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Grid Computing

Barry WilkinsonDepartment of Computer Science

University of North Carolina at Charlotte

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Grid Computing

• Using geographically distributed and interconnected computers together for computing and for resource sharing.

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“The grid virtualizes heterogeneous geographically disperse resources” from "Introduction to Grid Computing with Globus," IBM Redbooks

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Need to harness computers

Original driving force behind grid computing the same as behind the early development of networks that became the Internet:

– Connecting computers at distributed sites for high performance computing.

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Virtual Organization

Usually, grid computing involves teams working together on a common goal, sharing computing resources and possibly experimental equipment.

Geographically distributed grid computing team called a virtual organization.

The resources shared include software and experimental data. Crosses multiple administrative domains.

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Resource sharing and collaborative computing

• Grid computing is about collaborating and resource sharing as much as it is about high performance computing.

• Can share much more than just computers:– Storage– Sensors for experiments at particular sites– Application Software– Databases– Network capacity, …

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Applications

• Originally e-Science applications– Computational intensive

• Not necessarily one big problem but a problem that has to be solved repeatedly with different parameters.

– Data intensive.– Experimental collaborative projects

• Now also e-Business applications to improve business models and practices.

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Interconnections and ProtocolsUsually grid computing employs the Internet to interconnect the computers.Standard Internet protocols are used.

Focus now on using standard Internet protocols and technology, i.e. HTTP, SOAP, web services, etc.

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Web Services-Based Grid Computing

• Grid Computing now strongly based upon web services.

• Large number of newly proposed grid computing standards:– WS-Resource Framework (WSRF)– WS-Addressing– etc., etc. …. .

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History

• Began in mid 1990’s with experiments using computers at geographically dispersed sites.

• Seminal experiment – “I-way” experiment at 1995 Supercomputing conference (SC’95), using 17 sites across the US running:– 60+ applications.– Existing networks (10 networks).

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1995 2000 200519901985

Distributed computing

Remote Procedure calls (RPC)Concept of service registry

Beginnings of service oriented architecture

Object oriented approachesJava Remote Method Invocation (RMI)

CORBA (Common Request Broker Architecture)

Cluster computing

Software Techniques:

Computing platforms:

Parallel computers

Geographically distributed computers (Grid computing in the broadest sense)

Web services

SC’95 experiment

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Computational Grid Applications

• Biomedical research

• Industrial research

• Engineering research

• Studies in Physics and Chemistry

NSF Network for Earthquake Engineering Simulation (NEES)

Transform our ability to carry out research vital to reducing vulnerability to catastrophic earthquakes

I. Foster

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Earth System Grid I. Foster

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Grid networks for collaborative grid computing projects

Grids have been set up at the local level, national level, and international level throughout the world, to promote grid computing

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CiscoEPA

North Carolina’s Foundation for Grid: NCREN

4-7 MCNC-owned Clusters distributed throughout the stateLocations still under evaluation

Internet Internet 2

NLR

Internet Internet 2

NLR

InternetInternet

Existing: Blend of owned and leased fiber and circuits moving toward resilient rings powered by Cisco routers

Planned: Strong focus on owned and leased fiber, Lambda, and few circuits, in resilient rings powered by Cisco routers and Wave Division Multiplexers

Close to home:

From “Grid Computing in the Industry” by Wolfgang Gentzsch, presentation to Fall 2004 grid computing course. Full set of slides on course home page.

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TeraGridFunded by NSF in 2002 to link 5 supercomputer sites

with 40 Gb/s links

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National GridsMany countries have embraced grid computing and set-up grid computing infrastructure:

• UK e-Science grid• Grid-Ireland• NorduGrid• DutchGrid• POINIER grid (Poland)• ACI grid (France)• Japanese grid• etc, etc., …

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UK e-Science Grid

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Globus Project

• Open source software toolkit developed for grid computing.

• Roots in I-way experiment.• Work started in 1996. • Four versions developed to present time.• Reference implementations of grid computing

standards.• Defacto standard for grid computing.

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• GSI (Grid Security Infrastructure)– Grid security.

• MDS (Monitoring and discovery Service)– Interface to system and service information.

• GRAM (Grid Resource Allocation Manager) – Remote job submission and control.

• GridFTP– Secure data transfer.

GlobusKey Components

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Globus Toolkit: Recent History

• GT2 (2.4 released in 2002)– GRAM, MDS, GridFTP, GSI.

• GT3 (3.2 released mid-2004): redesign– OGSA (Open Grid Service Architecture)/OGSI (Open

Grid Services Infrastructure) based.– Introduced “Grid services” as an extension of web

services.– OGSI now abandoned.

• GT4 (released April 2005): major redesign– WSRF (Web service Resource Framework) based.– Grid standards merged with Web services.

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Grid Computing Course• Instructors: Barry Wilkinson and Clayton Ferner• Several faculty and students significantly helped at

various sites – “virtual organization”• In Fall 2004, 43 students took course at 8 institutions

Fall 2004 Participating Sites

(Fall 2005)

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Fall 2004 Guest Speakers• Professor Daniel A. Reed, Chancellor's Eminent Professor,

Vice Chancellor for IT and CIO, UNC-Chapel Hill:

– “Grid computing: 21st Century Challenges.” • Dr. Wolfgang Gentzsch, Managing Director, MCNC Grid

Computing and Networking Services:

– “Grid Computing in the Industry”• Chuck Kesler, Director, Grid Deployment and Data Center

Services, MCNC:

– “Security Policy, Legal, and Regulatory Challenges in Grid Computing Environments”

• Professor Ian Foster: Ian Foster, Argonne National Laboratory and University of Chicago:

– “The Grid: Beyond the Hype”Taped presentation (originally given at Duke University, Sept. 14, 2004).

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Fall 2005 Grid Computing Course

Currently being taught with 12 institutions participating.

About 40 students.

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Course virtual organizationCurrent list of sites receiving course:

• Appalachian State University• Elon University• Lenoir Rhyne College • NC State University• University of North Carolina at Asheville• University of North Carolina at Charlotte• University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill (grad student, not for credit)

• University of North Carolina at Pembroke• University of North Carolina at Wilmington• Wake Technical Community College (Faculty in attendance)

• Western Carolina University• Winston-Salem State University

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Fall 2005 Guest speakers

• Lavanya Ramakrishnan, The Renaissance Computing Institute (RENCI), University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, North Carolina State University, and Duke University.

• Team from SURAGrid, a working grid with more than 19 institutions across the country. Details of presentation being worked out.

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Fall 2005 Course grid structurewith Certificate Authorities

WCU

UNC-C

UNC-A

NCSU

ASU

MCNC

CA

CA

CA

CACA

CA

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Users certified by a local CA

UNC-C

CA

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CA’s with Mutual Trust

UNC-C

CA

NCSU

CA

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More information on course

Course home page

http://www.cs.uncc.edu/~abw/ITCS4010F05

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Acknowledgements

Partial support for this work was provided by the National Science Foundation’s Course, Curriculum, and Laboratory Improvement program under grants 0410667 and 0533334 (with supplementary funding)

and

by two grants from University of North Carolina, Office of the President. One of these grants provided computing equipment at 9 sites, including UNC-C