn from the discussion then it is that more information exchange is required between those researching in the Grid space and those being interested in operating Grid environments to solve exisiting problems. This information exchange seems mostly needed in the definition of user requirements and problem scenarios to be solved.